Formulation of research problems, research questions, and choice of research design Flashcards
One way to construct relevant research questions is to first consider research problems. Are we lacking knowledge about an important issue? Is there a practical problem that needs solving? Another way is to consider the cost of not solving a problem, like not solving the climate crisis.
To motivate and focus the research
Charting the territory means to learn about the topic area, which includes looking for previous conceptual papers and research studies. In social sciences, research questions:
May motivate theory development
When evaluating a research question, it is important that it….
is relevant, researchable and represents a gap in knowledge
Charting the territory means to learn about the topic area, which includes looking for previous conceptual papers and research studies. In social sciences, research questions:
May motivate theory development.
Which answer best describes a case-study design?
It emphasizes a full contextual analysis of a few events or conditions and their interrelations.
What is a cross-sectional research design and how does it relate to causality?
Data is collected at a specific point in time from a cross-section of respondents, so concluding causal inference is weak.
What is the research design?
It is the plan for how a research project will be conducted.
With respect to Professor Wedlin’s lecture on research design, which statement DOES NOT describe why a research design is needed?
A research design:
Facilitates the formation of a research question that is relevant and researchable.
True experiments with randomly assigned subjects and control groups are unusual in social sciences, including economics and business studies. More often, you will see quasi- experimental designs like the Mexican music and sales of Mexican food example. The subjects (the people shopping) were not randomly assigned to shop in stores with/without Mexican music playing. In 2019 and again in 2021, the Nobel Prize winners for economics employed what is now widely known as “natural experiments”. Professor Wedlin talked about this. What is a natural experiment?
An event occurs to a specific group of people outside the control of the researchers, but in such a way as to resemble random assignment. Data is collected from before and after the event, and causality is established.
Of these statistical methods, which one is associated with a causal research design?
Regression
What is a cross-sectional research design and what is one of its greatest weaknesses?
Data is collected at a specific point in time, so concluding causal inference is weak
Constructs can have theoretical definitions and operational definitions. What is the purpose of operationalizing a construct?
Operationalization specifies how a construct will be measured.
You do a study amongst students in the business program about loyalty to smartphone brands. You measure their satisfaction, trust, and brand attachment to their current phone, and ask them whether they intend to buy the same brand on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is “absolutely no” and 7 is absolutely yes”. What statistical analysis would you use to test purchase intent?
Regression analysis
What sort of research methods are most commonly associated with a deductive research approach?
Quantitative methods
Assume that there are 500 people in a population and they are all on a list. You want a random sample of 50. You add the first 10 names to a hat and have a friend randomly pick one of the names. Starting with that name, you take every tenth person thereafter. In this way, you get
a sample of 50. What kind of sample is this?
Probability sample
