CPU College

Business Research Methods

(MBA 601)

(ACFN 628) 5
CHAPTER
RESEARCH DESIGN
Contents
 What is research design?

 Importance of Research Design

 Features of Good Research Design

 Components of Research Design

 Research Approaches

 Variables and measurement scales

What is Research Design?

There is no single definition imparts the full

range of important aspects of research design.

 A research design is a master plan that specifies

the methods and procedures for collecting and
analyzing the needed information.

 It provides a framework or plan of action for the

research as it constitutes the blueprint for the
collection, measurement and analysis of data.
What is research design?
 Research design is the plan and structure of
investigation so conceived as to obtain answers to
research questions. The plan is the overall scheme or
program of the research. It includes an outline of what
the investigator will do from writing hypotheses and their
operational implications to the final data analysis.

 Research design expresses both the structure of

research problem-the framework, organization, or
configuration of the relationships among variables of a
study-and the plan of investigation used to obtain
empirical evidence on those relationships.
The Essentials of Research Design
 The above definitions differ in detail, but
together they give the essentials of research
design:
 An activity-and time-based plan
 A plan always based on the research question
 A guide for selecting sources and types of information
 A framework for specifying the relationships among
the study’s variables
 A procedural outline for every research activity
Need for Research Design
 It makes research as efficient as possible
yielding maximal information with minimal
expenditure of effort, time and money.
 Thoughtlessness in designing the research
project may result in rendering the research
exercise futile
 It helps the researcher to organize his ideas in a
form whereby it will be possible for him to look
for flaws and inadequacies
Features of a Good Research Design
 RD that minimizes bias and maximizes the reliability of
the data collected and analyzed.
 RD which gives the smallest experimental error.
 RD which yields maximal information and provides an
opportunity for considering many different aspects of a
problem.

 The question of good research design is related

to the purpose or objective of the research
problem and also with the nature of the problem
to be studied.
Features of …
 A design may be quite suitable in one case, but may be found
wanting in one respect or the other in the context of some
other research problem.
 One single design cannot serve the purpose of all types of
research problems.
 A research design appropriate for a particular research
problem, usually involves the consideration of the following
factors:
 the means of obtaining information;
 the availability and skills of the researcher and his staff, if
any;
 the objective of the problem to be studied;
 the nature of the problem to be studied; and
 the availability of time and money for the research work.
Qualities of a Good Research
 Good research is systematic
 i.e. research is structured with specified steps to be taken in a
specified sequence in accordance with the well defined set of
rules
 Good research is logical
 i.e. research is guided by the rules of logical reasoning and the
logical process of induction and deduction are of great value in
carrying out research.
 Good research is empirical
 research is related basically to one or more aspects of a real
situation and deals with concrete data that provides a basis for
external validity to research results.
 Good research is replicable
Components of Research design
 The following are features that explain what a research
design is:
a) It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of
information relevant to the research problem.
b) It is a strategy specifying which approach will be
used for gathering and analyzing the data.
c) It also includes the time and cost budgets since
most studies are done under these two
constraints.
 Hence, a research design has the following
components.
Components of …
 A clear statement of the research problem;

 Procedures and techniques to be used for

gathering information;

 The population to be studied, and

 Methods to be used in processing and analyzing

data
Important Concepts Relating to RD
A. Variable:
 Is a concept which can take on different quantitative values. E.g.
weight, height, income, etc.
 Continuous variable. E.g. age
 Non-continuous variable. E.g. No. of children

