Research Methodology Introduction 3.1Research PhilosophiesThislayer of the research onion finds the three different philosophies that can beused within the business area I am interested with (see figure 1 above).
Thepart of research I am interested for the dissertation is regularly a mixturebetween positivism and interpretivist. I have joined these two philosophies asit has given me more flexibility during the research. Positivismassumes that reality exists independently of the thing being studied.1 Using this philosophymade me collect all the data and readings about it. Positivism is in accordancewith the researcher view that knowledge stems from human experience. It has anatomistic, ontological view of the world as including separate, observableelements and events that interact in an observable, determined and regularmanner.2 Per Saunders, et al,(2007, p106), conducting the research using the interpretivist philosophy’prompts us to the difference between humans in our role as social actors’.
Theinterpretivist philosophy seemed as being more improved to the ever changingworld of business organizations (Saunders, et al,, p 115-116). Thechoice of this philosophy is strengthened by the fact that to do the research Ineeded to enter the business world of consumers and tried to understand theirworld in their point of views (Saunders, et al, p116). This philosophy was wellimproved to the Business world where I needed to understand the differentlevels of influence that was different to the people surveyed. The positivismphilosophy continued to have more weight during the research.3.2 Research ApproachesThedeductive approach might be considered particularly suited to the positivistapproach, which permits the making of hypotheses and the statistical testing ofexpected results to an accepted level of probability (Snieder & Larner,2009).
3 However using adeductive approach can also be used for a qualitative research technique. Thoughin such cases the expectations formed by pre-existing research would beformulated differently than through hypothesis testing (Saunders et al, 2007). Thedeductive approach is characterized as the development from general toparticular.
Quantitative research was designed to test the theory about all thefactors to have a successful business and to analyses all the outcomes of theresearch. The inductive approach is characterized as a move from the specificto the general (Bryman & Bell, 2011).4 This approach has noframework but can formed after all the data has been collected. So for myresearch I have gone ahead with using the inductive research as all the dataand information has been collected so then can focus on the research. 3.3 Research StrategiesThisResearch strategy is to show how the researcher intends to carry out all thework (Saunders et al., 2007).
5 This strategy includesdifferent approaches, such as experimental research, action research, casestudy research, interviews, surveys, or a systematic literature review.Experimental research refers to the strategy of creating a research processthat examines the results of an experiment against the expected results(Saunders et al., 2007). It can be used in all areas of research, and usuallyinvolves the consideration of a relatively limited number of factors (Saunderset al., 2007). The relationship between the factors are examined, and judgedagainst the expectation of the research outcomes.
Action research ischaracterized as a practical approach to a specific research problem within acommunity of practice (Bryman, 2012). It involves examining practice toestablish that it corresponds to the best approach. Casestudy research is the assessment of a single unit. It can offer an insight intothe specific nature of any example, and can establish the importance of cultureand context in differences between cases (Silverman, 2013).6 This form of researchis effective in financial research, such as comparing the experiences of two companies,or comparing the effect of investment in difference contexts.
Groundedtheory is a qualitative methodology that draws on an inductive approach wherebypatterns are derived from the data as a precondition for the study (May, 2011).7 When this is added allthe results are been added all together from the research that has beencompleted. So for my research I’ll be doing a questionnaire where I wouldcollect all the information from different consumers and add that altogetherfor a final result. Surveys tend to be usedin quantitative research projects, and involve sampling a representative amountof the people (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The surveys produce quantitative datathat can be analysed.
Surveys are most commonly used to examine causal variablesbetween different types of data. Ethnographyinvolves the close observation of people, examining their cultural interactionand their meaning (Bryman, 2012).8 When this process hasbeen included the researcher tries to understand all the different meanings andthe importance of behavior.Forthe dissertation, I have used the survey as suitable research strategy toanswer the research question. The survey strategy is related to the deductiveapproach used in the research approach, to allow me narrow down my research andanalyse all the outcome of the research. Using research surveys has helped mereach different target audience to get information from them on how they cameup with their own business and what were the advantages and disadvantages ofbecoming a successful business. Saunders, et, al (2006, p138) explained thatthese data are consistent and allow easy judgement.
