chp6 - research methods for business by authors uma sekaran and roger bougie

11

Chapter 6

The Research Process – Elements of Research Design

© 2009 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.www.wileyeurope.com/college/sekaran

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Research Design


Purpose of the Study3

Exploration Description Hypothesis Testing



Exploratory study: is undertaken when not much is known about

the situation at hand, or no information is available on how similar problems or research issues have been solved in the past.

Example: A service provider wants to know why his

customers are switching to other service providers?



Descriptive study: is undertaken in order to ascertain and be able to describe

the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation. Example:

A bank manager wants to have a profile of the individuals who have loan payments outstanding for 6 months and more. It would include details of their average age, earnings, nature of occupation, full-time/part-time employment status, and the like. This might help him to elicit further information or decide right away on the types of individuals who should be made ineligible for loans in the future.



Hypothesis testing: Studies that engage in hypotheses testing

usually explain the nature of certain relationships, or establish the differences among groups or the independence of two or more factors in a situation.

Example: A marketing manager wants to know if the

sales of the company will increase if he doubles the advertising dollars.


Type of Investigation7

Causal Study it is necessary to establish a definitive cause-and-effect

relationship. Correlational study

identification of the important factors “associated with” the problem.

For Example: Does Smoking cause cancer? --- A casual study question Are smoking and cancer related? A correlational study Are smoking, drinking, and chewing tobacco associated with

cancer? If so, which of these contributes most to the variance in the dependent variable?


Study Setting8

Contrived: artificial setting Closely related to Casual Study, because

the researcher tries to manipulate certain variable so as to study the effects of such manipulation on the dependent variable of interest

Non-contrived: the natural environment where work proceeds normally


Study Setting Field Study

Correlational studies done in organizations are called Field study

Field Experiment Studies conducted to establish cause and effect

relationships using the same natural environment in which employees normally function are called Field experiment

Lab Experiment The environment is controlled to study the cause

and effect relationships

Population to be Studied10

Unit of analysis: Individuals

Eg, employees motivation Dyads

Two-person interactions, several two groups. Groups Organizations Cultures


Time Horizon11

Cross-sectional studies Snapshot of constructs at a single point in time Data is collected just one time it could be over a period of

days, weeks, or months in order to answer a research question.

Use of representative sample

Longitudinal studies Constructs measured at multiple points in time

Eg. The researcher might want to study employees’ behaviour before and after a change in the top management.


The importance of research Design Why is it important to consider basic research

design issues before conducting the study and even as early as at the time of formulating the research question? Ensures that the purpose for which a study is conducted is

effectively addressed. Some studies are focused on finding, others might be

interested in “getting some idea” of what is going on, rather than wanting to know the “absolute truth”.

If the rigor needed can be achieved at only high cost and if this cost is considered too much, then the goals of research might have to be revised or even completely changed.

Thus, thinking through the research design issues at the early stages helps in averting several problematic issues later.

The importance of research Design (cont.) Why is the unit of analysis an integral part

of the research design? Sampling 30 individuals in an organization when the

unit of analysis is individuals, is not as problematic as sampling 30 organizations when the unit of analysis is organizations, or sampling 30 countries when the unit of analysis is countries. Thus, the unit of analysis influences other decisions such as the sampling design, the sample size, data collection methods, etc.

Eg. If you plan to do a research on two countries stock market behaviour. You would look at National stock markets not individual stock markets in those two countries.

Exercise Below are three scenarios. For each, indicate how the

researcher should proceed with the following, giving reasons: The purpose of the study The type of investigation The extent of researcher interference The study setting The time horizon for the study The unit of analysis.

Scenario A Ms. Joyce Lynn, the owner of a small business (a woman’s dress

boutique), has invited a consultant to tell her how she is different from similar small businesses within a 60-mile radius, in regard to her usage of the most modern computer technology, sales volume, profit margin, and staff training.

Exercise Answer (cont.) This will be a descriptive study (describing how

she compares with the others). Data will be collected from small businesses on

the use of computers, sales volume, profit margin, and training programs and comparisons made.

Some of these descriptions might be qualitative, as for example, in describing training methods.

This will be a field study (using many similar small businesses), and researcher interference will be minimal.

It will be a one-shot study, and the unit of analysis will be small business systems.

Measurement: Scaling, Reliability, Validity There are four types of scales

Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

Nominal Scale A nominal scale is one that allows the researcher to assign subjects to certain categories or groups. What is your department?

O Marketing O Maintenance O Finance O Production O Servicing O Personnel O Sales O Public Relations O Accounting

What is your gender?O MaleO Female

Nominal Scale

Ordinal Scale Not only categorizes variables in such a way as to denote differences among various categories, it also rank-orders categories in some meaningful way. The ordinal scale helps the researcher to determine the percentage of respondents who consider interaction with others as most important. Provide information on how respondents distinguish them by rank-ordering them Eg. What is the highest level of education you have completed?

O Less than High School O High School/GED Equivalent O College Degree O Masters Degree O Doctoral Degree

Ordinal Scale

Interval Scale Whereas the nominal scale allows us only to

qualitatively distinguish groups by categorizing them into mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive sets, and the ordinal scale to rank-order the preferences, the interval scale lets us measure the distance between any two points on the scale.

It measures the magnitude of the differences in the preferences among the individual.

Interval Scale Circle the number that represents your feelings at this particular moment best. There are no right or wrong answers. Please answer every question.

1. I invest more in my work than I get out of it

disagree completely 1 2 3 4 5 agree completely

2. I exert myself too much considering what I get back in return disagree completely 1 2 3 4 5 agree completely

3. For the efforts I put into the organization, I get much in return disagree completely 1 2 3 4 5 agree completely

Interval Scale

Ratio Scale Overcomes the disadvantage of the

arbitrary origin point of the interval scale, in that it has an absolute (in contrast to an arbitrary) zero point, which is a meaningful measurement point.

Most powerful of the four scales because it has a unique zero origin and subsumes all the properties of the other three scales.

Eg. What is your weight

Ratio Scale

Differences among the scales

Rating Scale Dichotomous scale

Is used to elicit a Yes or No answer. Category scale

Uses multiple items to elicit a single response Semantic Differential scale

Use to assess respondents’ attitudes toward a particular brand, advertisement, object or individual.

Numerical Scale Similar to semantic differential scale but with the numbers on a

five or seven point scale are provided Itemized rating scale

A five or seven points scale with anchors as needed is provided for each item and the respondent states the appropriate number on the side of each item

Likert scale Designed to examine how strongly subjects agree or disagree

with statements on a five-point scale.

Reliability Reliability of measure indicates extent to

which it is without bias and hence ensures consistent measurement across time (stability) and across the various items in the instrument (internal consistency).

28© 2009 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.www.wileyeurope.com/college/sekaran

Stability Stability: ability of a measure to remain

the same over time, despite uncontrollable testing conditions or the state of the respondents themselves. Test–Retest Reliability: The reliability

coefficient obtained with a repetition of the same measure on a second occasion.

Parallel-Form Reliability: Responses on two comparable sets of measures tapping the same construct are highly correlated.


Internal Consistency Internal Consistency of Measures is indicative of

the homogeneity of the items in the measure that tap the construct. Interitem Consistency Reliability: This is a test of

the consistency of respondents’ answers to all the items in a measure. The most popular test of interitem consistency reliability is the Cronbach’s coefficient alpha.

Split-Half Reliability: Split-half reliability reflects the correlations between two halves of an instrument.


Next Week Please read Chapter 7 - 8 We will try to write up your research

questionnaires, survey questions next week.

chp6 - research methods for business by authors uma sekaran and roger bougie

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