Jupiter Confectionary Ltd: Quantitative Research Design - Case Study Example

? Executive Summary Jupiter Confectionary Ltd. has proposed a research design methodology that includes printing website address on the new cereal-based breakfast/ snack bars to attract consumer participation. Incentives are also printed on the products to attract consumers to logon to the website and take the survey. This kind of a research design is quantitative in nature which draws on deductive analysis of the data collected and analyzed through statistical methods. However, to draw from the inductive research methodology in addition to the deductive methodology, the company can adopt a mixed research design methodology as it helps in avoiding the pitfalls of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies while helping to take advantage of both simultaneously. Results can also be validated for reliability by implementing both a mixed research design methodology. Table of Contents About the Company Purpose of study Objectives of study Need for a research design Types of research design Advantages of the proposed research design Disadvantages of the proposed research design Alternative research design Conclusions References JUPITER CONFECTIONARY LTD - QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN About the company Jupiter Confectionary Ltd makes a variety of chocolate bars and has recently introduced a healthier range of cereal-based breakfast/snack bars. Purpose of study Jupiter now wants to evaluate customer satisfaction with the new product line. The brand manager has suggested running an online survey, printing the web address on the packaging and offering a prize draw as an incentive for people to participate. Objectives of study 1) To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed research design, and 2) To propose other approaches that might be more appropriate. Need for a Research Design Rose and Sullivan (1996) observed that there exist patterns in the universe, certain specific patterns for all kinds of activities that can be noted on careful observation. These specific patterns in the universe and the behaviour in time can be explained and predicted to a certain extent to a certain accuracy based on the information or data collected at that particular time. However, there is a large amount of data available for a particular activity, that is often confusing, and the researcher needs to select that particular data that is most relevant to the activity in time. Understanding the behaviour of the data collected helps explain complex concepts or theories through developing hypotheses about the relationships that may exist between the data collected. Further, the hypothesis can be validated for correctness and patterns of behaviour collated to explain the theories (Mamia, 2012). While conducting a research design, several aspects of the research are to be considered since the object of research is always dynamic and so the data collected is also changing in time. Further, there are two basic kinds of research design methodologies, descriptive and explanatory. While descriptive research attempts to research what activities happen or exist in the social sphere, explanatory research helps explain why the activities happen or exist. A typical research should include both descriptive and explanatory research as usually, good explanatory research is always built on descriptive research. A research in itself needs to be planned sufficiently to achieve the desired results (Mamia, 2012). Typical research design involves identifying project methodologies, planning the processes and identifying strategies while moulding the research objectives through the methodology and context (Richards, 2006). Types of Research Design Research design can be theoretical or empirical, qualitative or quantitative or a combination of theoretical and empirical, qualitative and quantitative. Research can be aimed at comparison or classification of the available facts through theoretical or empirical frameworks. However, most common method of research design is to use both theoretical and empirical frameworks to analyze and interpret the data. Theoretical research involves studying the problems associated with a set of theories or concepts in a given field and empirical research design concerns studying aspects of a social problem. Research design can further be classified in terms of qualitative and quantitative design where qualitative research design concerns understanding of a research theory in terms of identifying and studying the problem while quantitative research design concerns explaining a particular research problem in terms of empirical evidence. However, both quantitative and qualitative research designs can aim at descriptive or explanatory design. A typical research process is shown in Figure 1: Figure 1: Research process. Source: (Mamia, 2012). It is to be noted that research design can take the form of an entire research process as in figure above, or pertain to a certain aspect of the research process in terms of research methodology. Research design includes four features: “the epistemology that informs the research, the philosophical stance underlying the methodology in question (e.g., post-positivism, constructivism, pragma­tism, advocacy/participatory), the methodology itself, and the techniques and procedures used in the research design to collect data” (Harwell, 2012). However, the methodology is considered the core of the research design and includes quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods of research design. The research design has five components: goals, conceptual framework, research questions, methods and validity (Maxwell, 2008). Qualitative research design: It is a more implicit design and is usually a reflexive process where each design stage of the process influences the other stage. Such a design approach is generally flexible and non-sequential. It is highly interactive that is also less restrictive and has a broader scope for research (Maxwell, 2008). Cognitive