UNIT -1

RESEARCH
Research in simple terms refers to search for knowledge. It is a scientific and systematic search
for information on a particular topic or issue. It is also known as the art of scientific
investigation. Several social scientists have defined research in different ways.

Research Design:

The most important step after defining the research problem is preparing the design of the
research project, which is popularly known as the ‘research design’. A research design helps to
decide upon issues like what, when, where, how much, by what means etc. With regard to an
enquiry or a research study.

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a
manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.
Infact, research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it
constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data .

the research design highlights decisions which include:

1. The nature of the study
2. The purpose of the study
3. The location where the study would be conducted
4. The nature of data required
5. From where the required data can be collected
6. What time period the study would cover
7. The type of sample design that would be used
8. The techniques of data collection that would be used
9. The methods of data analysis that would be adopted and
10. The manner in which the report would be prepared

Features Of Research Design:

The important features of Research Design may be outlined as follows:

i. It constitutes a plan that identifies the types and sources of information required for the
research problem;
ii. It constitutes a strategy that specifies the methods of data collection and analysis which
would be adopted; and
iii. It also specifies the time period of research and monetary budget involved in conducting the
study, which comprise the two major constraints of undertaking any research

Types Of Research Design:

There are different types of research designs. They may be broadly categorized as:
(1) Exploratory Research Design;
(2) Descriptive and Diagnostic Research Design; and
(3) Hypothesis-Testing Research Design.

1. Exploratory Research Design: The Exploratory Research Design is known as formulative

research design. The main objective of using such a research design is to formulate a research
problem for an in-depth or more precise investigation, or for developing a working hypothesis
from an operational aspect. The major purpose of such studies is the discovery of ideas and
insights. Therefore, such a research design suitable for such a study should be flexible enough
to provide opportunity for considering different dimensions of the problem under study. The
in-built flexibility in research design is required as the initial research problem would be
transformed into a more precise one in the exploratory study, which in turn may necessitate
changes in the research procedure for collecting relevant data. Usually, the following three
methods are considered in the context of a research design for such studies.
They are (a) a survey of related literature; (b) experience survey; and (c) analysis of
‘insight-stimulating’ instances.

2. Descriptive And Diagnostic Research Design: A Descriptive Research Design is concerned

with describing the characteristics of a particular individual or a group. Meanwhile, a
diagnostic research design determines the frequency with which a variable occurs or its
relationship with another variable. In other words, the study analyzing whether a certain
variable is associated with another comprises a diagnostic research study. On the other hand, a
study that is concerned with specific predictions or with the narration of facts and
characteristics related to an individual, group or situation, are instances of descriptive research
studies. Generally, most of the social research design falls under this category. As a research
design, both the descriptive and diagnostic studies share common requirements, hence they are
grouped together. However, the procedure to be used and the research design need to planned
carefully. The research design must also make appropriate provision for protection against bias
and thus maximize reliability, with due regard to the completion of the research study in an
economical manner. The research design in such studies should be rigid and not flexible.
Besides, it must also focus attention on the following: a) Formulation of the objectives of the
study, b) Proper designing of the methods of data collection, c) Sample selection, d) Data
collection, e) Processing and analysis of the collected data, and f) Reporting the findings.
3)Hypothesis-Testing Research Design: Hypothesis-Testing Research Designs are those in
which the researcher tests the hypothesis of causal relationship between two or more variables.
These studies require procedures that would not only decrease bias and enhance reliability, but
also facilitate deriving inferences about the causality. Generally, experiments satisfy such
requirements. Hence, when research design is discussed in such studies, it often refers to the
design of experiments.

MEASUREMENT
Measurement is the process of observing and recording the observations that are collected as
part of a research effort. There are two major issues that will be considered here. First, you
have to understand the fundamental ideas involved in measuring. Here we consider two of
major measurement concepts.

MEASUREMENT SCALES

From what has been stated above, we can write that scales of measurement can be considered
in terms of their mathematical properties. The most widely used classification of measurement
scales are: (a) nominal scale; (b) ordinal scale; (c) interval scale; and (d) ratio scale

Nominal Scales: Nominal scale is the simplest form of measurement. A variable measured on
a nominal is one which is divided into two or more categories, for example, gender is
categorized as male or female, a question as to whether a family owns a iPhone can be
answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. It is simply a sorting operation in which all individuals or units or
answers can be placed in one category or another (i.e. the categories are exhaustive). The
essential characteristic of a nominal scale is that in terms of a given variable, one individual is
different from another and the categories are discriminate

Ordinal Scales: Ordinal scales have all the properties of a nominal scale, but, in addition,
categories can be ordered along a continuum, in terms of a given criterion. Given three
categories A, B and C, on an ordinal scale, one might be able to say, for e.g., that A is greater
than B and B is greater than C. If numerals are assigned to ordinal scale categories, the
numerals serve only as ranks for ordering observations from least to most in terms of the
characteristic measured and they do not indicate the distance between scale that organizes
observations in terms of categories such as high, medium and low or strongly agree, agree, not
sure, disagree, and strong disagree.

