COMPENDIUM

OF
RESEARCHMETHODS
TOPIC 7
THE RESEARCH PROCESS:
FORMULATING AND CLARIFYING THE RESEARCH TOPIC

(Zikmund, 2003, pp. 52 - 76; Sekaran, 2000, pp. 52 – 88;

Saunders, Lewis &Thornhill, 2000, pp. 12 - 83)

THEORY BUILDING (Zikmund, 2003, pp. 40 – 51)

We first consider theory building as discussed by Zikmund (2003) before
proceeding to the first three steps in the research process:

We start with theory, concepts, and propositions:

 The purpose of science concerns the expansion of knowledge and the
discovery of truth. Theory building is the means by which basic researchers
hope to achieve this purpose.

 Prediction and understanding are the two purposes of theory.

Accomplishing the first goal allows the theorist to predict the behavior or
characteristics of one phenomenon from the knowledge of another
phenomenon’s characteristics. To predict phenomena, we must have an
explanation of why variables behave as they do. Theories provide this
explanation.

 A theory is a coherent set of general propositions, used principles of

explanation of the apparent relationships of certain observed phenomena.
  Theory development is essentially a process of describing phenomena at
increasingly higher levels of abstraction. A concept or construct is a
generalized idea about a class of objects, attributes, occurrences, or
processes that has been given a name. If organizational theorist were to
describe phenomena they would have to categorize events or real things
into concepts. Concepts are building blocks, and in organizational theory,
leadership, productivity, morale are concepts. In theory of finance, gross
national product, asset and inflation are frequently used concepts.

 Concept is a generalized idea about a class of objects; an abstraction of

reality that is the basic unit for theory development. Moving up the ladder
of abstraction, the basic concept becomes more abstract, wider in scope,
and less amenable to measurement. The basic or scientific business
researcher operates at two levels: on the abstract level of concepts and
propositions and the empirical level of variables and hypothesis. At the
empirical level, we experience reality, that is, we observe or manipulate
objects or events.

 Theory deals with abstraction. Things are not the essence of theory.
Concepts in isolation are not theories. Only when we explain how concepts
relate to other concepts do we begin to construct theories.

 Propositions are statements concerned with the relationships among

concepts; an assertion of universal connection between events that have
certain properties.

We now review the scientific method:

 The scientific method is a set of prescribed procedures for establishing and

connecting theoretical statements about events, for analyzing empirical
evidence, and for predicting events yet unknown.
 Empirical means verifiable by observation, experimentation, or experience.
The process of empirical verification cannot be divorced from the process
of theory development.
 A hypothesis is a proposition that is empirically testable. It is an empirical
statement concerned with the relationship among variables.
 An example of a simplified portrayal of theory in a proposition form, “ The
perceived desirability of movement to another organization and the
perceived ease of movement from the present job are expected to be the
primary determinants of intention to quit.”
**The concept of intention to quit is expected to be necessary condition for
the actual voluntary job turnover behavior to occur.
** Job performance is another concept considered to be primary
determinant influencing both perceived ease of movement and perceived
desirability of movement.
**Perceive ease of movement is related to other concepts such as labor
market conditions, number of organizations visible to the individual, and
personal characteristics.
** perceive desirability of movement is influenced by concepts such as
equity of pay, job complexity and participation in decision making.

A Basic Theory Explaining Voluntary Job Turnover

Labor market conditions,
number of organizations,
personal characteristics, and
other partial determinants of
ease of movement

Perceived ease of
movement(.e.g expectation of
finding alternatives, unsolicited
opportunities)
Voluntary job
Job Performance Intention to quit turnover(individual volition)
Perceived desirability of
movement (e.g. job satisfaction

Equity of pay, job complexity,

participation in decision
making, and other partial
determinants of desirability of
movements

 In most scientific situations there are alternative theories to explain certain

phenomena. To determine which is the better theory, researchers gather
empirical data or make observations to verify the theories.
 At the abstract, conceptual level, a theory may be developed with
deduction reasoning by going from a general statement to a specific
assertion. Deductive reasoning is the logical process of deriving a
 conclusion about a specific instance based on a known general premise or
something known to be true.
 At the empirical level, a theory may be developed with inductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning is the logical process of establishing a general
proposition on the basis of observation of particular facts.

In summary, the analytic process of scientific theory building go through the

following operations or processes:
 Assessment of relevant existing knowledge of a phenomena
 Formulation of concepts and propositions
 Statement of hypotheses
 Design of research to test the hypotheses
 Acquisition of meaningful empirial data
 Analysis and evaluation of data
 Proposal of an explanation of the phenomenon and statement of new
problems raised by the research.

