Session 9Research DesignandMethodologyMondays 9.30amonline synchronous classDr Alex Muresandralex@iconcollege.ac.ukBUS114 GLOBAL ECONOMIES AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETS MODULE AIMSThe content of this module reflects the ever-morphing nature of the international tradingenvironment.In the first part of the module, you will explore the economic, political, social/cultural, andenvironmental drivers that impact international trade, and the different modes of entry intointernational markets. You will learn to formulate appropriate decisions in complex andunpredictable contexts in which data may be limited or contradictory.In the second part of the module, you will focus on the key practical issues linked to expandinga company into international markets. You will be introduced to research methodology and youwill be asked to put forward a research proposal examining the market, industry, or sector ofyour choice.Hopefully, you will find this module not just intellectually stimulating but also very informativeand useful to your future careers.The main module-specific employability skills are:• Self-management skills • Commercial skills • Research & analysis skills • Critical reflection skills•Project management skills.BUS114 Quick Recap –the 2nd part of the module:• Introduced and detailed the research process• What makes a good research topic• Research question RQ vs hypothesis H• How to narrow down ideas• Conceptual frameworks• Introduced reflection, the reflective cycle and theimportance of reflection in business• Sources of data: primary, secondary and tertiary• What a literature review is• Independent reading: critical literature reviewingSession Outline – SoWFormative Feedback and Feedforward Next Formative Feedback Opportunity – Tuesday 12th – completion of thebackground (literature review) – next week!Please upload your work via the VLE for 1-2-1 commentsFinal Formative Feedback Opportunity – Tuesday 26th – completion of themethodologyPlease upload your work via the VLE for 1-2-1 comments Final assignment submission deadline 8-13 February 2021General Feedback:• Well done to all of you who put in a lot of effort in submitting good quality work• Great job! Good ideas; some of you have vary daring ideas• All of you have personalised comments on the work so please take them intoaccount, reflect and act on them• Case studies – but have not presented a background to these cases and the WHYthis company? (reason) also, do you have enough company data that is recent sothat you can find information on what the company actually does? You need acompany profile eventually in the report, also as much information as possiblerelated to the company and that issue that you are investigating• Some of you have submitted complete / finished projects (completely outside of thismodule) and have not followed the simple framework given; this is a proposal not adissertation; it is about how you would develop it and not about who you actuallyinterviewed and what they have said! There should be NO results in your work but aplan instead.• Some of you have not followed the framework at all and have submitted randomstatements• Research Question vs Hypothesis – a small minority of you have submitted both• Perhaps 5 / 6 of you have actually followed the framework given! Concern!General Feedforward:• For almost all of you the area is general at the moment and you have manyobjectives pointing to many different projects. Please see the commentsmade inside of your work. You need to choose one topic only.• Next time please submit within the requirements for this module. You have3000 words overall, and so the literature review (background) should be about1500 words max. Discussion; comparing and contrasting authors; focused;• For higher grades the work has to follow the Assignment brief guidelines +the guidelines given in class – and we have double the class-time for thismodule.• Please ask questions- this has to be an interactive experience – otherwise youspend a lot of time writing outside of the remit for this module.• Some of you are distracted by the environment or jobs during the class time –and this is already reflected in the quality of the work.• Please try to silence your environment for this module; the work has to beyours and defended as per the in-class advice given. The sourcesrecommended via the SoW and Assessment Brief have to appear somewherein the work. See Moodle. (today and tomorrow):• Introduce the research onion• Introduce the main types of research by types ofobjectives / purpose (adv and disadv)• Introduce the types of research by time horizon(adv and disadv)• Introduce the main types of research by types ofdata (adv and disadv)• Introduce the main research approaches• Introduce the main business research strategies(characteristics, adv and disadv)• Present examples Session Objectives:Session Outcomes:• Understand the research onion / researchdesign in any business context andanywhere in the world.• Understand the main types of research insuch a way that you are able to defend yourchoices.• Understand the main strategies available inbusiness research in such a way that youare able to defend your choices.• Appreciate the importance of your decisionswhen designing researchResearch Design:• the general plan of how you will go aboutanswering your research question(s)• It will contain clear objectives derivedfrom your research question(s), specifythe source or sources from which youintend to collect data, how you proposeto collect and analyse these and discussethical issues and the constraints youwill inevitably encounter (e.g. access todata, time, location and money).• Crucially, for the summativeassessment you should demonstratethat you have thought through theelements of your particular researchdesign.TheResearchOnionDesign= concerned with the overall plan fora research project.Tactics= about the finer details of datacollection and analysis – the centre ofthe research onion.Decisions about tactics will involveyou being clear about the differentquantitative and qualitative datacollection techniques (e.g.questionnaires, interviews, focusgroups and secondary data) andsubsequent quantitative andqualitative data analysis procedures.1) Types of Research by Purpose• Descriptive• Exploratory• Explanatory• Predictive (explained in class only)• Prescriptive (explained in class only)Types of Research by Purpose DescriptiveExploratoryExplanatory /CausalPredictive /ForecastingPrescriptiveObjectivesto gain an accurateprofile of events,persons or situations.Questionsanswered‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’,‘When’ or ‘How’What? How?Characteristics /ways to conductobservationalcase studysurveyexperimentsAdvDisadv When writing your summative assessment, please present the theory for each layer in a comparativemanner (table format), and insert valid, credible, reliable references. Underneath each table you will writethe option you chose for your proposed project and why that is a suitable or most suitable option. Exploratory Research– Discovery– Seek new insights; find out what is happening.