Chapter 3

Research Design

Meaning of Research Designs;

Nature and Classification of Research Designs;

Exploratory Research Designs: Secondary Resource analysis, Case study Method,

Expert opinion survey, Focus group discussions;

Descriptive Research Designs: Crosssectional studies and Longitudinal studies;Experimental Designs, Errors
affecting Research Design
 RESEARCH DESIGN
● A research design is the arrangement of conditions for
collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims
to combine relevance to the research purpose with
economy in procedure.
●
Research design is the conceptual structure within
which research is conducted; it constitutes the
blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis
of data.
● It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of
information relevant to the research problem.
● It is a strategy specifying which approach will be used
for gathering and analysing the data.
● It also includes the time and cost budgets since most
studies are done under these two constraints.
 Research Design
● What is the study about?
● Why is it being made?
● Where will it be carried out ?
● What type of data is required?
● Where can the required data be found?
● What is the time period of study?
● What will be the sample size?
● What techniques of data collection will be
used?
● How will the data be analysed?
 NEED FOR RESEARCH DESIGN
● Research design is needed because it facilitates
the smooth sailing of the various research
operations,thereby making research as efficient as
possible yielding maximal information with minimal
expenditure of effort, time and money.
● Research design stands for advance planning of
the methods to be adopted for collecting the
relevant data and the techniques to be used in
their analysis, keeping in view the objective of the
research and the availability of staff, time and
money.
 CONCEPTS RELATING TO RESEARCH
DESIGN
1)Dependent and independent variables
2)Extraneous variable
3)Confounded relationship
4)Research hypothesis:
5)Experimental and control groups
6)Treatments
7)Experimental unit
8)Control
9)Experiment
 CONCEPTS RELATING TO RESEARCH
DESIGN
● 1. Dependent Variable and Independent
● A dependent variable is what you measure in the experiment
and what is affected during the experiment. The dependent
variable responds to the independent variable.
● It is called dependent because it "depends" on the independent
variable.
● Independent variable-
● A factor or phenomenon that causes or influences another
associated factor or phenomenon called a dependent variable.
● Examples: A scientist is testing the effect of light and dark on
the behavior of moths by turning a light on and off.
 Extraneous variable
● 2. Extraneous variable
● Extraneous Variables are undesirable variables that influence
the relationship between the variables that an experimenter is
examining.
● Another way to think of this, is that these are variables the
influence the outcome of an experiment, though they are not
the variables that are actually of interest.
● Extraneous variables
● Independent variable: quality of lecturer vs. seminars; teacher
● Dependent variable: student tiredness
 3. Confounded relationship
● Confounding variables (aka third variables) are
variables that the researcher failed to control, or
eliminate, damaging the internal validity of an
experiment.
● A confounding variable, also known as a third variable
or a mediator variable, can adversely affect the
relation between the independent variable and
dependent variable.
● This may cause the researcher to analyze the results
incorrectly.
● The results may show a false correlation between the
dependent and independent variables, leading to an
incorrect rejection of the null hypothesis.
 4 Research hypothesis
● A research hypothesis is the statement created by researchers
when they speculate upon the outcome of a research or
experiment.
● Every true experimental design must have this statement at the
core of its structure, as the ultimate aim of any experiment.
● The hypothesis is generated via a number of means, but is
usually the result of a process of inductive reasoning where
observations lead to the formation of a theory.
● methods to arrive at a hypothesis that is testable, falsifiable and
realistic.
 5 Experimental and control groups
● An experimental group is the group in an
experiment that receives the variable being
tested.
● One variable is tested at a time.
● The experimental group is compared to a
control group, which does not receive the test
variable.
6 Treatments
● The different conditions under which
experimental and control groups are put usually
refer to as treatments.
 CONCEPTS RELATING TO RESEARCH
DESIGN
7. Experimental unit
● Predetermined plots/area or blocks
8. Control
● Restrained extranous variable
9. Experiment
● Examine the truth of stastistical hypothesis
relating to an experiment
Principles of Experimental Design
1) Principle of Randomization.
● The first principle of an experimental design is randomization,
which is a random process of assigning treatments to the
experimental units.
● The random process implies that every possible allotment of
treatments has the same probability.
● The purpose of randomization is to remove bias and other
sources of extraneous variation, which are not controllable
● Another advantage of randomization (accompanied by
replication) is that it forms the basis of any valid statistical test.
Hence the treatments must be assigned at random to the
experimental units.
 Principles of Experimental Design
(2) Principle of Replication.
● The second principle of an experimental design is replication;
which is a repetition of the basic experiment.
● In other words, it is a complete run for all the treatments to be
tested in the experiment. In all experiments, some variation is
introduced because of the fact that the experimental units such
as individuals or plots of land in agricultural experiments cannot
be physically identical.
● This type of variation can be removed by using a number of
experimental units.
● We therefore perform the experiment more than once, i.e., we
repeat the basic experiment. An individual repetition is called a
replicate. The number, the shape and the size of replicates
depend upon the nature of the experimental material.
Principles of Experimental Design
● A replication is used
● (i) to secure more accurate estimate of the
experimental error, a term which represents the
differences that would be observed if the same
treatments were applied several times to the
same experimental units;
● (ii) to decrease the experimental error and
thereby to increase precision, which is a
measure of the variability of the experimental
error;
Principles of Experimental Design
●
(3) Principle of Local Control.
● It has been observed that all extraneous sources of
variation are not removed by randomization and
replication.
● This necessitates a refinement in the experimental
technique
● . In other words, we need to choose a design in such a
manner that all extraneous sources of variation are
brought under control.
● For this purpose, we make use of local control, a term
referring to the amount of balancing, blocking and
grouping of the experimental units.
Lauched -1990 Where They Went Wrong

