Quantitative Tools for

Research
LECTURE # 1
 Course outline
1. Course Introduction, Types of variables, Dependent vs. independent
variables, Relations between variables, Measurement scales (nominal,
ordinal, interval and ratio)
2. Theoretical model specifications, Testing a hypothesis Introduction, The
purpose of hypothesis testing, Research Design.
3. Sampling techniques, population, sampling unit, probability and non
probability sampling techniques
4. Quantitative data analysis, data entry, coding (reverse coding concept),
Editing data.
5. Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, means, standard deviation.
6. Normality of data, Multicollinearity diagnostics, outliers
7. Charts and tables, Data classification, Tabulation of data, Diagrammatic
representation of data, Creating charts with Excel, Creating charts with
SPSS
8. Midterm
9. Covariates, demographical variables, ANOVA
10. Pilot testing, Reliability analysis, Correlation Analysis, Measure of
association, Pearson Correlation.
11. Regression Analysis Regression, Interpretation of Regression equation, R-
square and adjusted R-square values, Goodness of fit, ANOVA and
Regression Equation, , Un-standardized and standardized regression
coefficients
12. Moderation Regression Analysis (Baron & Kenny),Interpretation and
reporting of results
13. Mediation Regression Analysis (Baron & Kenny) Interpretation and
reporting of results
14. Preacher and Hayes Regression Analysis, Interpretation of results
15. Factor Analysis: Principal Components, Explanatory Factor analysis Basic
Idea.
Books
Research Methods for Business: A skill Building Approach,
Uma sekaran and Roger Bougie,5th Edition,2010

Multivariate Data Analysis, Joseph F. Hair, 7th Edition, Prentice

Hall, 2009.
 History of Scientific Thought
 In the earliest days of human inquiry, knowledge was usually recognized in
terms of theological precepts based on faith.

 This was challenged by Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and

Socrates during the 3rd century BC, who suggested that the fundamental
nature of being and the world can be understood more accurately through
a process of systematic logical reasoning called rationalism.

 In particular, Aristotle’s classic work Metaphysics (literally meaning

“beyond physical [existence]”) separated theology (the study of Gods) from
ontology (the study of being and existence) and universal science (the
study of first principles, upon which logic is based).
 History of Scientific Thought
 The next major shift in scientific thought occurred during the 16th century,
when British philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) suggested that
knowledge can only be derived from observations in the real world.

 Based on this premise, Bacon emphasized knowledge acquisition as an

empirical activity (rather than as a reasoning activity), and developed
empiricism as an influential branch of philosophy.

 Bacon’s works led to the popularization of inductive methods of scientific

inquiry, the development of the “scientific method” consisting of
systematic observation, measurement, and experimentation, and may have
even sowed the seeds of atheism or the rejection of theological precepts
as “unobservable.”
 History of Scientific Thought
French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857), founder of
the discipline of sociology, attempted to blend rationalism and
empiricism in a new doctrine called positivism. He suggested
that theory and observations have circular dependence on
each other.
 History of Scientific Thought
While theories may be created via reasoning, they are only
authentic if they can be verified through observations. The
emphasis on verification started the separation of modern
science from philosophy and metaphysics and further
development of the “scientific method” as the primary means
of validating scientific claims.
 History of Scientific Thought
Positivism was typically equated with quantitative research
methods such as experiments and surveys and without any
explicit philosophical commitments, while anti positivism
employed qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews
and participant observation.
 Definitions
Science refers to a systematic and organized body of
knowledge in any area of inquiry that is acquired using “the
scientific method”.
Science can be grouped into two broad categories: natural
science and social science.
Natural science is the science of naturally occurring objects or
phenomena, such as light, objects, matter, earth, celestial
bodies, or the human body. Natural sciences can be further
classified into physical sciences, earth sciences, life sciences,
and others
social science is the science of people or collections of people,
such as groups, firms, societies, or economies, and their
individual or collective behaviors. Social sciences can be
classified into disciplines such as psychology (the science of
human behaviors), sociology (the science of social groups),
and economics (the science of firms, markets, and economies).
 Scientific Knowledge
The purpose of science is to create scientific knowledge.
Scientific knowledge refers to a generalized body of laws and
theories to explain a phenomenon or behavior of interest that
are acquired using the scientific method.
Laws are observed patterns of phenomena or behaviors, while
theories are systematic explanations of the underlying
phenomenon or behavior.
 Scientific Research
Given that theories and observations are the two pillars of
science, scientific research operates at two levels: a theoretical
level and an empirical (experimental) level.
The theoretical level is concerned with developing abstract
concepts about a natural or social phenomenon and
relationships between those concepts (i.e., build “theories”),
while the empirical level is concerned with testing the
theoretical concepts and relationships to see how well they
reflect our observations of reality, with the goal of ultimately
building better theories.
Depending on a researcher’s training and interest, scientific
inquiry may take one of two possible forms: inductive or
deductive.

