Research

methods
Conf. univ. dr. Loredana IVAN
loredana.ivan@comunicare.ro
Asistent Univ. dr. Diana DUMITRIU
diana.dumitriu@comunicare.ro

2 MODULES
Questionnaire-based surveys
Content Analysis
Brainstorming
Ethnographic Research Online

Course & seminar

structure
C Course S Seminar 1 Basic principles of research 1 Research design 2
Conceptualization and operationalization. Building research questions and hypothesis
2 Levels of measurement
3 Questionnaire design and administration 3 Types of scales 4 Content Analysis Design
4 Internet-based research: general
overview 5 Building a database in SPSS (defining
variables, recoding variables, sorting data)
 5 Analyzing the quantitative data (I)*: Descriptive Statistics (frequency, mode, median,
mean, standard deviation) 6 Analyzing the quantitative data (II): elementary statistics
(Correlation, Cross Tabs)
6 Analyzing the quantitative data (II): elementary statistics (Correlation, Cross Tabs) 7
Population and sample (I) 7 Choosing the right subjects for
quantitative versus qualitative research 8 Sampling techniques (II) 8 Sampling
techniques 9 The specific of qualitative research 9 Subject-researcher relation in
qualitative
research 10 Qualitative methods. Interviews & Focus
groups
10 Qualitative methods in marketing
research 11 Brainstorming - how to produce creative
ideas
11 Brainstorming design
12 Doing Ethnographic Research Online.
Netnography
12 Netnography design. Challenges in doing
qualitative research online

3h
st
Evaluation. 1 Module
For the quantitative module the students will have to pass a final
test covering the topics from C1/S1 to C9/S9 (30 points).
There is also a team assignment (2 members) that consists in writing
a research project for a survey that aims to investigate one of the
following topics: a) Customer brand loyalty, b) Civic engagement or c)
Risk-taking behaviour (20 points). You should further narrow down
your research project to a specific aspect within these wider topics.
The final research project should provide a basic methodological
design, including: Research topic (briefly present the relevance of the
chosen topic) and a brief literature review section (max. 2 pages)
Research objectives Research questions / hypothesis (the relationship
between independent variables and dependent variables should be
theoretically driven and explained) Operationalization of main
concepts Population investigated Questionnaire design The
questionnaire should cover 3-4 pages, while the entire project should
have an upper limit of 8 pages. General text formatting: Times New
Roman, Justify, Font size: 12, Line spacing: 1.5. In your project
bibliography there should be at least 3 academic references.
N.B. You don't need to collect the data, nor to analyze them, as it is
just the design of a research project!
nd
Evaluation. 2 Module
Individual project
For the second module there will be an individual project
that consists in a description of a brainstorming session
or a small ethnographic research. For the brainstorming
session, the student should emphasis the production loss
and gains that could appear during a session used to
generate creative ideas for launching a project. Also the
brainstorming description should include all details: the
speech of the moderator, different parts of the sessions,
tasks description, aspects that you expect to stimulate the
creative ideas or to inhibit the generation of the new ideas.
The small ethnographic research should address an online
group of discussion (created around a public issue, public
actor, leisure activities, recreational activities and so on).
The ethnographic research should follow the online group
at least three weeks (50 points).

Evaluation & Attendance

The 2 modules are given an equal
percent out of the final grade: 50 % (50
points) for the first module & 50 % (50
points) for the second one
Students should attend at least 50% of the
courses and seminars for each module
(that means minimum 3 meetings for
each module)
First module

THE WAY I FEEL IS HARD TO QUANTIFY!

HOW HARD - ON A SCALE OF ONE TO
TEN?

MARKET RESEARCH

-
1

CARTOONSTOCK
.com

67% OUT TO
LUNCH
Search ID
MORRIS

Main objectives
Knowing the structure of a research
design and being able to build up a
quantitative research design
Understanding the particularities of different
types of surveys used in social science
and marketing research
Knowing the general principles of
designing a questionnaire
Knowing how to build a SPSS data base
and run some elementary statistical
analyses
Understanding which are the particularities
of the content analysis design and how it
can be used in advertising

2 in 1
Academic research
 Marketing research
Focus on
Questionnaire-based surveys
Content Analysis
Research approach(es)
Research approach(es)
Deductive
VS.
Inductive
Deductive Approach
➢ Search to explain causal relationships
between variables ➢ Use highly structured
methodology to facilitate replication for

reliability ➢ Concepts are best understood

if they are reduced to simple elements ➢

Generalization
It moves from a pattern that might be
logically or theoretically expected to
observations that test whether the expected
pattern actually occurs (from general to
specific)
Inductive Approach
➢Understand better the nature of problem
➢Make sense of data and analyze it to formulate
theory ➢Concerned with the context in which
events take place ➢Study of small samples
is more appropriate ➢Works better with
qualitative data
Inductive reasoning moves from the
particular to the general, from a set of
specific observations to the discovery of a
pattern that represents some degree of
order among all the given events.
Deductive vs. Inductive
Approach
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Approach
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Approach
Objective, cognoscible reality
Numerical data
High standardization
Makes aggregating and summarizing data
easier & it opens up
Non-numerical data
the possibility of statistical analyses
Generalization of the results
Subjective reality, all about perceptions
Qualitative data are richer in meaning & detail
Provide in-depth understanding
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Approach
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Approach
Quantitative Research
➢ Focus on facts.
➢ Look for causality and fundamental
laws.
➢ Reduce phenomena to simplest
elements
➢ Formulate hypotheses and then
test them.
➢ Allow for the generalization of the
results
Qualitative Research
➢ Focus on meaning.
➢ Try to understand what is happening & how people
experience and perceive a certain aspect
➢ Look at the totality of each situation.
➢ (Usually) Develop ideas through
induction from data.
➢ Provide in-depth understanding of
social phenomena within their contexts

Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Approach
Methodological triangulation – both quantitative and

qualitative methods of data collection are used

Investigator triangulation – different researchers

independently collect data on the same phenomenon and

compare the results

Data triangulation – data is collected at different times or

from different sources in a study of the phenomenon

Triangulation of theories – a theory is taken from one

discipline and used to explain a phenomenon in another

discipline

No matter the methodology...

CONTEXTUALIZATION is a
MUST
Don’t look for
 (re)discovering America!
Stay FOCUSED
Research time-frame
Cross-Sectional Studies
Longitudinal Studies
Longitudinal studies
Cohort studies
Trend Studies
Panel studies
examine changes within a population over time; a
given characteristic of some population is monitored
over time.
examine specific subpopulations, or cohorts, as
they change over time, although data may be
collected from different members in each set of
observations. (typically, a cohort is an age group)
Though similar to trend and cohort studies, they
examine the same set of people each time (the
sample or panel) at several points in time.

Purposes of research
Purposes of research
Exploration
Description
Explanation
Exploration
find out ‘what is happening’, search for new
insights, ask questions in new light
➢Explore a topic & start to familiarize a
researcher with that topic ➢Useful when
clarifying understanding of phenomenon
➢Researcher must be ready to change direction as
result
of new insights ➢Focus is initially broad and
becomes more narrow through research ➢This
approach typically occurs when a researcher
examines a new
interest or when the subject of study itself is
relatively new.
Description
To portray accurate profile of
persons,
events, situations. The objective of
descriptive research is to learn
about the:
➢Who ➢What ➢When ➢Where ➢How
... of your area of study.
Explanation
Seek to establish causal
relationships between variables
➢Emphasis on studying situation/problem
in order to
explain relationships between
variables
➢ Address questions of “Why?”
N.B.
Research may have more
than one purpose and it may
change over time
Overview

Research
Design
What and when to do...
Key elements of the research
process
In other words ...
Research “steps”
1. Identify and define a research problem 2.
Literature Review & documentation 3.
Research objectives 4. Research questions /
hypotheses 5. Conceptualization &
Operationalization 6. Choosing the research
method 7. Population an sampling 8.
Research instruments 9. Pretesting your
research instruments 10. Data collection 11.
Data processing 12. Data analysis &
interpretation 13. Research report &
dissemination
Never-ending questions
WHAT
WHEN
WHO
WHY
HOW
WHAT IF
WHAT NOW
 SO WHAT
Key elements of the research
process
Conceptualization
Notions (concepts) are made more specific
and precise.
The process through which you specify
what you mean when we use particular
terms in research.
Produces a specific agreed-on meaning
for a concept, for the purposes of research
Conceptualization
Conceptualization
(examples)
Sociable: fond of the company of

others, marked by or affording

occasion for agreeable conversation

and conviviality.
Social capital refers to the
institutions, relationships, and norms
that shape the quality and quantity of
a society's social interactions.
Nominal Definitions
Nominal definitions are arbitrary and
represent some consensus, or
convention, about how a particular term is
to be used

Xenophobe: fearful which strangers different

or is countries foreign, contemptuous or A

of person or people especially cultures.

who of from that of is

Examples
Risk Management
Entrepreneurial spirit
Time Management
Examples
Risk Management
tracking and
assessing the level of project risk and taking action to
minimize it
recording time spent on tasks against the Project Plan
Entrepreneurial spirit
A general attitude & approach of actively seeking out
change and opportunities to exploit, embracing critical
questioning, risk taking, innovation, and continuous
improvement.
Time Management
Going further
I know what it is, now what
is the next step?
Operationalization
HOW WILL I MEASURE
THE CONCEPT?
Operationalization
Operationalization is the development of
specific research procedures
(operations) that will result in empirical
observations representing those concepts
in the real world.
Make the concept property operational
involves establishing the rules for its
transformation into empirical operations.
Operational definition specify precisely
how a concept will be measured
Operationalization
HOW TO DO THAT?
Indicators & dimensions of a
concept
An indicator is a sign of the presence or
absence of the concept we’re studying. An
observation that we choose to consider as
a reflection of a concept we wish to study.
Concept dimension is a a specifiable
aspect of a concept under which we can
group a similar set of indicators.
Basic scheme (example)
Indicator 1
Dimension 1
Indicator 2
CONCEPT
Indicator 1
Dimension 1
Indicator 2
Indicator 2