MGM5116 Business Research Application

CHAPTER 5: FORMULATING THE RESEARCH DESIGN

RESEARCH DESIGN
The general plan of how you will go about answering
your research question(s)
It contains:
Clear objectives (derived from Research Question)
Sources for data collection
Data collection and analysis method
Ethical issues and constraints
METHODOLOGICAL CHOICE
Quantitative
Qualitative
Mixed-method
METHODOLOGICAL CHOICE:
QUANTITATIVE
Usually related to positivism research philosophy
 Usually related to deductive approach
Using data to test theory
Mono method quantitative study – e.g. survey
questionnaire only
Multi method quantitative study – e.g. survey
questionnaire and structured observations
METHODOLOGICAL CHOICE: QUALITATIVE
Usually related to interpretive research philosophy
Researchers need to make sense of the subjective and socially
constructed meanings in different phenomena
Usually related to inductive approach, however there are
qualitative research that starts with deductive approach, to test
existing theory using qualitative procedures
Studies participants’ meanings and relationships between them to
develop a conceptual framework and theoretical contribution
Depends highly on physical access to participants, building
rapport, demonstrating sensitivity to gain cognitive access to their
data
METHODOLOGICAL CHOICE: QUALITATIVE
Mono method qualitative study – e.g. in-depth interview
only
Multi method qualitative data – e.g. in-depth interview
& observation/content analysis
METHODOLOGICAL CHOICE: MIXED
METHODS
Combines the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection
techniques and analytical procedures
Usually related to pragmatic research philosophy
Concurrent mixed methods – quantitative and qualitative methods
at the same time
Sequential exploratory – qualitative method quantitative
method
Sequential explanatory – quantitative method qualitative
method
Sequential multi-phase – qualitative quantitative  qualitative
Figure 5.3
Mixed methods research designs

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THE PURPOSE OF A RESEARCH DESIGN
Exploratory studies
Descriptive studies
Explanatory studies
Evaluative studies
Combined studies
EXPLORATORY STUDIES
Ask open questions to discover and gain insights about a topic
Questions: What? How? Why?
Clarify your understanding of an issue, problem or phenomena –
unsure of its precise nature
Interviews, observations, literature search, focus group interviews,
archival research, etc.
Flexible and adaptable to change – must be willing to change
direction if this is what your data says
Start with broad focus and gets narrower as research progress
DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES
Gain accurate profile of events, persons or situations
Questions: Who? What? When? Where? How?
A precursor to further explanation - a means to an end,
not an end by itself
Extension of exploratory research or forerunner to
explanatory research
“Yes, the statistics is interesting, but so what?”
EXPLANATORY STUDIES
Establish causal relationships between variables
To study a situation or problem in order to explain the
relationships between variables
e.g. literature supports the relationship between
attitude and purchase intention, so you will test this
relationship using correlation analysis to see whether
there is a relationship or not in the context of green
product purchase intention
EVALUATIVE STUDIES
To find out how well something works
Questions: How? What? Why? And then “Which? When?
Who? Where?
Assessing the effectiveness of an organizational business
strategy, policy, program, initiative or process, e.g. evaluating
a marketing campaign, a personnel policy, a costing strategy,
etc.
May produce a theoretical contribution – “how effective?”
and “why?” and compare to existing theories
COMBINED STUDIES
Combination of more than one research design
Combine exploratory, descriptive, explanatory or
evaluative research design
Mixed method research
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY
A plan of how a researcher to go about answering his/her
research question
Links to your research philosophy and choice to collect and
analyze data
A particular research strategy should not be seen as
superior or inferior to any other
Research strategy to be coherent to research philosophy
and able to provide answers to Research Question(s)
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY:
EXPERIMENT
A quantitative research strategy
Roots in natural science, lab-based research, requires
precision
The ‘gold’ standard of rigour in research
 Frequently features in psychology and social science fields
of study
To study the probability of a change in an independent
variable causing a change in the dependent variable
Relies heavily on hypotheses
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY:
SURVEY
Usually related to quantitative research approach
‘What’, ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘how much’, ‘how many’ questions
Exploratory and descriptive research
Using questionnaire, structured observation, structured interviews, etc.
Popular; allows for collection of standardized data from a sizable
population economically
Easier to explain and understand
Data will be analyzed quantitatively using descriptive and inferential
statistics
More time needed to prepare the questions, pilot test the survey,
identify representative sample & ensure good response rate
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY: ARCHIVAL
AND DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH
A document is “a durable repository for textual, visual and
audio representations”
Emails, social media postings, diaries, notes, agreements,
reports, policy statements, advertisements, audio recordings,
photographs, films, TV programs, etc.
Access to secondary data source is very important – online
or offline
Documents were originally not for the purpose of research
Quantitative or qualitative research strategy
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY: CASE
STUDY
An in-depth inquiry into a topic or phenomenon within its real-life
setting; to understand the interaction between the subject of the
case and its context
A ‘case’ can be a person (e.g. a manager), a group (e.g. a work
team), an organization (e.g. a business), an event (e.g. annual
general meeting)
Capacity to generate rich and empirical descriptions as insights
into a phenomena and its context
To identify what is happening and why; effects of situation and
implications for action
Wide usage for descriptive, explanatory and exploratory studies
Single case study vs. multiple case study
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY:
ETHNOGRAPHY
To study the culture or social world of a group – a written account
of a people or social group
The earliest qualitative research strategy, originated in
anthropology
Seminal example – Whyte’s “Street Corner Society”- lives of street
gangs in Boston
Researcher has to live among those who they studied – observe
and talk – belief, behavior, interaction, language
Realist Ethnography – objective reporting
Interpretive Ethnography – subjective impressions
Can be used in marketing research – consumer behavior, etc.
CHOOSING A RESEARCH STRATEGY:
GROUNDED THEORY
Process to analyze, interpret and explain the meanings that
social actors construct to make sense of their everyday
experience
To generate/discover theory grounded in the data
produced by the accounts of social actors
Systematic approach to collect and analyze data -analyze
data as you collect them (as opposed to quantitative
approach)
General idea of research project is from published theories,
however practice theoretical sensitivity in analyzing and
interpreting the data to construct a grounded theory
CHOOSING A TIME HORIZON
Cross Sectional Study – study about a particular
phenomenon at a particular time
 Survey, case studies

