1. RESEARCH PROCESS Contents: PART I: RESEARCH ETHICS
PART II: RESEARCH DESIGN AND MODELS
PART III: SAMPLING AND DATA ANALYSIS
PART IV: COLLECTION OF PRIMARY DATA
PART V: STATISTICS IN RESEARCH
Learning Outcomes:
To understanding research ethics
To understand and be able to select the proper research design and models
To be able to conduct sampling and data analysis
To be able to define collection of primary data
To be able to perform statistics in research

2. PART I: RESEARCH ETHICS
Ethics is defined as conformance to the standards of conduct of a given profession or group. Such standards are often defined at a disciplinary level though a professional code of conduct, and sometimes enforced by university committees called even Institutional Review Board.
WHY IS RESEARCH ETHICS IMPORTANT?
It is a reflection of respect for those who ‘take part’ in research.
It ensures no unreasonable, unsafe or thoughtless demands are made by researchers.
It ensures sufficient knowledge is shared by all concerned.
It imposes a common standard in all the above respects.

3. PART I: RESEARCH ETHICS
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN RESEARCH
Scientific Honesty: Do not commit scientific fraud, i.e. do not fabricate, fudge, trim, cook, destroy, or misrepresent data.
Carefulness: Strive to avoid careless errors or sloppiness in all aspects of scientific work.
Intellectual Freedom: Scientists should be allowed to pursue new ideas and criticize old ones.
Openness: i.e. share data, results, methods, theories, equipment, and so on. Allow people to see your work, be open to criticism.
The principle of credit: Do not plagiarize the work of other scientists, give credit where credit is due (but not where it is not due).

4. The principle of public responsibility: Report research in the public media when, the research has an important and direct bearing on human happiness and the research has been sufficiently validated by scientific peers.
Voluntary participation and harmlessness. Subjects in a research project must be aware that their participation in the study is voluntary and they are not harmed as a result of their participation or non-participation in the project.
Anonymity and confidentiality. Anonymity implies that the researcher or readers of the final research report or paper cannot identify a given response with a specific respondent.

5. PART I: RESEARCH ETHICS
Disclosure. Usually, researchers have an obligation to provide some information about their study to potential subjects before data collection to help them decide whether or not they wish to participate in the study.
Analysis and reporting. Researchers also have ethical obligations to the scientific community on how data is analyzed and reported in their study.
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Whether there is harm to participants; to ensure that respondents are in no way directly harmed or adversely affected as a result of their participation in a marketing research project’.
Whether there is a lack of informed consent; even when people know they are being asked to participate in research, they should be fully informed about the research process.

6. It is extremely difficult to present prospective participants with absolutely all the information that might be required to make an informed decision about their involvement.
Whether there is an invasion of privacy; it relates to the issue of the degree to which invasions of privacy can be condoned.
Whether deception is involved. Deception occurs when researchers represent their research as something other than what it is.

7. CODE OF ETHICS
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD (IRB)
IRB reviews all research proposal involving human subjects to ensure that the
principles of voluntary participation, harmlessness, anonymity, confidentiality, and
so forth are preserved, and that the risks posed to human subjects are minimal.
As an example, the summarized code of conduct for the Association of Information Systems (AIS). The AIS code of conduct groups ethical violations in two categories:
Category I: includes serious transgressions such as plagiarism and falsification
of data, research procedures, or data analysis, which may lead to expulsion
from the association, dismissal from employment, legal action, and fatal
damage to professional reputation.

8. Category II: includes less serious transgression such as not respecting the rights of research subjects, misrepresenting the originality of research projects, and using data published by others without acknowledgement, which may lead to damage to professional reputation, sanctions from journals, and so forth.
The code also provides guidance on good research behaviors, what to do when ethical transgressions are detected, and the process to be followed by AIS in dealing with ethical violation cases.
Though codes of ethics such as this have not completely eliminated unethical behavior, they have certainly helped clarify the boundaries of ethical behavior in the scientific community and reduced instances of ethical transgressions.

9. AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APA) ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
The APA ethical principles are summarized as follows:
Research proposals submitted to Institutional Review Boards shall contain accurate information. Upon approval researchers shall conduct their research within the approved protocol.
When informed consent is required, informed consent shall include:
the purpose of the research, expected duration, and procedures;
their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once participation has begun;
the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing; reasonably foreseeable factors that may be expected to influence their willingness to participate such as potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects;
any prospective research benefits;
limits of confidentiality;
incentives for participation

10. When intervention research is conducted that includes experimental treatments, participants shall be informed at the outset of the research of
the experimental nature of the treatment;
the services that will or will not be available to the control group(s) if appropriate;
the means by which assignment to treatment and control groups will be made;
available treatment alternatives if an individual does not wish to participate in the research or wishes to withdraw once a study has begun;
compensation for or monetary costs of participating including, if appropriate, whether reimbursement from the participant or a third-party pay or will be sought.
4. Informed consent shall be obtained when voices or images are recorded as data unless (1) the research consists solely of naturalistic observations in public places, and it is not anticipated that the recording will be used in a manner that could cause personal identification or harm, or (2) the research design includes deception, and consent for the use of the recording is obtained during debriefing.

11. Informed consent may be dispensed with only
Psychologists take steps to protect the prospective participants from adverse consequences of declining or withdrawing from participation.
Informed consent may be dispensed with only
where research would not reasonably be assumed to create distress or harm and involves:
(a) the study of normal educational practices, curricula, or classroom management methods conducted in educational settings;
(b) only anonymous questionnaires, naturalistic observations, or archival research for which disclosure of responses would not place participants at risk of criminal or civil liability or damage their financial standing, employability, or reputation, and confidentiality is protected;
(c) the study of factors related to job or organization effectiveness conducted in organizational settings for which there is no risk to participants’ employability, and confidentiality is protected where otherwise permitted by law or federal or institutional regulations.

