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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Unit – I and II
INTRODUCTION and MEASUREMENT
CONCEPTS

CHAPTER OUTLINE
 Definition of Research
 Nature and Importance of research
 Role/Significance of research in business
 Aims and types of social research
 Research process
 Tools of collecting data
 Questionnaire and Schedules
 Measurement scale
 Pilot study and pre - tests
 Sampling design and sampling procedures
 Methods of processing data
 SPSS
 Report Presentation

Definition
 “Manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of
generalizing and to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether
that knowledge aids in the construction of a theory or in the practice
of an art”. - D. Slesinger and M. Stephenson
 “The systematic and objective analysis and recording of controlled
observations that may lead to the development of generalizations,
principles of theories, resulting in prediction and possibly ultimate
control of events” – John W. Best
 “Scientific research consists of obtaining information through
empirical observation that can be used for the systematic
development of logically related propositions attempting to establish
casual relations among variables.” – Black and Champion


Definition – contd.
 Research means:
 Search for facts – answers to questions and solutions
to problems
 Purposive investigation
 Organized inquiry
 Explanations to unexplained phenomenon
 Clarify doubtful propositions
 Correct misconceived facts
 Research can be
a) arbitrary method or
b) scientific method

Nature/Characteristics of
Research
Research is:
 Search for truth: quality of being in agreement with facts or reality
 Search for Knowledge: through objective and systematic method of finding
solution to a problem or answer to a question
 Process driven: defining the problem, formulating a hypothesis or objective,
collecting the facts or data, analyzing the same and reaching certain
conclusions
 To see: what everybody has seen and think what nobody else has thought.”
 Systematic and critical investigation into a phenomenon
 Purposive investigation: aims at describing, interpreting and explaining a
phenomenon
 Adopts scientific method
 Objective and Logical: applying possible tests to validate the measuring tools
and the conclusions reached
 Based upon Observable experience or empirical evidence
 Directed towards finding answers to Pertinent questions and solutions to
problems
 Emphasizes the development of generalizations; principles or theories.
 Not biased

Importance of research
Research:
 Extends the frontiers of knowledge
 Brings to light information that is hidden
 Builds new theories
 Increases our ability to handle situations and events in a better manner
 Enables reliable predictions
 Helps in analyzing inter-relationships between variables
 Finds solutions to problems
 Explains unknown phenomena's
 Aids planning
 Helps in evaluating policies and programs
 Aids in rational decision making
 Aids in formulating policies
 Promotes critical thinking and logical way of thinking
 Helps in innovation
 Helps in Economic development

Role/Significance of research in
business
Research helps in
 Quick and objective decisions
 Providing facts and figures which enable in decision making and choosing
the right alternative
 Enabling logical decision making
 Identifying new project, project feasibility and project implementation
 POSDCORB
 Framing business policy and strategy by evaluating environmental factors
 Product/market/process/production(new or existing) development
 Structuring functional areas
 Making purchase decisions
 Monitoring and evaluating economic condition of business and people –
funds management, asset management, optimum capital mix, matching of
funds, inflows and outflows, cash control, pricing etc.,
 Job design, job analysis, job assignment, scheduling work breaks etc.,

Aims and types of social
research
“Social research is a systematic method of exploring, analyzing and conceptualizing social life in order to
extend, or verify knowledge whether that knowledge aid in the construction of a theory or a practice
of an art.” – P.V. Young
Types of Social Research:
 Anthropology
 Behavior science
 Commerce
 Demography
 Economics
 Education
 Geography
 History
 Law
 Linguistics
 Management
 Political sciences
 Psychology
 Public administration
 Sociology
 Social work

Aims and types of social
research
Aims of social research:
 Discovery of facts and their interpretation
 Diagnosis of problems and their analysis
 Systemization of knowledge
 Control over social phenomena
 Prediction
 Development planning
 Social welfare

The Research Process
 Selection of a problem for Research
 Identification of a few problems and selecting one out of them,
after evaluating the alternatives against certain selection criteria
 Formulation of the selected Research
 Selected problem is defined and transformed into researchable
questions
 Formulation of hypotheses
 The propositions to be tested are set up
 Conceptualization
 The concepts associated with the problem under study are
operationally defined and measurement devices are designed
 Research plan or design
 Covers all the aspects of the selected research work and serves
as a blue-print for endeavor.

