Research Methodology

Contents
• 1. What is Research
• 2. Steps in Research Process
• 3. Research Problem
• 4. How to formulate Research Problem
• 5. Case Study.
RESEARCH?
Lets discuss some issues
Visualizing the End First
Industry Government Academics

Publication and
Business Solution for Direction for
Model Long Term Further Research
09/23/20 Dr. Manoj Dash, IIITM Gwalior
 Motivation in Research

• Desire to get a research degree along with its

consequential benefits
• Desire to face the challenges in solving the
unsolved problems
• Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some
creative work
• Desire to be of service to society
• Desire to get respectability
 Case-1
• Consider toothpaste . The factors which affect the demand of a brand
X toothpaste are:
1. Ingredients of the toothpaste
2. Taste of the toothpaste
3.Selling price per unit
4. Size of the population
5. Income level of people
6. Number of competing brands
• The objective of the company producing brand x toothpaste is to
identify the optimal level of production of the toothpaste by taking the
above factors into account such that overall productivity which is
defined as the ratio between annual revenue and annual cost of
production and selling of the brand is maximised.The company achieve
this through research.
• Conclusion : A suitable model can be designed with a detailed survey
 Case-2
JUST IN TIME for the assembly line of a
company(Manufacturing Organization)
• 1.Identification and use of the JIT technique.
• 2. To develop a technique of JIT which will
result in lesser throughput time of the product
assembled using the assembly line
 CASE-3
• Consider a social problem of joint family system .
It had a lot of advantages over a period of time
family system divided into nucleus type . As a
result old age homes are growing in large
number. This is a great social concern . Per capita
savings also reduces under nucleus type because
of more overheated expenses .
• Study can be done which system gives security
older as well as improve national economic
growth.
• Research is an organized set of activities to study
and develop a model or procedure /technique to
find the results of a realistic problem supported
by literature and data such that its objectives are
optimized and further make recommendation or
inference for implementations.
• Research methodology is a system of models ,
procedures and techniques used to find the
results of a research problem
 Research Defined and Described
“Research is the systematic approach to
obtaining and confirming new and reliable
knowledge”
– Systematic and orderly (following a series of
steps)
– Purpose is new knowledge, which must be
reliable

This is a general definition which applies to all

disciplines
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 Research is…
1. Searching for explanation of events,
phenomena, relationships and causes
– What, how and why things occur
– Are there interactions?
2. A process
– Planned and managed – to make the information
generated credible
– The process is creative
– It is circular – always leads to more questions

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Methodology Defined & Described
Methodology and Method are often (incorrectly)
used interchangeable
•Methodology – the study of the general
approach to inquiry in a given field
•Method – the specific techniques, tools or
procedures applied to achieve a given objective
– Research methods include regression analysis,
mathematical analysis, operations research,
surveys, data gathering, etc.

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 The Process of Research
• The process is initiated with a question or
problem (step 1)
• Next, goals and objectives are formulated to
deal with the question or problem (step 2)
• Then the research design is developed to
achieve the objectives (step 3)
• Results are generated by conducting the
research (step 4)
• Interpretation and analysis of results follow
(step 5)
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 The Research Process
OBSERVATION
How to write Review Studies?
Broad Area of
Data ?
Research Interest

