Research Methods and Evaluation

Chapter-1 Overview of Research

By
Workineh Tesema (Assistant Prof)

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 What research is?
“The systematic investigation into the study of
materials, sources, etc. in order to establish facts
and reach new conclusions.” (Concise Oxford
Dictionary)
Francis Galton “Statistical Enquiries into the
Efficacy of Prayer” (1872)

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 Learning outcomes

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

•understand what research is;
•outline the purpose and distinct focus of
management research;
•understand the stages you will need to complete
(and revisit) as part of your research process;

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 What is research?

Research is an activity that people undertake in order

to find out new things in a systematic way, thereby
increasing their knowledge. (Saunders et al 2012, p 5)
Research is an academic activity refers to a search for
knowledge
According to Clifford Woody research comprises
defining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested
solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data;
making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at
last carefully testing the conclusions to determine
whether they fit the formulating hypothesis.
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The concept systematic suggests:
–data are collected systematically;
–research is based on logical relationship and not
just beliefs, chance or luck;
–an explanation of data collection and analysis
methods;
–the researcher will argue why the results
obtained are meaningful and useful;
–the researcher will explain any drawbacks that
may have been encountered during the research.

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The phrase ‘to find out new things’ suggests that
there are many purposes for your research:
•Describing e.g. How many people use the internet
for 6hrs a day? How old are they? What is their
income?
•Explaining – e.g. good predictors of salary:
education, years of work experience;
•Gaining insight or understanding (satisfying
curiosity) e.g. social networking and political process;
•Addressing problems and answers to questions e.g.
customers leaving, sales are plummeting, profits are
down.
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• A scholarly inquiry or examination, especially a
critical and exhaustive investigation or
experimentation having for its aim the
DISCOVERY of new facts & their correct
INTERPRETATION,
• The revision of accepted conclusions, laws, or
theories in light of newly discovered facts or
the practical APPLICATION of such conclusions,
theories or laws.

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 What underlies research?

What underlies research?

Research has one main goal: discovery
•It involves consideration of relevant data in the
factual light of observation (primary & secondary)

•And then drawing conclusions from the (data)

facts - and only from the facts
–This process is termed the “scientific method” of
conducting research.

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•Method
–Techniques and procedures used to obtain and
analyse data (e.g. quantitative, qualitative) in a
systematic way.
•Methodology
–Theory of how research should be undertaken .

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Research is not…
•just collecting facts, books or
• information with no clear purpose;
•just copying other peoples work;
•reassembling and reordering
• facts or information without
• interpretation;
• a term to get your product or
• idea noticed and respected;
• merely telling a story.
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 Research should be

• your research should be worth the time and

energy, and
•Address an important question that can make a
difference.
•Advance the knowledge in that subject area.
•Not only collection of data, but interpretation
of data.

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 The research process

Wherever your research project lies on this basic-applied

continuum, the research is carried out paying attention to
the Research Process.
The precise number of phases or stages varies, but usually
include:
 Formulating and clarifying a topic and the problem
 Reviewing the literature; methods
 Designing the research
 Collecting the data
 Analyzing the data
 Writing up the research
These stages are linked and involve reiterative and recursive
activities.
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 Additional factors…

• The impact of your personal feeling and

beliefs
•Access to data
•Time and other resources
•Validity and reliability of the data
•Ethical issues

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 The purpose of research
• Is to discover answers to questions through
the application of scientific procedures. The
main aim of research is to find out the truth
which is hidden and which has not been
discovered as yet. Though each research study
has its own specific purpose, we may think of
research objectives as falling into a number of
following broad groupings:

