I was also interested in seeing how use, interpersonal factors, and research factors differed between researchers and evaluators. This is somewhat of an extension from one of my research studies examining how researchers and evaluators define evaluation and differentiate evaluation from research (if at all).

The first question was simply how interpersonal and research factors were correlated with evidence use, whereas this research question examined the added variance explained of interpersonal factors above and beyond research factors. To do this, I analyzed the data using a structural equation model (SEM) looking at the latent interpersonal factor, one of the four stakeholder involvement items that did not load onto the latent interpersonal factor, the two research factors, and years in the partnership related to evidence use.

To answer this research question, I examined correlations between self-reported interpersonal (i.e., relationships, communication, cooperative interdependence, commitment to use, stakeholder involvement) and research/evaluation factors (i.e., relevance, rigor) with use (i.e., instrumental, conceptual, and process use).

This blog post overviews my dissertation methods and is the first of a multi-part blog series.

Broadly speaking, researchers and evaluators are all interested in promoting evidence use. However, use is a multifaceted concept, and there are a multitude of frameworks defining different types of use (Nutley et al., 2007).

There has been a lot of research examining factors that promote evidence use in both research and evaluation. This blog post describes those factors.