Ms.Nay Zar Aung,a 2nd year doctral student in Koda lab. of Knowledge Management Area, received Best Paper Award in KICSS2016.

The KICSS conference is an international conference on Knowledge, Information, and Creativity Support Systems. The 11th conference was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 10th-11th November 2016. There were about 57 presentations in 4 sessions and four papers were selected for the Best Paper Awards.

Reference: http://kicss.org


■Date Awarded
November 12,2016

■Title
Comparative Analysis of Grounded Theory and Affinity Diagram

■Abstract
Grounded Theory (GT) is an inductive reasoning process method that produces the theory through systematic coding of raw data. GT is a well-known research method compared with other traditional research methods due to its systematic coding process. However, the outcome of GT has some ambiguity and sometimes needs further analysis steps. This paper investigates the ambiguity of GT by comparing it with an affinity diagram. An Affinity Diagram (AD) is a kind of idea generating method devised by Jiro Kawakita in the 1960s and is similar to the so-called brainstorming method. GT and AD have both similar and different features. The main difference is their philosophical backgrounds (Japan and Western), and this paper compares them in detail. Findings reveal that the GT's outcome is a set of conceptualization code of data, while the AD's result better describes the critical thinking on the issues focused. Our comparison confirms that the GT result is less dense than the AD result, and it is necessary to further analyze steps. This study helps novices to choose an adequate research method in the academic field.

■Comment
I am very pleased to receive the best paper award in the KICSS 2016 held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. With this grateful news, I would like to thank the conference organizers, committee members of KICSS 2016, and JAIST. Firstly, I would like to give my gratitude to my supervisor professor Youji Kohda and the minor research supervisor: associate professor Takaya Yuizono for kindly helping and supporting me to work with good effectiveness. Secondly, I would like to give my thanks to professor Susumu Kunifuji for giving me a chance to participate in this conference and for encouraging me to keep on the research journey. Finally, I would like to give my gratitude to my parents and to the one who loves me who have supported me at all times.

November 16 ,2016