Packaging: The packaging stated the key consumer benefits—

brewed with "crystal clear water" and "the fresh-brewed flavor
and aroma...are locked in this exclusive foil-lined fresh-pack."
Foil and microwaves don’t mix very well, so it was necessary to
pour the coffee into a mug first, then heat it up in the
microwave. A microwaveable package—or better yet, individual
cups of coffee that were microwaveable—would have better
delivered on convenience, particularly when we are running out
the door.

Hot or Cold: The imagery on the package showed a steaming

cup of coffee, indicating that the coffee should be served hot. It
makes sense since most coffee is drunk this way. But there was
no suggestion to drink this as iced coffee (if consumers even
would at the time), possibly creating an additional usage
experience for the product.

Consumer Need: With the popularity of the automatic drip

coffee maker, was there really a need for a ready-to-drink
coffee? The Mr. Coffee brand has a category household
penetration of more than 80%. Coffee is already fast and easy
to brew, so what benefit was the Maxwell House Ready-To
Drink Coffee really bringing to consumers?
 Research Design - methods
● Research design contains all required procedures in
gaining information needed to answer our problems.
● If research approach is research guideline in a brief,
thus research design will be our procedures in detail
form to answer research problems.
● In general, there are two main forms of research design:
exploratory research design and conclusive
research design.
● Conclusive research design is familiar known as
quantitative research approach, while exploratory is
known as qualitative research.
 a. Exploratory Research Design
Exploratory research design is mainly aimed to
explore or to gain a new or deeper
understanding about particular problem.
● It is inappropriate to examine correlation
between observed variables, since the
variables in exploratory research commonly
have not yet been defined.
● And, in exploratory researchers usually use
more flexible and using unstructured questions
in the measurement tools.
 Exploratory Research Design
● Researchers usually use this research design for several
purposes:
To help define research problems more clearly
● Many companies sometimes want to research their products, but
they have no idea what should be measured from their products.
● They still are unable to cover what problems inherit their products.
To help identify all possible alternative answers.
● Assume that your company is facing two alternative decisions for
your promotion and marketing programs.
● You need to decide whether the program will be focused on above
the line or below the line events.
● To choose the right decision you may need to conduct interview
with some experts or your respondents.
 Exploratory Research Design
● To help researchers build a deeper hypothesis.
● Hypotheses are temporary allegation of the answer for
research questions.
● A good hypothesis should consider various factors that
affect on the observed variables.
● However, in fact we sometimes face a condition where the
available theoretical framework is not enough to answer all
the questions.
● As consequence, we need to conduct a prior exploratory
research before doing the actual research to determine the
factors that could be expected as the causes of certain
event can happen.
VARIOUS RESEARCH DESIGNS
 Methods
Secondary Resource analysis-
Secondary sources involve generalization, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or
evaluation of the original information.
Case study Method -
The case study method permits the collection of detailed descriptive data, which
are usually qualitative in nature. It may provide information on the unique
features of particular individuals.
Expert opinion survey-
A form of exploratory research that involves discussing a research problem with
someone (or a group of people) with experience on a particular subject.
Focus group discussions-
a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before
it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series,
etc.
 b. Conclusive Research Design
Conclusive Research Design
● In contrast with exploratory research design,
conclusive research uses more formal and
structured questions to test the correlation
between variables or to test the truth from
underpinning hypothesis.
● In conclusive research design we will be
required to use some quantitative calculations.
 When should we use conclusive
research design?
● There are two circumtances when researcher needs to use
conclusive research:
● As conclusive research is the best suited research design for
research with many statistical equations and it can provide
you a fixed number about particular material, so that it is
commonly used in helping you make a decision based on an
absolute number
● When your research is related to market study (such as to
measure market share, market size, distributor available, and
consumers’ profile), sales (e.g, a study to measure the effect of
packaging on the consumers’ intention to buy), and to market
test.
 When should we use conclusive
research design?
● What are included in conclusive research
designed?
● Conclusive research design is divided
1 causal research
2 descriptive research.
 Types of conclusive research
● 1. Causal Research
● It is used to prove that there is a relationship between
observed variables.
●
Commonly, there are two purposes of causal research.
● First, it helps researcher to figure out the nature of that
relationship – which factor becomes the cause and the
effect.
● Second, researcher can use this design to observe
respondents even they who have never experienced the
phenomena being researched by conducting an
experiment.
 Types of conclusive research

