Chapter 2 Notes

Research Methods

What is a research design?

A research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data. A choice of research
design reflects decisions about the priority being given to a range of dimensions of the research
process.

 expressing causal connections between variables;

What is a research method?

A research method is simply a technique for collecting data. It can involve a specific instrument, such
as a self-completion questionnaire or a structured interview schedule, or participant observation
whereby the researcher listens to and watches others.

cross sectional research

A cross-sectional study is a type of observational study that analyzes data from a population, or a
representative subset, at a specific point in time that is, cross-sectional data.

Key Principles of Cross-sectional Research

 More than one case. Researchers employing a cross-sectional design are interested in
variation. That variation can be in respect of people, organizations, nation states, or
whatever.
 At a single point in time. In cross-sectional design research, data on the variables of interest
are collected more or less simultaneously.
 Quantitative or quantifiable data. In order to establish variation between it is necessary to
have a systematic and standardized method for gauging variation.
 Patterns of association. With a cross-sectional design it is only possible to examine
relationships between variables.

longitudinal research

A longitudinal study is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables
over short or long periods of time.

Case study

A case study is a research strategy and an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within
its real-life context.
Comparative research

Comparative research is a research methodology in the social sciences that aims to make
comparisons across different countries or cultures.

Criteria in business research

Reliability

Reliability is concerned with the question of whether the results of a study are repeatable. The term
is commonly used in relation to the question of whether or not the measures that are devised for
concepts in business and management (such as teamworking, employee motivation, organizational
effectiveness) are consistent.

Replication

The idea of reliability is very close to another criterion of research replication and more especially
replicability. It sometimes happens that researchers choose to replicate the findings of others. There
may be a host of different reasons for doing so, such as a feeling that the original results do not
match other evidence that is relevant to the domain in question.

Validity

Validity is concerned with the integrity of the conclusions that are generated from a piece of
research.

 Measurement validity.
This criterion applies primarily to quantitative research and to the search for measures of
social scientific concepts. Measurement validity is also often referred to as construct validity.
 Latent Variable.
latent variables are variables that are not directly observed but are rather inferred from
other variables that are observed.
 External validity.
This issue is concerned with the question of whether the results of a study can be
generalized beyond the specific research context.

Threats to the external validity

 Interaction of selection and treatment. This threat raises the question: to what social and
psychological groups can a finding be generalized?
 Interaction of setting and treatment. This threat relates to the issue of how confident we
can be that the results of a study can be applied to other settings.
 Interaction of history and treatment. This raises the question of whether or not the findings
can be generalized to the past and to the future.
 Interaction effects of pre-testing. As a result of being pre-tested, subjects in an experiment
may become sensitized to the experimental treatment.
 Reactive effects of experimental arrangements. People are frequently, if not invariably,
aware that they are participating in an experiment.
  Internal validity. Internal validity is concerned with the question of whether a conclusion
that incorporates a causal relationship between two or more variables holds water.

Threats to internal validity:

 Testing. This threat refers to the possibility that subjects may become sensitized to the aims
of the experiment.
 History. This threat refers to the possibility that events in the experimental environment,
unrelated to manipulation of the independent variable, may have caused the changes.
 Maturation. Quite simply, people change, and the ways in which they change may have
implications for the dependent variable.
 Selection. If there are differences between the two groups, which would arise if they had
been selected by a non-random process, variations between the experimental and control
groups could be attributed to pre-existing differences in their membership.
 Ambiguity about the direction of causal influence. The very notion of an independent
variable and dependent variable presupposes a direction of causality.

Causality

Causal research, also called explanatory research, is the investigation of cause-and-effect

“Correlations does not mean Causation”

Causality, it is common to refer to the factor that has a causal impact as the independent variable
and the effect as the dependent variable.

 Ecological validity. This criterion is concerned with the question of whether or not social
scientific findings are applicable to people’s every day, natural social settings.
 Convergent validity, a parameter often used in sociology, psychology, and other behavioral
sciences, refers to the degree to which two measures of constructs that theoretically should
be related, are in fact related.
 Discriminant validity shows that two measures that are not supposed to be related are in
fact, unrelated.

Alternative criteria for Quantitive Research

 Credibility, which parallels internal validity—i.e. how believable are the findings?
 Transferability, which parallels external validity—i.e. do the findings apply to other
contexts?
 Dependability, which parallels reliability—i.e. are the findings likely to apply at other times?
 Confirmability, which parallels objectivity—i.e. has the investigator allowed his or her values
to intrude to a high degree?

Relevance

Importance of a topic within its substantive field or the contribution it makes to the literature on
that field.
Experimental design

Experimental research is any research conducted with a scientific approach, where a set of variables
are kept constant while the other set of variables are being measured as the subject of experiment.

Experimental research is one of the founding quantitative research methods.

Manipulation

Experimental manipulation describes the process by which researchers purposefully change, alter, or
influence the independent variables.