Research Methods Centre
The Research Methods Centre (RMC) contributes to the University of Exeter Business School’s mission of producing and communicating the highest quality of business and economics research. We commit to foster a dynamic environment where researchers not only acquire knowledge but also share their experiences, explore novel methodologies, and continuously develop their skills. We provide support for researchers at all levels and in all disciplines across all stages of their research projects.
Dr Justin Tumlinson and Professor Xiaohui Zhang are Co-directors of the RMC.
In this section
CARMA
(Consortium for the Advancement of Research Methods and Analysis)
The RMC purchased a “Premium Institutional Membership” to CARMA (Consortium for the Advancement of Research Methods and Analysis), giving the University of Exeter community access to a wide variety of methods workshops, both live and recorded (details here). Here is an FAQ on how to access the materials.
Note: I have also seen these carefully prepared materials used effectively in the classroom.
Quick Start
Please register with your @exeter.ac.uk email address (you will receive a confirmation email), and try to access a video class.
I am UE’s “primary contact” for CARMA, if that is necessary. Eventually, we will get the RMC webpage updated with a link to CARMA.
The RMC will continue to focus on face-to-face events, but we hope this additional resource fills a gap for those who are sometimes unable to attend or need training on a topic we are not scheduled to offer yet.
Centre members
Directors
Affiliated members
Professor Joe Labianca
Distinguished Research Professor
Professor Niels Van Quaquebeke
Distinguished Research Professor
Administrative staff
No people found
Workshops
2026
| Presenters | Date | Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Meehan, QDATRAINING | 09/02/2026 |
RMC NVivo Training |
| 10/02/2026 | ||
| Ben Jann, Asjad Naqvi | 11/02/2026 |
RMC Data visualisation with Stata |
| Filip Agneessens, Fabio Fonti, Joe Labianca, Jessica Methot, Stefano Tasselli, Steffen Triebel, Paola Zappa | 18/03/2026 |
SNS School of Network Methods – “From Analysis to Publication” Materials_School of Network Methods
|
| 19/03/2026 | ||
| 20/03/2026 | ||
| Kathrin Sele, Kevin Corley | 14/04/2026 |
RMC Grounded theory |
| 15/04/2026 | ||
| Jiti Gao | 08/05/2026 |
RMC Semi-parametric modelling |
| Mirjam Moerbeek | 11/05/2026 |
RMC power analysis workshop |
| Laura Venz, Zhen Zhang | 14/05/2026 |
RMC diary study and DSEM workshop |
| 15/05/2026 |
2025
| Presenters | Date | Workshop |
|---|---|---|
|
Guy Harling, Francesca Palotti, & Paola Zappa |
15/01/2025 |
RMC and ECSN Workshop "Social Networks in Health" |
| 16/01/2025 | ||
| 17/01/2025 | ||
| Steven Boyne, Ashley Luckman, Alexa Guy | 12/03/2025 |
Research Ethics Application |
| 13/03/2025 | ||
| Herman Aguinis, Markus Fitza | 28/04/2025 | Publishing in Top-Tier-Journals |
| 29/04/2025 | ||
| Chris Playford, Xiaohui Zhang, Liliana Belkin, Claire Crawford, Neil Harrison, George Leckie, Ellen Greaves | 07/05/2025 | Using Administrative Education Data |
| Florian Ellsaesser, Songyan Zhu, Shuang Dai, Yuchen Zhang | 14/05/2025 | Machine Learning |
| 15/05/2025 | ||
| Songyan Zhu | 19/05/2025 | Using geospatial data |
| 20/05/2025 | ||
| George Leckie | 10/06/2025 | Introduction to Multilevel Modelling |
| 11/06/2025 | ||
| Elena Manresa, Christopher Rauh, Matthew Gordon, Tillmann von Carnap, Thomas Renault, Achim Ahrens, Marie Beigelman, Paul Bose | 18/09/2025 | RMC Political Economy and Data Science |
| Andreas Wihler | 01/10/2025 | RMC Qualtrics Introduction |
| 02/10/2025 | ||
| Steven Boyne, Alexa Guy | 19/10/2025 | REC and RMC Research Ethics Application |
| 20/10/2025 |
2024
| Presenters | Date | Workshop |
|---|---|---|
|
Per Block, Juergen Lerner & Tom Snijders |
15/01/2024 |
Workshop "Social Networks Analysis Methods" |
| 16/01/2024 | ||
| 17/01/2024 | ||
|
Gabriel Sala, Lex Washington, Audrey Holm & Gregory Fetzer |
05/03/2024 |
Workshop "Interview Research Methods" |
| 06/03/2024 | ||
| 07/03/2024 | ||
| 08/03/2024 | ||
| Markus Fitza | 09/04/2024 | “P-Hacking” & “Reproducibility” |
