2.3 Mixed methods in construction management research
A research methodology is a philosophical structure and crucial
suppositions directing the research. It covers the particular strategies
of data collection and analysis. Research methods involve qualitative,
quantitative, and mixed-method. A mixed-method is a way to deal with the
request that joins the remarkable procedure and strategies for both
qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Mixed methods research
is officially characterized as the class of exploration where the
specialist blends or joins quantitative and subjective examination
procedures, techniques, approaches, ideas, or language into a solitary
report (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Mixed methods consolidate the
qualities and resolve the weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative
research. For instance, quantitative research has been known to give a
portrayal of one particular moment and don’t catch how perspectives and
qualities may change over the long run.
Moreover, the method has impediments of expecting respondents to
accommodate their responses inside a restricted scope of replies. As far
as strength, subjective technique empowers the perception of
peculiarities in their regular setting. As indicated by Aramo-Immonen
(2013), mixed methods designs give researchers, across research
disciplines, a thorough way to deal with responding to research
questions. Caruth (2013) added that mixed methods can add insight and
understanding that may be missed when only a single research design is
utilized. This infers that mixed methods give more exhaustive proof to
concentrating on an exploration issue. Additionally, with mixed methods,
a comprehensive comprehension of the peculiarity can undoubtedly be
developed by combining the inductive and rational information got in the
epistemological interaction. Also, in mixed methods, the aftereffects of
the two informational indexes go about as cushion and a check against
exaggerating the case for ends got from either approach alone.
No matter what the advantages of mixed methods are, research methods
should be chosen in light of the research question, the quality expected
(where the qualities of both qualitative and quantitative methods are
capitalized on to work on the dependability of the examination result),
the subtleties and intricacies of the peculiarity being investigated,
the profundity of comprehension required, and research setting.
Notwithstanding, the reception of mixed methods by construction
management researchers has been educated by the intricacy and profundity
of comprehension needed by the greater part of the construction
management phenomenon. The utilization of mixed methods has been very
much reported in the construction management literature (Bowen et al.,
2012; Korkmaz et al., 2011; Gilbert et al., 2017; Ebekozien, 2019;
Ostadalimakhmalbaf et al., 2019). This demonstrates that mixed methods
are suitable for most research problems in construction management
research, particularly theory-building research. With mixed methods,
construction management researchers can assemble theories, sum up the
theories to different populaces, profoundly comprehend the unique
collaboration and view of the partners associated with the peculiarity,
clarify and comprehend human conduct, and produce reciprocal bits of
knowledge.
Mixed methods cannot be attempted without a research design. A research
design addresses the activities of a researcher in a given research
method. Mixed methods research design incorporate (i) exploratory
sequential design (a mixed-method research design where qualitative data
are gathered and utilized as a correlative variable in deciphering and
upgrading discoveries from quantitative data), (ii) explanatory
sequential design (where qualitative data are gathered to verify and
develop quantitative information and to help improved quantitative
information. quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered and
deciphered independently while results will be coordinated after
translation of discoveries), (iii) convergent concurrent design, (iv)
concurrent triangulation design (qualitative and quantitative data, in
general, have similar weight during the integration phase and they are
gathered at the same time to cover each other’s shortcomings), (v)
concurrent nested design (qualitative and quantitative data are gathered
simultaneously and analysis of types of data will occur together), and
(vi) concurrent transformative design (quantitative and qualitative data
are gathered simultaneously and mixed during analysis phase)(Guest,
2012; Alavi and Habek, 2016; Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2009; Schoonenboom
and Johnson, 2017).
Proposed paradigm and methodology: Confirmatory sequential
research design
This method is a variation of exploratory sequential research design. It
was created by drawing upon the attributes of exploratory sequential
research design and the realities of the construction industry to
advance the comprehension of the fact of construction management
practices according to the points of view of the experts in the sector.
Not at all like the exploratory sequential research design; confirmatory
sequential design presents a full strategy for mixing the discoveries of
qualitative and quantitative analysis. Discoveries are not mixed at the
interpretation phase, however, mixed systematically through theory
formulation. This builds up the requirement for GT in confirmatory
sequential research design. The time direction for the design is not
simultaneous but consecutive, where qualitative data collection and
analysis go before the quantitative part. In this design, the status or
level of priority of qualitative and quantitative methods is not an
issue. None dominates the other, yet equivalent status or need is
offered to both methods. The ideal paradigm for this method is
pragmatism. This is on the grounds that the method is a research design
method within mixed methods.
The proposed confirmatory sequential research design includes five
successive stages: (i) theory building, (ii) first stage theory
confirmation, (iii) second stage theory confirmation, and (iv) revision
of the theory. These steps are displayed in Figure 1. Figure 1 shows
several arrows leading from steps 1 to steps 2, 3, and 4 demonstrate
that the research design includes a cyclical and interactional process
of building and confirming theories. It is a staggering research plan
that efficiently incorporates or blends the discoveries of both
qualitative and quantitative methods. Every one of the stages should
occur inside a single study.