● A manufacturer is intending to launch a new form of mosquito

repellent products.
● This product has not been available in the market before.
● To test whether the new form will be preferred by consumers or
not, the manufacturer tested through an experimentation.
● The cause variable (independent variable) is the new form of
repellent.
● And, the effect variable (dependent variable) is the ease in use
and the level of consumer complaints.
● Respondents were given samples of both the old products and
the new form products to see how respondents response to the
new one
 Types of conclusive research
2. Descriptive Research
● Descriptive research is a type of research design which main
purpose is to describe phenomena.
● Basic assumption in this research design is the
researchers have already figured out the problem, they are
able to define the observed variables, and they can classify
the population being measured.
● A researcher cannot describe Iphone based on the answers
gained from a survey on respondents who have never known
the Iphone.
● Based on how data are collected from respondents, descriptive
research is split to:
 Types of conclusive research
● a. Cross-sectional research
● It is a descriptive research design where data is
taken only once in a given time.
● Data can be taken from a group of respondents
(single cross-sectional design), and can also be
taken from several different groups of
respondent (multiple cross-sectional design).
 Types of conclusive research
● b. Longitudinal research
● In this design, data are captured during a certain time interval
from the same group of respondents.
● This research aims to see whether there are changes in the
behavior of the respondents for a period of time.
● For example, researchers want to know how consumer of an
airline will behave during the holiday season.
● The major limitation of longitudinal research is it is difficult to
maintain the level of data consistency along the time interval
because some factors may affect the respondents such as
death, respondents were out of the deal, and the limited ability
of the company to provide research facilities for long periods of
time.
 ● Cross-sectional research versus Longitudinal research
The table below presents you some relative advantages and disadvantages for both cross-sectional
and longitudinal design.
A plus (+) symbolize that the design has a comparative advantage compared to another one, and a
minus (-) means it has comparative disadvantage.
 Experiment design (method)
● It is wise to take time and effort to organize the experiment properly to
ensure that the right type of data, and enough of it, is available to
answer the questions of interest as clearly and efficiently as possible.
This process is called experimental design.
● Randomization
● Because it is generally extremely difficult for experimenters to
eliminate bias using only their expert judgment, the use of
randomization in experiments is common practice. In a randomized
experimental design, objects or individuals are randomly assigned (by
chance) to an experimental group.
● Using randomization is the most reliable method of creating
homogeneous treatment groups, without involving any potential
biases or judgments. There are several variations of randomized
experimental designs, two of which are briefly discussed below.
a. Completely Randomized Design
● In a completely randomized design, objects or subjects are assigned
to groups completely at random.
 Research Designs
b. Randomized Block Design
● If an experimenter is aware of specific differences among
groups of subjects or objects within an experimental group, he
or she may prefer a randomized block design to a completely
randomized design.
● In a block design, experimental subjects are first divided into
homogeneous blocks before they are randomly assigned to a
treatment group.
● If, for instance, an experimenter had reason to believe that age
might be a significant factor in the effect of a given medication,
he might choose to first divide the experimental subjects into
age groups, such as under 30 years old, 30-60 years old, and
over 60 years old.
● Then, within each age level, individuals would be assigned to
treatment groups using a completely randomized design. In a
block design, both control and randomization are considered.
 Research Designs
● Example
●
A researcher is carrying out a study of the
effectiveness of four different skin creams for the
treatment of a certain skin disease.
● He has eighty subjects and plans to divide them into 4
treatment groups of twenty subjects each.
● Using a randomized block design, the subjects are
assessed and put in blocks of four according to how
severe their skin condition is; the four most severe cases
are the first block, the next four most severe cases are the
second block, and so on to the twentieth block.
● The four members of each block are then randomly
assigned, one to each of the four treatment groups.
 Research Designs
c. Replication
● Randomly selecting two individuals from a group of four and
applying a treatment with "great success" generally will not impress
the public or convince anyone of the effectiveness of the treatment
● To improve the significance of an experimental result, replication,
the repetition of an experiment on a large group of subjects, is
required. If a treatment is truly effective, the long-term averaging
effect of replication will reflect its experimental worth.
● If it is not effective, then the few members of the experimental
population who may have reacted to the treatment will be negated
by the large numbers of subjects who were unaffected by it.
● Replication reduces variability in experimental results, increasing
their significance and the confidence level with which a researcher
can draw conclusions about an experimental factor.
 Research Designs
Informal experimental designs-
● 1 before and after without control design
● 2 before and after with control design

