Qualitative Methodology

Whilst the researcher appreciates that qualitative and quantitative research can (and do) overlap, clarity about what qualitative research is and seeks to do as well as its appropriateness within the current study can be effectively achieved by contrasting it with quantitative research (Gephart, 2004), conversely demonstrating why a quantitative approach was dismissed as unsuitable within this study.

A quantitative approach is ‘grounded in mathematical and statistical knowledge’ (Gephart, 2004; 455). Accordingly it embraces measurement and concerns itself with prediction, causal determination of relationships between different variables of interest and generalisation of findings (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998). It follows that such an approach has been deemed 'cold, hard and impersonal' (Patton, 1990; p124). Qualitative research is defined by its in-depth, rich exploratory nature (Shaw, 1999). With an ‘inherently literary and humanistic focus’, a qualitative methodology concerns itself with elucidation and understanding (Gephart, 2004; p455). It does so by returning to words, talk and text to represent a given concept of interest and to present a picture of people’s experiences, attitudes and beliefs of this concept (Bryman, 2004).

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This very brief initial précis of both methodological poles renders it unsurprising that quantitative and qualitative research result in the generation of very different types of knowledge. Whilst both quantitative and qualitative approaches have their merits and utility, the choice of which to adopt came down to what the researcher deemed most apt within the context of the research inquiry being undertaken. Notably she sought alignment with the research problem being explored and the research aim to be achieved. In doing so the researcher’s intent was to gain a good ‘methodological fit’ and promote the development of rigorous and compelling field research (Edmandson & McManus, 2007; p1169). Consequently the decision was taken to adopt a qualitative methodology, which is befitting to the study of human disciplines such as entrepreneurship (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998), as will now be discussed.

4.5.2.1. The Need for Qualitative Entrepreneurship Research

The current research is more generally located within the broader domain of entrepreneurship research. This is a domain traditionally dominated by research of a quantitative methodological orientation. Preference for and acceptance of a quantitative approach as the ‘go-to’ methodological approach in entrepreneurship research (Gartner and Birley, 2002) can be seen to be derived from a strong attachment to positivist philosophy and the objective and functional approaches which naturally stem from this (Cope, 2003; Rae, 2000).

Positioning quantitative research as the norm in entrepreneurship research reflects more broadly a propensity for ‘the liveliness of entrepreneurship’ to be suspended in favour of ‘scientific rigor’ (Berglund, 2007; p75).When one considers that presence of an average in entrepreneurship difficult to fathom, employing a methodology which seeks to reduce entrepreneurship and the activities of the entrepreneur to averages, number-counts, accumulations and deviations would seem futile (Gartner, 2010; Gartner and Birley, 2002). Furthermore the aim of generalising which typifies a quantitative

122 methodology amalgamates the individual differences which are resident within a group of entrepreneurs in a given situation, discarding the fact that the specific characteristics and activities of these individuals may be critical in that situation (Gartner, 2010). It thus follows that side-lining the specifics of situations and the individuals within that situation in pursuit of generalisability brushes aside vital sources of illumination regarding the value of experience from those who enact it in their daily lives (Rae, 2000). Within the context of entrepreneurship education research, such an issue plays out in a failure to accommodate ‘a more fine-grained examination of exactly what is having an impact on students, why and how’ (Harmeling, 2011; p742).

Entrepreneurship might be considered typical of a discipline resistant to appreciating the utility and value of qualitative research, viewing its commitment to rich description and detail unscientific, personalised and open to bias (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998). Consequently the entrepreneurial domain is generally characterised by a lack of qualitative research (Nabi et al, 2009). Those who do undertake such research are perceived as ‘connoisseurs of entrepreneurship scholarship’ due to the prolonged immersion required (Gartner and Birley, 2002; p394). Emphasis in the field has however begun to shift with growing scepticism about the appropriateness of adopting a purely quantitative approach by default given the dynamic and multidimensional nature of entrepreneurship. This has played out in calls for ‘inclusivity, diversity and pluralism’ in the perspectives and approaches adopted in entrepreneurship research (Leitch et al, 2010; p79). Henceforth those undertaking such research have been asked to ‘expand their methodological toolboxes’ (Berglund, 2007; p75) through the utilisation of qualitative methodologies (Gartner and Birley, 2002).

