Business Research Methods Essay Proposal

Research Philosophy

Discuss about the Business Research Methods Research Proposal.

Research methodology provides the specific guidelines for the research (Smith 2015). This particular research project will follow a specific research methodology to achieve the aim of the research easily. This part will describe how this research project will be carried on by following particular research philosophy, approach, design, data collection and analysis methods.

Research philosophy is one of the most important methodological parts of a research (Flick 2015). There are mainly three philosophies are available for a particular research work and these philosophies are – positivism, realism and interpretivism philosophy (Hartas 2015). Positivism philosophy is based on the natural relationship between the research variables. In this research philosophy, the results are obtained by interpreting the data by logical reasons and applying the practical knowledge (Katz 2015). The realism philosophy is based on the real belief, perceptions and the linguistic practices. This particular research philosophy is used to analyze a large number of data which are based on the subjects like, mathematics, ethics, science and modality (Clement et al. 2015). On the other side, interpretivism philosophy is based on the idealism and social constructivism.

However, in this particular study, the positivism philosophy will be followed. This philosophy will be selected because this philosophy is based on logical background and so the data of the study can be analyzed logically (McNabb 2015). At the same time, the positivism research philosophy is much easy and less time consuming.

A research can follow the philosophy when it follows the research approach properly. Research approach is another vital part of a research work. There are two research approaches available for conducting a research study (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). This research approaches are – inductive approach and deductive approach. Inductive research approaches is followed when the research is aimed to originate a new theory through analysis of the collected data (Bryman and Bell 2015). On the other side, deductive research approach is followed when the research wants to achieve the research goal by testing the existing theories.

In this particular study, the deductive research approach will be followed because this study does not want to develop any new theory regarding marketing strategies or consumer behavior. It will just use the existing theories to analyze the data (Hussein 2015). At the same time, the deductive research approach helps to solve the research problem within very short time. As the available time for this research will be very limited, it will be more suitable if the deductive research approach is followed (Merriam and Tisdell 2015).

Research Approach

Research design is another part that helps to conduct that research as per the philosophy. Research design indicates the overall strategy, which is followed by the research to ensure the final success of the study (Mackey and Gass 2015). A research work can follow any particular research design among all the available three research designs and that are – descriptive design, explanatory design and exploratory design (Silverman 2016). The names of the designs explain the characteristics of them. In case of descriptive design, the research is done in more detailed manner and this research design uses the existing theories and literature to study the data. This research design is easier than the other two designs (Marais and Pienaar-Marais 2016). The explanatory research design helps to conduct the research by explaining the ideas and thoughts. On the other side, in case of exploratory research design, the new ideas are explored to solve the specific problems of the research (Dunlap et al. 2016).

However, this particular research will follow the descriptive research design because this study will try to analyze the relationship between the marketing strategies and the consumer buying behavior by using the existing theories and literature. At the same time, this research design allows to collect the data through very simple ways like, survey, interview and observations (Singh and Tewari 2015). Along with that, this particular research design allows to analyze the data by using statistical method.

Data is the most important part of a research project. A research can use primary and secondary data to achieve the goal of the research (Caillaud, Rose and Goepp 2016). The primary data is the new data, which is unavailable in any book, journal, article and in the internet sources. This data needs to be collected through field work or through observations. Generally, the primary data for a research work is collected by conducting survey, taking interview or only through observations and focus group study (Au et al. 2016). The collection of primary data requires much time and cost. Moreover, the primary data is more biased.

On the other side, secondary data is the existing data, which is available in different books, websites, articles and journals. The secondary data can be collected easily because this data already exists and no extra time and knowledge need to be involved for developing a new data set (Sessler and Imrey 2015). This type of research data is less biased than before. Any type of theories and existing literature used in a study are the part of the secondary data of the study.

Research Design

However, in this study, both types of data will be used. The secondary data will be used because this will provide the basic knowledge over the research area. On the other side, the primary data will help to get the practical knowledge over the subject at current scenario (Archer et al. 2015). During this study, the primary data will be collected by surveying the customers in UK and interviewing the managers of different well-known companies like – Tesco, Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer and Zara. The secondary data will be collected from different books, articles, journals and websites.

As stated above, the primary data for this study will be collected by surveying the customers of different companies in UK and interviewing the managers of four big organizations in UK (Skinner 2015). However, before conducting the survey or taking the interview, it is essential to identify an appropriate sample for collecting the data. In this study, the sampling will be done with the help of simple random sampling method. In order to choose the sample for the survey, the sampling will be done as per the probability sampling technique because the number of customers is huge or it can be said that population size is huge (Dunlap et al. 2016). On the other side, the sample for the interview will be selected with the help of non-probability sampling technique.

In order to do the survey, the survey questionnaire will be sent to 70 customers and it is expected that at least 50 customers will reply back. At the same time, for interview, the approach will be made to 7 managers and it is expected that atleast 4 will be agreed to take part in the interview process. Therefore, the expected sample size for the survey is 50 and for the interview, it is 4.

Without data analysis a research work cannot be completed. Data analysis of a research project can be done mainly by two methods – quantitative data analysis method and qualitative data analysis method (Mackey and Gass 2015). The quantitative data analysis is a mathematical way to analyze the data. It is based on scientific method. The analysis of the research data is very easy if this is done with the help of the quantitative data analysis technique. In case of the quantitative data analysis, the statistical results can be obtained, which are easy to interpret and understand. The quantitative analysis of research data can be done within very short time span and the cost of this particular type of data analysis is also very less (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015).

Data Collection Method

On the other side, in case of qualitative data analysis, the research data is analyzed in detail. This particular type of data analysis is done on the basis of the existing literature and theories. This data analysis is not done mathematically but it is done logically and theoretically. However, this data analysis takes more time than the quantitative data analysis technique (Katz 2015). The detailed analysis of research data helps to get detailed knowledge about the research results and this ultimately helps to understand the results easily.

However, this particular study will use both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques to analyze the research data. The data that will be collected through the survey method will be analyzed with the help of quantitative data analysis technique and the data that will be collected through the interview method, will be analyzed through the qualitative data analysis technique.

A research work can face different types of ethical issues. Ethics is very important and must be maintained while conducting a research work. If the ethical part is ignored during the research, then the whole research can be useless (Skinner 2015). However, the ethical issues can take place in case of maintenance of the personal data of the research participants, taking proper permission from the appropriate authority and maintenance of reliability and validity of the research data. However, during this particular study, the ethical issues can be managed by taking proper steps before starting the research work.

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