| Leroy White, Jonas Lang, Markus Fitza, Ilke Inceoglu, Justin Tumlinson, Susan Reh, Alita Nandi & Greg Meredith | 10/04/2024 | RMC, EXCL & Director of Research Environment “Secondary Data Workshop” in Penryn |
| 11/04/2024 | ||
|
Victor Aguirregabiria, Boris Nikolov & Stephane Bonhomme |
01/05/2024 |
Workshop "Structural Estimation" |
| 02/05/2024 | ||
| 03/05/2024 | ||
|
Jack Porter, Frank Windmeijer & Anna Mikusheva |
13/05/2024 |
Workshop "Instrumental Variables" |
| 14/05/2024 | ||
| 15/05/2024 | ||
| Stephen Boyne, Ashley Luckman | 13/05/2024 | RMC & REC Workshop "How to submit ethics applications" |
| 15/05/2024 |
2023
| Presenters | Date | Workshop |
|---|---|---|
|
Arvids Ziedonis |
02/02/2023 | Seminar-“State Government Innovation Programs and the Retention of Science and Technology Start–Ups: Evidence from the Great Lakes Region.” |
| 03/02/2023 | Methods Training-"Investigating OLS, IV, and ML: Simulations in Stata" Part 1 | |
| Methods Training-"Investigating OLS, IV, and ML: Simulations in Stata" Part 2 | ||
|
Herman Aguinis |
06/02/2023 | Training- "Meta-analysis" |
| 07/02/2023 | ||
| 08/02/2023 | Training- "Methodological Literature Reviews" | |
| Eric Quintane | 17/02/2023 | Training- "Exponential Random Graph Models" |
| RMC & ECSN Research Seminar- "How does turnover spread through network ties? Turnover contagion as resource loss" | ||
|
Berrin Erdogan |
29/03/2023 | Directed readings 1- "Contemporary Approaches to Leadership" |
| Seminar-"Overqualification and implications for workplace behaviour" | ||
| 30/03/2023 | Directed Readings 2- "Contemporary Approaches to Leadership" | |
|
Steve Disney, Jan Van Mieghem & Robert Boute |
17/04/2023 |
RMC & OM Methods Workshop |
| 18/04/2023 | ||
| 19/04/2023 | ||
|
Liyang Sun, Jonathan Roth & Jeff Wooldridge |
08/05/2023 |
Workshop “Advances in Differences in Differences” |
| 09/05/2023 | ||
| 10/05/2023 | ||
| Jeff Vancouver | 15/05/2023 | RMC Methods Workshop: “Modeling the Mind and the Milieu: Computational Modeling for Organizational Psychologists” |
| RMC/ExCL Research Seminar: “Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Roles of Statistics and Theory in the Practice of Science” | ||
|
Maciej Workiewicz, Arianna Amarchetti & Yash Raj Shrestha |
21/06/2023 |
Workshop "Computational Methods in Management" |
| 22/06/2023 | ||
| 23/06/2023 | ||
|
Bill Foster, Christina Lubinski, Hannah Tucker & Dan Wadhwani |
04/10/2023 |
Workshop “Historical Qualitative Research Methods” |
| 05/10/2023 | ||
| 06/10/2023 |
2022
| Presenter(s) | Date | Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Giuseppe (Joe) Labianca (Umass-Amherst/DRP) |
20 January 2022 | Social Network Analysis |
| 27 January 2022 | ||
| 3 Feburary 2022 | ||
| Claudio Panico (Bocconi) | 22-23 Feburary 2022 | Formal Modeling for Management |
| Denisa Mindruta (HEC Paris) | 23-24 March 2022 | Econometrics of Matching Games |
| Felix Vardy (IMF) | 28 March 2022 | Policy Careers |
| 3 April 2022 | ||
| Joerg Claussen (LMU) | 4-6 April 2022 | Webcrawling with Python |
| Chris Rider (Michigan) | 4-5 May 2022 | Numerical Narratives |
| Elena Spatoulas Patel (Utah) | 22-26 May 2022 | Intermediate Econometrics II |
| Markus Fitza (Frankfurt School) | 14 June 2022 | |
| Herman Aguinis | 27-28 June 2022 | Open Science |
2021
| Presenter(s) | Date | Time | Workshop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niels Van Quaquebeke | 5 January 2021 | 2:00 to 3:00pm | Respectful inquiry: The story and the story behind the story |
| Hannes Leroy | 6 January 2021 | 3:00 to 4:00pm | Story behind the paper: Publishing in Journal of Applied Psychology |
| Berrin Erdogan | 7 January 2021 | 2:00 to 4:00pm | Story behind the paper: How to respond to reviewer comments |
| Tom Vanacker | 14 January 2021 | 2:00 to 4:00pm | How to frame papers that draw data from financial databases |
| Priya Kannan, Ronit Kark | 27 January 2021 | 2:30 to 4:00pm | Action research and taking research into practice |
| Jessica Methot, Jill Perry-Smith, Stefano Tasselli | 3 Feburary 2021 | 2:30 to 4:00pm (Panel Workshop) | Tips on writing theory papers |
| Jamie Ladge | 9 Feburary 2021 | 2:30 to 3.30pm | Developing interview protocols |
