西南财大——社会研究方法课程简介

An Introduction to Social Research Methods for Business – Syllabus and

Schedule

Taught by Professor Patricia Fosh [PF] and Dr Christopher T Husbands, Emeritus Reader, London School of Economics and Political Science [CTH]

This course lasts three intensive weeks from 14 October to 3 November 2013. The classes meet in the evening, divided into two sessions on each occasion: a.18.30–19.40; b.19.55–21.05, although there can be some flexibility and also except the weekend sessions, for which more informal arrangements will be announced later. The final formal meetings will be Workshops meeting in a computing laboratory.

The course is intended to offer a thorough introduction to the basic methods of social research that may be used in business. Almost all these techniques may be used in all social research – indeed, some such as the experiment could be used in any empirical research – but the course concentrates on research for business purposes.

Because teaching of the course is concentrated into a short period, topics are introduced briefly in the lectures, but the workshops provide the opportunity for practical experience in some of the techniques that are discussed. We are conscious that students will not be working in their native language and have tried to ensure that the syllabus and the manner of introducing the material acknowledge that fact. We also recognise that the course contains a large amount of material to be absorbed in three weeks and we have sought to devise the syllabus also to accommodate that fact. There will be extensive handouts (in English) to accompany most topics.

Two computer packages are used to introduce students to practical data analyses. These are SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), originally an American computing package that has been available in various versions from the late 1960s, that will be used for quantitative-data analysis; and NVivo, originally an Australian computing package that is widely used for the analysis of qualitative data (such as text from unstructured interviews or for organizing interview data).

The textbook for the course

Only one principal textbook will be used for the teaching of the course; this is:

Alan Bryman and Emma Bell, Business Research Methods(Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1st ed., 2003; 2nd ed., 2007). All the principal assigned readings for particular aspects of the course will be from this book, giving pages for both 1st and 2nd editions. A 3rd edition of this book was published in 2011, but we can still work from the 1st or 2nd editions.

There are numerous publications that give ‘hands-on’ advice for using SPSS and interpreting the data output. However, many students find the following one especially useful:

Julie Pallant, SPSS Survival Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS for Windows (5th ed.; Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2013), which is