Quality of Research Based on Grounded Theory in the Field of Sports in China:Systematic Review and Control

Standardization and localization are inevitable ways to further improve the level of social science research in China.Using Hutchison's Grounded Theory research evaluation guidelines, this paper systematically evaluate the quality of 36 empirical researches based on Grounded Theory in sports in China from a normative perspective. It is found that the overall research quality is not good enough. There are problems from both operational and reality aspects. In operational aspect, sampling strategy is nonstandard, such as lacking of initial sampling and attention to the iterative process, etc. Theory generation process is incomplete,such as theoretical construction paying more attention to results than to process, etc. In practical aspect, methods adaptability is inadequate, such as insufficient method selection, unreasonable genres selection, etc. The causes of quality problems are the unclear applicable boundaries of the level method in Grounded Theory methodology, the confusion in excessive genre, lacking of normative“claims” and control measures. Sports researchers are interfered by quantitative thinking, and they have poor Grounded Theory knowledge and insufficient quality assurance awareness. The proposal of quality control strategy is an important way to solve the quality problems of research based on Grounded Theory in sports at the stage. In the reliability aspect, it includes the increasing of“judgment sampling” and “theory generation process test”. In the validity aspect, the “methodology literacy self-checked chart level”should be ensured for researchers to guarantee methodology level, the “communication verification method” to ensure the validity of the topic, and the “method suitability test” to ensure method adaptation, etc. In the future, on the basis of guaranteeing application methods standardization, academics should focus more on the two aspects of research content and methods to explore localization of grounded theoretical research in sports.