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Prof - Dr.sc. Zabkar PHD Rijeka Students - 2016 Materials
Prof - Dr.sc. Zabkar PHD Rijeka Students - 2016 Materials
tutorial
Doctoral ideal
how to plan,
draft,
write,
develop,
revise and
rethink a thesis, and
to finish it on time and
to the standard required
Completing
a doctoral
dissertation
is:
A personal
and subtle
process,
Dependent
upon
students
and
supervisors
or advisers,
Variable
across
thesis
topics,
disciplines
and
university
contexts.
Deep
understanding
of research
Writing and
publishing
skills
Theory
building
and testing
capacity
1. FOUNDATION
2. ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
4. THEORY, HYPOTHESES
5. RESEARCH CONCEPTUALIZATION,
RESEARCH MODEL
Learnability
Noogenesis of intellect
EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE:
overgrowth of knowledge source
Ontogenesis
of intellect STUDYING: personalizing and deepening of
knowledge
sociogenesis
of intellect IMITATIVE LEARNING: source of knowledge level
Definition of science
Intellectual activity, which leads to a fully-related knowledge
about the world that has general application.
Scientific assumptions:
Humans are rational.
The world is comprehensible.
The world is governed.
Nature is both diverse and unique.
The reality is not shown directly.
Opposite
OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity
integrity
Bias, partiality
VERIFIABILITY
Self-criticism,
doubt
Obstruction of
criticism,
dogmatisms
ACCURACY
Precisions and
distinction
Unjustified
generalization,
superficiality
SYSTEMATICS
Relationships
and noncontradictory
No
relationships,
contradictions
Opposite
ORIGINALITY
Repetition of
authorities
GENERALIZABILITY
Search the
generally
applicable
knowledge
Finding unique
sensations
PUBLIC
PURPOSE
In public
service
In service of
personal
interests
ETHICAL
Ethics above
the scientific
interest
Subordination of
ethics to
research
interests
Classification of science
SCIENCE
NATURAL
NOMOTHETIC
General
principles
SOCIAL
HUMANITIES
IDIOGRAPHIC
Individual
cases
METHOD:
METHOD:
analysis
synthesis
Scientific tasks
Defining concepts
Explaining, interpreting concepts
Placing assumptions
Observation
Measurement
Data extraction
Analysis of data
Determination of relationships
Categorization
Experimentation
Prediction of events
Hypothesis testing
2. Literature review
Framing your own view while grounding your work in an
established academic tradition and some part of the
contemporary discourse of your discipline
Dangers for PhD students:
1. overly derivative from the existing literature
2. overclaiming about the novelty or value of contribution
Generating knowledge
Body of available knowledge - hypotheses - evidence - new
body of knowledge
3. Research problem
What is a problem worth writing about?
Certain books seem to have been written, not in order to
afford us any instruction, but merely for the purpose of
letting us know that their authors knew something.
Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe
Stealing an idea?
Someone accused him of stealing an idea from another
composer and he shrugged and said, Yes, but what did
he do with it?
An anecdote about George Friedrich Handel, told by
Robertson Davies
Originality
"A PhD needs to report the discovery of new facts or
display an exercise of independent critical power; or
both" (University of London)
New facts: empirical research
Independent critical power: significant theoretical and
thematic arguments
"Standing on the shoulders of giants" (Refer to existing
literature as much as possible)
Scientific contribution
. New insights
. Reconciliation of contradictory results
. Gaps in knowledge
. Theory boundary conditions
New knowledge
Existing knowledge
examining potential
moderator
determining degree of
mediation on two constructs
psychometric properties of
important scale
METHODOLOGICAL:
multiple methods of
measurement
generalizability through
EMPIRICAL:
sampling
testing theoretical linkages third variable explanation
not tested before
construct validity
Research significance
1. Substantive
domain (e.g.
retailing)
2. Conceptual
domain (= theory to
provide insights into
substantive issue)
3. Methodological
domain (= tools,
techniques,
theories)
Experience
(research
question)
Theory
Method
Scientific theory
Broad explanations for a wide range of phenomena.
