Why is it important to use the appropriate research design in conducting a research?

A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure or solve marketing research problems. In simple words it is the general plan of how you will go about your research.

Definitions of Research Design

According to Kerlinger

Research design is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions and to control variance.

According to Green and Tull

A research is the specification of methods and procedures for acquiring the information needed. It is the overall operational pattern or framework of the project that stipulates what information is to be collected from which sources by what procedures.

The function of a research design is to ensure that requisite data in accordance with the problem at hand is collected accurately and economically. Simply stated, it is the framework, a blueprint for the research study which guides the collection and analysis of data. The research design, depending upon the needs of the researcher may be a very detailed statement or only furnish the minimum information required for planning the research project.

To be effective, a research design should furnish at least the following details.

1. A statement of objectives of the study or the research output.
2. A statement of the data inputs required on the basis of which the research problem is to be solved.
3. The methods of analysis which shall be used to treat and analyze the data inputs.

More explicitly, the design decisions happen to be in respect of:

• What is the study about?
• Why is the study being made?
• Where will the study be carried out?
• What type of data is required?
• Where can the required data be found?
• What periods of time will the study include?
• What will be the sample design?
• What techniques of data collection will be used?
• How will the data be analyzed?
• In what style will the report be prepared?

Advantages of research design

1. Consumes less time.
2. Ensures project time schedule.
3. Helps researcher to prepare himself to carry out research in a proper and a systematic way.
4. Better documentation of the various activities while the project work is going on.
5. Helps in proper planning of the resources and their procurement in right time.
6. Provides satisfaction and confidence, accompanied with a sense of success from the beginning of the work of the research project.

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 has a significant impact on the reliability of the results obtained. It thus acts as a firm foundation for the entire research.

For example, economical and attractive construction of house we need a blueprint (or what is commonly called the map of the house) well thought out and prepared by an expert architect, similarly we need a research design or a plan in advance of data collection and analysis for our research project.

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.

The need for research design is as follows:

• It reduces inaccuracy;
• Helps to get maximum efficiency and reliability;
• Eliminates bias and marginal errors;
• Minimizes wastage of time;
• Helpful for collecting research materials;
• Helpful for testing of hypothesis;
• Gives an idea regarding the type of resources required in terms of money, manpower, time, and efforts;
• Provides an overview to other experts;
• Guides the research in the right direction.

Research design is the structure which is considered very important to both data collection and analysis. It is the plan for achieving the aims and objectives of the investigation. Oppenheim (1992) pointed out that the term research design refers to a basic plan or strategy of research and the logic behind it, which will make it possible and valid to draw more general conclusions from it. Kumar (2009) defined research design as a procedural plan that is adopted by the researcher to answer question validity objectively, accurately and economically.
Understanding the philosophical issues of research design is of crucial importance for three reasons. Firstly, knowledge of research design philosophy can enable the researcher to clarify the research…show more content…
(2007) mentioned that it is important to have a clear research strategy (design), a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions. Research strategy should contain clear objectives derived from the research questions; also, it should identify the sources from which the researcher intends to collect data. Sekaran (2003) pointed out that research design involves a series of rational decisions. These are: identifying the purpose of the study, whether it is exploratory, descriptive or hypothesis testing; identifying the type of investigation; deciding the extent of the researcher’s intervention; identifying the study setting; deciding measurement and measures; deciding data analysis; deciding data collection methods; deciding time horizon; deciding sampling design; identifying the unit of analysis.
Accordingly, the choice of research design depends on the research questions, objectives and research philosophy. More details about the chosen research design and rational reasons behind that choice will be discussed in the following subsection.
3.4.1…show more content…
All the process lasted 4 months. Appendix 1 and 2 include the copy of the questionnaire in English and in Arabic We gave out 200 questionnaires and 172 people answered the questions.
3.4.3 Survey Instrument
The factors related with the TQM and Service Quality of hospitals are developed based on the operational definitions in the literature.
The questions are taken by the surveys that are conducted mentioned in the literature. By using 5 categories of likert scale, different degrees of importance are presented to the respondents. The survey starts with a cover letter mentioning the importance of the issue and guaranteeing the privacy of the data collected from the hospitals.
The questions are grouped in two categories, first starting by the demographic variables, the moving on with the question about the variables. The questionnaire contains two sections. First part includes eight socio-demographic questions. At the second part, there are forty statements, which are 5-point Likert type, and close-ended questions. These points in the scale are ‘‘Strongly Disagree’’ (5), ‘‘Disagree’’ (4), ‘‘Uncertain’’ (3), ‘‘Agree’’ (2), ‘‘Strongly Agree’’ (1).
3.4.4 Data Analysis