Chapter 4:

Formulating the research design

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 Learning outcomes

By the end of this chapter you should:

• Appreciate the importance of your decisions when designing research and the need to achieve
methodological coherence throughout your research design;
• Understand the differences between exploratory, descriptive, explanatory and evaluative research
and recognize the purpose(s) of your research design;
• Understand the differences between quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research designs
and choose between these;
• Identify the main research strategies and choose from among these to achieve coherence
throughout your research design;
• Consider the implications of the time frames required for different research designs;
• Consider some of the main ethical issues implied by your research design.

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 Lecture outline

4.1. Research Design 4.2. Requirements for 4.3. Choose the

research design research methodology

4.1.1 What is research design? 4.2.1 Logicalness 4.3.1 Qualitative

4.1.2 The role of research 4.2.1 Generalization research design
4.3.2 Quantitative
design 4.2.3 Feasibility research design
4.3.3 Mixed research
design

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4.1. Research Design

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4.1.1. What is research design?

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 Research Design Introduction
Research design is the general plan of how you will go about answering
your research question(s)
• contain clear objectives derived from research question(s)
• specify the data source(s)
• how to collect and analyze data
• discuss ethical issues and the constraints (e.g. access to data, time,
location and financial issues)
4.1.2 The role of research design
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

Descriptive studies
The purpose of descriptive research is to gain an accurate profile of
events, persons or situations

Explanatory studies
Studies that establish causal relationships between variables may
be termed explanatory research.
Evaluative studies
- The purpose of evaluative research is to find out how well
something works
- Evaluative research in business and management is likely to be
concerned with assessing the effectiveness of an organizational or
business strategy, policy, programme, initiative or process

Combined studies
A research study may combine more than one purpose in its
design. This may be achieved by the use of multiple methods in
the research to facilitate some combination of exploratory,
descriptive, explanatory or evaluative research
4.2. Requirements for research design

Logicalness

Generalization

Feasibility
4.3. Choose the research methodology

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 4.3.1 Qualitative research design

Philosophical assumptions

- Qualitative research is often associated with an interpretive philosophy

Approach to theory development

- Many varieties of qualitative research commence with an inductive

approach to theory development
- Some qualitative research strategies start with a deductive approach, to
test an existing theory using qualitative procedures
Characteristics

• Researcher is generally recognized as not being independent from

those researched.
• Those taking part are referred to as participants or informants.
• Designed to study participants’ attributed meanings and associated
relationships.
• Generally uses non-probability sampling techniques.
• Based on meanings expressed through words (spoken and textual)
and images.
• Method(s) used to collect data are unstructured or semi-structured.
• Collection results in non-standardized data generally requiring
classification into categories.
• Analysis conducted through the use of conceptualization.
• Resulting meaning derived from words (spoken or text) and
images.
Research strategies
• Action Research
• Case Study research
• Ethnography
• Grounded Theory
• Narrative Inquiry

Techniques
• Collecting qualitative data through observation
• Collecting qualitative data using semi-structured and in-depth
interviews
• Telephone interviews
• Internet-mediated interviews
 4.3.2 Quantitative research design
Philosophical assumptions

- Generally associated with positivism, especially when used with

predetermined and highly structured data collection techniques\
- There is an exclusive link between positivism, deduction and a
quantitative research design

Approach to theory development

- Quantitative research is usually associated with a deductive

approach, where data are collected and analyzed to test theory
- It may also incorporate an inductive approach, where data are used
to develop theory
Characteristics

• Researcher is generally seen as independent from those being

researched.
• Those taking part are usually referred to as respondents.
• Designed to examine relationships between variables.
• Often uses probability sampling techniques to ensure
generalizability.
• Method(s) used to collect data are rigorously defined and highly
structured.
• Collection results in numerical and standardized data.
• Analysis conducted through the use of statistics and diagrams.
• Resulting meanings derived from numbers.
Research strategies
• Associated with experimental and survey research strategies
A survey strategy is normally conducted through the use of
questionnaires or structured interviews or, possibly, structured
observation
• Quantitative data and analysis techniques
Techniques
Techniques associated with the use of these particular methods:
• Structured observation
• Questionnaires
• Analyzing data quantitatively
4.3.3 Mixed research design
Philosophical assumptions

• Integrates the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques

and analytical procedures
• Pragmatists: there are many different ways of interpreting the world and
that different methods are often appropriate within one research study
• Critical realism: like pragmatism, has implications for research design that
may support the use of mixed methods research

Approach to theory development

- Use a deductive, inductive or abductive approach to theory development

- Theory may be used to provide a focus for the research and to provide
boundaries to its scope
Characteristics

Quantitative and qualitative techniques are combined in a variety of ways that

range from simple, concurrent forms to more complex and sequential forms
• Concurrent mixed methods research: the separate use of quantitative
and qualitative methods within a single phase of data collection and
analysis
 Richer and more comprehensive response to the research questions