| Joe Labianca | 18 Feburary 2021 | 2:00 to 4:00pm | Tips on being a reviewer |
| Alessandro Lomi | 26 Feburary 2021 | 3:00 to 4:00pm | Best practices in network modelling |
| Ana Ortiz de Guinea Lopez de Arana | 2 March 2021 | 1:30 to 3:30pm | Topic TBC, probably meta-analysis |
| Ana Ortiz de Guinea Lopez de Arana | 3 March 2021 | 2:30 to 4:00pm | Topic TBC, probably meta-analysis |
| Joe Labianca, Stefano Tasselli | 9 March 2021 | 1:00 to 3:30pm | Research design and action research within organizations |
| Hannes Leroy | 25 March 2021 | 3:00 to 4:00pm | How to frame and develop a literature review |
| Gabriel Katz | 29 March 2021 | 9:00am to 5:00pm | R training (part 1) |
| Gabriel Katz | 30 March 2021 | 9:00am to 5:00pm | R training (part 2) |
| Ben Meehan | 31 March 2021 | 9:00am to 5:00pm | NVIVO training (part 1) |
| Ben Meehan | 01 April 2021 | 9:00am to 5:00pm | NVIVO training (part 2) |
| Iulia Cioroianu (Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath) | 01 April 2021 | Introduction to Python | |
| Iulia Cioroianu (Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath) | 02 April 2021 | Language Processing / Machine learning in Python | |
| Ben Meehan (QDATRAINING Ltd) | 03 April 2021 | Introduction to Nvivo | |
| Iulia Cioroianu | 22 April 2021 | 9:00am to 5:00pm | Python training (part 1) |
| Iulia Cioroianu | 23 April 2021 | 9:00am to 5:00pm | Python training (part 2) |
| Jonas Lang | 4 May 2021 | 1:30 to 3:30pm | Multilevel models (basic) |
| Jonas Lang | 11 May 2021 | 1:30 to 3:30pm | Multilevel models (intermediate 1) |
| Jonas Lang | 18 May 2021 | 1:30 to 3:30pm | Multilevel models (intermediate 2) |
| Jonas Lang | 25 May 2021 | 1:30 to 3:30pm | Multilevel models (advanced) |
| Jonas Lang (Ghent/DRP) | 13 September 2021 | Structural Equation Modeling | |
| Greg Molecke | 11 October 2021 | ||
| Herman Aguinis (George Washington/DRP) | 25 October 2021 | Management Theory Development | |
| Colleen Cunningham (LBS) | 15 November 2021 | Finite mixture models | |
| Elena Spatoulas Patel | 22-23 November 2021 | Intermediate Econmetrics |
2020
| Presenter(s) | Date | Time | Workshop |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Antonakis (Editor-in-chief: The Leadership Quarterly) | 4 February 2020 | The Endogeneity problem in mediation analysis Random effects assumption in multilevel models | |
| Gabriel Katz (Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter) | 30 March 2020 | Introduction to R/ Regression analysis in R (Stata) | |
| Gabriel Katz (Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter) | 31 March 2020 | Factor analysis / Structural equation modelling in R (Stata) | |
| Jill Perry Smith, Berrin Erdogan | 30 September 2020 | Jill: 2:30 to 3:10pm, Berrin: 3:20 to 4:00pm | Meet the editor: Insights from an Associate Editor of Academy of Management Journal and Editor-in-Chief of Personnel Psychology Our first Research Methods Centre workshop will feature two of our Distinguished Research Professors. Jill Perry-Smith was an Associate Editor, Academy of Management Journal (2016-2019), and has been a board member of Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Review, and Academy of Management Journal. Jill will present ideas on how to tackle journal revisions and common reasons that articles get rejected and how to address them. There will be the opportunity to ask questions at the end. Berrin Erdogan is the Editor-in-Chief of Personnel Psychology. Berrin will provide information about publishing in Personnel Psychology. These unique insights are relevant for publishing in other psychology and management journals. The talk will contain tips relating to idea generation, research design, writing, and revising articles to increase success in the publication process. There will be the opportunity to ask questions at the end. |
