RSCH6023

Research Methodology

The Element of Research Design

Week 4
The Element of Research Design

TOPIK

1. The Research Design

2. Research Strategies
3. Unit of analysis and Time Horizon
4. Recognizing the purpose of your
research design.
The Element of Research Design
The Research Design
 Research Strategies

A research strategy may therefore be defined as a plan of how a

researcher will go about answering her or his research question. It is
the methodological link between your philosophy and subsequent
choice of methods to collect and analyse data.
The first two research strategies in the list below that we consider in
this section are principally or exclusively linked to a quantitative
research design. The next two may involve quantitative or qualitative
research, or a mixed design combining both. The final four strategies
are principally or exclusively linked to a qualitative research design.
 Unit of analysis and Time Horizon

The unit of analysis refers to the level of aggregation of the data

collected during the subsequent data analysis stage.
Here the unit of analysis is the individual. We will be looking at the data
gathered from each individual and treating each employee’s response
as an individual data source.
Time horizon: cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies
A study can be undertaken in which data are gathered just once,
perhaps over a period of days or weeks or months, in order to answer a
research question. Such studies are called one‐shot or cross‐sectional
studies.
In some cases, however, the researcher might want to study people or
phenomena at more than one point in time in order to answer the
research question. When data on the dependent variable are gathered
at two or more points in time to answer the research question, are
 Recognizing the Purpose of your
Research Design

Research following an exploratory or explanatory purpose. Research

can be designed to fulfil either an exploratory, descriptive, explanatory
or evaluative purpose, or some combination of these.
Exploratory studies
An exploratory study is a valuable means to ask open questions to
discover what is happening and gain insights about a topic of interest.
Research questions that are exploratory are likely to begin with ‘What’
or ‘How’. Questions that you ask during data collection to explore an
issue, problem or phenomenon will also be likely to start with ‘What’ or
‘How’.
 Recognizing the Purpose of your
Research Design

Descriptive studies
The purpose of descriptive research is to gain an accurate profile of
events, persons or situations. Research questions that are descriptive
are likely to begin with, or include, either ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘When’
or ‘How’. Questions that you ask during data collection to gain a
description of events, persons or situations will also be likely to start
with, or include, ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘When’ or ‘How’.
Explanatory studies
Studies that establish causal relationships between variables may be
termed explanatory research. research questions that seek
explanatory answers are likely to begin with, or include, ‘Why’ or ‘How’.
Questions that you ask during data collection to gain an explanatory
response will also be likely to start with, or include, ‘Why’ or ‘How’
 Recognizing the Purpose of your
Research Design

Evaluative studies
The purpose of evaluative research is to find out how well something
works.
Research questions that seek to evaluate answers are likely to begin
with ‘How’, or include ‘What’, in the form of ‘To what extent’. Questions
that you ask during data collection to seek an evaluative
understanding will be likely to start with, or include, ‘What’, ‘How’ or
‘Why’. As part of your evaluative study you may also be interested to
make comparisons between events, situations, groups, places or
periods, so that you are interested to ask questions that include
‘Which’, ‘When’, ‘Who’ or ‘Where’
 Source

1. Uma Sekaran and Roger Bougie (2019) Research Methods for Business:
A Skill Building-Approach. 8th Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ISBN 978-
1-119-56124-8
2. Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill (2016). Research
methods for business students. 7th Edition. Pearson Education Limited.
ISBN 978-1-292-01662-7
Thank You