The Evidence Matrix: a Framework to Encourage the Use of all Forms of Evidence to Improve Student Work Caroline Sheldon Undergraduate Business Student Stonehill College, N. Easton, MA Brian Glibkowski, MBA, PhD Stonehill College

Problem Companies do not use evidence to make decisions What is evidence? Broader view of evidence is necessary Relevant literature includes research on Evidence Based Management

Solution Research Focus: Understand what forms of evidence are important for decision making and how to use them appropriately in the teaching context. Classroom Context in group project application leading to improved quality Evidence Matrix Informal Approach Formal Approach Internal PerspectiveExternal Perspective Analytics IntuitionFaith Research

Intuition refers to subconscious decision making associated with automated experiences and holistic hunches (Miller & Ireland, 2005). Examples: gut instinct, internal knowledge Using automated experiences, decision making is a “straightforward but partially subconscious application of previous learning related to that situation” (Miller & Ireland, 2005:21). Potential Concerns: Reliability concern due to memory failure and cognitive overload Evidence Matrix Informal Approach Formal Approach Internal PerspectiveExternal Perspective Analytics IntuitionFaith Research

Faith is intuition associated with individuals outside the organization. Examples: guru books, business and trade magazines, whitepapers, blogs, and most consulting. Helps solve current problems for executives Potential Concerns: faith- based evidence is not tested using the scientific method. Evidence Matrix Informal Approach Formal Approach Internal PerspectiveExternal Perspective Analytics IntuitionFaith Research

Research represents the scientific method where an emphasis is placed on theory, methods, and empirical rigor. Examples: scholarly articles, meta-analysis, literature reviews Potential Concerns: isomorphic tendencies Evidence Matrix Informal Approach Formal Approach Internal PerspectiveExternal Perspective Analytics IntuitionFaith Research

Research is associated with data predominately or exclusively outside the firm and analytics is associated with data predominately or exclusively inside the firm. Organizations that ascend to a moderate use of analytics-based evidence encourage experiments, trial programs, and pilot studies (Briner et al., 2009). Examples: surveys and interviews Potential Concerns: sample size and cost Evidence Matrix Informal Approach Formal Approach Internal PerspectiveExternal Perspective Analytics IntuitionFaith Research

Potential Implications Require students to collect evidence from all 4 quadrants to improve the quality of project. Applications: - Group Projects - Final Papers - Case Analysis - Computer Simulation Projects Evidence Matrix Informal Approach Formal Approach Internal Perspective External Perspective Analytics IntuitionFaith Research

Preliminary Results Positive: “Being required to use all four forms [of evidence] helped to make our paper better than any I have written before.” “Having different types of evidence made it very balanced and credible.” “It made us do more research so that we could fully understand the project.” Negative: Cognitive vs. practical knowledge It was hard to find valid blogs and other Faith-based-evidence It was hard to classify the evidence into quadrants

Preliminary Results “It is effective for organizing your research or data and making sure you have a variety of data. This improved the quality of the final paper.” “Being required to use all four forms of evidence was effective because it made the group members gather a broader base of evidence which improved the quality of understanding and the overall project.” “It gave us more information to find the best solution.” “I do think that it improved our paper a lot because we needed much more research than we though we would need.”