Interval Scales: Interval scales incorporate all the properties of nominal and ordinal scales and
in addition, indicate the distance or interval between the categories. In formal terms one can say
not only that A is greater than B and B is greater than C but also that (A-B)=(B-C) or
(A-C)=(A-B)+(B-C). Examples of interval scale include age, income and investments.
However, an interval scale is one where there is no absolute zero point. It can be placed
anywhere along a continuum e.g., the age can be between 20 to 60 years and need not
necessarily start from 0 years. This makes ratio comparison, that A is twice that of B or so
wrong.

Ratio Scales: A special form of interval scale is the ratio scale which differs in that it has a true
zero point or a point at which the characteristic that is measured is presumed to be absent.
Examples of ratio scales include, weight, length, income, expenditure and others. In each there
is a concept of zero income, zero weight, etc. Since ratio scales represent a refinement of
interval scales, generally these scales are not distinguished and both the terms are used
inter-changeably.

Meaning of Scaling
Scaling describes the procedures of assigning numbers to various degrees of opinion, attitude
and other concepts. This can be done in two ways viz., (i) making a judgement about some
characteristic of an individual and then placing him directly on a scale that has been defined in
terms of that characteristic and (ii) constructing questionnaires in such a way that the score of
individual’s responses assigns him a place on a scale. It may be stated here that a scale is a
continuum, consisting of the highest point (in terms of some characteristic e.g., preference,
favourableness, etc.) and the lowest point along with several intermediate points between these
two extreme points.

Scale Classification
Bases The number assigning procedures or the scaling procedures may be broadly classified on
one or more of the following bases: (a) subject orientation; (b) response form; (c) degree of
subjectivity; (d) scale properties; (e) number of dimensions and (f) scale construction
techniques. We take up each of these separately.

(a) Subject orientation: Under it a scale may be designed to measure characteristics of the
respondent who completes it or to judge the stimulus object which is presented to the
respondent. In respect of the former, we presume that the stimuli presented are sufficiently
homogeneous so that the betweenstimuli variation is small as compared to the variation among
respondents. In the latter approach, we ask the respondent to judge some specific object in terms
of one or more dimensions and we presume that the between-respondent variation will be small
as compared to the variation among the different stimuli presented to respondents for judging.

(b) Response form: Under this we may classify the scales as categorical and comparative.
Categorical scales are also known as rating scales. These scales are used when a respondent
scores some object without direct reference to other objects. Under comparative scales, which
are also known as ranking scales, the respondent is asked to compare two or more objects. In
this sense the respondent may state that one object is superior to the other or that three models
of pen rank in order 1, 2 and 3. The essence of ranking is, in fact, a relative comparison of a
certain property of two or more objects.

(c) Degree of subjectivity: With this basis the scale data may be based on whether we measure
subjective personal preferences or simply make non-preference judgements. In the former case,
the respondent is asked to choose which person he favours or which solution he would like to
see employed, whereas in the latter case he is simply asked to judge which person is more
effective in some aspect or which solution will take fewer resources without reflecting any
personal preference.

(d) Scale properties: Considering scale properties, one may classify the scales as nominal,
ordinal, interval and ratio scales. Nominal scales merely classify without indicating order,
distance or unique origin. Ordinal scales indicate magnitude relationships of ‘more than’ or
‘less than’, but indicate no distance or unique origin. Interval scales have both order and
distance values, but no unique origin. Ratio scales possess all these features.

(e) Number of dimensions: In respect of this basis, scales can be classified as ‘unidimensional’
and ‘multidimensional’ scales. Under the former we measure only one attribute of the
respondent or object, whereas multidimensional scaling recognizes that an object might be
described better by using the concept of an attribute space of ‘n’ dimensions, rather than a
single-dimmension continuum.

SAMPLING
Sampling is a technique of selecting individual members or a subset of the population to make
statistical inferences from them and estimate characteristics of the whole population. Different
sampling methods are widely used by researchers in market research so that they do not need to
research the entire population to collect actionable insights.It is also a time-convenient and a
cost-effective method and hence forms the basis of any research design. Sampling techniques
can be used in a research survey software for optimum derivation.

Types of sampling: sampling methods

Sampling in market research is of two types – probability sampling and non-probability
sampling. Let’s take a closer look at these two methods of sampling.

