Formulating Research Design

Dr. Usman Khalid

Learning Objectives
 By the end of this chapter, you shall be able to:
 Identify the main research strategies and explain why these should not be
thought of as mutually exclusive
 Explain the differences between quantitative and qualitative data
collection techniques and analysis procedures
 Explain the reasons for adopting multiple methods in the conduct of
research
 Explain the concepts of validity and reliability and identify the main threats
to validity and reliability

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The Research Onion
We will study the inner three layers

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Research Design
 The general plan of how you will go about answering your research
question(s)
 Turning research question into research project

 It will contain
 Clear objectives, derived from your research question(s)
 Specify the sources from which you intend to collect data
 Consider the constraints that you will inevitably have (e.g., access to
data, time, location and money)
 Discussing ethical issues.

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Purpose of Research
 As a starting point, you must be clear about the purpose of your
research
 Why shall I explore this research question?
 What I want to achieve from this research?
 …

 Clarity of purpose will lead to three types of research studies or a

combination of them
 Exploratory, descriptive, explanatory

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Exploratory Research
 Is a valuable means of finding out
 What is happening
 To seek new insights
 To ask questions
 To assess phenomena in a new light

 Useful to clarify understanding of a problem, if you are unsure

about the precise nature of the problem

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Exploratory Research
 Three principal ways
 A search of the literature
 Interviewing ‘experts’ in the subject
 Conducting focus group interviews.

 The advantage is it is flexible and adaptive to change

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Descriptive Research
 Objective is “to portray an accurate profile of persons, events or
situation”.
 Can be an extension or a forerunner of exploratory research
 Usually in management sciences descriptive research is considered as
a means to an end rather than an end in itself
 Drawing conclusions based on descriptive research, helps make it
interesting

 Examples → population census, …?

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Explanatory Research
 Studies and establishes causal relationships between variables
 Emphasis is on studying a situation or a problem in order to explain the
relationships between variables (causality)
 Statistical techniques e.g., correlation analysis are used
 Is used to test or develop theory or theories
 Examples ??
 An analysis of quantitative data on manufacturing scrap rates shows a
relationship between scrap rates and the age of the machine being operated.

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Activity
 Work in pairs and develop two research questions each for
exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research

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Research Strategies
 Each strategy can be used for exploratory, descriptive or explanatory
research
 Some are more align with inductive and others with deductive research
 No research strategy is inherently superior or inferior to other.
 Choice depends upon
 Research questions and objectives
 Extent of existing knowledge
 Amount of time and available resources
 Philosophical underpinnings

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Research Strategies
 Research strategies are not mutually exclusive and can be employed in
different combinations to achieve research objectives
 For example, case study together with survey research

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Experiment
 Owes more to natural science, however, has also been used in social
sciences (psychology)
 Research is undertaken in a highly controlled context
 Used to study the causal relationships between dependent and
independent variable
 Used in exploratory and explanatory research to answer how and why
questions
 Examples → Box 5.3, page 143, Saunders et al. (2009)

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Survey
 Usually associated with deductive approach
 Frequently used in business and management research
 Allows collection of large amount of quantitative data in an
economical way
 Is generally considered authoritative and results are relatively easy to
explain and understand
 Structured questionnaire used to collect data from a “truly”
representative sample of the population
 The ability to explore and understand the context is limited by the
number of variables for which data can be collected

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Case Study
 A strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation
of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context
using multiple sources of evidence.
 With in a case study, the boundaries between the phenomenon being
studied and the context within which it is being studied are not clearly
evident.
 Most often used in explanatory and exploratory research
 Various data collection techniques are employed in combination
 Triangulation: Use of different data collection techniques with in one
study in order to ensure validity (data is telling you what you think it is
telling you)

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Homework
 Differentiate between
 Single case and multiple case
 Holistic case and embedded case

