For the ones doing their master thesis within a business school, or for the ones looking for an introductory book on (1) qualitative research, (2) quantitative research, (3) case study research, or (4) social network analysis. Here are my recommendations. Those would be the “first reader” to the different methodologies. I read myself all of them. But I might have missed the most recent editions.
1) Silverman, D. (2022). Doing Qualitative Research (6h Edition). Sage.
Written in a easy and accessible style, the book provides a step-by-step guide to a first qualitative research project. This was my main book during the first year of my doctoral studies. It is a very easy to read and very well structured. Full of examples.
2) Fogarty, B. J. (2023). Quantitative social science data with R: an introduction (2nd edition). Sage.
I am a very big fan of R. Mastering is a very valuable competence to have in both industry and academia. Being able to load data into R and perform visualizations and statistical analyses using some of the hundreds of modules available is a good way to master quantitative research. R works with both small and big data. I value this book because introduces the methodology with “hands-on” examples on my favorite open-source statistical platform. There are many books out there on R and quantitative methods. I think this is a fun one for a master student that wants to go quantitative.
3) Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (6th Edition). Sage.
It is one of the most cited methodology books in the social sciences. It was my main reference for my own Master’s Thesis where I interviewed many people at Nokia to understand “Why do mobile devices vendor co-produce a mobile platform in an open-source means?”
4) Scott, J. (2012). What is social network analysis? Bloomsbury Academic.
While there are better reference books on Social Network Analysis (SNA), this one introduces the principal ideas, nature and purpose of the method to non-specialist readers. It touches theory, methods and tools. While reading it, we also learn about topics on across many disciplines. To get it, you do not even need to go to library. You can just download it by open-access manners via https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58730.