In inductive research, the goal of a researcher is to infer

theoretical concepts and patterns from observed data.

In deductive research, the goal of the researcher is to test

concepts and patterns known from theory using new empirical
data.

Hence, inductive research is also called theory-building

research, and deductive research is theory-testing research.
 Scientific Method
Scientific method refers to a standardized set of techniques
for building scientific knowledge, such as how to make valid
observations, how to interpret results, and how to generalize
those results.
The scientific method allows researchers to independently and
impartially test preexisting theories and prior findings, and
subject them to open debate, modifications, or
enhancements.
The scientific method must satisfy four characteristics:
Replicability: Others should be able to independently replicate or
repeat a scientific study and obtain similar, if not identical,
results.
Precision: Theoretical concepts, which are often hard to
measure, must be defined with such precision that others can
use those definitions to measure those concepts and test that
theory.
 Falsifiability: A theory must be stated in a way that it can be
disproven. Theories that cannot be tested or falsified are not
scientific theories and any such knowledge is not scientific
knowledge.
Parsimony: When there are multiple explanations of a
phenomenon, scientists must always accept the simplest or most
logically explanation.
 Types of Scientific Research
Scientific research projects can be grouped into three types:
exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory.
Exploratory research is often conducted in new areas of
inquiry, where the goals of the research are: (1) to scope out
the magnitude or extent of a particular phenomenon,
problem, or behavior, (2) to generate some initial ideas (or
“hunches”) about that phenomenon, or (3) to test the
feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study regarding
that phenomenon.
Descriptive research is directed at making careful
observations and detailed documentation of a phenomenon of
interest. These observations must be based on the scientific
method (i.e., must be replicable, precise, etc.), and therefore,
are more reliable than casual observations by untrained
people.
Explanatory research seeks explanations of observed
phenomena, problems, or behaviors. While descriptive
research examines the what, where, and when of a
phenomenon, explanatory research seeks answers to why and
how types of questions. It attempts to “connect the dots” in
research, by identifying causal factors and outcomes of the
target phenomenon.

Hypothesis Testing is undertaken to explain the variance in

the dependent variable or to predict organizational outcomes
 Concepts, Constructs, and Variables
Explanations require development of concepts or
generalizable properties or characteristics associated with
objects, events, or people.
While objects such as a person, a firm, or a car are not
concepts, their specific characteristics or behavior such as a
person’s attitude toward immigrants, a firm’s capacity for
innovation, and a car’s weight can be viewed as concepts.
A construct is an abstract concept that is specifically chosen
(or “created”) to explain a given phenomenon. A construct
may be a simple concept, such as a person’s weight, or a
combination of a set of related concepts such as a person’s
communication skill, which may consist of several underlying
concepts such as the person’s vocabulary, syntax, and spelling.
However, in scientific research, a variable is a measurable
representation of an abstract construct. As abstract entities,
constructs are not directly measurable, and hence, we look for
proxy measures called variables.
 Type of Scales
A scale is a tool or mechanism by which individuals are
distinguished as to how they differ from one another on the
variables of interest to our study.
 Nominal scale
 Ordinal scale
 Interval scale
 Ratio scale
 Nominal scale

A nominal scale is one that allows the researcher to assign

subjects to certain categories or groups.
 Ordinal Scale
An ordinal scale not only categorizes the variables in such a
way as to denote differences among the various categories, it
also rank or order the categories in some meaningful way.
 Interval scale
An interval scale allows us to perform certain arithmetical
operations on the data collected from the respondents
 Ratio Scale
The ratio scale not only measures the magnitude of the
difference between points on the scale but also taps the
proportion in the differences.
Ratios scales are usually used in organizational research when
exact numbers on objective(as opposed to subjective) factors
are called for
The responses to the questions could range from 0 to any
reasonable figure
 Examples
1.How many other organizations did you work for before joining
this system?
2.Please indicate the number of children you have in each of the
following categories:
-below 3 years of age
-between 3 and 6
-over 6 years and but under 12
-12 years and over
3.How many retail outlets do you operate?