Theories allows us to generalize beyond individual facts or isolated situations,

thus providing a framework that can guide managerial strategy by providing
insights into general rules of behavior.

In summary:
 Prediction and understanding are the two purposes of theory.
 A theory is a coherent set of general propositions used as principles of
explanation of the apparent relationships of certain observed phenomena.
 Concepts and propositions are the elements of theory at the abstract level.
 At the empirical level, theory is concerned with variables and testable
hypotheses, the empirical counterparts of concepts and propositions.
 The scientific method is a series of stages utilized to develop and refine
theory.

FORMULATING AND CLARIFYING THE RESEARCH TOPIC (Saunders,

Lewis &Thornhill, 2000, pp. 12 – 41)

Before you start your research you need to have at least some idea of what you
want to do.
  This is probably the most difficult, and yet the most important, part of your
research.
 How to formulate and clarify your research topic and your research
question is the focus of this section. Without being clear about what you
are going to research it is difficult to plan how you are going to research it.
This is the starting point of your project.

The attributes of a business and management research topic do not vary a great
deal between authors and universities. Checklist of attributes of a good research
topic can be summarized as:
 Does the topic fit the specifications and meet the standards set by the
examining institutions?
 Is the topic something with which you are really fascinated?
 Does your research topic contain issues that have a clear link to theory?
 Do you have, or can you develop within the project time frame, the
necessary research skills to undertake the topic?
 Is the research topic achievable within available time?
 Is the research topic achievable within the financial resources that are likely
to be available?
 Are you reasonably certain of being able to gain access to data you are
likely to require for this topic?
 Are you able to state your research question(s) and objectives clearly?
 Will your proposed research be able to provide fresh insights on this topic?
 Does your research topic relate clearly to the idea you have been given
perhaps by an organization?
 Are the findings for this research topic likely to be symmetrical, that is of
similar value whatever the outcome?
 Does the research topic match your career goals?

Some business and management students are expected to generate and to refine
own research ideas. Others, particularly those on professional and post-
experience courses, are provided with a research idea by an organization or their
university. In the initial stages of their research they are expected to refine this to
a clear and feasible idea which meets the requirements of the examining
organization.
Students are expected to generate and to refine their own research ideas. The
more-frequently used techniques for generating and refining ideas are:
Rational thinking Creative thinking
 Examining your own strengths  Keeping a notebook of ideas
and interests
 Looking at past projects  Exploring preferences using past
projects
 Discussion  Relevance trees
 Searching the literature  Brainstorming

 Examining your own strengths and interests. It is important that you choose
a topic in which you are likely to do well, if possible, already have some
academic knowledge.
 Looking at past project titles. Dissertations, theses are scanned as a way of
generating ideas. The fact that a project is in the library is no guarantee of
the quality of the arguments and observations it contains.
 Exploring personal preferences using past projects.
 Discussion. Colleagues, friends and university tutors are all good sources of
possible project ideas.
 Searching the literature. Relevant literature may also be suggested for
particular use for generating research ideas. Types of literature can include
but not limited to articles in academic and professional journals, reports,
books.
 Keeping a notebook of ideas. Flashes of inspiration which occur any time of
the day can be noted in a notebook. This will allow you to think of them
and think of what spark off your thought.
 Brainstorming. Brainstorming is taught as a problem-solving-technique on
many business and management courses and can also be used to generate
and refine research ideas.
 Relevance trees. Start with broad concepts from which you generate
further more specific topics and so on.
Refining ideas through Delphi technique which involve using a group of people
who are either involved or interested in the research idea to generate and choose
a more specific idea. To use this technique you need:
 To brief the members of the group about the research idea
 At the end of the briefing to encourage groups members to seek
clarification and more information as appropriate
 To ask each member of the group, including the originator of the research
idea, to generate independently up to three specific research ideas based
on the idea that has been described
 To collect the research ideas in an unedited and non=attributable form and
to distribute them all members of the group
 A second cycle of the process in which individuals comment on the research
ideas and revise their contributions in the light of what others have said
 Subsequent cycles of the process until consensus is reached. These either
follow a similar pattern or use discussion, voting or some other method.

Preliminary study can be done in the form of:

 Review of literature
 Revisiting Delphi’s techniques including informal discussion with people
who have personal experience and knowledge about your research ideas
 Shadowing employees who are likely to be important in your research
 Gain understanding of the organization that will host your research

Ideas are now integrated and topics refined.