| Jessica Methot, Jamie Ladge | 06 October 2020 | 2:00pm to 3:30pm (Panel Workshop) | Practical implications of research and getting media attention An important element of our job as academics is to conduct research that builds and extends knowledge of a vast range of management-oriented phenomena. However, some scholars struggle to understand the practical significance of their work and how to translate and disseminate their research to practitioners. This presentation is designed to help scholars talk about the relevance of their work to non-academic audiences – including practice-based business magazines and journals as well as the popular press. Professors Ladge and Methot will describe their experiences sharing their research with these various outlets. They will discuss approaches to writing and connecting with practitioner audiences, and methods of “translating” academic insights in ways that spark interest with practicing managers. They will also offer strategies for how to leverage the use of practice-oriented writings and media attention (e.g. for classroom use, research, and/or to gain credibility in the field). |
| Markus Fitza | 15 October 2020 | 2:30 to 4:00pm | Current approaches to publishing quantitative analysis (e.g., replication, p-values) In recent years a variety of voices raised concerns about the reproducibility of results in management studies (e.g., Banks et al.,2016; Bettis, 2012; Bettis, Helfat, and Shaver, 2016; Goldfarb and King, 2016). These concerns echo a discussion in other scientific fields. For example, Ioannidis (2005) estimates that more than 50% of studies in the clinical sciences may be false positives (type I errors) and will thus not reproduce. At the core of this discussion are concerned about how traditional statistical model fitting techniques are used in management research. But progress has already been made, for example, the Strategic Management Journal dropped the practice of using p-value cutoffs and now encourages replications. In this workshop, I will discuss some of the issues underlying this discussion, what suggestions have been made to tackle the problem and what the emerging changes in various journals mean for our research practice. |
| Tom Vanacker | 22 October 2020 | 2:00 to 4:00pm | Creative use of databases (relevant to HR, finance, entrepreneurship, organisational behaviour) Scholars in a wide range of fields often focus on publicly traded firms—generally pushed by data availability. While publicly traded firms were all once young, small, and privately held, we cannot simply generalize what we know from publicly traded firms to privately held firms. Moreover, privately held firms represent 97.5% of all incorporated entities in the United Kingdom. Data availability (and quality) related to privately held firms has increased dramatically in recent years. In this seminar, I will discuss some interesting databases on privately-held firms; how they might be used to develop new theory; highlight common (sometimes false) critiques on these databases; and, how they might be used creatively (based on my own experience) to get published in a broad range of journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Journal of World Business. |
| Nils Van Quaquebeke, Jonas Lang | 29 October 2020 | 2:30 to 4:00pm (Panel Workshop) | Meet the editor: Beyond the questionnaire at Leadership Quarterly and insights from the publication process at Journal of Applied Psychology and Organizational Research Methods The Journal of Applied Psychology and The Leadership Quarterly are top journals in management and applied psychology. Join this Q&A session with Jonas W. Lang (Associate Editor at JAP) and Niels Van Quaquebeke (Senior Associate Editor at LQ) and ask them everything you always wanted to know about how best to navigate the publication process in these journals? What do the editors look for in manuscripts? What can you as a submitter do to increase the likelihood of your manuscript getting into review and ultimately accepted? This session is yours. So take ownership. A week before a slid.do link will be posted here where you can (anonymously) post your questions. |
