DDBA 8300 Week 9 Design Fit Peer Replies Example

Week 9 Discussion: Peer Replies on Design Fit

Three Seams Between Question and Design: Peer Replies on an Exploratory Question Paired With a Rating Survey, a Comparison Paired With Interviews at One Site and a Mixed Design Whose Survey Serves No Stated Purpose

Reply to Keisha

Keisha, the question in your post reads, "How do small manufacturers experience the transition to automated inventory systems?" and your design is a survey of 150 manufacturers using a 20-item rating scale on satisfaction and ease of use. The question is exploratory: it asks how something is experienced, which implies you do not yet know what the important parts of the experience are. A rating scale assumes you do, because you have already chosen the 20 things to rate. Edmondson and McManus (2007) describe this as a mismatch between a nascent question and a mature design: the instrument presumes constructs the question says are still unknown. Two ways forward seem possible. You could keep the survey and reword the question to ask about relationships among the ratings, such as whether ease of use relates to satisfaction. Or you could keep the question and interview a dozen manufacturers about their transitions. Which matters more to you, knowing how common certain experiences are, or finding out what the experiences are?

Reply to Ahmed

Ahmed, your question asks whether "employees at franchised locations report higher engagement than employees at company-owned locations," and your design is interviews with eight employees at one franchised restaurant. The question is a comparison between two groups, which needs data from both groups and enough of it to compare. Interviews at one franchised site cannot show anything about company-owned sites, and eight interviews cannot support a claim about which group reports higher engagement. Yin (2018) notes that a single case can be revealing but cannot by itself establish a difference between types of cases. If your interest is the comparison, a survey of employees at several sites of each type would fit. If your interest is what engagement looks like at a franchise, the interviews fit, but the question should drop the comparison. Did you choose one site because of access? If so, the question may need to bend to the access you have.

Reply to Lauren

Lauren, your mixed design for studying hospital supply chain managers' responses to shortages includes interviews with twelve managers and a survey of 200. The interview plan is clear and fits your question about how managers respond. The survey is less clear. Your post says it will "add breadth," but it does not say what question the survey answers or how its results connect to the interviews. Bryman (2006), reviewing published mixed methods studies, found that many gave general justifications for combining methods, such as completeness, without showing how the parts were integrated. A survey that serves no stated purpose adds months and a review without adding an answer. Could the survey test whether the response strategies the interviews identify are common across hospitals? That would give it a job: interviews first to find strategies, the survey second to see how widespread they are. If not, I would consider dropping it.

What the Three Replies Have in Common

Each seam appears where a design was chosen before the question was finished, or kept after the question changed. In each case the fix is either to reword the question or to change the design, and the choice depends on what the author most wants to know.

References

Bryman, A. (2006). Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: How is it done? Qualitative Research, 6(1), 97-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794106058877

Edmondson, A. C., & McManus, S. E. (2007). Methodological fit in management field research. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1246-1264. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.26586086

Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (6th ed.). SAGE Publications.