The document provides an overview of the key aspects of research methodology, including defining the research problem, reviewing relevant literature, formulating the research design, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting findings. It discusses the importance of clearly specifying the research purpose and objectives and developing a conceptual framework based on an understanding of relevant theories and concepts. The stages of the research process from defining the problem to reporting outcomes are also outlined.

1. Lecture 1 – Introduction to
research methodology

2. What is research?
• The systematic investigation into and study of materials
and sources in order to establish facts and reach new
conclusions.
• Searching it again and again means Re-search. Research is
defined as human activity based on intellectual application
in the investigation of matter.
• The primary purpose for applied research is discovering,
interpreting, and the development of methods and systems
for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide
variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe

3. Elements of good research?
1. Clearly defined Purpose
•The problem to be studied should be stated
clearly and unambiguously.
•The statement of the problem (usually 1-2
pages) should include its scope, and the precise
meanings of all words and terms significant to
the research.

4. Elements of good research?

5. Elements of good research?

6. Elements of good research?

7. Elements of good research?

8. Elements of good research?

9. Elements of good research?

10. Elements of good research?

11. Elements of good research?

12. The Research Process?
1. Define the research problem
– Formulate and clarify the research topic.
– Develop research objectives & questions.
– Identify scope and significance of the study.
2. Critically review the literature
– Review concepts and theories.
– Review previous study findings.
– Develop a theoretical/conceptual framework.

13. The Research Process?
3. Formulate your research design
– Understand your philosophy and approach.
– Develop data collection and sampling design.
– Develop instrument and pilot-test it.
4. Collect data
– Negotiate access.
– Observe ethical considerations.
– Aim for data completeness.

14. The Research Process?
5. Analyse and interpret the data
– Prepare data for analysis.
– Apply appropriate analytical techniques.
– Use suitable data presentation formats.
6. Report-writing and presentation
– Address your research questions.
– Relate your results/findings to the literature
(theories and previous studies).
– Provide management recommendations.

15. 1. Defining the research problem
• A research problem can be defined as any situation where a
gap exists between the actual and desired ideal states.
• It could be a management dilemma or difficulty which a
researcher identifies in the context of either a theoretical or
practical situation and wants to obtain a solution or
explanation for the same.
• A research problem is often triggered by a question, curiosity
or uncertainty in the mind of the researcher regarding some
aspect of the business/organizational environment.

16. 1. Defining the research problem
• This is followed by exploration of relevant published sources
on the subject.
• An analytical review of existing literature helps the
researcher to clarify the overall research question or
research purpose.
• In one sentence the researcher should be able to say what is
to be achieved by conducting the study.

17. 1. Defining the research problem
Examples
1. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze the
factors that affect the performance of women entrepreneurs
in Mekong delta.
2. The objective of the study was to establish the talent
retention strategies of Generation Z employees in the Viettel
company.
3.....

18. 1. Defining the research problem
The problem statement:
• The problem statement introduces the key problem that is
addressed in the research study. It is a clear, precise and
succinct statement of the specific issue that a researcher
wishes to investigate.
• In addition, is it relevant, feasible and interesting?
E.g:
• Climate change seriously affect farmers’ income;
• Shirmp mortality rate is increasing....

19. 1. Defining the research problem
Research objectives and questions:
• The objectives constitute the subcomponents which
together constitute the overall research question/research
purpose.
• In developing research questions, consider:
– Internal environment (organization).
– External environment (industry).

20. 1. Defining the research problem
Research objectives and questions:
Example:
Research Purpose: The objective of the study is to determine talent
retention strategies of Generation Z employees in the Viettel company.
Research objectives:
1. To identify and analyze the retention factors as perceived by Generation Z
employees.
2. To analyze the retention strategies used by mobile operator employers in
Viettel for Gen Z employees.
4. To propose recommendations for Gen Z retention strategies in the mobile
telephony industry.

21. 1. Defining the research problem
Research objectives:
The formulation of objectives will help you to:
– Focus the study.
– Avoid the collection of unnecessary data.
– Organise the study into clearly defined phases (process) and sections
(structure).

22. 1. Defining the research problem
Research objectives:
Note:
• In the examination of your research project, the results will
be evaluated by the objectives. Clear objectives therefore
greatly enhance the successful evaluation of your research
project.
=> Research questions follow directly from research
objectives.

23. 1. Defining the research problem
Examples:
• Research Objective 1: To establish the retention rate of Generation Z
employees in the Viettel company.
• Research Question 1: What is the retention rate of Generation Z employees in
Viettel?
• Research Objective 2: To identify and analyze the retention factors as
perceived by Generation Z employees.
• Research Question 2: What are the factors affecting retention as perceived by
Generation Z employees? How do they affect the retention of Gen Z
employees?

24. 1. Defining the research problem
Examples:
• Research Objective 3: To analyze the retention strategies used by
Viettel for Gen Z employees.
• Research Question 3: What strategies have Viettel has put in place to retain
Gen Z employees?

25. 2. Critically review the literature
Why doing the literature review?
– Review concepts and theories.
– Review previous study findings.
– Develop a theoretical/conceptual
framework.

26. 2. Critically review the literature
Why is theory important?
•Theory informs practice. It may also inform your
research question (Why questions).
•Theory provides a set of variables or concepts that
you can test to determine whether, how and why they
are related in the context of your own research.

27. 2. Critically review the literature
Why is theory important?
• If you adopt a clear theoretical position that you will
test through the formulation of hypotheses, your
research project will be theory-driven and you will be
using a deductive (diễn dịch/suy diễn) approach.
• If you wish to explore the data collected and develop
a theoretical explanation, you will be adopting an
inductive (quy nạp) approach.

