Qualitative Research Methods in Business

This assignment delves into the world of qualitative research methods, focusing on their significance within the context of business studies. It examines various qualitative approaches used in business research, including case studies and data analysis techniques like content analysis. The importance of ethical considerations in conducting qualitative research is also highlighted, ensuring responsible and ethical practices throughout the process.

APPLIED BUSINESS RESEARCH AND ETHICS
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Table of Contents
Research Design.........................................................................................................................4
1. Introduction on Research Background...............................................................................4
2. Literature Review...............................................................................................................4
2.1 Effect of social media on Emotional Contagion..................................................................4
2.2 Impact of Digital Scent technology on users.......................................................................6
3. Statement of Research Question and Objectives................................................................6
4. Research Methodology and Methods.................................................................................7
4.1 Research philosophy............................................................................................................8
4.2 Research Approaches...........................................................................................................9
4.3 Types of Research................................................................................................................9
4.4 Time Horizon.....................................................................................................................10
4.5 Context...............................................................................................................................10
5. Sample Unit and Sampling Methodology.........................................................................11
6. Discussion about Data......................................................................................................12
6.1 Data Collection...................................................................................................................12
6.2 Data Analysis.....................................................................................................................13
6.3 Data Validation..................................................................................................................14
7. Validity, Reliability, Limitations......................................................................................14
8. Recommendations.............................................................................................................15
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................16
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Executive Summary
The present report provides an overall methodology for the research that aims to evaluate the
impact of social media on the emotional state of the users. The research would also analyse
the impact of the smell technology on the users and the way it would influence them to make
up their page. The research methodology has been framed in such a manner so that researcher
cans main ethical standards while carrying out the research. Based on the aims, objectives
and the research question, the methodology has been framed. Positivism philosophy,
Deductive approach, and cross-sectional design have been selected. Quantitative data would
be acquired with the help of questionnaire and regression and correlation would be done to
analyze the data.
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Research Design
1. Introduction on Research Background
The present report aims to create a research design for the XYZ social network that would
aim to evaluate the process in which social network could alter the emotional state of the
users. Furthermore, the research would also shed light on the impact of Digital Scent
technology on the process of updating the page by the users. Kramer et al. (2014) carried out
an experiment that aimed to provide evidence on massive scale emotional contagion through
a social network. However, this excrement was widely criticized on the ethical grounds
regarding informed consent and other issues related to Research Design. Considering this
aspect, the present report aims to develop a research design that would address the ethical
issues related to research and would ensure privacy, consent, security, and protection of the
participants while assessing the effect of social network on the emotional state of the users.
The research question for the present report is:
What is the impact of the social network on the emotional state of the users and what steps
should be followed?
2. Literature Review
Several types of research have been carried on the role of social media on emotional
contagion that concludes the social media is directly proportionate to the emotional state of
the users.
2.1 Effect of social media on Emotional Contagion
(Ferrara & Yang 2015) carried out a sentiment analysis to capture positive and the negative
sentiments. The researchers carried out observational analysis of the patterns of emotional
contagion on selected sample Twitter users. In this experiment, on interaction was made with
the users and a null model was designed to highlight the effect of emotional contagion. The
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sample population for the experiment was 3,800 Twitter users. The experiment was carried
on ethical grounds as manipulations of the posts were done. The research identified that
positive emotions are more vulnerable to contagion and the highly susceptible are inclined to
adopt positive emotions (Ferrara & Yang 2015).
Another study was carried out to evaluate the ways in which negative contents affect the
mood of an individual (Jensen 2016). A survey was carried on 250 participants. In the survey,
the participants were asked to view mock Facebook posts with 11 comments from Facebook
users. The Brief Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS) was used for assessing the mood of the
participants after the stimulated use of the Facebook. The data collected through the survey
was analyzed with the help of Spearman Correlation and Linear Regression. The mood of the
participants was observed to be the manifestation of emotional contagion via Facebook. The
research also concluded the personality and the views of the individuals are significant
factors in emotional contagion.
Another study is on the emotional contagion between the strangers in the social media using
instrumental variable regression. For the experiment, data were acquired for 1180 days from
Facebook from January 2009 to March 2012 (Coviello et al. 2014). The study was carried out
based on the guidelines set down by Institutional Review Board at the University of
California. Confidentiality of the users is maintained and the consent of the users was taken.
