Article Critique: Environmental Factors and Survey Research in Nigeria

This assignment is an article critique of a research paper focusing on environmental factors affecting survey research in developing countries, specifically Nigeria. It evaluates the research methodology, data collection, and analysis techniques used in the original study. The critique assesses the relevance of previous work cited, the clarity and replicability of the research procedures, and the appropriateness of the keywords used for indexing the article. The assignment also discusses the article's citation performance and provides an overall assessment of the research and its implications. Desklib is a platform where students can find past papers and solved assignments.

Running head: ARTICLE CRITIQUE 1
Article Critique
Name
Institution
Date

Article Critique
Article Name: Raimi, L., Adebakin, M. A., & Gabadeen, W. O. (2013). Environmental factors and survey
research in developing countries: Evidence from Nigeria. Asian Journal of Empirical Research, 3(10),
1362-1381.
Question 1:
a) The paper adopted a quantitative research approach, and it clearly described the collection of
new data rather than using secondary data from previous studies.
b) Description of how data was collected and analyzed
The researchers collected data using surveys. The sample population was selected from a group of
lecturers and researchers from different universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and from
various independent research institutions. A survey evaluation instrument containing thirty-three items
was utilized to collect data. The study involved a sample size of 250 lecturers, students, and researchers
which were selected from the target population by the use of purposive sampling method as outlined in
Descombe (2014). The data that was collected was then analyzed through descriptive and inferential
statistics after which conclusions based on these results were made regarding the environmental
factors.
Personally, I would agree with what was done. The sample size is big enough to represent the entire
population; hence, the results are valid. The approach that the researchers used is in line with the best
practice for survey-based approaches as stated by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2012).
c) Previous Work:
The article contains a section that tries to explore the previous studies and link them to the current
study. This is done under the literature review section where the researchers explore the conceptual
issues and survey typologies.
The current study assesses the impact of environmental factors on surveys. As a result, the literature
review mainly explores the conceptual issues and types of surveys. Knowledge of the types of surveys
and the issues affecting the various types of surveys is relevant to the current study which examines the
effects of environmental factors on surveys. The literature review section provides a summary and
critical evaluation of previous works which are relevant to the current study. The section gives insight on
what has already been said concerning the conceptual issues, one of them being the environmental

factors. The previous research provides important information regarding the types, advantages, and
disadvantages of surveys which is essential when addressing the environmental factors of surveys. From
the previous research, the researcher can understand the research problem better which helps in
formulating the appropriate methodology for the study.
d) Procedure/Replication:
The authors explained the procedures that were followed in conducting the research where 250
respondents were selected. While the authors explained how they carried out their research under the
Materials and Method section, they failed to clearly explain how they extracted information from the
respondents. It is possible to apply the same procedure and get different results because the authors did
not outline the questions of the questionnaires used. The authors only stated that they used
questionnaires to collect data from the participants, but there is no information about the specific
questions that were asked. It is, therefore, essential to provide the specific questions used to collect
data if the study is to be replicated because the questions are the ones which determine the responses
and the results.
Question 2:
The keywords of the article are: Developing Countries, Environmental Factors, Nigeria, and Survey
Research
When the keywords are typed in Google scholar, the current paper that is subject to critical analysis is
not seen in the search results even after turning up to ten pages of the Google scholar search. What
seems to appear in the research results are other articles which contain some or all of the keywords
randomly placed in their content. The paper that is highly cited based on the search results using the
keywords is:
Ibeh, K. I., & Young, S. (2001). Exporting as an entrepreneurial act-An empirical study of Nigerian
firms. European Journal of marketing, 35(5/6), 566-586.
The above article has 215 citations. Although it was published before the original article, it has not been
cited in my article.
The study by Ibeh and Young (2001) explores the entrepreneurial motives of the involvement level of
low export of manufacturing organizations in Nigeria which is one of the developing countries.

The highly cited article talks about a totally different topic, and hence, it is irrelevant to the current
study being carried out in the original article. It can, therefore, not be listed as a reference.

References
Denscombe, M. (2014). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects. McGraw-Hill
Education (UK).
Ibeh, K. I., & Young, S. (2001). Exporting as an entrepreneurial act-An empirical study of Nigerian
firms. European Journal of marketing, 35(5/6), 566-586
Raimi, L., Adebakin, M. A., & Gabadeen, W. O. (2013). Environmental factors and survey research in
developing countries: Evidence from Nigeria. Asian Journal of Empirical Research, 3(10), 1362-
1381.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students. Pearson
education.