Concise, coherent, systematic, predictive, broadly
applicable.
Often integrate and generalize many hypotheses.
To be accepted needs to be supported by different lines
of evidence
Provides DESCRIPTION of relationships between
variables, enables PREDICTION of important outcomes,
allows EXPLANATION of why variables are related in
certain ways
(Ketchen, JAMS, 2011)
Examples of theories
General theories of marketing:
theories of Robert Bartels and Wroe Alderson
resource-based theory of competition (Hunt 2002)
service dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2004)
Hypothesis
A scientific hypothesis is a proposed explanation of a
phenomenon which still has to be rigorously tested.
For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific
method requires that one can test it.
Hypotheses
Based on:
Prior experience
Scientific background knowledge
Preliminary observations
Logic
Supported by different lines of evidence
Have explanatory power for explaining phenomena,
WHY a phenomena occurs,
Should be testable
Hypothesis examples
Nonoperational:
H: Work of the club was successful.
Operational:
H1: In the last three years of the club was the number of
club members constantly increasing.
H2: The number of club activities increased in the last three
years of club functioning.
Example of hypothesis
Nonoperational:
Participation in the seminar benefited students.
Operational:
Students that participated in the seminar achieved
significantly higher score in a test on knowledge about
the subject than students that did not participate in the
seminar.
POSITIVISM
Researching what
can be objectively
measured
HUMANITIES
INTERACTIONISM
Understanding
social interactions,
looking for reasons.
Quantitative methods
PHENOMENOLOGY
Learning about
subjective phenomena.
Qualitative methods
large
Qualitative method
Comparative method
Quantitative method
small
number of units
large
5. Conceptualization of research,
research model
Residual uncertainty:
1. Clear enough future
Traditional strategy
tool kit
2. Alternative futures
Decision analysis,
game theory
3. A range of futures
Scenario planning
4. True ambiguity
Nonlinear dynamic
models, analogies
ConsumerCompany
Identification
Attitudes
Towards the
Company
Product
Quality
Willingness
to Pay
Models of PhD
Classical model
Only preliminary
training or
coursework
Papers model
dissertation
Organizing ideas
On paper
Software (e.g. Evernote)
Thesis title
Does the current title really capture what you have done in
your draft of chapters?
Does it define exactly the central research question which
you have answered?
Does your titles vocabulary include the main theoretical
concepts or innovations or themes that run through your
research,
Does the title make clear the empirical referents of your
research, and the necessary limitations you have set for its
scope and approach?
10. Publishing
Sophistication in research
Analytical RIGOR as a/the goal for research in social
sciences?
What happened to:
RELEVANCE
COMMUNICABILITY
SIMPLICITY?
Consequences for
(1) the manuscript review process
(2) PhD programs
(3) hiring
(4) the tenure and promotion review process
(Lehmann, McAllister, Staelin, 2011)
Rigor
Multicollinearity
Autocorrelation
Heteroscedasticity
Distributional assumptions of
the error term
Functional form
Sample selection
Static versus evolving data
Heterogeneity
Endogeneity
(Albers, 2012).
Publishing research
Understanding the journals market:
Major influences on journals long-run reputations:
1. Methods of refereeing;
2. Citation scores;
3. Journals type and its circulation; and
4. The overall time lag from first submitting a paper
through to its eventual publication
5. The reputation of the editors
(or editorial teams) and the editorial board
6. Professional ownership versus commercial
ownership
7. Survey responses
Implement research
Communicate (written, oral)
If you fail
You do not understand the topic (yet)
You are not committed to the topic
The topic is dull and minute
Recommended reading
Patrick Dunleavy : Authoring a PhD Thesis: How to Plan,
Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Dissertation. Palgrave
Macmillan (2003)
Johnson, Steven: Where Good Ideas Come From: The
Natural History of Innovation. Riverhead (2010)
Tips for PhD Students http://phdtips.com/
PhD humor: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php