Longitudinal Study – study about a particular

phenomenon for an extended period of time
 study change and development
 survey, secondary data
 e.g. the organizational development studies based on age
of firm
ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design should not subject those you are researching to
the risk of embarrassment, pain, harm or any other material
disadvantage, e.g.
Consumer behavior in buying flower bouquets
vs.
Consumer behavior in buying condoms
 Issues about religiosity, experiments involving humans or
animals
Universities have now required students’ research to undergo
University Ethical Committee Approval before going for data
collection
QUALITY OF A RESEARCH DESIGN:
RELIABILITY
Replication and consistency – if a researcher to
replicate the same study using the same research design,
he will achieve the same findings
e.g. if you step onto a weighing scale for numerous
times, and the results are the same, then the weighing
scale is reliable
TABLE 5.5
THREATS TO RELIABILITY

Threat Definition

Participant error Any factor which adversely alters the way in which a participant
performs.
Participant bias Any factor which induces a false response.
Researcher error Any factor which alters the researcher’s interpretation.
Researcher bias Any factor which induces bias in the researcher’s recording of
responses
QUALITY OF A RESEARCH DESIGN:
VALIDITY (QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH)
Appropriateness of the measures used, accuracy of the
analysis and generalizability of the findings
Measurement validity e.g. using a weighing scale to
measure your weight
Internal validity e.g. your research accurately
demonstrates a causal relationship between 2 variables
External validity e.g. can your findings be generalized to
other relevant settings/groups?
Table 5.6
Threats to internal validity
Threat Definition

Past or recent events An event which changes participants’ perceptions.

Testing The impact of testing on participants’ views or actions.
Instrumentation The impact of a change in a research instrument between
different stages of a research project affecting the comparability
of results.
Mortality The impact of participants withdrawing from studies.
Maturation The impact of a change in participants outside of the influence
of the study that affects their attitudes or behaviours etc.
Ambiguity about Lack of clarity about cause and effect.
casual direction
QUALITY OF A RESEARCH DESIGN:
VALIDITY (QUALITATIVE RESEARCH)
Triangulation
oMore than one source of data and method of collection
oMulti-method or mixed method
oInterview + observations or interview +survey
Participant/member validation
oSending back research data to participant
oHaving experts in the research strategy to validate your
interpretation
ANY QUESTIONS?