12. Psychologists make reasonable efforts to avoid offering excessive or inappropriate financial or other inducements for research participation when such inducements are likely to coerce participation.
Deception in research shall be used only if they have determined that the use of deceptive techniques is justified by the study’s significant prospective scientific, educational, or applied value and that effective nondeceptive alternative procedures are not feasible.
9. Psychologists offer participants a prompt opportunity to obtain appropriate information about the nature, results, and conclusions of the research, and they take reasonable steps to correct any misconceptions that participants may have of which the psychologists are aware.

13. WHAT CONSTITUTES FRAUD IN RESEARCH?
There are three categories of research fraud:
Data fabrication: Making up data or results and reporting on them.
Falsification: Manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.
Plagiarism: The appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.

14. DATA PROTECTION
Firstly, the Data Protection Act states that anyone who processes
personal information must comply with eight principles, which
make sure that personal information is:
Fairly and lawfully processed
Processed for limited purposes
Adequate, relevant and not excessive
Accurate and up to date
Not kept for longer than is necessary
Processed in line with your rights
Secure
Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection

15. WHAT KINDS OF RESEARCH WOULD NOT BE VIEWED AS APPROPRIATE FOR EXPEDITED REVIEW?
Examples it provides are Research involving:
Vulnerable groups.
People who lack capacity;
Sensitive topics;
Deceased persons, body parts or other human elements;
Groups that necessitate permission from a gatekeeper;
Deception or lack of full informed consent;
Access to records or personal/confidential information;
Intrusive interventions or research methods;
Threats to the safety of researchers;
Members of the public engaged in a research role;
Investigations outside the UK where issues to do with local customs and practices may arise;
Online data collection, especially when visual images and/or sensitive topics are concerned;
Data sharing of confidential information beyond the initial consent.

16. ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN CONNECTION WITH ETHICAL ISSUES
Have you read and incorporated into your research the principles associated with at least one of the major professional associations mentioned in this book?
Have you read and incorporated the requirements for doing ethical research in your institution?
Have you found out whether all proposed research needs to be submitted to the body in your institution that is responsible for the oversight of ethical issues?
If only certain types of research need to be submitted, have you checked to see whether your proposed research is likely to require clearance?
Have you checked to ensure that there is no prospect of any harm coming to participants?

17. Does your research conform to the principle of informed consent, so that research participants understand:
What the research is about?
The purposes of the research?
Who is sponsoring it?
The nature of their involvement in the research?
How long their participation is going to take?
That their participation is voluntary?
That they can withdraw from participation in the research at any time?
What is going to happen to the data (e.g. how they are going to be kept)?
7. Are you confident that the privacy of the people involved in your research will not be violated?

18. Do you appreciate that you should not divulge information or views to your research participants that other research participants have given you?
Have you taken steps to ensure that your research participants will not be deceived about the research and its purposes?
Have you taken steps to ensure that the confidentiality of data relating to your research participants will be maintained?
Once the data have been collected, have you taken steps to ensure that the names of your research participants and the location of your research (such as the name of the organization(s) in which it took place) are not identifiable?
Does your strategy for keeping your data in electronic form comply with data protection legislation?
13. Once your research has been completed, have you met obligations that were a requirement of doing the research (for example, submitting a report to an organization that allowed you access)?

19. A SAMPLE INTERVIEW CONSENT FORM
I, the undersigned, have read and understood the Study Information Sheet provided.
I have been given the opportunity to ask questions about the Study.
I understand that taking part in the Study will include being interviewed and audio recorded.
I have been given adequate time to consider my decision and I agree to take part in the Study.
I understand that my personal details such as name and employer address will not be revealed to people outside the project.
I understand that my words may be quoted in publications, reports, web pages and other research outputs but my name will not be used.
I agree to assign the copyright I hold in any material related to this project to [name of researcher].
I understand that I can withdraw from the Study at any time and I will not be asked any questions about why I no longer want to take part.
Name of Participant: ___________________________ Date:
Researcher Signature: __________________________ Date:

20. A sample study information sheet
Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in this study. This Information Sheet explains what the study is about and how we would like you to take part in it.
The purpose of the study is to [give a short explanation of the study].
In order to elicit your views, we would like you to be interviewed by one of the researchers involved in the Study at the University of [University name]. If you agree to this, the interview will be audio recorded and will last approximately one hour. You will also be asked to keep a workplace diary for four weeks. For you to take part in this aspect of the Study the consent of your line manager will be required. Details of how to go about this will be given when you attend for interview.
The information provided by you in the interview and workplace diary will be used for research purposes. It will not be used in a manner which would allow identification of your individual responses.
At the end of the Study, anonymised research data will be archived at the Data Archive in order to make it available to other researchers in line with current data-sharing practices.
The study has been considered by an Institutional Ethics Committee at the University of and has been given a favorable review.
All reasonable travel and subsistence expenses that you incur through taking part in the Study will be reimbursed, but please keep all receipts.
Once again, we would like to thank you for agreeing to take part in this Study. If you have any questions about the research at any stage, please do not hesitate to contact us.
[Researcher contact addresses, telephone, addresses]

21. PART II: RESEARCH DESIGN AND MODELS
QUANTITATIVE METHODS 
A survey design provides a quantitative or numeric description of trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population. From sample results, the researcher generalizes or draws inferences to the population. In an experiment, investigators may also identify a sample and generalize to a population; however, the basic intent of an experimental design is to test the impact of a treatment (or an intervention) on an outcome, controlling for all other factors that might influence that outcome.

