Dominic Chalmers from Adam Smith Business School talks to us about Ecological Momentary Assessment Methodology.

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a digital research methodology designed to track granular within and between-person variations in behaviour. Participants in an EMA study use mobile phones to input data on a specified phenomenon at set intervals, or on a signal-contingent basis. The methodology has been successfully utilised across a number of research fields, notably in addiction studies and social psychology. Scholars in these domains have benefited by getting uniquely close to intricate, systematic data that has high levels of ecological validity and that illuminates how contextual and environmental contingencies shape social behaviour. EMA mitigates many of the cognitive biases inherent to ethnography, participant interview, observation and other social research methods as data is collected in situ and in the moment. This can provide epistemological advantages to scholars as new insights into taken-for-granted phenomena become possible. The talk will provide an overview of research software (EVI) developed by the speaker, designed to easily operationalise EMA studies. Given the limited application of EMA in sociology, economics and business research more generally, the forum will serve as an opportunity to explore how EMA might be applied to study processes of social and digital change.

About the Speaker:

Dominic is Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. His current research examines the implications of novel Industry 4.0 technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence for new venture processes and practices. He has published in leading entrepreneurship and management journals, including Journal of Management, Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice. Recently, he worked with the Scottish Government to support the development of a national Artificial Intelligence strategy and he is part of a €4.5m European Union Marie Curie project that explores the legitimisation of new technologies.

About the Series:

Algorithms, digital data sets, social media networks, integrated technologies are all part of our everyday lives. How should we investigate the ongoing changes and challenges of our digital society? How should we explore our relationships with digital data and the online world? What are the limitations and affordances of new methodologies and what ethical considerations should researchers take into account as they look at the digitalisation of our lives? The Digital Society and Economy Interdisciplinary Theme Group invites you to join us for a new workshop series where you can meet researchers who will share Innovative Research Methodologies that address current digital practices and phenomena.

Image Source: Magdalena Sick-Leitner, Flickr [Photo credit: Ars Electronica]