The use of Qualitative Analysis in Case Study Research.docx

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TheuseofQualitativeAnalysisinCaseStudyResearch

Volume7,No.1,Art.21–January2006

TheUseofQualitativeContentAnalysisinCaseStudyResearch

FlorianKohlbacher

Abstract:

Thispaperaimsatexploringanddiscussingthepossibilitiesofapplyingqualitativecontentanalysisasa（text）interpretationmethodincasestudyresearch.First,casestudyresearchasaresearchstrategywithinqualitativesocialresearchisbrieflypresented.Then,abasicintroductionto（qualitative）contentanalysisasaninterpretationmethodforqualitativeinterviewsandotherdatamaterialisgiven.Finallytheuseofqualitativecontentanalysisfordevelopingcasestudiesisexaminedandevaluated.Theauthorarguesinfavorofbothcasestudyresearchasaresearchstrategyandqualitativecontentanalysisasamethodofexaminationofdatamaterialandseekstoencouragetheintegrationofqualitativecontentanalysisintothedataanalysisincasestudyresearch.

Keywords:

casestudyresearch,contentanalysis,qualitativecontentanalysis,qualitativeresearch

TableofContents

1.Introduction:

Qualitativevs.QuantitativeResearch?

2.ResearchQuestion,AimandStructureofthePaper

2.1Cognitiveinterestandresearchquestion

2.2Aim,structureandscopeofthepaper

3.CaseStudyResearch

3.1Thecasestudyasaresearchstrategy

3.2Designingcasestudies

3.3Conductingcasestudies

3.3.1Collectingevidence

3.3.2Analyzingcasestudyevidence

3.3.3Reportingcasestudies

4.ContentAnalysis

4.1Classicalcontentanalysis

4.2Qualitativecontentanalysis

4.2.1Excursus:

qualitativeresearch

4.2.2PhilippMAYRING'sapproach

4.2.3Qualitycriteriaandvalidationissues

5.TheUseofQualitativeContentAnalysisinCaseStudyResearch

5.1Mixedmethodsandtriangulation

5.2Casestudyresearchandqualitativecontentanalysis

5.2.1Opennessandabilitytodealwithcomplexity

5.2.2Theory-guidedanalysis

5.2.3Integrationofcontext

5.2.4Integrationofdifferentmaterial/evidence

5.2.5Integrationofquantitativestepsofanalysis

5.3Limitationsofqualitativecontentanalysis

6.Outlook

Acknowledgments

Notes

References

Author

Citation

1.Introduction:

Qualitativevs.QuantitativeResearch?

Therehasbeenanongoingdebateontheappropriatenessofdifferentapproachesandmethodsinsocialresearch.Asamatteroffact,manyauthorspointtotheheateddiscussions,sometimeseven"wars"（theso-called"paradigmwar"）,betweentheadherentsofquantitative（so-called"QUANs"）andqualitativeresearch（so-called"QUALs"）designs（e.g.BRANNEN,1992,pp.3-5;BRYMAN,2004,pp.452-454;HAMMERSLEY,1992,pp.39-41;KELLE,2001,[1]-[5];TASHAKKORI&TEDDLIE,1998,pp.3-13）.Onemaincharacteristicofthisdisputeseemstobethedichotomouswayinwhichqualitativeandquantitativeresearch（methods）werepresentedaswellastheresultingstrictcontrapositionofthetwo（cf.alsoBRYMAN,1992,pp.57-59）1）.CASSELLandSYMON（1994）forinstancegivethefollowinglistofdefiningcharacteristicsforqualitativeresearch:

"afocusoninterpretationratherthanquantification;anemphasisonsubjectivityratherthanobjectivity;flexibilityintheprocessofconductingresearch;anorientationtowardsprocessratherthanoutcome;aconcernwithcontext—regardingbehaviourandsituationasinextricablylinkedinformingexperience;andfinally,anexplicitrecognitionoftheimpactoftheresearchprocessontheresearchsituation"（p.7）.[1]

Ontheonehand,thisdefinitionputsforththemainpointsofwhatqualitativeresearchisabout,butitalsodemonstrateshowitispositionedortriestopositionitselfincontrasttoquantitativeresearch.NEUMAN（1997）goesevenfurtherbystatingthattherearebasicallytwocategoriesofdatacollectiontechniques:

quantitativeandqualitative（p.30）.Whilethefirstmeanscollectingdataintheformofnumbersthesecondmeanscollectingdataintheformofwordsorpictures（ibid.）.Thisisofcourseonlyaverysuperficialandover-simplifiedassumptionofthedistinctionbetweenquantitativeandqualitativeresearchmethods.[2]