| Markus Fitza | 05 October 2020 | 2:30 to 4:00pm | Variance decomposition analysis Variance decomposition is frequently used in management research. It is usually used to determine the impact of a given effect class on a dependent variable. An example might be useful to illustrate the utility of this approach relative to more conventional approaches such as linear regression: One use of variance decomposition in management studies was to determine the importance of CEOs for firm performance (e.g., Ahn et al., 2004; Lieberson and O'Connor, 1972; Mackey, 2008; Thomas, 1988; Wasserman et al., 2001). While some studies try to answer this question by analyzing the performance effect of certain CEO characteristics (such as age, experience or education etc…) a variance decomposition follows a more general approach. Because CEO characteristics are a complex set of features, some of which can increase performance while others can decrease it, it is difficult to determine the overall magnitude of the impact of CEOs with a regression analysis that uses proxies for the full set of all possible underlying CEO features that may affect performance. Rather a variance decomposition study of CEO influence captures the performance effect of CEOs in its totality. Instead of asking which features of a CEO effect firm performance it asks what is the overall impact of CEOs. This approach helps to answer a fundamental question: If we want to understand differences in firm performance, how much can studies of for example CEOs help us towards that goal? In the past this approach was use to measure the impact of a variety of effect classes on firm performance such as the effect of industry, region, corporate parent, business group, CEOs, VCs, etc. While performance is usually the main dependent variable of interest variance decomposition can also be used to investigate alternative DVs, for example to estimate how much certain effect classes influence the degree of diversification or M&A activities. In this workshop I will discuss the use of variance decomposition in management research: What types of research questions it can help answer, various methodological approaches, and how one can manage the review process for variance decomposition paper given that the method is not necessarily known to all reviewers. |
| Anthony Heyes | 12 November 2020 | 2:30 to 4:00pm | Research design for causal inference: Methods from economics for non-economists (part 1) Much empirical research coming out of business schools presents evidence of correlation (X is associated with Y) but is written up in a way that implies a causal relationship (X causes Y). Economics has moved decisively away from correlational analysis towards methods that explicitly allow for causal inference. Much of this work is very creative, making clever use of ‘natural experiments’. Now the norm in economics, such designs are increasingly prominent in top journals in other business school disciplines. The presentation will sketch the methods (IV, RDD and DiD) in a non-technical manner and explore how they might make your own empirical research more marketable. Focus will be on research design – setting up a study that has causal interpretability “baked in” from the start – and we will touch on lots of examples. The talks are mainly for people less familiar with these approaches, but everyone is welcome. |
| Anthony Heyes | 19 November 2020 | 2:30 to 4:00pm | Research design for causal inference: Methods from economics for non-economists (part 2) Much empirical research coming out of business schools presents evidence of correlation (X is associated with Y) but is written up in a way that implies a causal relationship (X causes Y). Economics has moved decisively away from correlational analysis towards methods that explicitly allow for causal inference. Much of this work is very creative, making clever use of ‘natural experiments’. Now the norm in economics, such designs are increasingly prominent in top journals in other business school disciplines. The presentation will sketch the methods (IV, RDD and DiD) in a non-technical manner and explore how they might make your own empirical research more marketable. Focus will be on research design – setting up a study that has causal interpretability “baked in” from the start – and we will touch on lots of examples. The talks are mainly for people less familiar with these approaches, but everyone is welcome. |