Formal experimental design

● Latin square design
● Random replication design
 Informal Research Designs
● Before-and-after without control design
●  In such a design a single test group or area is selected and
the dependent variable is measured before the introduction of
the treatment.
●  The treatment is then introduced and the dependent variable
is measured again after the treatment has been introduced.
●  The effect of the treatment would be equal to the level of the
phenomenon after the treatment minus the level of the
phenomenon before the treatment.
●  The main difficulty of such a design is that with the passage
of time, considerable extraneous variations may be there in its
treatment effect.
 Informal Research Designs
● After-only with control design
●  In this design two groups or areas (test area and control area)
are selected and the treatment is introduced into the test area
only.
●  The dependent variable is then measured in both the areas at
the same time.
●  Treatment impact is assessed by subtracting the value of the
dependent variable in the control area from its value in the test
area.
●  The basic assumption in such a design is that the two areas
are identical with respect to their behavior towards the
phenomenon considered. If this assumption is not true, there is
the possibility of extraneous variation entering into the treatment
effect.
●  The design is superior to before-and-after without control
design.
 Informal Research Designs
● Before-and-after with control design
●  In this design two areas are selected and the dependent
variable is measured in both the areas for an identical time-
period before the treatment.
●  The treatment is then introduced into the test are only, and
the dependent variable is measured in both for an identical
time-period after the introduction of the treatment.
●  The treatment effect is determined by subtracting the
change in the dependent variable in the control area from the
change in the dependent variable in the test area.
●  This design is superior to the previous two designs for the
simple reason that it avoids extraneous variation resulting both
from the passage of time and from non-comparability of the test
and control areas
 FORMAL EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
1. Completely randomized design (C.R. Design)
●  Involves only two principles viz., the principle of replication
and principle of randomization of experimental designs.
●  The essential characteristic of this design is that the
subjects are randomly assigned to experimental treatments or
vice-versa.
●  For example, if we have 10 subjects and if we wish to test 5
under treatment A and 5 under treatment B, the randomization
process gives every possible group of 5 subjects selected from
a set of 10 an equal opportunity of being assigned to treatment
A and treatment B.
●  One-way analysis of variance (or one-way ANOVA) is used
to analyze such a design
 FORMAL EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
● COMPLETELY RANDOMIZED DESIGN 
● Random replications design
●  There are two populations in this design. The sample is
taken randomly from the population available for the study and
is randomly assigned to, say, four experimental and four control
groups.
●  Similarly, sample is taken randomly from the population
available to conduct experiments (because of the eight groups
eight such individuals be selected) and the eight individuals so
selected should be randomly assigned to eight groups
● .  Generally, equal number of items are put in each group so
that the size of the group is not likely to affect the results of the
study.
●  This is an extension of the two-group simple randomized
design.
 FORMAL EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
2. Randomized Block Design (R.B. Design)
●  Improvement over the C.R. design.
●  In the R.B. design, subjects are first divided into groups,
known as blocks, such that within each group, the subjects are
relatively homogeneous with respect to some selected variable.
 The variable selected for grouping the subjects is one that is
believed to be related to the measures to be obtained with
