INTRODUCTION

TO
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Lecture for the Interna<onal Execu<ve Master of
Hospitality Management (EMHM)

Dr Nguyen Huong Thuy Phan

Graduate Ins<tute Geneva
Ho Chi Minh City, 26 October 2018
 OBJECTIVES
•  At the end of the course students will be able to
–  Understand beUer what is a research
–  Know what are the basic steps in conduc<ng a
research
–  Get familiar with the ac<vi<es and techniques
used for research
–  Gain some ideas for Master Thesis Proposal

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 CONTENTS
1.  What is a research?
2.  Types of research
3.  Research methodology

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 1. WHAT IS A RESEARCH?

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TO RESEARCH?

•  To search or inves<gate
exhaus<vely
•  To study, inquire, examine

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A RESEARCH?
•  An inves<ga<on or experimenta<on aimed at the
discovery and interpreta<on of facts, revision of
accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or
prac<cal applica<on of such new or revised theories
or law hUps://www.merriam-webster.com/dic<onary/research
•  In business management in general and hospitality
management in par<cular, a research is a study that
helps to solve problems or improve management.

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 •  Did you do any research, individually or
as member of a group? – Please share
with the class what your research is
EXERCISE 1 about.
Your experience •  If you have not done a research
with research in yourself, have you come across any
hospitality research reports in your work? – Please
management share with the class what that research
is about .
•  Do you find those researches
interes<ng or useful? What their
results are used for?

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EXAMPLES OF MASTER THESES
q Factors influencing Hotel Services’ implementa<on of In-
House Training according to ASEAN MRA-TP – Case study in
Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia
–  Mr Choub Ratana, Interna0onal Execu0ve Master in
Development Policies and Prac0ces 2018-2019

q Floa<ng water season tourism: stage of development and

effects on local communi<es- A case study in Van Tra Hamlet,
Van Giao Commune, Tinh Bien District, An Giang Province,
Vietnam
–  Ms Tran Bao Tran, Interna0onal Execu0ve Master in
Deevlopemtn Srudies, IMAS 2009-2010

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 2. TYPES OF RESEARCH

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TYPES OF RESEARCH
There are many ways to classify types of research.
Some of the most simple (but not simple at all)
classifica<ons are:
•  Theore<cal vs. prac<cal
•  Descrip<ve, explanatory vs. evalua<ve
•  Qualita<ve vs. quan<ta<ve

… But the different types are oken mixed

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DESCRIPTIVE, EXPLANATORY VS.
EVALUATIVE
Descrip<ve Explanatory

what, when, why,

where, who how

whether it works,
is it the best way Evalua<ve

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QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE

ikoninterna<onal.org

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QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE
(CONT.)
Quan%ta%ve Qualita%ve
Main data Numbers Words
Purpose To have ideas on To understand
trends, extent, percep<ons, behavior
paUerns
Size of sample Large Small
Data collec<on tools Ques<onnaire In-depth interview
Short interview on the individually or in
street or via phone groups
Data analysis Sta<s<cal analysis Non-sta<s<cal
analysis

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 •  Please re-visit the research examples
discussed in Exercise 1 and iden<fy
their types
EXERCISE 2
–  Theore<cal or prac<cal?
Types of research
–  Descrip<ve, explanatory or
evalua<ve?
–  Qualita<ve or quan<ta<ve?

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 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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STEPS IN CONDUCTING A RESEARCH

Design

Collect data

Analyze data

Write report

Present findings

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RESEARCH DESIGN
•  Topic
•  Research objec<ve
•  Research ques<ons
•  Methods
•  Work plan

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IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH DESIGN
•  Guide and structure the research
•  Narrow down the issues that we want to research
•  Specify a scope
–  Geographic area
–  Popula<on of interest
–  Timing
•  Select suitable methods and tools

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 In group,
•  Select a topic for EMHM Master
thesis
EXERCISE 3: •  Write one sentence describing the
Design a research objec<ve of your research
(part 1)
•  Brainstorm 2-3 research ques<ons
•  Brainstorm methods to conduct your
research


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METHODS
•  Concept defini<ons
•  Literature review
•  Techniques for data collec<on
•  Techniques for data analysis

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CONCEPT DEFINITIONS
•  Concepts are “words” men<oned / used in the topic,
research objec<ves and ques<ons
•  In conduc<ng research, all important concepts need
to be clearly defined to prepare for data collec<on as
well as to avoid confusion.
•  Researchers define concepts or look for their
defini<ons in literatures.

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EXAMPLES OF CONCEPTS TO DEFINE
q Factors influencing Hotel Services’ implementa<on of In-
House Training according to ASEAN MRA-TP – Case study in
Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia
–  Mr Choub Ratana, Interna0onal Execu0ve Master in
Development Policies and Prac0ces 2018-2019

q Floa<ng water season tourism: stage of development and

effects on local communi<es- A case study in Van Tra Hamlet,
Van Giao Commune, Tinh Bien District, An Giang Province,
Vietnam
–  Ms Tran Bao Tran, Interna0onal Execu0ve aster in
Development Studies, IMAS 2009-2010

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LITERATURE REVIEW
•  Purposes: Literature review helps all steps of
research from design to data analysis via
–  Building the “knowledge base”
–  Frame – design the research (define the concepts,
choose the methods, define the scope …)
–  Checking relevance or feasibility of the topic
–  Compare - benchmark to other works’ findings
–  etc.

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LITERATURE REVIEW (CONT.)
•  How to do literature review: Literature review is
done itera<vely throughout the research process.
–  Find relevant ar<cles: start with key words; search
in database, websites, journals, library..; look for
more from the reference sec<on of the ar<cles
found
–  Review the ar<cles
–  Organize informa<on read (mind-map, color
marking …)

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TECHNIQUES FOR DATA COLLECTION
Secondary data
•  Desk review: literatures, reports, census, …
Primary data
•  Ques<onnaires (survey)
•  Interview (phone/skype, face-to-face)
•  Focused Group Discussion
•  Observa<on
•  Experimenta<on
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EX. MATRIX FOR DATA COLLECTION
Research Informa<on Sources of Ac<vi<es Remarks
ques<on needed informa<on (who, (Techniques (details of
which report) and tools) informa<on
to be
collected)
RQ1

RQ2

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 Con<nue with the previous
EXERCISE 4: group:
Design a research
(part 2) •  Detail the methods in a
Matrix for Data Collec<on

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DATA ANALYSIS
•  Quan<ta<ve data
–  Sta<s<cal analysis
–  Coding and entering into computer sokware for analysis
(SPSS, Excel, …)
•  Qualita<ve data
–  Non-sta<s<cal analysis approaches for example Analy<c
induc<on, Cogni<ve mapping, Data display and analysis,
Discourse analysis, Template analysis …
–  Basic steps: transcrip<on of the interview; development of
themes, categories or ideas; and uni<zing, coding or
finding units of meaning within the data.

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CONTENT OF RESEARCH REPORT
Content Chapter/Sec%on
Why the research is needed Introduc<on, Background,
Ra<onale
What is researched (and not) Research Objec<ve, Ques<ons
and Scope
How the research is done Methodology
What are the results Findings
Any conclusion and Conclusions and
recommenda<on Recommenda<ons

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 Con<nue with the previous
EXERCISE 5: group:
Report outline •  Brainstorm the outline of
your research report

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 Thank you

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