Research Design

Research design is a set of advance decisions that make up the master plan specifying the
methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing data

Objectives
To understand what research design is and why it is significant.
To learn how exploratory research helps the researcher gain a feel for the problem.
To know the fundamental questions addressed by descriptive research and different types
of descriptive research.
To explain what is meant by casual research and to describe four types of experimental
research designs.
To know the different types of test marketing and how to select test market cities.

Types of Research Design

Exploratory Research:
i.

Gain background information- When very little is known about the

problem or when the problem has not been clearly formulated.

ii.

Define Terms Exploratory research helps to

define terms and

concepts.
iii.

Clarify Problems and Hypotheses Exploratory research allows the

researcher to define the problem more precisely and to generate a
hypotheses for the upcoming study.

iv.

Establish Research Priorities Exploratory research can be used to

prioritise research topics in order of importance, especially when it is
faced with conducting several research studies.

Methods of Conducting Exploratory Research:

1. Secondary Data Analysis refers to the process of searching for and
interpreting existing information relevant to the research problem.
Sources of secondary data includes: information found in books,
journals, magazines, special reports, bulletins, newsletters, and so
on.
An analysis of secondary data is often the core of exploratory
research.
2. Experience Surveys refer to gathering information from those thought to be
knowledgeable on the issues relevant to the research problem.
3. Case Analysis we refer to a review of available information about a former
situation(s) that has some similarities to the present research problem.
4. Focus Groups bringing small groups of people together and guided by a moderator
through an unstructured, spontaneous discussion for the purpose of gaining information
relevant to a research problem.

2. Descriptive Research: which provides answers to questions such as who, what,

where, where and how, as they are related to the research problem.
Classification of Descriptive Research Studies:
a. Cross-sectional studies- are very prevalent in market research, outnumbering
longitudinal studies and casual studies.
b. Longitudinal studies- repeatedly measure the same population over a period of time
c. Causality- may be thought of as understanding a phenomenon in terms of conditional
statements of the form If x, then y. These if-then statements become our way of
manipulating variables of interest.

3. Experiments: defined as manipulating an independent variable to see how it affects a

dependent variable, while also controlling the effects of additional extraneous variables

Types of experiments
a. Laboratory experiments are desirable when the intent of the experiment
is to achieve high levels of internal validity.
b. Field experiments those in which independent variables are manipulated
and the measurements of the dependent variable are made on test units in
their natural setting.

Data Collection: Collection of data constitutes the first step in a statistical investigation.
Utmost care must be exercised in collecting data as because they form the foundation of
statistical method. If data are faulty, the conclusion drawn can never be reliable.
1. Types of Data: Generally data are of two types a) Primary Data: The data which are originally collected by an agency for the first time
for any statistical investigation are said to be primary data.
b) Secondary Data: The data which have already been collected by some agency and
taken over from there and used by any other agency for their statistical work are termed
as secondary data. So in simple if a primary data collected for a statistical investigation
are used in other statistical investigation then those data are called as secondary data.
2. Tools and Techniques of Data or Information Collection: The primary data
or information can be collected by the following means a) Observing Behaviors of Participants: This method specifies the conditions and
methods at making observation. In this method, the information is sought by way of
investigators own direct observation without asking from the respondent. The main
advantage of this method is that subjective bias is eliminated, if observations are done
accurately. It is the most commonly used method especially in studies relating to
behavioral science.
b) Questionnaire Method: Under this method, a list of questions pertaining to the
survey (known as questionnaire) is prepared and sent to the various informants by post.
The questionnaire contains questions and provides space for answer. A request is made to

the informants through a covering letter to fill up the questionnaire and sent it back
within a specified time. The respondents have to answer the questions on their own. The
questionnaire can be delivered directly hand by hand, through surface post or as an
electronic questionnaire.
In preparing a research questionnaire general question, question wording to collect
personal information, use of unfamiliar terms and jargon, etc. should be avoided. Further,
before distribution of a research questionnaire at least two pre-tests should be conducted
and it is very much needed.
c) Interview Method: This involves listening to or integrating informants. The interview
method of collecting data involves presentation of oral-verbal stimuli and reply in terms
of oral verbal responses. So, under this method of collecting data, there is a face to face
contact with the persons from whom the information is to be collected. The interviewer
asks them question pertaining to the survey and collects the desired information. This
method can be used through personal interview, telephone interview, Chat, Audio
Conferencing, Video Conferencing, etc. The interview can be structured, semi structured
or open interview.
d) Schedules Method: In this method of data collection, the ennumerator or interviewers
who are specially appointed for the purpose along with schedules, go to the respondents,
put to them the questions from the Performa in the order the questionnaire are listed and
record the replies in the space meant for the same in the Performa. In certain situation,
schedules may be handed over to respondents and ennumerators may help them in
recording their answer to various questions in the said schedules. Ennumerator explains
the aims and objectives of the investigation and also removes the difficulties which
respondents may feel in relation to understanding the implication of a particular question
or a definition or concept of difficult term. This method has the advantage over the
questionnaire method in the sense that the respondents have no scope to misunderstand
any question and thereby putting irrelevant answer.
e) Information from Correspondents: Under this method, the investigator appoints
local agent or correspondents in different places to collect information. These
correspondents collect and transmit information to the central office where the data are
processed. The special advantage of this method is that it is cheap and appropriate for

extensive investigation. However, it may not always ensure accurate results because of
the personal prejudice and bias of the correspondents. Newspaper agencies generally
adopt this method.

