UNIT - I
BBA -II SEM
Research Methodology Introduction: Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as
any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories. The primary purposes of basic research are documentation, discovery, interpretation, or the research and development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge. Approaches to research depend on epistemologies, which vary considerably both within and between humanities a nd sciences. Definition-
Redman and Mory define research as ''systematized effort to gain new knowledge'' The advance Learner's dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as -''investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws'' Application
of
Research
in
Various
Functions
of
Management-
The function of research is often to measure various elements important for business decisions. These elements are often call metrics and can include advertising results, product usage and customer feedback, according to Dobney, an international marketing research consulting firm. The research functions will usually be contingent upon a company's overall research objectives. For example, some companies conduct research to determine the potential success of a new product. Other companies need solutions to problems. Measuring Brand Awareness One business research function is determining a company's brand awareness. Brand awareness is the percentage of consumers who are aware of a company's brand in the marketplace. For example, 95 percent of all consumers nationally may be aware of a large consumer products company. However, only 10 percent of all customers in a local market may be aware of a small cleaning company. There are two main types of brand awareness: Aided and unaided. Aided brand awareness is usually measured by asking consumers, "Have you ever heard of 'Joe's Hardware' store?" The person conducting the survey will usually provide the company's name to measure aided brand awareness. Contrarily, a company will not provide a company's name to measure unaided awareness. Instead, the company may include the survey question: "Which hardware stores are you familiar with in the local area?" Companies with strong unaided awareness among consumers may be one of the preferred brands in the market.
Prof. Amit Kumar FIT Group of Institutions
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Measuring Customer Satisfaction Business research is often used to measure satisfaction among consumer or business customers. For example, a company may want to determine how satisfied customers are with its customer service department. Market researchers may ask consumers to evaluate their experiences with a company's phone, email and technical support, three possible levels of customer service. Companies may also ask customers how satisfied they are with product features or prices. A publisher may ask business clients how satisfied they are with the content of its newsletter. Customer satisfaction is an important element for companies to track in business research. Satisfied customers are usually more likely to keep buying a company's products. Tracking Ad Effectiveness Business research functions also include tracking advertising effectiveness. Companies like to know how many people saw their ads and who responded to an offer as a result of an ad. Companies use business research to track ad results from print, radio, direct, television and other types of advertising. Sometimes, a company will even track the number of people who recall its advertising slogan or message. For example, a pizza restaurant company may ask consumers what details they remember from a television ad campaign. Solving Problems Companies also use business research to solve problems. For example, a consumer products company may want to evaluate why consumers are switching to a competitive brand of peanut butter. In the course of surveys, the consumer products company may find that consumers prefer the taste and texture of competitive brands. Consequently, the consumer products company may need to develop a better tasting peanut butter. Types of Research-
The basic types of research are as follows: (i) Descriptive vs. Analytical : Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In social science and business research we quite often use the term Ex post facto research for descriptive research studies. The main characteristic of this method is that the researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or what is happening. Most ex post facto research projects are used for descriptive studies in which the researcher seeks to measure such items as, for example, frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data. Ex post facto studies also include attempts by researchers to discover causes even when they cannot control the variables. The methods of research utilized in descriptive research are survey methods of all kinds, including comparative and correlation methods. In analytical research, on the other hand, the researcher has
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to use facts or information already available, and analyze these to make a critical evaluation of the material. (ii) Applied vs. Fundamental : Research can either be applied (or action) research or fundamental (to basic or pure) research. Applied research aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business organisation, whereas fundamental research is mainly concerned with generalisations and with the formulation of a theory. “Gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake is termed ‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research.” Research concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics are examples of fundamental research. Similarly, research studies, concerning human behaviour carried on with view to make generalizations about human behaviour, are also examples of fundamental research, but research aimed at certain conclusions facing a concrete social or business problem is an example of applied research. Research to identify social, economic or political trends that may effect a particular institution or copy research or the marketing research are examples of applied research. Thus, the central aim of applied research is to discover a solution for some pressing practical problems. Whereas basic research is directed towards finding information that has a broad base of applications and thus, adds to the already existing organized body of scientific knowledge. (iii) Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantity. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind. For instance, when we are interested in investigating the reasons for human behavior, we quite often talk of ‘Motivation Research’, an important type of qualitative research. This type of research aims at discovering the underlying motives and desires, using in depth interviews for the purpose. Other techniques of such research are word association tests, sentence completion tests, story completion tests and similar other projective techniques. Attitude or opinion research, i.e., research designed to find out how people feel or what they think about a particular subject or institution is also qualitative research. Qualitative research is specially important in the behavioural sciences where the aim is to discover the underlying motives of human behaviour. Through such research we can analyse the various factors which motivate people to behave in a particular manner or which make people like or dislike a particular thing. It may be stated, however, that to apply qualitative research in practice is relatively a difficult job and therefore, while doing such research, one should seek guidance from experimental psychologists. (iv) Conceptual vs. Empirical : Conceptual research is that related to some abstract idea(s) or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones. On the other hand, empirical research relies an experience or
Prof. Amit Kumar FIT Group of Institutions
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
