Babu George, presentation made @Assam University, Dec 2013

1. Creativity in Research
Reflections, New Methodologies, and Thought Processes
BABU P GEORGE, PhD
© No right reserved!

2. What did you learn so far …
Some cool stuff you learned from the previous sessions?

3. Let’s Continue our Journey.
Let me start telling about my
journey
Also, tell me what you expects out of me!

4. A Brief Summary of My Research Profile
• Not to justify what I do, but to help reflect upon your own journeys
• A Jack of all trades (a master of none?)
• Still, this might be a good model for someone who wants to see the
‘interconnectedness’ within their own limited ways
• Also, might be a good compromise for those who teach in B-level Schools with
limited encouragement for micro-specialization

5. Why do I do research?
• Get name and fame? Get acclaim? Tangible and intangible rewards?
To survive in the academics?
• Yes and No
• For me, research is equally a way of knowing who I am
• Most research I undertake (especially the ones I am the first author) has a
personal touch
• Despite being ‘compelled’ to do research in management

6. Some Reflections on Identifying ‘the right’
Topics for Research
• A topic that personally excites you has the bonus of providing you
‘intrinsic motivation’
• Even better it is to identify topics that excite you and like-minded colleague
• So, it’s a good idea to self-identify topics, unless your School stipulates
otherwise

7. How do I Identify Topics? -I
• I call it ‘amusement’
• Would it be so in social sciences? A question that intrigued
me, always.
• Some succeeds, some end up as blogs.
• Research on information-based strategies
• Research on the internal structure of PLC
• http://babu-george.blogspot.in
• I call it ‘activism’
• CST Paper
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450128.201
0.521599#.Uii9NhAiOw9
• Social Capital Paper
http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/content/43/4/444.short

8. How do I Identify Topics? II
• I call it ‘chance’, or, ‘happened to be in the right situation’ with the
right set of people
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1589144&show=abstra
ct
• I call it ‘opportunity’.
• My health tourism research
• http://centerforhealthtourism.org/
• I call it ‘realization’
•
The adaptive workforce-effectual logic research

9. How to Move On?
• Identifying a compelling topic is great, but not enough
• How to nurture yourself? How to foster interest?
• May be give a break?
• The neglected role of personal situations
• May be there is an actual issue with the research conceptualization or
operationalization that blocks its execution?
• Researcher as --- (metaphors)
•
•
•
•
an adventurer
A craftsman
A musician
Others?

10. Reflections on Publishing
• High impact, ISI /SSCI indexed journals Vs upstart journals
• Open access Vs Closed access journals
• Follow my research:
Google Scholar Profile
http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=1knkioAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&pagesize=100

11. ‘New’ Methodologies
…driven (mostly) by technologies

12. A FOUNDATIONAL QUESTION
• Is research methodology scientific? Is its truth value empirically
verifiable?
• E.g.: Focus group method is used to unearth empirical facts; but, how do you
know if focus group is a valid method? By empirical testing? If so, what
method(ology) would guide that empirical testing?

13. The Complex World of Research

14. Innovation in Methodology is the Result
of:
• Our changing ideas of reality (or, REALITY):
• Radical innovations comes when we develop a different conception of reality.
• Also, from changes in paradigms.
• Incremental innovation could be about ‘just a better method to
glance the same old reality’

15. Paradigms
• “…the set of practices that define a scientific discipline at any particular period of
time.” – Thomas Kuhn.
• Positivism
• Information derived from logical and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory
experience is the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge, and that there is valid
knowledge (truth) only in scientific knowledge.
• Post-positivism
• Postpositivists accept that theories, background, knowledge and values of the researcher can
influence what is observed, take into account of these potential biases while analyzing and
concluding.
• Critical theory
• Theory is a weapon of liberation and it does this by criticism of the circumstances that
enslave beings.
• Constructivism
• The constructivists investigate and theorize how human beings create systems for
meaningfully understanding their worlds and experiences

16. Innovations in Focus Group
• Multi-stage focus groups
• My own research
• E-focus groups
• Online, Phone-SMS based, etc
• Quasi-Focus Groups
• Are Google search results on a topic, properly queried, not a kind of focused
view on a topic?

17. Online Forums are Information-Mines
• Market research (esp. quality, satisfaction, loyalty, brand impact, etc.) can
best be done by scanning on online forums
• Review of Taj Mahal on Trip Advisor
• Research on social issues based on forum posts / chat groups
• My research on human trafficking and CST by visiting chat groups
• Use of Reddit forum AskReddit is a valuable source of insights on various social
problems
• Twitter for research
• Used for raising questions and for pooling in answers
• Usefulness is enhanced with search engines (hashtags.org, twitter native search, etc)
• Google Maps for research

18. Some (Somewhat Novel) Software
Solutions
• Zotero and GoogleScholar Library
• FreeMind
• Wordie WordClouds

19. What makes a good research
paper: some examples
Of excellent, okay, not-so-good papers

20. Feedback from the Audience?
Thank you!