The experiment relied on the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) and used two different
metrics for quantifying the emotional state of the users. The result of the experiment showed
large-scale spill over in online networks. The feelings of the people regarding any post in one
of the world are quickly shared to the other parts of the world.
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2.2 Impact of Digital Scent technology on users
The digital scent technology allows digital sensing, transmitting, reproducing and recapturing
smells and fragrances through the internet with the help of the USB powered devices. The
technology focuses on creating characters and provides emotional intelligence of reality. To
transmit the smell would be used which is a software device which would be connected to the
computer. The smell would create an impact on the users and it is based on their perception
that they would design their page. The virtual experience of the online users would be
improved. The digital scent technology can direct the emotions of the consumers towards any
post or newsfeed on Facebook or Twitter (Jain et al. 2015). The business organization can
direct the emotion of the customers towards the brand. It is evident that this technology can
improve the health as well as the emotional wellbeing of the users.
In order to carry out the literature review researcher has faced ample of the ethical issues
while browsing different journals and articles from websites. The researcher mainly
encountered accessibility issues to the e books and journals from the online browsing. While
researching various articles and books through the websites the researcher encounters
language problem which implies many articles as well as books which were found significant
might have been in some other foreign languages which were not legible by the researcher
(Noble & Smith 2015). Even in order to find out various articles online they require to get
signed up before getting accessed and therefore it had become much difficult for the
researcher to face such issue. Many online articles did not reveal proper content and the
researcher had wasted enough time in searching for the proper content as many websites
disclose improper contents which are not suitable for the results.
3. Statement of Research Question and Objectives
The current research aims to evaluate the impact of XYZ Social network on the emotional
state of the users.
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The objectives of the research are:
 To identify the impact of positive and negative comment on the users
 To critically evaluate the ways in which users update their own page based on
emotional state
 To assess the impact of different smells on the ways in which users update their page
 To provide recommendations to XYZ for positively stimulating the emotional state of
the users
Based on the aims and the objectives, the research questions that are framed for the current
research are:
1. What is the impact of positive and negative comments on the users?
2. How the users update their page based on the emotional state?
3. What is the impact of different smells on the users and their updated page?
4. What are the recommendations that could help XYZ to positively stimulate the
emotional state of the users?
The above research questions would guide the researcher in carrying out the entire research
and provide a suitable conclusion on the impact of social media on the emotional state of the
users. In order to frame research objectives and questions researcher had to go through the
entire topic and terminologies related to it in order to find out the exact motive and intention
of the topic.
4. Research Methodology and Methods
Research methodology is the systematic and theoretical analysis of the process and the
methods that can be used for collecting data based on the farmed aims and the objectives.
The research methodology for the current research would be planned based on the Research
Onion.
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Figure 1: Research Onion
Source: (Saunders 2011)
The research onion includes the different layers and steps which a research need to follow to
carry out the market research systematically. For analyzing the impact of the social network
in altering the emotional state of the users, the selected steps are:
4.1 Research philosophy
Research philosophy is about the way of gathering data about a particular topic. The two
commonly used research philosophies are positivism and interpretivism (Saunders 2011).
Positivism philosophy is based on the fact that reality is stable and can be described from the
viewpoint of an objective. Positivism philosophy requires variables, which can be obtained
from the research topics and formation of aims and objectives based, on which the research
would be carried out. Interpretivism philosophy takes account of subjective interpretation of
an intervention in reality, which can be fully understood (Crossan 2003). It focuses on the
opinion and the perception of the participants to interpret the facts and the figures for the
research.
In the present research, positivism philosophy has been adopted as the research pre-defined
aims and objectives. Moreover, in this reality would be observed instead of interpreting the
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perceptions of the participants. The present research would gather the data on experience for
the purpose of analyzing the impact of social media on the emotional state of the users.
The researcher encountered kind of dilemma in selecting correct and appropriate research
philosophy, Research Design and Research approach. This is because the entire research is
based upon these three sections of the methodology of research.
4.2 Research Approaches
The two basic types of research approaches, which are used by the researcher, are inductive
and deductive. The inductive research approach is used in qualitative research when the
research needs to develop a new theory based on the collected data. This is a bottom-up
approach. A deductive approach is a top-down approach in which research is carried out
based on the existing theories that tend to move from general to specific (Saunders 2011). For
the current research, development of new theory is not possible. Moreover, the research
requires the collection of quantitative data. The research has pre-determined aims and
research question. So, the present research can adopt a deductive approach to acquiring data.