| Priya Kannan | 25 November 2020 | 3:00 to 4:00pm | Developing research questions and construct clarity Theoretically, how individuals reconstruct available resources to effect new opportunities has been at the heart of entrepreneurship and innovation research for the past two decades (e.g. Baker and Nelson, 2005, Feldman, 2004; Feldman and Worline, 2011, Garud and Karnoe, 2003). Practically, nothing highlights the need to reconstruct resources quickly and effectively to pursue new opportunities such as unexpected crises, the most recent case being the pandemic. Entrepreneurial firms, as well as, large organizations swiftly reconfigured their resources and shifted them to pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities brought forth by the pandemic. For example, General Motors swiftly reconfigured their resources and shifted them to producing ventilators while some award winning, high end dining restaurants foresaw new opportunities in burgers, take outs, and reconfigured resources to pursue these unexpected opportunities. Resource reconstruction is addressed by several terms such as effectuation (Sarasvathy, 2001), bricolage (Baker &Nelson, 2005), and resourcing (Feldman, 2004) and others. Based on a working paper, the purpose of this talk is to delineate the differences in how resources can be understood and constructed differently based on the phenomenon that is under consideration. |
| Ronit Kark | 01 December 2020 | 1:00 to 2:00pm | Publishing qualitative research: Success, rejections and lessons learned |
| Giuseppe Cavaliere | 08 December 2020 | 1:00 to 3:30pm | Bootstrap methods for economists (part 1) |
2019
| Presenter(s) | Date | Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Iulia Cioroianu, University of Bath | 1 April 2019 | Introduction to Python |
| Iulia Cioroianu, University of Bath | 2 April 2019 | Collecting and analysing social media data using Python Required: Intro to Python |
| Eva Neitzert, London School of Economics and Just Economics | 3 April 2019 | Evaluation and impact assessment |
| Julian Jamison, University of Exeter, Economics | 4 April 2019 | Experimental methods |
| Pikakshi Manchanda, CSAM, University of Exeter | 5 April 2019 | Introduction to Natural Language Processing in Python Required: Intro to Python |
| Ben Meehan, QDA Training | 8 April 2019 | Introduction to NVivo |
| Ben Meehan, QDA Training | 9 April 2019 | NVivo Underway – analysing your data NVivo Required: Intro NVivo. Max 16 people |
| Gabriel Katz, Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter | 10 April 2019 | Multilevel Models in R and Stata |
| Gabriel Katz, Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter | 11 April 2019 | Bayesian Statistics in R and Stata |
| Lakshmi Balachandran Nair, University of Utrecht | 12 April 2019 | Case Study Research Design |
| Iulia Cioroianu (University of Bath) | 8 July 2019 | Online surveys in Qualtrics, survey experiments, and causal inference |
| Lakshmi Balachandran Nair (University of Utrecht) | 9 July 2019 | Introduction to Grounded theory |
| Alasdair Jones (London School of Economics) | 10 July 2019 | Participant observation |
| Alasdair Jones (London School of Economics) | 11 July 2019 | Approaches in qualitative evaluation |
| Houston Lester (Baylor College of Medicine) | 12 July 2019 | Longitudinal Analysis in R |
| Mike Gill (University of Oxford) | 9 September 2019 | Of qualitative methods and phenomenology (Canceled) |
| Jeremy Dawson (University of Sheffield) | 10 September 2019 | Mediation and moderation |
| Lorien Jasny (Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter) | 11 September 2019 | Introduction to social network analysis |
| Lorien Jasny (Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter) | 12 September 2019 | Intermediate social network analysis Required: Intro to Social Network Analysis |
| Pikakshi Manchanda (CSAM, University of Exeter) | 13 September 2019 | Advanced NLP and Machine Learning for text analysis Required: Intro to Python |
2018
| Title | Presenter |
| Qualitative Research Design | Nelson Phillips |
| Introduction to R (group 1) | Iulia Cioroianu |
| Introduction to R (group 2) | Gabriel Katz |
| Structural Equation Modelling | Gabriel Katz |
| Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) | Sean White |