ELEMENTS (Components) OF RESEARCH DESIGN



ELEMENTS (Components) OF RESEARCH DESIGN

Choose among each component that offers several critical choices

HOW (Criteria for selecting)

What is the reason of the research?

To what extent the result will affect your decision?

Will it be used for a critical decision? (eg.like investment decision)

(strategic or tactical or operational importance of the decision)

What is the required degree of precision and confidence?

Extent of generalization required.

Is there sufficient time available for such a research?

What is the budget allocated for the research?

SUMMARY: Ask the following question at every point of selection

Whether the benefits that result from a more sophisticated design

to ensure accuracy, confidence, generalizability, etc., are

WORTH

the investment of more resources?

| | | | |

|TYPES OF RESEARCH ( |EXPLORATORY RESEARCH |DESCRIPTIVE |CAUSAL RESEARCH |

|(Common classification) | |RESEARCH | |

| | | | |

|PURPOSE OF THE STUDY |EXPLORATORY |DESCRIPTIVE |HYPOTHESIS TESTING |

( It is the purpose rather than a technique that determines whether a study is exploratory, descriptive or causal.

TYPE OF THE INVESTIGATION

CORRELATIONAL CAUSAL COMPARISON (Difference)

TYPE OF INVESTIGATION - Causal versus non causal (correlational)

Correlational ( When the researcher is interested in delineating the important variables that are associated with the problem. Study can be conducted in the natural setting where events occur without researcher interfering with the variables. (No manipulation of independent variable)

Causal (When the researcher want to delineate the cause of a problem Some variables have to be manipulated and others controlled

Make EXPLORATORY Study

FOR

Obtaining better understanding of the phenomena

To define the problem more clearly- refer: what is a problem

Diagnosing a situation (hot issues in company, concern of employees, customers, suppliers, concern of company, sector, countries)

Discovering new ideas, seeking for new opportunities. (workers having suggestions for improvement like increasing production, reducing cost, customers suggestions for new products to develop.

THEN

Proceed with more rigorous research

Usually data is collected by interviews, observations and when the data reveal some pattern regarding the phenomena of interest then

Theories are built - Hypothesis are developed

“NOT”s

Doing a study for the first time in a particular organization does not make the research exploratory in nature

Purpose is to help formulate the problem and clarify concepts rather than developing a conclusive evidence

THREE GENERAL CATEGORIES OF EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

(Classified on the basis of data collection - information gathering)

12. EXPERIENCE SURVEYS - Discussions with knowledgeable people, both inside and outside the company.

SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS - Not only used for exploring (exploratory research but also for descriptive and conclusive research.

CASE STUDIES

PILOT STUDIES

1-FOCUS GROUP

2-PROJECTIVE METHODS

3-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

|Describing the characteristics of a variable in a given situation |( Like demographic characteristics |

| | |

|of individuals, |(like employees, customers |

| | |

|organizations |( like production levels, assets, locations, sales, inventory |

| |levels, suppliers, profits, financial ratios. |

| | |

|industries |( like economical, financial indicators pertaining to the |

| |industries. |

For the purpose of :

Understanding the characteristics of a group in a given situation

Aid in thinking systematically about aspects in a given situation

Offer ideas for further research

Can be ultimately used for decision purposes.

Exploratory ( Qualitative data may help to understand the phenomena

Descriptive ( More quantitative data in terms of frequencies,

measures of central tendencies (mean, median, mode, quartiles, percentiles)

measures of dispersion (standard deviation)

HYPOTHESIS TESTING

(refer to discussion on causal & correlational type of investigation)

Nature of certain relationships

Establish the differences among groups

Independence of two or more factors(variables)

Discussion of null (Ho) and alternative hypothesis (Ha)

Final Word on selection among exploratory, descriptive and hypothesis testing

Rigorness increase

Cost increase

STUDY SETTING

CONTRIVED - Artificial Setting

NONCONTRIVED - Natural environment where

events naturally occur

FIELD STUDY - A noncontrived setting with minimal researcher interference.

Correlational studies

FIELD EXPERIMENT - A noncontrived setting with researcher interference to a moderate extent.

Cause -effect relationship

LAB EXPERIMENT - A contrived setting with researcher interference to the maximum extent.

Cause- effect relationship

UNIT OF ANALYSIS

INDIVIDUALS ; DYADS (Wife- Husband, Superior-Subordinate); GROUPS;

DIVISIONS; INDUSTRY; COUNTRIES.

TIME HORIZON: CROSS SECTIONAL ; LONGITUDINAL

VALIDITY

INTERNAL VALIDITY : Refers to the extent of the confidence in the cause effect that variable X causes variable Y.

EXTERNAL VALIDITY: Refers to the extent of generalizability of the results of a causal study to other people, events or settings.