24. In a proposal or plan for the survey design, a researcher can do the following:
Identify the purpose of survey research. This purpose is to generalize from a sample to a population so that inferences can be made about some characteristic, attitude, or behavior of this population.
Indicate why a survey is the preferred type of data collection procedure for the study. In this rationale, consider the advantages of survey designs, such as the economy of the design and the rapid turnaround in data collection.
Indicate whether the survey will be cross-sectional—with the data collected at one point in time -or whether it will be longitudinal- with data collected over time.
Specify the form of data collection.

25. The Population and Sample
In the methods section, follow the type of design with characteristics
of the population and the sampling procedure. Methodologists have
written excellent discussions about the underlying logic of sampling
theory. Essential aspects of the population and sample to describe in a
research plan are:
Identify the population in the study. Also state the size of this population, if size can be determined, and the means of identifying individuals in the population.
Identify whether the sampling design for this population is single stage or multistage.
Identify the selection process for individuals. With randomization, a representative sample from a population provides the ability to generalize to a population.

26. Identify whether the study will involve stratification of the population before selecting the sample. Stratification means that specific characteristics of individuals (e.g., gender—females and males) are represented in the sample and the sample reflects the true proportion in the population of individuals with certain characteristics.
Discuss the procedures for selecting the sample from available lists. The most rigorous method for selecting the sample is to choose individuals using a random sampling.
Indicate the number of people in the sample and the procedures used to compute this number. In survey research, investigators often choose a sample size based on selecting a fraction of the population (say, 10%), select the size that is unusual or typical based on past studies, or base the sample size simply on the margin of error they are willing to tolerate.

27. Instrumentation
For instrumentation, consider the following:
Name the survey instrument used to collect data. Discuss whether it is an instrument designed for this research, a modified instrument, or an intact instrument developed by someone else.
Describe the established validity of scores obtained from past use of the instrument; whether one can draw meaningful and useful inferences from scores on the instruments. The three forms of validity to look for are (a) content validity (do the items measure the content they were intended to measure?), (b) predictive or concurrent validity (do scores predict a criterion measure? Do results correlate with other results?), and (c) construct validity (do items measure hypothetical constructs or concepts?).
Include sample items from the instrument so that readers can see the actual items used.

28. Mention whether scores resulting from past use of the instrument demonstrate reliability. Look for whether authors report measures of internal consistency (Are the items’ responses consistent across constructs?) and test-retest correlations (Are scores stable over time when the instrument is administered a second time?). Also determine whether there was consistency in test administration and scoring.
Indicate the major content sections in the instrument, such as the cover letter (e.g., demographics, attitudinal items, behavioral items, factual items), and the closing instructions. Also mention the type of scales used to measure the items on the instrument, such as continuous scales (e.g., strongly agree to strongly disagree) and categorical scales (e.g., yes/no, rank from highest to lowest importance).
Discuss plans for pilot testing or field-testing the survey and provide a rationale for these plans.
For a mailed survey, identify steps for administering the survey and for following up to ensure a high response rate.

29. Data analysis and interpretation
Step 1. Report information about the number of members of the sample who did and did not return the survey. A table with numbers and percentages describing respondents and non respondents is a useful tool to present this information.
Step 2. Discuss the method by which response bias will be determined. Bias means that if non respondents had responded, their responses would have substantially changed the overall results. An alternative check for response bias is to contact a few non-respondents by phone and determine if their responses differ substantially from respondents. This constitutes a respondent-non respondent check for response bias.
Step 3. Discuss a plan to provide a descriptive analysis of data for all independent and dependent variables in the study. This analysis should indicate the means, standard deviations, and range of scores for these variables. In some quantitative projects, the analysis stops here with descriptive analysis, especially if the number of participants is too small for more advanced, inferential analysis.

30. Step 4. Identify the statistical procedure (i. e
Step 4. Identify the statistical procedure (i.e., factor analysis) for accomplishing this. Also mention reliability checks for the internal consistency of the scales (i.e., the Cronbach alpha statistic).
Step 5. Identify the statistics and the statistical computer program for testing the major inferential research questions or hypotheses in the proposed study.
Step 6. A final step in the data analysis is to present the results in tables or figures and interpret the results from the statistical test. An interpretation in quantitative research means that the researcher draws conclusions from the results for the research questions, hypotheses, and the larger meaning of the results. This interpretation involves several steps.

31. QUALITATIVE METHODS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CHARACTERISTICS
Review the needs of potential audiences for the proposal.
Present the basic characteristics of qualitative research in the proposal and possibly discuss a recent qualitative research journal article (or study) to use as an example to illustrate the characteristics.
Present the core characteristics that define qualitative research, including:
Natural setting: Qualitative researchers tend to collect data in the field at the site where participants experience the issue or problem under study. In the natural setting, the researchers have face-to-face interaction, often over time. Researcher as key instrument: Qualitative researchers collect data themselves through examining documents, observing behavior, or interviewing participants.

32. Multiple sources of data: Qualitative researchers typically gather multiple forms of data, such as interviews, observations, documents, and audiovisual information rather than rely on a single data source.
Inductive and deductive data analysis: This inductive process illustrates working back and forth between the themes and the database until the researchers have established a comprehensive set of themes. Then deductively, the researchers look back at their data from the themes to determine if more evidence can support each theme or whether they need to gather additional information. Thus, while the process begins inductively, deductive thinking also plays an important role as the analysis moves forward.
Participants’ meanings: In the entire qualitative research process, the researcher keeps a focus on learning the meaning that the participants hold about the problem or issue, not the meaning that the researchers bring to the research or that writers express in the literature.

33. Emergent design: The research process for qualitative researchers is emergent. This means that the initial plan for research cannot be tightly prescribed, and some or all phases of the process may change or shift after the researcher enters the field and begins to collect data.
Reflexivity: In qualitative research, the inquirer reflects about how their role in the study and their personal background, culture, and experiences hold potential for shaping their interpretations, such as the themes they advance and the meaning they ascribe to the data. This aspect of the methods is more than merely advancing biases and values in the study, but how the background of the researchers actually may shape the direction of the study.
Holistic account: Qualitative researchers try to develop a complex picture of the problem or issue under study. This involves reporting multiple perspectives, identifying the many factors involved in a situation, and generally sketching the larger picture that emerges.

35. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES
The data collection steps include setting the boundaries for the study, collecting information through unstructured or semi structured observations and interviews, documents, and visual materials, as well as establishing the protocol for recording information.
Identify the purposefully selected sites or individuals for the proposed study.
A related topic would be the number of sites and participants to be involved in the study.
Indicate the type or types of data to be collected.
Include data collection types that go beyond typical observations and interviews.

38. DATA RECORDING PROCEDURES
Plan to develop and use a protocol for recording observations in a qualitative study.
Plan to develop and use an interview protocol for asking questions and recording answers during a qualitative interview. The interview protocol needs to include the following components:
A heading (date, place, interviewer, interviewee).
Instructions for the interviewer to follow so that standard procedures are used from one interview to another.
The questions (typically an ice-breaker question at the beginning followed by four to five questions that are often the sub-questions in a qualitative research plan, followed by some concluding statement or a question, such as, “Who should I visit with to learn more about my questions?
Probes for the four to five questions, to follow up and ask individuals to explain their ideas in more detail, or to elaborate on what they have said.
Spaces between the questions to record responses.
A final thank-you statement to acknowledge the time the interviewee spent during the interview. 
Researchers typically develop a log to keep a record of documents collected for analysis in a qualitative study.

39. Data Analysis and Interpretation
The qualitative data analysis might begin with several general points
about the overall process:
Step 1. Organize and prepare the data for analysis.
Step 2. Read or look at all the data.
Step 3. Start coding all of the data.
Step 4. Use the coding process to generate a description of the setting or
people as well as categories or themes for analysis.
Step 5. Advance how the description and themes will be represented in
the qualitative narrative.
Step 6. A final step in data analysis involves making an interpretation in
qualitative research of the findings or results. Asking, “What were the
lessons learned?.

41. 3. MIXED METHODS PROCEDURES
The basic definition and description of the approach in a mixed
method proposal include the following:
Begin by defining mixed methods, which involves the collection of both qualitative (open-ended) and quantitative (closed-ended) data in response to research questions or hypotheses and includes the analysis of both forms of data.
Educate the reader about the background of mixed methods by reviewing briefly this history of this approach to research.
Follow this section with statements about the value and rationale for the choice of mixed methods as an approach for the dissertation or thesis project. At a procedural level, it is a useful strategy to have a more complete understanding of research problems/questions, such as the following:
Comparing different perspectives drawn from quantitative and qualitative data
Explaining quantitative results with a qualitative follow-up data collection and analysis

42. Developing better measurement instruments by first collecting and analyzing qualitative data and then administrating the instruments to a sample
Understanding experimental results by incorporating the perspectives of individuals
Developing a more complete understanding of changes needed for a marginalized group through the combination of qualitative and quantitative data
Having a better understanding the need for and impact of an intervention program through collecting both quantitative and qualitative data over time
Indicate the type of mixed methods design that will be used in the study and the rationale for choosing it. Include a figure or diagram of these procedures.
Note the challenges this form of research poses for the inquirer. These include the need for extensive data collection, the time-intensive nature of analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data, and the requirement for the researcher to be familiar with both quantitative and qualitative forms of research.

43. TYPES OF MIXED METHODS DESIGNS
There have been several typologies for classifying and identifying types of Mixed methods strategies that proposal developers might use in their proposed mixed methods study. The three basic mixed methods designs have three basic forms:
Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods Design
2. The explanatory sequential mixed methods approach is a design in mixed
3. Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Design

45. PART III: SAMPLING AND DATA ANALYSIS
SAMPLING DESIGN
A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given
population. It refers to the technique or the procedure the researcher would
adopt in selecting items for the sample. Sampling is the statistical process of
selecting a subset (called a “sample”) of a population of interest for purposes
of making observations and statistical inferences about that population.
Sampling process
The sampling process comprises of several stage:
Defining the target population: a population can be defined as all people or items (unit of analysis) with the characteristics that one wishes to study. 
Choosing a sampling frame: This is an accessible section of the target population (usually a list with contact information) from where a sample can be drawn. 
Choosing a sample from the sampling frame using a well-defined sampling technique: Sampling techniques can be grouped into two broad categories: probability (random) sampling and non-probability sampling.

46. Steps in sample design
 While developing a sampling design, the researcher must pay attention to the following points:
Type of universe.
Sampling unit.
Source list.
Size of sample.
Parameters of interest.
Budgetary constraint.
Sampling procedure.
Criteria of selecting a sampling procedure
Usually a systematic bias is the result of one or more of the following factors:
Inappropriate sampling frame.
Defective measuring device.
Non-respondents.
Indeterminancy principle.
Natural bias in the reporting of data.

47. The characteristics of a good sample design as under:
Sample design must result in a truly representative sample.
Sample design must be such which results in a small sampling error.
Sample design must be viable in the context of funds available for the research study.
Sample design must be such so that systematic bias can be controlled in a better way.
Sample should be such that the results of the sample study can be applied, in general, for the universe with a reasonable level of confidence.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SAMPLE DESIGNS
PROBABILITY SAMPLING
Non-Probability Sampling

48. PART IV: COLLECTION OF PRIMARY DATA
The primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus
happen to be original in character. The secondary data are those which have already
been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the
statistical process.
There are several methods of collecting primary data, particularly in surveys and descriptive researches:
observation method,
interview method,
through questionnaires,
SELECTION OF APPROPRIATE METHOD FOR DATA COLLECTION 
The researcher must keep in view the following factors:
Nature, scope and object of enquiry.
Availability of funds 
Time factor.
Precision required:

49. SURVEY RESEARCH
Survey research a research method involving the use of standardized questionnaires or interviews to collect data about people and their preferences, thoughts, and behaviors in a systematic manner.
The survey method can be used for descriptive, exploratory, or explanatory research. This method is best suited for studies that have individual people as the unit of analysis.
Depending on how the data is collected, survey research can be divided into two broad categories: questionnaire surveys (which may be mail-in, group-administered, or online surveys), and interview surveys (which may be personal, telephone, or focus group interviews).

