Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. David Richter (German Institute for Economic Research – DIW Berlin)

Date: Monday, 11/09/17 – Wednesday, 13/09/17 (09:00 – 12:30)

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:

The course aims to provide an overview of the theoretical basics and empirical evidence related to questionnaire design. The cognitive process of survey responding, challenges of designing effective survey questions including aspects of proper question wording and optimal response formats, as well as pretest techniques for evaluating survey questions will be discussed.

Requirement of students: None.

Recommended literature and pre-readings: tba.

You have to register for the 11th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Martin Spiess (University of Hamburg)

Date: Thursday, 14/09/17 (09.30 – 18.00 h)

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:

If the missing information is selective with respect to the research question, then simply ignoring unobserved information or applying other ‘ad hoc’ methods usually leads to invalid inferences, i.e. to biased estimators or actual rejection rates of ‘true’ null hypotheses being too high. In this seminar, basics of the missing data problem and some techniques to compensate missing values are discussed. A main topic in the introductory part is the missing data mechanisms, i.e. the mechanism that led to the missing information. The way how to deal with the missing data problem such that scientifically interesting inferences are valid depends mainly on assumptions about this process. A particularly important question is whether the precise missing mechanism can be ignored in downstream analysis, or if it as to be modelled explicitly. In the second part, an overview of various approaches to deal with the missing data problem is given. Besides ‘ad-hoc’ techniques which often lead to invalid inferences, model-based approaches like maximum likelihood methods as well as weighting and imputation methods will be considered. Most of the latter methods assume that the missing mechanism is ignorable. However, we will also consider a simple approach to estimate a model based on a non-ignorable missing mechanism. The third part deals with one missing data technique in more detail: Multiple imputations to deal with missing items. The concepts are illustrated with the help of examples, the software used is R.

Requirement of students: Statistical knowledge on the master level of an applied science programme is required.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Spiess, M. (2016). Dealing with missing values. In: C. Wolf, D. Joye, T.W. Smith and Y. Fu (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Survey Methodology (Chapter 37, pp. 595-610). Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

You have to register for the 11th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Kamil Marcinkiewicz (University of Hamburg)

Date: Monday, 11/09/17 – Wednesday, 13/09/17 (14.30 – 18.00)

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:

The case study research is frequently applied in the social sciences. It is particularly popular among political scientists, especially those specialising in area studies. The ubiquity of the case study research contrasts with the scarcity of theoretical reflection on its core methodological aspects. Also, the benefits of comparative analyses are often underestimated. In this course, participants will have an opportunity to learn more about what the case study research is, what are its weakness and strengths and how should we go about the core question in designing a case study: selection of cases. The course combines lectures with practical exercises and discussion of students’ projects.

Requirement of students: None.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Gerring, J. (2007). Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (pp. 17-63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• George, A. L., & Bennett, A. (2005). Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences (pp. 1-34). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Rueschemeyer, D. (2003). Can One or a Few Cases Yield Theoretical Gains? In J. Mahoney and D. Rueschemeyer (Eds.), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (pp. 305-337) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hall, P.A. (2008). Systematic Process Analysis: When and How to Use it. European Political Science, 7(3), 304-317.

You have to register for the 11th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Christina Hoon (Bielefeld University)

Date: Thursday, 14/09/17 (09:30 – 18:00 h)

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:

As you embark on your PhD, or indeed any research undertaking, you always start with producing a review of the existing literature on the topic of your research field. However, given that a literature review constitutes a study in itself, a review study can also be one of the separate, publishable papers your PhD thesis consists of.

This workshop outlines the purpose, scope, methods, and contribution of a literature review. What constitutes a good literature review? How do you evaluate and assess the broad range of knowledge and information? How do you make a substantive contribution, thereby producing a publishable paper? This course will address the different forms of literature reviews (systematic reviews, meta-synthesis, meta-analysis). The analytical tools and methods of each of these different forms of a review are offered, along with illustrative examples. This course is structured to guide students throughout the process of conducting and writing a literature review: identifying and developing individual research interests, searching for relevant information resources, assessing and evaluating the extant literature, and concluding with the writing of a literature review.

Requirement of students: None.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Rousseau, D.M., Manning, J. and Denyer, D. (2008). Chapter 11: Evidence in management and organizational science: Assembling the field’s full weight to scientific knowledge through synthesis. Academy of Management Annals, 2, pp. 475–515.
• Torraco, R.J. (2005). Writing integrative literature reviews: Guidelines and examples. Human Resource Development Review, 4, pp. 356-367.

You have to register for the 11th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Christina Hoon (Bielefeld University)

Date: Monday, 11/09/17 – Wednesday, 13/09/17 (09:00 – 12:30)

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:

The key purpose of this workshop is to increase participants’ understanding of the key concepts, strategies, and steps in grounded theory research. This workshop intends to deepen theoretical and practical understanding of the constant comparative method, open, axial and selective coding. Further, the participants will learn the key elements of theoretical sampling, theoretical saturation, and theoretical sensitivity. In addition, common challenges and pitfalls in grounded theory research will be discussed. To assist participants to craft valuable and effective research papers, exemplars from current research projects will be assessed and critically reviewed.

Requirement of students: None.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London, UK: Sage.
• Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16, 15-31.
• Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques (2nd Ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

You have to register for the 11th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Assoc. Prof. Martin Meissner (University of Southern Denmark/Department of Environmental and Business Economics)

Date: Thursday, 14/09/17 (09:30 – 18:00 h)

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:

The participants of this course develop a sound understanding of the benefits of using conjoint analytic preferences measurement approaches and alternative advanced compositional approaches. Participants gain practical experience of using conjoint-analytic methods and developed a better understanding of the value of measuring preferences.

The course starts with introducing the basic concepts behind the measurement of stated preferences, specifically focusing on conjoint analysis. The most often used approaches, i.e. traditional conjoint analysis, adaptive conjoint analysis and choice-based conjoint analysis are introduced. We deliberate on advantages and disadvantages of the approaches and also discuss advanced compositional approaches, like pairwise-comparison based preference measurement and the adaptive self-explicated approach. During the workshop, we will further talk about all the important stages of designing a preference measurement study. We pay special attention to the types of research questions that conjoint analysis can answer. We also discuss the most important questions you should answer before setting up your preference measurement/conjoint study: What is the optimal choice of attributes and attribute level? What is a good experimental design? How should I design my survey design and present potential choice scenarios? How do I analyse the results?

Participants will have the opportunity to use Sawtooth Software on their own laptops and build their own conjoint analysis survey during the course. Based on this experience, participants will be able to improve the planning of their own future experiments.

Requirement of students: Basic knowledge in inferential statistics is recommended.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Bradlow, Eric T. (2005), “Current Issues and a ‘Wish List’ for Conjoint Analysis,” Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, 21 (4-5), 319-323.
• Hauser, John R. and Vithala Rao (2003), “Conjoint Analysis, Related Modeling, and Applications,” In Marketing Research and Modeling: Progress and Prospects, Wind, Jerry and Paul Green (eds.), New York: Springer, 141-168.

You have to register for the 11th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.