Research Design

With the completion of the initial phase of the research process, the researcher turns to designing
a research design to formally identify the appropriate sources of data. This is done in order that
any researcher who embarks on a research project should have a blueprint of how he is going to
undertake scientifically the data collection process. The framework developed to control the
collection of data is called research design.

Research design is an absolute essentiality in research irrespective of the type of research (e.g.,
exploratory or descriptive), as it ensures that the data collected is appropriate, economical and
accurate. This also ensures that the research project conducted is effectively and efficiently done.
A sufficiently formulated research design would ensure that the information gathered is
consistent with the study objectives and that the data are collected by accurate procedures. Since,
research designs germinate from the objectives, the accuracy and adequacy of a research design
depends on the unambiguous framing of the objectives.

2.2 TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN

Two types of research design are established according to the nature of the research objectives or
types of research. They are:

Research Design

Exploratory Descriptive Casual research

Design Research Design Design
Exploratory Research Design

It is appropriate when the research objective is to provide insights into (i) identifying the
problems or opportunities (ii) defining the problem more precisely, (iii) gaining deeper insights
into the variables operating in a situation (iv) identifying relevant courses of action (v)
establishing priorities regarding the potential significance of a problems or opportunities (vi)
gaining additional insights before an approach can be developed and (vii) gathering information
on the problems associated with doing conclusive research. Much research has been of an
exploratory nature; emphasizing on finding practices or policies that needed changing and on
developing possible alternatives. On examination of the objectives of exploratory research, it is
well understood that it could be used at the initial stages of the decision making process. It
allows the marketer to gain a greater understanding of something that the researcher doesn’t
know enough about. This helps the decision maker and the researcher in situations when they
have inadequate knowledge of the problem situation and/or alternative courses of action. In
short, exploratory research is used in the absence of tried models and definite concepts.

Exploratory research could also be used in conjunction with other research. As mentioned below,
since it is used as a first step in the research process, defining the problem, other designs will
be used later as steps to solve the problem. For instance, it could be used in situations when a
firm finds the going gets tough in terms of sales volume, the researcher may develop use
exploratory research to develop probable explanations. Analysis of data generated using
exploratory research is essentially abstraction and generalization. Abstraction refers to
translation of the empirical observations, measurements etc. into concepts; generalization means
arranging the material so that it focuses on those structures that are common to all or most of the
cases.

The exploratory research design is best characterized by its flexibility and versatility. This is so,
because of the absence of the non-imperativeness of a structure in its design. It predominantly
involves imagination, creativity, and ingenuity of the researcher. Examples of exploratory
research are: survey of experts to validate an instrument; pilot studies conducted to perform
reliability check on a questionnaire; use of secondary data in order to analyse it in a qualitative
way; qualitative research.
Conclusive Research Design

It involves providing information on evaluation of alternative courses of action and selecting one
from among a number available to the researcher. As portrayed in the figure 4.1, conclusive
research is again classified as:

Conclusive
Research
Design

Descriptive Causal
research research

(i) Descriptive Research:

It is simple to understand as the name itself suggests that it involves describing something, for
example:

(a) Market conditions;

(b) Characteristics or functions;
(c) estimate the percentage of customers in a particular group exhibiting the same purchase
behaviour;
(d) Perceptions of product characteristics; and
(e) To predict the pattern of behaviour of characteristic versus the other
Majority of research studies are descriptive studies. As research studies involve investigating the
customers/consumers, collection of data includes interrogating the respondents in the market and
data available from secondary data sources. However, it cannot be concluded that descriptive
studies should be simply fact-gathering process. Descriptive study deals with the respondents in
the market and hence, extreme caution has to be exercised in developing this study. Much
planning should be done, objectives should be clear than exploratory studies.

In descriptive research, the data is collected for a specific and definite purpose and involves
analysis and interpretation by the researcher. The major difference between exploratory and
descriptive research is that descriptive research is characterized by the formulation of specific
objectives. The success of descriptive studies depends on the degree to which a specific
hypothesis acts as a guide.

Descriptive studies restrict flexibility and versatility as compared to exploratory research. It

involves a higher degree of formal design specifying the methods for selecting the sources of
information and for collecting data from those sources. Formal design is required in order to
ensure that the description covers all phases desired. It is also required to restrain collection of
unnecessary data. Descriptive studies require a clear specification of the who, when, where,
what, why and how. While designing a descriptive research, the researcher should also have
sufficient knowledge on the nature and type of statistical techniques he/she is going to use. This
will greatly help to have the right design in place. Mostly descriptive studies are conducted using
questionnaire, structured interviews and observations. The results of description studies are
directly used for marketing decisions.

Descriptive studies are again classified into two types:

Longitudinal
Descriptive
Research Design
Cross sectional
(a) Longitudinal research relies on panel data and panel methods. It involves fixing a panel
consisting of fixed sample of subjects that are measured repeatedly. The panel members are
those who have agreed to provide information at a specific intervals over an extended period. For
example, data obtained from panels formed to provide information on market shares are based on
an extended period of time, but also allow the researcher to examine changes in market share
over time. New members may be included in the panel as an when there is a dropout of the
existing members or to maintain representativeness. Panel data is analytical and possess
advantages with respect to the information collected in the study. They are also considered to be
more accurate than cross sectional data because panel data better handle the problem associated
with the errors that arise in reporting past behaviour and the errors that arise because of the
necessary interaction between interviewer and respondent.

(b) Cross-sectional research is the most predominantly and frequently used descriptive research
design in marketing. It involves a sample of elements from the population of interest. The
sample elements are measured on a number of characteristics.

There are two types of cross-sectional studies:

Field studies and Surveys

It may appear that field studies and surveys are no different but the same. However, for practical
reasons, they are classified into two categories cross sectional research. The fundamental
difference lies in the depth of what these research cover. While survey has a larger scope, field
study has greater depth. Survey attempts to be representative of some known universe and filed
study is less concerned wth the generation of large representative samples and is more concerned
with the in-depth study of a few typical situations.

Cross sectional design may be either single or multiple cross sectional design depending on the
number of samples drawn from a population. In single cross sectional design, only one sample
respondents are drawn whereas in multiple cross sectional designs, there are two or more
samples of respondents. A type of multiple cross sectional design of special interest is Cohort
analysis.
Cohort analysis consists of a series of surveys conducted at appropriate time intervals, where the
cohort serves as the basic unit of analysis. A cohort is a group of respondents who experience the
same event within the same time interval.

(a) Case Study: This study involves intensive study of a relatively small number of cases. In
this method, much emphasis is on obtaining a complete description and understanding of factors
in each case, regardless of the number involved. It could be used significantly, particularly when
one is seeking help on a problem in which interrelationships of number of factors are involved,
and in which it is difficult to understand the individual factors without considering them in their
relationships with each other. As in the case of exploratory research, case method is also used in
conjunction with exploratory research as first step in a research process. It is of prime value
when the researcher is seeking help on a market problem in which the interrelationships of a
number of factors are involved, and in which it is difficult to understand the individual factors
without considering them in their relationships with each other.

(ii) Causal research: It is used to obtain evidence of cause-and-effect relationships with is

otherwise known as the independent-dependent relationship or the predictive relationships. This
is an important type of research useful for marketers as this allows marketers to base their
decision on assumed causal relationships. Causal research is done in the following situations:

(a) To identify which variables are the cause and which are the effect. In statistical terms, causal
variables are called independent variables and effectual variables are called dependent variables.

(b) To determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables and the effect to be
predicted. Causal research requires a strong degree of planning on the design as its success
depends on the structure of the design.