Content analysis of mixed research methods in sports management journals with emphasis on marketing

Many researchers have tried to classify and classify different types of research methods, and each of them has proposed different types of this research method. Quantitative and qualitative development of research activities in knowledge[1]based and developed societies has become a constant and continuous process. Variety in different research methods requires a new approach to research methods and models. The use of integrated and integrated methods to accelerate the realization of research goals and provide a more complete picture and deeper understanding of the studied phenomena is a new movement in the field of scientific research that meeting this research need is one of the basic requirements of researchers. In the meantime, mixed research methods as an approach of quantitative and qualitative methods have created a situation for researchers based on which they can put together the methodologies, designs, models and methods used in a single research study. The meaning of mixed research method is a combined method including qualitative and quantitative topics. There are several categories of mixed designs. In the multi-stage research method in the mixed approach, the researcher may use a variety of hybrid schemes  convergent parallel, descriptive sequence, and exploratory sequence  in a historical study, respectively. The researcher's focus in such studies will be on a common goal in various projects. Quantitative and qualitative development of research activities in knowledge-based and developed societies has become a constant and continuous process. Variety in different research methods requires a new approach to research methods and models. The use of integrated and integrated methods to accelerate the realization of research goals and provide a more complete picture and deeper understanding of the studied phenomena is a new movement in the field of scientific research that meeting this research need is one of the basic requirements of researchers. In the meantime, mixed research methods as an approach of quantitative and qualitative methods have created a situation for researchers based on which they can put together the methodologies, designs, models and methods used in a single research study. The meaning of mixed research method is a combined method including qualitative and quantitative topics. There are several categories of mixed designs. In the multi-stage research method in the mixed approach, the researcher may use a variety of hybrid schemes — convergent parallel, descriptive sequence, and exploratory sequence — in a historical study, respectively. The researcher's focus in such studies will be on a common goal in various projects. This method is mostly used to evaluate or execute a program, which includes different steps at different time points. Although there is a goal in each of these steps, the ultimate goal of all the steps is a single goal. The study of mix methods begins with a title of mixed methods. In the introductory part of the study, the research problem is highlighted. This is limited to the expression of purpose and the expression of purpose is based on research questions or hypotheses. With each of these components in the introduction, the researcher uses the combined methods approach and a kind of combined methods design so that the research is coherent and solid and can be evaluated as a combined methods project. The title of a mixed methods study should include the words mixed methods to determine the type of design used. Also, if both types of qualitative and quantitative data are emphasized in the research, the title of the study should have a neutral format. If one of these two weights is given more weight in the study, the title can be oriented towards one of them. Introduction A study can also show mixed methods. Collecting quantitative and qualitative data requires the steps of sampling, obtaining a license, selecting the type of data, selecting how to record data, and monitoring the data collection process. At each stage, the approaches to collecting two types of data are different. In mixed research methods, it is useful to consider data collection Concurrent or sequentially and to link data collection methods to a specific type of mixed methods design. In Concurrent design, quantitative and qualitative data are collected over a period of time, but independently. In data collection in a consecutive plan, two types of data are entered in the study stages. Between these two stages, a new stage has entered in which the researcher must decide how to use the results of the first stage and base his research on the second stage. The purpose of this study was to investigate the method of mixed research and the process of selecting designs used in articles published in sports management journals with emphasis on marketing. For this purpose, all articles published in sports management journals that had a marketing approach were selected as a sample. The statistical sample was the total number and including articles published and related to marketing in Iranian scientific-research journals until the end of the electronic versions of the journals from (2010) to (2019). The method used in the research was content analysis method. The tool used was a coded checklist, the validity of which was assessed by sports management experts. The reliability of the sheets was about 84% using the coefficient of agreement between the coders (Scott test). NVivo software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that only 18 articles were mixed, of which only 5 had mixed designs. Also, the results of this study showed that only 2 articles of qualitative data classification software were used. The results of the present study show that the use of mixed research method in these publications is in the early period and little is known and it is hoped that in the future it will be considered by researchers. Therefore, it is expected that this research, in addition to identifying existing, past problems and limitations, has a forward-looking approach to discovering opportunities and orienting researchers in the optimal use of combined research methods. Researchers designing a study of mix methods can choose from four main types of mix methods: alignment (triangulation), nesting (nesting), explanatory, or exploratory. Researchers choose the combined methods of their design according to the design's ability to better answer the research question and the advantages of each design. Researchers should carefully consider the challenges associated with their chosen design and plan to address these challenges. As part of the design selection, decisions must be made about the Sequential or Concurrent timing of the two methods, whether the two methods will weigh the same or different, and how the data will be combined. In his previous work on the mixed research method, Creswell categorized them into six methods (ie, convergent parallel, explanatory sequence, exploratory sequence, nest, evolutionary, and multistage), but in recent years he has edited his work in a fourfold classification. . In any case, since the goal of mixed research is to address the shortcomings of quantitative and qualitative approaches, newer and more diverse methods can be achieved by combining different methods. Therefore, it seems that this field has not yet reached full maturity and will undergo new changes in the coming years.