Causation vs Correlation and the Effects of Bias on Research
Questions:
1. What are the independent and dependent variables in this study?
Dependent variable: entrepreneurship activities
Independent variable: activities (promotion, facilitation, long-term commitment to secondary education, developing the capacity of a society to accommodate the higher levels of income disparity, and creating a culture that validates and promotes entrepreneurship throughout society)
2. What are some of the intervening, extraneous, and moderating variables that the study attempted to control with its 10-nation design?
· Innovation
· Culture
· Economy (GDP)
· Geography and politics (geopolitics)
· Proximity to needed supply chains
· Available resources
· Government subsidies
3. Can you do a causal study without controlling intervening, extraneous, and moderating variables?
Extraneous variables should be controlled when possible but it is not always possible to control for them all as they are extraneous. Intervening variables are only hypothetical and are unable to be seen in a study, which is why they are hypothetical. One cannot determine or control their influence. Moderating variables can be controlled to...
What is the impact on study results of using national experts (key informants) to identify and weigh entrepreneurial framework conditions?
The impact on study results of using national experts to identify and weigh entrepreneurial framework conditions is that it introduces bias into the study. It provides a way to measure and entrepreneurial stimulation, but the measures all come from the ways in which the key informants see and judge entrepreneurship. These views may be different among other populations. Experts are not always clinically sound or even 100% objective in their views (Commons, Miller & Gutheil, 2004). One can also have selection bias in terms of what informants to accept as “experts” for the study’s purposes (Pal, Harper & Konstan, 2012).
Bias is a natural condition in man, which is why it is so hard to root it out in a study. As Scripture notes, only Christ is free of all bias in terms of how He looks at people and the world, because He is looking at things from the standpoint of God—and since He is God, He knows what the right way to see things actually is. Two
quotes from Scripture that illustrate this point are: “They came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, we know that You are truthful and have no personal bias toward anyone; for You are not influenced by outward appearances or social status, but in truth You teach the way of God. Is it lawful [according to Jewish law and tradition] to pay the poll-tax to [Tiberius] Caesar, or not?’” (Mark 12:14). In this quote, the Pharisees recognize (even though they themselves are acting falsely) the justness of Christ when they point out that He is without bias. They themselves are not without bias, but He is.
And the other quote that emphasizes…
