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Research, Methodology, Process design Abstract
Many methodology sources suggest that a researcher should in advance frame the research project and make a choice among these options and should subsequently stick to his or her frame and choice. In this article a different, more natural, research trajectory design is presented which is labelled the "iterative theory-building process". The main feature of this approach is that research questions may be changed over time based on material collected and that research strategies, data collection and analysis methods and tactics should fit the (changing) research questions and process phases. The rationale of this "iterative theory-building process" is explained and the strategies that can be chosen from the research trajectory design are further discussed.
Introduction
Many PhD researchers, not least those involved in qualitative research methodology, aim in their research project at the development of new theory. As has been pointed out by van der Zwaan and van Engelen (1994), in order to achieve this objective researchers should follow a trajectory which is generally characterised by the following three steps:
1 exploration;
2 explanation;
3 validation.
To proceed along this trajectory, a researcher may choose from several research strategies (also called "designs") and within each strategy from various data collection and analysis methods. Furthermore, he or she can use certain tactics to combine strategies and methods. Many methodology sources suggest that a researcher should in advance frame the research project and make a choice among these options and should subsequently stick to his or her frame and choice. In this paper a different, more natural, research trajectory design is presented which is labelled the "iterative theory-building process". The main feature of this approach is that research questions may be changed over time based on material collected and that research strategies, data collection and analysis methods and tactics should fit the (changing) research questions and process phases. In the secod section, the rationale of this "iterative theory-building process" is explained. In the following section, the strategies that can be chosen from in the research trajectory design are discussed. Since the various options of data collection and analysis methods have already been covered extensively elsewhere in this issue (de Weerd-Nederhof, 2001) this part of the trajectory design will not...