Research Methods in Vaping Studies

This assignment delves into the research methods employed in studying e-cigarettes. It examines various methodologies, such as those outlined by Hannabuss (2007) and Lebow (2006), and discusses their application in understanding vaping behavior and its implications. The focus includes analyzing qualitative data, drawing from Bernard (2010), and considering the theoretical frameworks used in entrepreneurship research as relevant to the e-cigarette industry (Ireland et al., 2005). Creswell's (2013) work on mixed methods approaches is also considered in the context of vaping studies. The assignment references specific research articles examining vaping practices, user profiles, and the potential for passive vaping.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title.................................................................................................................................. 3
LO 1 Formulate a research specification .........................................................................3
1.1 Possible Research Project Outline Specification....................................................3
1.2 Factors Contributed in Selecting Research Project................................................3
1.3 Undertake a critical review of key references ........................................................4
Regulation of vaping ....................................................................................................4
Ban of e-cigarettes in enclosed public spaces..............................................................4
Motivational factors for vaping .....................................................................................5
1.4 Research project specification ...............................................................................6
1.5 Appropriate Plan and procedure ............................................................................6
LO 2 be able to implement the research project within agreed procedures and to
specification .................................................................................................................... 7
2.1 Match resources efficiently to the research questions ...........................................7
2.2 Proposed research investigation ...........................................................................8
2.3 Record and collect relevant data ...........................................................................9
LO 3 be able to evaluate research outcomes ................................................................11
3.1 Use appropriate research evaluation techniques .................................................11
3.2 Interpret and analyse the results in terms of the original research specification ..11
3.3 Make recommendations and justify areas for further consideration......................14
References .................................................................................................................... 15

Title
To investigate whether vaping should be allowed in public or not?
LO 1 Formulate a research specification
1.1 Possible Research Project Outline Specification
Vaping is regarded as the use of electronic cigarette in place of tobacco cigarette
which are normally consumed by the people. However, the purpose of electronic
cigarette can be stated that it provides the feeling of smoking but it does not uses
tobacco. It is a battery powered vaporizer. The user make use of e-cigarette by taking a
puff or pressing a button (Salthammer, T., Schripp, T. and Markewitz, D., 2013). The
benefit of such cigarette is that the user inhales aerosol instead of smoke. Thus, it helps
users to overcome health risks so that they can try to minimize cigarette habit. However,
medical authorities have not given clean chit to such e-cigarettes that they do not
impact on the health of individual.
In the current scenario many people used to smoke e-cigarettes in the public
places after leaving the tobacco cigarettes. Everybody will agree on that vaping is for
smokers but the question is that whether they should be allowed to vape in public
places or not. Different people may hold different opinion on this aspect (Soar, K.,
Dawkins, L., and Turner, J., 2013). The purpose of this report is to examine whether
vaping should be allowed in public places or not. In order to fulfill this objective, this
research will derive the opinions of people at the public places through a questionnaire
technique.
1.2 Factors Contributed in Selecting Research Project
There can be many factors which can contribute towards selection of the
research project. This research is about the use of electronic cigarette at the public
places. More and more people have switched to vaping instead of smoking tobacco and
that is for a good reason. They have the advantage of being legal to use them in the
public places too. However, a user should consider any specific rules related to pubs,
clubs or similar places before vaping. Some of them do disagree with using them. In
that context plenty of people are asking whether vaping should be allowed in public
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places or not. There can be many arguments which can support this aspect and there
can be many disagreements also which does not support this thing. Hence an effort is
made to find out whether vaping should be allowed at the public places or not.
1.3 Undertake a critical review of key references
Regulation of vaping
E-cigarettes possess different regulation and laws in different countries. Thus,
there is no strict regulation developed to ban such products. Till present, two thirds of
the major countries have regulated e-cigarettes in some manner (Voudris, V,
Farsalinos, K.E. And Romagna, G., 2013). The issue of vaping s being debated in many
countries due to presence of potential relationship between tobacco laws and medical
drugs policies. The legal status is pending in many nations. Some nations such as
Singapore, Brazil, the Seychelles, Uruguay have put ban on vaping. For instance, within
Canada it is illegal to sell tobacco however, it is available unethically to sale within the
whole country (Szczypka, G., Emery, S.L. and Vera, L., 2014). In US and UK, the use
and sale of e-cigarette are legal.