Turning research ideas into research projects involved:

 Writing research questions. Begin with one general focus research question
which flow from your research idea.
 Examples of research ideas and their derived focus research questions
Research Idea Research Question
 The sponsorship of county  What benefit do commercial
cricket clubs organizations derive from
their sponsorship of county
cricket clubs?
 The adoption by  Why do manufacturing
manufacturing companies of companies divide their
flexible workforces workforces into core and
 peripheral workers?
 The loss of mutuality status by  How will the loss of mutuality
building societies and the status by building socoieties
effect on the future of the affect the terms they offer to
industry borrowers and savers in
comparison with societies
retaining mutual status?
 The future of trade unions  What are the strategies that
trade unions should adopt to
ensure their future viability?


General focus research question used as a base from which you will write a set of
research objectives. Phrasing research questions as research objectives:
Research Question Research Objectives
 Why have organizations  To identify organizations’
introduced team briefing? objectives for team briefing
schemes.
 How can the effectiveness of  To establish suitable
team briefing schemes be effectiveness criteria for team
measured? briefing schemes.
 Has team briefing been effective?  To describe the extent to which
the effectiveness criteria for
team briefing have been met.
 How can the effectiveness of  To determine the factors
team briefing be explained? associated with the effectiveness
criteria for team briefing being
met.
 To estimate whether some of
those factors are more influential
than other factors.
 Can the explanation be  To develop an explanatory theory
generalized? that associates certain factors
with the effectiveness of team
briefing schemes.

The importance of theory in writing research questions and objectives:

  The importance of theory in research must be recognized.; therefore it
must be made explicit.
 The purpose of examining relationships between two or more variables is
to explain and predict relationships.
 It is evident that if we have expectation that by doing A, B will happen, then
by manipulating the occurrence of A we can begin to predict and influence
the occurrence of B. In other words, theory clearly enmeshed in practice
since explanation enables prediction which in turn enables control.

WRITING YOUR RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Writing a research proposal is a crucial part of the research process. If you are
applying for research funding, or if your proposal is going before an academic
research committee, then you will know that you will need to put a great dwal of
time into preparation of your proposal.

The purposes of a research proposal are:

 Organizing your ideas. Writing is the best way of clarifying your thoughts.
This is a valuable purpose of a proposal. It will organize your thoughts and
help you organize your ideas into a coherent statement of your research
intent.
 Convincing your audience. Your proposal must convince your audience that
the research you have proposed is achievable. If not, then you will have
saved yourself a great deal of time and frustration.
 Contracting with your client. Acceptance of a proposal by a client would be
part of the contract that existed between you. In the academe, acceptance
of your proposal implies that your proposal is satisfactory. It is not a
guarantee of subsequent success but it is a comfort to know that you
started your research journey with an appropriate destination and journey
plan.

The content of the research proposal are:

 Title. May be the first attempt. This may change as your work progress.
 Background. It should tell the reader why you feel the research which you
are planning is worth the effort. The reader will be looking for evidence
here that there is sufficient interest from you to sustain you over the long
months ahead.
 This is the section where you will demonstrate your knowledge of relevant
literature. It will clarify where your proposal fits into the debate in the
literature. You will be expected to show a clear link between previous work
that has been done in your field of research interest and the content of the
proposal.

The literature should be your point of departure. This is not the same as the
critical literature review you will present in your final project report. It will
just indicate the key literature sources from which you intend to draw.

 Research questions and objectives. The background section should lead

smoothly into a statement of your research question(s) and objectives.
These should leave the reader in no doubt as to precisely what it is that
your research seeks to achieve.
 Method. Method should detail precisely how you intend to go about
achieving your research objectives. It will justify your choice of method in
the light of those objectives. These two aims may be met by dividing your
method section into two parts: research design and data collection.

In the design section you will explain where you intend to carry out the
research e.g explain which sector of the economy you have chosen to
research and why you chose these sectors. You will also need to explain the
identity of your research population and why you chose this population.

The design section also include an explanation of the general way in which
you intent to carry out the research. Will it be based on a survey,
interviews, examination of secondary data or a combination of methods?
Here, it is essential to explain why you have chosen your approach. Your
explanation should be based on the most effective way of meeting your
research objectives

The research design section gives an overall view of the method chosen and
the reason for that choice.

The data collection section goes into much more detail about how
specifically the data are to be collected. If using survey approach you will
 need to specify population, sampling, sample size, clarify how the
questionnaires will be distributed and how they will be analyzed. If you will
use interviews you will explain how many interviews will be conducted,
their intended duration, whether these will be taoe recorded and how they
will be analyzed.

In short you should demonstrate to your reader that you have thought
carefully about all the issues regarding your method and their relationship
to your research objectives.

