Validity Concerns in Research Using Organic Data
Validity Concerns in Research Using Organic Data
复制标题
DOI：
10.1177/0149206319862027
复制
发表时间：
2019-07
影响因子：
13.5
通讯作者：
Heng Xu;Nan Zhang;Le Zhou
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heng Xu;Nan Zhang;Le Zhou
随着计算技术的出现，社会科学领域的研究人员正在使用越来越复杂的方法来收集、处理和分析数据，以寻求科学证据。考虑到所使用的研究方法的复杂性，重要的是要确保研究产生的研究结果是可靠的，而不是受到与研究设计或实施相关的不确定性的重大影响。元科学领域-使用科学方法来研究科学本身-已经研究了使用传统设计研究的研究的这种鲁棒性要求的各个方面（例如，调查、实验室实验）以收集数据。然而，大多数人都没有努力使用“有机数据”来检查实证研究的稳健性，即在没有任何明确的研究设计元素的情况下生成的数据，并通过数字设备（例如，由无处不在的传感设备捕获的视频;从社交网站、Twitter馈送和点击流提取的内容和社交交互）。鉴于在管理研究中使用有机数据的日益普及，了解可能影响研究结果稳健性的有机数据的使用和处理问题至关重要。这篇评论首先提供了一个普遍存在的问题，威胁到使用有机数据的实证研究得出的推论的有效性的概述。其次是讨论一些关键的考虑因素和建议，使有机数据的一个强大的和不可分割的一部分，未来的研究工作在管理。
With the advent of computing technologies, researchers across social science fields are using increasingly complex methods to collect, process, and analyze data in pursuit of scientific evidence. Given the complexity of research methods used, it is important to ensure that the research findings produced by a study are robust instead of being affected significantly by uncertainties associated with the design or implementation of the study. The field of metascience—the use of scientific methodology to study science itself—has examined various aspects of this robustness requirement for research that uses conventional designed studies (e.g., surveys, laboratory experiments) to collect data. Largely missing, however, are efforts to examine the robustness of empirical research using “organic data,” namely, data that are generated without any explicit research design elements and are continuously documented by digital devices (e.g., video captured by ubiquitous sensing devices; content and social interactions extracted from social networking sites, Twitter feeds, and click streams). Given the growing popularity of using organic data in management research, it is essential to understand issues concerning the usage and processing of organic data that may affect the robustness of research findings. This commentary first provides an overview of commonly present issues that threaten the validity of inferences drawn from empirical studies using organic data. This is followed by a discussion on some key considerations and suggestions for making organic data a robust and integral part of future research endeavors in management.