Research methodology

Which content do you expect in the

Methodology section?
• It outlines how you intend to go about
achieving your research objectives.
• It also justifies your choice of the research
method in light of the objectives.
• It is divided into two sub-sections:
 research design and
 data collection
What is expected under research design?

• explain where you intend to carry out the

research and justify your choice.
• explain the identity of your research population
target (e.g. managers or trade union officials)
and why you chose this population.
• explain the general way in which you intend to
carry out the research eg. a questionnaire,
interviews, examination of secondary data or
use a combination of data collection techniques
(mixed methods).
What is expected under research design?

• Explain why you have chosen your research

approach.
• Your explanation should be based on the most
effective way of meeting your research
objectives guided by literature.
• gives an overall view of the method chosen
and the reason for that choice
 Which content fits in to Data Collection
sub-section?
• Gives detail about how specifically the data are to
be collected eg, if you are using a survey strategy
you should specify your population and sample
size.
• clarify how the survey instrument such as a
questionnaire will be distributed and how the data
will be analysed.
• If you are using interviews, you should explain how
many interviews will be conducted, their intended
duration, whether they will be audio-recorded,
and how they will be analysed.
 Some data sources
 Primary source
Can be obtained from:
i) Questionnaires
ii) Observations
iii) Surveys (large scale by national statistical
agencies or small scale)
iv) FGD
 Primary data collection
• Usually sampling is central due to time and money
constraints.
• Describe the study area, the population and the sub
populations or strata.
• Describe the sampling frame i.e a complete list of a
study population compiled from registers, records,
maps.
• Describe the sampling procedure to be used i.e
probability or non-probability sampling.
• Describe the data collection techniques and
handling logistics.
 Secondary data sources
• This is data gathered by someone else. Here you
need to discuss:
 Suitability of the data,
 Adequacy of the data in terms of coverage
 Reliability in terms of representativeness and
errors
 Consistency of the data from various sources,
and
 Measurement of variables
 Data types
i) Cross-section:- data on one or more
variables collected at a point in time
ii) Time series:- a set of observations on values
taken by a variable e.g GDP, at different
points in time eg weekly, annually, monthly,
quarterly, daily, hourly.
iii) Panel/longitudinal:- data in which the same
cross-sectional sample unit (individual, firms
or households) is surveyed at intervals.
 Common mistakes
• it is not necessary in the proposal to include precise
detail of the method you will employ, for example,
the content of an observation schedule,
questionnaire questions or FGD activities.
• However, include a statement about how you are
going to adhere to any ethical guidelines.
• It is also useful to produce a time schedule for the
research using a Gantt chart.
• Here, you divide your research plan into stages,
activities or the tasks that make up your research
project, each being plotted against a time line.
 Data analysis
• Explain how you are going to analyse the data
collected.
• Here, one should demonstrate knowledge of
relevant software appropriate for such data
such as SPSS, STATA, NVIVO etc.
• The model adopted should be able to achieve
the research objectives set.
 DATA PROCESSING
• Quantitative data in a raw form need to be
processed to make them useful, that is, to
turn them into information.
• Quantitative analysis techniques such as
graphs, charts and statistics allow us to do
this; helping us to explore, present, describe
and examine relationships and trends within
our data.
 Main objectives in this section
We are concerned with:
• preparing, inputting into a computer and
checking your data
• choosing the most appropriate tables and
diagrams to explore and present your data
• choosing the most appropriate statistics to
describe your data
• choosing the most appropriate statistics to
examine relationships and trends in your
• data
• Knowledge of the type of variables (and hence the
data types) is important.
• If you intend to undertake quantitative analysis we
recommend that you consider the:
 type of data (scale of measurement).
 format in which your data will be input to the analysis
software.
 impact of data coding on subsequent analyses (for
different data types).
 need to weight cases.
 methods you intend to use to check data for errors.
 Editing data

• Is the process of checking and adjusting responses

in the completed questionnaires for omissions,
legibility and consistency and making them ready
for coding and storage.
• This can be field editing by the supervisor on the
same day to verify technical omissions, check
legibility of handwriting and clarify responses that
are logically and conceptually inconsistent.
• Or in-house editing which is more rigorous than
field editing.
 Purpose of editing
• To check for consistency between and among
responses.
• To check for completeness of responses.
• To facilitate the coding process.
• if there are few blank responses or missing data
(item non-response) the following can be done:
 For interval scaled data you can assign a
midpoint in the scale.
 Dealing with blanks
 Allow the computer to ignore the responses,
 impute the mean value of the responses of all
those who have responded as a plug response,
 Assign a random number within the range for
that scale,
 The software can interpolate from adjacent
points,
 Omit the variables or ignore that particular item
during analysis
Four main reasons for missing data (deVaus,2002):
• The data were not required from the respondent,
perhaps because of a skip generated by a filter
question in a survey.
• The respondent refused to answer the question (a
non-response).
• The respondent did not know the answer or did not
have an opinion. Sometimes this is treated as
implying an answer; on other occasions it is treated
as missing data.
• The respondent may have missed a question by
mistake, or the respondent’s answer may be unclear.
 Coding process
• All data types should, with few exceptions, be
recorded using numerical codes.
• A process of identifying and classifying each
answer with numerical score or other
character symbol.
• A code serves as a rule for interpreting,
classifying and recording data.
• Numerical data can also be recoded for
example when its grouped.
• Codes are often applied to categorical data.
• Coded data is often stored electronically in a
data matrix.
• You can devise codes for FAQs on the
questionnaire before the data collection.
• Maintaining a code book which identifies each
variable in a study, the variable description,
code name and position in the data matrix.
 Data entry
• Transferring data in codes from the
questionnaires to a computer.
• This can be through:
 online direct data entry,
 Optical scanning for highly structured
questionnaires
 keyboarding
 Error checking
• Verifying the accuracy of data entry and checking
for some obvious errors made during data entry.
• These include:
 illogical relationships,
 Check that rules in filter questions are followed.
Certain responses to filter questions mean that
other variables should be coded as missing values.
If this has not happened there has been an error
 illegitimate codes e.g o instead of 0; I for 1
 Data Analysis
• Tukey’s (1977) exploratory data analysis
(EDA) approach is useful in these initial stages.
• It emphasises the use of diagrams to explore
and understand your data, emphasising the
importance of using your data to guide your
choices of analysis techniques.
• it is important to keep your research
question(s) and objectives in mind when
exploring your data.
 Feeling the data
• This is done by checking the central tendency
and the dispersion.
• The mean, the range, the standard deviation
and the variance in the data will give the
researcher a good idea of how the
respondents have reacted to the items in the
questionnaire and how good the items and
measures are.
 Feeling the data
• A frequency distribution, histograms, bar
charts, pie charts, line charts etc are
commonly used as visual displays.

• For data analysis, read Mark Saunders, Philip

Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 5th Edition p.430,
Research Methods for Business Students:
Table 12.2 Data presentation by data type: A
summary
 Qualitative Data Analysis
McLeod (1994:90) summarised stages that are
involved in analysing qualitative data.
Stage 1: Immersion
The researcher intensively reads or listens to
material, assimilating as much of the explicit
and implicit meaning as possible.
Stage 2: Categorisation
Assigning coding categories or identifying
meanings within the various segments.
Stage 3: Phenomenological reduction:-
Questioning or interrogating the meanings or
categories that have been developed.
Stage 4: Triangulation:- Sorting through the
categories. Deciding which categories are
recurring and central , and which ones are less
significant or are invalid or mistaken.
Stage 5: Interpretation- making sense of the
data from a wider perspective. Constructing a
model, or using an established theory to
explicate the findings.