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Action Research
 A borrowed research tradition from other areas of scientific inquiry
 A lot of ambiguity about the definition of action research
 Four common themes within literature
 Purpose of research → research in action rather than research about
action
 Concerned with finding solutions of issues while doing research
 Core question is, what is solution? Rather than how solution has been
reached?
 Involvement of practitioners → research is not considered an
academics only job

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Action Research
 Four common themes within literature
 Iterative nature → involves process of diagnosis, planning, taking action
and evaluating

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Action Research
 Four common themes within literature
 Implications beyond immediate project → results must inform other
contexts
 Transfer of knowledge gained from one specific context to another
 Researcher involved can be considered as an agent of change who may
subsequently apply the knowledge gained elsewhere.

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Grounded Theory
 It is a theory building strategy through a combination of induction and
deduction
 Data collection starts without the formation of an initial theoretical
framework
 Theory is developed from data generated by a series of observations
 This leads to generation of predictions which are then tested in further
observations
 Requires constant reference to data to develop and test theory
 A thorough understanding of available literature on the subject is a
pre-requisite

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Ethnography
 Rooted firmly in inductive approach
 Emanates from the anthropology
 Researcher needs to immerse herself or himself in the social world
being researched as completely as possible
 Research process needs to be flexible and responsive to change, as
researcher will constantly be developing new patterns of thought
 Very time-consuming strategy

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Archival Research
 Makes use of administrative records and documents as the principal
source of data.
 Can refer to recent as well as historical documents
 Used to study the past or changes that have taken place over the
time.

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Practitioner Research
 Researcher tries to study the issues in the organization he/she is part
of.
 The benefits of research strategy are
 Overcoming challenge of negotiating research access
 Better understanding the organizational complexities (organizational
context)

 What are the associated challenges??

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The Research Onion
We will study the inner three layers

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Quantitative & Qualitative Research
 The terms are used to differentiate both data collection and analysis
techniques and procedures

 Quantitative is predominantly used as a synonym for any data collection

technique (such as a questionnaire) or data analysis procedure (such as
graphs or statistics) that generates or uses numerical data.
 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.

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Mono & Multiple Methods Research
 Mono-method research, uses a single data collection technique and
corresponding analysis procedures.

 Multiple methods research, uses more than one data collection

technique or analysis procedures to answer your research question. Has
two broad types i.e. multi method and mixed methods

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Multiple Methods Research
 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
 Multi-method quantitative study
 Multi-method qualitative study
 Mixed methods approach is the general term for when both
quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and/or analysis
procedures are used in a research design
 Uses quantitative and qualitative techniques either at the same time
(parallel) or one after the other (sequential)

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Mixed-model Research
 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.

 This means that researcher may take quantitative data and qualities
it, that is, convert it into narrative that can be analyzed qualitatively
(qualitative findings). Alternatively, researcher may quantities the
qualitative data, i.e., converting it into to numerical codes so that it
can be analyzed statistically (quantitative findings).

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Quantitative & Qualitative Research Methods

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Activity
 Why we use mixed-method research design?

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Reasons for Using Mixed-method Design

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Activity
 Work in groups and write strengths and weaknesses of quantitative
and qualitative research designs

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Time Horizons
 Cross sectional research is the study of a particular phenomenon (or
phenomena) at a particular time.
 Most of the academic research is time constrained
 Often employ a survey strategy

 Longitudinal research is normally not “time-bound” and extends over a

long-time duration

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Credibility of Research Findings
 Reliability refers to the extent to which your data collection techniques
or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings.
 Can be assessed by posing the following 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.

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Generalizability
 The extent to which your research results are generalizable: that is,
whether your findings may be equally applicable to other research
settings, such as other organizations.
 Also referred to as external validity

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Activity
 Write brief notes on and give examples for each of the following four
threats to reliability (Saunders et al. (2009), pp.156-157)
 Subject or participant error
 Subject or participant bias
 Observer error
 Observer bias

 Write note on potential threats to validity (Saunders et al. (2009),

pp.157-158)

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 Thank You

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