– a valuable means to ask open questions to discover what is happening and gaininsights about a topic of interest.– particularly useful if you wish to clarify your understanding of an issue, problem orphenomenon, such as if you are unsure of its precise nature.– tactics: include a search of the literature; interviewing ‘experts’ in the subject;conducting in-depth individual interviews or conducting focus group interviews.Because of their exploratory nature, these interviews are likely to be relativelyunstructured and to rely on the quality of the contributions from those whoparticipate to help guide the subsequent stage of your research.– has the advantage that it is flexible and adaptable to change.– may commence with a broad focus but this will become narrower as the researchprogresses.Descriptive Research– Profiling– is to gain an accurate profile of events, persons or situations. .– ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘When’ or ‘How’It is necessary to have a clear picture of the phenomenon on which you wish to collectdata prior to the collection of the data.– may be an extension of a piece of exploratory research or a forerunner to a piece ofexplanatory research.– used, for example, to understand how different groups of customers from differentcountries respond to a specific product or service– an apparel brand creates a survey asking general questions that measure the brand’simage.– has the advantage that it produces a lot of data which provides geed detail / insight– has the disadvantages that: they are typically not repeatable and the do not offeranything else helpful but descriptionDescriptive ResearchA specialty food group launches a new range of barbecuerubs in another country and would like to understandwhat flavours of rubs are favoured by the people in thatcountry.To understand the preferred flavour palette, they conductthis type of research study using various methods likeobservational methods in supermarkets. By alsosurveying while collecting in-depth demographicinformation, offers insights about the preference of thatforeign market.This can also help tailor make the rubs and spreads tovarious preferred meats in that demographic. Conductingthis type of research helps the organisation tweak theirbusiness model and amplify marketing in core markets.• Describes something, usually market characteristics orfunctions.• Portrays an accurate profile of the items investigated.• Describes phenomena as they exist.• Main goals:(1) make accurate predictions about relationships betweenmarket factors and consumer behaviour(2) understand the relationships and differences; and(3) verify and validate existing relationships• Collects information to be able to answer HOW, WHO, WHAT,WHERE AND WHEN questions͙͙..Descriptive ResearchUses of descriptive research designs1. To describe characteristics groups e.g. consumers,salespeople organisations, market areas2. Estimate % age in specified population displaying acertain form of behaviour3. Count frequency of events/consumer behaviour4. Measure marketing phenomena to represent largerpopulations/target markets5. To integrate finding from different sources in aconsistent mannerUses of descriptive research designs6. To determine perceptions of product orservice characteristics7. Compare findings over time8. Measure marketing phenomena in aconsistent and universal manner9. Determine the degree to which marketingvariables are associated10. Make specific predictions= A type of conclusive research where the majorobjective is to obtain evidence regarding cause and effect (causal)relationships.= may play an instrumental role in terms of identifying reasonsbehind a wide range of processes, as well as, assessing theimpacts of changes on existing norms, processes etc.(Explanatory research)– Studies that establish the causal relationshipsbetween variablesImplies that the researcher needs to find how two ormore variables are linked.– “how” “which” “the extent of the influence”Causal ResearchCausal research purposes1. Understand which variables are the cause(independent variables) and whichvariables are the effect (dependentvariables) of marketing phenomenon2. To determine the nature of the relationshipbetween the causal variables and the effectto be predicted3. To test hypothesesBad Grades(Dependent variable)(Independent variable)Bad Grades(Independent variable)or…??? (Dependent variable)Causal Research• Independent Variable = the presumed cause(s) in a study;or a variable that can be used to predict or explain the values of anothervariable. A variable manipulated by an experimenter who predicts that themanipulation will have an effect on another variable (the dependent variable)• Dependent Variable = the variable whose values are predicted by theindependent variable, whether or not caused by it (e.g. the study of students’drinking habits!); depends on (an)other variable(s) (effectCausal Research 2) RESEARCH TYPES by TIMEFRAMECross-Sectional Designs• • • •Involve the collection of information from any given sample ofpopulation elements only onceIn single cross-sectional designs, there is only one sample ofrespondents and information is obtained from this sample only once.In multiple cross-sectional designs, there are two or more samples ofrespondents, and information from each sample is obtained onlyonce. Often, information from different samples is obtained atdifferent times.Cohort analysis consists of a series of surveys conducted atappropriate time intervals, where the cohort serves as the basic unitof analysis. A cohort is a group of respondents who experience thesame event within the same time interval.
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