psychological principles that explain how people think in a certain time are important in qualitative research design. Cognitive theories have four basic steps: “interpreting the question to deduce its intent; searching the memory for relevant information; integrating that information into a judgment; and, translating that judgment into a response” (Roller, 2011). Qualitative research design helps understand the problem from multiple perspectives and is conducted in a natural setting while involving building of a complex solution to the problem. Qualitative research design considers that assumptions that qualitative research is context-bound, has multiple realities to a given situation or problem, and offers the scope of unearthing different patterns or aspects of behaviour through direct interaction with the sources of information and enables verification of information through triangulation where information is gathered and verified through different sources and research is usually based on inductive forms of research where information gathered from informants is recognized to be value-laden. There are three types of qualitative research design approaches that can be implemented in a research: case study, ethnographic study and phenomenological study (Quantitative and qualitative research, 2012). Case study research is the study of a single case or entity where information is collected from various sources implementing different data collection methods over a certain period of time for a particular activity. Ethnographic study is researching a specific group of individuals in a natural setting over a certain period of time and these group(s) share a common aspect in the social setting which the researcher aims to probe and solve. Phenomenological research study involves intensive study of a certain group of individuals through a detailed explanation of their lives and experiences (Quantitative and qualitative research, 2012). Quantitative research design: Research design is less flexible and is restrictive and takes in a controlled manner within a group or between groups where characteristics are compared. Data is normally analyzed through proposing a hypothesis where the research direction is set by the hypothesis. Data collection in quantitative research design is more structured and helps quantify the incidence of behaviour in the interest group being analyzed. This kind of a research design uses large samples of data for analysis with an aim to generalize the behavioural aspects of an activity of the target group through use of independent and dependent variables. Further, the analysis is more statistical and is also replicable with the objectivity of the research design valued in specific time with short or long term involvement in the research (Highfield, 2011). Human perception and intervention in terms of predicting results is avoided through generalizibility, objectivity and replicability, as well as by using probability theory to test statistical hypothesis that gives direction to the research. Quantitative research design uses experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental design to implement the association of independent and dependent variables (Harwell, 2012). The two major types of quantitative research design are experimental and non-experimental research. While experimental research design involves true and quasi- experimental research methods, non-experimental research design involves surveys and correlation field studies (Donohue, 2012). “Quantitative research is an inquiry into an identified problem, based on testing a theory, measured with numbers, and analyzed using statistical techniques” (Quantitative and qualitative research, 2012). The basic assumptions of a quantitative research design are that reality can be studied objectively through generalizations that contribute to the hypothesis and which enable the researcher to predict, explain and understand a phenomenon. While the opinions of the researcher are avoided to make the research value-free, research design is based on deductive form of logic and theories where hypothesis is tested in a cause-effect order. While experiments involve the random assignment of subjects to experimental conditions under the use of experimental controls, quasi-experiments involve use of non-random assignment of subjects and surveys involve cross-sectional and longitudinal studies with an intent to estimating the behaviour of a group of subjects based on a smaller sample of subjects through use of questionnaires and interviews (Quantitative and qualitative research, 2012). Mixed method of research design: This is a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research design and tries to bridge the gap between the two. This kind of research methodology involves collecting multiple kinds of data using different strategies that complement the two kinds of data collection without overlapping of their weaknesses. This type of research design enables testing of results of the two kinds of research design for agreement, clarifying or verifying and building of results of one method with the other and demonstrate how results from one method can impact results of another method. There are six overlapping mixed method research designs: sequential explanatory design, sequential exploratory design, sequential transformative design, concurrent triangulation design, concurrent nested design and concurrent transformative design (Harwell, 2012). Advantages of the Proposed Research Design The proposed research design by Jupiter Confectionary Ltd. tends to be quantitative in nature as the company aims to understand, predict and explain consumer behaviour for its new product line of cereal based breakfast/ snack bars. The company’s decision to print the website on the product is in line with the quantitative research design strategy of experimental setup where random selection of subjects is enabled. Consumers who choose to logon to the website to take the survey form the random subject in the experimental setup of the research