1. Probability sampling: Probability sampling is a sampling technique where a

researcher sets a selection of a few criteria and chooses members of a population randomly.
All the members have an equal opportunity to be a part of the sample with this selection
parameter.
2. Non-probability sampling: In non-probability sampling, the researcher chooses
members for research at random. This sampling method is not a fixed or predefined selection
process. This makes it difficult for all elements of a population to have equal opportunities to
be included in a sample.

There are four types of probability sampling techniques:

Simple random sampling: One of the best probability sampling techniques that helps in
saving time and resources, is the Simple Random Sampling method. It is a reliable method
of obtaining information where every single member of a population is chosen randomly,
merely by chance. Each individual has the same probability of being chosen to be a part of a
sample.
For example, in an organization of 500 employees, if the HR team decides on conducting
team building activities, it is highly likely that they would prefer picking chits out of a bowl.
In this case, each of the 500 employees has an equal opportunity of being selected.

Cluster sampling: Cluster sampling is a method where the researchers divide the entire
population into sections or clusters that represent a population. Clusters are identified and
included in a sample based on demographic parameters like age, sex, location, etc. This
makes it very simple for a survey creator to derive effective inference from the feedback.
For example, if the United States government wishes to evaluate the number of immigrants
living in the Mainland US, they can divide it into clusters based on states such as California,
Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, Hawaii, etc. This way of conducting a survey will
be more effective as the results will be organized into states and provide insightful
immigration data.

Systematic sampling: Researchers use the systematic sampling method to choose the
sample members of a population at regular intervals. It requires the selection of a starting
point for the sample and sample size that can be repeated at regular intervals. This type of
sampling method has a predefined range, and hence this sampling technique is the least
time-consuming.
For example, a researcher intends to collect a systematic sample of 500 people in a
population of 5000. He/she numbers each element of the population from 1-5000 and will
choose every 10th individual to be a part of the sample (Total population/ Sample Size =
5000/500 = 10).

Stratified random sampling: Stratified random sampling is a method in which the

researcher divides the population into smaller groups that don’t overlap but represent the
entire population. While sampling, these groups can be organized and then draw a sample
from each group separately.
For example, a researcher looking to analyze the characteristics of people belonging to
different annual income divisions will create strata (groups) according to the annual family
income. Eg – less than $20,000, $21,000 – $30,000, $31,000 to $40,000, $41,000 to
$50,000, etc. By doing this, the researcher concludes the characteristics of people belonging
to different income groups. Marketers can analyze which income groups to target and which
ones to eliminate to create a roadmap that would bear fruitful results.

Types of non-probability sampling with examples

The non-probability method is a sampling method that involves a collection of feedback
based on a researcher or statistician’s sample selection capabilities and not on a fixed
selection process. In most situations, the output of a survey conducted with a non-probable
sample leads to skewed results, which may not represent the desired target population. But,
there are situations such as the preliminary stages of research or cost constraints for
conducting research, where non-probability sampling will be much more useful than the
other type.

Four types of non-probability sampling explain the purpose of this sampling method in a
better manner:

Convenience sampling: This method is dependent on the ease of access to subjects such as
surveying customers at a mall or passers-by on a busy street. It is usually termed as
convenience sampling, because of the researcher’s ease of carrying it out and getting in
touch with the subjects. Researchers have nearly no authority to select the sample elements,
and it’s purely done based on proximity and not representativeness. This non-probability
sampling method is used when there are time and cost limitations in collecting feedback. In
situations where there are resource limitations such as the initial stages of research,
convenience sampling is used.
For example, startups and NGOs usually conduct convenience sampling at a mall to
distribute leaflets of upcoming events or promotion of a cause – they do that by standing at
the mall entrance and giving out pamphlets randomly.

Judgmental or purposive sampling: Judgemental or purposive samples are formed by the

discretion of the researcher. Researchers purely consider the purpose of the study, along with
the understanding of the target audience. For instance, when researchers want to understand
the thought process of people interested in studying for their master’s degree. The selection
criteria will be: “Are you interested in doing your masters in …?” and those who respond
with a “No” are excluded from the sample.

Snowball sampling: Snowball sampling is a sampling method that researchers apply when
the subjects are difficult to trace. For example, it will be extremely challenging to survey
shelterless people or illegal immigrants. In such cases, using the snowball theory,
researchers can track a few categories to interview and derive results. Researchers also
implement this sampling method in situations where the topic is highly sensitive and not
openly discussed—for example, surveys to gather information about HIV Aids. Not many
victims will readily respond to the questions. Still, researchers can contact people they
might know or volunteers associated with the cause to get in touch with the victims and
collect information.

Quota sampling: In Quota sampling, the selection of members in this sampling technique
happens based on a pre-set standard. In this case, as a sample is formed based on specific
attributes, the created sample will have the same qualities found in the total population. It
is a rapid method of collecting samples.