- Selection of a problem for research
 Sources of problems
 Reading
 Academic experience
 Daily experience
 Exposure to field situations
 Consultations
 Brain storming
 Research
 Intuition
 Process of identification
 Selection of the discipline
 Demarcating the broad area or a particular aspect of the selected
subject
 Identifying two or more specific topics in the selected broad area

- Selection of a problem for research contd…
 Criteria of selection
 Internal(or personal) criteria or factors
 Researcher’s interest
 Researcher’s competence, and
 Researcher’s own resources – finances & time
 External factors
 Researchability of the problem
 Its importance and urgency
 Novelty of the problem
 Feasibility
 Facilities
 Usefulness and social relevance, and
 Research personnel

- Formulation of the selected Research
 Translating and transforming the selected
research problem/topic into a scientifically
researchable question.
 It should include both the what and the why
aspects
 Merton identifies 3 principal components in
progressive formulation for research:
 The originating question(what one wants to
know?)
 The rationale(why aspects)
 The specifying questions(possible answers to the
originating questions)

- Formulation of the selected Research contd….
 Formulation process
 Developing title
 Building a conceptual model
 Defining the objective of the study
 Setting investigative questions
 Formulation of hypotheses
 Operational definition of concepts
 Delimiting the scope of the study

The Research Process - Research Design or
Plan
Constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis
of data.
The contents of a research plan:
• Introduction • The significance of the study
• Statement of the problem • Geographical area to be covered
• Review of the previous studies • Reference period
• Scope of the study • Methodology
• Objective of the study • Sampling plan
• Conceptual model • Tools for gathering data
• Hypotheses • Plan of analysis
• Operational definition of concepts • Chapter scheme
• Time budget • Financial budget

Data collection methods
Meaning of data
“are facts and other relevant materials, past and present,
serving as bases for study and analyses”
Types of data
 Personal data
 Demographic and socio-economic characteristics of individuals –
social class, religion, martial status, education, occupation,
income, family size, location of the household, life style, etc..
 Behavioral variables – Attitudes, opinions, awareness,
knowledge, intentions, etc.
 Organizational data
 Territorial data

Data collection methodscontd…
Sources of data:
 Secondary data
 Data which has been already been collected and compiled for
another purpose
 Sources of data:
 Statistical statements, published articles and journals, annual reports,
government reports, research already conducted by various
institutes, newspapers, national survey’s, etc.,
 Primary data
 Data which is collected directly by the researchers from their
original sources based on the research needs.
 Methods of data collection:
 Interviewing, observation, panel method, expert opinion, mail
survey, experimentation, simulation, and projective techniques

Tools of collecting data
Various methods of data gathering involve the use of
appropriate recording forms, these are called tools or
instruments of data collection.
 Observation schedule or observationnaire
 Interview guide
 Mailed questionnaire
 Rating scale
 Check list
 Opinionnaire
 Document schedule/ data sheet
 Schedule for institutions
 Inventories

- Construction of schedules and
questionnaires
 Schedules and questionnaires are set of
questions prepared for eliciting responses
from the respondents.
 Schedule is filled by the interviewer and
questionnaire is filled in by the respondent
himself

- Construction of schedules and questionnaires
contd…
 Process of Construction
 Data need determination
 Preparation of dummy tables
 Determination of the respondents level
 Data gathering method decision
 Instrument drafting
 Evaluation of the draft instrument
 Pre-testing
 Specification of procedures/instructions
 Designing the format

contd…
 Question Construction
 Depends on the kind of information to be collected
 Factual information – facts about the respondent: sex, age,
marital status, education, religion, caste or social class,
income and occupation; and facts about events and
circumstances
 Psychological information – attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and
expectations, and
 Behavioral information – social participation, usage, etc.,
 4 major decision areas in question construction:
 Question relevance and content
 Question wording
 Response form or types of questions
 Question order or sequence

contd…
 Characteristics of a good schedule/questionnaire:
 Achieves all research objectives
 Relevant questions asked
 The best information which can be gathered using this tool are only collected
 Does not contain questions which are unclear, ambiguous, double, leading, loaded or
uninformative, and long.
 Less usage of open ended questions
 Does not contain questions which are beyond the memory span of respondents
 Contains questions which can be answered quickly and easily as possible
 Avoids unwanted presumptions about the respondents
 Does not bias or distort replies to be given
 Questions are adequate, reasonable, uni-dimensional and logically consistent
 Each question is limited to a single idea or single reference
 No embarrassing questions are given
 Appropriate balance between personalization and indirect form is maintained
 Questions are arranged in a logical and psychological sequence
 Design requirements are taken care of.
 Appropriate introduction and instructions are included
 Instrument has been adequately pre-tested and revised before going live.

