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Chapter 3. Research Methodology Adoption, Diffusion and Use of E-government
Hassan Al-Zaabi Services in Abu Dhabi Police Force
3.5 Research Methods / Strategies
A research method is a “strategy of enquiry, a way of finding empirical data about the world” (Myers,
2009: 53).
As mentioned earlier this is a qualitative research, therefore, the researcher went through most of the
qualitative research methods in literature, read and understood them and conclude that a case study
research is the most appropriate research method for this research. Reasons for using a case study,
definitions and explanations are listed in the next section.
Furthermore, other common qualitative research methods will also be looked at. Table 3.2 provides
some examples of common qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Qualitative research
Quantitative research
A focus on text
A focus on numbers
Action research Surveys
Case study research Laboratory experiments
Ethnography Simulation
Grounded theory Mathematical modelling
Table 3.2: Examples of some qualitative and quantitative research methods (Source: Myers, 2009: 8)
3.5.1 Case Study Method
As this research wanted to understand the impacts of e-government, this meant that e-government (the
phenomenon) could not be studied in isolation and suggestions have been made that a case study
method was viewed to be most suitable (Creswell, 2009).
A case study is defined by Yin (2009: 18) as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary
phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between
phenomenon and context are not clearly evident”. A more specific definition by Myers (2009: 76) is “a
case study research in business uses empirical evidence from one or more organisations where an
attempt is made to study the subject matter in context”. Myers (2009: 73) also added that “the purpose
of case study in business and management is to use empirical evidence from real people in real
organisations to make an original contribution to knowledge”.
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