CHAPTER 6

BUSINESS
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research Methodology:
Tools, Methods and Techniques

Sundram, V.P.K., Chandran, V.G.R., Atikah, S.B., Rohani, M., Nazura, M.S., Akmal, A.O., & Krishnasamy, T.
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Research Methodology: Tools, Methods and Techniques 2

Table of Content
6.1 BUSINESS RESEARCH DESIGN
6.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
6.3 TYPES OF INVESTIGATION
6.4 EXTENT OF RESEARCH INTERFERENCE
6.5 STUDY SETTING: CONTRIVED AND NON-CONTRIVED
6.6 UNIT OF ANALYSIS
6.7 TIME HORIZON

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 CHAPTER 6

6.1 BUSINESS RESEARCH DESIGN

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 There are 6 elements of research design:
 Purpose of the study
 Types of investigation
 Extent of researcher interference
 Study setting
 Unit of analysis
 Time horizon
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 CHAPTER 6

6.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

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6.2.1 Exploratory Studies
 This is an initial investigation to understand the
background of a problem and obtain the clearest
clarification pertaining to the problem.
 These are conducted with the expectation that
subsequent research will be required to provide
conclusive evidence.
Example

Why female university students patronize vape cafes?

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6.2.2 Descriptive Research
 This describes the characteristics of a population or
phenomenon.
 It determines the answers to whom, what, when and
how questions.
Example

What is the sociodemographic factors associated with tobacco use

among female university students in Klang Valley?

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6.2.3 Causal Research / Hypothesis Testing
 The main goal is to identify the cause-and-
effect relationship between variables.
Example

What is the effect of a health service on the control of a disease, or the

home environment on educational achievement?

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6.2.4 Case Study Analysis
 The case studies can involve contextual analyses of
similar situations in other organizations, in which
the nature of the problem and the problem
definition happen to be the same as the one
experienced
Example
in the current situation.
The historic town of Batu Gajah is located in the mountains of Perak State. The town
tourism offiscer, Mrs. Atika, said that she thought "many more people should visit here,
but they just don’t come. I don’t know why – maybe we don't have the right kinds of
places for them to eat or sleep and it's too far to travel in one day from the nearest city."
The appropriate case study for the above issue will be wondering what would have to
happen in order to make the town more attractive to tourists.

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6.2.5 Action Research
 Action research is known by many other names, including participatory
research, collaborative inquiry, emancipatory research, action learning, and
contextual action research, but all are variations on a theme. Put simply,
action research is “learning by doing” - a group of people identify a
problem, do something to resolve it, see how successful their efforts were,
and if not satisfied, try again.
 Most experimental research that takes place within social organisations and
not laboratories can be thought of as action research.
Example

A university lecturer has identified a problem in his classroom. The problem is that students do
not have much experience working in task groups, and he believes that they need to have more
opportunities to do so. The lecturer wants to assess the skill set of his students and observe their
overall approach to group work. By doing this, he feel that next time when offer group work, he
will have some new insight into what works well and what needs improvement regarding
conducting group work in a class.
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6.2.6 Operational Research
 It involves the application of the mathematical techniques and
principles to organisational problems.
 The organisation researcher tries to understand organisational
problems. After understanding what is going on, the next stage is to
construct a model of the organisation that can be used to explore
the different outcomes that would result from variations in the
elements that makes up the organisation.
Example
Beverly Steel, a major steel producer in Malaysia, manufactures coils of coated sheet metal. The
coating line works continuously. Depending upon the coil geometry and the coating material, the
coating line needs time-consuming adjustments. The goal is to prepare an optimal daily
production plan which minimizes the coating line down-time. Compared with the production plans
prepared in the previous way, application of the optimized plans achieved the down-time
reduction of up to 30 %, with the average of 10 %, significantly more than what was deemed to
be possible.
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 CHAPTER 6

6.3 TYPES OF INVESTIGATION

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 A clarification investigation the researcher is
trying to gain a clearer understanding of the
concepts involved in the research problem.
Example
Research may look at university environment, family background, and
maturation levels to see what aspect explains why some students
choose to participate in heavy smoking

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 A correlational relationship indicates that at
least two concepts or variables move
simultaneously.
Example

In a big city at summer, murder rate positively correlates with rate of ice-
cream consumption

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 A causal relationship indicates that one
concept or variable causes a movement in
another concept and variable.
Example
A restaurant wanting to find out why fewer customers were demanding
one of its sandwiches, so management might experiment to find out if
possibly the sandwich's current price or a new competitor's presence
in the area would be a cause.

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 CHAPTER 6

6.4 EXTENT OF RESEARCH

INTERFERENCE

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 The extent to which the researcher interferes
with the normal flow of work in the workplace
has a direct bearing of any research decision.
There are three of researches varying degrees
of interference – minimal, moderate and
excessive.

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 CHAPTER 6

6.5 STUDY SETTING: CONTRIVED

AND NON-CONTRIVED

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 Study Setting

Purpose of Research
Study Type Study Setting
Study Interference
Exploratory and Non-contrived Minimal
Field study
Descriptive setting interference

Correlation and Non-contrived Moderate

Field experiment
Causal setting interference

Contrived Excessive
Causal Lab experiment
setting interference

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 CHAPTER 6

6.6 UNIT OF ANALYSIS

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 The unit of analysis refers to the level of
aggregation of the data collected during the
subsequent data analysis stage.
1. Individuals
2. Dyads
3. Groups
4. Organization
5. Countries
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 CHAPTER 6

6.7 TIME HORIZON

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6.7.1 Cross Sectional
 A study can be carried out in which data are
gathered just once, perhaps over a period of
days, weeks or months, in order to meet a
research objective. They may either be single
cross-sectional or multiple cross-sectional
designs.
Example
The Equifax/Harris Survey is an annual telephone survey with a sample
of 1000 randomly chosen adults aged 18 and older. It deals with privacy
issues in marketing and marketing research.

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6.7.2 Longitudinal Studies

 The researcher might want to study people or

phenomena over a longer period of time in
order to meet the research objective.
Example

A marketing manager is interested in tracing the pattern of sales of a

particular product in four regions of the country on a quarterly basis for
the next two years. Since data are collected several times to answer the
same issue (tracing the pattern of sales), the study falls into the
longitudinal category.

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