The three navigational buttons did their job and we were able to browse without any issues. Because the browser doesn't store the URLs you visit, your browsing history is kept secret.
You'll get only the basics with this freeware browser, but it's easy to use, it's small, and you can easily take it from computer to computer. Portable Web Browser is a light weight Web browser designed to run without installing on a workstation. You can save it on a thumbdrive and carry it with you.
It does not need to be install. Good for casual users who need to borrow other people workstations for Internet access. Version 1 build 0. Free YouTube Downloader. IObit Uninstaller. WinRAR bit. Internet Download Manager. VLC Media Player. MacX YouTube Downloader. Microsoft Office YTD Video Downloader.
Enjoy Wooting movement and share this with your mates. Most common issues and how to solve them. Download now. What is this tool? The default is set to the optimal angle that removes animation delay, retains maximum motion speed, and allows diagonal movement building.
Creates output folder if it doesn't exist. Ignores missing merge files when controlled via runonce. If Scripting is not available then all VB Script macros will result in an empty string. New Esperanto translation. Implementation of the DeviceList setting was improved. Problem with diagonal strange black dots should be solved. This extends the programmatic control you have over the PDF Writer.
New setting: LicenseFile. With this setting you can specify which license to use. This feature is meant for a redistribution scenario. New setting: MacroDir. This controls where the VBScript macros and event handlers are loaded from. New setting: ExtractText. The printer can now extract text information from the print job. This text can be parsed and values can be extracted and used as macros such as author or title.
Translation updates Russian. Fix in config. Translation updates Catalan. Improvements for PDF Printer redistribution and customization. Installation and unstallation now supports multiple instances of the program installed on the same computer.
Uninstall only removes printers where the AppFolder registry value matches the application folder being uninstalled. The home page icon will not be installed in the start menu when this parameter is specified. It will control the PDF compatibility level. Valid values are 1. This setting can also be controlled from the GUI. This will split the resulting PDF document into one file per page. With this you can superimpose on print jobs from Internet Explorer and Firefox. Tab order fixed.
Setup customization through setup. Freeware license was limited to 10 users. Dependency on the Microsoft Scripting Dictionary component was removed. Better support for Adobe PageMaker. Use "general" PPD setting in printing dialog. GUI now supports creation of image formats. Resolution can be specified for background PDF documents in superimpose operation. Fix of problem with strange characters overlaying the finished PDF document. Dialog control identifiers have been modified to support hiding and disabling.
If no global printername. Translations added Norwegian - nynorsk. Translations updated Polish, Italian. Contents of an App folder placed next to the setup program is copied to the program folder during installation. The problem was introduced in version 4. AfterPrintProgram is now run in case of success. This was disabled by a programming error. Translations updated Korean. Translations updated Arabic, Greek, Portuguese-Brazil. New settings: res, resx, resy, textalphabits, graphicsalphabits, device, and statusfile.
Problem with installing olepro Translations updated Afrikaans, Russian. Registration of comdlg Swedish translation completed. Portuguese Brazil translation completed. Polish translation completed. Japanese translation completed. Hungarian translation completed. Catalan translation completed. Bulgarian translation completed. Progress indicator is now shown it the system tray.
Balloon tip notification when the PDF is created. More work done on the Visual Basic Script macros. New settings supported: showprogress, showprogressfinished, runonerror, runonerrordir, runonsuccess, and runonsuccessdir.
Fix: Earlier versions could sometimes remove custom defined paper sizes for other printers during installation. Requires Ghostscript 8. Runtime error should no longer occur during startup. Security, Zoom, and UseThumbs settings now also work when merging documents. New Feature: Remember last used file name. Setting watermarksize is now obsolete use watermarkfontsize instead. Setting watermarktransparency is now obsolete use watermarkcolor instead.
By default the watermark will now behave as a stamp and be placed on top of the print. Setting suppresserrors is default set to no. Setting usedefaultauthor is default set to yes. Setting usedefaulttitle is default set to yes. New setting watermarkcolor is now supported.
New setting watermarkfontname is now supported. New setting watermarkfontsize is now supported. New setting watermarkoutlinewidth is now supported. New setting watermarklayer is now supported. New setting watermarkverticalposition is now supported. New setting watermarkhorizontalposition is now supported. New setting watermarkverticaladjustment is now supported. New setting watermarkhorizontaladjustment is now supported. New setting rememberlastfilename is now supported.