There is a trade-off between external validity and internal validity

For ( internal validity thight control(

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

Most exploratory research is qualitative rather than quantitative

Three interrelated purposes

Diagnosing a situation Screening alternatives – concept testing

Discovering new ideas

GENERAL CATEGORIES OF EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

(Classified on the basis of data collection - information gathering)

|CATEGORIES |EXPLANATIONS |

| |Discussions with knowledgeable people, both inside and outside the company|

|EXPERIENCE SURVEYS | |

| |Not only used for exploring (exploratory research) but also for |

|SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS |descriptive and conclusive research. |

| |Preliminary review of data to clarify issues in the early stages |

| |Investigating one or few situations similar to the researchers’ problem |

|CASE STUDIES |and describing the case situation |

| |Small scale exploratory research technique that uses sampling but does not|

|PILOT STUDIES |apply rigorous standards |

PILOT STUDIES

FOCUS PROJECTIVE DEPTH INTERVIEW

FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW

|A-Advantages |Explanations |

|Synergism |Combined effort |

|Serendipity |Opportunity to develop the idea to its full significance |

|Snowballing |Chain of responses |

|Stimulation |Stimulating, motivating the respondents to express. |

|Security |Focus is on the group rather than the indivual |

|Spontaneity |People speak if they have definite feelings |

|Specialization |Group is interviewed by the highly trained interviewer |

| |(moderator) |

|Scrunity |Observed by several people. As the session can be tape recorded it can be later examined in detail |

|Structure |Moderator as a participant control the discussions. |

| |Open and reopen the topics |

|Speed |Interviewing more than one respondent at the same time |

B-Group composition: 6 to 10 individuals; homogenous groups with similar lifestyles, job classes, experience and communication skills

C - Environmental conditions: Site should be research agency, office conference room and or a hotel (relaxed and natural)

D- The moderators’ Job

• Everyone should get a chance to speak

• Promote interaction among members

• Should gain confidence of people

• Make them feel relaxed and eager to talk

• Manipulate the flow of the discussion to generate fresh ideas

E -Planning the focus group outline; Discussion guide

Written remarks and outline of topics that will be discussed

F - Focus group that use video conferencing–remote locations

G - Focus group as diagnostic tools

Can be used to diagnose problems suggested by quantitative research. Quantitative research may be short on “why” though it is possible to understand what is happening.

H – Shortcomings – Dominant participant

I - Interactive media and on line research - is beginning to emerge

PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES

An indirect means of questioning that enables a respondent to “project” the beliefs and feelings on to a third party, onto an inanimate object or into a task situation

Word association test: Subject is presented with a list of words and asked to respond with the first word that comes to mind. Used to pretest words or ideas to be used in questionnaire.

• Sentence completion: e.g. A boss should not --------------

Third person technique : Respondent is asked why a third person (neighbor) does what he or she does or what he or she thinks about an object, event, person,or activity. Respondent is expected to transfer his or her attitutes to the third person.

• Thematic apperception test –picture frustration:

A test consisting of a series of pictures shown to research subjects who are then asked to provide a description of the pictures. The researcher analysis the content of these descriptions in an effort to clarify a research problem.

DEPTH INTERVIEWS: A relatively unstructured, extensive interview used in the primary stages of research process.

|DATA |INFORMATION |

|Recorded measures of certain phenomena |A body of facts that are in format suitable for decision making |

GLOBAL INFIRMATION SYSTEMS AND THE INTERNET

An organized collection of computer hardware and software, data, and personnel designed to capture, store, update, manipulate, analyse, and immeadiately display information about worldwide business activity.

Decision support system is a computer based system that helps decision makers confront problems through direct interaction with databases and analytical software

Database is a collection of raw data or information arranged in a logical manner and organized in aform that can be stored and processed by a computer.

Software : Spreadsheets and statistical software is important

EDI : Networks link one or more computers to share data and software.

Input management –Computerized data archieves : Input includes all the numerical text, voice and image data that enter data base systems. Input should be managed otherwise garbage in - garbage out will occur.

Internet - Intranet – Extranet –host – server

File transfer protocol (ftp): a software that allows users to establish an interactive file transfer sessions with a remote host’s computer system so that the user can read and download full-text versions of files from the remote system.

Search engines

SECONDARY DATA

|ADVANTAGES |DISADVANTAGES |

| | |

|Less expensive |May not meet the researcher’s need |

| | |

|Obtained rapidly |Format of the data may be inconvenient |

| |Data conversion is necessary |

| | |

| |Accuracy of the data should be verified - |

| |Cross check |

OBJECTIVE FOR SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH DESIGN

1- Fact Finding : Statistics, facts about the population

2- Model building: Specifying relationship between two or more variables. Developing descriptive or predictive equations. Eg; market share; estimation of market potential

CLASSIFICATION OF SECONDARY DATA

• Internal or proprietary data: Secondary data that are created, recorded, or generated by the organization

• External sources:

➢ Books and periodicals,

➢ Government sources (DİE, HAZİNE)

➢ Stock market sources (İMKB, SPK)

➢ Chamber of commerce etc. İTO, İSO

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