28. 2. Critically review the literature
Why is theory important?
• It is crucial to be able to explain how variables or
concepts are related and why they are related (This
distinguishes research reports from consultancy
reports).
• Research questions that encourage the production of
theoretical explanations are favoured over descriptive
outcomes. (Inferential vs. descriptive statistics)

29. 2. Critically review the literature
Conceptual Framework

30. 2. Critically review the literature
Conceptual Framework
• A conceptual framework is an analytical tool with several variables
and contexts. It can be applied in different categories of work where
an overall picture is needed. It is used to make conceptual distinctions
and organize ideas. Strong conceptual frameworks capture something
real and do this in a way that is easy to remember and apply.
• The theoretical and conceptual framework explains the path of a
research and grounds it firmly in theoretical constructs. The overall
aim of the two frameworks is to make research findings more
meaningful, acceptable to the theoretical constructs in the research
field and ensures generalizability

31. 2. Critically review the literature
Conceptual Framework

32. 3. Formulate your research design
Why do you need to formulate the research design?
– Understand your philosophy and approach.
– Develop data collection and sampling design.
– Develop instrument and pilot-test it.

33. 3. Formulate your research design
• The Research Design is the blueprint for fulfilling
objectives and answering questions.
• It involves asking questions such as:
– What type of data will be collected: Numerical figures or
Words and images?
– What design is most appropriate: Experiment, Survey,
Narrative Inquiry or Case Study?
– What methods will be used in the research: questionnaires
or interviews?

34. 3. Formulate your research design
Other relevant questions:
– Should all relevant data be collected at one time
(cross-sectional) or at regular intervals over a period of
time (longitudinal)?
– How will the data be analyzed?
– How will reliability and validity be achieved?
– What ethical considerations should apply?

35. 3. Formulate your research design
Operationalizing variables:
• The conceptual framework identifies the variables for
measurement.
• These variables need to be operationalized i.e.
identifying the observable and measurable aspects.
• The design of the instrument should ensure that all
the measurable aspects of the variables have been
captured.

36. 3. Formulate your research design
Operationalizing variables:

37. 3. Formulate your research design
Sampling Design:
A sample is a part of the target population, carefully
selected to represent that population.
– Who will be interviewed/ complete the
questionnaire?
– How many people/ institutions will be involved?
– If using published information, how many records will
be inspected? For what period of time?

38. 3. Formulate your research design
Sampling Design: Examples

39. 3. Formulate your research design
Variable Measurement:
These questions are actually asked to respondents and appear
in the questionnaire or interview guide.
Example: Under career management strategy
1. Provision of learning opportunities
2. Job rotation for young employees
3. Challenging assignments
4. Fair and equal opportunities to grow
5. Awareness of career paths/prospects

40. 4. Data Collection
What should you care about collecting data?
– Negotiate access.
– Observe ethical considerations.
– Aim for data completeness.

41. 4. Data Collection
Pilot testing
• Pilot testing is conducted to detect weaknesses in
design and instrumentation and to provide proxy
data for selection of an appropriate sampling design.
• It should draw subjects from the target population
and simulate procedures and protocols that have
been designed for data collection.

42. 4. Data Collection
Pilot testing
• Where the target population is small, pretesting
may be conducted using colleagues or surrogate
respondents (similar in profile but different from
actual respondents) to help refine the measuring
instrument.

43. 4. Data Collection
Data Collection:
•Data = the facts presented to the researcher from
the study environment.
•In collecting data, consider the following:
– Data can be abstract: e.g., “Our staff productivity is
higher than industry average because our employees
are highly motivated.”
– What do these terms mean? How are they different
from what is done by other companies?

44. 4. Data Collection
Data Collection:
– Data should be verifiable: The research questions
should consistently produce similar results.
– Data capturing can be elusive due to the speed with
which events occur, the ability of respondents to
remember facts and the reality that opinions,
preferences and attitudes vary with the passage of
time.

45. 4. Data Collection
Data Collection:
– If possible, the research study should draw from
recent occurrences, to minimize compromising
the reliability of the data due to inability to recall
information.

46. 5. Analyse and interpret the data
What should you do?
– Prepare data for analysis.
– Apply appropriate analytical techniques.
– Use suitable data presentation formats.

47. 5. Analyse and interpret the data
Analysis and Discussion:
• Data analysis involves reducing accumulated data
to a manageable size, developing summaries and
applying statistical techniques.
• The Discussion involves:
– answering the research questions.
– explaining any variations in the findings.
– comparing research findings to previous studies.

48. 5. Analyse and interpret the data
Generalization and Interpretation:
• If there appears to be patterns and trends in the
results/findings, then generalizations can be made, which is
the value of research.
– In Quantitative research, we refer to statistical
generalizations: extrapolating results from a sample to the
population.
– In Qualitative research, analytical generalizations apply:
transferring concepts to other study populations or settings.

49. 5. Analyse and interpret the data
Generalization and Interpretation:
• The researcher may seek to explain the
findings on the basis of some theory. This is
known as interpretation. The process of
interpretation often triggers off new
questions which lead to further research.

50. 6. Report-writing and presentation
What should you focus on?
– Address your research questions.
– Relate your results/findings to the literature
(theories and previous studies).
– Provide management recommendations.

51. 6. Report-writing and presentation
1. Front Matter: An abstract, table of contents,
declaration, acknowledgements, lists of
figures, list of tables.
2. Body of the report – Background, research
problem, objectives and questions, literature
review, research methodology, findings,
discussions, conclusions and
recommendations.

52. 6. Report-writing and presentation
3. End matter – list of references, Appendices
(such as introduction letter, research
instrument(s), permission to undertake the
research, raw data).