Lecture 6 Formulating the Research Design.ppt

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Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Chapter 5Formulating the research design

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The Process of Research Design• Your research question will subsequently inform your

choice of research strategy, your choices of collection techniques and analysis procedures, and the time horizon over which you undertake your research project.

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Research strategies• Robson (2002) defined research strategy as the general

approach taken in an enquiry and added that research strategies have been classified in different ways. While Saunders et al (2007) defined it as a general plan of how you will go about answering the research questions you have set.

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Research design• Your research design will be the general plan of how you

will go about answering your research question(s)

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Research Design

The research design needs

• Clear objectives derived from the research question

• To specify sources of data collection

• To consider constraints and ethical issues

• Valid reasons for your choice of design

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Classification of the research purpose

Exploratory research is a valuable means of finding out ‘what is happening to seek new insights; to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light’. It is particularly useful if you wish to clarify your understanding of a problem, such as if you are unsure of precise nature of the problem . It may well be that time is well spent on exploratory research, as it may show that the research is not worth pursuing!

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Explanatory• There are three principal ways of conducting explanatory

research:• A search of the literature;• Interviewing ‘experts’ in the subject;• Conducting focus group interviews.

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Descriptive studies

• The object of descriptive research is ‘ to ‘portray an accurate profile of persons, events or situations’. This may be an extension of, or a forerunner to a piece of exploratory research or, more often, a piece of explanatory research. It is necessary to have a clear picture of the phenomena on which you wish to collect data prior to collection of data.

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Explanatory research

• Studies that establish causal relationships between variables may be termed explanatory research. The emphasis her is on studying a situation or a problem in order to explain the relationship between variables. For example, that a cursory analysis of quantitative data on manufacturing scrap rates shows a relationship between scrap rates and the age of machine being operated

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Research Strategies

Experiment Action research

Grounded theory Survey

Ethnography Case study

Archival research

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Experiment• Experiment: measuring the effects of manipulating one

variable on another variable

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Survey• Survey: collection of information in standardized form

groups of people

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Case Study• Case study: development of detailed, intensive knowledge

about a single ‘case’, or of a small number of related ‘cases’.

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Action research• The second relates to the involvement of the practitioner

in the research and in particular a close cooperation between practitioners and researchers. The final theme is that action research should have implications beyond the immediate project. In other words it must be clear that the results could inform other context.

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Grounded theory• Grounded theory: Collection of data starts without the

formation of an initial theoretical framework. Theory is created from data made by a series of observations.

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Ethnography• Ethnography: Derives from the field of anthropology. The

idea is to interpret the social world the research subject inhabits and the way in which they interpret it.

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Quantitative and Qualitative• The terms quantitative and qualitative are used widely in business and management research to differentiate both data collection techniques and data analysis procedures. One way of distinguishing between the two is the focus on numeric (numbers) or non-numeric(words) data. Quantitative is predominantly used as a synonym for any data collection technique (such as questionnaire) or data analysis procedure (such as graphs or statistics) that generates or uses numerical data.

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Quantitative and Qualitative• qualitative is used predominantly as a synonym for any data collection technique (such as an interview) or data analysis procedure (such as categorizing data) that generates or use non-numerical data. Qualitative therefore can refer to data other than words, such as pictures and video clips.

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Research multiple methods• In choosing your research methods you will therefore either use a single data collection technique and corresponding analysis procedures (mono method) or use more than one data collection technique and analysis procedures to answer your research question (multiple methods).

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Research multiple methods

This choice is increasingly advocated within business and management research, where a single research study may use quantitative and qualitative techniques and procedures in combination as well as use primary and secondary data. If you choose to use a mono method you will combine either a single quantitative data collection technique, such as questionnaires, with quantitative data analysis procedures

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Research multiple methods• or a single qualitative data collection technique, such as in-depth interviews, with qualitative data analysis procedures. In contrast, if you choose to combine data collection techniques and procedures using some form of multiple methods design, there are four different possibilities.

