Business Research Design Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Business Research and Design

Marketing Principles of Research Method

Introduction to Business Research Design

The aim of the report is to analyze various areas of business research design that a business researcher should address in designing a research project, including the purpose of research design, the methodological choice between qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods, research strategies, time horizon, ethics of the research design, quality of the research, and role of the researcher.

Business Research Design

Purpose: Research design helps the researcher to plan the study. It permits an effective relationship between dependent and independent variables. It helps in assisting the accurate cause of the research (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018). Research design helps the researcher to identify the goal of the study in the best possible way by predicting or explaining the solution of a situation that indicates the type of study needed to be conducted.

Purpose of different types of Research Designs

Action Research Design: It follows a characteristic cycle in which first the exploratory stance is adopted followed by implementing intervention and strategies. The cycle repeats itself until the required solution is achieved(Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016).

Case Study Design: This design carries out an in-depth study rather than sweeping statistical data of a particular research problem. It is helpful in determining whether, in the real world, the particular theory or model can be applied to a specific phenomenon or not. It involves a procedure which includes describing multiple points of view on a single topic, then analyzing all points of view related to the topic, and lastly drawing a conclusion.

Casual Design: It is used to identify and measure the impact of specific changes on existing assumptions and norms. It reflects the test of the hypothesis. Hypothesis testing is a test performed by an analyst to test an assumption regarding a population parameter. Hypothesis testing uses simple data to assess the credibility of a hypothesis. This type of data may come from the data generating processor from a large population. The aim of the research design is to get the reader toward the side of the researcher's point of view. It involves a procedure which includes describing two different points of view of the problem, then collecting and proposing advantages and disadvantages of both sides, and lastly giving the preference to one with appropriate reasoning (Quinlan, Babin, Carr and Griffin 2019).

Cohort Design: It involves the study conducted for members of the population over a period of time. It is used in medical sciences and applied social science using a quantitative framework. This type of researches is used in advertising, business, public health, marketing, psychology, and sociology. It involves a procedure which includes conducting a survey, then analyzing the finding, and lastly draw a conclusion with appropriate reasoning (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018).

Cross-Sectional Design: It is used to measure the difference between people or phenomena rather than change and it has three features that include, selection of groups on existing differences rather than random allocation, reliance on existing differences, and no time dimension.

Experimental Design: In this research design a particular experimental case is discussed in detail. It involves a procedure which includes conducting an experiment, sharing the details or useful experience, and lastly providing data and results of the experiment (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018).

Data Collection

It is one of the essential segments of research. It helps the researcher in identifying answers for his/her question. Data collection is an important part of the research as it gives the reasoning to the researcher for getting to a conclusion. There are two types of data collection methods namely the secondary method and primary method of data collection. A secondary type of data is data that is already published (Quinlan,Babin, Carr and Griffin 2019). This type of data can be collected from the online portal, journals, magazines, books, newspapers, etc. In this type of source, there is an enormous amount of data available that can be used for the research purpose in almost all kind of areas regardless of the nature of the research. An appropriate set of criteria is to be used in order to select secondary data because it plays an important role in the study in terms of increasing the reliability and validity of the research. These criteria include quality of discussion, depth of analysis, etc.

Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection Method

The primary data collection method is divided into two subdivisions namely quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data collection method includes various formats based on mathematical calculation(Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016). This type of method includes median, mode, mean, regression and correlation methods, and questionnaires with closed-ended questions. These types of methods are can be applied in a shorter period of time and are cheaper as compared to qualitative methods. On the other hand, the qualitative data collection method includes case studies, game or role-playing, observation, focus groups, questionnaires with closed-ended questions, and interviews. Qualitative studies ensure a greater level of depth of understanding and this type of researches is closely associated with colors, emotions, feelings, sounds, words, and other elements that are non-quantifiable (Hennink, Hutter and Bailey 2020).

Research Strategies

The researcher uses these strategies to procedure with the study step by step in order to give direction to efforts and thoughts. Research strategies help in conducting the research in a systematic way so that it can be completed in a scheduled period of time in order to produce detailed reporting and quality results. There are four types of research strategies namely action-oriented research, quantitative survey, qualitative interviews, and case study. The main purpose of the research strategy is to introduce research methods, research design, research perspective, and research topic.

Time Horizon

Researchers need time horizon for research design. The time horizon is selected without considering the research methodology. Generally, the time horizon is of two types namely longitudinal and cross-sectional.

Longitudinal: When the data is gathered to answer a research question at two or more points of time on a dependent variable, then it is called longitudinal studies. For example, after the change in top management, the researcher wants to study the behavior of employees before and after the change in order to identify the effects of the change. In this case, data has been collected by the researcher at two points of time that is, after the change and before the change of top management. In other words, longitudinal studies are the ones that are repeated over an extended period of time (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018).

Cross-sectional studies: When the researcher gathers the data to answer a research question just once either over a period of days or months, it is called cross-sectional studies. It is also called one-shot studies as it is limited to a specific time frame(Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016).

