Business Research

RUNNING HEADER: Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 2 1 Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 2 RES/351 July 4, 2014 Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 2 2 Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 2 Strengths and Weaknesses When it comes to sampling approaches you will notice that there are an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. Tests – strengths are; allows comparability of common measures across research populations, can provide “hard” quantitative data, a wide range of tests are available and response rate is high for group administered tests. Weaknesses; can be expensive if test must be purchased for each research participant. Test may not be appropriate for a local or unique population and nonresponse to selected items on the test. Questionnaires – strengths are; quick turnaround, closed-ended items can provide exact information needed by researcher, open- ended items can provide detailed information in respondents’ own words, and useful for exploration as well as confirmation. Weaknesses – nonresponse to selective items, response rate may be low for mail and email questionnaires, data analysis can be time consuming for open- ended items and measures and validation. Interviews – strengths are; can provide in-depth information, allows probing and posing of follow-up questions by the interviewer, and is useful for exploration as well as confirmation. Weaknesses – In-person interviews usually are expensive and time consuming, Interviewees may not recall important information and may lack self-awareness and perceived anonymity by respondents may be low. Focus Groups – strengths are; provides window into participants’ internal thinking, can examine how participants react to each other, most content can be tapped, and allows quick turnaround. Weaknesses are; sometimes expensive, reactive and investigator effects may occur if participants feel they are being watched or studied, may be dominated by one or two participants, and usually should not be the only data collection methods used in a study. Observational Data Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 2 3 – strengths are; provides firsthand experience, especially if the observer participates in activities, observer may see things that escape the awareness of people in the setting and may provide information on things people would otherwise be unwilling to talk about. Weaknesses are; reactive effects may occur when respondents know they are being observed, collection of unimportant material may be moderately high, and cannot observe large or dispersed populations. Specific Situations Some specific situations in which an individual would choose to use a test is when it comes to decision making. For instance one of the questions could be for the participant is; who makes the most decisions in your household? When choosing a questionnaire it is important to make sure that it is a testable research question. A researcher does not want to have a non- testable question because then the question cannot be answered. Questionnaires can be used for when an individual is answering questions about a restaurant they visit frequently. Surveys can be used just as a questionnaire; they are also data that is collected from the opinions of participants. It can also be used in psychology research to collect a self-report data. Designs There are seven different types of designs but the main two are; quantitative and qualitative. In a situation where descriptive design is used is the observation of a subject that does on influence the behavior in any way. For example; say a research is watching a deer within its own environment. The researcher is observing the deer without disturbing its natural behavior. However, researchers regard this type of study due to it being very unreliable and unscientific.

All courses in RES

Popular Documents