B. Dependent and Independent Variables:

 Dependent variable: Is a variable that depends upon or it results
as a consequence of the other variable. It is a variable to be
predicted or explained.
 Independent variable: is a variable that is expected to influence
the dependent variable.
C. Extraneous variable
 Is an independent variables that is not related to the purpose of a
study, but may affect the dependent variable.
Important Concepts Relating to RD
Example: If you want to know if online learning increases student
understanding of statistics. One group uses online knowledge base to
study, the other group uses a traditional text. E.g. of extraneous
variable include - prior knowledge of statistics, amount of support in
the home, temperature of testing env’t, age of student, etc
D. Confounded relationship
 When the dependent variable is not free from the influence of

extraneous variable(s), the relationship between the dependent and

independent variables is said to be confounded by an extraneous
variable(s).
E. Control: to minimize the effect of extraneous variable
 A RD has to minimize the influence of extraneous variable. In
experimental research control refers to restrain to experimental
condition.
Important Concepts Relating to RD
F. Experimental and non-experimental groups
 In experimental research when a group is exposed to usual
condition is called control group, but when a group is
exposed to special condition is an experimental group.
G. Treatments: The different condition under which
experimental and controlled groups are referred to us
treatment.
 The usual study program and the special study program are an
example of two treatments in studying the effects new or special
study program on performance of students.
Important Concepts Relating to RD
H. Experimental and control groups
 In an experimental hypothesis-testing research when
a group is exposed to usual conditions, it is termed a
‘control group’, but when the group is exposed to
some novel or special condition, it is termed an
‘experimental group’.
I. Treatments
 The different conditions under which experimental and
control groups are put are usually referred to as
‘treatments’.
Important Concepts Relating to RD
J. Experiment
 The process of examining the truth of a statistical

hypothesis, relating to some research problem, is

known as an experiment.
 Experiment can be comparative or absolute.

 If you want to determine the impact of newly developed drug

against the existing drug is an example of comparative
experiment.
 Examining the usefulness of a newly developed drug is an
absolute experiment.
K. Experimental unit(s)
 The pre-determined plots or the blocks, where different
treatments are used, are known as experimental units. Such
experimental units must be selected (defined) very carefully.
Types of Research Designs
Generally, we have three types of
research designs.

1. Exploratory study
2. Descriptive
3. Causal
1. Exploratory
 Conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover
ideas that may be potential business opportunities.
Exploratory research is particularly useful for new
product/service development
 It is not intended to provide conclusive evidence from
which to determine a particular course of action.
 The objective is to generate more information about the
situation before launching a formal study
 It is done to define clearly the research question in the
form of investigative questions
 Helps to identify possible extraneous variables that can
be ignored
 Suggests if doing additional and more formal research is
feasible or not needed
 Although both qualitative & quantitative methods could be
used, it relies heavily on qualitative methods
Cont…
The following approaches could be used in
exploratory research:
 In-depth interviewing, which is not structured
 Participant observation
 Photographs and videotaping
 Role play
 Case studies for an in-depth contextual analysis
 Key informants/elites interviewing
 Documents analysis
2. Descriptive
 Used to describe characteristics of objects, people,
groups, organizations, or environments.
 More structured in terms of stating research
hypothesis/ questions.
 It serves to achieve a variety of research objectives:
 To describe the characteristics of the study subject (who,
what, when and how)
 To estimate the proportions of a population that have
particular characteristics
 To discover association/correlation among different variables
Example:
In a saving association one might be interested to develop the
profile of savers such as: Age, sex, amount saved, the number
of accounts opened within the last six months, frequency of
withdrawal per year, distance of the individual from the
main office, education level, family size, etc
Cont…
 It could be simple or complex. The simplest
form of descriptive study addresses only a uni-
variate question or hypothesis to state the size,
form, distribution or existence of a variable.
 In its complex form, it demands to collect
information about multiple variables and carry
out chi-square/cross-tabulation analysis and
correlation matrix analysis
Example:
 Association/correlation could be done between
amount saved and income/family size
3. Causal
 It allows to make causal inferences
 It seeks to identify cause-and-effect
relationships.
 Correlation is different from causation. In
causation, “A” forces “B” to occur or “A” is
responsible for the changes occurred in “B”.
 In testing causal hypothesis, we collect evidence
that increases our belief that A leads to B.
 Criteria for causality:
 Concomitant variation
 Temporal sequence
 Non-spurious association
Cont...
1. Concomitant variation: Is there a predicted co-variation between
“A” & “B”?
 When “A” doesn’t occur is there also an absence of “B”?

