The Research Process

Ch -4

Information needs in business Almost every organization has to engage in

research at some level to stay competitive. Companies gather data both from within and outside the organization. The methods used to gather,analyze,and synthesize information from the external and internal environments are becoming increasingly sophisticated to the immense scope of computer technology. Information- Reduces uncertainty and Helps focus decision making

Research Stages Cyclical process - conclusions generate new ideas Stages can overlap chronologically Stages are functionally interrelated Forward linkages Backward linkages

The research process

1 Observation 2 Data gathering 3 Problem definition 4 Theoretical framework (variables identified) 5 Hypotheses 6 Research design 7 Data collection,analysis,interpretation 8 Deduction 9 Report writing 10 Report presentation 11 Managerial decision making

Literature Survey

Broad Problem Area Currently existing problems Situations Requiring Improvement

Preliminary Data Collection Nature of the Data to be gathered Background Information Situation analysis

The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution. --Albert Einstein

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Problem Definition ProcessAscertain the decision makers objectives Determine unit of analysis

Understand background of the problem

Determine relevant variables

Isolate/identify the problem, not the symptoms

State research questions and objectives

Symptoms Can Be Confusing

9

Choose a Question that is Neither Too Broad or Too Narrow For example, if you choose Question A: Do children sent to day care or preschool start kindergarten with

more developed skills? Question B: Do children sent to day care or preschool start kindergarten with more highly developed language skills? Question C: Do children sent to day care or preschool start kindergarten with larger vocabularies?

Once you complete your list, review your questions in order to choose a usable one that is neither too broad nor too narrow. In this case, the best research question is b."The topic is broad enough to find more than just one or two sources, but it's limited to one focus--the development of preschool language skills. Question "a" is too broad since it focuses on all skills (e.g., language, social, small motor skills, large motor skills, etc.--you get the idea). You'd have to gather too much diverse information to answer question "a." There may or may not be enough information to answer question "c." You'd need to find more than just one or two studies if you chose to answer question "c." If you find that there are enough sources dealing with vocabulary only, then you could choose to pursue question "c."

Is the Research Question Too Broad, Too Narrow, or Okay? Question A: What marketing strategies does

the Coca-Cola company currently apply? Question B: What is the Coca-Cola company's future marketing plan? Question C: What marketing strategies has the Coca-Cola company used in the past?

Question A: What marketing strategies does

the Coca-Cola company currently apply?Question "a" is the best research question. Your research to answer this question may include observation of print, television, and radio advertisements as well as research into various current marketing theories and strategies. Both types of research are "do-able," and the question is focused enough to yield a fully-developed research paper.

Question B: What is the Coca-Cola

company's future marketing plan?Question "b" is very broad as well as being unresearchable--it's unlikely that Coca-Cola personnel will reveal their marketing plan.

Question C: What marketing strategies has

the Coca-Cola company used in the past?Too Narrow

Is the Research Question Too Broad, Too Narrow, or Okay?

Question A: What impact has deregulation had on the airline industry? Question B: What percentage of commercial airline crashes were traced to negligent maintenance during the 10 years immediately preceding and following deregulation? Question C: What impact has deregulation had on commercial airline safety?

Question A: What impact has deregulation had on the airline industry? too broad, since deregulation may have hadimpact on safety, costs, passenger fees, ability to comply with government regulations, and many other areas of the airline industry, too many to deal with in depth in one research paper.Question B: What percentage of commercial airline crashes were traced to negligent maintenance during the 10 years immediately preceding and following deregulation? too narrow. It can be answered

with simple percentages and cannot be developed into a full research paper.Question C: What impact has deregulation had on commercial airline safety? best research question. You may use statistics such as

question "b" would uncover as you answer question "c," which is focused enough to allow you to research the question in some depth yet broad enough to allow you to consider the various effects of deregulation on airline safety.

Basic Questions-Problem Definition What is the purpose of the study? How much is already known? Is additional background information necessary? What is to be measured? How? Can the data be made available? Should research be conducted? Can a hypothesis be formulated?

Literature SurveyThe available literature is reviewed to determine if there is already a solution to the problem.

Existing solutions do not always explain new observations. The existing solution might require some revision or even be discarded.

Literature Evaluation Its possible that the literature review has

yielded a solution to the proposed problem.

This means that you havent really done research.

On the other hand, if the literature review

turns up nothing, then additional research activities are justified.

