A Critical Evaluation of Research Methods in Published Articles

This essay presents a comparative analysis of two research articles, one quantitative and one qualitative, focusing on their methodologies. The quantitative article investigates job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees, hypothesizing a positive relationship between tourism involvement, work engagement, and job satisfaction. The qualitative article explores how a transactional marketing strategy can foster customer loyalty in the hotel industry. The essay examines the clarity of the research questions, the rationale behind the chosen topics, and the stakeholders involved. It then evaluates the appropriateness of the methodologies used, including surveys and literature reviews, and assesses whether the researchers successfully answered their original questions. The critique highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, ultimately questioning the credibility of the findings based on methodological limitations. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including similar solved assignments, to aid students in their studies.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODS
RESEARCH METHODS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
This particular essay shall be providing a comparison of two articles shall be provided.
The first article is ‘Tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction among frontline
hotel employees’ which is a quantitative one and the second one ‘A transactional approach to
customer loyalty in the hotel industry’ is a qualitative one. In the following sections certain
aspects of the research methodology shall be discussed on the basis of the two articles provided.
The Research Hypothesis
The author in the article, ‘Tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction
among frontline hotel employees’ seeks to find out the level of job satisfaction among the
employees serving at the hotel frontline in the tourism industry. The hypothesis that can be
derived from the article is that tourism involvement leads to the increased level of work
engagement and job satisfaction, and there is a positive relationship between them. The
discussion in the article has been to either prove the hypothesis as true or false on the basis of the
quantitative survey research undertaken (Yeh, 2013).
The hypothesis is not very clearly stated as per the views of Duncan and Fiske (2015)
and had to be derived out of the reading and comprehension of the abstract. The mention of the
hypothesis has not been attempted to be presented in clear and direct terms (Duncan & Fiske,
2015).
The rationale of the reason behind choosing the hypothesis has been provided in very
clear and precise terms. As per the author of the article, quite a lot of researches and literature
can be found which showcases the positive relationship between the tourism industry, the quality

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of life of the employees and also contributes to the enrichment of the experience of the tourists.
However there have been very few researches that show the state of the hotel frontline
employees who are in the tourism industry. Hence the rationale of the research article lies in
addressing the literature gap, providing a new insight into the genre and to narrow the focus of
the study(Duncan & Fiske, 2015) .
The stakeholders in this particular research article are the frontline hotel employees and
the tourists in this particular research article (Duncan & Fiske, 2015).
The authors of the research article ‘A transactional approach to customer loyalty in the
hotel industry’ has a central question which has been used to guide the research. The question is
that of finding the ways in which a transactional marketing strategy could be a force responsible
for the generation of customer loyalty in a hotel brand. Based on this central question, the
hypothesis has been formed accordingly, which seek to convey the standpoint that transactional
approach can generate customer loyalty in a hotel brand. That being the hypothesis, the purpose
has been to either prove the hypothesis as valid or null. The hypothesis has been clearly stated by
the author in the article in precise terms (Osman, Hemmington & Bowie, 2009).
As stated by Walliman (2017) the rationale of the research as provided by the author of
the article states that the there has been a paradigmatic shift in field of transactional marketing to
the relationship marketing in the services provided by the hotel industry. The aim has been to
find out on the basis of the reading of the existing literature how the paradigmatic shift has been
beneficial in the promotion of customer loyalty in the hotel industry, and also to find out of there
is a need to employ alternative methods of creating customer loyalty (Walliman, 2017). Hence
the inductive approach has been attempted to arrive at a generalization to prove whether the

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hypothesis that the paradigmatic shift in the transactional approach has actually caused the
customer loyalty in the hotel industry to be positively related (Walliman, 2017).
The reason behind choosing the research question has been motivated by the pursuit of
reaching at a generalization and to find out newer insights in the viewing of the issue of
relationship between transactional approach and customer loyalty as opined by Walliman (2017).
The stakeholders in this particular research article has been the marketing department of
the hotel industry and the inter-personal relationship building sector (Walliman, 2017).
Reasons behind choosing the Methodology as provided by the author(s)
The methodology of research used for the article ‘Tourism involvement, work
engagement and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees’ has been quantitative and a
survey had been conducted from 336 hotel frontline employees from 20 international hotels
across Taiwan. The analysis of the data has been done by means of structural equation modeling.
However the reading of the existing research materials has also been attempted which has helped
in the reaching of the hypothesis to be either validated or rendered invalid. The usage of the
Falsification Theory of Karl Popper is quite evident from the research article. It is so as the
author seeks to either prove the existing notion that there exists a positive correlation between
tourism industry, the employees and the tourists as valid or invalid as per the arguments of
Lindlof and Taylor (2017).
There are several reasons as to why the quantitative or the survey research has been
followed by the author which have been derived from the research as argued by Lindlof and
Taylor (2017). First of all the aim has been to address the research gap and to provide a different
and more specific insight to the field of enquiry which deals with the tourism industry and the

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job satisfaction of the frontline hotel employees, something which has not been dealt with in the
previous set of research (Lindlof & Taylor, 2017).
Secondly, as per the logic deduced out of the reading of the literature, the key service of
the hotel industry is that of the tangible services provided by the frontline hotel employees as
they deal directly with the customers in ensuring the maintenance of the hotel business as said by
Hair et al., (2015). They are the key agent in ensuring the quality of the service to be provided.
However, their role is highly neglected in the, hence the quantitative method has been
appropriate to find out their level of job satisfaction in the hotel industry (Hair et al., 2015).
Thirdly, a serious flaw has been identified in the existing body of literature, and that
accounts for the level of the satisfaction of the tourists are considered while judging the level of
satisfaction of the frontline hotel employees in their profession . The tourism industry is seasonal
and the level of job satisfaction of the frontline hotel employees is also not a constant factor.
Hence the quantitative research method has been employed by the author in order to derive the
inferences of the research (Hair et al., 2015).
The approach taken by Yeh (2013) has been qualitative approach and these are the
reasons behind choosing it (Hair et al., 2015).
The chosen methodology in this particular research article ‘A transactional approach to
customer loyalty in the hotel industry’ has been basically quantitative with an attempt to conduct
very small scale research by means of gathering insights from non participant observation in two
hotels of the United Kingdom. The survey method has consisted of in depth interview with hotel
managers and few customers of the two chosen hotel. However, the major methodology that has
been followed is the qualitative method involving an in depth reading of the existing literature as
per the opinions of Sekaran and Bougie (2016).

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The reason behind choosing several methods of conducting research, including both
qualitative and quantitative are quite important. The qualitative method has been attempted in
order to find out alternative approaches in building customer loyalty . The quantitative or the
survey method has been attempted in order to relate the generalizations derived on the basis of
the account gathered by the secondary sources (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
The approach taken by Osman, Hemmington and Bowie (2009) had been deductive
following the Popperian methodology of falsification. The approach is appropriate as the
qualitative method has been used as per te views of Barnham (2015).
Is the Methodology appropriate?
The methodology used in the article ‘Tourism involvement, work engagement and job
satisfaction among frontline hotel employees’ is appropriate as per the views of Merriam and
Grenier (2019) as the existing literature as per the account of the author lacks any substantial
input about the level of job satisfaction of the hotel frontline employees(Merriam & Grenier,
2019) . Thus it is impossible to reach at any conclusion about the job satisfaction of the hotel
frontline employees by qualitative approach, as there is no literature that focuses on that
according to Patton (1980). So the only possible method of research that is possible is the
quantitative research which is the only way of gathering insight about the plight of the hotel
frontline employees (Brannen, 2017).
The application of qualitative methodology in the article ‘A transactional approach to
customer loyalty in the hotel industry’ has been satisfactory as the generalizations arrived at that
transactional approach is not as effective as relational approach is a result of thorough analysis as
argued by Kaplan (2004). The attempt to make use of the qualitative methodology has been a

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success as it has come up with a unique insight which was missed by the previous scholars as
mentioned by Quinlam et al (2019).
However, the usage of the quantitative or the survey method has not been appropriate
though the final finding suggest that the transactional approach is more effective and appropriate
than the relational approach (Silverman, 2016). The usage of the survey method is inappropriate
as the sample size has been too less, involving just two hotels, one following the transactional
approach and the other the relational approach. Hence relating the inference on the basis of the
qualitative approach that transactional approach has been more successful is flawed (Patten &
Newhart, 2017).
Has the researcher successfully answered the Original Question?
The answer to the research question in the article ‘Tourism involvement, work
engagement and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees’ is that engagement of the
tourism is positively linked to the work engagement of the hotel frontline employees and in that
way the author has been able to provide a connection to the research question of the article as per
Veal (2017). The key factor which has contributed to the successful answering of the original
question is that the research has been based on the original question and the resources have been
gathered accordingly which have corresponded to the original question as Patten and Newhart
(2017) has observed.
The researcher in the article ‘A transactional approach to customer loyalty in the hotel
industry’ has arrived at a conclusion that transactional approach is more appropriate for the sake
of building customer loyalty but usage of the methodology being flawed, the credibility of the
results are contestable as per the views of Bryman (2017). The only part of the result that can be

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accepted is the inference derived from the reading of the literature available which is relevant to
the field of enquiry. As Flick (2018) says that apart from that relating the result of the qualitative
research to the inference of the quantitative one makes the final inference constestable (Flick,
2018).

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References
Barnham, C. (2015). Quantitative and qualitative research: Perceptual foundations. International
Journal of Market Research, 57(6), 837-854.
Brannen, J. (2017). Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
Bryman, A. (2017). Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their integration.
In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78). Routledge.
Duncan, S., & Fiske, D. W. (2015). Face-to-face interaction: Research, methods, and theory.
Routledge.
Flick, U. (2018). An introduction to qualitative research. Sage Publications Limited.
Hair Jr, J. F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., & Page, M. J. (2015). Essentials of
business research methods. Routledge.
Kaplan, D. (2004). The Sage handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences. sage.
Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2017). Qualitative communication research methods. Sage
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Merriam, S. B., & Grenier, R. S. (Eds.). (2019). Qualitative research in practice: Examples for
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Osman, H., Hemmington, N., & Bowie, D. (2009). A transactional approach to customer loyalty
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Patten, M. L., & Newhart, M. (2017). Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. Routledge.
Patton, M. Q. (1980). Qualitative evaluation methods.

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Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2019). Business research methods. South Western
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Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.
Veal, A. J. (2017). Research methods for leisure and tourism. Pearson UK.
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Yeh, C. M. (2013). Tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction among frontline
hotel employees. Annals of Tourism Research, 42, 214-239.