Introduction
The Institute uses a collaborative research process that includes periodic interactions between the executive participants and the academic researchers. At the Summit in 2006 the executive participants made it clear that they wanted to be part of the entire research process. They did not want to simply "throw their problems over the wall" and have researchers go off and eventually come back with an answer.
The Institute supports a wide variety of research methods from theory building qualitative studies to theory testing quantitative studies. The Institute uses the problem, purpose, research questions and how much is known about the issues to determine the appropriate research approach and methodology. The process consists of five phases or steps for each group - executives and researchers.
1E - Management Dilemma and Questions
The research process begins with real world needs identified by practicing executives. The Institute's research agenda consists of "draft" questions that address the dilemmas and management questions that were identified at the 2006 Summit. Research projects at the Institute should address these questions.
1R - Develop Research Prospectus
The researchers respond to the identified management dilemmas and real world problems with a "draft" research prospectus that identifies the key elements of the research design including: problem, purpose, research questions, conceptual framework, etc. This prospectus is developed and submitted to the Institute for review. The Institute will then work with the researcher(s) as needed to refine the prospectus. Once the prospectus is ready the Institute distributes the prospectus to the potential participants.
2E - Review and Approve Prospectus
After the research design is developed it is reviewed and finalized through an iterative dialogue with the participating executives. This ensures that the research projects are designed to produce results that the executives will be able to use and apply to improve their organizations. The research also has to produce a credible contribution to the body of knowledge. The goal of this step is to develop a research design that will produce results that are credible and useful to both practitioners and academics.
2R - Data Collection
Once the research design is finalized the next step is to collect the data described in the prospectus methodology. Data collection can take many forms from qualitative interviews to quantitative surveys, to hard measure results. The type of data and the collection methods should be detailed in the prospectus.
3E - Participate in Data Collection
At this point the participants contribute the necessary data and information for the research project. The data and information is then analyzed by the researchers. Some studies are straight forward and fixed - a linear process of data collection then analysis. Other studies are flexible and iterative - data collection then analysis then more collection and analysis, etc. The overall approach and nature of the study will drive the data collection.
3R - Data Analysis
Just like data collection, data analysis varies depending on the nature of the study approach - flexible qualitative theory building v. fixed quantitative theory testing. For some studies this is done by a solitary researcher and a statistics package. For other studies it is an iterative process that incorporates the perspectives of the participants. The details of the approach should be described in the prospectus.
4E - Participate in Data Analysis and Drawing Conclusions
While the researchers lead the analysis of the data and drawing conclusions, the executives involved in the study also provide their insights and perspective on the data and the analyses emerging from the researchers. Sometimes this input is simply their perspective on what the results of a quantitative study might mean. In other cases they might provide insights into the preliminary conclusions that emerge from qualitative analysis.
4R - Conclusions and Applications
While the analysis and conclusions benefit from the insights and perspectives of the executives, the researchers ultimately determine the meaning of the results and draw their own independent conclusions. These conclusions are then used to inform the application recommendations and the contributions to the body of knowledge.
5E - Application Workshops and Papers
Institute research projects provide practitioner oriented workshops and papers to the participating organizations prior to publishing the findings in publicly available forums. This ensures that the participants benefit from their participation prior to other organizations that have not invested the same time and resources to the project.
5R - Academic Journal Article
The final step in the research process is to prepare and submit an academic article for publication. This serves two purposes. First, it helps the academic researchers stay current and "academically qualified." Second, it contributes to the larger body of empirical knowledge and ongoing "dialogue" in the academic journals.
References
- Cooper, D. R. & Schindler, P. S. (2003). Business research methods (8th ed.) Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin
- Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded source-book (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage