DESIGNING RESEARCH PLAN

By Dr Zairul Nisham Musa

 INTRODUCTION
• Research involves an overall planning about
the direction & activities that we are going to
undertake in our research before we started.
This, usually takes a lot of time & expenditure
• A proper research design will ensure the
research will be achieved within the
timeframe and at costs effective.
 What is Research Design?
• A research design is a basic plan that guides the
data collection and analysis phases of the research.
• Research Design can be a plan of action, specifying
the methods and procedures for collecting and
analysing the needed information, for fulfilling the
research objectives and finding the solutions.
• For any investigation, the selection of an appropriate
research design is crucial in enabling you to arrive at
valid findings, comparisons and conclusions.
 The Function of Research Design
• The main function of a research design is to explain
how you will find answers to your research
questions.
• Yin (1994) : the research design will help us to get
from ‘here’ to ‘there’
– ‘here’ is defined as a set of questions to be
answered
– ‘there’ consist of a set of answers or conclusions
about these questions
 The components of Research Design
• In brief, a research design must contain:

research?
What to
– A clear statement of the research problem
– Research questions, aims and objectives or
Hypotheses, selection of dependent and
independent variables

How to conduct ?
– Procedures, tools and techniques to be used for
gathering information
– The population/sample to be studied
– Methods to be used in processing and analysing data
 What is research problem?
• A research problem is a statement about an area
of concern, a condition to be improved, a difficulty
to be eliminated, or a troubling question that
exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or in
practice that points to the need for meaningful
understanding and deliberate investigation.
• A problem statement is a clear concise description
of the issue(s) that need(s) to be addressed by
a researcher.
 The Purpose of a Research Problem
• Introduce the reader to the importance of the topic
being studied. The reader is oriented to the
significance of the study and the research questions
or hypotheses to follow.
• Places the problem into a particular context that
defines the parameters of what is to be investigated.
• Provides the framework for reporting the results
and explain how the findings will present this
information.
 Write a Problem Statement
• To write a persuasive problem statement, you
need to describe
– The ideal i.e. it is good to have this framework or
model or concepts or etc.
– The reality i.e. the truth is there is no framework
or model or concepts or etc.
– The consequences i.e. therefore the problems are
identified….
 Example: Research Problem Statement
DEVELOPING THE CLASSIFICATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE TYPES OF SHOPPING CENTRES IN MALAYSIA

Retail industries in Malaysia are well-known in the world. The One Utama Shopping Centre, Sunway Pyramid, and ranked as the
6th and 12th world’s largest shopping centres based on their gross leasable area. According to The Star (2013), the ranking
indirectly places the Malaysian’s retail industry at a global competitive juncture. Although retail industries in Malaysia are well-
known in the world, it is a kind of loss to the real estate industry of not having an official standard or classification framework.
Without this an official classification, the potential problems are identified as follows;

1) There is a possibility of all real estate industry players will develop their owned classification framework for their owned
purposes, particularly who involved directly or indirectly to the retail properties. Therefore, everyone will think that their
framework is better than the others (Ilham, B. 2017)

2) There will be an issue of defining and classifying the types of shopping centres by all real estate industry players if they
don’t have a clear definition and classification of these types of shopping centres. Therefore, everyone in the industry will
define and classify according to their understanding and experiences (Ling, A.S, 2019)

3) There will be a problem in providing a foundation that can be used to determine if the current shopping centre
classifications should be expanded, modified, or enhanced. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the new development or
innovation arise from the shopping centre industry (Yasmin M.A, etl., 2020)

4) Another problem will arise where the real estate industry players cannot provide a snapshot of the current marketplace, or
help monitor trends that are shifting market share within the broader market. Therefore, it will make the work harder to
providing the information (Zairul NM, 2021)

Thus, this research is significant to address these problems and help to provide some insight into the major components of the
retail market in Malaysia. Moreover, this research will motivate the real estate industry to develop an official classification of
shopping centre formats in Malaysia.
Finding Your Research Problems: Sources of
References
• Literature Reviews - journals
• Newspaper/ Magazine
• Seminars / Conference attended
• News from television
• Interviews experts
• Personal experience
• etc.
 Research Questions
• A research question is an answerable inquiry into a
specific concern or issue.
• Research questions are drawn from the research
statement or problem statement that has been
formed.
• The research question serves two purposes:
1. It determines where and what kind of research the
researcher will be looking for
2. It identifies the specific objectives the study or paper
will address.
 Writing a Research Question

1. Specify your specific concern or issue.

2. Decide what you want to know about the
specific concern or issue.
3. Turn what you want to know and the specific
concern into a question.
4. Ensure that the question is answerable.
5. Check to make sure the question is not too
broad or too narrow.
 Example: Research Questions

3.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following questions have directed this research in order to accomplish the purpose:
1. How to classify the types of shopping centres in Malaysia?
1.1 What is the criteria used in classifying the types of shopping centres?
1.2 How important of these criteria in classifying the types of shopping centres
1.3 What are the types of shopping centres in Malaysia can be classified in the
framework?
 Research Aims and Objectives
• The primary focus of your research is usually expressed
in terms of aims and objectives.
– Aims = what you hope to achieve.
» Statement of intent
» It shows the focus of the study
– Objectives =  the action(s) you will take in order to achieve
the aim.
» Specific statement that define measurable outcomes
» The steps that will be taken
 As a rule of thumb, there would be one research aim and
several research objectives to facilitate the achievement of
this aim.
Writing Research Aims and Objectives

• Use action verbs that are specific enough to

be evaluated or measured (e.g., assess,
determine, compare, verify, calculate,
describe)
• Avoid use weak verbs that are difficult to
measured (e.g., appreciate, consider, enquire,
learn, know, understand, be aware of, listen,
perceive)
 Example: Aims and Objectives
4.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main aim of this research is to develop the classification framework of the types
of shopping centres in Malaysia. In order to achieve the aim the following objectives
have been identified as follows;
1. To examine the criteria used in classifying the types of shopping centres.
2. To evaluate the level of importance of criteria used in classifying the types of
shopping centres.
3. To determine the types of shopping centres in Malaysia that can be classified
Example :RQ to RO
Research Design: The Methodology
• A  research methodology is involved specific techniques that are
adopted in research process to collect, assemble and evaluate
data. It defines those tools that are used to gather relevant
information in a specific research study.
• A research methodology includes;
– Research approach – Qualitative or Quantitative or Mixed
– Research methods – Case studies, Interviews, Observation, Survey
– Data collection methods
• Primary data – Questionnaire, structured interviews, semi-structured, unstructured
interviews, Focus group discussion (FGD) and etc.
• Secondary data – historical data, published data – household income, housing price
and etc.
– Data Analysis – descriptive statistics or inference statistic, content analysis
 • Lab
Experimental Testing

Quantitative
• Survey
Non-Experimental
Research Design
•
Interactive Case
Study
Qualitative
• Content
Non-Interactive Analysis
• Historical
Analysis

• Case
Explanatory Study

Mixed Exploratory • Survey

• Case study
Triangulation • Survey
• Historical
Analysis
Research Design Framework
 1 • Quantitative
The Approach
• Qualitative
• Mixed

3
2 Population,
Research sample &
Methods sampling
Research technique
Design:
How to
conduct?

4
5
Tools &
Method of
Methods of
data analysis
data collection