50. OBSERVATION METHOD
Under the observation method, the information is sought by way of investigator’s own direct observation without asking from the respondent.
The main advantage of this method
is that subjective bias is eliminated, if observation is done accurately.
the information obtained under this method relates to what is currently happening; it is not complicated by either the past behavior or future intentions or attitudes.
this method is independent of respondents’ willingness to respond and as such is relatively less demanding of active cooperation on the part of respondents as happens to be the case in the interview or the questionnaire method.
Limitations:
it is an expensive method.
the information provided by this method is very limited.
Thirdly, sometimes unforeseen factors may interfere with the observational task.

51. QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEYS
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a set of questions (items) intended to capture responses from respondents in a standardized manner.
Questions may be unstructured or structured.
Questions should be designed such that respondents are able to read, understand, and respond to them in a meaningful way,
Self-administered mail surveys.
Group-administered questionnaire.
An online or web survey.
The method of collecting data by mailing the questionnaires to respondents is most extensively employed in various economic and business surveys. The merits claimed on behalf of this method are as follows:
There is low cost even when the universe is large and is widely spread geographically.
It is free from the bias of the interviewer; answers are in respondents’ own words.
Respondents have adequate time to give well thought out answers.

52. Respondents, who are not easily approachable, can also be reached conveniently.
Large samples can be made use of and thus the results can be made more dependable and reliable
The main demerits of this system are:
Low rate of return of the duly filled in questionnaires; bias due to no-response is often indeterminate.
It can be used only when respondents are educated and cooperating.
The control over questionnaire may be lost once it is sent.
There is inbuilt inflexibility because of the difficulty of amending the approach once questionnaires have been dispatched.
There is also the possibility of ambiguous replies or omission of replies altogether to certain questions; interpretation of omissions is difficult.
It is difficult to know whether willing respondents are truly representative.
This method is likely to be the slowest of all.

53. RESPONSE FORMATS
Survey questions may be structured or unstructured. Responses to structured questions captured using one of the following response formats:
Dichotomous response, where respondents are asked to select one of two possible choices, such as true/false, yes/no, or agree/disagree. An example of such a question is:
 Do you think that the death penalty is justified under some circumstances (circle one): yes / no. 
Nominal response, where respondents are presented with more than two unordered options, such as:
What is your industry of employment: manufacturing / consumer services / education / healthcare / tourism & hospitality.
Ordinal response, where respondents have more than two ordered options, such as:
What is your highest level of education: high school / college degree / graduate studies?
Interval-level response, where respondents are presented with a 5-point or 7-point Likert scale, semantic differential scale, or Guttmann scale.
Continuous response, where respondents enter a continuous (ratio-scaled) value with a meaningful zero point, such as their age or tenure in a firm. These responses generally tend to be of the fill-in-the blanks type.

54. QUESTION CONTENT AND WORDING
Every single question in a survey should be carefully scrutinized for the
following issues:
Is the question clear and understandable.
Is the question worded in a negative manner.
Is the question ambiguous.
Does the question have biased or value-laden words.
Is the question double-barreled.
Is the question too general.
Is the question too detailed.
Is the question presumptuous.
Is the question imaginary.
Do respondents have the information needed to correctly answer the question.

55. Start with easy non-threatening questions that can be easily recalled.
QUESTION SEQUENCING
In general, questions should flow from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and behavioural to the attitudinal, and from the more general to the more specific. Some general rules for question sequencing:
Start with easy non-threatening questions that can be easily recalled.
Never start with an open ended question.
If following an historical sequence of events, follow a chronological order from earliest to latest.
Ask about one topic at a time. When switching topics, use a transition, such as “The next section examines your opinions about …”
Use filter or contingency questions as needed, such as: “If you answered “yes” to question 5, please proceed to Section 2. If you answered “no” go to Section 3.”
Do unto your respondents what you would have them do unto you. Be attentive and appreciative of respondents’ time, attention, trust, and confidentiality of personal information.

56. Always practice the following strategies for all survey research:
People’s time is valuable.
Always assure respondents about the confidentiality of their responses, and how you will use their data (e.g., for academic research) and how the results will be reported.
For organizational surveys, assure respondents that you will send them a copy of the final results, and make sure that you follow up with your promise.
Thank your respondents for their participation in your study.
Pre-test your questionnaire, at least using a convenience sample, before administering it to respondents in a field setting.

57. Interview Survey
The interview method of collecting data involves presentation of oral-verbal stimuli and reply in terms of oral-verbal responses. This method can be used through personal interviews and, if possible, through telephone interviews.
Personal interviews: Personal interview method requires a person known as the interviewer asking questions generally in a face-to-face contact to the other person or persons.
The structured interviews involve the use of a set of predetermined questions and of highly standardized techniques of recording.
The unstructured interviews; the interviewer is allowed much greater freedom to ask, in case of need, supplementary questions or at times he may omit certain questions if the situation so requires.
Focused interview is meant to focus attention on the given experience of the respondent and its effects.
The clinical interview is concerned with broad underlying feelings or motivations or with the course of individual’s life experience.