Gartner and Birley (2002) propose that many important research questions pertaining to entrepreneurship fail to be asked or cannot be asked within the confines of a quantitative methodology. Evidently this was also the case in the current research which required a qualitative methodology in order to address the identified research problem (Gephart, 2004).The problem is that BPCs continue to be offered on the presumption that they engender

123 entrepreneurial learning, despite the pronounced lack of understanding about how entrepreneurial learning emerges through the BPC from the perspective of those participating relative to other forms of entrepreneurship education.

4.5.2.2. Qualitative Methodologies, Business Plan Competition Participation and Entrepreneurial Learning

The naturalistic tendencies of a qualitative methodology lend themselves to the study of a under researched phenomenon such as the BPC, as this is an area in which we lack a solid understanding of relative to general mechanisms of curricular entrepreneurship education (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Given its suitability to understanding people and situations, it was envisaged that this approach would allow for the depth and detail which is missing from the existing research base and which is needed to elucidate this phenomenon (Patton, 1990). The researcher contends that this complex and detailed insight could only be harnessed by focusing on understanding the BPC participation experience as it is seen and encountered by the individual participant, establishing how s/he as a BPC participant feels about her/his BPC participation and why s/he felt that way (Basit, 2003). Such insights were viewed as key to understanding how entrepreneurial learning occurs in the BPC context.

A qualitative methodology was highly apt considering that focus was upon the individual (Rae, 2000) and exposing and exploring the meaning and feelings participants attached to their participation experience in terms of their own entrepreneurial learning (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). As it was the participants who were viewed as assuming a central role in constructing their learning and BPC experience by participating in it, they were best placed to describe it, particularly as such learning is well documented as being bound up with experience as a consequence of its experiential nature (Rae, 2000, 2004, 2006). This decision was also reinforced by the idea that human learning is beneficially explored using qualitative data (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003; Henning et al, 2004). It is the emic properties of this methodology which are receptive to the insider view, allowing the researcher to access

124 and represent the unique and idiosyncratic perspectives the BPC participants have about their entrepreneurial learning. This is particularly useful given an observed disproportionate emphasis placed on the etic perspectives of those organising or providing BPCs in the previous albeit limited research of the competition phenomenon (Russell et al, 2008; Schwartz et al, 2013)..

The context embracing nature of qualitative methodology and detailed contextual information which can be provided is considered highly advantageous (Guba and Lincoln, 1994) as the literature reviewed clearly highlights the importance of context on entrepreneurial learning, entrepreneurial education and consequentially the entrepreneurial process (Nabi et al, 2009). These are processes which can be considered ‘continuously emerging, becoming, changing, as (inter) actors develop their understandings of their selves and their entrepreneurial reality’ (Lindgren and Packendorff, 2009; p33). This reinforced the researcher’s view that the BPC participation experience needs to understood by exploring it within its context (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005) as it naturally unfolds in the lives of the participants before, during and after participation so that meanings can be retained given their contextual and temporal nature (Cope, 2003). The emphasis placed on allowing details to unfold over time makes qualitative research a useful means of studying processes as they are engaged in and responded to (Gartner, 2010; Gephart, 2004).

Qualitative methodology can be used as a means of demystifying participation in the BPC as an aspect of one’s entrepreneurial experience (Mitchell, 1997), principally because the meanings attached to any given experience by the participants on their daily life vary (Patton, 1990) and perceptions of learning are highly personally subjective (Gephart, 2004). The qualitative approach was receptive to capturing the BPC as a complex individualised experience. It also facilitated exploration of how the BPC experience and any learning encountered differed between individuals whilst also accommodative of the myriad of perceptions, attitudes, opinions, expectations and evaluations held by participants. To reflect such variation the researcher was interested in capturing and portraying the BPC

125 participants’ often unheard voices as a way of drawing out and depicting their BPC experience and any learning encountered through this experience (Creswell, 2007) but also as a means of humanising the BPC research agenda. As is unpacked in the following chapter, the current research thus turned to a Longitudinal Qualitative Research design as a means of achieving this.