Customer Expectation Study on Online Gaming: Methodology

This report discusses the methodology for a research idea named “Customer Expectation study on online gaming”. It includes the research problem and re-organization of collected literature to the problem. It also makes comparison between the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and provides the justification for the preferred methodology. In addition to this, the report also reviews and analyzes the current methodologies applied to the research problem. Furthermore, it also illustrates the benefits as well as the limitations of the research methodology chosen, along with the framework.

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Methodology: Customer Expectation study on online gaming

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Methodology..................................................................................................................3
Research Problem Statement & Reorganization of Literature........................................................4
Research Problem Statement.......................................................................................................4
Re-organization of Collected Literature......................................................................................4
Methodology Types.........................................................................................................................6
Compare and Contrast of Methodologies....................................................................................6
Chosen Methodology...................................................................................................................6
Review of the Existing Methodologies............................................................................................7
Selection of sub-problem.............................................................................................................7
Analysis of Selected Methodology..............................................................................................7
Relevance of the Research Problem.............................................................................................8
Summary of the Reviewed Methodologies..................................................................................8
Proposed Methodology....................................................................................................................9
Justification of Selected Methodology.........................................................................................9
Benefits and Limitations of Methodology...................................................................................9
Framework of Methodology......................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Research 4
Chapter 1: Methodology
The aim of the following report is to find out a proper methodology for a research idea named
“Customer Expectation study on online gaming”. For the purpose, this report discusses the
research problem and re-organization of collected literature to the problem. It also makes
comparison between the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and provides the
justification for the preferred methodology. In addition to this, the report also reviews and
analyzes the current methodologies applied to the research problem. Furthermore, it also
illustrates the benefits as well as the limitations of the research methodology chosen, along with
the framework.

Research 5
Research Problem Statement & Reorganization of Literature
Research Problem Statement
Over the last 15 years, the popularity of online games among people has increased significantly.
The studies show that online gaming has now emerged as an addiction especially among the
children and youngsters, bringing adverse outcomes. The introduction of specialized treatment
institutions in the USA, South East Asian regions and European countries have indicated the
rising need for the professional help to identify the prevalent risk factors associated with the
online gaming (Huang et al., 2017). It has also been argued that in order to understand this
customer expectation and addiction for online gaming, there is a need to analyze the appeal, the
context, and correlation of the online gaming phenomenon. It is also vital to know customers’
psychological opposition against paying a high charge for playing games. Although several
researches in the field of online gaming have been carried out till now, a very few work has been
done on the consumers’ expectations for online gaming.
This research study uses a holistic approach to gain an insight into the customer expectations for
online gaming, by taking into account the mass demand for online games. In addition to this, the
cultural context has also been considered as it persuades the online gaming in a society with
shared practices and beliefs, giving this gaming a specific name (Jayanti, and Ariyanti, 2017).
Thus, it is clear that quantitative data would be used along with qualitative one in order to review
the problem.

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Re-organization of Collected Literature
Research Problem Sub-problem Collected Literature
Market behaviour  Loyal customer
base
 Customer
retention
 Customers’
willingness to
pay
(Jayanti, and
Ariyanti,
2017)
People Behaviour  Changes in
human
behaviour
 Use of different
online gaming
apps
 Areas of health,
development and
educations have
been affected
(Huang et al., 2017)

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Methodology Types
Compare and Contrast of Methodologies
There are two types of research methodologies: Quantitative and Qualitative. A quantitative
methodology uses a deductive reasoning which focuses on the numerical or statistical analysis of
data gathered using surveys, polls and interviews. It is also known as “top-bottom” approach as it
draws conclusions based on a hypothesis. On the other hand, a qualitative methodology makes
use of past research experiences and findings, and the results are based on a social constructivism
perception (Mackey, and Gass, 2015). It is also called “benchop science” as it uses different
experiments to elucidate its hypothesis presenting relationship between an independent ‘cause’
variable and a dependent variable ‘effect’ variable.
In addition to this, a qualitative method uses an inductive reasoning, and gives a new theory for a
quantitative study to conduct test on and investigates phenomena. This method is thus, known as
a “bottom-top” approach based on various concepts. On the other hand, the role of a quantitative
research is not just limited to experimenting on a theory given by a qualitative research but also
it develops its own theory based on researchers’ predictions.
Chosen Methodology
In order to understand the research problem effectively, the researcher has adopted both
quantitative as well as qualitative methodology. This is because the area of online gaming and its
customers is very wide and thus the application of any one methodology may not provide
accurate and reliable outcomes from the study (Mustak et al, 2016). In this regard, the researcher
has used survey through the distribution of the questionnaires among the research participants

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who are the current users of online gaming. The research sample was taken 20 among which 10
are children and remaining 10 are teenagers.
The evaluation of the research problem would be easier to reach the conclusions and would help
the researcher to find out the effective solution to the problem. In addition to this, this
combination of methods would inform about customers’ expectations from the online gaming
along with the utility, significance, sustainability of online gaming, and reaction of customers for
intelligent decision making.
Review of the Existing Methodologies
Selection of sub-problem
Although there exist many issues related to the online gaming, but in this research, the researcher
would like to discuss the issue of addiction to online gaming and behavior change among
children and teenagers (Xu et al., 2015). This is because it is not enough to study about the
consumer behavior on an application but it is also essential to determine its impact on human
behavior so as to conclude with overall and reliable results.
Analysis of Selected Methodology
The research problem in the selected sub-problem is “Is there any link between the online
gaming addiction, and age and gender?” In order to resolve this sub-problem, the researcher
would adopt qualitative research methodology. Descriptive associational research approach
would be applied to explore related cases and relations between the two and more related
variables.