Measurement scale and Indices
 Scales are devised for measuring variables in
social science research.
 Indices and scales are often used
interchangeably to refer to all sorts of
measures, absolute or relative, single or
composite, simple or elaborate.
 Scaling refers to procedure by which numbers
or scores assigned to the various degrees of
opinions, attitudes and other concepts.

contd…
 Scales Classification
 Subject matter
 Attitude, social distances, socio-economic status, and other
variables
 Scaling methods or techniques
(a) Arbitrary scales, (b) Judgment Scales, (c) Item analysis
scales, (d) Rating scales, (e) ranking scales, (f) Cumulative
scales, and (g) Factorial scales
 Scale function
 Predictive or reproductively powers of scales
 Levels of measurement
 Nominal ordinal, interval or ratio sclaes
 Number of dimensions
 Unidimensional(measures only one dimension of the
respondent or object, e.g., attitude, opinion, job satisfaction,
durability and so on.)
 Multidimensional

contd…
 Arbitrary scales
 Finding out response towards certain attributes
Eg:-
How do you regard your company’s reputation
Bad………..Good
As a pay master
Bad………..Good
As a provider of promotional opportunities
Bad………..Good

contd…
 Judgment Scales: Thurstone differential scale
 Used for determining certain items or variables relevance
to the topic area, clarity and degrees of favorableness
towards a object
 Example:
 Faculty feed back form
 Social Distance scale

contd…
 Item analysis scales: Likert’s summated scale
 Used for measuring ordinal attributes like attitudes, it is
designed to measure the intensity with which an altitude
is expressed.
Example:
 Buying and selling skills test
 Buying and selling skills test measurement

contd…
 Rating scales
 It gives a measure of ones actual position on the
judgment continuum. Eg., Performance appraisal rating
of an employee
 It may be in the form of
 Graphic rating scale
 Itemized scale

contd…
 Rating scales
 Graphic rating scale
1. Is the teacher interested in his subject?
Intensely
interested
Mildly interested Rather more
disinterested
Subject boring to
him
2. How does the teacher act towards students?
Courteous Considerate Occasionally
cutting
Sarcastic

contd…
 Rating scales
 Itemized scale
How does the employee get along with his fellow workers?
He is almost always involved in some friction or argument with fellow
workers.
He is often at odds with one or more of his fellow workers.
He sometimes gets involved in friction
He rarely becomes involved in friction with others, definitely less often
than most of the men
He almost never gets involved in friction situations with fellow workers

contd…
 Ranking scales
 Is meant for arranging objects or person in order from
most to least with regard to some attribute. E.g. ranking
students, two wheelers in the order of fuel efficiency, etc.,
 Methods of ranking
 Simple ranking
 Paired comparison method
 Method of successive categories

contd…
 Cumulative scale or scalogram
 This method is similar Likert’s scale with a difference being
that that, it is possible to know which item he has answered
positively.
 Factor scaling
 Developed to identify the multi-dimensions of a complex
attitude. The factor analysis is a statistical technique based
on inter correlations among all the items in a scale in order
to uncover the underlying(latent) dimensions or factors.
 Semantic Differential Scale(SD scale)
Good ---------------- --------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ Bad
Strong ---------------- --------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ Weak
Fast ---------------- --------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ Slow

Sampling design and
procedures
 The aggregate of all the units pertaining to a study is
called population or the universe.
 If all the elements in the population are studied it is
called a census study.
 If only a part of the population is picked up for study, it is
called sample study.
 A member of the population is an element on which
measurement is taken, it is the unit of study.
 The process of drawing a sample from a larger
population is called sampling.
 The list of sampling units from which a sample is taken
is called the sampling frame, e.g., a map, a telephone
directory, a list of credit card holders, etc.,

Sampling design and procedures
contd…
 Characteristics of a good sample:
 Representativeness
 Valid representative
 Accuracy
 Unbiased – no difference between sample value and
population value
 Precision
 Precise estimate – measured by the standard error or
standard deviation of the sample estimate
 Size
 Adequate and reliable

contd…
 Advantage of sampling:
 Reduces the time and cost of research studies
 Saves labor
 Quality of study
 Provides quicker results
 Limitations of sampling
 Through knowledge of sampling methods and procedures
required
 Smaller sample size might not be useful all the time
 Complicated sampling plan may require more labor
 Difference in sample value and population value might
occur