E-cigarette is a drug delivering device and thus it is banned in several nations as
it contains tobacco. However, its advertising has been restricted on any medium and
thus anti-actions have been started to avoid smoking. The television advertising in US is
not restricted because the product does not contain tobacco (Zabarini, L. and et. al.,
2012). Some countries have regulated e-cigarettes as a medical product even though it
is not realized that it is an aid for smoking cessation. Government has not approved any
such type of smoking devices therefore, consuming it is illegal. However this emerging
phenomenon has raised concerns in the health community, general public and
government. They have recommended that product should be regulated to protect the
consumers (Glasner and Gostin, 2014). On e-cigarettes there is heavy regulation and
restriction that possess unhealthy practices on human body.
Ban of e-cigarettes in enclosed public spaces
According to Glasner and Gostin, 2014), it is not right to put ban on vaping at
public places. The main reason of banning the smoking habit of people at public places
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because it harms the health of other people also. This is not the case for e-cigarettes. It
is not harming the health of the bystanders and hence it cannot be something on which
legislation can be placed.
According to Sargent, Budney and Lee, (2015), things for the people can get
simplified if regulations between e-cigarette and ordinary cigarettes can be harmonized.
Both the products are lookalike and carries a similar looking behaviour. It is making the
enforcement more difficult. It has the potential to renormalize the idea of smoking.
According to Salthammer, Schripp and Markewitz, (2013) e-cigarettes have only
two chemicals which are nicotine and PG and that are not really harmful to the people.
Hence it should not be banned in public places however it should not be practiced in
areas where there are lots of children because it can influence them. On the other side
it is suitable for places like pubs, night clubs. It is also a great help for the people who
wanted to give up on smoking.
According to Soar, Dawkins and Turner, (2013), ban should not be placed on
vaping in the public places. However, government started a legislation which was
smoke free and it was established in order to protect the individual from the harm of
second hand smoke and there is no idea that it affects the health or not. According to
Szczypka, Emery and Vera, (2014), there have been many arguments that this produce
renormalize smoking or make young people use e-cigarettes. However, there is an
alternative provided i.e. vaping which is far safer from consuming cigarettes. It has the
potential to kill two-thirds of the long term users.
Motivational factors for vaping
There can be many reasons for doing vaping. It is often related to quitting
however some people also do it for relaxation and recreation. The vapous states that
vaping is healthier than smoking for both themselves as well as non-smokers. The
possible adverse health effects of tobacco are also known to them (Zabarini and et. al.,
2012). Some use them to provide encouragement to smoke free laws and policies and
to cut back on tobacco cigarette. The users of vaping have contradictory opinions
regarding the use. They use the product sometimes without nicotine for the purpose of
convenience. The non-smoking adults tries them because of curiosity or just to know
about the product. It has been seen that college students vape for experimentation. It
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also believed that e-cigarettes are cheaper, healthier and newer kind of motivation in
smoke free conditions. The exposure to its advertising also put an influence to try them.
1.4 Research project specification
The major aim of the research study is to investigate whether vaping should be
allowed in public or not. These are the following objectives-
 To assess the positive impacts of vaping at public places
 To find out the negative impacts of vaping at public places
 To identify what corrective measures can be taken in the identified research
issue?
The research also tries to find out the answers for following questions
 Doesn’t vaping renormalize smoking and encourage smoking?
 Is it true that electronic cigarettes are legal in public?
 Should electronic cigarettes be banned in enclosed public spaces?
1.5 Appropriate Plan and procedure
Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Problem assessment
Selecting the topic
Undertaking research method
Carrying out literature review
Objectives setting
Collection of primary data
Identifying research approach
Developing research methodology
Designing questionnaire
Make fill up the questionnaire from customers
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Organizing collected data in excel sheets
Applying suitable technique to analysis data
Interpretation of the data
Evaluating and finding of the research
Recommendation and suggestions for further
study
Outline the findings chapter
Create report in a presentable manner
Submission to instructor and awaiting for
feedback
Revising the final draft
Submission of report
Presenting report to the audience
LO 2 be able to implement the research project within agreed
procedures and to specification
2.1 Match resources efficiently to the research questions
Present research study aims to investigate whether vaping should be allowed in
public or not. The objectives to attain the stated objectives are:
 To investigate positive impacts of vaping at public places
 To find out the negative impacts of vaping at public places
 To identify what corrective measures can be taken in the identified research
issue?
The research also tries to find out the answers for following questions
 Doesn’t vaping renormalize smoking and encourage smoking?
 Is it true that electronic cigarettes are legal in public?
 Should electronic cigarettes be banned in enclosed public spaces?
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2.2 Proposed research investigation
Research is a very complex process and needs to be performed high amount of
concentration. The use of research tools and techniques plays an essential in the
functioning of the study. Following research tools will be used for this research work.