• Sequential mixed methods research: involves more than one phase of

data collection and analysis
▪ Double-phase research design: two alternative mixed methods
research strategies
▪ Sequential exploratory research design: qualitative followed by
quantitative or quantitative followed by qualitative
▪ Multi-phase design: multiple phases of data collection and analysis
(e.g. qualitative followed by quantitative then by a further phase of
qualitative)
Research designs
• Concurrent triangulation design
• Concurrent embedded design
• Sequential exploratory design
• Sequential explanatory design
• Sequential, multi-phase design Mixed-Methods Concurrent Triangulation Strategy
Techniques
• Quantitative data collection techniques
✓ Structured observation
QnA
✓ The use of questionnaires, including structured interviewing
✓ The analysis of quantitative data
• Qualitative data collection techniques
✓ Collecting qualitative data through observation
✓ Collecting qualitative data using semi-structured and in-depth
interviews: group interviews, telephone interviews, Internet-
mediated interviews
✓ Analyzing qualitative data
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4.3.4. Choosing a research strategy/ strategies
 Choosing a research strategy/ strategies

• Experiment;
• Survey;
• Archival and documentary research;
• Case study;
• Ethnography;
• Action Research;
• Grounded Theory;
• Narrative Inquiry.
Experiment
 Survey

• Is usually associated with a deductive research

approach.
• Is most frequently used to answer ‘what’, ‘who’,
‘where’, ‘how much’ and ‘how many’ questions.
• Tends to be used for exploratory and descriptive
research.
• The questionnaire is not the only data collection
technique that belongs to the survey strategy (Some
more: structured observation, structured interviews)
 Archival and documentary research
• A document is a durable repository for textual, visual and
audio representations
• Categories of textual documents include:
▪ Communications between individuals or within groups such as email, letters, social
media and blog postings;
▪ Individual records such as diaries, electronic calendars and notes;
▪ Organizational documents such as administrative records, agendas and minutes of
meetings,
▪ Agreements, contracts, memos, personnel records, plans, policy statements, press
releases, reports and strategy statements;
▪ Government documents such as publications, reports and national statistics data
sets;
▪ Media documents including printed and online articles and other data.
• Visual and audio documents include: advertising posters, artefacts,
audio recordings, audio-visual corporate communications, digital recordings, DVDs,
films, photographs, products, promotional advertisements and recordings, television
and radio programmes and web images.
 Case study
• A case study is an in-depth inquiry into a topic or
phenomenon within its real-life setting
 Ethnography
• It is the earliest qualitative research strategy
• Used to study the culture or social world of a group.
Ethnography literally means a written account of a people
or ethnic group
• Example: Box 5.8
 Action Research
• 5 themes: purpose, process, participation, knowledge and
implications.
• The purpose: to promote organizational learning to produce practical
outcomes through identifying issues, planning action, taking action
and evaluating action.
 Grounded Theory

• Grounded Theory is used to develop theoretical explanations of social

interactions and processes in a wide range of contexts, including
business and management.
• Can be used to refer to a methodology, a method of inquiry and the
result of a research process
• ‘Grounded theory methodology’ refers to the researcher’s choice of
this strategy as a way to conduct research.
• ‘Grounded theory method’ refers to the data collection techniques
and analytic procedures that it uses
• Example: Box 5.9
 Narrative Inquiry

• A narrative is a story; a personal account which interprets an event or

sequence of events
• Narrative Inquiry seeks to preserve chronological connections and the
sequencing of events as told by the narrator (participant) to enrich
understanding and aid analysis.
• Example: Box 5.10
Narrative Inquiry
 4.3.5. Choosing a time horizon

• Cross-sectional
▪ A particular phenomenon (or phenomena) at a particular time
▪ Often employ the survey strategy
• Longitudinal studies
▪ Strength of longitudinal research is its capacity to study
change and development
▪ A massive amount of published data collected over time just
waiting to be reanalyzed
 4.3.6. Ethics of research design

• Your choice of topic will be governed by ethical

considerations.
• Convert research: whether you should collect data
covertly, in other words where those you are
researching are unaware they are the subject of
research and so have not consented.
 4.3.7. Quality of research design

• Reliability: If a researcher is able to replicate an earlier

research design and achieve the same findings, then
that research would be seen as being reliable
• Validity: the appropriateness of the measures used,
accuracy of the analysis of the results and
generalizability of the findings
▪ Internal validity: refers to the extent your findings can be
attributed to the intervention you are researching rather than to
flaws in your research design.
▪ External validity: concerns with the question: can a study’s
research findings be generalized to other relevant contexts?
4.3.7. Quality of research design
4.3.7. Quality of research design