Research project Dam Hoang Anh

TABLE OF CONTENT

Learning Outcome 1 ....................................................................................................................... 2

P1: Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis supported
by a literature review ................................................................................................................... 2

P2: Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary research
..................................................................................................................................................... 4

M1: Evaluate different research approaches and methodologies and make justification for the
choice of methods selected based on philosophical/ theoretical frameworks ............................. 5

D1: Critically evaluate research methodologies and processes in application to a business

research project to justify chosen research methods and analysis .............................................. 9

Learning outcome 2 ...................................................................................................................... 11

P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business research
project that consider costs, access and ethical issues ................................................................ 11

P4: Apply appropriate analytical tools, analyse research findings and data ............................. 16

M2: Discuss merits, limitations and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and analysis ..... 20

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 23

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Learning Outcome 1

_____________________________________________________________________________________

P1: Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or

hypothesis supported by a literature review

Research proposal

Generally, a research proposal is a comprehensive summary of a research which outlines the

central issues or questions that the researcher intends to address. It refers to the current state of
knowledge and any recent debates on the topic (MJur & MPhill, 2014). In other words, a research
proposal consists of all key elements mentioned on the research process and sufficient information
to evaluate the proposed study (Wong, 2015). There are some requirements must be mentioned.
Typically, a research proposal follows the content which includes: Title, Abstract, Introduction/
Background, Research context/ Problem statement, Purpose/Aims/ Rationale/ Research Questions,
Literature Review, Methodology, Implications/Significance, Contents of Research, Action Plan
and Bibliography. Each type of research follows different purpose of research proposal. If the
researcher do pure research, the research proposal should investigate new perception, new
perspective to readers. If it is an applied research, the research proposal’s purpose is to use current
model, theory to adapt in one relevant and specific context to solve the current issues. In general,
the purpose of a research proposal is to identify and justify the feasibility of its research, therefore
decide it should be conducted or not.

Research philosophies

When conducting a research project, one of the most important term that the research must figure
out from the beginning is research philosophies. According to Bajpai (2011), a research philosophy
is the natural source of knowledge development. In other words, it is the way the researcher
conduct, analyse and use the collected data. Basing on the stage of research process and its
assumpations about the natural sources of knowledge, there are 4 main research philosophies
should be distinguished that are epistemology, positivism, phenomenology, and pragmatism.

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As a philosophical method, epistemology is used to identify the natural source and possible
limitation of the studied knowledge. As observed by Burrell and Morgan (1979), the epistemology
concerns the assumptions about the acceptable, valid and legitimate knowledge. In simple words,
epistemology focuses on what is know as the truth. Particularly, it can be categoried into 4 types:
Intutitive, Authoritarian, Logical and Empirical knowledge (Dudovskiy, 2016).

Briefly, the second research philosophy, positivism is based on the idea that science is the only
method to figure out the truth. This method is measurable and observable because of using
statistical analysis; therefore, the data is limited to be collected and interpretated as an objective
study. Therefore, this type of research finding usually is observable and quantifiable (Collins,
2010, p.38).

In a research, phenomenology, which also is known as non-positivism, focus on the experiences

and events which all happen in reality. A research is conducted various data from stakeholders
interest or perspective and their reflection on the study. Hence, a phenomenology methodology is
used to explore human experiences (Dudovskiy, 2016). In other words, the purpose of this
philosophical approach is to describe the perspective of participants directly; therefore, it is more
reliable than other methodologies (Remeyni, Williams, Money, & Swartz, 1998).

The last method is pragmatism. Typically, this methodology follows the concept that things are
relevant when it supports action. In other words, there is no entire picture can be finished by only
one single viewpoint, and there always have wide range of different way to explore ‘this picture’
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).

