BU048 Report: Research Strategies and Methodologies Analysis

This report meticulously analyzes the justification for the selection of research strategies and methodologies, focusing on a business research project centered around the acceptance of healthy snacks offered in vending machines within New Zealand. The report explores both qualitative and quantitative research methods, detailing the application of surveys and interviews as primary data collection tools. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each method, including thematic analysis for qualitative data and statistical analysis for quantitative data. The report addresses specific research questions, such as identifying target customers, strategies to promote healthier items, and methods to increase sales on university campuses. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate methodologies to achieve successful research outcomes, considering factors like data accuracy, sufficiency, and the ability to analyze meanings effectively. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the research process, from initial objectives to the application of specific data analysis techniques, and highlights how the chosen methods align with the research goals and objectives.

Justification for Choice of Research strategies and Methodologies
Research strategies and methodologies define the approaches that are used for collecting and
analyzing data in a business research. A research needs to have clear objectives and to
achieve these objectives, it is essential that information collected is correct and accurate.
Also, the data that is collected must be sufficient to be able to analyze. With the selection of
right methodologies for data collection and analysis, the meanings of the data can be better
understood. Every research method has its own strength, weaknesses and most appropriate
applications. When a research needs to be conducted to test an existing theory, a deductive
approach is required but if the researcher is not aware of the prominent patterns of data in the
industry, then one have to use an inductive approach to explore the data for deciphering
patterns (Chilisa & Kawulich, 2011).
The research can use either qualitative methods of research or quantitative research. In
qualitative research, it can use primary research strategy involving interviews with the
potential customers of Earthily Delights to gather data. This data can then be analyzed using
aa qualitative analysis method like thematic analysis. In thematic analysis, the text obtained
from the interviews is analyzed to identify key themes of the research project. These themes
are coded and combined to form a comprehensive list which gives the holistic view of the
research. This method is most appropriate when the researcher is unaware of the categories or
themes that can be directly explored to gather data that can help resolve objectives of the
research. This is an exploratory approach that can help the research in the cases the researcher
is unaware of what is happening in the field of research. With least information already
available on the subject, the researcher can still frame interview questions and gather the data
from the market. Interviews are usually conducted with a limited audience and contain an in-
depth inquiry into the subject with each interview respondent. One drawback of this research
is that it would need personalized attention of the respondent and thus, researcher would have
to dedicate the time for the interview. Also this can be very time consuming. The researcher
should also know the skills of the moderate to be able to gain right and needed responses
from a in interviewee (Hoyos & Barnes, 2012).
Another qualitative research method that can be used is conducting research using the
secondary data from the previous literature. The researcher can collect data from authentic
research sources that have already explored the subject and then analyze the data obtained
through a qualitative method like critical analysis. This research strategy is most appropriate
in the case where the research subject has already been widely explored by other researchers

Justification for Choice of Research strategies and Methodologies
but the topic of the research can still not be resolved because of the lack of unified or
comprehensive views (Bolondi, Branchetti, & Giberti, 2018). The researcher can utilize
critical analysis skills to collectively analyze the data and make necessary interpretations. A
benefit of this research is that the researcher has less dependencies and can easily gather data
which makes the process both easier and faster. However, it also has limitations as the data
that is to be used for the research would be limited and may not be specifically related to the
subject directly. However, this method is very useful in the cases where the data is available
on the subject but is highly unstructured. This unstructured data can be utilized by the
researcher to find out the answers to research questions (Creswell, 2012).
Research can also use quantitative methods of analysis in which a survey can be used as a
method of data collection and a statistical data analysis can then be applied to it to find
answers to research questions. This type of research strategy is most appropriate for the cases
where a theory is already known and a questionnaire can be prepared to test it by involving
respondents in data collection. A benefit of using this approach in a consumer research is that
it enables the researcher to reach out to a wider number of audience to gather data and thus, it
is possible to test theories and assumptions that researcher may form during the research by
investigating the same from the perspective of respondents. The survey is also easier to
administer, less time consuming and more generalizable. For this research strategy, a
statistical tool like SPSS is mostly utilized on which the data obtained is coded and then
analyzed using statistical methods. The data collection happens through a questionnaire that
is designed alongside the research questions so that the responses of the questions can help in
finding answers to the research questions. The questionnaire prepared gives the researcher an
opportunity to make the process more structured and easier for the respondents to follow. A
large number of people can be reached out through surveys and the analysis of results can
then be generalized to a wider business population. This strategy usually involved
identification and proving of a research hypothesis (Williams, 2007).
A quantitative research can also make use of the secondary data available on the subject from
the secondary sources. This method is used when the data needed for the research is readily
available through authentic sources like government websites or have been provided by other
researcher who have studied the similar subject. A drawback of this research approach is that
its interpretation is largely dependent on the limited data that is available. In case the data is
available with another researcher who has conducted a similar research or the subject in the

