Methods of concept analysis - towards systematic concept analysis (part 2 of 3)

Abstract

This article is the second one in a series of three articles which focus on comparison and development of concept analysis methods as an academic research method. In the first article, terminological analysis methods – originally developed for practical terminology work – were contrasted with selected concept analysis methods developed in business studies and nursing science. Based on the comparison, the second article discusses a further development of terminological methods towards what is here called 'systematic concept analysis', and outlines steps that can be taken when analysing concepts for various purposes. The systematic concept analysis method is based on terminological methods and thus lays emphasis on clarifying the relations between concepts and locating concepts in concept systems – also in the case where a single concept is taken as a research object. The third article will describe concept analysis tools in more detail.