Literature review

A literature review is designed as a summary of explored sources while researchers do research. It

provides an overview of all information related to chosen field of study (Arlene, 2014). The
purpose of a literature review is to explain the context of studied field and its contribution via the
understanding of researcher. As observed by Brown et al. (1995), the academic research must show
the knowledge basing on previous relevant work and awareness of the relevant theories. Thus, it
helps researcher saving time and working more effectively.

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There are two research criteria that a researcher should ensure to meet, which are relevance and
sufficiency. An information or knowledge is considered to be relevant when it comes from a
respectability sources and researcher do cite them properly in the reference part. Furthermore, the
information nowadays can be outdated very soon so a relevant research must include up-to-date
articles or books along with the development of the business environment. A research is considered
to be sufficient when it has enough of required information for the research.

P2: Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and

secondary research

There are two main types of a research methodologies that are quantitative and qualitative
researches. The researcher can choose one of those methods depended on the nature and context
of research, and the topic that they want to investigate as well.

Qualitative method is used to explore human behaviour, their perspective, reasons, or even
motivations as well. It provides deeper analysis into the problem and also helps to provide ideas
for quantitative research. Typically, it is designed unstructured or semi-structured which typically
are observations and experiments.

In contrast, Quantitative method is used to quantify the issues and generate its numerical data
and transform into usable statistics. The quantitative method can give a viewpoint in details but
also provide a general picture of information via large number of cases. Basically, the common
methodology to conduct the quantitative data is survey (DeFranzo, 2011).

There are different types of methods used to gather information, which typically fall into 3
categories: primary data, secondary data and mixed data.

Primary data, also refers as raw data, is the data collected from original source directly. The main
purpose of primary data is to provide solutions for research’ issues, which means it targets directly
to researchers’ needs. For example, the percentage of Internet users use e-commerce service is
conducted via questionnaires.

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Secondary data is originally collected by another researchers. It may come from article, case
study, journals and so on. To give an illustration, in article “E-commerce critical success factors:
East vs. West”, the author did several interviews and surveys over many countries and then
summarised conducted data into a table.

Mixed data is data collected through a methodology for conducting research that involves
collecting, analysing and integrating quantitative (e.g., experiments, surveys) and qualitative (e.g.,
focus groups, interviews) research. This approach to research is used when this integration
provides a better understanding of the research problem than either of each alone (Balinggan,
2018).

M1: Evaluate different research approaches and methodologies and make

justification for the choice of methods selected based on philosophical/
theoretical frameworks

Generally, as mentioned before, there are main approaches to gather and analyse data: quantitative
and qualitative approaches. Whereas some of researches follow qualitative researches, the others
like to be known as quantitative ones. But, both of these methods have pros and cons. This
assignment, therefore, aims to discuss the advantages and disadvantage of each methods.

Qualitative research approach

According to Ritchie et al. (2013), the qualitative approach is significant because it provides
central focus of this section and also defines the term clearly as well. There are wide range benefits
of using qualitative methods. First of all, this approach produces the detailed desription of
participants’ perspective, feelings, and experiences, or even the meaning of their actions. Secondly,
holistically, the qualitative research approach explores the deeper undersanding of human
experience in specific context. Moreover, during the data collection, the researchers have chance
to interact with participants directly. Therefore, they can know what happens while conduct data
through interview for instance. Thus, the data is more subjective and detailed. Last but not least,
the structure of a qualitative research is flexible and even can be reconstructed to a greater extent.
The participants have sufficient freedom to show that is consistent for them and the researcher
have opportunities to understand the complex issues easily (Maxwell, 2012).

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Beyond the above pros, there are some obvious limitations need to be mentioned. Firstly, in some
cases, the qualitative research method may focus on meanings and experience too much, and
sometimes leave out the contextual sensitives (Silverman, 2010). In other words, the researcher
many focus on participants’ experience rather than other imperative issues in the context.
Secondly, the small sample size raises the issue of generalizability to the whole population of the
research . For example, a sample is conducted from a business class cannot represent the whole
students’ opinion in this university. Moreover, the qualitative approach does not have specific
design and each participant has different perspective; therefore, the data interpretation and analysis
may be complex and difficult to understand (Rahman, 2017).

