Paralelización de la meta-heurística VMO utilizando CUDA 32

As mentioned in the data collection section, 77 documents were collected to be analyzed (see appendix C). Content analysis is the method that will be used in order to analyze the documents. Content analysis refers to “the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings and laws” (Babbie, 2013, p. 295) and could thus also be applied to documents. Through the documentary analysis, the researcher is expected to yield data, such as abstracts, quotations or entire passages. The yielded data is then categorized into major themes specifically through content analysis (Bowen, 2009). “Content analysis is essentially a coding operation” (Babbie, 2013, p. 300). Coding can be described as “the process whereby raw data are transformed into a standardized form” (Babbie, 2013, p. 300). In

practice, this entails in this case that the documents will be coded or classified according to a conceptual framework based on possible factors that have previously been mentioned in the theoretical framework (Babbie, 2013).

As this thesis concerns a convergence-to-divergence development, it was of importance to create a timeline of the developments first. For each development, the most important findings were summarized (see chapter 4 and appendix A). By creating a timeline, an overview of the developments could be obtained. By replicating the timeline of the developments between 2010 and 2017 the first sub question could be answered and the importance of the theory and concept over time became clear.

Then, in order to further execute the content analysis, and thereby analyzing the selected documents, Atlas.ti will be used. Atlas.ti is qualitative data analysis software that “provides […] very useful tools in academic research, particularly for social science disciplines” (Hwang, 2008, p. 519). When analyzing qualitative data, in this case documents, via Atlas.ti, several principles are followed. First of all, analyzing qualitative data via Atlas.it increases the objectivity of the research because it requires the researcher to establish the procedure of data analysis. Secondly, Atlas.ti enables the researcher to code the documents. Codes, all belonging to a code group, can be applied to relevant parts of the documents. Moreover, Atlas.ti enables the researcher to add codes during the coding process. Sometimes, codes that were not included in the initial theory could turn out to be relevant according to the data. Therefore, the ability to add codes during the coding process is useful. Also, Atlas.ti enables the researcher to explore co-occurrence coding. This entails that some parts of the qualitative data may be relevant to more than one code. The co-occurrence explorer enables the researcher to further explore which codes are often used simultaneously. This could lead to new insights regarding the relationship between several codes, or sometimes even code groups. Moreover, Atlas.it provides a clear and complete overview of all codes and all documents, when all documents are coded.

Before starting analyzing the data via Atlas.ti, code groups were distinguished. These code groups were based on the theoretical framework. The theoretical framework provided three possible theories and concepts which could possibly influence the convergence-divergence process. Thus, three code groups have been formed, namely: new public management,

institutional autonomy and quality procedures. By establishing three code groups based on the theory of new public management and the concepts institutional autonomy and quality assurance procedures, these theories and concepts which could possibly explain the development from convergence to divergence were operationalized. The theoretical framework thereby provided a theory and concepts which were thought to influence the development from convergence to divergence, and these theory and concepts were operationalized by forming them into code groups to analyze whether they would indeed have had an influence on the convergence to divergence process in this case study. Based on the description of the theory or concept as described in the theoretical framework, each code group was divided into several codes. During the coding process, codes that had not been included in the code groups yet but which appeared to be relevant according to multiple documents, could still be added inductively. By doing so, one could provide a more complete overview. The additional codes could give new insights about important sides of the code group that had not yet been included. For example, the first code group was ‘new public management’. Based on the theoretical framework describing the new public management theory, codes such as ‘reduced burden’ and ‘efficiency’ belonged to the new public management code group and were coded. However, during the coding process ‘customization’ and ‘financial position Flemish institutions’ appeared to be relevant. These codes were added to the new public management code group as their link to new public management was clear and the documents showed that they were important factors regarding the development of Dutch and Flemish quality approaches but they had not been included in the description of the new public management theory. After every document was coded, all codes were analyzed in order to get an overview of the most frequent codes. These frequent codes and their explanations (based on the documents) for divergence were discussed. Furthermore, co-occurrences between codes were assessed via Atlas.ti. A part of a document could be coded with one code but also with multiple codes. Sometimes one part referred to multiple codes. Co-occurrence is a feature in Atlas.ti that gives an overview of the connections between codes. By assessing these connections between codes logical explanations for their connection – and sometimes for divergence – could be found. The difference between dependent and independent variables was clear: the factors (independent variables) that caused divergence or convergence (dependent variables) were coded. Codes were only applied if their connection with divergence or convergence was clear.