How does writing a Literature Review help you? Expands your knowledge about the topic Improves Information Seeking skills Improves Critical Thinking skills

A Literature Review should consist of: An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in support of a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative theses entirely)

Components continued... Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research

Ask yourself these questions: Start the process by asking yourself: What is my research question? Am I looking at: Theory Methodology Policy Qualitative or Quantitative research

How to conduct the Literature Review Search for Resources Critical Review of the Literature Bibliography

Citations Or Acknowledging the Source

Citations IN-TEXT CITATION INALSO CALLED: PARENTHETICAL CITATION AUTHOR-DATE REFERENCE AUTHORREFERENCE LIST

Citation A reference or listing of the key pieces of information about a work that make it possible to identify and locate it again. again. The citation normally include: include: author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date of publication for a book; and book; journal title, volume, number, issue, year, and page numbers for an article or for a journal reference. reference.

Reference we quoted in the text needs detail consisting of : author name (Not inverted), title, pages of sources it could be as footnote, at the end of chapter or at the end of thesis. thesis.What

Bibliography In the context of academic research, a list of books or references to sources cited, for cited, further reading, usually printed at reading, the end of an article or in the back matter of a book. This includes: book. includes: author name, title, year, place of publication, publisher. publisher.

Foot Note Any note used to further explain a detail outside of the main text. The text. term usually refers to notes at the bottom of a page

IbidLatin word and stands for "ibidem", ibidem", Meaning Same as above and is used in numerical references.

Example

4. E. Vijh, Latin for dummies (New York: Academic, Vijh, 1997), p.23. 1997), p.23. 5. Ibid. Ibid. 6. Ibid., p.29. Ibid., p.29.

The reference in no. 5 is the same as in no. 4 (E. Vijh, Latin for no. no. (E. Vijh, dummies on page 23), whereas the reference in no. 6 refers to the same 23), no. work but at a different location, namely page 29. Intervening entries 29. require a reference to the original citation in the form "Ibid. "Ibid. ," (e.g."8. Ibid. 4" or "8. Ibid. 4, at 34"). Notice that (e. Ibid. Ibid. 34"). "ibid. "ibid." is always followed by a period/ full stop because it is itself an abbreviation

op cite

A Latin word which stands for: "opus citatum" "opere citato", Meaning as quoted above and is used in numerical references.

Example

9. R. Millan, Art of Latin Grammar Millan, (Academic: New York, 1997), p. 23. 10. G. Wiki, Language and Its Uses (Blah Ltd.: Old York, 2000), p. 17. 11. Millan, op. cit., p. 5. Millan,

The reference no. 11 is the same as in no 9. (R. Millan, Art of Latin Grammar), although Millan, Grammar), the page is different. different.

Examples: for Ibid and Op-Cite Op1. Henley and Bates (2007) Commercialization of

SOEs, London, OUP. 2. Ibid., p.3. 3. Tom Lines (2006) Potential of Foreign Investment in Kenya, London, OUP. 4. Henley, OP Cite, p.5. Cite,

Types of Citation:1.

Numerical Citations

2. Non numerical Citations

1. Harvard Referencing Style 2. APA 3. MLA 4. Chicago Style 5.Turabian Style based on Chicago Style 6. ASA 7. CBE - Council of Biology Editors 8. IEEE

Various Citation Style Manuals1. APA American Psychological Association [Used in Psychology, Education, and other Social Sciences] 2. MLA Modern Language Association [Used in literature, Arts, and Humanities] 3. Chicago Style Chicago Manual of Style [used with all subjects

4.Turabian Style based on Chicago Style [Designed to use with all subjects] 5. Harvard Referencing System [Used for all scholarly work] 6. ASA American Sociological Association [Used in all social Sciences Subjects] 7. CBE - Council of Biology Editors [Used in all Medical Science Research] 8. IEEE [Used for Computers and Engineering fields]

Which one Style to use?Ask your Supervisor which style he /she wants you to use. If there is no preference, you can use any of the style described.

Details of the Citations Styles

APA, Turabian, Chicago, AMAAuthor, Date, Author, Date, Title of Article/Title of Periodical/Book, Page, Place, Publisher Periodical/Book, Page, Place,

Harvard Author (s), Date, Title of Book, Title of Article/Title of Periodical, Volume, Page, Place of Publication, Publisher. MLAAuthor, Author, Title of Article/Title of Periodical, Place, Periodical, Place, Publisher , Date, Page (if any). Date,

IEEE Format:Same as MLA only diff of number in the ref/bib at the end of the paper. Author, Author, Title of Article/Title of Periodical, Periodical, Place, Place, Publisher , Date, Page Date, [1] Bates, Beyond the Miracles, Karachi, Miracles, SZABIST - Karachi. 1997. Karachi. 1997.

Citation DetailsHow to quote through diff sources?

Book Author (s) Date, Title of Book, Place of Book, Publication, Publisher Book with one author Henley John [1987] Converging on the evanescent, San-Francisco, Threshold SanPublications.

Book Article or Chapter James, N. E. (1988). Two sides of paradise, in D. Palumbo (Ed.), Spectrum of the fantastic (pp. 219-223). Westport, 219OUP.