58. Personal information can as well be obtained easily under this method.
The chief merits of the interview method are as follows:
More information and that too in greater depth can be obtained.
Interviewer by his own skill can overcome the resistance, if any, of the respondents; the interview method can be made to yield an almost perfect sample of the general population.
There is greater flexibility under this method as the opportunity to restructure questions is always there, especially in case of unstructured interviews.
Observation method can as well be applied to recording verbal answers to various questions.
Personal information can as well be obtained easily under this method.
Samples can be controlled more effectively as there arises no difficulty of the missing returns; non-response generally remains very low.
The interviewer can usually control which person(s) will answer the questions. This is not possible in mailed questionnaire approach. If so desired, group discussions may also be held.

59. a. It is more flexible in comparison to mailing method.
Telephone interviews: This method of collecting information consists in contacting respondents on telephone itself. It is not a very widely used method, but plays important part in industrial surveys, particularly in developed regions.
The chief merits of such a system are:
a. It is more flexible in comparison to mailing method.
b. It is faster than other methods i.e., a quick way of obtaining information.
c. It is cheaper than personal interviewing method; here the cost per response is relatively low.
d. Recall is easy; call-backs are simple and economical.
e. There is a higher rate of response than what we have in mailing method; the non-response is generally very low.
f. Replies can be recorded without causing embarrassment to respondents.
g. Interviewer can explain requirements more easily.
h. At times, access can be gained to respondents who otherwise cannot be contacted for one reason or the other.
i. No field staff is required.
j. Representative and wider distribution of sample is possible.

60. ROLE OF INTERVIEWER Demerits may be highlighted.
Little time is given to respondents for considered answers.
Surveys are restricted to respondents who have telephone facilities.
Extensive geographical coverage may get restricted by cost considerations.
It is not suitable for intensive surveys where comprehensive answers are required to various questions.
Possibility of the bias of the interviewer is relatively more.
Questions have to be short and to the point; probes are difficult to handle.
ROLE OF INTERVIEWER
Prepare for the interview
Locate and enlist the cooperation of respondents
Motivate respondents
Clarify any confusion or concerns
Observe quality of response

61. CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW
To start the interview, he/she should speak in an imperative and confident tone, such as “I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to interview you for a very important study,”
” He/she should introduce himself/herself, present personal credentials, explain the purpose of the study in 1-2 sentences, and assure confidentiality of respondents’
comments and voluntariness of their participation, all in less than a minute.
If the interviewer wishes to tape-record the interview, he/she should ask for respondent’s explicit permission before doing so.
During the interview, the interviewer should follow the questionnaire script and ask questions exactly as written 
The interviewer should not finish the respondent’s sentences. If the respondent gives a brief cursory answer, the interviewer should probe the respondent to elicit a more thoughtful, thorough response. Some useful probing techniques are:
The silent probe: Just pausing and waiting (without going into the next question) may
Suggest to respondents that the interviewer is waiting for more detailed response. 
Overt encouragement: “okay” may encourage the respondent to go into greater details. However, the interviewer must not express approval or disapproval of what was said by the respondent. 
Ask for elaboration: Such as “can you elaborate on that?”

62. BIASES IN SURVEY RESEARCH
Non-response bias: Several strategies may be employed to improve response rates: Advance notification
Relevance of content
Respondent-friendly questionnaire
Endorsement
Follow-up requests
Interviewer training
Incentives
Non-monetary incentives
Confidentiality and privacy
Sampling bias. Telephone surveys conducted by calling a random sample of publicly available telephone numbers will systematically exclude people with unlisted telephone numbers, mobile phone numbers, and people who are unable to answer the phone.
Social desirability bias. Many respondents tend to avoid negative opinions or embarrassing comments about themselves, their employers, family, or friends.
Recall bias. Responses to survey questions often depend on subjects’ motivation, memory, and ability to respond.
Common method bias. Common method bias refers to the amount of spurious covariance shared between
independent and dependent variables that are measured at the same point in time.

63. Case Research
Case research, also called case study, is a method of intensively studying a phenomenon over time within its natural setting in one or a few sites. Multiple methods of data collection, such as interviews, observations, prerecorded documents, and secondary data, may be employed and inferences about the phenomenon of interest tend to be rich, detailed, and contextualized.
Case research has several unique strengths over competing research methods such as experiments and survey research.
First, case research can be used for either theory building or theory testing, while positivist methods can be used for theory testing only.
Second, the research questions can be modified during the research process if the original questions are found to be less relevant or salient.
Third, case research can help derive richer, more contextualized, and more authentic interpretation of the phenomenon of interest than most other research methods by virtue of its ability to capture a rich array of contextual data.
Fourth, the phenomenon of interest can be studied from the perspectives of multiple participants and using multiple levels of analysis (e.g., individual and organizational).

64. Key Decisions in Case Research
First, the case research method is particularly appropriate for exploratory studies for discovering relevant constructs in areas where theory building at the formative stages, for studies where the experiences of participants and context of actions are critical, and for studies aimed at understanding complex, temporal processes (why and how of a phenomenon) rather than factors or causes (what).
Second, the researcher must decide whether he/she wishes to study a phenomenon at the individual, group, and organizational level or at multiple levels.
Third, the single case design is more appropriate at the outset of theory generation, if the situation is unique or extreme, if it is revelatory (i.e., the situation was previously inaccessible for scientific investigation), or if it represents a critical or contrary case for testing a well-formulated theory.
Fourth, site selection is a particularly critical issue because selecting the wrong site may lead to the wrong inferences.
Fifth, interview data can be supplemented or corroborated with other techniques such as direct observation (e.g., attending executive meetings, briefings, and planning sessions), documentation (e.g., internal reports, presentations, and memoranda, as well as external accounts such as newspaper reports), archival records (e.g., organization charts, financial records, etc.), and physical artifacts (e.g., devices, outputs, tools).

