Research Methodology and Statistics

1. RM401E:
Research Method and
Statistics
Lecture 5: Overview of Research Design (I)

2. Review of Week 4
• Importance and functions of literature review
• Various data sources and documenting literature
review
– Be aware of unintentional plagiarism
• Building theoretical framework
– Understanding moderating and mediating variables
– Forming hypotheses
– Null and alternative hypotheses

3. Another Example of
Hypothesis Development
• Problem statement: Identify factors that
impede women’s advancement to top positions
• Factors found in literature review: gender role
stereotypes and inadequate access to critical
information
• Develop framework: consider the interaction of
the two factors, stereotypes may affect both
the women’s advancement and the access to
information
• Hypotheses:
– Direct impact: The greater the stereotypes, the
fewer the numbers of women at the top
– Mediating impact: access to information partially
mediates the relationship above.

4. Research Design
• Research design: a blueprint or plan for the
collection, measurement, and analysis of data,
created to answer your research questions.

5. Research Design

6. Research Design
• As shown in Figure 7.1, each component of the
research design offers several critical choice points.
• No design is superior in all circumstances. Instead,
you need to make choices and create a design that is
suitable for the job at hand.
• Take into consideration the specific objectives,
research questions, and constraints of the project,
such as access to data, time, and/or money.

7. Research Strategies
• Experiments
• Survey Research
• Ethnography
• Case studies
• Grounded theory
• Mixed methods

8. Extent of Researcher Interference
• Minimal interference
• Moderate interference
• Excessive interference

9. Study Setting
• Contrived: artificial setting
• Non-contrived: the natural environment where work
proceeds normally
• Field study: observe impacts of various factors in a
natural setting with minimal interference
• Field experiment: some interference to observe the
cause-and-effect in a natural setting
• Lab experiment: in a controlled environment to study
the cause-and-effect

10. Population to be studied
• Unit of analysis:
– Individuals
– Dyads
– Groups
– Organizations
– Industries
– Countries

11. Time Horizon
• Cross-sectional studies
– Snapshot of constructs at a single point in time
– Use of representative sample
• Multiple cross-sectional studies
– Constructs measured at multiple points in time
– Use of different sample
• Longitudinal studies
– Constructs measured at multiple points in time
– Use of same sample = a true panel

12. Qualitative Research Design
• Associated with constructionism philosophy
• Approach to theory development: mostly
Inductive (or a mixed of inductive & deductive)
• Studies participants’ meanings and the
relationship between them
• Data collection is non-standardized
• Non-probabilistic sampling techniques
• If single data collection technique: mono-method
qualitative study
• If more than one data collection technique: multi-
method qualitative study

13. Quantitative Research Design
• Associated with positivism
• Approach to theory development: mostly deductive
• Examines relationship between variables, which are
measured numerically and analysed using statistical
and graphical techniques
• Often uses probability sampling techniques to ensure
generalizability
• Often uses single data collection technique (mono-
method quantitative study)
• If use more than one quantitative data collection
technique (multi-method quantitative study)

14. Mixed Methods Research
Aims to answer research questions that cannot be
answered by ‘qualitative’ or ‘quantitative’ approaches
alone.
– Focuses on collecting, analyzing, and mixing both
quantitative and qualitative data.
– Is increasingly advocated within business research.
– Allows researchers to combine inductive and deductive
thinking, to use more than one research method to address
the research problem, and to solve this problem using
different types of data.
But it complicates the research design and therefore
requires a clear presentation of the design to allow the
reader to sort out the different components of the
research design.

15. Mixed Methods Research Design
• Fully Integrated Mixed Method
– If mix qualitative and quantitative at every stage of research
• Partially Integrated Mixed Method
– If mix qualitative and quantitative at one stage of research
• Embedded Mixed Method
– Where one method supports other (e.g., concurrent
embedded)
• Why Use Mixed Method?
– Initiation, facilitation, complementarity, interpretation,
generalizability, diversity, problem solving, focus,
triangulation, confidence…

16. Mini-Quiz 1
Duration: 15 minutes
Ten multiple choice questions on first 4
weeks’ lesson (till hypothesis
development)