Question

What is the research design process? what are the three types of research? What type of information can you collect for each research type? What are some reasons managers decide the tyype of research they do?

Answer 1

Research design is defined as the combination or framework of techniques and methods used by a researcher to handle a research problem in an efficient manner

The various steps involved in a research design include problem definition, research study objectives formulation, research nature, sources of data, data collection techniques (socio-cultural, geographic etc), sampling technique (random, stratified, quota, clustered etc)

The three major types of research include

Exploratory research – This research is best for doing initial research to explore alternatives, insights and ideas about the issues pertaining to a company, identifying potential growth areas and prioritizing key business areas. Text responses in the form of open-ended questions are the main source of information from this research. Managers use exploratory research as a starter to explore the various causes or get insights about a research problem

Descriptive research – This research is conclusive and structured with statistical information. The information collected is quantitative from a well-structured questionnaire involving multiple-choice questions (descriptive research). The individual responses are grouped to provide statistically inferred data. Managers use this descriptive research to measure or study the entire population (census) or sample study representing the entire population. Managers use descriptive research for performance measurement, job satisfaction, employee satisfaction, behavioral studies and other research purposes. Most managers chose this descriptive research method as they get substantial information to back or support the results found as a result of the research study to convince the top management in making or supporting a decision made by the managers on the topic or problem researched

Causal research – This research is quantitative and conclusive attempting to explain the cause and effect relationship among the variables used in the research study. An example of this causal relationship is to find the effect of new packaging design of a consumer product (health drink) on the sales of the product. In order to find the causal relationship, the manager places the health drink product in its original packing box in one store and places the same health drink product with new packing design box in another store and the difference in sales is monitored over a period of time to arrive at the results on relationship between new packing box design and sales