New setting rememberlastfoldername is now supported. New setting zoom is now supported by the user interface. User's current selection of folder and file name are now saved in user. Japanese language added. Slovak language added. New Zoom setting to determine the initial zoom factor when a document is viewed. New UseThumbs setting to show thumbnail pictures of pages when a document is viewed.
Polish language added. Override port log file folder with registry setting. Support for debug mode in print monitor. Monitor removes postscript file if the job is discarded. Instances are now recognized by the options dialog. UNC roots are now valid destinations. Arabic added as new language. This allows installation of multiple printers running with different settings.
Fixes problems in some Vista installations. Problems with installing msxml6. Dependency of Scripting. FileSystemObject has been removed. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill cite research by Burrell and Morgan cited p which offers four paradigms for social sciences research, within which business research is just one type: x Functionalist problem-solving and rational approach to organizations x Interpretive organizations only understood through perceptions of people about those organizations x Radical humanist organizations are social arrangements and research is about changing them x Radical structuralist organizations are a product of structural power relations, where conflict is inherent These paradigms are held by the authors to be inconsistent with each other, in other words, if you hold one paradigm, you cannot also hold a different one.
They therefore foster different research methods and focus on different areas for study. For example a functionalist paradigm takes a classic survey approach to issues, which are thought to have objective reality. A radical humanist paradigm would suggest again a qualitative method but looks not necessarily at the perceptions of social actors in the organization but seeks to probe a deeper level of values and social definitions, which underpin the organization.
A relevant method would be grounded theory, which looks for theory through a structured method of investigation of what is said or written inductive and produces categories of idea, which can then be used to characterize, develop or change organizations. A radical structuralist paradigm may suggest a historical analysis of power in the organization, by developing case studies or seeking to symbolize transactions between actors in the organization, for example an analysis of employee relations over time.
This is one attempt to pull together the ontological and epistemological debates about conducting social science research. It is the ontological and epistemological stance of the researcher which affect the methodology and specific methods they choose for their research.
Does this make sense to you? We are talking about how you think about the world and the stuff you find in it; for example whether you believe in objective truth, or whether you find all things subjective.
What kind of status business organizations have, and the policies and plans and structures and cultures they develop. We have to learn to be as objective as possible, to recognize when our assumptions and philosophies may cloud our thinking and try to dispel them for the purposes of research. We will go into detail about grounded theory when we cover qualitative data analysis. For now, you should know that this approach is interpretive, as written and verbal data are collected and transcribed so that the texts can be fragmented into ideas, categories and themes by the researcher.
So such a mix involves mixed methods as well as an integrated paradigm. Research approaches or strategies need to be seen as related but distinct from the actual methods used in research. Make sure you understand what methods are; for example: experiment, interview, survey, case study, action research, grounded theory, ethnography, archival research. This is by no means an exhaustive list of research methods, but it is a useful broad range to keep in mind at this stage.
Why should a business researcher want to mix qualitative and quantitative research methods? This can be done by using different data collection methods which are all either quantitative or qualitative e.
Often survey results are used to map out a broad view of the research question, and to provide themes or areas for investigation in more depth through interview. Triangulation can also provide a check on findings from a particular method. It will also be important to decide whether research should take a point in time approach, i.
Most academic studies for qualifications tend to be cross-sectional as they are completed in a very limited time period. Longitudinal studies usually require external funding to protract the period of research. Reliability is required of research studies. We must try to design research which is auditable i. Triangulation will help here.
Make sure you understand the concepts of participant error, participant bias, observer error and observer bias. Face validity is important to encourage participation in surveys or interviews, as well as other experimental or research designs. Construct validity is a more complex idea and means that the method must actually measure what you think it measures.
There are, for example, statistical ways of checking surveys and questionnaires to check that the questions are really asking what you think factor analysis and item response theory. Construct validity is particularly important in questionnaires which are not administered face to face by a researcher but sent by post, email on done online, as there is no chance then to discuss and clarify the meaning of a question.
Sometimes results can be invalidated because respondents have misunderstood a question and answered in a way which was not intended. We can illustrate this idea by the famous IQ test which was intended to measure intelligence IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient but includes items which bias towards particular ethnic groups and educational norms.
Or we could ask the question, do examinations test knowledge? Is their measurement validity strong? Or do they actually test something else, for example examination technique?
Internal validity relates to causality, i. It is sometimes easy to assume causality when in fact there is only association of two factors.
For example, does strong motivation cause or lead to effective teamwork, or does effective teamwork lead to or cause strong motivation? In this case causality can work either way or may be quite independent concepts. We cannot assume causality either way. To test internal validity we have to ask the question, does the independent variable account completely for a change in a dependent variable, or are other factors affecting this outcome. Usually in business organizations, there are very few simple cause and effect relationships.