The ethical issue that has been faced by the researcher regarding the research methodology
includes selecting of the correct methodology to carry out with the research.
4.3 Types of Research
Quantitative and qualitative are the two types of research that can be carried out by the
research (Gioia, Corley & Hamilton 2013). Qualitative research helps in gaining insight into
the underlying reasons opinions and facts while quantitative research helps in quantifying the
problem by creating numerical data (Johnson & Christensen 2000).
For the current research quantitative data would be obtained. The quantitative research has
been selected, as the data collected is more reliable as well as objective. The data collected
can be generalized with the help of statistics. Moreover, the quantitative research would help
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in the process of reducing the complex problem of the impact of XYZ social media on the
emotional state of the users can be segregated into different valuables. The research can be
carried out on the existing theories to reach an apt conclusion (Savin-Baden & Major 2013).
4.4 Time Horizon
Time Horizons are needed for the research design, which is independent of the research
methodology. The two basic types of time horizons in the research are longitudinal and cross-
sectional time horizons. The longitudinal design takes place over a longer period with two or
more data collections. The cross-sectional design, on the other hand, collects data only for
one time (Saunders et al. 2009).
For the current research, cross-sectional design is followed to acquire information about the
different variables of the research. In this case, information about the impact of social media
on the emotional state of the users would be acquired. This design is selected as there is time
constraint but it takes a snapshot of the current situation.
In completing the entire research with an appropriate time Horizon also included many issues
that were encountered by the researcher as he/she had to dedicate each section of the research
to a particular time limit within which he/she has to complete. However, it had not been
always possible to complete each and every section within the definite time limit and
therefore the researcher had text into the overall time Horizon which has given rise to some
ethical issues (Ott & Longnecker 2015). Thus, ethical issues included excluding the budget
limit and increasing costs for which his research could get affected.
4.5 Context
For analyzing the impact of the social media on the emotional state of users for XYZ
Company, case study approach would be used. Case study approach is the process of
recording of research into the development of the particular person, group or situation over a
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period (Baxter & Jack 2008). Using case study approach, in this case, would help to create an
in-depth understanding of the different layers and the aspect of the topic. The present topic is
a real life issue as information in the new feed can completely change the perception of the
users to create a page. For this reason, case study approach would help to address the
problems. In this case, intrinsic case study approach would be adopted as it helps in the
process of learning of a unique phenomenon (Crowe et al. 2011).
Case study approach is selected for this research as it offers multiple advantages. It helps to
carry out an intensive study for a unit. It also aids in analyzing the life of a social unit for
digging out facts. It enables to increase the knowledge regarding any particular issue through
the in-depth analysis of the topic. Case study approach is a comprehensive method of data
collected in which the sample is observed rather than interfering with them (Saunders 2011).
Moreover, it also helps to main the ethical stands such as consent, privacy, and
confidentiality which were completely ignored by Kramer and his group while carrying out
their experiment on the Facebook users. However, case study approach can result in errors,
which can be avoided through the formulation of effective plans and standards so that the
research can be carried ineffective direction and the address the aims and the objectives of the
research.
5. Sample Unit and Sampling Methodology
The selection of unit from a population, which is interesting to the present study, is called
sample population (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault 2015). Sampling should be done in such a
way such that result obtained from the sample population can be generalized for the entire
population so that an effective conclusion can be made for the research (Trochim 2006).
While defining the population, it is essential to evaluate the concept of population. Population
implies the group of the people that the researchers want to make assumptions. Sampling
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frame includes the group of people from which all sorts of information regarding the research
would be obtained for reaching the conclusion (Flick 2015).
Probability and non-probability are the two methods of sampling. Probability includes
random selection of the population while non-probability implies careful selection of the
participants (Cooper, Schindler & Sun 2006). For the current research, in which the impact of
social media on the emotional state of the employees is evaluated, case study approach has
been selected. For this non-probability, the sampling method is selected as non-probability
sampling would select the participants for acquiring the data in an effective manner and the
purposive technique would be followed for selecting the sample frame for the research. The
sample population selected for the current research are 350 people using social media in
North Sydney.
