Agyekum-Mensah, George ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3906-4621 (2020) Methodological pluralism: Investigation into construction engineering and management research methods. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 146 (3). ISSN 0733-9364 (Print), 1943-7862 (Online) (doi:10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001786)

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Abstract

The quantitative methodological biased debate in the 1990s in Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) Research resulted in researchers considering alternative methodologies. However, a follow up study in 2007 established that CEM remained dominated by quantitative research with only 8.4% of the studies surveyed exclusively using qualitative methods. A decade on, this remains a challenge and an update is overdue. Hence, an investigation to establish the current position regarding the methodological pluralism within CEM research was conducted. A total number of 4,166 articles spanning from 2000 to 2017 were examined from three reputable journals and tier 1 conference. The articles were categorised by the research method(s) used. Overwhelmingly, it was found there are acceptable multi-epistemologies within CEM research and there is a shifted from a dominance of quantitative to an increased utilization of qualitative methodologies and the use of mixed methodologies have shown hopeful progression. The demography of the data was also analysed and discussed. It is concluded that there is an increasing acceptance of methodological pluralism and CEM and its industry are on the verge of experiencing a competitive advantage, which could result in improved performances with utilization of balanced research methodologies (if applied appropriately).

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	construction management, methodology, mixed methods, quantitative, qualitative, and research methods
Subjects:	T Technology > TH Building construction
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Design (DES)
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2020 22:51
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/26199

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