In addition, which do you think has the most value for your discipline?
Hi, Michael:
I really like this question. And i like qualitative research. In my field of study---marketing---quantitative is preferred by many researchers! Although I believe Mixed methods research is probably the best as its an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods in the same research inquiry particularly for R&D and Information Systems projects!
In a recent research study Venkatesh, Brown and Bala (2013) argued that mixed method work can help develop rich insights into various phenomena of interest that cannot be fully understood using only a quantitative or a qualitative method.
When you get a moment, please review the set of guidelines the authors have developed for conducting mixed methods research for information systems. They have particularly elaborated on three important aspects of conducting mixed methods research: (1) appropriateness of a mixed methods approach; (2) development of meta-inferences (i.e., substantive theory) from mixed methods research; and (3) assessment of the quality of meta-inferences (i.e., validation of mixed methods research).
- Venkatesh, V., Brown, S. A., & Bala, H. (2013). BRIDGING THE QUALITATIVE-QUANTITATIVE DIVIDE: GUIDELINES FOR CONDUCTING MIXED METHODS RESEARCH IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS. MIS Quarterly, 37(1), 21-54.
Hope this helps!
Nadeem
It's an interesting issue!
I find qualitative work more enjoyable due to its sociable dimension, but quantitative material has more instrumental value in respect to publishing and supporting funding applications precisely because it is more valued in my discipline (sociology). So I guess that there is a more pragmatic kind of enjoyment in quantitative work, and the fact that qualitative studies aren't respected somewhat undermines job satisfaction.
In the field in which I do research, TESOL, I am convinced that there are SO many variables, that no matter how perfect the statistics, we cannot really predict whether the same instructional design will succeed somewhere else. So I think that qualitative study is important to understand the experiences of the participants, and therefore the affordances of the instructional design.
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