Quantitative research approach

In constrast, of course, the quantitative research approach is likely to be generalised to a whole

population because it conducts from larger sample size which also is randomly selected as well.
Thus, the quantitative research is an objective evaluation. In addition, the numercial data can be
conducted via several statistic tools such as SPSS (Connoldy, 2007). Thus, it takes less time
comsuming than others. Mostly basing on the positivism of measuring variables, the analysis is
more reliable and systematic (Rahman, 2017).

Given the advantages above, the quantitative method has some cons too. Firstly, it leaves out the
common meanings of human experience and perceptions. Because there is no connection between
respondents and interviewees while doing research, it is hard for research to understand the
particitpants’s perspective or feeling to conduct the right data (Rahman, 2017). In other words,
they cannot underly the exact meanings, explain and identify the true result for people’s action as
well (Blaikie, 2007). Besides, a quantitatice research requires a huge sample of population which
also leads to a great amount of cash (HRF, 2014).

Example of chosen articles

In oder to gather deeper understanding why each approach is chosen, two below aritcles, which
applied different methods, will be discussed and analysed based on its objectives.

The first article named “E-commerce critical success factors: East vs. West” by Kyung Sung
(2006). In this article, this researcher used quantitative approach to conduct and verify CSFs

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from various related studies and in-depth interviews. This parper examined the basic understading
and perspective of people about business success and its CSFs in term of e-commerce industry.
Thus, it leads to a wide range of both academic and practical insightful question. The research
investigates the variables which involves the summary of literature review on CSFs, CSFs and its
sample items, and socio-demographics research variables.

The field of questionnaries was undertaken in 2001, with participants responsed over 3 countries:
Korea, Japan and America. Over 700 EC firms were left and were designed as the target sample.
About 667 responses were returned, of which 167 were mentioned to be unusable. In addition, the
researcher did the interviews with managers in EC businesses, clarified over 30 related articles,
then a list of 16 CSFs consisting of 111 items was complied. Typically, the study follows three
main purposes:

(1) to clarify CSFs for EC business

(2) to test the explanatory power of these CSFs on its firm performance
(3) to compare the differences in evaluating CSFs and explaining the impact of CSFs on
performance among Korea, Japan, and USA.

Given the purposes above, it can be concluded that the researcher wanted to quantify the provided
results. This paper also aims to test the difference on the growth of EC and its impacts over
economy and society across nations in worldwide. Therefore, they chose the quantitative approach
for their research.

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The table above is an example of how the researcher use quantitative approach to conduct the
variance of CSFs across nations.

The second article named “The application of learning organization to enhance learning in
Singapore” by Kala S Retna and Pak Tee Ng, conducted in 2016. In this research, qualitative
approach is applied by researchers. As stated in the research: “Learning is a critical source of
competitive advantage for an enterprise (Casey, 2005; Garvin, 2000). The emergence of the
learning organization (LO) concept is recognition of the value of learning by individuals and
organizations for continuous improvement and adaptability to the ever-changing environment”
This paper presents research on the way LO is practised by a school in Singapore that subscribes
to the LO philosophy. This research took place in a Singapore school that subscribed to the LO
philosophy. The main research question was: how does a school in Singapore practice LO?
Therefore, it can be concluded that the main purpose of this article is to identify how Singapore
schools can enhance its learning culture through the application of learning organisation.

Looking at the research question, we can see that the researchers wanted to investigate a hypothesis
that has not been explored. The key word of the research is “How” and it required in-depth research
in order to answer. Also, the projected answers were varying and unstructured. Therefore, it is
more suitable for researchers to use qualitative approach for this research. That is why this article

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is using face-to-face interviews with staffs members, personal observations, and examination of
documents as well.