Does a performance bonus make someone work harder? It takes quite a lot of work and reading, as well as simply understanding your views as a researcher. For a start, there will be no one right way of conducting business research — this will depend on a number of factors such as research topic, audience for the research you, your university tutor or your company for example , time and other resources available to you, and the kind of study which is considered appropriate for that topic.
There will also be other practical considerations such as access to information and people. Suppose you wanted to investigate what shoppers thought about a particular marketing strategy associated with an organisation. Can you stand outside its shop and ask passers-by questions? From an academic perspective, it is never that simple. There are ethical issues you would need permission from the retailer to stand outside accosting customers , practical issues you may cause an obstruction or even a breach of the peace in a public place!
Do you offer an incentive? Will that affect results? Textual analysis of their comments? Record their body language as well? And so on. Many of these questions are practical and detailed, but underpinning your approach there will be philosophical assumptions which you must make explicit. So designing your research will be vital and choosing a strategy will mean you have considered your views on truth and knowledge, social entities, what business research can and cannot achieve and how all this will affect what you actually do to answer a research question.
So we have talked about the underpinning role of philosophy and research strategy, which then guides your choice of research method e. These questions need settling and justifying before you rush off to ask people questions. How do all these relate to yourself as a researcher? If you used a mixed method approach, what reasons would you give to justify this choice? Glaser, B. Strauss Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research.
New York, Alpine Publishing Co. Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Locke, K. Remenyi, D. Strauss, A. Corbin Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory Thousand Oaks, CA.
Discussions of ethics tend to sound worthy, sometimes border on the philosophical, and occasionally stray right off the point. Why should this be? Ethics relate to moral choices affecting decisions and standards and behaviour. So it is quite hard to lay down a set of clear rules, which cover all possible moral choices. Especially in research, where the practical aspects of a study e.
Sometimes it can be quite a shock, when you have been used to getting pretty clear ideas about how to do something, to find you have to make your own decisions about how things will be done. Ethical choices we have never imagined can just creep up and hit us. An obvious example would be when, as a very honest student, we start to collect some data together and realize that one source of data is completely out of step with the rest.
As a professional researcher, that is an interesting challenge, which will create its own new pattern of research and investigation. But as a business student with a fast approaching hand-in deadline, the temptation to lose the odd piece of data can be great. We are not suggesting that we have to be great moral advocates here, perhaps that is a matter for our own consciences, but we must anticipate as much as we can the moral choices and dilemmas, which the practice of research will bring, and try to find appropriate ethical ways of dealing with them.
And how the data you collect will be used? And whose data is it, if they spoke or wrote it? Reality is messy — do we want to smooth the mess and create simple answers, or do we want to understand messy reality in order to change or anticipate it? Can data be recreated from your notes? Do we pretend it worked? What if an interviewee starts to see things in a new light and uncovers painful memories or ideas? Latter can also happen in focus groups- conflict, personal animosity could develop — how can this be handled?
What effect does this have on your data? Does it affect validity of results? Whose is it? And how exactly do you transcribe? Do you include repeated phrases or words?
Do you attempt to record body language which may affect the meaning of what is said? Remember that provided the process was justified and conducted ethically and professionally, then a not very exciting outcome does not really matter.
We cannot all discover gravity or relativity, but we can all design sound research plans and carry them out professionally.
How could you get ethical approval for this? However just how untrue may be surprising. Visit www. There is also some useful discussion of ethical research issues in an article by Jane Richardson and Barry Godfrey which focuses on ownership and authority to use interview transcripts which may be in the public domain. See references below for details. Can you identify any more stakeholders? Some will be specific to the kind of research study undertaken, for example a study of recruitment practices could affect potential employees.
Once you know who might be affected by your research study, you could design a simple risk analysis — for each stakeholder identify the type of risk from your research, its potential impact low, medium or high and the probability that it will happen unlikely, possible, probable.
Entering this into a grid, will give you a clear idea of priorities in designing an ethical study, and should lead you to think about strategies to reduce undesirable impacts.
So what does participant anonymity involve? It is not usually just a case of not putting their names in the final report. It will be important to decide whether you need to devise a code for each participant so you know who they are but they cannot be named by others , or whether this is not needed by the study so no-one will have a code or a name.
Can you refer to their title, role, function, department, site etc? All these, in conjunction with your results, may reveal identity. Can you stop yourself referring to someone, in your study, to others in their company, who might try to identify them?