Surveys are easy tounderstand for respondents as they are well shown and used to answer surveys.Also, using surveys was the best way to collect a large amount of answers3.4 Market Strategies EveryBusiness that is successful has a clear and understanding market strategy thatmakes everything that had been done all will be done more effective.
Strategyis simply the decisions you need to make so your tactics work better. Marketingstrategy is the foundation for creating awareness, generating interest, closingnew sales and continuing customer engagement. The marketing strategy guides thewhole company culture, and also the products and services mix and pricing.Howeversome businesses which are small owned businesses get caught in to dailymarketing such as building the website sending emails, tweeting about thecompany and advertising blogging and so on, that they are not taking the timeto work on the decisions that’ll improve the performance of their tactics.
The 5 Keys of MarketingStrategy1.Who is your narrowly defined target customer?2.In which category does your business exist?3.What is your unique benefit?4.
Who is your real competition?5.How are you clearly different from your competitors? 3.5 Time HorizonsLayer5 of the research onion has two time horizon methods. Time Horizon is the timeframework within which the project is planned for completion (Saunders et al., 2007).First is the cross sectional that is used to conduct a short time study.
Theother method is longitudinal is used when doing a long term study.Cross-sectional can be used by doing qualitative and quantitative research inthe cross-sectional method. It helps observing the behavior of a group ofpeople or an aspect. This same method can be used to study on an individual atone point of time. Longitudinal method also used qualitative and quantitativeresearch methods. However this method to study behavior and events with focusedsamples over a longer time. Between these two typesof time horizons, the cross-sectional is the one that is relevant to theplanned research project.
I am researching about the factors on how to become asuccessful business.Thishas the benefit of being used to study change and development. Furthermore, itallows the establishment of some control over the variables being studied.
Thetime horizon selected is not dependent on a specific research approach ormethodology (Saunders et al., 2007).3.6 Methods andproceduresForthis research, I have recognized some important information I was interested instudying. Through this research I was interested in finding out how a consumercomes up with their own business and what kind of things they go through as themarket is changing I wanted to see and understand what kind of things they arefacing.
I was interested to understand what influenced the owner through theirdecision-making process to get a successful business. The questionnaire counts10 questions and takes to respondent between 3 and 5 minutes to answer. Toanswer the research question, I have used descriptive studies. For theresearch, I needed to combine these two kinds of study since. I have used bothdeductive and inductive approaches to answer the research question. Moreover, Ihave used descriptive study to test the theory. This has been done bycollecting and analysing quantitative data through a survey, during theresearch.
3.7 Data analysisDataAnalysis is evaluating data using analytical and logical reasoning to examineeach section of data provided. This analysis is just one of the steps that haveto complete when showing a research experiment.
There are a variety of specificdata analysis method, some of which include data mining, text analytics,business intelligence, and data visualizations. I have used Google Forms todesign the questionnaire and collect data; I have also used the analysis graphstools offered by Google. Graphics images were important in the analysis of theresults since they allowed me to see and then analyses the results in a clearmanner.3.8 Limitations to the researchThrough the processesof writing up this dissertation, I came across a few factors of limitations tothis research I have chosen to do. The time was one of the limits that I hadfaced in writing up this dissertation.
Writing up the theories and alsoexplaining all the data that was collected for this dissertation it sometimesto find the time and concentration and energy needed to carry the best researchfor this dissertation.The last and one of the most importantlimitations was the information that I had found from the literature on the area. The business world isincreasing is recent and I have sometimes come acrosssome problems to find a lot of valued and accurate information on the subject.
3.9 Data collectionToanswer the research question during the dissertation, I have used primary datacollection. Using primary data collection allowed me to talk about specificissues to consumers about their use of Social Media and how these media exactlyinfluence their purchase decision-making processes.Datacollection was a serious part of the research since this was the basement ofthe findings.
