Progress Update 2

 Reading the Literature

I spent the most of January and February reading the literature on eCommerce.  I still have some more areas to read on, especially in micro-enterprises and eCommerce in the Malaysian/Singaporean contexts, but I have since moved on to focus on Grounded Theory.

Grounded Theory dictates that my reading of the literature should not create any bias or result in the formulation of hypotheses, but that theoretical sensitivity should emerge.  I find this to be quite a challenge- that is, to gain wide understanding of the theory and not have hypothetical expectations.  I think the trick is to read enough to gain a broad understanding of the underlying theories and concepts, and to start the study as soon as possible (as suggested by many Grounded Theory researchers)

A lot of the literature on Grounded Theory is in the context of social research, especially in the area of nursing, while Goulding and Douglas have done business-related studies using Grounded Theory.

I find Grounded Theory fascinating and I am glad that I will be using this methodology for this project.  At the same time, I also find it extremely challenging, especially the coding paradigms, the practical aspects of which I am still trying to get a handle of.

I have ordered Glaser and Strauss' 1967 seminal work 'Discovery of Grounded Theory' (the book taht started it all), which should arrive at the end of the month.  In the meantime, I am reading Strauss and Corbin's Basics of Qualitative Research' book.

I think these readings are important for me as one major issue I have is whether to use Glaser's or Strauss'  version of Grounded Theory.  I also hope to be able to read Glaser's 1992 work where he confronted the Straussian approach.

Workshops, software, and online resources
 
I attended an End Notes session last week, which was organized by the Info Resources dept.  It was certainly rewarding.  I have installed the software into my work pc, so this week, I shall be uploading references into End Notes.

I have also signed up for a Grounded Theory workshop to be held in Taylor's University College, Subang Jaya, KL on 19 March.

I am looking forward to meeting some people and interacting with them.  I have many questions I hope can be resolved (somewhat) regarding the use of Grounded Theory for this project.  The workshop will emphasize the Glaserian school.  Among the issues I would like to seek clarification at this workshop:

• how can I decide if the Glaserian or the Straussian model is more suitable for my project? 
• how to apply Grounded Theory analysis on quantitative data? Or is this even necessary?
• I hope to get some hands-on practice on analysis and coding, so I will know how this is actually done

I have also checked out the Nvivo software which is, from my understanding, a qualitative analysis tool that can be used for Grounded Theory research.  It is quite expensive and there is a restriction on the access to the software so I will only purchase and install this when it comes to time for analysis.

I have signed up to be a member of the Grounded Theory Institute.  I hope this will prove helpful somehow because so far, the forum has no one posting, and I had to pay to be a member! 

I have also signed up to be a member of Methodspace, an online community for researchers.

Other Issues

The last couple of weeks have been more devoted to getting ready for the new semester which begins this week.  I have had to spend time on meetings, unit outlines, and all the usual things that are necessary to get ready for the new semester.  I am still determined to allocate a good chunk of time to this project despite the semester starting.  The aim right now is to get the major issues with Grounded Theory resolved by the end of the month so that I can start into the Research Design phase.

Thanks for reading!