3.

3 Research Design

Research design explains the questionnaire design, measurement of constructs, sampling techniques

and methods used for data collection (Bryman, 2003). Sekaran and Bougie (2016) explain that

research design describes the procedures followed for data collection and data analysis to find the

solution for the stated problem.

This study used the quantitative method for data collection because numbers (Likert scale) are used

to measure the constructs under study (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 1998). This study

adopts a survey research design. A survey method is adopted when a study is trying to assess

thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a given situation by collecting primary data from the

respondents (Fisher, 2007). The survey method allows the researcher to gather quantitative data and

analyse it using parametric and non-parametric statistics (Saunders, 2009).

Since, survey research provides a fast, cheap, efficient and accurate assessment and information

about a given population (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2013). Therefore, a survey method using

the questionnaire as the instrument for data collection is found to be more appropriate for this study.

Since the individual cellular service consumer is the unit of analysis for the present study so this

study considers each cellular service consumer’s response as an individual data source.

Moreover, this study gathered data and describes the characteristics of the population of the

study at one time and not over a long period of time; therefore, this study is a cross-sectional

study.

Furthermore, the seven-point Likert scale is used to gather response on each question since this

scale is widely used and tested in both marketing and social sciences research (Garland, 1991).

The following sections further explain the research design in depth.

3.3.3 Population

The population of Pakistan is divided into four provinces which are Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan

and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). The total population of Pakistan comprises of 193,251,142

individuals as of the year 2016. So cellular services consumers are distributed all across Pakistan.

Population statistics of Pakistan is given in Table 3.11

Table 3. 11
Pakistan Population Statistics for the Year 2016
Province Population (Individuals) Percentage (%)
Punjab 108,671,644.5 56
Sindh 44,446,360.94 23
KPK 25,908,548.9 13
Baluchistan 14,224,587.66 7
Total 193,251,142 100
Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2016).

3.3.4 Sampling Size

According to Sekaran and Bougie (2016), it is not possible to collect data from every individual

in the population. Hence, a particular sample is used to examine a small subset or portion of the

population for data collection (Cavana, Delahaye, & Sekaran, 2001). So, this study has collected

data from the capital cities of all the four provinces of Pakistan i.e Lahore (Punjab), Karachi

(Sindh), Quetta (Baluchistan) and Peshawar (KPK). The sample size is determined on the basis

of the recommendation given by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) which is given in Table 3.13. Since

the population of Pakistan is higher than one million, the sample size of 384 respondents is

sufficient to represent the population of Pakistan.

Table 3. 13
Sample Size Rule of Thumb
Population (N) Sample Size (n)
10,000 370
15,000 375
 20,000 377
30,000 379
40,000 380
50,000 381
75,000 382
1,000,000 384
Source: Krejcie and Morgan (1970).

Sampling Method and Data Collection Procedure

This study used mall intercept technique for data collection. The extant literature revealed that

past studies conducted in Pakistan (Ahmad et al., 2015; Butt & de Run, 2009; Danish et al.,

2015; Khan, 2010) and non-Pakistan studies (Hafez & Akther, 2017; Morgan & Govender, 2017)

have also used non probability sampling technique for studying the determinants of customer

loyalty in cellular service settings.

The data is collected through a personal-administered questionnaire Moreover, the researcher

herself collected the data from Mobilink customer service centre in Lahore (Punjab), while for

rest of the customer services centres in Lahore (Punjab), Karachi (Sindh), Peshawar (KPK) and

Quetta (Baluchistan), research assistant is hired for data collection.

The researcher worked for two and a half month from 1 December 2016 to 22 February 2017 at

the customer services centres of respective operators in two shifts i.e. 9am-12pm and 2pm-5pm.

On average 8 to 10 questionnaires have been collected each day.

3.3.1 Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire is given in Appendix B and it has three sections i.e. Section A consists of two

filter questions and questions related to constructs under study. Section B inquire about cellular

consumer’s characteristics and section C collect information about consumer’s demographics.

During the designing of the questionnaire to minimize the biases, three aspects considered important.

These included the wording of the questions, the planning of how the constructs are categorized and

the general appearance of the questionnaire (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).

R REMOVE ACCORDING TO SETTING

Demographics of Respondents

1. Current City of Work

󠇯 Lare

󠇯 Karachi

󠇯 Quetta

󠇯 Peshawar

2. Gender

󠇯 Male

󠇯Female

3. Age
󠇯 Below 18 years

󠇯 18-28 years

󠇯 29-39 years

󠇯 40-49 years

󠇯 50-59 years

󠇯 60 years and above

4. Education Level

󠇯 Middle and Below

󠇯 Matric

󠇯 Intermediate

󠇯Bachelors

󠇯 Masters and above

󠇯 Other, (Please specify_____________

5. Marital Status

󠇯 Single

󠇯 Married

󠇯 Divorced/Widow or Widower

6. Position

󠇯 Student

󠇯 Job Holder

󠇯 House Hold Wife

󠇯 Self Employed

󠇯 Other, (Please specify_____________

If you are a job holder, please answer question No. 7 & 8, otherwise skip to question No. 9.

7. Which career level do you belong to?

󠇯 Entry Level

󠇯 Mid-Career

󠇯 Top Management

󠇯 Others (please specify) _____________

8. Job Type

󠇯 Private

󠇯 Government

󠇯 Semi-government

9. Average Income
(Per Month)

󠇯 Below Rs. 15000

󠇯 Rs. 15001- 32000

󠇯 Rs. 32001- 49000

󠇯 Rs. 49001-66000

󠇯 Rs. 66001- 83000

󠇯 Rs. 83001-100,000

Average income
󠇯Below Rs. 15000 󠇯Rs. 150001-32000 󠇯Rs. 32001-49000 󠇯Rs. 49001-66000

󠇯Rs.66001-83000 󠇯Rs. 83001-100,000 󠇯Rs. 100,001 and above

Education level

󠇯Middle and below 󠇯Matric 󠇯Intermediate 󠇯 Bachelors

󠇯Masters and above 󠇯Other (Please specify ________________ )

Position

󠇯Student 󠇯Job Holder 󠇯 Household wife 󠇯Self-employed

󠇯Other (Please specify ________________ )

Marital Status

󠇯Single 󠇯Married 󠇯Divorced/Widow or Widower