65. Conducting Case Research
Interpretive case research is an inductive technique where evidence collected from one or more case sites is systematically analyzed and synthesized to allow concepts and patterns to emerge for the purpose of building new theories or expanding existing ones.
Define research questions.
Select case sites.
Create instruments and protocols.
Select respondents.
Start data collection.
Conduct within-case data analysis.
Conduct cross-case analysis.
Build and test hypotheses
Write case research report

66. Interpretive Research
In interpretive methods, the researcher starts with data and tries to derive a theory about the phenomenon of interest from the observed data. Because interpretive
Researchers view social reality as being embedded within and impossible to abstract from their social settings, they “interpret” the reality though a “sense-making” process rather than a hypothesis testing process.

67. Benefits and Challenges of Interpretive Research
Well-suited for exploring hidden reasons behind complex, interrelated, or multifaceted social processes, such as inter-firm relationships or inter-office politics, where quantitative evidence may be biased, inaccurate, or otherwise difficult to obtain.
Helpful for theory construction in areas with no or insufficient a priori theory.
Appropriate for studying context-specific, unique, or idiosyncratic events or processes.
Help uncover interesting and relevant research questions and issues for follow-up research

68. Characteristics of Interpretive Research
All interpretive research must adhere to a common set of principles:
Naturalistic inquiry: Social phenomena must be studied within their natural setting.
Researcher as instrument: Researchers are often embedded within the social context that they are studying, and are considered part of the data collection instrument in that they must use their observational skills, their trust with the participants, and their ability to extract the correct information.
Use of expressive language: Documenting the verbal and non-verbal language of participants and the analysis of such language are integral components of interpretive analysis.
Interpretive analysis: Interpretation must occur at two levels. The first level involves viewing or experiencing the phenomenon from the subjective perspectives of the social participants. The second level is to understand the meaning of the participants’ experiences in order to provide a “thick description” or a rich narrative story of the phenomenon of interest that can communicate why participants acted the way they did.
Temporal nature: Interpretive research is often not concerned with searching for specific answers, but with understanding or “making sense of” a dynamic social process as it unfolds over time.
Hermeneutic circle: Interpretive interpretation is an iterative process of moving back and forth from pieces of observations (text) to the entirety of the social phenomenon (context) to reconcile their apparent discord and to construct a theory that is consistent with the diverse subjective viewpoints and experiences of the embedded participants.

69. Interpretive Data Collection
Interviews (face-to-face, telephone, or focus groups).
Observation. Observational techniques include direct observation, where the researcher is a neutral and passive external observer and is not involved in the phenomenon of interest (as in case research), and participant observation, where the researcher is an active participant in the phenomenon and her inputs or mere presence influence the phenomenon being studied (as in action research).
Documentation, where external and internal documents, such as memos, electronic mails, annual reports, financial statements, newspaper articles, websites.

70. Interpretive Research Designs
Case research.
Action research. In this method, the researcher is usually a consultant or an organizational member embedded into a social context (such as an organization), who initiates an action in response to a social problem, and examines how her action influences the phenomenon while also learning and generating insights about the relationship between the action and the phenomenon. This method follows an action research cycle consisting of five phases: (1) diagnosing, (2) action planning, (3) action taking, (4) evaluating, and (5) learning.
Ethnography. The ethnographic research method, derived largely from the field of anthropology, emphasizes studying a phenomenon within the context of its culture.
Phenomenology. Phenomenology is a research method that emphasizes the study of conscious experiences as a way of understanding the reality around us. with the goal of (1) appreciating and describing social reality from the diverse subjective perspectives of the participants involved, and (2) understanding the symbolic meanings (“deep structure”) underlying these subjective experiences.

71. Rigor in Interpretive Research
A set of criteria that can be used to judge the rigor of interpretive research:
Dependability. if two researchers assessing the same phenomenon using the same set of evidence independently arrive at the same conclusions or the same researcher observing the same or a similar phenomenon at different times arrives at similar conclusions.
Credibility. can be improved by providing evidence of the researcher’s extended engagement in the field, by demonstrating data triangulation across subjects or data collection techniques, and by maintaining meticulous data management and analytic procedures, such as verbatim transcription of interviews, accurate records of contacts and interviews, and clear notes on theoretical and methodological decisions, that can allow an independent audit of data collection and analysis if needed.
Confirmability is demonstrated in terms of “inter-subjectivity”, i.e., if the study’s participants agree with the inferences derived by the researcher.
Transferability. Transferability in interpretive research refers to the extent to which the findings can be generalized to other settings.

72. COLLECTION OF SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data means data that are already available i.e., they refer to
the data which have already been collected and analyzed by someone
else. Secondary data may either be published data or unpublished data.
Usually published data are available in:
various publications of the central, state are local governments;
various publications of foreign governments or of international bodies and their subsidiary organizations;
technical and trade journals;
books, magazines and newspapers;
reports and publications of various associations connected with
business and industry, banks, stock exchanges, etc;
reports prepared by research scholars, universities, economists, etc. in different fields;
public records and statistics, historical documents, and other sources of published information.

73. SECONDARY DATA MUST POSSESS THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS:
Reliability of data: The reliability can be tested by finding out such things about the said data:
Who collected the data?
What were the sources of data?
Were they collected by using proper methods
At what time were they collected?
Was there any bias of the compiler?
What level of accuracy was desired? Was it achieved?
Suitability of data: The data that are suitable for one enquiry may not necessarily be found suitable in another enquiry. Hence, if the available data are found to be unsuitable, they should not be used by the researcher.
Adequacy of data: If the level of accuracy achieved in data is found inadequate for the purpose of the present enquiry, they will be considered as inadequate and should not be used by the researcher. The data will also be considered inadequate, if they are related to an area which may be either narrower or wider than the area of the present enquiry.