observation alone, often without due regard for system and theory. It is data based research, coming up with conclusions which arc capable of being verified by observation or experiment. We can also call it as experimental type of research, in such a research it is necessary to get at facts firsthand, at their source, and actively to go about doing certain things to stimulate the production of desired information. In such I research, die researcher must first provide himself with a working hypothesis or guess as to the probable results. He then works to get enough facts (data) to prove or disprove his hypothesis. He then sets up experimental designs which he thinks will manipulate the persons or the materials concerned so as to bring forth the desired information. Such research is thus characterised by the experimenter’s control over the variables under study and his deliberate manipulation of one of them to study its effects. Empirical research is appropriate when proof is sought that certain variables affect other variables in some way. Evidence gathered through experiments or empirical studies is today considered to be the most powerful support possible for a given hypothesis. (v) Some Other Types of Research : All other types of research are variations of one or more of the above stated approaches, based on either the purpose of research, or the time required to accomplish research, on the environment in which research is done, or on the basis of some other similar factor. Form the point of view of time, we can think of research either as one-time research or longitudinal research. In the former case the research is confined to a single time-period, whereas in the latter case the research is carried on over several time-periods. Research can be field-setting research or laboratory research or simulation research, depending upon the environment in which it is to be carried out. Research can as well be understood as clinical or diagnostic research. Such research follow case-study methods or indepth approaches to reach the basic causal relations. Such studies usually go deep into the causes of things or events that interest us, using very small samples and very deep probing data gathering devices. The research may be exploratory or it may be formalized. The objective of exploratory research is the development of hypotheses rather than their testing, whereas formalized research studies are those with substantial structure and with specific hypotheses to be tested. Historical research is that which utilizes historical sources like documents, remains, etc. to study events or ideas of the past, including the philosophy of persons and groups at any remote point of time. Research can also be classified as conclusion-oriented and decision oriented. While doing conclusion oriented research, a researcher is free to pick up a problem, redesign the enquiry as he proceeds and is prepared to conceptualize as he wishes. Decision-oriented research is always for the need of a decision maker and the researcher in this case is not free to embark upon research according to his own inclination. Operations research is an example of decision oriented research since it is a scientific method of providing
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executive departments with a quantitative basis for decisions regarding operations under their control.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Process-Research process consist of series of
activities or steps necessary to effectively carry out research and the desired sequences of these steps. these steps are-formulate hypothesis
Problems Encountered By ResearchersResearch Design-
There are several problems encountered by researchers. Some of them are:
novice Design research investigates the process of designing in all
its many fields. It is thus related to Design methods in 1 . Lack of scientific training in the methodology of research-
There is a paucity of competent researchers. The scenario in most cases is like a blind leading the blind. Most of the people who hold the position of research guides are themselves not thorough with the various methodologies. They lead the researcher/students to copy methodology of similar studies. 2.Copying of data (Plagiarism)-
Some researchers merely copy other international studies or studies which have been done by researchers/students of other universities. This is crime and should not be promoted. A Researchers can re-evaluate others study by considering and overcoming the limitations of previous study, but at no cost should be copied or repeated. One should learn to respect others hard work. The act itself leads to lack of awareness in research methodology. 3.Manipulation of data-
Every researcher tries or does one or the other kinds of manipulation of data. May be multiplying the sample size or to make the result in the way they want. The lack of confidence over the result they may get after the completion of study is the reason for manipulation of result. This never reveals the reality, as the intuition of the rese resear arch cher er is g uide d by mere t heor eti cal k now ledg e. In reality sometimes theory and practice may be contradictory. Some researchers just finish off their study by simply sitting in their home; they don’t even interact with their subject or have any one. 4.Lack of availability or access to literature neededThis is a major problem faced during the literature review. The lack of availability of access to Internet, ignorance of the way to search needed articles from journals another databases are other problems. Searching books and newspaper articles from conventional libraries consumes a lot of time and effort. These kind of libraries, especially which are situated away from the capital cities lack copies of new acts/rules published by the government. There is also timely unavailability of published
general or for particular disciplines. A primary interpretation of design research is that it is concerned with undertaking research
into
the design process. Secondary interpretations
would refer to undertaking research
within
the process of
design. The overall intention is to better understand and to improve the design process. RESEARCH DESIGN:
DEFINITION •A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure and/or solve marketing research problems.
COMPONENTS OF RESEARCHDESIGN •Define the information needed • Design the exploratory, descriptive, and/or causal phases of the research• Specify the measurement and scaling procedures • Construct and pretest a questionnaire(interviewing form) or an appropriate form for data collection• Specify the sampling process and sample size• Develop a plan of data analysis
RESEARCH DESIGN: CLASSIFICATION Research Design 1.ExploratoryResearchDesign 2.ConclusiveResearchDesign 3.DescriptiveResearch 4.CasualResearch 5.Cross-SectionalDesign 6.LongitudinalDesign 7.SingleCross-SectionalDesign 8.MultipleCross-SectionalDesign
Prof. Amit Kumar FIT Group of Institutions
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UNIT - I
BBA -II SEM
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH-
The exploratory research design, as the name suggests, involves getting a feel of the situation and emphasises a discovery of ideas and possible insights that may help in identifying areas of further rigorous study. For example a food product manufacturer, wanting in introduce a breakfast cereal may be in knowing the desirable attributes of such a product before really defining the product concept. The main objective of the exploratory research is to fine tune the broad problem into specific problem statement and generate possible hypotheses. It therefore, gives useful direction for further research. The exploratory studies are mainly used for: 1) Providing information to enable a more precise problem definition or hypothesis formulation. 2) Establishing research priorities. 3) Giving the researcher a feel of the problem situation and familiarising him with the problem. 4) Collecting information about possible problems in carrying out research, using specific collection tools and specific techniques for analysis.
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH •Descriptive Research is to describe market characteristics or functions• Descriptive research is conducted for the following reasons: •Describing the characteristics of relevant groups, such as consumers, salespeople, organizations, or market areas.• Estimating the percentage of units in a specified population exhibiting a certain behaviour.• Determining the perceptions of product characteristics.• Determining the degree to which marketing variables area associated.• Making specific predictions.
Prof. Amit Kumar FIT Group of Institutions
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