Chapter Three

Business Research Design

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 What Is A Business Research Design?

• Once the objectives of a research project have been established, the issue of how
these objectives can be met leads to a consideration of which research design
will be appropriate.
• Research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data and
subsequently indicates which research methods are appropriate.
• Research design constitutes the blue print for the collection, measurement and
analysis of data.

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The design decisions happen to be in respect of:
• What is the study about?
• Why is the study being made?
• Where will the study be carried out?
• What type of data is required?
• Where can the required data be found?
• What periods of time will the study include?
• What will be the sample design?
• What techniques of data collection will be used?
• How will the data be analyzed?
• In what style will the report be prepared?

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• one may split the overall research design in to the
following parts:
– The Sampling Design: which deals with the methods of selecting
items to be observed for given study;
– The Observational Design: which relates to the conditions under
which the observations are to be made;
– The statistical Design: which concerns with the question of how
many items are to be observed and how the information and data
gathered are to be analyzed; and
– The Operational Design: which deals with the techniques by
which the procedures specified in the sampling, statistical and
observational designs can be carried out.

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 Important Features of Research Design

• It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of

information relevant to the research problems.
• It is a strategy specifying which approach will be used for
gathering and analyzing the data.
• It also includes the time and cost budgets since most
studies are done under these two constraints.

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• Research design must, at least contains:-
– a clear statement of research problems;
– Procedures and techniques used for gathering information;
– The population to be studied; and
– Methods to be used in processing and analyzing data.

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 Business Research Design

• Types Of Research Designs : the following

research designs are the most commonly
used in conducting business research.
– Experimental
– Survey
– Case studies

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 Business Research Design
Experimental Research

• Experimental Research
– Experimental research differs from the other
research approaches noted above through its
greater control over the objects of its study.
– The researcher strives to isolate and control
every relevant condition which determines the
events investigated, so as to observe the effects
when the conditions are manipulated.

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 Business Research Design
Experimental Research

 Experimental Research
◦ When the researcher has established that the study
is amenable to experimental methods, a prediction
(technically called a hypothesis) of the likely
cause-and-effect patterns of the phenomenon has to
be made.
◦ This allows decisions to be made as to what variables
are to be tested and how they are to be controlled and
measured.

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 Business Research Design
Survey Design

 Survey Design

◦ This is a research design in which a group of people or

items is studied by collecting and analyzing sample
data or data from the entire population. If the survey
involves study of a sample from the population, it is
referred to as a Sample Survey. If it involves the study
of the entire population, it is referred to as a Census
Survey.


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 Business Research Design
Survey Design

• Types Of Survey
– A cross-sectional survey collects data at one time. The
researcher can generalize findings from such one-shot
studies to the sampled population only at the time of the
survey.
– A longitudinal survey takes place over time with two or
more data collections and has the benefit of measuring
change over time.

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 Business Research Design
Case Study Design

• Case Study Research Design:

– This involves intensive study geared towards a thorough
understanding of a given social unit or business activities. It
is worth noting that case studies are of limited
generalisability.
– Only very few units are involved in case studies and as such,
the findings cannot be generalized to the population.
– much emphasis is on obtaining a complete description and
understanding of factors in each case, regardless of the
number involved.

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 Business Research Design
Case Study Design

• Strength
– One of the greatest strengths of the case study design is
its adaptability to different types of research question
and to different research settings.
– The use of multiple sources of evidence allows
triangulation of findings
– Offer the benefit of studying phenomena in detail and in
context, particularly in situations where there are many
more variables of interest than there are observations.

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 Business Research Design
Case Study Design

• Weakness
– Selection bias whereby the choice of cases biases
the findings of the research
– The requirement it places on the researcher in
terms of dealing with the complexity of field
research if multiple data collection methods are
used

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 Design Strategies

• Quantitative Research
– Quantitative research design is the research methods used
in most of the physical or natural sciences.
– One or more of a variety of statistical tools are used to test
ideas and to communicate research findings
– is predominantly used as a synonym for any data
collection technique (such as a questionnaire) or data
analysis procedure (such as graphs or statistics) that
generates or uses numerical data.

