Why Companies Do Not Pursue Attractive Mergers and Acquisitions
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Chapter :  Terms and Definitions
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In view of widespread differences in views about the value, use, and meaning of terms and concepts in qualitative research, and considering that many meanings overlap, this section defines terms related to methodology only. Some definitions are elaborated or repeated in the narrative or corresponding endnotes for chapter 3 and supporting appendices where I thought these would add clarity to the discussion.

Terms used in this study in a similar way to the authors cited include:

  • Qualitative versus quantitative research: Qualitative research is defined by Strauss and Corbin (1998, p. 18), as “any type of research that provides findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of quantification”. Quantitative research relies on such procedures. The terms qualitative and quantitative are used herein to describe research type or overall approach and also to distinguish methods based on statistical analysis from ones that rely primarily on interpreting verbal information but which may incorporate some quantitative analysis.
  • Methodologies versus methods: Strauss and Corbin (1998) distinguish between “methodologies”, which they suggest are a way of thinking about and studying social reality and “methods” which they view as a tool kit of procedures and techniques for collecting, analysing, and displaying data. Zalan and Lewis (2004) make a similar distinction. They cited Babbie (1992, p. 18) who characterises methodology as “the sense of finding out”, a subfield of epistemology concerned with, among other issues, which methods are appropriate and when and why. Methods involve the “systematic, focused and orderly collection and analysis of data” (Ghauri, Gronhaug, Kristiandslund, 1995, cited in Zalan and Lewis, 2004, p. 2).
  • This research uses an interpretivist qualitative case study methodology and multicase study method and techniques supported by qualitative analysis including pattern matching and alternative hypotheses testing (Yin, 1994). Although the overall approach is characterised as qualitative, analyses include event frequency and variable counts, which are, strictly speaking, quantitative. The quantitative components, however, rely exclusively on researcher interpretation rather than on standard statistical analysis techniques to derive meaning (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).
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