74. PART V: STATISTICS IN RESEARCH
Descriptive Inferential statistics are also known as sampling statistics and are mainly concerned with two major type of problems: (i) the estimation of population parameters, and (ii) the testing of statistical hypotheses.
The important statistical measures* that are used to summarise the survey/research data are:

75. Median is the value of the middle item of series when it is arranged in ascending or descending order of magnitude. It divides the series into two halves; in one half all items are less than median, whereas in the other half all items have values higher than median.
Mode in a distribution is that item around which there is maximum concentration. In general, mode is the size of the item which has the maximum frequency, but at items such an item may not be mode on account of the effect of the frequencies of the neighboring items. Like median, mode is a positional average and is not affected by the values of extreme items. 

76. MEASURES OF DISPERSION
Geometric mean is also useful under certain conditions. It is defined as the nth root of the product of the values of n times in a given series. Symbolically, we can put it thus:
MEASURES OF DISPERSION 
In order to measure scatter, statistical devices called measures of
dispersion are calculated. Important measures of dispersion are
range,
mean deviation,
standard deviation.

77. Range is the simplest possible measure of dispersion and is defined as the difference between the values of the extreme items of a series. Thus,
Mean deviation is the average of difference of the values of items from some average of the series. Such a difference is technically described as deviation. In calculating mean deviation we ignore the minus sign of deviations while taking their total for obtaining the mean deviation. Mean deviation is, thus, obtained as under:

79. Standard deviation is most widely used measure of dispersion of a series and is commonly denoted by the symbol (pronounced as sigma). Standard deviation is defined as:  

80. MEASURES OF ASYMMETRY (SKEWNESS)
Skewness is, thus, a measure of asymmetry and shows the manner in which
the items are clustered around the average. In a symmetrical distribution,
the items show a perfect balance on either side of the mode, but in a skew
distribution the balance is thrown to one side.

81. MEASURES OF RELATIONSHIP
Does there exist association or correlation between the two (or more) variables? If yes, of what degree?
Is there any cause and effect relationship between the two variables in case of the bivariate population or between one variable on one side and two or more variables on the other side in case of multivariate population? If yes, of what degree and in which direction?
The first question is answered by the use of correlation technique and the second question by the technique of regression.

82. There are several methods of applying the two techniques, but the important ones are as under:
Charles Spearman’s coefficient of correlation (or rank correlation) is the technique of determining the degree of correlation between two variables in case of ordinal data where ranks are given to the different values of the variables.

83. Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation (or simple correlation) is the most widely used method of measuring the degree of relationship between two variables. This coefficient assumes the following: 
that there is linear relationship between the two variables;
that the two variables are casually related which means that one of the variables is independent and the other one is dependent;
a large number of independent causes are operating in both variables so as to produce a normal distribution.

84. SIMPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Regression is the determination of a statistical relationship
between two or more variables

85. PARTIAL CORRELATION
Partial correlation measures separately the relationship between two variables
in such a way that the effects of other related variables are eliminated. In other
words, partial correlation analysis aims at measuring the relation between a
dependent variable and a particular independent variable by holding all other
variables constant

86. ASSOCIATION IN CASE OF ATTRIBUTES
 When data is collected on the basis of some attribute or attributes, statistics commonly termed as statistics of attributes.
In order to judge the significance of association between two attributes, we make use of Chi-square test by finding the value of Chi-square

87. TIME SERIES ANALYSIS
Often data is related to some time period concerning a given phenomenon. Such data is labelled as ‘Time Series’. Secular trend or long term trend that shows the direction of the series in a long period of time. Short time oscillations i.e., changes taking place in the short period of time only and such changes can be the effect of the following factors:
Cyclical fluctuations are the fluctuations as a result of business cycles and are generally referred to as long term movements that represent consistently recurring rises and declines in an activity.
Seasonal fluctuations are of short duration occurring in a regular sequence at specific intervals of time. Such fluctuations are the result of changing seasons. Cyclical fluctuations and seasonal fluctuations taken together constitute short-period regular fluctuations.
Irregular fluctuations, also known as Random fluctuations, are variations which take place in a completely unpredictable fashion.

89. PROCESSING OPERATIONS
 Editing: Editing of data is a process of examining the collected raw data (specially in surveys) to detect errors and omissions and to correct these when possible. As a matter of fact, editing involves a careful scrutiny of the completed questionnaires and/or schedules. Editing is done to assure that the data are accurate, consistent with other facts gathered, uniformly entered, as completed as possible and have been well arranged to facilitate coding and tabulation.
Field editing consists in the review of the reporting forms by the investigator for completing (translating or rewriting) what the latter has written in abbreviated and/or in illegible form at the time of recording the respondents’ responses.
Central editing should take place when all forms or schedules have been completed and returned to the office. This type of editing implies that all forms should get a thorough editing by a single editor in a small study and by a team of editors in case of a large inquiry.

90. PART V: STATISTICS IN RESEARCH
Coding: Coding refers to the process of assigning numerals or other symbols to answers so that responses can be put into a limited number of categories or classes. Such classes should be appropriate to the research problem under consideration.
Classification: Most research studies result in a large volume of raw data which must be reduced into homogeneous groups if we are to get meaningful relationships.
Classification according to attributes: As stated above, data are classified on the basis of common characteristics which can either be descriptive (such as literacy, sex, honesty, etc.) or numerical (such as weight, height, income, etc.).
Classification according to class-intervals: Unlike descriptive characteristics, the numerical characteristics refer to quantitative phenomenon which can be measured through some statistical units. Data relating to income, production, age, weight, etc. come under this category. Such data are known as statistics of variables and are classified on the basis of class intervals.

92. Tabulation is the process of summarizing raw data and displaying the same in compact form (i.e., in the form of statistical tables) for further analysis. In a broader sense, tabulation is an orderly arrangement of data in columns and rows.
Tabulation is essential because of the following reasons.
It conserves space and reduces explanatory and descriptive statement to a minimum.
It facilitates the process of comparison.
It facilitates the summation of items and the detection of errors and omissions.
It provides a basis for various statistical computations.