D1: Critically evaluate research methodologies and processes in application to

a business research project to justify chosen research methods and analysis

In the first article ‘E-commerce critical success factors: East vs. West’, there are some pros
when using questionnaire to collect data. Firstly, the options given to the respondents were very
clear and easy for people to understand. Thus, the answers provided by the respondents were also
related to the purpose of the research. Secondly, this study is conducted by both interviews and
related studies; therefore, the results provided by the respondents were both qualitative and
quantitative. The authors can measure the most important and the least important factors affect the
success of EC firms based on the quantitative answers they answered in the research. Lastly, as
the number of people who took part in the survey is quite large, using questionnaire is very
reasonable and time-saving for researchers.

On the other hand, there are several limitations should be mentioned. First of all, the research is
conducted in 3 areas: Seoul in Korea, Tokyo in Japan and Texas in America with its sample size:
N=196, 148, and 137. It may not really a large number enough to examine all CSFs and its
relationship with firm performance. Secondly, there are a quite number of important CSFs that this
article did not mention. Even there are more than 125 items in total, the researcher just chose 16
CSFs surpassing this standard; therefore, this article could not a comprehensive analysis as its
purpose. Thirdly, there are only two firm performance measures were used which are marketing
measure and accounting measure. Therefore, it might not adequately represent corporate
performance. In addition, the sample is not really specific enough to conclude which CSFs should
be applied in each kind of the industry. Specifically, this study did not different type of EC firms
such as online retailer as Amazon or bricks-and-clicks as Barnes and Noble. Hence, it may be
subjective verdict if the research confirmed a list CSFs and applied it to every kinds of industries.
Last but not least, there is a strong correlation coefficients between listed CSFs and its performance
so that it may be overlapped in this study. It means the represented result does not exact overall.

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With these limitations above, there are some recommendations in which the study can be extended.
The first direction, of course, the researcher can replicate the research with a larger population
setting including classified types of ECs firms in larger targeted countries. Secondly, the study can
be more comprehensive by including more CSFs for further investigation as well as be more
careful and empirical validate these CSFs. The third one is to measure independent variable. Thus,
more reliable and valid organizational level performance can be devised and empirically tested.
The last recommendation is to attempt a comparative study of CSFs between traditional off-line
firms and EC companies. Therefore, the different sets of offline and online firms may be produced.

In the second research ‘The application of learning organisation to enhance learning in

Singapore schools’ by Retna and Ng (2016), there are some pros of this approach can be
mentioned. First of all, using qualitative approach leads to the in-detailed research. Through using
face-to-face interviews, personal observations and examination of documents, all participants’
perspective and opinion were identified and elaborated specifically. Therefore, it is the most
practical solutions to meet the purpose of this article. Secondly, with the chosen number of
participants, the qualitative approach seems the reasonable approach can be used to conduct data.
Lastly, using qualitative approach helps the research identified participants specifically in all 4
main integrated aspects of a Learning Organisation.

There are also some shortcomings occurred when using this data collection approach. Interview
takes a lot of time to conduct, especially one-to-one interview. Therefore, the productivity of
researchers is limited. Also, the number of respondents cannot be optimized and expanded. For
example, in this research, one limitation is that it could only reached to 16 teachers in one
Singapore school, which is considered as a small sample in a large population. Therefore, it could
not present for all kinds of schools in Singapore such as state-owned or private schools. Another
disadvantage of this method is that researchers cannot generalize the answers of 16 teachers to a
larger population due to the personalization when they answer the interview.

With all these limitations above. There are some recommendations can be suggested. First of all,
the researcher can optimize and expand the number of respondents. In addition, they can do
interview at other schools, not only one. Besides, the research could do both quantitative and
qualitative approach at the same time. Using some quantitative tools such as survey or test helps
to back up the main approach. Therefore, the analysis will be more comprehensive as well.