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 Types of quantitative research design

1. Exploratory Design
• The main purpose of such studies is that of formulating a
problem for more precise investigation or of developing
the working hypotheses from an operational point of view.
• The major emphasis in such studies is on the discovery of
ideas and insights about research problems and variables
and issues associated with those problems.
• The research design appropriate for such studies must be
flexible enough to provide opportunity for considering
different aspects of a problem under study.

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Types of quantitative research design
2. Descriptive designs:
• It provides a description of an event or defines a set of attitudes,
opinions, or behaviors that are observed or measured at a given
time and in an environment.
• Descriptive studies can be either cross-sectional or longitudinal.
• The cross-sectional design (snap-shot study) is a one-shot
assessment of a sample of respondents.
• The ‘picture’ of the sample usually varies if the research is repeated
at a later date or conducted with another sample taken from the
same population.
• Longitudinal research is a research that is repeated with the same
sample over two or more time intervals.
• It is used to identify and measure the change in the subjects’
responses over a period of time.
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 Types of quantitative research design
3. Casual/ Experimental Design
• Hypothesis testing research studies (generally
known as experimental studies) are those where
researcher tests the hypothesis of casual
relationship between variables.
• Such studies require procedures that will not only
reduce bias and increase reliability but will permit
inferences about casualty.
• Hence, when we talk of research design in such
studies, we often mean the design of experiments
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 Design Strategies
• Qualitative Research
– Qualitative research approaches have the objective of
understanding the event, circumstance, or phenomenon
under study. One or more of a variety of statistical tools are
used to test ideas and to communicate research findings
– Herein description is less important than the researcher’s
interpretation of the event, circumstance or phenomenon.
– The researchers analyze the interaction of people with
problems or issues. These interactions are studied in their
context and then subjectively explained by the researcher.

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 Types of Qualitative Research Design

1. Explanatory research
• The goal of explanatory research is to go beyond the
traditional descriptive designs of positivist approach to
provide meaning as well as description.
• It is purpose is also broader than descriptive research.
• Explanatory research strives to build theories that explain and
predict natural and social events.
• Explanatory research is aimed at explaining why some
phenomenon occurred, interpreting a cause-and-effect
relationship between two or more variables, and explaining
differences in two or more groups’ responses.

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2. Interpretative Research
• Interpretative research aims at building understanding
between the participants and the researcher.
• It often focuses on standards, norms, rules, and values held in
common, and how these all influence human objectives.
• The primary objective of interpretative research is to establish
the meaning of a circumstance, event, or social situation.
• It goes beyond simple description or explanation in aiming to
enhance people’s understanding of the symbols, artifacts,
beliefs, meanings, feelings, or attitudes of the people in the
study situation.

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3. Critical Research
• The overriding objective of critical research is to
change people’s beliefs and actions in ways that
the investigator believes will better satisfy their
needs and wants.
• The criticism points out inconsistencies between
what is true and false and what is good and bad.
• It aims to bring people to actions that are
commensurate with accepted truth and goodness.
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4. Case Studies
• Case studies are studies that examine in some
depth persons, decisions, programs, or other
entities that have a unique characteristic of
interest.
• Case studies are the preferred research
strategy if one wants to learn the details about
how something happened and why it may have
happened.
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 Design Strategies

• Mixed Methods Approach: is the general term for when both quantitative and
qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures are used in a
research design; either at the same time (parallel) or one after the other
(sequential) but does not combine them

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 Design Strategies

• Why Mixed Methods Approach?

– Triangulation (to corroborate research finding)
– Facilitation (as an aid)
– Complementarity (to fill gaps)
– Generality ( to contextualize main study)
– Aid Interpretation(to help explain relationships and
aspects)
– Study different aspects
– Solving a puzzle (method reveals unexplainable)

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 Design Strategies

• Mono or Multiple Method

– Mono Method: using a single data collection

technique and corresponding analysis
procedures; or
– Multiple Methods: using more than one data
collection techniques and analysis procedures
to answer your research question.

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 Important Concepts Relating To Research Design

• 1. Operational Definitions: is a definition

stated in trace of specific testing criteria or
operations.
• 2. Variable: A characteristic, quantity, or
anything of interest that can have different
values.

