CHAPTER-3

REASEARCH
METHEDOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN AND
FORMULATION OF
HYPOTHESIS
Key concepts:

• Requirements of Research Design

• Definition of Research Design
• Types of Research Design
• Factors Affecting Research Design
• Hypothesis Formulation
• Hypothesis Testing
What is Research Design?

• A plan for selecting the sources and types of information used to answer
research questions
• A framework for specifying the relationships among the study variables
• A blueprint that outlines each procedure from the hypothesis to the
analysis
Requirements of Research Design

• Identify the kind of Research one Intend to Do

• Be Realistic
• Be Precise
• Be Flexible
Meaning of Research Design
• In the formal language Research design implies
• A plan of action to be carried out in connection with a proposed research
work
• It provides a guideline for the checking and counter checking of the
research work which enables the researcher to keep track of work action
and let him to know that he is moving in the right direction
• The design is a specific presentation of the various steps in the process of
research
• Designing provides a clear cut picture of the work before starting the
work, and
• It helps in identifying the difficulties that may emerge in the process of
research
Definition
• According to P.V.Young, ‘the design results from collecting general
scientific model into varied research problem’,
• According to Kerlinger, ‘research design is a plan, structure and strategy
of investigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions
and control variance’.
Need and Importance of Research Design

• Research without a proper design is said to be business without

advertisement.
• It is said ‘a business without advertisement is winking at a girl in dark
where you know what you are doing but no body else does’
• Similarly research without a proper design is working in the dark without
knowing the proper way.
Types of Research Design

• Exploratory research/formulative research

• Descriptive Research Design
• Diagnostic Research Design, and
• Experimental Research Design
Exploratory Research Design:

• Exploratory research or formulative studies are often seen as the initial

step in the continuous research process.
• The major emphasis is on the discovery of ideas.
• This type of study is particularly helpful in breaking broad and vague
problem into smaller, more precise sub-problem statements, hopefully, in
the form of specific hypothesis.
Characteristics of Exploratory Design
• Business significance: Unless the research problem has a place in the
industry or has business significance, its study shall be useless.
• Practical aspects: If the work or research is not having any practical values
than it is not useless for business decisions.
• Combination of theory: if a certain problem is having some theoretical
aspects it shall possible for the researcher to judge its utility in the right
direction.
Importance of Exploratory Research Design

• Information about the immediate conditions: the design provides

information about the conditions of the problem. When the investigator
does not have resources and capability to test the hypothesis he can get
facts through this research design.
• Presentations of important problems: It is possible to present important
research problems through this research design. Once the problems have
been presented, the investigator automatically attracted towards the
study of the problem which is the objective of a research.
• Study of the unknown field: to formulate hypothesis a research requires
adequate information. Through exploratory research a research can get
the information.
• Theoretical base: the research problem deals with social life and social
problem of a society. The data is required for this problem is a hard work.
This design is helpful to the research in solving his desired problem.
Methods for Exploratory Research Design
• Review/survey of the concerned literature: (follow step of research)
• Experience survey: the objective of such survey is to get the relationship
between variables and new ideas relating to the research problem. For
such a survey people who are competent and can contribute new ideas
may be carefully selected as respondent. The respondents then
interviewed by the investigator/researcher.
Descriptive Research Design
• This is the one that simply describe something such as demographic
characteristics of consumers who use a particular product.
• This study is typically concerned with determining frequency with which
something occurs or how two variables vary together.
• For exam: An investigation of the trends in consumption of soft drinks
with respect to socio-economic characteristics such as age, sex,
occupation, family income, educational level etc. are covered under
descriptive study.
Importance of descriptive research