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Learning outcome 2

______________________________________________________________________________

P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a

business research project that consider costs, access and ethical issues
Step of a research process

There is an agreement that research process is a multistage process. However, the core process is
usually a combination of data collection, data analysis and the dissertation completion. However,
there is a 7-step research process that is highly recommended by experts. The recommended
process includes topic research, proposal preparation and refinement, planning and administrative
set-up, critical literature review, data collection, data analysis and interpretation and completes the
project.

First step is Topic Research. Researcher must always take a look at the foundation and general
information of the chosen topic. Normally, researchers are likely to choose the topic that they
expertise about, therefore, they could save time in researching the basic concept of the topic.

The second step is Proposal Preparation and refinement. A research proposal is a

document proposing a research project, generally in the sciences or academia, and generally
constitutes a request for sponsorship or acceptance of that research (Wong, 2015). Proposals are
evaluated on the cost and potential impact of the proposed research, and on the soundness of the
proposed plan for carrying it out. Research proposal is like a mini version of the research, which
include abstract, introduction, problem statement, research objective and methodology.

Next stage is Planning and administrative set-up. The plan for the study is referred to as the
instrumentation plan. The instrumentation plan serves as the road map for the entire study,
specifying who will participate in the study; how, when, and where data will be collected; and the
content of the program. The researcher develops the plan for the walking program, indicating what
data will be collected, when and how the data will be collected, who will collect the data, and how

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the data will be analysed. The instrumentation plan specifies all the steps that must be completed
for the study. This ensures that the programmer has carefully thought through all these decisions
and that she provides a step-by-step plan to be followed in the study.

After that, it is the time for Critical literature review. Now that the problem has been identified,
the researcher must learn more about the topic under investigation. To do this, the researcher must
review the literature related to the research problem. This step provides foundational knowledge
about the problem area. The review of literature also educates the researcher about what studies
have been conducted in the past, how these studies were conducted, and the conclusions in the
problem area.

When it comes to implementing, first thing to do is data collection. Once the instrumentation plan
is completed, the actual study begins with the collection of data. The collection of data is a critical
step in providing the information needed to answer the research question. Every study includes the
collection of some type of data—whether it is from the literature or from subjects—to answer the
research question. Data can be collected in the form of words on a survey, with a questionnaire,
through observations, or from the literature.

After collecting data, it comes to data analysis. All the time, effort, and resources dedicated to
steps 1 through 6 of the research process culminate in this step. The researcher finally has data to
analyse so that the research question can be answered. In the instrumentation plan, the researcher
specified how the data will be analysed. The researcher now analyzes the data according to the
plan. The results of this analysis are then reviewed and summarized in a manner directly related to
the research questions.

At the end, researchers must clarify and finish the report. Researchers should read through the
text and check for any errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Also, researchers should make
sure the sources used are cited properly and make sure the message that they want to get across to
the reader has been thoroughly stated.

Sampling

Sampling is a process used in statistical analysis in which a predetermined number of observations

are taken from a larger population. The methodology used to sample from a larger population
depends on the type of analysis being performed.

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There are 3 factors that affect the size of the sample. The first one is population. The size of the
sample can be affected if the population is much larger than the sample or the population is related
into a specific category for example specific demography, specific expertise. The second one is
confidence level. Confidence level is expressed as a percentage, and is a measure about the
accuracy level of the result that researchers want. It is the estimated probability that a population
estimate lies within a given margin of error. The last one is precision, which is also referred as
confidence interval. It measures the precision with which an estimate from a single sample
approximates the population value.

A probability sample is a sample in which every unit in the population has a chance (greater than
zero) of being selected in the sample, and this probability can be accurately determined. The
combination of these traits makes it possible to produce unbiased estimates of population totals,
by weighting sampled units according to their probability of selection.