In order to decide for the sampling technique the researcher had to choose appropriate sample
size and population for which he/she had to develop some inclusion and exclusion criteria of
including and excluding the respondents for collecting primary data (Flick 2015). Out of the
entire population chosen by the researcher to be appropriate for attending the survey, many of
the respondents did not want to attend it as they felt hesitated and reluctant in answering to
the questions asked by the researcher.
6. Discussion about Data
6.1 Data Collection
For analyzing the impact of the XYZ social media on the emotional state of the users, data
would be acquired through case study approach. Quantitative data would be acquired with the
help of a questionnaire. The questionnaire would include 10 questions that would help to
assess the perspectives about any particular posts on the Facebook and how it would help to
set up the page.
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For the current research, ordinal data would be acquired which is a form qualitative data. For
this data, groups would be ranked and information about the satisfied and unsatisfied data
would be acquired for addressing the objectives of the research. The ordinal data highlight
the sense of agreement on the part of the participants. The responses collected in this process
possess natural form and order. The data would be acquired with the help of the questionnaire
because the process is easier and it helps to acquire all sorts of information easily and within
a short span of time.
Again while collecting data the researcher encountered some ethical issues such as here to
prepare the questionnaire with respect to the fact that the respondents do not get annoyed or
upset at the time of the survey. Further, there must not be any kind of question which could
hurt the dignity of the respondents.
6.2 Data Analysis
For the present research, the collected data needs to analyse the extent to which the posts of
the social media affect the emotional state of the users and influence them to set up their
pages. Moreover, the research would also analyze the impact of Smell Technology on the
mood of the worker. To analyze the data accurately and to reach an effective conclusion,
correlation and regression methods would be used. Correlation is the process of assessing the
mutual relationship between two or more things to reach an apt conclusion. Correlation
identifies variables and looks for a relationship between them. This method helps to observe
the effect on the dependent variable and regulate the environment for the extraneous variable
(Agresti & Kateri 2011).
Regression is a statistical measure that would help in determining the strength of the
relationship between one dependent variable and a series of changing variable (Ott &
Longnecker 2015). Both correlation and regression methods would be used to analyze the
data as it would help to assess the difference between the variables of the research topic. In
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this case, the research would help to assess the extent to which the impact of social media
influences the emotional state of the users and the ways they would make their page based on
their perspective on a certain post in the social media.
In order to analyse the data that has been collected it was quite difficult for the researcher to
match up the data with the statistical methods of descriptive and inferential statistics as the
researcher had spent a lot of time in framing the overall data collected and prepare it for
conducting correlation and regression analysis.
6.3 Data Validation
Data validation is the procedure of ensuring that a program works in a clean, correct as well
as useful data. Data validation is carried out on the set of validation rules. The data that
would be collected and analyzed needs to be correct and accurate so that the research
becomes valid.
7. Validity, Reliability, Limitations
Validity is necessary for testing the reliability of the collected data. To ensure the data are
valid, the research should ensure that the goals and the objectives of the research are clearly
defined (Noble & Smith 2015). Furthermore, the data collected would be reviewed to the
previous researchers and the data collection.
Reliability refers to the usage of an assessment tool that produces a stable and consistent
result. To ensure the reliability of the data, the sample population needs to be selected
accurately so that they represent the entire population and provide appropriate information
about the impact of social media on the emotional state of the individual (Saunders 2011).
The limitations of the current research are listed below:
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 The researcher has limited time for which larger population cannot be selected for the
research. Only a small population in North Sydney has been selected
 To prevent any issues related to ethical considerations, the researcher has undertaken
the consent of the participants for which many participants have refused to participate
in the research.
In order of keeping the data valid, the researcher has browsed proper content over the
Internet sources and has gathered authentic data and information about the concerned
topic. However, due to the non availability of authentic data freely over the internet, the
researcher might need to make some adjustment in the data collection (Baxter & Jack
2008).
8. Recommendations
The recommendations are developed to carry out the research ethically as well as to address
the framed aims and objectives in the research.
 The data would be acquired with the help of the questionnaire from the selected
sample population, for this reason, it is essential to obtain the consent of the
participants
 Furthermore, the researcher needs to maintain privacy and confidentiality of the data.
The collected information would not be used for any commercial purpose but only for
academic and research purposes.
 It is also recommended to offer accurate feedback to the participants
 Dignity and integrity of the participants would be maintained
 The collected data should not tamper for the convenience of the researcher.
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