Research Methods for Construction

Richard Fellows is Emeritus Professor of Construction Business Management, Loughborough University, UK. He is an experienced quantity surveyor and in his academic career has taught at several universities in the UK and other countries. His research interests concern economics, contracts and law, and the management of people in construction - especially cultural issues as drivers of behaviour and performance. He was a founder and for many years was joint coordinator of the CIB group, W112 - Culture in Construction. Richard is an editor of a leading construction journal and frequent reviewer of papers for international conferences and journals. Anita Liu graduated from the University of Reading and returned to Hong Kong to work in a quantity surveying consultancy, for the Hong Kong government, and for a major contractor. She then moved into academia, obtaining an MSc and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong. She became Chair Professor of Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying at Loughborough University and subsequently Head of Department and Professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at The University of Hong Kong. She was also joint co-coordinator of CIB group W112: Culture in Construction.

Contents About the Authors ix Preface to the Fifth Edition xi Part 1 Producing a Proposal 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 The concept of research 3 1.1.1 Research: a careful search/investigation 4 1.1.2 Research: contribution to knowledge 4 1.1.3 A learning process 6 1.1.4 Contextual factors affecting research 6 1.2 Classifications of research 7 1.2.1 Pure and applied research 7 1.2.2 Quantitative and qualitative research 8 1.2.3 Other categories of research 11 1.3 Theories and paradigms 12 1.3.1 Development of knowledge 13 1.3.2 Testing a theory 16 1.3.3 Paradigms 19 1.3.4 Positivism 20 1.3.5 Interpretivism 21 1.3.6 Pragmatism 23 1.3.7 Models and hypotheses 23 1.4 Research styles 25 1.4.1 Action research 25 1.4.2 Ethnographic research 26 1.4.3 Surveys 27 1.4.4 Case studies 28 1.4.5 Experiments 29 1.5 Quantitative and qualitative approaches 31 1.5.1 Quantitative approaches 32 1.5.2 Qualitative approaches 32 1.5.3 Triangulated studies 32 1.5.4 Data sources 33 1.6 Where to begin 35 1.7 Summary 36 References 37 2 Topic for Study 41 2.1 Selection of a topic 41 2.1.1 Resources 41 2.1.2 Subject selection 43 2.1.3 Choosing a topic 46 2.1.4 Evaluating alternatives 46 2.1.5 Refining a topic 47 2.2 Writing the proposal 48 2.2.1 Aim 49 2.2.2 Proposition 49 2.2.3 Objectives 50 2.2.4 Hypotheses 51 2.2.5 Methodology and methods 53 2.2.6 Programme 55 2.2.7 Deliverables and industrial or practitioner support 55 2.3 Summary 56 References 56 Part 2 Executing the Research 59 3 Initial Research 61 3.1 The research process 61 3.1.1 Initial phase 64 3.1.2 Data and information 66 3.1.3 Dynamic process 68 3.2 Initial search 69 3.2.1 Definitions and assumptions 71 3.2.2 Theory and literature reviews 71 3.2.3 Analysing data from a search 72 3.3 Literature based discovery 75 3.4 Assembling the theoretical framework 76 3.4.1 Theory borrowing 79 3.4.2 Theorising 83 3.5 Philosophy and paradigms 84 3.5.1 Ontology, epistemology, and axiology 86 3.5.2 Positivism 88 3.5.3 Realism 89 3.5.4 Interpretivism 91 3.5.5 Constructivism 92 3.5.6 Phenomenalism 93 3.5.7 Postmodernism 95 3.5.8 Pragmatism 96 3.6 Fuzzy thinking 96 3.7 Theoretical models and constructs 97 3.7.1 Theoretical model 98 3.7.2 Constructs 100 3.8 Proper referencing 101 3.9 Summary 103 Notes 104 References 104 4 Approaches to Empirical Work 110 4.1 Starting data collection 110 4.2 Experience 111 4.3 Reasoning and inference 112 4.3.1 Sensemaking 114 4.3.2 Motivated reasoning 115 4.3.3 Determinism and stochasticism 117 4.3.4 Complexity 119 4.4 Systems of methods 122 4.5 Research design 123 4.5.1 Context 126 4.5.2 Variance and errors 126 4.5.3 Empiricism, rationalism, and verification 127 4.6 Qualitative and quantitative approaches 129 4.6.1 When are qualitative approaches employed? 130 4.6.2 When are quantitative approaches employed? 134 4.7 Experimental 135 4.7.1 Experiments and quasi-experiments 135 4.7.2 Variables 138 4.7.3 Experimental control 141 4.7.4 Replication 142 4.7.5 Between-subjects design (simple randomised experiments) 143 4.7.6 Between-subjects design (matched randomised groups) 143 4.7.7 Within-subject design (repeated measure design) 144 4.7.8 Factorial experiments 145 4.8 Survey 145 4.9 Secondary 147 4.9.1 Archival 149 4.9.2 Meta-analysis 150 4.10 Case study 151 4.11 Ethnographic 155 4.11.1 Ethnography 156 4.11.2 Ethnomethodology 158 4.12 Action 158 4.13 Grounded theory (development of theory from data) 159 4.14 Narrative 162 4.15 Modelling 163 4.15.1 Classification of models 163 4.15.2 Deterministic and stochasti