Investments Course

1. Research Design
Chapter- 3

2. Research Design
Research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it
constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data.
During preparing research design researcher must consider following things:
1. What is the study about?
2. Why is the study being made?
3. Where will the study be carried out?
4. What type of data is required?
5. Where can the required data be found?
6. What periods of time will the study include?
7. What will be the sample design?
8. What techniques of data collection will be used?
9. How will the data be analyzed?
10. In what style will the report be prepared?

3. So one may split the overall research design into the following parts:
a. The sampling design: selection of sample.
b. Observational design: which items to be observed.
c. The statistical design: information gathering and analysis.
d. The operational design: Procedures related to sampling statistical
and observational design.

4. Features of a good design
A good design must be flexible, appropriate, efficient, economical and
so on. Generally the design which minimizes bias and maximizes the
reliability of the data collected and analyzed is considered a good
design. The following factors must consider to be a good research
design:
a. The means of obtaining information;
b. The availability and skills of the researcher and his staff, if any;
c. The objective of the problem to be studied;
d. The nature of the problem to be studied; and
e. The availability of time and money for the research work.

5. Concepts related to research design
1. Continuous Variable
2. Discrete variable
3. Dependent variable
4. Independent variable
5. Extraneous variable
6. Control
7. Research Hypothesis
8. Experimental and Non-experimental hypothesis
9. Experimental and control group
10. treatment
11. Experiment
12. Experimental unit

6. Different Research Designs
1. Research design in case of exploratory Research studies: the main purpose of such studies
is to formulate a problem for more precise investigation or developing the working hypothesis
from an operational point of view.
• To gain background information
• Define the terms
• Clarify problems and hypothesis
• Establish research priorities
Methods of exploratory research studies:
a. Survey of concerning literature:
b. Experience survey: the objective of such survey is to obtain insight into the relationship
between variables and new ideas relating to the research problem.
c. Insight simulating: it is particularly suitable in areas where there is little experience to serve
as a guide. For this purpose the existing records, if any, may be examined, unstructured
interviewing may take place, or other approach may be adopted.
d. Case analysis:
e. Focus groups :

7. 2. Research design in case of descriptive and diagnostic research studies: descriptive
research are concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular individual, or a
group. This study determine the frequency with which something occurs or its association
with something else.
The design in such studies must be rigid and not flexible and must focus attention on the
following:
• Determine the objectives
• Method of data collection
• Sample selection
• Data collection
• Processing and analyzing
• Reporting the findings

8. 3. Research design in case of hypothesis-testing research studies: known as
experimental studies where the researcher tests the hypothesis of casual
relationship between variables.
The experimental begins with a casual hypothesis that states that one
variable(independent) causes changes in a second variable(effect or dependent).
Next steps are:
• Measure the dependent variable
• Change the level of independent variable
• Measure the dependent variable (post test) to see whether three has been any
result.

9. Principles of experimental designs
1. Principle of replication: The experiment should be repeated more than once.
Each treatment should be applied in many experimental units instead of one.
2. Principle of randomization: It is done to protect the effect of extraneous
factor. 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. Principle of local control: whole experiment is divided in a manner that we can
perform a two-way analysis of variance. Total variability of data is divided into
three components attributed to treatments, extraneous factor and experimental
error

10. Types of experimental designs
a. Informal experimental design:
1. Before-and-After without control design: Treatment effect = (Y)-(X)
2. After-Only with control design: Treatment effect = (Y)-(Z)
3. Before-and-After with control design: Treatment effect = (Y-X)-(Z-A)
B. Formal experimental design:
1. Completely randomized design: it is based on the principles of replication and the
principles of randomization of experimental design.
• Two-group simple randomized experimental design:
• Random replications design:
• Randomized block design
• Latin Square Design

11. Factorial designs
• Simple factorial designs
• Complex factorial designs