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 THERE ARE SEVERAL TYPES OF VARIABLES

• a) Based on the type of numerical measurements they

provide, variables can be classified in to categorical and
continuous variables.
• Categorical variables called as discrete variables have a
limited number of possible categories. Gender is an
example, with just two categories: female and male.
• Continuous variables can have an unlimited number of
values. Values for continuous variables can be measured on
a continuous scale such as weights in grams or height in
centimeters. They are not restricted to specific, discrete
categories or values as in the case of categorical variables.

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b) Dependent and independent variables.
• This classification is important in causal research designs.
• It is the goal of most research to explain and account for changes or
variation in the dependent variable.
• Dependent variables are variables that are influenced in some way
by another variable or variables.
• Independent variables are the variables that act upon the
dependent variable(s).
• A variable thought to lead to or produce changes in the dependent
variable is called independent variable.
• Explanatory, predictor, or casual variables are the other terms or
the independent variables.

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C) Extraneous variables
• Independent variables that are not related to
the purpose of the study, but may affect the
dependent variable are termed as extraneous
variables.

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 3 Confounded Relationship
• When the dependent variable is not free from
the influence of extraneous variables, the
relationship between the dependent and
independent variables is said to be
confounded relationship.

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 Measurement of Quality
• Criteria of Measurement Quality
–Precision,
–Accuracy,
–Reliability, and
–Validity.
Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to
the true or accepted value.
Precision refers to how close measurements of the
same item are to each other. 
Precision is independent of accuracy. That means it is possible
to be very precise but notGirmay
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 Measurement of Quality

• Validity: Validity refers to the extent to which

researchers measure what they planned to measure.
– Criterion-Related Validity: is the degree to
which a measure correlates with some other
measure accepted as an accurate indicator of the
concept. Example: voting preference (measured
prior to the election) is correlated with actual
voting behavior.

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 Measurement of Quality
– Face Validity: Some simply involve researchers asking
themselves if their measures seem like logical and
common sense ways to measure concepts. Example:
measuring income of a family, valid in case the income
of the husband and the wife is considered, if both are
earning.
– Content Validity: is similar to face validity but uses
stricter standards. For a measure to have content
validity, it must capture all dimensions or features of the
concept as it is defined.
– For example, a general job satisfaction measure should
include pay satisfaction, job security satisfaction,
satisfaction with promotion opportunities, and so on.
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 Measurement of Quality
◦ Construct Validity: of a measure refers to one of two validity
assessment strategies. First, it can refer to whether the variable,
when assessed with this measure, behaves as it should.
◦ For example, if the theory (and/or past research) says it should be
related positively to another variable Y, then that relationship
should be found when the measure is used.
◦ The second use of construct validity refers to the degree to which
multiple indicators of the concept are related to the underlying
construct and not to some other construct.
◦ For example, if a researcher has five indicators of cultural capital
and four indicators of social capital, a factor analysis should
produce two lowly correlated factors, one for each set of indicators.

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 Measurement of Quality
• Reliability
– Test-retest Method–make the same measurement
more than once – should expect same response
both times
– Inter-Rater Reliability– compare measurements
from different raters; verify initial measurements
– Split-Half Method– make more than one measure
of any concept; see if each measures the concept
differently

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 Scaling Design

COMPARATIVE SCALING
TECHNIQUES

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 Scaling Design

• Paired Comparison Scaling

– Paired comparison scaling as its name indicates involves
presentation of two objects and asking the respondents to
select one according to some criteria. The data are obtained
using ordinal scale. For example, a respondent may be asked
to indicate his/her preference for TVs in a paired manner.
– The most common method of taste testing is done by paired
comparison where the consumer may be, for example, asked
to taste two different brands of soft drinks and select the one
with the most appealing taste.

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 Scaling Design

• Rank Order Scaling

– This is another popular comparative scaling technique. In

rank order scaling is done by presenting the respondents
with several objects simultaneously and asked to order or
rank them based on a particular criterion. For example, the
customers may rank their preference for TVs among
several brands. In this scaling technique, ordinal scale is
used. The consumers may be asked to rank several brands
of television in an order,

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 Scaling Design

• Constant Sum Scaling

– This technique allows the respondents to allocate a

constant sum of units, such as points, rupees or among
a set of stimulus objects with respect to some criterion.
– The technique involves asking the respondents to
assign 10 points to attributes of a sports utility vehicle.
If the attribute is unimportant, then the respondents
would want to enter zero.

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