That was a bonus, as I ran into an excellent resource from Oxford Reference, called "A Dictionary of Business Research Methods". Unfortunately, while this lists almost everything else, it does not contain 'limitations' or 'delimitations' in a business research context (it does have legal definitions).
I gave up on hard copies, encyclopaedias and dictionaries, and went online, reverting to a normal Google search.
The resulting definitions are, for undergraduate business research general methodology purposes:
- Assumptions are things that are accepted as 'true' by other scholars, given, eg, your population, statistical tests, research design, or other delimitations.
- Limiters are potential research weaknesses that are mostly out of your control, impacting the interpretation of your research findings, because of, eg, research design, statistical constraints, access to audiences or data, etc.
- Delimiters are the scope that you set on your research project so it is not too large to complete; eg, why you chose your aims, operationalisation, target populations, etc.
Sam
References:
- Laerd dissertation (2012). STRUCTURE: How to structure the Research Limitations section of your dissertation. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://dissertation.laerd.com/how-to-structure-the-research-limitations-section-of-your-dissertation.php
- Oxford Reference (2016). A Dictionary of Business Research Methods. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191792236.001.0001/acref-9780191792236
- PhD Student (n.d.). Stating the Obvious: Writing Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://www.phdstudent.com/Choosing-a-Research-Design/stating-the-obvious-writing-assumptions-limitations-and-delimitations
- Simon, Marilyn K. & Goes, Jim (2012). Scope, Limitations, and Delimitations. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://dissertationrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/limitationscopedelimitation1.pdf
- USC Library (2016). Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Limitations of the Study. Retrieved 28 April 2016 from http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/limitations
Nice Post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Emma!
ReplyDeleteWell done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous: glad you enjoyed it :-)
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