This report describes the creative process of research, through a combination of different methods of data collection and analysis. Among the many challenges that a researcher faces, the choice of method for checking the association between variables, or between categories of analysis, is perhaps one of the most difficult. It is on this area that this article focuses, seeking to provide the research candidate not only with responses, but with reflections that can contribute to their entry to the empirical field. Although this report uses a construction metaphor, the intention is not to express or discuss an ontological view that places the researcher nearer or further from his or her object of investigation. With the capacity to represent the application of these ideas to an empirical field, this paper is a report of doctorate research carried out by the author on the Brazilian audiovisual production industry that linked organizational creativity to international involvement. This investigation began through an immersion via a focal group, and ended with a quantitative study, which used multivariate data analysis, structured by linear regression.