Unit 11 Research Project: Methodologies, Analysis and Findings

This report provides a comprehensive overview of research methodologies and processes within a business context. It begins by defining research approaches and methodologies, emphasizing the importance of a well-defined research question and the construction of a strong research proposal. The report then examines primary and secondary research methods, highlighting their respective advantages, disadvantages, and ethical considerations. It delves into the process of data collection and analysis, including the different types of data (qualitative, quantitative, and categorical) and appropriate research tools. Furthermore, the report discusses the merits, limitations, and potential pitfalls of various data collection and analysis approaches, emphasizing the importance of choosing methodologies based on philosophical and theoretical frameworks. Finally, the report critically evaluates research methodologies in application to a business research project, justifying the chosen research methods and analysis techniques. The report also covers ethical issues that arise in business research and various methods for data analysis.

From: Syed Munim Ejaz
To: Sir Mohsin
Unit: 11
Unit Name: Research Project
Submission Date:

RESEARCH PROJECT
LO1:
Examine appropriate research methodologies and approaches as part of the research
process?
P1:
Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis supported
by a literal view?
Examination approach is the particular methodology or strategies used to distinguish, select,
measure, and investigate data about a theme. In an examination paper, the system segment
permits the per user to fundamentally assess an investigation's general legitimacy and
dependability. For instance, a subjective approach may be utilized to comprehend people
groups' insights about an occasion that occurred, or a competitor running for president.
Differentiated to this, a quantitative strategy is ordinarily utilized when the exploration points
and goals are corroborative in nature.

A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a worthwhile research project
and that you have the competence and the work-plan to complete it. Broadly the research
proposal must address the following questions regardless of your research area and the
methodology you choose: What you plan to accomplish, why do you want to do it and how are
you going to do it. The aim of this article is to highlight the essential concepts and not to
provide extensive details about this topic.
The elements of a research proposal are highlighted below:
1. Background of the study: The main idea of the background of the study is to establish
the area of research in which your work belongs, and to provide a context for the
research problem. It also provides information to research topic.
2. Statement of the problem: When you start a research, you’ve a question that you wish
to seek answer for. The question leads to a problem that needs to be solved by the
research. Begin the research with a description of the problem or a thesis statement.
3. Objectives of the study: States what your research hopes to accomplish.
4. Significance of the study: Why your research is important and what contributions will it
give to the field. It is also advised to state how your findings can make a difference and
why is it important that the research be carried out.
5. Limitation of the study: It is not possible to include all aspects of a particular problem.
State what is not included. Specify the boundaries of your research. A too wide area of
investigation is impractical and will lead to problems.
6. Definition of the terms: Terms or concepts that you use should be defined and
explained unless they are familiar or obvious. You should refer to authoritative sources
for definitions.
7. Literature Review: A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books,
journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question. It is often
written as part of a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, in order to situate your work
in relation to existing knowledge.
8. Methodology: Research methodology simply refers to the practical “how” of any given
piece of research. More specifically, it’s about how a researcher systematically designs a
study to ensure valid and reliable results that address the research aims and objectives.
P2: Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary
research?
The motivation behind essential examination is to assemble data and answer addresses that
have not been asked previously. Essential examination is ordinarily additional tedious and
has higher related expenses, so it is to the greatest advantage of an association to just lead
essential exploration after the holes in accessible optional exploration have been identified.

Primary exploration ought to be directed solely after thorough auxiliary examination is
finished. This is imperative to note since essential examination utilizes a bigger number of
assets than optional exploration. In essential examination, the exploration group is
responsible for everything from picking the best strategy to contact an ideal crowd, to what
explicit measurements ought to be estimated. Leading auxiliary examination previously is
important to figure out what data isn't as of now accessible so time and cash isn't
squandered on repetitive essential exploration.
Primary research: Primary research is a type of research that requires the researcher to
participate directly in the data-gathering process. In primary research, the researcher does
not depend on already existing data; rather he or she collects first-hand information which
serves as research materials for the systematic investigation.
These type of research gives the researcher absolute ownership of the data which is
extremely important for businesses and organizations in fast-paced markets. These
organizations utilize primary research to gather valuable information about consumer needs
and preferences before launching a new product or service.
Usually, primary research focuses on the specific needs of the research contexts. However,
this type of research is expensive, time-consuming and it usually requires a lot of skilled
resources that may not be readily available and this is why many businesses outsource this
to 3rd party market research companies.
Secondary research: Secondary research is a type of research approach in which the
researcher relies solely on existing research materials rather than gather data directly for
research. This research approach is less expensive and time-efficient unlike primary
research.
Data for secondary research can be accessed from the internet, archive, libraries,
educational institutions and organizational reports. However, extra care must be taken by
the researcher to ensure that the data is valid as this can have a negative impact on the
research process and outcomes.
M1:
Evaluate different research approaches and methodology and make justification for the
choice of methods based on philosophical, theoretical frameworks?
In performing academic research, different approaches and technologies can be used.
However, the researcher has to settle for the most appropriate research approach and
methodology based on the theoretical and physical frameworks that are available. Some of