respect to the dependent variable.
●  The number of subjects in a given block would be equal to
the number of treatments and one subject in each block would
be randomly assigned to each treatment.
●  The R.B. design is analyzed by the two-way analysis of
variance (two-way ANOVA) technique.
 FORMAL EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
3.  Latin Squares Design (L.S. Design)
●  Experimental design very frequently used in agricultural
research.  Factorial designs  Used in experiments where
the effects of varying more than one factor are to be
determined.
●  Can be of two types: 
● Simple factorial designs (a.k.a. two-factor-factorial design) 
Here the effects of varying two factors on the dependent
variable are considered. 
● Complex factorial designs (a.k.a. multi-factor-factorial design)
 Here more than two factors are considered.
 Errors in research design
● 1. Population Specification
● This type of error occurs when the researcher selects an
inappropriate population or universe from which to obtain data.
● Example:
● Packaged goods manufacturers often conduct surveys of
housewives, because they are easier to contact, and it is assumed
they decide what is to be purchased and also do the actual
purchasing. In this situation there often is population specification
error.
● The husband may purchase a significant share of the packaged
goods, and have significant direct and indirect influence over what is
bought. For this reason, excluding husbands from samples may yield
results targeted to the wrong audience.
 Errors in research design

● 2. Sampling
● Sampling error occurs when a probability sampling method is used to
select a sample, but the resulting sample is not representative of the
population concern. Unfortunately, some element of sampling error is
unavoidable. This is accounted for in confidence intervals, assuming
a probability sampling method is used.
● Example: Suppose that we collected a random sample of 500 people
from the general U.S. adult population to gauge their entertainment
preferences. Then, upon analysis, found it to be composed of 70%
females. This sample would not be representative of the general adult
population and would influence the data. The entertainment
preferences of females would hold more weight, preventing accurate
extrapolation to the US general adult population. Sampling error is
affected by the homogeneity of the population being studied and
sampled from and by the size of the sample.
● 3. Selection
● Selection error is the sampling error for a sample selected by a
nonprobability method.
● Example: Interviewers conducting a mall intercept study have a natural
tendency to select those respondents who are the most accessible and
agreeable whenever there is latitude to do so. Such samples often
comprise friends and associates who bear some degree of resemblance in
characteristics to those of the desired population.
● 4. Non-responsive
● Nonresponse error can exist when an obtained sample differs from the
original selected sample.
● Example: In telephone surveys, some respondents are inaccessible
because they are not at home for the initial call or call-backs. Others have
moved or are away from home for the period of the survey. Not-at-home
respondents are typically younger with no small children, and have a much
higher proportion of working wives than households with someone at
home. People who have moved or are away for the survey period have a
higher geographic mobility than the average of the population. Thus, most
surveys can anticipate errors from non-contact of respondents. Online
surveys seek to avoid this error through e-mail distribution, thus eliminating
not-at-home respondents.
 Errors in research design

● 5. Measurement
● Measurement error is generated by the
measurement process itself, and represents the
difference between the information generated
and the information wanted by the researcher.
● Example: A retail store would like to assess
customer feedback from at-the-counter
purchases. The survey is developed but fails to
target those who purchase in the store. Instead,
results are skewed by customers who bought
items online.