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01 - Introduction To Research Methodology
01 - Introduction To Research Methodology
As a businessmen ...
To be able to professionally conduct a reliable business research, feasibility study and to understand customers behavior
Assessing Methods
Research Question(s) is/are key Methods must answer the research question(s) Methodology guides application Epistemology guides analysis All must include rigor
Ethnographies
+ Observational field work done in the actual context being studied + Focus on how individuals interrelate in their own environment (and the influence of this environment) - Difficult to interpret/analyze - Time consuming/expensive - Can influence subject behavior
Case Studies
+ Focus is on individual or small group + Able to conduct a comprehensive analysis from a comparison of cases + Allows for identification of variables or phenomenon to be studied - Time consuming - Depth rather than breadth - Not necessarily representative
GROUP THINK
Mark Zuckerberg
Short History
Zuckerberg made a controversy by delaying HarvardConnetion.com. In the same time, he developed his own project, thefacebook.com. The first investor of thefacebook.com was Eduardo Saverin. He invested $15,000 for 30% shares. Summer 2004, Zuckerberg dropped his study and continued to run thefacebook.com in Silicon Valley. The second investor of thefacebook.com was Peter Theil, CEO of Pay-Pal, who invested $ 500,000. Thefacebook.com started to grow rapidly.
The Investors
Since its growing, many companies started to invest in face book. 2005: $ 12,7 mio in venture capital from Accel Partner, and 27,5 mio from Greylock Partner. 2006: Theil indicated that Face Books internal valuation was around $ 8 bio. Oct 2007: Microsoft invested $240 mio for 1.6% shares. Google also expressed interest in buying Face Book shares. Nov 2007: Li Ka-Sing invested $60 mio in Face Book
Demographic Profile of Visitors to Select Social Networking Sites Percent Composition of Total Unique Visitors August 2006 Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations
Total Internet MySpace Facebook Friendster Xanga
173,407
55,778
14,782
1,043
8,066
Percent (%) Composition of Unique Visitors Total Audience Persons: 12-17 Persons: 18-24 Persons: 25-34 Persons: 35-54 Persons: 55+
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
9.6 11.3
14.5 38.5 18.0
11.9 18.1
16.7 40.6 11.0
14.0 34.0
8.6 33.5 7.6
10.6 15.6
28.2 35.4 8.1
20.3 15.5
11.0 35.6 7.3
Market Value
Company
Google Ebay Yahoo Amazon
Facebook
PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia PT. Bank Central Asia PT. Bank Rakyat Indonesia
25.00
10.60 4.78 3.80
3.01
1.25
Survey Research
+ An efficient means of gathering large amounts of data + Can be anonymous and inexpensive - Feedback often incomplete - Wording of instrument can bias feedback - Details often left out
country
Russia
Saudi Arabia United States Iran China Canada Mexico United Arab Emirates Brazil Kuwait
(bbl/day)
9,932,000
9,764,000 9,056,000 4,172,000 3,991,000 3,289,000 3,001,000 2,798,000 2,572,000 2,494,000
Date of Information
2009 est.
2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est. 2009 est.
Focus Groups
+ Aid in understanding audience, group, users + Small group interaction more than individual response + Helps identify and fill gaps in current knowledge re: perceptions, attitudes, feelings, etc. - Does not give statistics - Marketing tools seen as suspect - Analysis subjective
Discourse/Text Analysis
+ Examines actual discourse produced for a particular purpose (job, school) + Helps in understanding of context, production, audience, and text + Schedule for analysis not demanding - Labor intensive - Categories often fluid, making analysis difficult
ASCH EXPERIMENT
Meta-Analysis
+ Takes the results of true and quasi-experiments and identifies interrelationships of conclusions + Systematic + Replicable + Summarizes overall results - C/C apples and oranges? - Quality of studies used?
Validity in Research
Refers to whether the research actually measures what it says itll measure. Validity is the strength of our conclusions, inferences or propositions.
Internal Validity: the difference in the dependent variable is actually a result of the independent variable External Validity: the results of the study are generalizable to other groups and environments outside the experimental setting Conclusion Validity: we can identify a relationship between treatment and observed outcome Construct Validity: we can generalize our conceptualized treatment and outcomes to broader constructs of the same concepts
Reliability in Research
The consistency of a measurement, or the degree to which an instrument measures the same way each time it is used under the same condition with the same subjects. In short, it is the repeatability of your measurement. A measure is considered reliable if a person's score on the same test given twice is similar. It is important to remember that reliability is not measured, it is estimated. Measured by test/retest and internal consistency.
Rigor in Research
Validity and Reliability in conducting research Adequate presentation of findings: consistency, trustworthiness Appropriate representation of study for a particular field: disciplinary rigor Rhetorical Rigor: how you represent your research for a particular audience