Nature of Quantitative Research

This chapter is concerned with the characteristics of quantitative research, an approach that has been the dominant strategy for conducting business research, although its infl uence has waned slightly since the mid-1980s, when qualitative research became more infl uential. However, quantitative research continues to exert a powerful infl uence in many quarters. The emphasis in this chapter is very much on what quantitative research typically entails, although at a later point in the chapter the ways in which there are frequent departures from this ideal type are outlined. This chapter explores:

• the main steps of quantitative research, which are presented as a linear succession of stages; • the importance of concepts in quantitative research and the ways in which measures may be devised for concepts; this discussion includes a discussion of the important idea of an indicator, which is devised as a way of measuring a concept for which there is no direct measure; • the procedures for checking the reliability and validity of the measurement process; • the main preoccupations of quantitative research, which are described in terms of four features: measurement; causality; generalization; and replication; • some criticisms that are frequently levelled at quantitative research.