If you have, for good reason, collected personal details, have you checked whether you comply with the requirements of any data protection legislation in your country? Does it really affect the research outcomes and thus will be important data to collect?
Or could you redesign your study so that this kind of data was not important and need not be collected? Informed consent requires you to prepare for all research participants some documentation which shows them what you are doing and why, what their role in the research is, what will happen to the data you collect from them and what they are agreeing to do. It will also usually set out how you will keep and dispose of the data and how the required confidentiality will be ensured.
This is very detailed and seems like a lot of work, but in fact a short text can often achieve all the requirements of informed consent. This, or a brief statement referring to this documentation, must then be signed by your participants. Remember that no undue pressure should be brought to bear on any participant or gatekeeper, since this, however well-intentioned, will influence their involvement in your research and will prove not only unethical, but may also invalidate results.
The first issue is the way data are collected and recorded. You may be using a specially designed relational database in which to record observations and related information, or we may be talking about a highlighter pen and notes in the margin of an interview transcript, or a clipboard and pencil. Whatever method is used to collect, and transfer data to a retrievable record, then it must be designed for purpose, systematic and capable of capturing all relevant details.
Take for example a semi-structured interview method: what kind of system could be used to record the interview? Video recorder? Digital recorder? Tape recorder? Notepad and pen? Pro-forma with main questions and spaces to record answers? Reflect for a moment on what kind of issues could arise which might affect research objectivity depending on choice of system. If so, what would you do? How could you ensure continuing objectivity? The second issue is when a research study is under way and something unexpected happens to cause a problem with your data.
Or a failed tape recording. Or a key participant withdrawing from the study, as they have a right to do. At this stage of the research, however honest we are, there will be a temptation to fix the problem. So we should anticipate this temptation and understand, before it happens, that that is the road to failure in research. Academic and professional audiences will not be fooled, because they will understand and look for such issues. The moral responsibility of the researcher is considerable and when researchers are found to have transgressed, they are likely to be held to account in the media.
Sadly, there are many examples to be found, but at least these will have been held to public account. If you are researching an organization of which you are part, then you already have an understood role or status within this organization. However, an internal researcher may be in a position to conduct a kind of research, which may be impossible from an external perspective.
Can you think of an example in business research? Could you possibly find more useful and reliable data covertly than openly declaring your intention and gaining official agreement for access? In a few cases, the answer may be yes, but if so, there must be approval from any research ethics committee relating to your studies or research or professional body ethics approval e. Assurances must then be given about the use to which the research data will be put and to what extent it will be anonymised.
Spying is not research! When should we think about ethics in a research study? What elements would you include in a consent form for interview based research?
In what circumstances might covert research be justified? How would you deal ethically with this? What practical activities can you suggest to anticipate and prevent unethical research practice?
Godfrey To find out things about people we need to ask research them. So we ask some of them. We sample the population. Problem 2: we wanted to find out things about people, so we researched a sample of them.
To what extent do our results relate to all people, and to what extent do they only relate to our sample? Problems 1 and 2 put sampling in a nutshell. Sampling is a practical way of studying people and their activities, thoughts, attitudes, abilities, relationships etc in relation to business. That would mean that our findings can be generalised to the whole group.
To make this happen, we have to learn about a number of issues and technical words and phrases in sampling. In the next section there is a brief glossary based on Box 4. To learn more about each technique, read the textbook and web search further, or ask questions about these techniques in livechat.
This sounds underhand but is often used, at least in pilot studies or short term projects where there is insufficient time to construct a probability sample. Therefore, where this is used, the results cannot be generalised to the population though many newspapers would like you to believe otherwise!
Generalisability: being able to use sample results as if they applied to the whole population — this must be based on sound sampling processes Multi-stage cluster sampling: When drawing a sample from a geographically dispersed population, the logistics suggest that cluster sampling can help. The sampling frame is first broken into clusters eg geographic areas , and a random or systematic sample taken.
Then the population of each cluster is sampled randomly to provide random sampling which is logistically feasible. This can of course introduce bias, but using both cluster and systematic sampling can usually produce effective samples. Non-probability sample: Random selection was not used so some units in the population may have had a higher chance of being selected e.
Probability samples keep sampling error low and usually offer a sample which can be seen to be representative Quota sampling: Regularly used in market research and opinion polling. Like a stratified sample, this sample is chosen to include a certain proportion of particular variables e.
There is no sampling frame here, so it is not random, but sometimes it is difficult to pre-define the population eg staff in a company who contribute creative ideas. This technique is often used in qualitative approaches. Purposive sampling: Using your own judgement to select a sample.
