DR NEENA SONDHI

CHAPTER-4
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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What is an Experiment?

 An experiment is generally used to

infer a causality. In an experiment, a
researcher actively manipulates one
or more causal variables and
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measures their effects on the

dependent variable of interest.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Necessary Conditions for Making

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Causal Inferences

 Concomitant variation

 Time order of occurrence of variables

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 Absence of other possible causal factors

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Concepts Used in Experiments

 Independent variables: Independent variables
are also known as explanatory variables or
treatments. The levels of these variables are
manipulated (changed) by researchers to
measure their effect on the dependent variable.
 Test units: Test units are those entities on which
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treatments are applied.

 Dependent variables: These variables measures
the effect of treatments (independent variable) on
the test units.

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Concepts Used In Experiments

 Experiment: An experiment is executed when the
researcher manipulates one or more independent
variables and measures their effect on the dependent
variables while controlling the effect of the
extraneous variables.
 Extraneous variables: These are the variables other
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than the independent variables which influence the

response of test units to treatments.

Examples: Store size, government policies,

temperature, food intake, geographical location, etc.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Validity in Experimentation
 Internal validity: Internal validity tries to examine
whether the observed effect on a dependent
variable is actually caused by the treatments
(independent variables) in question.
 External validity: External validity refers to the
generalization of the results of an experiment.
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The concern is whether the result of an

experiment can be generalized beyond the
experimental situations.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Factors Affecting Internal Validity

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of the Experiment
 History
 Maturation
 Testing
 Instrumentation
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 Statistical regression
 Selection bias
 Test unit mortality

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Factors Affecting External Validity

 The environment at the time of test may be
different from the environment of the real world
where these results are to be generalized.
 Population used for experimentation of the test
may not be similar to the population where the
results of the experiments are to be applied.
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 Results obtained in a 5–6 week test may not hold

in an application of 12 months.
 Treatment at the time of the test may be different
from the treatment of the real world.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Methods to Control Extraneous

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Variables
 Randomization

 Matching
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 Use of experimental designs

 Statistical control

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Environments of Conducting
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Experiments
 Laboratory Environment - In a laboratory
experiment, the researcher conducts the
experiment in an artificial environment
constructed exclusively for the experiment.

 Field Environment - The field experiment is

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conducted in actual market conditions. There is

no attempt to change the real-life nature of the
environment.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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A Classification of Experimental
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Designs
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Pre-experimental design
Pre-experimental designs do not make use of any randomization
procedures to control the extraneous variables. Therefore, the
internal validity of such designs is questionable.

 One-shot case study:

X O
 One-group pre-test–post-test design:
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O1 X O2
 Static group comparison:

Group 1 - X O1
Group 2 - O2

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Quasi-experimental designs
In quasi-experimental design, the researcher can
control when measurements are taken and on
whom they are taken. However, this design lacks
complete control of scheduling of treatment and
also lacks the ability to randomize test units’
exposure to treatments.
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 Time series design:

O1 O 2 O3 O4 X O 5 O6 O7 O8
Contd…..

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Quasi-experimental designs
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Quasi-experimental designs
 Multiple time series design:

Experimental Group: O1 O2 O3 O4 X O5 O6 O7 O8

Control Group: O′1 O′2 O′3 O′4 O′5 O′6 O′7 O′8
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 The treatment effect (sales training) is found by

comparing the average sales of the two groups
before and after the training program
 Interactive effect on experimental group

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True experimental designs

In true experimental designs, researchers can
randomly assign test units and treatments to an
experimental group. Here, the researcher is able to
eliminate the effect of extraneous variables from both
the experimental and control group.
 Pre-test–post-test control group:
Experimental Group: R O1 X O2
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Control Group: R O3 O4
A = O2 – O1 = treatment + extraneous variables
B = O4 – O3 = extraneous variables
A - B = treatment effect (+ interactive testing
effect)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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True experimental designs

 Post-test – only control group design:

Experimental Group: R X O1
Control Group: R O2
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treatment effect = O1 - O2

 no interactive testing effect or instrumentation

effect present
 widely used in marketing research

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True experimental designs

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 Solomon four-group design (four-group six-study design, ideal controlled experiment):

Experimental Group 1: R O1 X O2
Control Group 1: R O3 O4
Experimental Group 2: R X O5
Control Group 2: R O6

