ABSTRACT
To conclude the cooking analogy, many of the best cooks are masters of one particular approach. The same holds true of research methods, but as in the case of cooks, some people are able to combine approaches and improvise depending on the particular challenge at hand. It is useful to observe that the best cooks are often well grounded in one approach even though they may later go beyond it. For the beginner, it makes considerable sense to learn one approach thoroughly before straying too far into the unknown. Many beginning researchers mix their methods without a good understanding of any one of them. For example, graduate theses often contain some empirical results followed by one or two case studies. In many instances, neither approach is particularly well-handled and the result is merely a learning experience of no general use to anyone but the person who did it.