PROBLEM THEORETICAL
DEFINITION FRAMEWORK GENERATION OF
Research Variables clearly HYPOTHESES
problem identified
delineated
PRELIMINARY
DATA GATHERING
Interviews & DEDUCTION DATA COLLECTION,
Literature review ANALYSIS &
Hypotheses
INTERPRETATION
substantiated?
Research Questions
answered?
• One of the first tasks, therefore, on the way to
deciding on the detailed topic of research is to
find a question, an unresolved controversy, a
gap in knowledge or an unrequited need
within the chosen subject. This search
requires an awareness of current issues in the
subject and an inquisitive and questioning
mind.
• 1 It should be of great interest to you You will have to spend
many months investigating the problem. A lively interest in the
subject will be an invaluable incentive to persevere.
• 2 The problem should be significant It is not worth time and
effort investigating a trivial problem or repeating work which has
already been done elsewhere.
• 3 It should be delineated Consider the time you have to complete
the work, and the depth to which the problem will be addressed.
You can cover a wide field only superficially, and the more you
restrict the field, the more detailed the study can be. You should
also consider the cost of necessary
• travel and other expenses.
• 4 You should be able to obtain the information required You cannot carry
out research if you fail to collect the relevant information needed to
tackle your problem, either because you lack access to documents or
other sources, and/or because you have not obtained the co-operation of
individuals or organizations essential to your research.
• 5 You should be able to draw conclusions related to the problem The
point of asking a question is to find an answer. The problem should be one
to which the research can offer some solution, or at least the elimination
of some false ‘solutions’.
• 6 You should be able to state the problem clearly and concisely A precise,
well thought out and fully articulated sentence, understandable by
anyone, should normally clearly be able to explain just what the problem
is.
• A research problem is a statement about an
area of concern, a condition to be improved, a
difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling
question that exists in scholarly literature, in
theory, or in practice that points to the need
for meaningful understanding and deliberate
investigation.
 Basic characteristics of research
problem
• Reflecting on important issues or needs;
• Basing on factual evidence (it’s non-
hypothetical);
• Being manageable and relevant;
• Suggesting a testable and meaningful
hypothesis (avoiding useless answers).
 Initial literature review, and
defining the problem area
The objective of the initial review of the literature is to discover relevant
material published in the chosen field of study and to search for a suitable
problem area.
The first is ‘conceptual literature’.
This is written by authorities on the subject you have in mind, giving
opinions, ideas, theories or experiences, and published in the form of
books, articles and papers.
The second is ‘research literature’ which gives accounts and results of
research which has been undertaken in the subject, often presented in
the form of papers and reports.
• Problem definition:
• A research problem must be identified and
defined without any ambiguity .Sometimes
researcher is fully aware of the symptoms
related to certain deficiency in achieving
organization goal . But he or she may not be in
a position to clearly spell out the problem
which is causing the deficency.Research
problem must be clearly defined.
Flow of Ideas in the Problem Statement
 The Topic

Distance education via online platforms is a rapidly growing

method of education delivery due to its convenience, wide
reach, relatively low cost, and ability to support the
achievement of learning objectives. Whether the platform is
Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, Angel, or some other learning
management system, online education utilizes a variety of
common learning tools including discussion boards, drop
boxes, automated testing, and wikis. Chief among these tools
are live online sessions.
The Research Problem Live online sessions may be delivered in
virtual classrooms from Adobe Connect, Elluminate, GoToMeeting,
or other software programs. Regardless of the software used,
student attendance at live online sessions, especially optional ones,
can be unpredictable at best. It is a common complaint among the
online faculty at a university in the south that many, oftentimes
most, of their students do not attend the live online sessions. This
study will address the problem of low student attendance at
nonmandatory virtual classroom meetings in online college
courses.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore
absenteeism from nonmandatory synchronous sessions in
the virtual learning environment, Classroom, by
undergraduate and graduate students in online courses at a
SOA university.
Research Questions
The central question is, What are students’ attitudes regarding
nonmandatory synchronous sessions in class room ?

The following are subquestions:

1. What are students’ reasons for attending
nonmandatorysynchronous sessions in classroom ?
2. What are students’ reasons for not attending
nonmandatorysynchronous sessions in classroom
3. What actions could the university or its instructors take that
would motivate students to increase their attendance at
nonmandatorysynchronous online sessions?
 Defining Your Research question
• 1. Observe and identify
• The sales manager of a sportswear company
has a problem: sales of trail running shoes are
down year-on-year and she isn’t sure why.
She approaches the company’s research team
for input and they begin to explore by asking
questions within the company and reviewing
their knowledge of the wider market.
• 2. Review the key factors involved
• The research team at the running shoe company is hard
at work. They explore the factors involved and the
context of why sales are down for trail shoes, including
things like what the company’s competitors are doing,
what the weather has been like – affecting outdoor
exercise – and the relative spend on marketing for the
brand from year to year. The final factor is within the
company’s control, although the first two are not. They
check the figures and determine marketing spend has a
significant impact on the company.
• 3. Prioritize
• Questions to ask:
• Who?
• Who are the people with the problem?
• Are they end-users, stakeholders, teams within your business?
• Have you validated the information to see what the scale of the problem
is?
• What?
• What is its nature and what is the supporting evidence?
• Why?
• What is the business case for solving the problem?
• How will it help?
• Where?
• How does the problem manifest and where is it observed?
• After observing and investigating, the running shoe
researchers come up with a few candidate research
questions, including:
• What is the relationship between average
temperatures and sales of our products year on year?
• At the present time, how does our customer base rank
Competitor X and Competitor Y’s trail running shoe
compared to our brand?
• What is the relationship between marketing spend and
trail shoe product sales over the last 12 months?
• 4. Align
• The running shoe company researchers now have
everything they need to begin. They call a
meeting with the sales manager and consult with
the product team, marketing team, and C-suite to
make sure everyone is aligned and bought in to
the direction of the research. They identify and
agree that the likely course of action will be a
rethink of how marketing resources are
allocated, and potentially testing out some new
channels and messaging strategies.
• Research gap is a research question or problem
which has not been answered appropriately or at
all in a given field of study. Research gap is
actually what makes your research publishable,
why? Because it shows you are not just
duplicating existing research; it shows you have a
deep understanding of the status of the body of
knowledge in your chosen field; and finally it
shows that you have conducted a research which
fulfills that gap in the literature.
 Descriptive Question
• Seeks to describe phenomena or characteristics
of a particular group of subjects being studied
– Answers the question “what is”
• Asking questions of the research participants
• Testing or measuring their performance
– Survey research

