Lucko, G and Mitchell, Z W (2010) Quantitative research: Preparation of incongruous economic data sets for archival data analysis. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 136(1), pp. 49-57. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
In the field of construction engineering and management, archival data sets are not always as correct and consistent as it would be desirable. Between different sources that are studied, e.g., companies, they may differ in format or content and within them, they may still be incongruous and require substantial preparation. This makes examining theories and extracting trends from historic data more difficult than it is for carefully controlled experimental studies or for collecting new data. The purpose of this paper is not to review the regression models that the writers developed during their research, but to focus on the data preparation that had to be applied before those analyses. The objective is to outline various techniques that can be applied to archival data that are related to construction engineering and management to give researchers a set of best practices on data preparation that can assist them in gleaning truths from them.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction companies; construction equipment; data analysis; economic factors; history; inflation; economic; qualitative analysis; spreadsheets; statistical models |
| Index terms: | best practice, construction engineering, economic factor, statistical model, construction equipment, quantitative research, spreadsheet, regression model, qualitative analysis, inflation, history, data analysis, experiment, construction company |
| Subjects: | research design and methodology, organization, business, data collection methods, economic analysis, architectural and construction history, data analysis and analytics, data science, construction equipment, economic concepts, engineering methods, statistical analysis |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Plant and Equipment |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here