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Research multiple methods• The term multi-method refers to those combinations where more than one data collection technique is used with associated analysis techniques, but this is restricted within either a quantitative or qualitative world view

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Research multiple methods• Thus you might choose to collect quantitative data using, for example, both questionnaires and structured observation analyzing these data using

• statistical (quantitative) procedures, a multi-method quantitative study. Alternatively, you might choose to collect qualitative data using, for example, in-depth interviews and diary accounts and analyze these data using non-numerical (qualitative) procedures, a multi-method qualitative study. Therefore, if you adopted multi-methods you would not mix quantitative and qualitative techniques and procedures.

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Research multiple methods• Mixed methods approach is the general term for when both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures are used in a research design. It is subdivided into two types. Mixed method research uses quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures either at the same time (parallel) or one after the other (sequential) but does not combine them. This means that, although mixed method research uses both quantitative and qualitative

• world views at the research methods stage quantitative data are analyzed quantitatively

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Research multiple methods• and qualitative data are analyzed qualitatively. In addition, often either quantitative or qualitative techniques and procedures predominate. In contrast, mixed-model research combines quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures as well as combining quantitative and qualitative approaches at other phases of the

• research such as research question generation.

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Multiple research methodsResearch choices

Saunders et al, (2009)Figure 5.4 Research choices

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Multiple research methods

Reasons for using mixed method designs: (Table 5.1 )

• Triangulation• Facilitation• Complementarity• Generality• Aid interpretation• Study different aspects• Solving a puzzle

Source: developed from Bryman (2006)

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Triangulation• Use of two or more independent sources of data or data collection methods to corroborate research findings within a study.

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Facilitation

• Use of one data collection method or research strategy to aid research using another data collection method or research strategy within a study (e.g. qualitative/quantitative providing hypotheses, aiding measurement quantitative/qualitative participant or case selection)

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Complementarity

• Use of two or more research strategies in order that different aspects of an investigation can be dovetailed (e.g. qualitative plus quantitative questionnaire to fil in gaps quantitative plus qualitative questionnaire for issues, interview for meaning)

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Generality• Use of independent source of data to contextualize main

study or use quantitative analysis to provide sense of relative

• importance (e.g. qualitative plus quantitative to set case in broader context; qualitative × quantitative analysis is to provide sense of relative importance)

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Aid interpretation

• Use of qualitative data to help explain relationships between quantitative variables (e.g quantitative/qualitative)

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Study different aspects• Quantitative to look at macro aspects and qualitative to look at micro aspects

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Solving a puzzle• Use of an alternative data collection method when the initial method reveals unexplainable results or insufficient data

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Time Horizons

Select the appropriate time horizon

• Cross-sectional studies: cross-sectional studies are the study of a particular phenomenon (or phenomena) at a particular time.

• Longitudinal studies: usually study the change and development over a period of time.

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Credibility of research findings

Important considerations

• Reliability

• Validity

• Generalisability

• Logic leaps and false assumptions

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Reliability• Reliability refers to the extent to which your data collection techniques or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings. It can be assessed by posing the following three questions:

• 1 Will the measures yield the same results on other occasions?

• 2 Will similar observations be reached by other observers?

• 3 Is there transparency in how sense was made from the raw data?

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Validity• Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Is the relationship between two variables a causal relationship? For example, in a study of an electronics factory we found that employees’ failure to look at new product displays was caused not by employee apathy but by lack of opportunity (the displays were located in a part of the factory that employees rarely visited). This potential lack of

• validity in the conclusions was minimized by research design that built in the opportunity for focus groups after the questionnaire results had been analyzed.

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Research design ethics

Remember

‘The research design should not subject the research population to embarrassment, harm or

other material disadvantage’

Adapted from Saunders et al, (2009)

Lecture 6 Formulating the Research Design.ppt

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