Faculty
Marianne Stang Våland and Hans Kurt Kvist

Course Coordinator
Marianne Stang Våland

The students must document a level of English that is equal to TOEFL 575 and a level of mathematics that is equal to Danish level B.

The overall objective of the course is to equip students with the basic methodological tools that are required to carry out business research. Students are exposed to a range of methodological techniques and learn to apply and combine them in a competent manner. The course also introduces students to the philosophical foundations of social research as a way to help them understand how to conduct good business research. This is done by applying a number of key research concepts in practice and by developing an awareness of different methodological concerns and possibilities. The course aims to enhance students’ analytical abilities and thereby to increase their general academic and professional competencies.

Furthermore, and in relation to the above mentioned objectives, the course presents and discusses the concept of the problem-oriented project work in relation to the student year project. The course provides the conceptual understanding and the practical tools that are required for adopting a problem-oriented approach to student projects

The course contains two focus areas: quantitative research methodology and qualitative research methodology. While the former focuses on statistical methods and problems, the latter gives deeper insight into fewer cases. Collectively, these two areas expose students to a variety of established methods for collecting, analyzing and representing data for the purpose of generating new and useful knowledge.

At the end of this course, the students should be able to:

Specific to the statistics part:

Assignments: During the course each students has the opportunity to hand in two specific individual home assignments.

Each assignment will be related to specific exercises from syllabus, and each home assignment will have a maximum of about 3 pages.

Exam form: The final exam is a 72-hour group project. The project can be maximum 10 pages in length and the group size should be 2-3 students. The project will be followed by an individual, 20 minutes oral exam, which takes its point of departure in the group project, but also in natural relations to theory and models from the course literature.

For more details please refer to the specific conditions stated in the study rules and regulations booklet.

Exam aids: No aids permitted at the oral exam.

Lectures, exercises, and group discussion.

A compendium is available in “Samfundslitteratur” (CBS Bookstore). It contains key chapters from a number of methodology books, including Alan Bryman and Emma Bell, Business Research Methods.

The book “Statistical Methods for Social Science”, by Allan Agresti and Barbara Finlay, is available in “Samfundslitteratur”.