the most commonly used research methodologies and approaches in qualitative analysis,
literature review, and detective analysis, among others. For this approach, the qualitative
methodology is appropriate because it will guarantee first-hand information from the
participants who have been involved directly when the topic of study. Also, it will ensure
that the researcher gets the right information to be used in making conclusions about cyber
bullying.
LO2: Conduct and analyze research element to a business research project?
P3: Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business
that consider cost access and ethical issues?
Secondary Data Analysis
Secondary analysis refers to the use of existing research data to find answer to a question
that was different from the original work. Secondary data can be large scale surveys or data
collected as part of personal research. Although there is general agreement about sharing
the results of large scale surveys, but little agreement exists about the second. While the
fundamental ethical issues related to secondary use of research data remain the same, they
have become more pressing with the advent of new technologies. Data sharing, compiling
and storage have become much faster and easier. At the same time, there are fresh
concerns about data confidentiality and security.
Ethical issues: Ethical issues in business are a situation where a moral conflict arises and
must be addressed. In other words, it is an occasion where a moral standard is questioned.
Ethical issues occur when a given decision, scenario or activity creates a conflict with a
society’s moral principles. Both individuals and businesses can be involved in these conflicts,
since any of their activities might be put to question from an ethical standpoint. Individuals
are subject to these issues in their relationships with other individuals or in their
relationships with organizations and same goes for organizations.
These conflicts are sometimes legally dangerous, since some of the alternatives to solve the
issue might breach a particular law. In other occasions, the issue might not have legal
consequences but it might generate a negative reaction from third parties. Ethical issues are
challenging because they are difficult to deal with if no guidelines or precedents are known.
For this reason, many professional and industry associations have ethical codes that are
discussed and approved by key participants to provide a useful framework for companies
and individuals to make adequate decisions whenever they face one of these conflicts.
P4: Take appropriate research tools analyze research findings and data?

Research data analysis is a process used by researchers for reducing data to a story and
interpreting it to derive insights. The data analysis process helps in reducing a large chunk of
data into smaller fragments, which makes sense.
Types of data in research
Every kind of data has a rare quality of describing things after assigning a specific value to it.
For analysis, you need to organize these values, processed and presented in a given context,
to make it useful. Data can be in different forms; here are the primary data types.
Qualitative data: When the data presented has words and descriptions, then we call it
qualitative data. Although you can observe this data, it is subjective and harder to analyze
data in research, especially for comparison. Example: Quality data represents everything
describing taste, experience, texture, or an opinion that is considered quality data. This type
of data is usually collected through focus groups, personal interviews, or using open-ended
questions in surveys.
Quantitative data: Any data expressed in numbers of numerical figures are called
quantitative data. This type of data can be distinguished into categories, grouped,
measured, calculated, or ranked. Example: questions such as age, rank, cost, length, weight,
scores, etc. everything comes under this type of data. You can present such data in
graphical format, charts, or apply statistical analysis methods to this data. The (Outcomes