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Relevance of the Research Problem
This study is designed to examine the customers’ expectations from online games. In spite of
huge growth of online games and people’s interests in it, the in-depth discussion regarding the
effect of online gaming on the human behavior is quite limited (Liao et al., 2016). By
investigating customers’ expectations from online games, online game makers could gain a
deeper understanding about the behavioral and social changes in the customers. In addition to
this, the researcher would be able to explore the effects of unique characteristics of online games
on the society as a whole.
Summary of the Reviewed Methodologies
Literature
#
Research Problem Methodology Your Sub-
problem
Relevance
Literature
1
To know the
consumer behaviour
for online gaming
Quantitative
Methodology
Use of online
gaming and
sustain human
behaviour
Partially
relevant
Literature
2
To determine the
changes in human
behaviour due to
online gaming
addiction
Qualitative
Methodology
Use of online
gaming and
sustain human
behaviour
Strongly
relevant

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Proposed Methodology
In this task, the researcher is purposing a methodology which is a fusion of two methodologies.
For this, some relevant books and literatures would be studied, analyzed, and reviewed, which
are based on the research problem which this research paper wants to discuss. Therefore, this
task has been divided into sub-tasks which are structured as follow: ‘justification of selected
methodology’ explaining why a particular methodology has been chosen. Another task is about
the benefits and limitations of that methodology (Chang et al., 2014). Ultimately, the
‘methodology framework’ indicates the structure or procedures of the selected methodology.
Justification of Selected Methodology
As mentioned earlier, the researcher would like to adopt the mix methodology as the study is not
only restricted in qualitative or quantitative but also covers the advantages of both one
methodology. Therefore, it would be beneficial to make use of both of them at the same time,
instead only one (Brannen, 2017). This methodology would include a survey through a
questionnaire, and the responses would be obtained from the children and youngsters who are the
real consumers of the online gaming.
Benefits and Limitations of Methodology
By integration both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and data, a researcher
becomes able to obtain an in depth knowledge about the research topic, while eliminating the
inherent weaknesses of both the methodologies and using their advantageous features (Taylor et
al., 2015). However, there are some limitations of using mixed research methodology, which can
affect the outcomes of research and hamper the decision making process.
Benefits:

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 Provides strengths that compensate the limitations of both quantitative and qualitative
research
 Offers direct communication with the research participants
 Surveys and testing are conducted at the same time
 The sources taken to compare with the questionnaire findings are reliable (Fletcher,
2017)
 Delivers more absolute and easy insights into the research problem
 Provides effective user interaction
Limitations:
 Different people have different perceptions, unable to arrive at exact conclusions
 The research approach can be complex and time consuming
 Results can be unclear and confusing
 Cost and Time limitations may arise
 May require much more resources to plan and execute this type of research methodology.
 It may be ambiguous how to determine differences that occur while doing interpretation
of the findings.
Framework of Methodology
Here, Research Onion has been used in this research as a research framework. The research
onion offers a valuable progression using which a research methodology is developed (Levitt et
al., 2018). The utility of Research Onion lies in its flexibility for every kind of research
methodology and can be used in a number of perspectives. The figure is given as follow:

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Research 13
References
Brannen, J. (2017) Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. UK: Routledge.
Chang, I.C., Liu, C.C. and Chen, K. (2014) The effects of hedonic/utilitarian expectations and
social influence on continuance intention to play online games, Internet Research, 24(1), pp.21-
45.
Fletcher, A.J. (2017) Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets
method, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(2), pp.181-194.
Huang, H.C., Liao, G.Y., Chiu, K.L. and Teng, C.I. (2017) How Is Frustration Related to Online
Gamer Loyalty? A Synthesis of Multiple Theories, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking, 20(11), pp.683-688.
Jayanti, R. and Ariyanti, M. (2017) The Relationships Among Service Quality, Perceived Value,
Customer Satisfaction, And Post-purchase Intention In Steam’s Online Gaming
Service, eProceedings of Management, 4(1).
Levitt, H.M., Bamberg, M., Creswell, J.W., Frost, D.M., Josselson, R. and Suárez-Orozco, C.
(2018) Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and
mixed methods research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task
force report, American Psychologist, 73(1), p.26.

Research 14
Liao, G.Y., Huang, H.C. and Teng, C.I. (2016) When does frustration not reduce continuance
intention of online gamers?, The expectancy disconfirmation perspective. Journal of Electronic
Commerce Research, 17(1), p.65.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M. (2015) Second language research: Methodology and design. UK:
Routledge.
Mustak, M., Jaakkola, E., Halinen, A. and Kaartemo, V. (2016) Customer participation
management: developing a comprehensive framework and a research agenda. Journal of Service
Management, 27(3), pp.250-275.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M. (2015) Introduction to qualitative research methods: A
guidebook and resource. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Xu, C., Peak, D. and Prybutok, V. (2015) A customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty perspective
of mobile application recommendations, Decision Support Systems, 79(1), pp.171-183.