Often used with very small samples and populations within qualitative research, particularly case studies or grounded theory. This approach cannot yield any statistical inferences about the population. Cases may be selected for being unusual or special or particularly related to your research question. Stratified sampling specificies any characteristics, which you wish to be equally distributed amongst the sample, eg gender or work department.
Provided the sampling frame can be easily identified by these characteristics, then strata for each characteristic are identified and within each group, random sampling or systematic sampling can proceed. Sample is chosen directly from the sampling frame which ideally should not be in any specific order except alphabetical. Once you know the sample proportion required eg 1 in 20, start with a random number generated item in the list, then choose every 20th name until the sample is complete.
Random sampling: also called probability sampling — see explanation above. Define the population. Define the sampling frame F this may be the same or it may exclude certain groups or individuals as not relevant to the study. Decide the sample size Z. Using a table or computer programme to generate random numbers, collect Z amount of different random numbers within the range 1-N. Apply the chosen random numbers to the sampling frame to identify your random sample.
Used in random sampling. Use whatever digits in the random numbers apply within your sampling frame total and ignore duplicates. You may find it is simpler to use Excel spreadsheet function to generate random numbers.
Sampling fraction: Number required for sample divided by number in total sampling frame expressed as a fraction or percentage. These techniques offer varying levels of generalisability but always less than a random sampling method. Think about these three techniques and decide how justified you think each is for conducting business research. In the definitions of random sampling above, we have ignored this question so it is now time to tackle it. Unfortunately there is no right answer to sample size.
You cannot just apply a consistent proportion to the total sample frame. Instead the following issues need consideration: www. If the population total is ,, then your sample size is 10, — yes this would probably be a good sample size but see the next problem on this list. We can see that this unit or person could be quite unrepresentative of the total population by itself.
So relative sample size is not important. Absolute size is. The bigger the sample size, the more the sample is likely to represent the population and the lower is likely to be the sampling error. Referred to as the Law of Large Numbers. If you have not done any work on statistics before, do some quick web-searching or look at the index of the textbook to find out. If you wish to conduct a statistical analysis on your data, the minimum size of sample for any one category of data should be 30, as this is most likely to offer a reasonable chance of normal distribution.
If your sample frame is 30 or less, then it would be wise to include the whole frame, rather than sampling. Of course, the population you are researching may be way below in total, and it may in any case be very costly or time-consuming to use a large sample size.
Practical considerations are important in research studies. Just bear in mind that if you choose a sample size which is small in absolute terms, then you must justify this action and take into account the fall in generalisability and representativeness which may result. Inevitably your respondents are less likely to be as motivated as you, the researcher, about your research, so some — and sometimes a majority — will not respond, ie refuse to take part. All this is taken into consideration when a choosing your sample size and b calculating the actual response rate.
So if all questionnaire respondents are chosen from one company or organisation, the best to hope for is that our results can be generalised to the whole workforce of that company or organisation. We cannot assume that these results will in fact describe other workforces, as very different conditions and variables may apply in other organisations.
However, we cannot then apply these conclusions to other countries without further research, nor can we apply these conclusions over time to the same country, as major variables could have changed over time. Think back here to what we discussed earlier about epistemology — what we can really know. For practical time and cost reasons, media production teams often take quota sampling research or research done by more dubious methods and suggest its applicability to everyone watching or listening to a programme.
Look out for examples and try to find out what kind of sampling was applied to their research. If you are worried about the representativeness of your sample, in some cases it may be possible to check this by using a test of statistical significant difference to compare the profile of characteristics in your sample with that of another data list eg a census or company database.
Clearly if there is no statistically significant difference between your sample and the full population data list, you have added more authority to the representativeness of your sample. If you are using a non-probability sampling technique then even the flimsy size rules associated with probability sampling fall away.
Your sample size for purposive or snowball sampling will really depend on your research questions and objectives. In qualitative research, the focus will not be on trying to estimate things about a population, but in trying to understand or relate the data to theory or ideas.
How many people do you need to talk to, to understand their perception of something for example? It could be just one. Or it could be several or many. The question is here, what are you trying to find out and what sample size would give me confidence that my results had validity?
We will go further into this when we discuss different qualitative methods, but often a good lead can be taken from research studies in peer-reviewed academic journals, where information has been given about sample size in relation to research question. Find one that is close to your area of study which you would want to do anyway in your literature review and check the sample size studied in this type of enquiry.
Why are random numbers useful for sampling? How do you calculate a response rate? What kind of minimum size would you need in a sample used for statistical inference?
0コメント