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1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new
insights into it (studies with this object in view are termed as
exploratory or formulative research studies);
2. To depict accurately the characteristics of a particular
individual, situation or a group (studies with this object in
view are known as descriptive research studies);
3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs
or with which it is associated with something else (studies
with this object in view are known as diagnostic research
studies);
4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between
variables (such studies are known as hypothesis-testing
research studies).
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 TYPES OF RESEARCH
1. Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-
finding enquiries of different kinds. The major
purpose of descriptive research is description of the
state of affairs as it exists at present. In social
science and business research we quite often use the
term Ex-post-facto research for descriptive research
studies.
The main characteristic of this method is that the
researcher has no control over the variables; he can
only report what has happened or what is
happening.
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• Most ex post facto research projects are used for
descriptive studies in which the researcher seeks to
measure such items as, for example, frequency of
shopping, preferences of people, or similar data.
• Descriptive research is defined as a research
method that describes the characteristics of the
population or phenomenon that is being studied. This
methodology focuses more on the “what” of the
research subject rather than the “why” of the
research subject.
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 2. Analytical research
• Is a specific type of research that involves critical
thinking skills and the evaluation of facts and
information relative to the research being
conducted.
• A variety of people including students, doctors and
psychologists use analytical research during
studies to find the most relevant information.
• From analytical research, a person finds out
critical details to add new ideas to the material
being produced.
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• Some researchers conduct analytical research to
find supporting evidence to current research being
done in order to make the work more reliable.
• Other researchers conduct analytical research to
form new ideas about the topic being studied.
• Analytical research is conducted in a variety of
ways including literary research, public opinion,
scientific trials and Meta-analysis.
• It answers the questions why, how, when, what
will be.
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 3. Basic/Pure or fundamental research

• Basic research, also called pure research or

fundamental research, has the scientific
research aim to improve scientific theories for
improved understanding or prediction of
natural or other phenomena.
• Basic research is driven purely by curiosity
and a desire to expand our knowledge.

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• This type of research tends not to be directly
applicable to the real world in a direct way, but
enhances our understanding of the world
around us.
• So, the real difference between the two types
of research is what they will be used for.
• Will the research be used to help us understand
a real world problem and solve it, or will the
research further our general information?
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• Involves developing and testing theories and
hypothesis that are intellectually challenging
to the researcher but may or may not have
practical application at the present time or
future.
• Thus such work often involves the testing of
hypotheses containing very abstract and
specialized concept.

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 4. Applied research
• Is a research used to solve a specific, practical
problem of an individual or group.
• The study and research is used in business,
medicine and education in order to find solutions
that may cure diseases, solve scientific problems
or develop technology.
• Information gathered can be used for other
things such as policy formulation, administration
and enhancement of understanding of a situation

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• is a type of research that is used to answer a
specific question that has direct applications to
the world. This is the type of research that solves
a problem.
• Investigation of the findings of 'pure' or basic
research, to determine if they could be used to
develop new products.
• Information gathered can be used for other
things such as policy formulation, administration
and enhancement of understanding of a situation

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 5. Correlational Research
• Study is to discover or establish the existence
of a relationship/ association/ interdependence
between two or more aspects of a situation.
Example. What is the impact of an advertising
campaign on the sale of a product?
• A researcher measures two variables,
understands and assess the statistical
relationship between them with no influence
from any extraneous variable.
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 6. Explanatory Research
• Attempts to clarify why and how there is a
relationship between two aspects of a situation or
phenomenon. This type of research attempts to
explain for example, why stressful living results
in heart attacks, how the home environment
affects children’s level of academic.
• Exploratory study is undertaken when not much
is known about the situation at hand, or no
information is available on how similar problems
or issues have been solve in the past
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 7. Exploratory Research
• This is carried out to investigate the possibilities
of undertaking a particular research study. This
type of research is also called feasibility study or
pilot study It is usually carried out when a
researcher wants to explore areas about which
he/she has little or no knowledge.
• A small scale study is undertaken to decide if it
is worth carrying out a detailed investigation are
also carried out to develop, refine and or test
measurement tools and procedures.
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 8. Qualitative Vs Quantitative research
• Quantitative research is “explaining
phenomena by collecting numerical data that
are analysed using mathematically based
methods (in particular statistics).”
• Qualitative research seeks to answer
questions about why and how people behave
in the way that they do. It provides in-depth
information about human behavior.

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• Quantitative research emphasize objective
measurements and the statistical, mathematical,
or numerical analysis of data collected through
polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by
manipulating pre-existing statistical data using
computational techniques.
• Qualitative research is empirical research where
the data are not in the form of numbers 

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 Types of quantitative research

• Survey Research. Survey research uses

interviews, questionnaires, and sampling polls
• Correlational Research
• Causal-Comparative Research
• Experimental Research.

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 Types of Qualitative research
• Ethnography. Ethnographic research is
probably the most familiar and applicable type
of qualitative method.
• Narrative
• Phenomenological
• Grounded Theory
• Case Study.

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