Moreover, using primary data gave me a greater control on thecollection of information. I have decided when I wanted to spread thequestionnaire online and when I wanted to stop the collection of information.Data collection has started on the 13th October 2017 and has finished on 29th December 2017. The collection lasted about 2 months this gave me enough time to collect all thedata analysis and also wait for different responses from consumers. I had about3 weeks after the collection of the data to analyse all the results in thequestionnaire, having 2 months was a good amount of time to get manyrespondents to the questionnaire.To create thequestionnaire I used google forms. This was a good site to use as I have usedit many times before to create questionnaires so using this was site was goodfor me as I knew were and how to use it. Google forms is a free site it doesn’thave any kind of restrictions to how many questions you add to thequestionnaire.
Havingthe possibility to collect data for free with no limitations was an importantissue for me since I needed to ask an important number of questions to be themost specific possible. Furthermore,I already had the chance to use Google Forms in the past so I was alreadyfamiliar with its different functions available for designing the questionnaireand collecting the necessary data for the research.UsingSocial Media’s platforms and tools to collect data was very useful in my research as this allowed me to quicklyshare the survey by posting on Social Networks ‘feeds’ and sending messages tomy contacts to ask them to share the survey to their own contacts.Research Methodology based in this chapterrecognizes and explains the choses for conducting different research. Saunders,Lewis and Thornhill define research as “the systematic collection andinterpretation of information to find things out”. Types of the research methods according to thenature of research can be divided into two groups: descriptive and analytical.
Descriptiveresearch mainly deals with the “description of the state of affairs as it is atpresent” 9(K.R) and there is no control over variables indescriptive research.Analytical research, on the other hand, isfundamentally different in a way that “the researcher has to use facts orinformation already available and analyse these in order to make a criticalevaluation of the material” 10(K.R)Concept MappingA concept map isa type of graphic planner used to help organize and represent knowledge of asubject, into a narrower and clear idea. Concept maps begin with a main idea(or concept) and then branch out to show how that main idea can be broken downinto specific topics. I have added the following Concept Mapping to bestexplain the research by providing a better understanding of the concept of asuccessful business. This is important to me to have the widest picture of allBusiness. Therefore, before starting the research I wanted to be sure that Ihad completely understood the different stages.
The research onion was established bySaunders et al. (2007). It shows the stages that must be covered whendeveloping a research strategy.
When the research onion is viewed from theoutside, each layer of the onion describes a full detailed stage of theresearch process (Saunders et al., 2007). The research onion offers an effectivedevelopment through which a research methodology can be designed. Figure 1 – Research Onion Saunders et al, 2007 This research Methodology has been usedto write up this dissertation by using the Research Onion.
By using theResearch Onion this helped me understand my topic much better and helped mesuccessfully structure the research methodology by evaluating the research andapplying it through the different Onion Layers (Figure 1 above). Viewing theresearch methodology and the methods in the different layers all helped meanswer all the different parts that were needed to carry out this research.Furthermore, using the Onion’s layers helped me to best structure the researchstarting from the most general to the most specific aspects.1 https://www.
ukessays.com/essays/psychology/explanation-of-the-concept-of-research-onion-psychology-essay.php https://research-methodology.net/research-philosophy/positivism/ 3 https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/explanation-of-the-concept-of-research-onion-psychology-essay.
php 4 Banister, P., Bunn, G., Burman, E., & Daniels, J. (2011).Qualitative Methods In Psychology: A Research Guide. London: McGraw-HillInternational5 Saunders, M., Lewis, P.
, & Thornhill, A. (2007). ResearchMethods for Business Students, (6th ed.
) London: Pearson.6 Silverman, D. (2013). Doing Qualitative Research: A practicalhandbook. London: Sage.
7 May, T. (2011). Social research: Issues, methods and research.London: McGraw-Hill International.
8 9 4 Kumar, R. (2008) “Research Methodology” APH PublishingCorporation10 5 Kumar, R. (2008) “Research Methodology” APH PublishingCorporation
