LESSON 3

RESEARCH DESIGN

KWADWO BOATENG PREMPEH

SENIOR LECTURER (FINANCE)

DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTANCY, STU

Introduction

Research design will be the general

plan of how you will go about
answering your research question(s)
(the importance of clearly defining
the research question cannot be over-
emphasized).
 The purpose of your Research
• The classification of research purpose most often used in the
research methods’ literature is the threefold one of
exploratory, descriptive and explanatory.

• However, in the same way as your research question can be

both descriptive and explanatory, so your research project
may have more than one purpose. Indeed, as Robson (2002)
points out, the purpose of your enquiry may change over
time.
 Exploratory Studies
• An exploratory study is a valuable means of finding out ‘what is
happening; to seek new insights; to ask questions and to assess
phenomena in a new light’ (Robson 2002:59).

• It is particularly useful if you wish to clarify your understanding

of a problem, such as if you are unsure of the precise nature of
the problem.

• Its great advantage is that it is flexible and adaptable to change.

 Descriptive Studies
• The object of descriptive research is to
portray an accurate profile of persons, events
or situations.

• This may be an extension of, or a forerunner

to, a piece of exploratory research or, more
often, a piece of explanatory research.
 Explanatory Studies
• Studies that establish causal relationships
between variables may be termed
explanatory research.

• The emphasis here is on studying a situation

or a problem in order to explain the
relationships between variables.
 The Different Research Strategies
• We turn our attention to the research strategies you may
employ. Each strategy can be used for exploratory,
descriptive and explanatory research.

• Your choice of research strategy will be guided by your

research question(s) and objectives, the extent of existing
knowledge, the amount of time and other resources you
have available, as well as your own philosophical
underpinnings.
 The Different Research Strategies…
The strategies that we consider subsequently in this section are:
• experiment;
• survey;
• case study;
• action research;
• grounded theory;
• ethnography;
• archival research.
 Experiment
• The purpose of an experiment is to study causal
links; whether a change in one independent variable
produces a change in another dependent variable.

• Experiments therefore tend to be used in

exploratory and explanatory research to answer
‘how and why’ questions.
 Survey
• Survey is the research strategy that involves
the structured collection of data from a sizable
population.

• The survey is most frequently used to answer

who, what, where and how many questions.
 Case Study
Case study is a strategy for doing
research which involves an empirical
investigation of a particular
contemporary phenomenon within its
real life context using multiple source of
evidence.
 Action Research
• Action research is inquiry or research in the context of
focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and
its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by
practitioners who analyze the data to improve their own
practice. 

• Action research strategy is concerned with the management

of a change involving close collaboration between
practitioners and researchers
 Grounded Theory
Grounded theory is the research strategy in which
theory is developed from data generated by a
series of observations or interviews principally
involving an inductive approach. In grounded
theory, data collection starts without the formation
of an initial theoretical framework. Theory is
developed from data generated by a series of
observations.
 Ethnography
Ethnography is rooted firmly in the inductive approach.
It emanates from the field of anthropology. The
purpose is to describe and explain the social world the
research subjects inhabit in the way in which they
would describe and explain it. This is obviously a
research strategy that is very time consuming and takes
place over an extended time period as the researcher
needs to immerse her or himself in the social world
being researched as completely as possible.
 Archival Research
Archival research makes use of administrative records
and documents as the principal source of data. An
archival research strategy allows research questions
which focus upon the past and changes over time to be
answered, be they exploratory, descriptive or
explanatory. However, the researcher’s ability to
answer such questions will inevitably be constrained by
the nature of the administrative records and
documents.
 Time Horizons
• An important question to be asked in planning your research is ‘Do I
want my research to be a “snapshot” taken at a particular time or do I
want it to be more akin to a diary or a series of snapshots and be a
representation of events over a given period?’

• The ‘snapshot’ time horizon is what we call here cross-sectional while

the ‘diary’ perspective we call longitudinal.
Cross-sectional Studies
Cross-sectional study is defined as an
observational research type that analyzes
data of variables collected at one given
point of time across a sample population.
Longitudinal Studies
A longitudinal study is an
observational research method in
which data is gathered for the same
subjects repeatedly over a period of
time.
 The Credibility of Research Findings
• Underpinning our earlier discussion on
research design has been the issue of the
credibility of research findings.
 Reliability
Reliability refers to the extent to which your data collection
techniques or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings.

It can be assessed by posing the following three questions:

• 1 Will the measures yield the same results on other occasions?
• 2 Will similar observations be reached by other observers?
• 3 Is there transparency in how sense was made from the raw
data?
Validity
Validity means that your findings truly
represent the phenomenon you are
claiming to measure.
 Generalizability
This is sometimes referred to as external
validity. A concern you may have in the
design of your research is the extent to which
your research results are generalizable: that
is, whether your findings may be equally
applicable to other research settings, such as
other organizations.
END