Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

Qualitative method:  

My first selected paper “why do people share their context information on Social Network Services?” investigated through a qualitative research what kinds of risks and benefits exists in context information sharing situations (for example Facebook) and how users control them. The results demonstrated that both expected benefit and expected risk influenced users' intention to share in social network services (SNS). (Lee & Kim 2013)

The study consisted of two parts, the two parts was mainly focusing on semi-constructed depth interview. Every expression in the interviews was transcript into a text document. Two independent coders analyzed the script and the content was classified according to a coding scheme. A benefit with this method is that questions can be prepared ahead of time at the same time its allow the participants to express their view in own terms. Also they can ask questions during the interview. For the aim, to understand what risk and benefits that exist in sharing information at SNS, interviews fits very well because it can provide a deep of information that is useful in this framework. A semi-structured interview contains questions that need to be answered so it helps to make sure that the researcher cover correct material. Although the result and material is highly dependent on the skills of the interviewer, he/she need to have the ability to think out questions during the interview session (Denscombe 2009). Also in this case the sample was pretty small (8 interviewees in the first sessions and 4 in the second session) and there are no ways for the researcher to know if the respondents lying (even if not consciously) or not, this type of subject that Lee & Kim examine can be vulnerable and private. In the study it was only four people that met the conditions for being a heavy user (they needed to separate normal user from heavy user). This makes the findings impossible to generalize. Semi-structured interviews can aslo be hard to repeat, a qualitative method is general more unreliable than a quantitative method. I understood from the paper that they hade to make ongoing decision during the whole project. For example when should they stop interviewing? (Bryman & Bell 2010)

Lee, H./ Park, H./Kim, J (2013): Why do people share their context information on Social Network Services? A qualitative study and an experimental study on users' behavior of balancing perceived benefit and risk. In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Vol. 71, S. 862–877

Gephart, R. P. 2004. Qualitative research and the Academy of Management Journal. Academy of Management Journal, 47: 454–462

Bryma A, Bell.E. 2005. Företagsekonomiska forskningsmetoder. Upplaga 1:2. Liber AB 

Denscombe, Martyn 2009. Forskningshandboken - för småskaliga forskningsprojekt inom samhällsvetenskaperna. Andra upplagan. Studentlitteratur AB

Case study research method: 

A case study is observation of a single unit or subject that can be accomplished using a quantitative and, or qualitative method. It allows the researcher to analyze phenomena deep in a contemporary context. You will investigate how a its actually occurs in a given real-world situation. Usually you study how the relationship has formed and why. A case study can have different aims, to provide a richly detailed description (how, what, where, when, and how) or generate theories. It’s typical that a case design involving data overlapping with data analysis. It’s a continuous cycle among data and theory, an ongoing comparison, which is necessary to generate theory. The close linkage with empirical evidence is an important strength with case studies, it arise validity and testability. Investigating phenomena from different perspective will give support to arguments and strong foundation to findings. Case studies are used for both theory testing and theory building. Also it can add strength to what is already known through previous research. A single observed phenomena in a case study might be a start of forming a theory and comparing with other cases, this; the ability to compare within and across case is one of the most important strength for case study; the ability to compare creates research validity. It’s useful design when the research goal is to generate theories with high empirical validity and testability. The purpose of case research is to develop theory and concept development. Also case studied do not relay in prior empirical evidence. (Eisenhardt 1989)

The second selected paper “Who's Watching Whom? A Study of Interactive Technology and Surveillance” explores issues of privacy and surveillance with new interactive technologies. The study aimed to provide a description and build theory if users are concerned about privacy when using mobile social network. The study was based on one-year field study of the case Dodgeball (a mobile service owned by Google). Humphreys combines different data sources, both interviews (qualitative) and field observation (quantitative), this power to combine different methods generate knowledge creativity and theory building (Eisenhardt 1989). Combining methods also decrease researcher bias. In the process; interview data was constantly compared to field notes to identify recurrent themes (data collection was frequent overlap with data analysis). Collected data originate from direct evidence (interviews & observations), which makes it highly verifiable. A strong link with real data usually reflects accurate reality. In the study’s conclusion no more cases were compared, however new fact was added which is a major problem when concluding a study. An advantage of case study, verified in my selected paper, is that the study produced new knowledge and not re-verify previous knowledge (Eisenhardt 1989). And like a design research the case research design also allows to create an understanding from data as the iterative process goes on. A downside of this case research design was the attempt to handle a big volume of data, Humphreys was exploring both the micro and macro perspective of surveillance manifest, his theory lack of an overall perspective and its tries to capture to much.  

Humphreys, L (2011) Who's Watching Whom? A Study of Interactive Technology and Surveillance. In: Journal of Communication. Vol 61, S. 575–595

Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), s. 532-550.

Sato, H (2015) Generalization Is Everything, or Is It?: Effectiveness of Case Study Research for Theory Construction. Tillgänglig <http://doi.org/10.7880/abas.0151203a>