Advanced Research Methods

Department of Management Information Systems, Temple University

Advanced Research Methods

MIS 9004.001 ■ Spring 2020 ■ Detmar Straub

Course materials

Required Textbooks #1-#4 (and Optional Textbook #5):

  1. Trochim, W., Donnelly, J., and Arora, K. 2016. Research Methods: The Essential Knowledge Base, (2nd ed.). Boston, MA USA: Cengage Learning. ISBN-13: 978-1133954774; ISBN-10: 1133954774. Acquire this on amazon.com. Great book. Sorry it costs something.  It will be a good reference for you for your entire career.
  2. Davis, G. B., Parker, C. A., and Straub, D. W. 2012. Writing the Doctoral Dissertation: A Systematic Approach, (3rd edition). Hauppauge, NY, Barron’s Educational Series Publishing. Acquire this on amazon.com. It is only $11.10.
  3. Stone, Eugene. Research Methods in Organizational Behavior. Scott, Foresman: Glenview, IL, 1978. (Out of print, but publisher has granted permission to access an electronic copy. This book is older, but still has many valuable insights, especially its pros and cons on research methods. Some methodological ideas never go out of fashion and are eternal. This book has many of these ideas.) Free online text. Find this in “Course Readings.”
  4. Bhattacherjee, Anol. Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices, (2nd ed.) Global Text Project, 2012. Free online text. Find this in “Course Readings.”
  5. Optional: Hair, Joseph F. Jr., G. Thomas Hult, Christian M. Ringle, and Marko Sarstedt. A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Los Angeles, CA USA: Sage. 2014. ISBN 978-1-4522-1744-4.

Quite Optional Course Materials:

Ha, Renee R. and James C. Ha.  Integrative Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences.  Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2011. ISBN: 978-1412-9874-48.  (This is an extremely easy-to-use stats book.  It can serve mostly as a reference guide for you. It covers ANOVA family tests and regression as well as nonparametric tests. These are the tests you will need most frequently). 

Technological Requirements:

  • Headphones
  • Webcam
  • Recommended Internet Speed: 8mbps download and 5mbps upload. You can test your connection at https://www.speedtest.net.
  • Please note: Hard-wired connections are more consistent than Wifi for Zoom sessions.
  • Download and install free Partial Least Squares software (https://www.smartpls.com/). Look for the option to download SmartPLS version 3.0, but the free, student crippled version of 3.0 analyzes datasets of only 100 or fewer observations. If you search the SmartPLS website, you can also download the SmartPLS 2.0 beta version for free (go all the way to the bottom of the website for the 2.0 version download). This is not technically supported but many, many scholars have used it over the years in a trouble-free manner.  Do this right away since it takes a day or two to be approved for this free software (use your Temple student email address).