Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Methods
Research Design
FEKD62
Ralf Müller
Tomas Blomquist
School of Business and Economics
Umeå University
Research Design
1
Types of Research Design
• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Causal
Note:
• The distinctions are not absolute – a study
may serve several purposes
• The design of the investigation should stem
from the problem
Churchill 1999
Descriptive
Research
Exploratory
Research
Causal
Research
Churchill 1999
2
Exploratory Research
Churchill 1999
Exploratory Research
Churchill 1999
3
Literature Search in Exploratory
Research
Churchill 1999
4
Focus Groups in Exploratory
Research
Churchill 1999
5
Descriptive Research
Descriptive Research
(Churchill 1999)
6
Classification of Descriptive
Studies
True Panel
Longitudinal
Omnibus Panel
Descriptive
Studies
(Churchill 1999)
7
Longitudinal Descriptive Studies
Causal Research
8
Causal Research
Causality tested through
• Lab experiments
• All variables are controlled
• Influence of external variables minimized
• Internal validity maximized
• Field tests
• Most credible results
• Influence of ‘real world’ settings taken into
account
• External validity maximized
9
Choosing the Right Design
Design type depends on research question: If research
question asks for:
• discovery or clarification: use exploratory design
• description of quantities, amounts, or extent of variable
relations: use descriptive design
• Statements on cause and effect: use causal design
Other factors that influence the design decision:
• Accessibly and quality of required data
• Ethical questions
• Time, cost, and researchers experience
10
Choosing the Research Approach
• Deductive
• Testing theory
• Inductive
• Developing theory
11
Deductive Research
• Based on methods from natural science
• Existing theory used for hypotheses
development
• Data collection through surveys, observation,
Questionnaires, interviews etc.
• Analysis often done using statistical methods,
e.g. multivariate data analysis techniques
• Theory development through confirmed or
rejected hypotheses
• Replicable research
Inductive Research
12
Research Strategies
• Experiment
• Survey
• Case study
• Grounded theory
• Ethnography
• Action research
Experiment
• Tests a hypothesis
• Controls external variables e.g. through
selection of individuals from known
populations
• Tests impact of different levels of X-
variable(s) (cause) on Y-variable (effect)
• Yields highest levels of precision in
measurement
13
Survey
14
Grounded Theory
Ethnography
15
Action Research
16
Dilemmatics
Dilemmatics
17
Example of a research design
18
Research Hypotheses (Example)
H1: There will be a significant difference between
communication preferences of project sponsors from
buyer firms and those of project managers from IT
seller firms in terms of preferred communication
frequency, contents and media.
H2: There will be a positive relationship between the
extent of organic organisation structure and
communication frequency. The more organic the
organisation, the higher the frequency in
communication.
H3: There will be a negative relationship between the
level of organic organisation structure and the use of
lean media. Bureaucratic organisation structures will
favour written reports, while organic structures
favour more interactive media like verbal
communication or face-to-face meetings.
19
Example of Design and Process
• underlying philosophical stance is that of post-positivism
• starting point is a set of hypotheses derived from the
literature review
• the degree of researcher involvement in the research
process is minimized through use of survey techniques and
structured interviews
• knowledge is gained though use of quantitative and
qualitative methods, i.e. surveys and interviews, to
triangulate and validate research findings and provide them
to the scientific community for test and public scrutiny.
Literature Review,
establishing Hypotheses
and Questions Conclusions
Worldwide Survey
time
20