Research philosophy
It helps in getting wide information about the topic. Major philosophies included in
the studies are realism, interpretive, positivism and pragmatism. For this study,
combination of positivism and interpretive philosophies will be selected which is realism
philosophy (Yin, 2011). It is appropriate because it deals with the reality of use of e-
cigarettes within the society.
Research approach
The approach is regarded as the research framework for the study. Inductive and
deductive are the two major research approaches which researchers implements in
order to structure the research study. For this research inductive approach has been
applied because e-smoking is a kind of social behaviour and it is a general issue
(Creswell, 2009). The researcher will move from a specific thing to more generalized
observations.
Research Design
It is to be noted that selection of research deign puts a high impact on the study.
It is related with developing a systematic plan for the research. For this research
descriptive design has been adopted so that an insight view about the use of electronic
cigarettes at the public places can be gained (Massingham, Massingham and Diment,
2012). Many previous research studies have also been performed on this subject and
this study tries to make its contribution.
Data Collection
Data collecting is a significant part research study which helps the researcher in
acquiring appropriate data for conducting the research. Primary and secondary methods
of data collecting helps a researcher for the same. Primary data is collected for the first
time and is available from unpublished sources. It is obtained from techniques like direct
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observation, focus groups, interview, questionnaire etc (Lewis and et.al., 2004).
Secondary data is an information which is already been used for several time and is
available from published sources.
Primary data for the present study has been gathered from people at the public
places who see other people doing vaping. It is collected through questionnaire
technique. The questionnaire has been developed in a semi structured manner which
consists of both open ended and closed ended questions (Jogulu and Pansiri, 2011). It
is appropriate because it helps in collecting large volume of data in ethical manner. On
the other hand secondary information has been compiled from secondary sources such
as books, journals, newspapers, internet etc.
Sampling
Sampling helps in representing the data sample which will help in conducting the
primary research study. The two types of sampling are probabilistic and non-
probabilistic. For this study random sampling has been adopted because it avoids
making any kind of biasness and unfairness (Hannabuss, 2007)
Data Analysis
The collected data needs to be analysed by using a suitable technique of
analysis. For this research the collected primary data has been analysed in form of
graphs, tables, figures, pie charts etc. It will offer the results in more justifiable manner
(Lebow, 2006).
2.3 Record and collect relevant data
Questionnaire
Age Group
 less that 20 years
 21- 34 years
 35- 49 years
 50 years and above
Gender
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 Male
 Female
Are you aware of the electronic cigarette?
 Yes
 No
Is it acceptable to you that someone can vape in public places?
 Yes
 No
Do you agree that vaping should be banned in public places?
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Not sure
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
Do you think that vaping should be allowed at the public places?
 Yes
 No
Do you agree that use of electronic cigarette creates a negative impact on the society?
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Not sure
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
Do you agree that use of electronic cigarette creates a positive impact on the society?
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Not sure
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
Do you agree that vaping renormalize smoking and encourage smoking?
 Strongly Disagree
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 Disagree
 Not sure
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
LO 3 be able to evaluate research outcomes
3.1 Use appropriate research evaluation techniques
 Sampling- Sampling helps in representing the data sample which will help in
conducting the primary research study. There are two sampling types
probabilistic and non-probabilistic (Bernard, 2010). For this study random
sampling has been adopted because it avoids making any kind of biasness and
unfairness.
 Questionnaire - The questionnaire has been developed in a semi structured
manner which consists of both open ended and closed ended questions (Ireland,
Webb and Coombs, 2005). This measure will be effective for the current study as
by adopting this measures large and appropriate data will be collected and will
help in attaining the reliable results for the research.
3.2 Interpret and analyse the results in terms of the original research specification
Gender
The above graph shows the distribution based on the responses based on
gender. On getting the responses it was derived that, 82% of the respondents were
male while 18% of the population was female. From this it can be interpreted that ratio
of men vapers is higher as compared to female vapers
Age Group
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The given Diagram represents distribution based on age of the sample
respondents. On getting the responses it was derived that, 50% of the sample were of
20-35 years, 34% of were 35-50 years, 12% of were above 50 years and rest 4% were
below 20 years. From this it can be interpreted that maximum consumption of the e-
cigarette is done among the people of age group of 20-35 years.
Are you aware of the electronic cigarette?
The respondents were asked whether they are well alert about the electronic
cigarettes or not. On getting the responses it was identified that 98% of the sample
population were aware about the electronic cigarettes and rest were not. This shows
that people are well familiar with the product and its use.
Is it acceptable to you that someone can vape in public places?
The respondents were asked whether it is acceptable to them that someone can
vape in public places. On getting the responses it was identified that 54% of the
population said yes and 46% of the sample said no.