 Simple random sample: Every member and set of members has an equal chance of being
included in the sample. Technology, random number generators, or some other sort of
chance process is needed to get a simple random sample.
 Systematic random sample: Members of the population are put in some order. A starting
point is selected at random, and every n^th, end superscript member is selected to be in the
sample.
 Stratified random sample: The population is first split into groups. The overall sample
consists of some members from every group. The members from each group are chosen
randomly.
 Cluster random sample: The population is first split into groups. The overall sample
consists of every member from some of the groups. The groups are selected at random.
 Multi-stage is making the sample become smaller and smaller through a lot of stages. It
means that the population will be divided into groups (clusters). For each stage, researchers
will pick an element and choose the groups that have that element.

Nonprobability sampling is any sampling method where some elements of the population
have no chance of selection, or where the probability of selection can't be accurately determined.
It involves the selection of elements based on assumptions regarding the population of interest,

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which forms the criteria for selection. Hence, because the selection of elements is nonrandom,
nonprobability sampling does not allow the estimation of sampling errors.

 Quota sampling is like stratified sampling in that stratification factors are identified which
are thought to be relevant to the survey, but instead of sampling randomly the participants
to come from each stratum, the survey samplers themselves choose the people subjectively
from each stratum until sufficient people have been chosen and have responded.
 Given access to a population to be sampled, a survey organizer could try to take a
“representative” sample, which is called judgmental or purposive sampling, to select
what they think is a suitable mix of people to participate in the survey.
 Snowball (chain sampling, chain-referral sampling) means the sample is growing bigger as
a rolling snowball when the study can approach to the acquaintance of people who had
already involved in.
 An invitation to respond to a survey available on a web-site for example, is an example of
taking a self-selected sample unless the people invited to respond to the survey have been
selected already
 Convenience or accessibility sampling involves asking a sample of people to respond to
a survey. An example is distributing survey questionnaires at a meeting of a local
beekeeping association or at a beekeepers' convention.

Data collection methods, including qualitative (interview, questionnaires, observations,

experiments) and quantitative (questionnaire, surveys)

There are 2 types of method in data collection, namely qualitative and quantitative method.

Qualitative data collection methods should be discussed firstly in this part. These methods are
mainly concerned at gaining insights and understanding on underlying reasons and motivations,
so they tend to dig deeper. Since they cannot be quantified, measurability becomes an issue. This
lack of measurability leads to the preference for methods or tools that are largely unstructured or,
in some cases, maybe structured but only to a very small, limited extent.

Qualitative data collection methods include interview, questionnaires, observations, experiments,

etc. Interview means conversations between respondents and interviewers in order to find the
insight of respondents towards the topic that researchers are aiming to. Interview can be varying

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from structured, unstructured or semi-structured interview. Also, researchers can also collect data
through their own observations of events or behaviors of respondents then come to conclusion.
Observation is suitable when the topic is sensitive and people hesitate to share about it. Another
ways are conducting experiments and questionnaires.

On the other hand, quantitative data collection methods seek to the measured and numerical
data. Data can be readily quantified and generated into numerical form, which will then be
converted and processed into useful information mathematically. The result is often in the form of
statistics that is meaningful and, therefore, useful. Unlike qualitative methods, these quantitative
techniques usually make use of larger sample sizes because its measurable nature makes that
possible and easier.

Researchers using quantitative collection method usually focus on doing surveys and
questionnaires. They would create survey questions then distribute them to the sample to collect
data. Survey questions are usually numerical and measurable.

Definition of 3 criteria: validity, reliability and generalizability in the process of researching

project

Reliability refers to the repeatability of findings. If the study were to be done a second time, would
it yield the same results? If so, the data are reliable. If more than one person is observing behavior
or some event, all observers should agree on what is being recorded in order to claim that the data
are reliable. Reliability also applies to individual measures. When people take a vocabulary test
two times, their scores on the two occasions should be very similar. If so, the test can then be
described as reliable. To be reliable, an inventory measuring self-esteem should give the same
result if given twice to the same person within a short period of time. IQ tests should not give
different results over time (as intelligence is assumed to be a stable characteristic).