 When there is less of “A”, do you find more/less of “B”?

2. Temporal sequence: Is there time order of events moving

towards the hypothesized direction?
 Does “A” occurs before “B”? Or the cause must occur before
the effect.
3. Non-spurious association: is it possible to eliminate other possible
causes of B? Is the co-variation between a cause and an effect
is true, rather than due to some other variable?
 Theory helps to rule out spurious association
 Often, a causal inference cannot be made even though the other
two conditions exist because both the cause and effect have some
common cause.
 Eg. Correlation of ice cream consumption & crime rate:

Inflation could be a cause for both

Cont…
Degree of causality
 Three types of causality based on degree
1. Absolute causality: the cause is necessary &
sufficient to bring the effect
 In behavioral science it is a rarity
2. Conditional causality: the cause is necessary but
not sufficient to bring the effect
 The cause can bring about the effect but it can not do so
alone
 Smoking is a conditional cause for cancer as there are
some other variables disposing oneself to cancer
3.Contributory causality: the cause is neither
necessary nor sufficient to bring the effect
How do you measure degree of causality in research?
R2 measures degree of causality
 Basic principle of experimental design
1. The principle of Replication
2. The principle of Randomization
3. The Principle of Local control

1. The Principle of Replication

According to the Principle of Replication, the
experiment should be repeated more than once.

 Thus, each treatment is applied in many

experimental units instead of one. By doing so the
statistical accuracy of the experiments is increased.
2. The Principle of Randomization
 provides protection, when we conduct an
experiment, against the effect of extraneous
factors by randomization.
 In other words, this principle indicates that we
should design or plan the experiment in such a
way that the variations caused by extraneous
factors can all be combined under the general
heading of “chance.”
3. The Principle of Local control
 Under this the extraneous factor, the known source of
variability, is made to vary deliberately over as wide
a range as necessary and this needs to be done in such
a way that the variability it causes can be measured
and hence eliminated from the experimental error.
 This means that we should plan the experiment in a
manner that we can perform a two-way analysis of
variance’
 Forms of Experimental design
The experimental design can be classified into
two categories.
1) Informal Experimental Designs
2) Formal Experimental Design
1) Informal Experimental Design: Are those
designs that normally use a less sophisticated
form of analysis.
• Important informal experimental designs are
of the followings
– Before-And-After without Control
– After- only -with Control Design
– Before -And -After with Control Design
 A). Before – And – After Without Control Design
 A single test group or area is selected
 the dependent variable is measured before the
introduction of treatment.
 The treatment is then introduced and
 the dependent variable is measured again after
the treatment has been introduced.
Level of phenomenon before treatment (X)
Treatment
Level of phenomenon after treatment (Y)
Treatment effect = Y – X
 B). After Only With Control Design
 In this design two groups or areas (test area
and control area) are selected
 the treatment is introduced into the test area
only.
 The dependent variable is then measured in
both areas at the same time.
 Treatment impact is assessed by subtracting
the value of the independent variable in the
control area from its value in the test area.
 C). Before And After With Control Design

 Under this design two groups are selected

 the dependent variable is measured in both
groups for an identical time period before the
treatment.
 The treatment is then introduced into the test
area only,
 the dependent variable is measured in both
areas in identical time period after the
introduction of the treatment.
Cont…
 The different types of research designs
discussed here serve each other as building
blocks
 Exploratory research builds the foundation for
descriptive research,
 Descriptive research usually establishes the
basis for causal research.
Comparisons
Criteria Exploratory Descriptive Causal

Amount of uncertainty Highly ambiguous Partially defined Clearly defined

for decision making
Key research statement Research question Research Research
question hypothesis
When conducted? Early stage of decision Later stage of Later stage of
making decision making decision making
Research approach Unstructured Structured Highly structured

Nature of result Discovery oriented Result can be Confirmatory

often in need of further managerially oriented & fairly
research applicable but still conclusive with
further research managerially
may be needed actionable results
End of Chapter Five