– To describe the characteristics of certain groups i.e., users of a

product with different age, sex etc.
– To estimate the proportion of people in a specified population who
behave in a certain way i.e., shopping persons who buy from a
particular shop
– To make specific predictions i.e., sales of a company’s product in each
quarter of a year
– A descriptive study requires clear specification of who, what, where,
why and how aspects of the research
Methods of descriptive research
1. Case research design: Case research is the most widely used formal
research design. It can be carried in the areas such as a survey of
consumer attitudes towards a new product. However, it is generally
used for collecting cases.
The collected cases are the typical studies generally used to find three
features as follows:
– Features which are common to all cases in general
– Features which are not common to all cases but are common to
certain sub-groups, and
– Features which are unique to a specific cases.
2. Statistical design: the statistical design differs from the case research with
regard to the number of cases studied and comprehensiveness of the
study of each case.
While the case method involves complete study of a few cases, the statistical
method involves study of a few factors in a large number of cases.
The main advantage is that results can be generalized owing to wider samples
used and conclusions are based on statistical techniques.
• Types of Statistical Design:
1. Longitudinal analysis (Panel Research): a panel is a fixed sample of
respondents from which information can be collected on a continued
basis. The respondents in panels may be stores, dealers, individuals etc.
• For exam: let we have 50 students to test movie celebrity to that of
cricket celebrity in advertisement in sports channel during India match in
world cup. During the world cup we find that 25 per cent recalled filmy
stars during the play. After the end of the world cup we again interviewed
these 50 students and find that 30 per cent recall. Hence, movie stars
have more demand.
2. Cross-sectional analysis: there are two types of cross sectional analysis:
field studies and surveys. The basic difference between the two is the
greater scope of the surveys and greater depth of the field study. The
survey has a greater sample. The emphasis of survey is of getting
summary statistics. The emphasis of field study is on the inter-relationship
of a number of factors.
Diagnostic Research Design

• Diagnostic studies are completely based on the hypothesis.

• Diagnostic design is based on such knowledge which can also motivate or
put into practice in the solution of the problem. Hence, it is having
similarity with the treatment of human beings.
• Under this immediate or timely solution of the cause elements or cause is
necessary. The researcher before studying other references tries to
remove and solve the factors and the causes that have given rise to the
problem.
Experimental Research Design

• Experimental research design is also called as experimentation or causal

research design.
• It is defined as the process where events occur in a setting at the
discretion of the experimenter, and controls are used to identify the
sources of variation in subjects’ response.
• This definition indicates that the experimenter systematically manipulates
some factor(s) to get a response from the subject.
Following are the areas where experiments are predominantly:

• Product design: which product a consumer would buy most.

• Package design: which attractive package a producer should design based
on the available literature.
• Pricing Policies: the price elasticity of demand can be better tested with
the help of experiments. Experiments are often used for measuring this
aspect pricing.
• Promotion Policies: the promotional policies have been very widely
explored through experimentation as compared with the other areas of
marketing.
Methods of experimental design

There are two types of research design:

• Formal research design
– Completely randomised
– Randomized block
– Latin square, and
– Factorial design.
• Informal research design
– After only design
– After only with control design
– Before and after without control design
– Before and after with control design, and
– Ex-post facto design
Randomized Block Design: In this type of design, the population is divided
into groups which are relatively homogeneous in respect of some selected
variables. The variable selected for grouping the population is one that is
believed to be related to the measures to be obtained in respect of
dependent variables.
Latin Square Design: This is the most frequently used design in case of
agricultural research process.
• An experiment has to be made on the effects of five different varieties of
fertilizers on the yield of a certain crop.
• Suppose that there are 2 factors, fertility and seeds that found to be
important.
Informal Research Design:
• Before-after without control: In this design the researcher measures the
test unit (independent variables) before and after it has been subjected to
the treatment.
• Before-After with control: in this case an experimental unit is selected and
studied during the experimental period.
• After-Only controls: in this case two equivalent groups are selected: one is
control group and other one is experiment group. The treatment is
provided to the experimental group.
• After-only Design: this design consists of applying the experimental
variables to an experimental group and measuring the dependent
variable.
• For exam: A detergent powder manufacturer with brand name ‘NIRMA’
want to know the market response of his product. He advertised in TV for
a month. Now he wants to measure the impact of TV advertisement on
his sale. He now compares the sale of the product after advertisement.
• Ex-post facto Design: in this case, rather than selecting the experimental
design before the experiment none of the groups is selected before the
experiment.
CONCLUSION:
Thus from the above it is clear that the process of research design play an
important role in the analysis of research. This helps the researcher,
particularly the beginners, a way to get the desired result.
Hypotheses

• A good research question will produce one or more testable hypotheses.

• Testable hypotheses predict a relationship between variables (not

concepts).
Three Basic kinds of Hypotheses

• Descriptive Questions
– Single variable descriptions
• Central tendency, variability, percentages

• Associational
– Non-directional relationship between variables.

• Difference
– Group Comparison
Null hypothesis

• Null Hypothesis:
– H 0: μ 1 = μ c
• μ1 is the intervention population mean
• μc is the control population mean

• In English…
– “There is no significant difference between the intervention
population mean and the control population mean”
Alternative Hypotheses

• Alternative Hypotheses:
– H 1: μ 1 < μ c
– H 0: μ 1 > μ c
– H 0: μ 1 ≠ μ c