Validity refers to the credibility or believability of the research. Are the findings genuine? Is hand
strength a valid measure of intelligence? Almost certainly the answer is "No, it is not." Is score on
the SAT a valid predictor of GPA during the first year of college? The answer depends on the
amount of research support for such a relationship.

Generalizability is the characteristic of research findings that allow them to be applied to other
situations and other populations. While the dependability of this extension is not absolute, it is

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statistically probable. Because sound generalizability requires data on large populations,

quantitative research - experimental for instance - provides the best foundation for producing broad
generalizability. The larger the sample population, the more one can generalize the results.

Ethical consideration in conducting a research

Ethic means the understanding of researchers in what is right or wrong. The understanding can be
different among researchers. However, it is the discipline for them to conduct the research in such
aspects as what to research, how to do the research and why they do the research. For example, in
answering the question of “how”, experimenting on animals is harmless to some scientists but it
is unethical to others. Ethical consideration in a research is not only to answer the question what,
how and why but also a guideline for researcher to adopt the results they collected and write a
conclusion. It is normal for a researcher if the final results are different from the assumptions that
he or she has made before conducting the research. However, not everybody is pleased with that.
Researchers should always provide the truth about the results, no matter how unexpected it might
be.

P4: Apply appropriate analytical tools, analyse research findings and data

Quantitative data analysis

Quantitative analytical techniques usually deal with numbers and tell a story of the research
through the collected numerical data. It can refer to the relationships between numbers and the
trends that numbers seem to display. There are several types of number that are commonly used
when analysing the results.

The mean is just the average. It is the sum of all measurements, divided by the number of
measurements. This is the most used measure of central tendency, because of its mathematical
qualities. It works best if the data is distributed very evenly across the range, or is distributed in
the form of a normal or bell-shaped curve.

The mode is the measurement that has the greatest frequency, the one found the most of. Although
it isn't used that much, it is useful when differences are rare or when the differences are non-
numerical. The prototypical example of something is usually the mode.

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The median is the number at which half measurements are more than that number and half are less
than that number. The median is actually a better measure of centrality than the mean if data are
skewed, meaning lopsided.

Regression analysis involves identifying the relationship between a dependent variable and one
or more independent variables. A model of the relationship is hypothesized, and estimates of the
parameter values are used to develop an estimated regression equation. Various tests are then
employed to determine if the model is satisfactory. If the model is deemed satisfactory, the
estimated regression equation can be used to predict the value of the dependent variable given
values for the independent variables. (Armstrong, 2012)

To analyse and demonstrate the analysis in the paper, researchers can use various types of graphical
techniques. The most common graphs can be named as: table, bar chart, pie chart, histograms or
frequency table.

Tables showing the values of the cumulative distribution functions, probability functions, or
probability density functions of certain common distributions for different values of their
parameters, (Wilkins, 1980)

For example, this table is a synthetic of information collected in a class about Name, Gender,
Height and Weight. It can contain different values, different category in a table.

A pie chart (circle chart) is a circular statistical graphic, which is divided into slices to illustrate
numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice (and consequently its central angle
and area), is proportional to the quantity it represents. While it is named for its resemblance to a
pie which has been sliced, there are variations on the way it can be presented (Sofalof, 2015).

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This is an example of pie chart that represented the market share of desktop browser in 2016. The
pie chart can illustrate which browser occupied the most among the total browser. Unit in pie chart
is always converted to percent, which create a better visualization for the audience.

A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical data with rectangular bars
with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted
vertically or horizontally.

In this bar chart, the two column represented different category, specifically dolphins and whales.
The height of these columns represented the population of each category in each year.

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A frequency table shows the researcher how often a thing appears/occurs in a set of data. In
research, it is used to interpret the repeating time of an event or answer after collecting the date.

The table above is an example of frequency table. It represented the number of male and female
they approached when conducting their research. It does not represent the other aspects of male
and female, such as whom they are or what their answers are. It just simply represented that in the
total of 120 respondents, they met female from 21-30 years old 3 times, male from 21-30 years 61
times, and so on.