Scales and measurement:

Measurement scales are used to categorize and/or quantify variables. This lesson describes the
four scales of measurement that are commonly used in statistical analysis: nominal, ordinal, interval, and
ratio scales.

Nominal Scale of Measurement

The nominal scale of measurement only satisfies the identity property of measurement. Values assigned
to variables represent a descriptive category, but have no inherent numerical value with respect to
magnitude.
Gender is an example of a variable that is measured on a nominal scale. Individuals may be classified as
"male" or "female", but neither value represents more or less "gender" than the other. Religion and
political affiliation are other examples of variables that are normally measured on a nominal scale.

Ordinal Scale of Measurement

The ordinal scale has the property of both identity and magnitude. Each value on the ordinal scale has a
unique meaning, and it has an ordered relationship to every other value on the scale.
An example of an ordinal scale in action would be the results of a horse race, reported as "win", "place",
and "show". We know the rank order in which horses finished the race. The horse that won finished ahead
of the horse that placed, and the horse that placed finished ahead of the horse that showed. However, we
cannot tell from this ordinal scale whether it was a close race or whether the winning horse won by a mile.

Interval Scale of Measurement

The interval scale of measurement has the properties of identity, magnitude, and equal intervals.
A perfect example of an interval scale is the Fahrenheit scale to measure temperature. The scale is made
up of equal temperature units, so that the difference between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit is equal to
the difference between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
With an interval scale, you know not only whether different values are bigger or smaller, you also
know how much bigger or smaller they are. For example, suppose it is 60 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday

and 70 degrees on Tuesday. You know not only that it was hotter on Tuesday, you also know that it was
10 degrees hotter.

Ratio Scale of Measurement

The ratio scale of measurement satisfies all four of the properties of measurement: identity, magnitude,
equal intervals, and a minimum value of zero.
The weight of an object would be an example of a ratio scale. Each value on the weight scale has a unique
meaning, weights can be rank ordered, units along the weight scale are equal to one another, and the
scale has a minimum value of zero.
Weight scales have a minimum value of zero because objects at rest can be weightless, but they cannot
have negative weight.

TYPES OF DATA
Qualitative Data
Qualitative data arise when the observations fall into separate distinct categories.
Examples are:
Colour of eyes : blue, green, brown etc
Exam result : pass or fail
Socio-economic status : low, middle or high.
Such data are inherently discrete, in that there are a finite number of possible categories into
which each observation may fall.
Data are classified as:
nominal if there is no natural order between the categories (eg eye colour), or
ordinal if an ordering exists (eg exam results, socio-economic status).

Quantitative Data
Quantitative or numerical data arise when the observations are counts or measurements. The data
are said to be discrete if the measurements are integers (eg number of people in a household,
number of cigarettes smoked per day) and continuous if the measurements can take on any
value, usually within some range (eg weight).

Quantities such as sex and weight are called variables, because the value of these quantities vary
from one observation to another. Numbers calculated to describe important features of the data
are calledstatistics. For example, (i) the proportion of females, and (ii) the average age of
unemployed persons, in a sample of residents of a town are statistics.
The following table shows a part of some (hypothetical) data on a group of 48 subjects.
'Age' and 'income' are continuous numeric variables,
'age group' is an ordinal qualitative variable,
and 'sex' is a nominal qualitative variable.
The ordinal variable 'age group' is created from the continuous variable 'age' using five
categories:
age group = 1 if age is less than 20;
age group = 2 if age is 20 to 29;
age group = 3 if age is 30 to 39;
age group = 4 if age is 40 to 49;
age group = 5 if age is 50 or more

SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

How to Determine Sample Size

In order to prove that a process has been improved, you must measure the process capability
before and after improvements are implemented. This allows you to quantify the process
improvement (e.g., defect reduction or productivity increase) and translate the effects into an
estimated financial result something business leaders can understand and appreciate. If data is
not readily available for the process, how many members of the population should be selected to
ensure that the population is properly represented? If data has been collected, how do you
determine if you have enough data?
Determining sample size is a very important issue because samples that are too large may waste
time, resources and money, while samples that are too small may lead to inaccurate results. In
many cases, we can easily determine the minimum sample size needed to estimate a process
parameter, such as the population mean

When sample data is collected and the sample mean

is calculated, that sample mean is

typically different from the population mean . This difference between the sample and
population means can be thought of as an error. The margin of error
is the maximum
difference between the observed sample mean

and the true value of the population mean

where:
is known as the critical value, the positive
area of

value that is at the vertical boundary for the

in the right tail of the standard normal distribution.

is the population standard deviation.

is the sample size.

Analysis and interpretation of data

Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Data

Qualitative data is thick in detail and description.

Data often in a narrative format

Data often collected by observation, open-ended interviewing, document review

Analysis often emphasizes understanding phenomena as they exist, not following predetermined hypotheses

Analyzing and Interpreting Quantitative Data

Quantitative Data is Presented in a numerical format Collected in a standardized manner

e.g. surveys, closed-ended interviews, tests

Analyzed using statistical techniques