More than Two Authors Jagezai Aurangzeb, et al [1976] [1976] Introduction to Political Science, 3rd ed., Macgraw, Hill Koga, Ltd., Tokyo. et al is an Italian Phrase derived from et alia means and others.

Journal Author (s) Date, Title of Article, Title of Journal, Volume, Pages, Place of Publication, Publisher. Khan Hamadullah [2007] Senior [2007] Citizens in Pakistan: A Case Study of Karachi. Journal of Independent Studies and Research, (Bi- Annual), (Bivolume: 2, no: 5, Karachi, SZABISTKarachi, SZABISTKhi.

Editor as an Author:

Lawrence H Seltzer, [1964] in ed., New [1964] Horizons of Economic Progress, Oxford University Press, London.

Books with both Author and EditorHanley John, [1999] Beyond the [1999] Privatization, in ed., John W. Doberstein, Commercialization of the SOEs, SOEs, New York, OUP.

Group AuthorAmerican Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the 2001). American Psychological Association Washington, DC, OUP .

Newspaper Article Farooqui Jalees, [Jan 27 Feb 2, 2003] Sugar Economy s Complexities, Daily Dawn Karachi, EBR section, p.I.

Website Lynch, T. (1996) Pakistan s Foreign Policy. Policy. Retrieved October 8, 1997, from Web site: 1997, http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiph i/DS9/ep/503r.html

If no Author given: Cite in the text the first one or two words of the article title. title.

Example: Full Title: California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers Citation: ( California, 1999)

News Paper without Author

Daily Dawn, Karachi [ Feb 17, 2003] Export Through Karachi Customs up by 19 pc, Staff Reporter.

EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Americana, 1999, ed., 1999, v.11. v.11.

DocumentsU.S Department of State [Jan 2003] 2003] Declaration of the U.N Conference on Food and Agriculture, War 2162. Document Series, no. 2162.

InterviewJohn Naught [12 May 2002] CEO [12 2002] Primus Co. San Jose, California.

Radio and TV ProgramBBC Hard Talk , 28 October 2002, 2002, narrator xyz,

Personal Communication/Interview

Example: T.K. Lutes, September 19, [2001], Personal 19, [2001], Communication.

Multivolume bookKoch, S. (1959-1963). Psychology: A (1959-1963). study of science (Vols. 1-6). New York: McGrawMcGraw-Hill.

Corporate/Organization as an Author

Ohio State University, [1977] College of Administrative Science, Center for Human Resources, The National Longitudinal Surveys Handbook.

State/Organization as an AuthorPakistan Government of [2003] Economic Survey 2002-3, Islamabad. 2002State Bank of Pakistan [2002] Annual Report 2001-2, Karachi. 2001-

ThesisHaleem Shaikh (2000). Coping Strategies of Counseling Professionals, Master s Thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

VideotapeBethesda (1980) National Institute on (1980) Mental Health, Drug abuse [videotape]

Cassette/CD:Lake, F. L. (Author and speaker). (1989). Bias and organizational decision making [Cassette/CD]. Gainesville: Edwards

Web pageGreen, C. (2000, April 16). History & (2000, 16). philosophy of psychology web resources. Retrieved May 22, 2001, 22, 2001, from ttp://www.yorku.ca/dept.htm

In source, if the date is unknown: unknown:1.

If the date is unknown, make a guess 2007]. and indicate [ca 2007]. If impossible to guess the date then indicate [no date].

2.

Sample Reference ListCalvillo, D. (1999). The theoretical development of aggression. aggression. Retrieved August 21, 2002 from: http://www.csubak.edu/~1vega/dustin2.html

Flory, R. K. (1969a). Attack behavior as a function of minimum interinterfood interval. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

12, 825-828. 825-

Flory, R. K. (1969b). Attack behavior in a multiple fixed-ratio schedule fixedof reinforcement. Psychonomic Science, 16, 383-386. 383Conti:

Citation in the textOne Author Example: (Kosik, 1999, p. 127) Two Authors citation Example: (Kosik & Martin, 1999, p. 127) Three or more authors citation: Example (Wilson et al., 2000)

Quoting same author, with several work published in diff years (chronological order, separated by comma) Example: (Burke, 1998, 1999, in press)

Quoting same author, with several work published in the same year.

Example: (Burke, 1998a, 1988b, 1988c)

Quoting same work of more than one author with the same last name.

Example: (H. James, 1878; W. James, 1880)

If the source has no known Author, Author, Then use an abbreviated version of the title: Example: Full Title: California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers Citation: ( California, 1999) 1999)

Text with Harvard Citations Style Example: The notion of an indivisible college has been explored in the sciences (Crow, 1980). It s 1980). absence amongst historians is noted by Sticks (1981b). As Barton (1985) points out that 1981b). (1985) they have no assistant or are reluctant to delegate (Smith, 1988, Chump 1999). 1988, 1999).