O2 – O1 = treatment + extraneous factors without interactive testing effect + interactive testing effect
O4 – O3 = extraneous factors without interactive testing effect
O5 – O1 = treatment + extraneous factors without interactive testing effect
O5 – O3 = treatment + extraneous factors without interactive testing effect
O6 – O1 = extraneous factors without testing effect
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O6 – O3 = extraneous factors without testing effect

Extraneous factors without testing effect = ½ (O6 – O3 + O6 – O1)
Treatment + extraneous factors without testing effect = ½ (O5 – O3 + O5 – O1)
Treatment effect = O5 – O6
Interactive testing effect = O2 – O1 – (O5 – 1/2 (O1 + O3))

Maximum internal validity, used in businesses where establishing cause-and-effect very crucial for
survival as it requires a lot of time and money.

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Statistical designs

Statistical designs allow for statistical control and

analysis of external variables.
 Completely randomized design

 Randomized block design

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 Latin square design

 Factorial design

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Completely randomized design

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 One independent variable on a dependent variable

 Independent variable on nominal scale (categories)

 Test units assigned randomly to test groups

 Sale(D.V.) effected by price level (I.V.)

 Price – low, medium, high, to find effective price level

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 Stores are test units that are randomly assigned to price

levels, average sales for different price levels found and
compared for statistical difference
 ANOVA (analysis of variance) test applied

 Extraneous variables, e.g., store size, competition

ignored. E.V. considered to be the same for all stores.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Randomized block design

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 Take into account one extraneous variable (E.V.)

 E.V. is size of store
 Assumed that block, size of store, is correlated
with dependent variable, sales
 Create blocks prior to treatment
 3 blocks – small, medium, large stores
 Randomly assign 12 small stores to low, medium
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and high price. At least 4 stores per price level

 Similarly for 12 medium and 12 large stores
 ANOVA applied and extraneous variable, size of
store, separated out

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Latin Square Design

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 Two extraneous variables, effect of price on sales

 3 price levels – low, medium, high

 2 E.V.s, size of store and type of packaging,

 Necessary condition: number of categories of the 2 E.Vs =

number of levels of treatment
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 Complex setup and expensive to execute

Store size Packaging

I II III
1 (Small) X1 X2 X3
2 (Medium) X2 X3 X1
3 (Large) X3 X1 X2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Factorial design (1/2)

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 2 or more independent variables at different levels

 Interaction between variables – simultaneous effect different

from the sum of effects

 E.g. mango ice-cream

 Sales affected by price and store size, 3 x 2 factorial design

with 6 cells
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 Random assignment of respondents to different cells

Store
Price Small,B1 Big, B2
Low, A1 A1B1 A1B2
Medium, A2 A2B1 A2B2
High, A3 A3B1 A3B2

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Factorial design (2/2)

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 Possible to measure the main effects and interaction

effect of 2 or more independent variables at various
levels
 Saving of time and effort, all observations used to
study the effects of each factor
 Broader applications, each factor studied with different
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combinations of other factors

 Disadvantage: Number of cells increases with
increasing factors and levels
 Fractional factorial design to study main effects or few
of the interactions

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Application Questions (1/3)

 A set of MBA students from various

business schools are administered a
questionnaire to seek their perception
about the image of a company. They
are then shown a TV commercial about
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the same company. After viewing the

commercial the same set of students
are again administered the same
questionnaire.

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Application Questions (1/3)

 Diagram the experiment.

 Identify the dependent variable,
treatment, extraneous variables and
test unit.
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 What do you think could be the

purpose of the experiment?
 Comment on the validity of the
experiment.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Application Questions (2/3)

 The manager of Archies online

wants to measure the effect of
length of time between order
placement and the delivery of
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merchandise on the amount of

goods returned by the customers.
The delay between order and
delivery they want to test are 1
week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks.

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Application Questions (2/3)

 Identify your variables, hypotheses

and test units.
 What is your research design?
 Represent it diagrammatically and
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state your method of analysis.

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Application Questions (3/3)

 You are asked to develop an experiment for
studying the effect that monetary
compensation has on the response rates
secured from personal interview of certain
people. This study will involve 300 people
who will be assigned to one of the following
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conditions: (1)no compensation

(2) compensation of Rs. 250. A number of
sensitive issues will be explored
concerning various social problems and
these 300 people will be drawn from the
adult population.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES

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Application Questions (3/3)

 Identify your variables, hypotheses

and test units.
 What is your research design?
 Represent it diagrammatically and
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state your method of analysis.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONCEPTS AND CASES