Qualitative data analysis

In qualitative data analysis, researchers convert the collected qualitative data into the insights,
understanding or explanation to answer the research questions. There are two ways that researchers
can follow to express their results, namely deductive and inductive approach.

Deductive approach, which is sometime considered as “top-down” approach, in qualitative

analysis means that researchers would do a research to test or to confirm of an existing theory.
Basically, researchers would choose a framework that has already established then narrow the
hypothesis down to only what is really related to the framework. After all, researchers would
confirm (or not) the chosen framework in the case that they studied.

Inductive approach works in another way. Inductive approach is sometimes called “bottom-up”
approach in research. It means that researchers would make a specific research (or observations
and measures) then come up with a broader theories based on their results. In another way, the
conclusion of the research is a framework that researchers generalize for a larger population.

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M2: Discuss merits, limitations and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and
analysis

Advantages and disadvantages of each data collection methods

Each data collection methods can bring benefits in this research but can be a shortage to other
research, each of which has both advantages and disadvantages based on the research purpose and
resources. The table below can clarify the pros and cons of different data collection methods,
categorized in qualitative and quantitative methods.

Advantages Disadvantages

- more in-depth information - can be time-consuming and costly

Interview - discover the feelings of - transcript might be understood in

respondents and their opinion different ways

- can reach a large number of - provided limited additional insights

Questionnaires respondents - little chance of investigating new

- provide measured answers insights of the topic

- suitable when the topic is - can be time-consuming

sensitive and difficult to share - can be viewed as too subjective
Observations
- provide real life situations - may create conflict about ethical
- in-depth understanding issues

- basic and straightforward

- may be lack of reliability when
approach and can be applied in
applied to real-life situations
Experiments many fields and topic
- human errors can occur any time and
- repeatable research therefore
affect the results
results can be checked and verified

Surveys - convenient data gathering - Inflexible design

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- low costs and time-saving - Not ideal for controversial issue

- approach to large sample - Inappropriate questions might affect

the results

Advantages and disadvantages of each data analysis tools

Similar to the ways researchers use to collect data, the ways they analyze those data also have
strengths and weaknesses in different situation. Here, the table below will inform the pros and cons
of each data analysis tools, namely regression, graphical techniques (pie chart, bar chart, frequency
table, tables), inductive and deductive approach.

Advantages Disadvantages

- provides prediction based on the - sometimes can be inflexible because

relationship among variables it always assume the cause & effect

- provides measure of errors based on relationship when variables remain

unchanged
Regression regression line
- can only be used to analyze
- can support decision making based on
measurable data, not qualitative data
forecasting techniques
(phenomenon)
- can seek new insights

- display relative proportions of - many pie charts may be needed to

multiple classes of data show changes over time
- size of the circle can be made - fail to reveal key assumptions,
Pie chart proportional to the total quantity it causes, effects, or patterns
represents
- be easily manipulated to yield false
- require minimal additional impressions
explanation

- well-categorized that can help - often requires additional explanation

Bar chart audience understand easily - difficult to expose key take away of
- make trends easier to highlight the results

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- visualize data rapidly by revealing - difficult to comprehend complex

outliers and trends variables or data sets
Frequency
- can help audience to look at the
table
general picture and can subjectively see
the trend and highlight

- can be useful for data with specific - does not click with the more
amounts rather than approximations. visually-oriented audience.
- viewers longer to comprehend and - only readily see increasing and
Tables
read due to the structure, and they also decreasing values as the x-value
do not provide a simplistic method for increments uniformly
capturing trends in data.

Inductive - can be more flexible and unlimited - results may not always be
Approach aspects of research generalizable

- easy to narrow the topic and research - take time finding and researching the
questions to be related with the existing related framework
Deductive
framework
Approach
- easy flow for audiences to follow as
they have a framework to relate to

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