Do you agree that vaping should be banned in public places?
The sample respondents were asked whether vaping should be banned in the
public places or not. The responses showed that 26% were agree, 14% were not sure,
20% were strongly disagree, 14% were strongly agree and rest 26% were disagree.
Very mixed amount of responses were gathered because there are differences in view
points of the people. On one side it is believed that it is not right to put ban on vaping at
public places. The cause for tapping ban on smoking at public places was clear that it
may cause significant harm to the smoker's health and may promote passive smoking
as well. It is not harming the health of the bystanders and hence it cannot be something
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on which legislation can be placed. On the other side it puts negative influence on
bystanders. Although it is not harmful but it can motivate others to try for smoking.
Do you think that vaping should be allowed at the public places?
The sample respondents were asked whether vaping should be allowed at the
public places or not. Again very mixed amount of responses were gathered from the
participants. It is evident from the fact that the ban on vaping differs from nation to
nation. Some countries have implemented the ban while other countries have not. The
rules and regulations for every nation are different.
Do you agree that use of electronic cigarette creates a negative impact on the
society?
The sample respondents were asked whether electronic cigarette creates a
negative impact on the society. 28% of the sample were disagree, 26% of them were
agree 20% of them strongly agree, 12% of them were not sure and 14% of them were
strongly disagree. It is evident from the fact that vaping should not be practiced in areas
where there are lots of children because it can influence them. Apart from that people
who have quit smoking can move again towards the habit by seeing their bystanders
doing vaping.
Do you agree that use of electronic cigarette creates a positive impact on the
society?
The sample respondents were asked whether electronic cigarette creates a
positive impact on the society very mixed amount of responses were gathered. It is
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evident that electronic smoking has bought some positive change in the society
because the number of tobacco smokers have decreased.
Do you agree that vaping renormalize smoking and encourage smoking?
3.3 Make recommendations and justify areas for further consideration
 It is recommended that more awareness should be created regarding the use of
electronic cigarettes among the users.
 It should not be allowed to perform at all the public places however it should be
allowed at places like pubs, night clubs etc.
 The pros and cons of vaping are also required to be discussed with the users.
 Government should take appropriate measures to decide which public places are
to be allowed for vaping and which places are not.
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References
Books and journals
Yin, R., 2011. Qualitative Research from Start to Finish. The Guildford Press.
Massingham, P., Massingham, R. and Diment, K., 2012. Q methodology: is it useful for
accounting research?. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management. 19(1).
pp. 66–88.
Lewis, W. G. and et.al., 2004. A Generative Research Methodology for Implementing
TQM in Small and Medium-sized Manufacturing Enterprises. Asian Journal on
Quality. 5(2). pp. 89–105.
Jogulu, U.D. and Pansiri, J., 2011. Mixed methods: a research design for management
doctoral dissertations. Management Research Review. 34(6). pp. 687–701.
Hannabuss, S., 2007. Research Methods in Information. Library Review. 56(6). pp.
523–524.
Lebow, J. 2006. Research for the psychotherapist: From science to practice. New York
Routledge.
Bernard, H. R., 2010. Analyzing qualitative data: Systematic approaches. Sage.
Ireland, R. D., Webb, J. W., and Coombs, J. E., 2005. Theory and Methodology in
Entrepreneurship Research, Research Methodology in Strategy and
Management.2. pp.111-141.
Creswell, J. W., 2013. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 4th ed. SAGE
Publications, Inc.
Salthammer, T., Schripp, T. and Markewitz, D., 2013. Does e‐cigarette consumption
cause passive vaping? Indoor air. 23(1). pp. 25-31.
Soar, K., Dawkins, L., and Turner, J., 2013. ‘Vaping’ profiles and preferences: an online
survey of electronic cigarette users. Addiction. 108(6). pp. 1115-1125.
Voudris, V , Farsalinos, K.E. And Romagna, G., 2013. Evaluation of electronic cigarette
use (vaping) topography and estimation of liquid consumption: implications for
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health, 10(6), pp.2500-2514.
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Szczypka, G., Emery, S.L. and Vera, L., 2014. Wanna know about vaping? Patterns of
message exposure, seeking and sharing information about e-cigarettes across
media platforms. Tobacco control. 23(suppl 3). pp.iii17-iii25.
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environment by electronic cigarettes use (ClearStream-AIR project): is passive
vaping a reality. In Proceedings of 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for
Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, Helsinki, Finland (Vol. 1).
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pp.595-596.
Sargent, J.D., Budney, A.J., and Lee, D.C., 2015. Vaping cannabis (marijuana): parallel
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