Research Ethics

Ethics refers to rules of behavior and science of morals in a fundamental aspect of professional work and research (Quinlan,Babin, Carr and Griffin 2019). Research ethics is concerned with conducting research in the right manner along with the prevention of any harm that may occur during proceeding with the research. Research ethics also relates to conducting the research and putting it into practice considering different obligations. The different obligation that should be considered during any research are as follows:

Legal Obligation: It includes obligation related to collecting and storing of data.

Professional Obligations: They are established by professional bodies such as CIPD, The Law Society, etc.

Cultural obligations: It includes the rule and regulation of the society in which the people are living (Quinlan,Babin, Carr and Griffin 2019).

Personal obligation: It includes individual choices according to their behavior.

Other than all the above obligations, various professional bodies and universities had listed code of ethics which should be taken care of by the researcher while conducting research. Below are the principles that are needed to be followed while conducting research with human participants:

Informed consent: The participants should be informed about any potential risk or benefit involved with the research that might influence the decision made by the participant to participate in the research process. Sufficient time should be given to the participant along with the information sheet of the research. They should also be informed that they can withdraw their consent from the research at any time(Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016).

Openness and integrity: The researcher should behave in a professional manner while being open and honest about the research purpose. Authority to a participant should be given to go through the obtained results.

Protection from harm: Physical and psychological risks should be minimized by the researchers in the best possible way.Researches involving vulnerable groups like children should obtain an appropriate level of disclosure (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018).

Confidentiality: Researchers should not disclose the identity of any participant. They should respect and preserve their data from being exposed.

Professional codes of practice and ethics: Researchers should take care that the research is carried out while obeying the codes of ethics and professionalism is maintained during the research conduction.

Quality of Research

Research is said to be of good quality when it follows the standards of quality research. Quality research denotes a scientific process that includes all the study design aspects. Good quality research should follow the principle of audibility, accountability, transparency, and professionalism. It should provide evidence that is robust and ethical and can be used to inform policymaking (Paradis et al. 2016).

Standards of Quality Research

• Research design and hypothesis must be well-defined.
• Methods applied should address the research question.
• Well-defined structure and integrity in the research
• Use of peer-reviewed research papers.
• High-quality data fit
• Appropriate graphs and tables related to the research
• Selection of suitable data selection process
• Transparent research study, design, procedure and methodology (Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016)
• Codes of ethics should be followed

Role of the Researcher

Researcher plays a very important role during the research. The primary responsibility of the researcher is to collect data from various sources for the research. The researcher also has to take care of data protection and participant confidentiality. A researcher is the one who is responsible for collecting data and applying that data for implementing the analysis. Researchers have to carry out the research in such a way that it makes no error.It is required that the researcher implement its specialized skills in the correct manner (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018). The researcher should be able to explain the study, conduct data collection according to the design, make appropriate observations on the field of research, select appropriate journal and images, handling data, and interpreting the data as per the design. The research conducted by the researcher shows his/her point of view. Therefore, it is important that the research should be carried out in such a way that the reader can easily interpret the information provided in the research and can use it for further studies. However, the quality of research depends on who the researcher has carried out his/her research. The role of the researcher is also to make the research reliable. Research reliability is the degree to which method used in research generation of consistent and stable results. Reliability can be defined as getting the same result or answer more than once by using an instrument (Maxwell 2017). Apart from this, the researcher has to carry out his research considering the code of ethics. Researchers should take care that the purpose of research does not harm an individual or group of people and their culture.

Conclusion on Business Research Design

It can be concluded that the report has analyzed various areas of business research design that a business researcher should address in designing a research project, including the purpose of research design, a methodological choice between qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods, research strategies, time horizon, ethics of the research design, quality of the research, and role of the researcher. Research design helps the researcher to plan the study. It permits an effective relationship between dependent and independent variables. Researcher plays a very important role in designing the research. Besides this, the report has briefly explained the role of the researcher and codes of ethics that are needed to be taken care of while proceeding with the research.

References for Business Research Design

Bell, E., Bryman, A. and Harley, B. 2018. Business research methods. London: Oxford university press.

Hennink, M., Hutter, I. and Bailey, A. 2020. Qualitative research methods. SAGE Publications Limited.

Leavy, P. 2017. Research design: Quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and community-based participatory research approaches. New York: Guilford Publications.

Maxwell, J.A. 2017. The validity and reliability of research: A realist perspective. The BERA/SAGE handbook of educational research, pp.116-140.

Meyers, L.S., Gamst, G. and Guarino, A.J. 2016. Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation. United States: Sage publications.

Paradis, E., O'Brien, B., Nimmon, L., Bandiera, G. and Martimianakis, M.A.T. 2016. Design: selection of data collection methods. Journal of graduate medical education, 8(2), p.263.

Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M. 2019. Business research methods. South Western Cengage.

Spielmann, K. 2018. The Logic of Intelligence Analysis: Why Hypothesis Testing Matters. London: Routledge.

Remember, at the center of any academic work, lies clarity and evidence. Should you need further assistance, do look up to our Business Research Assignment Help