• Example
– What are the attitudes of rural parents toward the
inclusion of sexuality education in the school
curriculum? (Welshimer & Harris, 1994)
 Relationship Question
• Investigates the degree to which two or more
variables are associated with each other
– Does not establish “cause-and-effect”
– Only identifies extent of relationship between
variables

• Example
– Is there an association between self-esteem and
eating behaviors among collegiate female swimmers?
(Fey, 1998)
 Difference Question
• Seeks to make comparisons between or within
groups of interest
– Often associated with experimental research
• Is there a difference between the control group and the
experimental group?
– Comparison of one group to another on the basis of
existing characteristics

• Example
– Does participation in Special Olympics affect the self-
esteem of adults with mental retardation? (Major, 1998)
 Criteria for Selecting a Problem
• Interest
– Most important
• Significance
– Theoretical value
– Practical value
– Timeliness
– External review
• Manageability
– Expertise, time, resources
– Free from personal bias
 Problem Distillation
• The process of refining the question or idea
into a problem and making it sufficiently
specific so that it is amenable to investigation
• This process should lead to the development
of a “statement of the problem” that is clear,
concise, and definitive
 Statement of Problem
• A very specific statement which clearly identifies
the problem being studied; will usually identify
the key variables as well as give some
information about the scope of the study
• May be in either question or declarative form
• May include inherent sub-problems, if
appropriate
• Formulation of problem statement takes place
after an initial review of related literature and the
distillation process
 Problem Statements…..
• “The problem of this study was to …”
• “This study was concerned with …”
• “This study is designed to …”
• “The purpose of this investigation is to …”
 Example
1. The problem was to investigate the effects of exercise
on blood lipids among college-age females.
2. This study was designed to determine the relationship
between stability performance and physical growth
characteristics of preschool children.
3. The present study was designed to identify those
characteristics which differentiate between students
who binge drink and those that do not.
4. The problem of the study was to determine is there is
a relationship between self-efficacy and self-reported
alcohol usage among middle-aged adult females.
 Concept of Variables
• A variable is a characteristic, trait, or attribute of
a person or thing that can be classified or
measured
– Attitude
– Gender
– Heart rate
– Hair color
• Variable - the condition or characteristic which in
a given study may have more than one value
 Dependent Variable
• The variable that is expected to change as a
result of the manipulation of the independent
variable; that which is measured in a study
 Independent Variable
• A variable that is presumed to influence
another variable; the variable under study or
the one that the researcher manipulates
• Two types
– Active – variable is actually manipulated
– Attribute – cannot be manipulated because it is
preexisting trait; sometimes called a “categorical”
variable (e.g., race, gender)
A mediator variable explains the how or why of an (observed)
relationship between an independent variable and its dependent
variable.
In a mediation model, the independent variable cannot influence the
dependent variable directly, and instead does so by means of a third
variable, a ‘middle-man’.
In psychology, the mediator variable is sometimes called an intervening
variable.
 Extraneous Variable
• A variable that could contribute some type of
error in a research study
• Also referred to as . . .
• Confounding variable
• Intervening variable
• Modifying variable
• Error-producing variable that the researcher
should attempt to eliminate or control
• May affect the relationship between the
independent variable and the dependent
variable if not adequately controlled