Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
addressed in the article. If the keywords offered were generic and did not provide
a clear idea about the research topic discussed, we then read the abstract to obtain
a better view of the article. If doubts remained, we then read the introduction to
identify the research goals and to determine the main factors analyzed. Finally, in
the very few cases when these discriminant criteria were insufficient, we read the
whole article. As a result, we obtained a database composed of 107 articles pub-
lished during the period 2000-2013, although the first article that we found was
published in 2008 (see Table 5.2).
5.3.2 Research Methodology
To achieve our research goals, each of the articles included in our database was
manually examined and catalogued, using MS Excel software, by the year of pub-
lication, the journal title, the country in which the study was carried out, the main
topic addressed, the principal methodology used, the level of analysis of these data,
the theories used by the author to support the knowledge, and the social network
analyzed.
To determine the research topics analyzed in each study, we carried out an
exploratory content analysis of each of the articles in the sample (Krippendorff,
1980). Research topics are directly expressed in the text or are derived from them
through analysis. In the coding process, researchers using content analysis create
or develop a coding scheme to guide coders to make decisions in the analysis of
content. A coding scheme is a translation device that organizes date into catego-
ries (Poole & Folger, 1981). A coding scheme includes the process and rule of data
analysis that are systematic, logical, and scientific. Keywords are derived from
review of literature. During this phase of the study, QSR NVivo v.8 software was
used to automate the coding of the articles (Fraser, 2000). This coding was con-
ducted using the random tags option of the software, which enabled us to obtain
a hierarchical concept structure to group and adapt this published research on
social media.
In this encoding phase, the researchers held several meetings to decide the labels
to be assigned and the topics to be included (see Table 5.3). Subsequently, each
of the articles incorporated in the study sample was encoded separately (Lan &
Anders, 2000), and any disagreements concerning the definition of the categories
to be analyzed were discussed and resolved.
Once the specific areas of study concerning social media had been catalogued
and systematized, in accordance with the criteria set out in Sections 5.1 and 5.2,
the methodologies employed in each line of research were analyzed to identify the
research trends present. When an article incorporated various methodologies, we
avoided double counting by focusing on the main research goal and on the meth-
odology used to achieve it. For this reason, it was essential to identify the principal
intention of the scientific document.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search