SIMAD University

Formulating the Research Design

Ali Yassin Sheikh

Formulating the Research Design: Chapter Outline

• Introduction: Definition, Importance and Purpose• Decide the Purpose of your Research

A detailed outline of how an investigation will take place. A research design will typically include how data is to be collected, what instruments will be employed, how the instruments will be used and the intended means for analyzing data collected.

Definition of Research design

Definition of Research design

• Research design is considered as directing your research question into full research project (Robson, 2002).

• The research design is the plan for carrying out a research project.

• Design – a plan or structured framework of how you intend to conduct the research

• Your research questions/objectives dictate– which research strategy you should adopt,– Which methods are appropriate for data collection

and analysis procedures, and– What time horizon is necessary

The Purpose of your Research

• The way and direction you raised your research objectives would result your study to be in either:– Exploratory,–Descriptive, – Explanatory, or–Mixed methods.

Definition of Exploration

• To develop an initial, rough understanding of a phenomenon.

• An exploratory study is undertaking when not much is known about the situation at hand, or no information is available on how similar problems or research issues have been solved in the past

An exploratory study

–Means of finding out what is happening;– Seeking a new insights;–Asking questions, and–Assessing phenomena in a new light

(Robson, 2002)

An exploratory study

– It is useful if you wish to clarify your understanding of a problem

– Principle ways of conducting exploratory study:• A search of the literature• Interviewing experts in the subject• Conducting focus group interview• case studies

EXAMPLE

• An example in the business environment might be an exploratory study of a new management technique in order to brief a management team. This would be a vital first step before deciding whether to embrace the technique.

Descriptive studies

• Definition: • A descriptive study is undertaken in order to

ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation.

• Precise measurement and reporting of the characteristics of the population or phenomenon

Descriptive studies

– Aims to describe an accurate profile of persons, events, situations, populations etc (Robson, 2002).

– It may be exploratory or explanatory research– It should be a means to an end rather than an end

itself!

EXAMPLE

• A bank manager wants to have a profile of the individuals who have loan payments outstanding for six months and more. The profile will include details of their average age, earnings, nature of occupation, fulltime/part-time employment status, and like.

• This may help him to obtain further information or decide right away on the types of individuals who should be made ineligible for loans in the future.

Explanatory studies

• Explanatory studies look for explanations of the nature of certain relationships.

• Hypothesis testing provides an understanding of the relationships that exist between variables

Explanatory studies

– Studies that establish a causal relationships between variables could be considered as explanatory research.

– Also, studies which investigate difference between variables are termed as explanatory research.

– The emphasis is to study a problem in order to explain the relationship/difference between variables.

• It is used to understand the trait or mechanisms of the relationship between the independent and dependent variable

• It answers the question why and shows causality(cause and effect) e.g. a descriptive research may discover that 10 percent of the parents abuse their children, whereas the explanatory researcher will tell why parents abuse their children.

• It will test a theory’s prediction and principle• It elaborates and enriches a theory’s explanation• May refuse or accept the explanation or prediction

• It could be done through using:• Questionnaires, group discussions, interviews,

random sampling.• the primary goal is to understand the nature

or mechanisms of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. "where the experimenter attempt to identify cause and effect"

Example

• Somali president wants to know if the security of Mogadishu will increase if he doubles the numbers of police force. Here, the president would like o know the nature of the relationship that may be established between security and number of police force by testing the hypothesis: if the number of police force increased, then security will also go up.

Discussion – Research Purpose

Q & A

The purpose of your research can be exploratory, descriptive, explanatory