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BUSI4S915: Quantitative Methods for Doctoral Research

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Open
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Available in 2023/24
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Management and Marketing

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To facilitate students in-depth engagement with a range of contemporary quantitative approaches in Management and Marketing research.
  • To develop students critical understanding of the logic of hypothesis testing and making causal claims.
  • To provide students with hands-on experience in data collection and analysis with state-of-the-science software tools.
  • To facilitate students doctoral-level writing and presentation skills for quantitative research.
  • To develop students critical understanding of ethical implications when conducting quantitative research.

Content

  • Conceptual models
  • Descriptive and basic inferential statistics
  • Hypothesis testing and causal inference
  • Measurement and scaling, sampling, and survey design
  • Methods of quantitative data collection (e.g., surveys, experiments)
  • Quantitative data management and analysis (correlation, basic regression, ANOVA)
  • Reviews and meta-analytical approaches
  • Software tools for data collection (e.g., Qualtrics) and analysis (e.g. SPSS, R)
  • Writing up and presenting quantitative research

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Critical understanding of different quantitative research approaches
  • Critical understanding of quantitative data collection techniques
  • Critical understanding of quantitative data analysis techniques
  • Critical understanding of ethics and open science practice in quantitative research

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Ability to critically evaluate quantitative research approaches
  • Ability to develop doctoral-level research questions for quantitative methods
  • Ability to evaluate strengths and opportunities of quantitative research designs
  • Ability to communicate quantitative research results, verbally and in writing

Key Skills:

  • Critically evaluating quantitative research designs
  • Formulating and testing hypotheses
  • Data collection
  • Data management
  • Implementing data analysis
  • Managing individual and collaborative projects

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • The module will be delivered in a blended format, including workshops with lecture-type delivery format, work in small groups, and individual work that helps students develop a deeper understanding of quantitative research.
  • The formative and summative assessments of the module are designed to facilitate students quantitative data analysis and interpretation skills.
  • The summative assessment (group report) facilitates students learning from each other and develops their teamwork skills for collaborative research.
  • Comprehensive reading and self-study materials will be provided online.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Workshops (classroom)4Over 4 days5 hours20 
Tutor supported small group work (online)4As required2 hours8 
Preparation and Reading122 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: Written AssignmentComponent Weighting: 75%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Report (Group)3000 words100Same
Component: Written AssignmentComponent Weighting: 25%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Report (Individual, reflection on group work)1000 words100Same

Formative Assessment

The students will work on selected exercises in small groups; they will present the results of this small group work.

More information

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