Business Research Methods
Applying a qualitative analysis to a current business concept
This assignment is in FOUR stages. Students should complete all FOUR stages (approx. 900 words excluding the transcription).
Stage One
You are required to conduct a review of the article shared with you in order to come up with an appropriate and relevant interview schedule. You should only concentrate on section 3.3 regarding the antecedents of the entrepreneurial self-efficacy.
Stage Two
You are required to conduct a qualitative interview of no more than 20 minutes addressing the main aspects of the concepts included in the article.
Stage Three
You are required to transcribe on a WORD processor and analyse the content using an appropriate qualitative data analysis.
Stage Four
You are required to produce a reflection on the process of the three stages above.
The task
To help you with the assignment, read the following article.
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: A systematic review of the literature on its theoretical foundations, measurement, antecedents, and outcomes, and an agenda for future research Alexander Newmana , Martin Obschonkab, Susan Schwarzc, Michael Cohena, Ingrid Nielsena
Stage One
This part of the article (Section 3.3 regarding the antecedents of the entrepreneurial self-efficacy) will give you some ideas about the concepts and issues raised and what questions to ask in the interview. Remember, the most effective interviews are structured around research issues identified in the literature. Your interview schedule should be inserted as an appendix.
Stage Two
The interview should be conducted with an appropriate voice recording device (or other techniques such as Microsoft Dictate facility, and the audio file uploaded with this assignment. The interview should be held in English, preferably with an entrepreneur known to you or an aspiring entrepreneur. The audio should be of high quality from both the interviewee and the interviewer. Online interviews are permitted.
Stage Three
The transcription of the interview should be presented as a word file and this must be included in the appendix of the assignment. This file is excluded from the word count).
You will conduct an analysis of your interview data using any recognised form of qualitative data analysis technique, e.g., thematic or template analysis. You are encouraged to use the “Comments” facility on Microsoft Word to code your text.
Conducting the analysis by hands and presenting a set of pictures as evidence is also acceptable but not encouraged. This file should be inserted in the appendix of the assignment. You may even use the transcription for analysis.
Stage Four
The reflection section should focus on issues such as the insights your analysis has provided into the research topic, the difficulties you encountered in conducting the interviews, the difficulty you encountered in conducting your analysis, the quality of your results, the limitations of using interviews to study your research topic and the limitations of the analytical approach taken as well as any ethical issues that arose in the research.
The assignment format
The assignment should be produced in an essay format and should be structured as follows:
1. An account of the analysis that you have conducted on the interview data.
This account includes:
a. A short introduction that covers the topic and the specific issue of the interview and an overview of the interview schedule. Here you should say what influenced your choice of interview questions. You should display the primary questions only
(approx: 200 words).
b. The rationale for your choice of qualitative interview (unstructured or semi-structured) and your analytic strategy and the suitability to your chosen issue. You may need to reference relevant research methods books.
(Approx: 100 words)
c. How you conducted the data analysis. You need to make your description of the analysis process as clear and as transparent as possible, so if you are using template analysis you should include information on, for example, how you constructed the template, how you performed the coding process, the final template and why this changed from the initial template.
(Approx: 200 words)
d. The findings of your analysis. This will for example include an interpretation of the themes that flow from the interview (and the transcript) presented using an order of choice.
(Approx: 200 words)
e. A reflection on the process of interviewing and analysis. You need want to focus on issues such as the insights your analysis has provided into the research topic, the difficulties you encountered in conducting the interviews, the difficulty you encountered in conducting your analysis, the quality of your results, the limitations of using interviews to study your research topic and the limitations of the analytical approach taken as well as any ethical
issues that arose in the research.
(Approx: 200 words).
2. An appendix that includes:
a. A copy of the original transcript including the interview questions.
b. The audio file of your interview recording.
c. Evidence of analysis
Use the Harvard referencing system.