Justification for Choice of Research strategies and Methodologies
similar subject earlier then the research data can be obtained from the past researcher by
writing to him or her. However, there is a risk of non-response in this case and the researcher
may fail to obtain the data required for the research (Yilmaz, 2013).
To find out what types of customers are more likely to accept the product earthily delight, a
survey can be conducted on the potential customers and they could be asked questions about
the probability of them accepting the product.
1. How to bring attention to healthier items on vending machines versus unhealthier
ones?
To answer this research question, interviews would be conducted involving experts from the
field and the data collected would be unstructured.
2. How to increase the sales of healthier products purchased at vending machines on a
large university campus?
To answer this research question, interviews with experts from the field would help again and
the researcher would be able to discover themes on increase in sales. The themes identified
can also be inserted into the survey questionnaire for testing the effectiveness of the strategies
that are recommended by experts to increase sales (Mittal, 2013).
The most appropriate research methodology to answer the first research question would be
quantitative research with survey involved. The researcher can form a hypothesis out of the
research question which would say that customers will accept earthily delight and then a test
can be run on a data collected through survey to prove this hypothesis for specific categories
of customers. This would reveal the researcher is the new product will gain acceptance in
specific groups of customers.
To answer the second research question, the moist appropriate method would be interview
with the experts in the field who understand the business already. It would involve
respondents from the industry who could be food technologists, food service companies, and
other experts. This approach would help researcher explore different ideas that can help in
making a strategy to bring attention for the vending machine to gain attention of consumers

Justification for Choice of Research strategies and Methodologies
for healthier products. The data collected would be qualitative and would be analyzed using a
thematic analysis procedure. It would reveal major themes that are important for gaining
consumer attention and these can be sued for formulating appropriate strategies around
vending machines.
The third question investigates the possibility of sales strategies being effective in selling the
product which would be done using both interview analysis and survey. While interview
would suggest the sales strategies that can be used for promoting healthy products on vending
machines, the strategies can be tested for their effectiveness through appropriate insertion of
questions in the survey (Williams, 2007).
The aim of this research is to investigate the possibility of acceptance of Healthy Snacks
Offering on Vending Machine in New Zealand. The research can be conducted using
interviews and survey as the primary data collection methods. The research approaches
would be useful and bring successful results here because they allow the researcher to go
directly into the market and test the idea on the consumers themselves. With the opinion of
consumers and those already working in the market obtained, the researcher would be able to
successfully find out if the consumers would be able to accept the new product and what
promotional strategies would work on them.
Comment 1: When working in the group, research process can be easily divided so that task
for each person in the group is limited and the research can be conducted fast
Comment 2: Forming a questionnaire that can help gather data should be effective and
unbiased which needs a researcher to be careful in forming questions and also testing them.
Working in group can be helpful as the questionnaire can be tested within the group for its
effectiveness and accuracy.
References
Bolondi, G., Branchetti, L., & Giberti, C. (2018). A quantitative methodology for analyzing
the impact of the formulation of a mathematical item on students learning assessment.
Studies in Educational Evaluation, 37-50.

Justification for Choice of Research strategies and Methodologies
Chilisa, B., & Kawulich, B. (2011). Selecting a research approach: paradigm, methodology
and method. Research Gate.
Creswell. (2012). The Selection of a Research Approach. In Creswell, Research Design (pp.
3-10). Sage Publications.
Hoyos, M. d., & Barnes, S.-A. (2012). Analysing Interview Data. Warwick Institute for
Employment Research.
Mittal, A. (2013). E-commerce: It’s Impact on consumer Behavior. Global Journal of
Management and Business Studies. , 131-138 .
Scheinin, W., & Hefner., R. (2005). A Comprehensive Survey of Risk Sources and
Categories. Los Angeles, CA: Proceedings of Space Systems Engineering and Risk
Management Symposiums.
Williams, C. (2007). Research Methods. Journal of Business & Economic Research, 5(3), 65-
72. Retrieved from file:///F:/WOrk/Customers/Ahmed/2019/Mar%202019/2532-
Article%20Text-10126-1-10-20110207.pdf
Yilmaz, K. (2013). Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Traditions:
epistemological, theoretical and methodological differences. European Journal of
Education, 48(2).