 Research timescale. Help you and your reader to decide on the viability of
your research proposal. Experience has shown that however well the
researcher’s time is organized the whole process seems to take longer than
anticipated.
 Resources. Resource considerations may be categorized as finance, data
access and equipment. Conducting research cost money. Assessors of your
proposal will have to be convinced that you have access to the data you
need to conduct your research. You need to convince the reader that you
have access to data analysis hardware and software and the necessary skill
to perform the analysis or you have access to help.
 References. A few literature sources to which you have referred in the
background section and which relate to the previous work which directly
informing your own proposal should be all that is necessary.

Criteria for evaluating research proposals:

 The extent to which the components of the proposal fits together. Your
rationale for conducting the research should include a study of the previous
published research, including relevant theories in the topic area. This study
should inform your research question(s) and objectives. Your proposed
methodology should flow directly from these research question(s) and
objectives. The time that you have allocated should be a direct reflection of
the methods you employ as should the resources which you need.
 Viability of the proposal. Will this research be carried out satisfactorily
within the timescale?
 The absence of pre-conceived ideas. Your research should be an exciting
journey into the unknown.
To summarize:
 The process of formulating and clarifying your research topic is the most
important part of your research topic.
 Attributes of a research topic do not vary a great deal between universities.
The most important of these is that your research topic will meet the
requirements of the examining body.
 Generating and refining research ideas makes use of a variety of
techniques. It is important that you use a variety of techniques including
those which involve rational and those which involve creative thinking.
 The ideas generated can be integrated subsequently using a technique such
as working up and narrowing down.
 Research can be distinguished from the intelligence gathering. Research is
theory dependent.
 Writing research proposal helps you to organize your ideas and can be
thought of as a contract between you and the reader.
 The content of the research proposal should tell the reader what you want
to do, why you want to do it, what you are trying to achieve and how you
plan to achieve it.

SELECTING A PROBLEM
AND
CONSTRUCTING HYPOTHESES
(TUCKMAN, 1978, PP. 20 – 36)

Characteristics of a problem. A problem statement must have the following

characteristics:
 It should ask about a relationship between two or more variables
 It should be stated clearly and unambiguously, usually in question form
 It should be testable by empirical methods; that is, it should be able to
collect data to answer the questions asked
 It should not represent a moral or ethical position

Special considerations in choosing a problem:

  Workability – within the limits and range of your resources and time
constraints, accessibility of sample, come to a reasonable answer,
manageable methodology.
 Critical mass – of sufficient scope and magnitude to fulfill the requirement
that has motivated the study, enough variables, enough potential results,
enough to write about.
 Interest – are you interested in the problem area? Does it relate to you
background? Will you learn useful skills from pursuing it?
 Theoretical value- Does the problem fill agap in the literature? Will others
recognized its importance? Will it contribute to advancement in your field?
Is it publishable?
 Practical value – Will practitioners likely to be interested in it? Will practice
be likely to change as a result?

Formulating hypotheses:
 A hypothesis is a suggested answer to the problem. It has the following
characteristics:
** it should conjecture upon a relationship between two or more variables
** it should be stated clearly and unambiguously in the form of a
declarative sentence
** it should be testable; that is, it should be possible to restate it in an
operational form that can be evaluated based on data.

 Observation refers to what is – that is, to what is seen. From observation,

we may infer a specific hypothesis. Specific hypothesis can be tested and
lead to a general hypothesis.
 Hypothesis then could be defined as an expectation about events based on
generalization of the assumed relationship between variables. The
hypotheses are abstract and are concerned with theories and concepts,
while observations used to test hypotheses are specific and are based on
facts.
 Induction begins with data and observations (empirical events) and
proceeds toward hypotheses and theories, while deduction begins with
theories and general hypotheses and proceeds toward specific hypotheses
or anticipated observations.
 The task of introducing a study and discussing the findings are facilitated by
the existence of a hypothesis – integrating relevant research and logic.
  Researchers deal with reality on two levels, the operational level and the
conceptual level. On the operational level they must define events in
observable terms in order to operate with reality necessary to do research.
On the conceptual level they must define events in terms of underlying
communality, usually causal, with other events. The formulation of a
hypothesis very frequently requires going from the operational or concrete
level to the conceptual or abstract level. It is the movement from the
conceptual level that enables the results of research to be generalized
beyond the specific conditions of a particular study and thus to be of wider
applicability.

The purpose of testing a hypothesis is to determine the probability that it is

supported by fact. The negative or no difference version of a hypothesis is called
null hypothesis. This is the hypothesis that is tested hence either accepted or
rejected.