Sampling techniques or methods
 Probability random sampling:
 Is based on theory of probability, also known as
random sampling, provides chance for selecting
each population element.
 Non – probability or non – random sampling:
 Does not provide chance for selection of each
population element. Its simple convenient and low
cost

 Simple random sampling
 Stratified random sampling
 Cluster sampling
 Area sampling
 Multi – stage and sub – sampling
 Random sampling with probability proportional to
size
 Double sampling and multiphase sampling
 Replicated or interpenetrating sampling

 Convenience or accidental sampling
 Purposive(or judgment) sampling
 Quota sampling
 Snow-ball sampling

 Random sampling procedures:
 Securing representative sample
 The method of section must be independent of human judgment
 Three basic procedures
 The lottery method
 The use of table of random numbers( Kendall & smith, Fisher & Yates, and
Tippet)
 Use of computer
 Simple random sampling
 Equal probability of selection
 Stratified random sampling
 The population is sub-divided into homogeneous groups or strata, and
from each stratum, random sample is drawn.
 Proportionate stratified sampling
 Disproportionate stratified random sampling

 Systematic sampling or fixed interval method
 It consists of taking every Kth item in the population after a random start
with an item from 1 to K, for example population 300, 20 sample size
300/20 = 15, selecting number between 1 to 15 randomly(eg. 9), than
numbers elected are 9, 24(9+15), 39(24+15), etc…
 Cluster sampling
 Useful where population elements are scattered over a wider area and
list of population elements are not available.
 Radom selection of sampling units consisting of population elements.
Than from each selected sampling unit a sample of population elements
is drawn by either by simple random for stratified random sampling
method.
 Area sampling
 Is an important form of cluster sampling. In larger field surveys, clusters
consisting of specific geographical areas like districts, talukas, villages or
blocks in a city are randomly drawn.

 Multi – stage and sub – sampling
 Sampling is carried out in two or more stages. The population is regarded
as being composed of a number of first stae sampling units, each of them
is made up of a number of second stage units and so forth.
 Used where the population is scattered over a wide geographical area
and no frame or list is available for sampling and when survey has to be
made in a limited time and cost.
 Random sampling with probability proportional to size(PPS)
 If one primary cluster has twice as large a population as another, I is
given twice the chance of being selected. Selection procedure:-
 Draw a list of clusters with their size measures
 Cumulate the size measures in sequences
 Divide the list into a certain appropriate number of equal zones/ strata with
references to cumulated measure.
 Select the required equal number of sample in each zone, applying preferably
systematic selection with a random start
 Draw a same fixed number of population elements from each selected cluster
at random

 Double sampling and multiphase sampling
 The different phases of observation relate to sample units of
the same type.
 Useful when it is more convenient and economical to collect
certain items of general information and sub – sample for
special information.
 Replicated or interpenetrating sampling
 Involves selection of certain number of sub-samples rather
than one full sample from a population.
 Eg. In order to study the views of postgraduates students of a
university on semester system a random sample of 300
students(out of a total population of 3000 students distributed
over different disciplines like Economics, sociology, statistics,
mathematics, management etc.,) is to be drawn adopting
discipline based stratified sampling

 Convenience or accidental sampling
 Hit and miss policy
 Purposive(or judgment) sampling
 Selection of sample units that confirm to some pre-
determined criteria(based on personal judgment)
 Quota sampling
 Selection of accessible sampling units by traits such as
sex, age, social class, etc.(non – randomly)
 Snow-ball sampling
 Building a list or a sample of a special population by
using an initial set of its members as informants.

Sampling design and
procedures
 Sample design
 Sample design is a plan for drawing a sample from a
population
 The preparation of a sample design involves the
following procedures:-
 Relevant population
 Is dependent upon the research problem.
 Sampling frame
 List of population elements from which the sample is drawn.
 Sampling method
 Parameters of interest
 Sample size
 Sample cost

Sampling design and
procedures
 Criteria for selecting sampling techniques
 Purpose of the survey
 Measurability
 Degree of precision
 Information about population
 The nature of the population(homogeneous or
heterogeneous)
 Geographical area of the study and the size of the
population
 Financial resources
 Time limitation
 Economy

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