UNIT-II

Research Designs: Exploratory, Descriptive and

Causal Research Designs.

Methods of Data Collection: Secondary data

and Qualitative research; Survey and
Observation methods; Motivation Research and
Projective Techniques.

Sunil Kushwaha 1
 “It is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation
conceived so as to obtain answer to research
questions and to control variance”.
- Kerlinger

 “It is a blue-print for the collection, measurement

and analysis of data”

- Bernard Philips

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I. It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of
information relevant to the research problem.

II. It is a strategy specifying which approach will be

used for gathering and analyzing the data.

III. It also includes the time and cost budgets.

IV. Flexible, Appropriate, and Efficient.

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1. Clear statement of the research problem;
2. Procedures and techniques to be used for
gathering information;
3. The population to be studied;
4. Methods to be used in processing and
analyzing data.

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 Smooth sailing of the various research operations

 Minimal expenditure of effort, time and money.

 Advance planning of the methods to be adopted

for collecting the data and the techniques to be
used in their analysis

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 Research
Design

Exploratory Conclusive
Research Research
Design Design

Causal
Descriptive
Research
Research Design
Design
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 As the name indicates, exploratory research is
mainly used to explore the insight of the general
research problem. This is used for the following
purposes:

A. Obtaining Background Information

B. Research Problem Formulation or Defining it More

Precisely

C. Identifying and Defining the Key Research Variables

D. Developing Hypotheses

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 As evident from the name, descriptive research is
conducted to describe the business or market
characteristics.
 The descriptive research mainly answers who,
what, when, where, and how kind of questions.
 It attempts to address who should be surveyed,
what, at what time (pre- and post-type of study),
from where (household, shopping mall, market,
and so on), and how this information should be
obtained (method of data collection).
 It can be further classified into cross-sectional
study and longitudinal study.

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 Cross sectional research design involves the collection
of information from a sample of a population at only
one point of time.
 In this study, various segments of the population are
sampled so that the relationship among the variables
may be investigated by cross tabulation (Zikmund,
2007).
 Sample surveys are cross-sectional studies in which the
samples happen to be a representative of the
population.
 The cross-sectional study generally involves large
samples from the population; hence, they are
sometimes referred as “sample surveys.”

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 Longitudinal study involves survey of the same
population over a period of time.
 There is a well-defined difference between a cross-
sectional study and a longitudinal study.
 In a longitudinal study, the sample remains the
same over a period of time. In a cross-sectional
design, a representative sample taken from the
population is studied at only one point of time.

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 Causal research is conducted to identify the cause-
and-effect relationship between two or more
business (or decision) variables. Many business
decisions are based on the causal relationship
between the variables of interest.
 As discussed, the descriptive research is able to
answer who, what, when, where, and how kind of
questions but not the “why” part of the question.
The causal research is designed to address the why
part of the question.

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12
 Methods
of
Data Collection

Primary Secondary
Data Data

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 Primary Data :
those which are collected afresh and for the first
time, and thus happen to be original in character.

Secondary Data:
those which have already been collected by
someone else and which have already been passed
through the statistical process.

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 The information is sought by way of
investigator’s own direct observation without
asking from the respondent.

Observation Studies Types

1. Behavioral Observation : Example: Body
movement, facial
expressions.

2. Non-behavioral Observation: Example: Store

audits, Time / motion studies of manufacturing
processes.

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For structured observation:
Detail what is to be observed and how the measurements
are to be recorded.

Example: an auditor performing inventory analysis in a

store.

In unstructured observation:
The observer monitors all aspects of the phenomenon
that seem relevant to the problem at hand.

Example: observing children playing with new toys.

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 To get the authentic information about the
problem, the researchers sometimes consult
the experts of the concerned field. These
experts provide authentic and relevant
information useful for the research, which
otherwise is difficult to obtain.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 The focus group interview is a qualitative
research technique in which a trained
moderator leads a small group of participants
to an unstructured discussion about the topic
of interest.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 A depth interview is a probing between a
highly skilled interviewer and a respondent
from the target population to unfold the
underlying opinions, motivations, emotions,
or feelings of an individual respondent on a
topic generally coined by the researcher.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 A case study research method actually
combines the record analysis and
observations from individual and group
interviews. The case studies become
particularly useful when one needs to
understand some particular problem or
situation in great depth and when one can
identify the cases rich in information.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 Projective technique is achieved by presenting the
respondents with ambiguous verbal or visual
stimulus materials, such as bubble cartoons, which
they need to make sense of by drawing from their
own experiences, thoughts, feelings, and
imagination before they can offer a response.
 In the field of business research, the projective
techniques are broadly classified as word
association, completion task, construction task,
and expressive task.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 Word Association: Word Association Word association
provides a technique that facilitates the study and shading of
attitudes, which cannot be ordinarily uncovered through
standard interview methods.
In the word association technique, the respondents are
required to respond to the presentation of an object by
indicating the first word, image, or thought that comes in his
or her mind as a response to that object.
 Completion Task : In a completion task, the respondent is
presented with an incomplete sentence, story, argument, or
conversation and asked to complete it. In the field of
business research, the two widely used completion task
techniques are sentence-completion task and story-
completion task.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 Construction Task : Construction task is related to the
completion task technique with a little difference. In the
construction task technique, the respondent is provided with less
initial structure as compared with the completion task where the
respondent is provided with an initial structure, and then, he or
she completes the task.
 In the field of business research, third-person questioning and
bubble drawing (cartoon testing) are two commonly used
construction techniques.
 Expressive Task: In expressive task technique, the respondents
are asked to role-play, act, or paint a specific (mostly desired by
the researcher) concept or situation. In the roleplaying
technique, the participant is required to act someone else’s
behaviour in a particular setting.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
 Secondary data sources can be broadly classified into internal
and external secondary data sources.
 The internal secondary data are generated within the
organization and the external secondary data are obtained
from the sources available outside the organization.
 The internal secondary data are the internal records of the
organization.
 The external secondary data can be further classified into the
following four groups: books, periodicals, and other
published material; reports and publication from government
sources; computerized commercial and other online data
sources; and media resources ( Figure 6.1 ).

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
Business Research Methods
Naval Bajpai
 The books, periodicals, and other published material
generally available in most of the libraries are big sources of
secondary data.
 Now, most of the big libraries in our country are in the
process of digitizing the published material.
 It seems that it will be convenient for a researcher to access
any information after a decade, which will be available in a
digital form.
 Libraries also provide access to some good research journals
of the country.

Business Research Methods

Naval Bajpai
1. Naval Bajpai, Business Research Methods,
2017,
2. Naresh Malhotra, Marketing Research: An
Applied Orientation, 1993

3. C. R. Kothari (2004) Research Methodology,

2nd revised edition, New Age International
(P) Ltd., Publishers.

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