design. It helps avoid researcher perspective influencing the survey results while maintaining the objectivity of the design. It also helps generalize the results based on a hypothesis that is not evident in this study but can be considered by the researching company. The research can be conducted over a short or long period of time with a large sample of data being collected that helps in generalizing the results across the group of consumers. Results of the research can be replicated as large amounts of data will be used and statistical methods of analysis can be implemented which makes it easy to analyze large data. As large amount of data is analyzed through statistical methods, human intervention and perception is avoided to help deduce results from data collected. Further, this also helps in generalizing the data and in replicating for further analysis while being cost-efficient. Based on a hypothesis that the company can develop for research analysis, results can be predicted, understood and explained to help the company develop specific strategies for improvement. Disadvantages of the Proposed Research Design The proposed research design by the company has certain disadvantages for the company as it needs a hypothesis to be formulated based on which the survey questionnaire can be formulated. Since the hypothesis is not charted, and since such a quantitative, experimental research design depends on deductive form of research, it becomes difficult to generalize objectively. Also, the research requires that large amounts of data be collected for analysis and replication which becomes difficult in context as the number of consumers who may logon and take the survey is an independent variable in the research design. Also, as the company plans an online survey, security and privacy of consumer information needs to be taken care of, which can affect the confidence of the subjects. Such ethical considerations need to be incorporated in to the research design, without which consumers may not show an interest in giving information. Further, even when ethical considerations are promptly identified and incorporated into the research design, consumer participation cannot be guaranteed. Quantitative research design in inflexible and cannot deal with the context in the social sphere it is aimed at and becomes unreliable and non-standardised as there is loss of richness of data. Also, surveys have their set of problems as there can be meaningless data, results generated beyond the sample and inadequate sampling design. Although, quantitative research design helps in repeated measures, some of the variables cannot or should not be manipulated as it can skew the outcomes of the research. Alternative Research Design As an alternative design approach, the company can consider adopting mixed research design as it avoids the pitfalls in both quantitative and qualitative research designs while complementing strengths in both approaches. Multiple strategies can be adopted in conducting the research which then enables the company to analyze results with multi-dimensional viewpoints being engaged during research, analysis and prediction, explanation and understanding of research outcomes. Where there are weaknesses in both quantitative and qualitative research designs, the same can be avoided but advantages of both design methodologies can be leveraged at the same time for the benefit of the company’s overall strategy formulation. Further, the results obtained from one method of research design can also be used to build and derive results for the other research design methodology. Mixed method of research design enables both deductive and inductive form of analysis and also enables a certain amount of freedom in the design. External viewpoints can be incorporated while restrictive analysis can be conducted to leverage advantages of both forms of research design as it helps gain a holistic picture of the research problem. Research results of one form of design can be verified against another form of research design which is the most important advantage of a mixed method of research design as it helps in achieving more reliable results that can be repeated objectively in time. Conclusions Jupiter Confectionary Ltd’s proposed plan for research design primarily includes quantitative research that incorporates experimental design for data gathering and analysis. Quantitative research design has its strengths and weaknesses as it enables large amounts of data to be collected without the intervention of the researcher while being cost effective. At the same time, its shortcomings in terms of lack of efficient sampling method and low consumer confidence hamper the implementation. The company would do good to adopt a mixed method for framing its research design as it enables avoiding the pitfalls in both kinds of research design: quantitative and qualitative while incorporating advantages of both to achieve the desired results. References Donohue, R. 2012. Quantitative research designs. Available online: http://wms-soros.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/NR/ANZAM/docs/RossDonohue_December2007.pdf Accessed on: 06th August 2012. Harwell, RM. 2012. Research Design in Qualitative/Quantitative/Mixed Methods. University of Minnesota. Highfield, M. 2011. Research designs: quantitative and qualitative. Available online: http://www.csun.edu/~meh20426/310/7QuantitativeDesign.pdf Accessed on: 06th August 2012. Mamia, T. 2012. Quantitative research methods. ISSS. Maxwell, AJ. 2008. Designing a Qualitative Study. Available online: http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/23772_Ch7.pdf Accessed on: 06th August 2012. Quantitative and qualitative research. 2012. Available online: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/ssarc/sshonors/webdocs/Qual%20and%20Quant.pdf Accessed on: 06th August 2012. Richards. 2006. Qualitative research design. Thinking research. Roller, RM. 2011. Qualitative Research Design: Selected Articles from Research Design Review. Roller Marketing Research. Read More