Text with Numerical Citations Style [APA] Example: The notion of an indivisible college has been explored in the sciences1. It s absence amongst historians is noted by Sticks 2. As Barton points out that they have no assistant 3 or are reluctant to delegate

References [Numerical Citation]1. R. Millan, "Art of Latin grammar" (Academic, New York, 1997), p. 23. 1997), 23. 2. Ibid, 1 3. G.Wiki "Blah and its uses" (Blah Ltd., Old York, "Blah 2000), p.17. 2000), p.17. 4. R. Millan, Op cit

IEEE Citation StyleReferences should be numbered sequentially by order of mention in the text, with the number placed in brackets and printed on the same line (not as a superscript) like [1]. The list of all references cited in the text should appear in numeric order at the end of the paper[2]. Don't use footnotes [1]. paper[ Samples of IEEE Reference Style Books [1] E. R. Tufte, Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, CT: Narrative. Graphics Press, 1996. 1996. [2] J. H. Watt and S. A. van den Berg, Research Methods for Communication Science. Boston, MA: Science. Allyn

Thank You

Research design Purpose of the study:

Exploratory study

Is undertaken when no information is available on how similar problems or research issues have been solved in the past Is to able to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation. Is undertaken to explain the variance in the dependent variable or to predict organizational outcomes.

Descriptive study

Hypotheses testing

Case studies

Research design can be thought of as the structure of research -- it is the "glue" that holds all of the elements in a research project together

Measurement The rating scale

Have several response catagories Likert scale is designed o exermine how strongly subject agree or disagree with statements on a 5-point scale Are used to tap preferences between two or more objects or items

Ranking scale

Goodness of measure : reliability,validity

Data collection methods Data can be collected in a variety ways ,data

sources can be primary or secondary. Data collection methods such as: interview(face-to-face,telephone,computerassisted interviews), Questionaires Observation Motivational techniques

Sampling A sample is a subset of the population. Sample is the process of selecting a sufficient

number of elements from the population. Studying a sample rather the entire population is sometimes to lead to more reliable results, mostly because fatigue is reduced,resulting in fewer errors on collection data. (time, cost,human resources) Surveys are useful and powerful in finding answers to research question but if data are not collected from the people or objects that can provide the correct answers to solve the problem, the survey will be in vain.

Data Analysis and Interpretation The data analysis involves three major steps, done in

roughly this order:

Cleaning and organizing the data for analysis (Data

Preparation) Describing the data (Descriptive Statistics) http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.php Testing Hypotheses and Models (Inferential

Statistics)

Descriptive Statistics Descriptive statistics

provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures. Central Tendency. The central tendency of a distribution is an estimate of the "center" of a distribution of values. There are three major types of estimates of central tendency:

Mean is the most common-used measure of data tendency.=average. Median is the middle value , when the data is arranged in numerical order. Mode is the value ( number) that appears the most. Dispersion (Range, Standard Diviation)refers to the spread of the values around the central tendency

Inferential statistics

t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), regression analysis, Correlation is a measure of the relation between two or more variables. we use inferential statistics to make judgments of the probability that an observed difference between groups. Thus, we use inferential statistics to make inferences from our data to more general conditions; we use descriptive statistics simply to describe what's going on in our data.

Statistics methods Central tendency

Exercise

http://www.quia.com/rr/51667.htmlhttp://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/Math/mean/Pmeasure.htmhttp://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/grizzly/432/Research.htm http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.php

The Research Report Researh proposal Research report Research presentation

Research report articles vary in how they are organized, : Abstract - Brief summary of the contents of the article Introduction - A explanation of the purpose of the study, a statement of the

research question(s) the study intends to address Literature review - A critical assessment of the work done so far on this topic, to show how the current study relates to what has already been done Methods - How the study was carried out (e.g. instruments or equipment, procedures, methods to gather and analyze data) Results - What was found in the course of the study Discussion - What do the results mean Conclusion - State the conclusions and implications of the results, and discuss how it relates to the work reviewed in the literature review; also, point to directions for further work in the area http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/tut/litrev/thelitrev.html

Research Proposal

Title Page Abstract (on a separate single page) The Body (no page breaks between sections in the body)

Introduction (2-3 pages) Methods (7-10 pages) Sample (1 page) Measures (2-3 pages) Design (2-3 pages) Procedures ( 2-3 pages) Results (2-3 pages) Conclusions (1-2 pages)

References Tables (one to a page) Figures (one to a page) Appendices Sample Paper http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/sampaper.php http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/guideelements.php Formatting http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/formatting.php