Measurement Systems) OMS questionnaires in surveys are a significant source of collecting
numeric data.
Categorical data: It is data presented in groups. However, an item included in the
categorical data cannot belong to more than one group. Example: A person responding to a
survey by telling his living style, marital status, smoking habit, or drinking habit comes under
the categorical data. A chi-square test is a standard method used to analyze this data.
M2: Discuss merits, limitations and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and analysis.
Strengths of using secondary data in social research
 There is a lot of it! It is the richest vein of information available to researchers in
many topic areas. Also, some large data sets might not exist if it wasn’t for the
government collecting data.
 Sometimes documents and official statistics might be the only means of researching
the past.
 Official statistics may be especially useful for making comparisons over time.
 At a practical level, many public documents and official statistics are freely available
to the researcher.
Limitations of using secondary data
 Official statistics may reflect the biases of those in power – limiting what you can
find out.
 Official statistics – the way things are measured may change over time, making
historical comparisons difficult (As with crime statistics, the definition of crime keeps
changing.)
 Documents may lack authenticity– parts of the document might be missing because
of age, and we might not even be to verify who actually wrote the document,
meaning we cannot check whether its biased or not.
 Representativeness – documents may not be representative of the wider population
–especially a problem with older documents. Many documents do not survive
because they are not stored, and others deteriorate with age and become unusable.
Other documents are deliberately withheld from researchers and the public gaze,
and therefore do not become available.
D1: Critically evaluate research methodologies and processes in application to a business
research project to justify chosen research methods and analysis.

Research methodology simply refers to the practical “how” of any given piece of research.
More specifically, it’s about how a researcher systematically designs a study to ensure valid
and reliable results that address the research aims and objectives.
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a research tool which includes a set of questions and is designed to
collect data from sample participants, especially for statistical analysis. Questionnaires are a
good method to collect primary data and also the researcher can collect data through
questionnaires without personal intervention. Usually it’s in written or printed form.
Questions can be designed in both open-ended and close-ended formats. If a researcher
builds open-ended questions, the participant needs to articulate answers and if questions
are close-ended, the participant just needs to give yes/no or tick the suitable number.
There are three types of research questions:
 Descriptive questions: design to examine what exists now. These allow
measurement of perceptions, attitudes and concrete variables.
 Relational/comparative questions: these examine the relationship or difference
between two or more variables.
 Causal questions: designed to find out influence and effects of variables or factors.
Interview
An interview is a conversation or discussion between two or more people where questions
are asked to gather information. Interview is used as a research tool mostly in qualitative
research. Most of the interviews are conducted to get in-depth information in areas such as
Human perceptions, cultural rituals, social relationships psychology, human and social
experiences and organizational routines. Usually the researcher needs to personally
intervene in the interview. Having good communicational skills is important when
interviewing participant. Researchers should have other skills also during interviewing, such
observational skills, and interaction skills to understand the participant’s feelings and
emotions. It’s not required that interview questions should be highly-structured if it’s not a
survey interview for quantitative research because the interviewer can change the
questions according to the participant’s response. Interviews can be conducted face to face
or by telephone. But face to face interview will be more effective as researchers can
observe respondent’s reaction.
Invention of new products

Another function of research is as the basis to invent new products. Many companies are
researching continually for customer preferences, market and the issues associated with
recent products. As a result people can see new products launching every day. Invented
medical instruments have brought a huge advancement for health care. Invention of new
products can help to improve the accuracy of healthcare. Because new devices are more
sophisticated, thus the accuracy and precision rate is higher than for old devices.
LO3: Communicate the outcomes of a research project to identified stakeholders
P5: Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended
audience.
Stakeholders are people or organizations who have an interest in your research project, or
affect or are affected by its outcomes. Stakeholders include those who are both supportive
of your research, as well as those who may be less supportive or indeed critical of it.
Stakeholders include those who are both supportive of your research, as well as those who
may be less supportive or indeed critical of it. The purpose of stakeholder analysis is to:
identify project stakeholders. Determine what interest each stakeholder has in your project.
There are three basic forms of communication that define information distribution
formats:
 Face-to-face communications (group or individual meetings)
 Hard-copy communications (letters, paper reports)
 Electronic communications (emails, videoconferences, voice chats)
Communicating research outcomes:
 Consideration of different methods of communicating outcomes (e.g. written word,
spoken word) and the medium (e.g. report, online, presentation).
 The method and medium will be influenced by the research and its intended
audience.
Convincing arguments:
 No matter what the method/medium, all research should be convincing and
presented logically where the assumption is that the audience has little or no
knowledge of the research process.
 The importance of developing evaluative conclusions
M3: Coherently and logically outcomes to the intended audience demonstrating how
outcomes meet set research objectives?