Moreover,qualitativeresearchmethodshaveoftenfacedacceptanceproblemsandacademicanddisciplinaryresistances,whicharepartlyduetothepoliticsembeddedinthisfieldofdiscourse（cf.e.g.DENZIN&LINCOLN,2000,p.7）:

qualitativeresearchersarecalledjournalists,orsoftscientists,andtheirworkistermedunscientific,oronlyexploratory,orsubjective.However,greateffortshavealsobeenmadetoreconcilebothsides（or,wherenotpossible,atleasttosoothethedispute）,thusprovidingtheopportunitytoexploittheadvantagesofbothapproachesandopeningthewayforsynergyeffects（e.g.MAYRING,2001,[3]-[9];TASHAKKORI&TEDDLIE,1998,pp.16ff）.Theseattemptssharetheconceptionthatqualitativeandquantitativemethodsshouldbeviewedascomplementaryratherthanasrivalcamps（JICK,1979,p.602）.Thishasledtotheappearanceofmixedmethodapproachesandtheuseoftriangulation（e.g.BRYMAN,2004,pp.454ff.;CRESWELL,2003,pp.208ff.;JICK,1979,p.602;cf.alsoSection5.1）.Besides,inthecourseofthelastcentury（especiallythesecondhalfofit）,thedevelopmentofqualitativemethodsshowedimpressiveadvancesandresults,thushelpingtogainmoreacceptancenotonlyinthefieldofsocialresearch（cf.e.g.MAYRING,2002,pp.9-18）.[3]

Thispaperalsoaimsathelpingtoovercomethestrictcontrapositionofqualitativeandquantitativeresearch.Asthefollowingsectionswillshow,thecombinationandmixingofdifferentresearchmethodsbearsanenormouspotentialfortheadvancementofsocialresearch.[4]

2.ResearchQuestion,AimandStructureofthePaper

Thissectionpresentstheresearchquestionunderlyingtheanalysisanddiscussioninthefollowingsectionsandgivesashortoutlineofthepaper,explainingitsaim,structureandscope.[5]

2.1Cognitiveinterestandresearchquestion

Sinceitsdevelopmentinthebeginningofthe1980s,MAYRING'squalitativecontentanalysishasachievedpopularity（TITSCHER,MEYER,WODAK&VETTER,2000,p.62）.However,thisqualitativelyorientedapproachtocontentanalysis—adisciplinetraditionallydominatedbyquantitativemethods—hasmainlybeendiscussedandusedwithintheGerman-speakingscientificcommunityanddoesnotseemtohaveattractedasmuchattentioninternationallyasitactuallydeserves2）.Infact,GLÄSERandLAUDEL（2004）contendthatqualitativecontentanalysisishardlyused（p.44）andTITSCHERetal.（2000）intheirbibliometricsurveyoftheprominenceofmethodstextanalysiscometoasimilarconclusionasfarasmethodliteraturecitationsareconcerned（pp.217-218）.However,whenanalyzingthefrequencyofkeywordsconsiderabledeviationsfromthecitationanalysisturnedup:

amarkeddominanceofqualitative（andalsoquantitative）contentanalysis（TITSCHERetal.,2000,pp.219-221）.[6]

Casestudiesarewidelyusedinorganizationalstudiesandacrossthesocialsciences,andthereissomesuggestionthatthecasestudymethodisincreasinglybeingusedandwithagrowingconfidenceinthecasestudyasarigorousresearchstrategyinitsownright（cf.e.g.HARTLEY,1994,p.208;HARTLEY,2004,p.323）.STAKE（2000）concurs,suggestingthatcasestudieshavebecome"oneofthemostcommonwaystodoqualitativeinquiry"（p.435）.However,therehavealsobeentraditionalprejudicesagainstcasestudystrategyinsuchawaythatcasestudieshavebeenviewedasalessdesirableformofinquiryforinstance（cf.e.g.YIN,2003a,pp.10-11）.Besides,itwasclaimedthatcasestudieslackinrigorandreliabilityandthattheydonotaddresstheissueofgeneralizabilityincontrasttoquantitativemethods（HARTLEY,1994,p.208）.[7]

Theauthorarguesinfavorofbothcasestudyresearchasaresearchstrategy—tryingtodisprovethecritiquesjustmentioned—andqualitativecontentanalysisasamethodofexaminationofdatamaterial.Atthesametimeheseekstoencouragetheintegrationofqualitativecontentanalysisintotheimportantstepofdataanalysisincasestudyresearch.[8]

Therefore,theresearchquestionwhichistobeansweredinthecourseofthispaperisthefollowing:

Whatisthecontributionqualitativecontentanalysiscanmakeasamethodoftextanalysis（forinterpretinginterviewtranscriptsandotherdocuments）incasestudyresearch?

Or,putmoregenerally:

Whatisthecontributionofusingqualitativecontentanalysisasaninterpretationandanalysismethodfordevelopingcasestudies?

[9]

2.2Aim,structureandscopeofthepaper

Thispaperaimsatexploringanddiscussingthepossibilitiesofapplyingqualitativecontentanalysisasa（text）interpretationmethodincasestudyresearch3）.First,casestudyresearchasaresearchstrategywithinqualitativesocialresearchisbrieflypresented.Then,abasicintroductionto（qualitative）contentanalysisasaninterpretationandanalysismethodfortextdocuments—especiallythetranscriptsofqualitativeinterviews—andotherdatamaterialisgiven,withthefocusonPhilippMAYRING'sapproachtoqualitativecontentanalysis.Finally,theuseofqualitativecontentanalysisforconductingcasestudyresearchisexaminedandevaluated.[10]

Sincethispaperonlyaimstoserveasthestartingpointforamorethoroughdiscussionoftheapplicationofqualitativecontentanalysisforcasestudyresearch,thescopeisrathernarrow.Providingonlyanintroductiontothetheoreticalargument,theneedforfurthertheoreticaldiscussionaswellastheempiricaltestingoftheargumentisobvious.Besides,duetothelimitedscopeofthispaperandmyownresearchinterests,thefocuswillmainlybeonorganizationalandmanagerialresearch,ev