In general, research objectives describe what we expect to achieve by a project.
Research objectives are usually expressed in lay terms and are directed as much to the
client as to the researcher. Research objectives may be linked with a hypothesis or used as a
statement of purpose in a study that does not have a hypothesis.
Even if the nature of the research has not been clear to the layperson from the hypotheses,
s/he should be able to understand the research from the objectives.
A statement of research objectives can serve to guide the activities of research. Consider
the following examples.
• To describe what factors farmers take into account in making such decisions as whether to
adopt a new technology or what crops to grow.
• To develop a budget for reducing pollution by a particular enterprise.
• To describe the habitat of the giant panda in China.
In the above examples the intent of the research is largely descriptive.
• In the case of the first example, the research will end the study by being able to specify
factors which emerged in household decisions.
• In the second, the result will be the specification of a pollution reduction budget.
• In the third, creating a picture of the habitat of the giant panda in China.
These observations might prompt researchers to formulate hypotheses which could be
tested in another piece of research. So long as the aim of the research is exploratory, ie to
describe what is, rather than to test an explanation for what is, a research objective will
provide an adequate guide to the research.
LO4: Reflect on the application of research methodologies and concepts?
P6: Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of the
business research project?
Assessment research is a sort of applied examination, thus it is proposed to have some
genuine impact. Numerous strategies like overviews and examinations can be utilized to do
assessment research. The interaction of assessment research comprising of information
examination and detailing is a thorough, precise cycle that includes gathering information
about associations, measures, undertakings, administrations, or potentially assets.
Assessment research upgrades information and dynamic, and prompts pragmatic

applications. The shared objective of most assessments is to remove significant data from
the crowd and give important experiences to evaluators like supporters, contributors,
customer gatherings, heads, staff, and other pertinent electorates. Regularly, criticism is
seen as valuable in the event that it helps in dynamic. Notwithstanding, assessment
research doesn't generally make an effect that can be applied elsewhere, here and there
they neglect to impact momentary choices. It is additionally similarly evident that at first, it
may appear to not have any impact, yet can have a deferred sway when the circumstance is
greater. All statistical surveying techniques include gathering and investigating the
information, settling on choices about the legitimacy of the data and getting significant
inductions from it. Assessment research involves arranging, directing and dissecting the
outcomes which incorporate the utilization of information assortment strategies and
applying.
P7: Consider alternative research methodologies and lessons learnt in the view of
outcomes?

Alternative research methods differ from quantitative and qualitative data by focusing
primarily on data that is not based off of fact-based research. Instead, the data that is
collected is usually based off of individual's experiences and does not normally have to be a
research method is a strategy used to implement that plan. Research design and methods
are different but closely related; because good research design ensures that the data you
obtain will help you answer your research question more effectively. It depends on your
research goal. It depends on what subjects (and who) you want to study. Let's say you are
interested in studying what makes people happy, or why some students are more conscious
about recycling on campus. To answer these questions, you need to make a decision about
how to collect your data. Most frequently used methods include:
 Observation / Participant Observation
 Surveys
 Interviews
 Focus Groups
 Experiments
 Secondary Data Analysis / Archival Study
 Mixed Methods (combination of some of the above) proved".
M4: Provide critical reflection and insight those results in recommended actions for
improvements and future research considerations?
Basic reflection is an augmentation of "basic reasoning". It gets some information about
our training and thoughts and afterward it provokes us to venture back and inspect our
deduction by asking testing questions. The interaction of basic reflection assists us with
pondering our practices, recognize our qualities and keep learning and fortifying our
program. Incorporating basic reflection is important for a progressing pattern of
building, testing and re-building hypotheses about instructing and learning. Critical
reflection is important to acclimatize the new data and resolve the territory of
disequilibrium. Reflection is the course adjustment of a wave front at an interface
between two distinctive media with the goal that the wave front returns into the
medium from which it began. Regular models incorporate the impression of light, solid
and water waves. Mirrors show specular reflection. Reflection-in real life happens
during an activity, and reflection-on-activity happens after an occasion has happened.
The principle issue educators have in doing reflection-for-activity understands what they
ought to consider having the option to make enhancements or changes in their own
training.
D3: Demonstrate reflection and engagement in the resource process leading to
recommended actions for future improvement.