Research Methodology and Philosophy - Essay Example

4.0 Research Methodology Introduction This section includes the details of the research methodology. The methodology of a research work is composedof several stages that eventually leads to a successful research work and yields accurate results and findings. The research methodology discussed in this section reflects the overview of how the research work will be conducted. It describes the processes and methods involved in data collection and data analysis and the overall philosophical approach of the research work. It also gives an overall idea to the reader on how the researcher has approached to answer the research questions (Phellas 2006). The research methodology suggests that the research work is divided in to several stages and how each of them has been addressed in the research work. The stages are research philosophy, approach, strategies, choices, and techniques. The stages will be discussed in details in the next sections and it will be discussed in regards to the research work. The research philosophy focuses on the philosophical outlook of the researcher that influences the research work. The research philosophy determines the path in which the research work will be pursued. It can be roughly divided in to two segments, Objectivist approach and Subjectivist approach. The objective approach is associated with quantities research approach and it focuses on the positivism, scientific study and experimentalism. On the other hand the subjective approach is focused on the qualitative, interpretive and voluntarism. This research work is based on the positivist approach where the research philosophy is strictly objectivist in nature. The positivism paradigm suggests that only the factual information is worthy of consideration for any research work. Positivism also indicates that the role of the researcher is quite limited to collection of raw data and its objective interpretation. There are no room for personal judgement or personal biasness. This principle is solely dependent on the quantifiable observation, which requires statistical analysis to extract the required information to answer the research questions (Cullen 2006).The positivism approach has allowed the research to proceed in a mechanistic approach of assessing the corporate social performance of different firms and industries. This approach will remove the room for any personal biases, which as a result will yield results of higher quantitative accuracy. The research approach can be of two types, deductive approach and inductive approach. In a deductive approach the research works in a top down perspective where starts with a predefined theory. The inductive approach can be also considered as a bottom up approach, where the researcher starts with a general observation and ends up in formulating a theory(Krivokapic-Skoko and ONeill 2011). This research work is based on a deductive approach where the research will try to find out the driver of CSP and whether or not the CSP exhibits the desired characteristics as depicted in the theories. This approach will help to find out the relevance of the exiting theories by justifying them with observation. This as a result will offer a more relevant outcome, which can utilize to make judgements on the driver and effectiveness of corporate social performance. The research strategy indicates the type of data collection process to be undertaken for conducting the research work. The process of data collection is one of the most important processes of a research work. It offers the researcher with the relevant data on which the analytical study will be made. The research study can be of following types, archival, survey and case study (Jacob 2011). The archival and case study survey are the secondary research methods, whereas the survey is the primary research method. The primary data are collected from conducting surveys on a group of respondents and gather data from their responses. The primary data is considered to offer a clear reflection of the responses of the sample group. On the other hand the secondary data is gathered from secondary sources, which have been created, by some other researcher or entity. The research work will be conducted by using a secondary data collected from Bloomberg. The secondary data are the ones which have been collected from secondary sources and are usually historic in nature (Taneja 2007). Secondary data can be collected from sources such as books, journal articles, credible websites and other online databases. This research paper will be conducted by using the data gathered from Bloomberg, which mainly focuses in the drivers of CSP in B2B and B2C in different industry. Bloomberg is a third party website that can be considered as a credible source of secondary data for the research work. Bloomberg offers quantitative data of firm performance of different firms all across the world. It mostly gathers its information from the financial statements and the annual reports of the companies. It also publishes several case studies on corporate incidents that can be used to draw significant conclusions on a particular topic of discussion. Bloomberg also published several sustainability reports of firms and industries and what trend they are following (Bloomberg 2015). The research choices are based on the type data and analysis used to conduct the research work. There can be three types of research choices, Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed methods. The qualitative research is based on qualitative or descriptive data gathered from the data collection process. This type of data is mostly subjective and cannot be quantified. Quantitative methods gather numeric data that can be analysed and makecalculations, The research conduct statistical analysis and can interpret the data to derive relevant information required to answer the research questions(Sãveanu 2012). This research work will be conducted by collecting quantitative data from Bloomberg regarding CSP and the financial performances for different firms from different countries. The quantitative data provided by Bloomberg will help the researcher to proceed with a mathematical approach. This as a result will make it easier to yield more accurate and unbiased outcomes. Data analysis is the most vital stage of the entire research work, as this stage yields the relevant information required for the researcher to answer the research questions and meet the research objectives, In this stage the research analyses the gathered data by using statistical tools and other descriptive methods such as charts or graphs to make a better understanding of the data, so that a relevant conclusive statement can be made from the research work(Phellas 2006).In case of quantitative research, the research mostly uses statistical tools and formulae to analyse the numeric data and derive meaningful information from them. In this research the data analysis has been conducted by using statistical tools like SPSS and Excel to analyse the numerical data collected from Bloomberg to derive to a conclusive statement that will answer the research questions. The data analysis will help to extract the required information from the raw data collected from Bloomberg. This information will help the researcher to answer the research questions and follow the research objectives. The quantitative data analysis have allowed the researcher to It will help to identify the driver of CSP and correlation with the financial performance of the firms, thereby proving the relevance and importance of the CSP.This research methodology will help to gather relevant quantitative data for the research on the corporate social performance. It is focused on a positivist paradigm, which will help to achieve on an objectified research analysis. All the factual data collected from Bloomberg will be used for quantitative analysis of the corporate social performance of the firms. The quantitative approach has been chosen mostly because it offers an unbiased approach to the research. The secondary data will help to conduct the research in a more time efficient manner. This research methodology will help to ensure that the research work is being progressed in the desired manner. References Bloomberg. 2015. Access May 24, http://www.bloomberg.com/. Cullen, Mairi-Ann. 2006. "The Essential Guide to Doing Research." British Journal of Educational Psychology 76: 201-202. http://search.proquest.com/docview/216960949?accountid=10382. Jacob, Wallace. 2011. "The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project." Vision 15 (3): 297-299. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1503059434?accountid=10382. Krivokapic-Skoko, Branka, and Grant ONeill. 2011. "Beyond the Qualitative-Quantitative Distinction: Some Innovative Methods for Business and Management Research." International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 5 (3): 290-300. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1022036781?accountid=10382. Phellas, Constantinos N. 2006. "Review: Keith F. Punch (2005). Introduction to Social Research-Quantitative & Qualitative Approaches." Forum : Qualitative Social Research 7 (2). http://search.proquest.com/docview/869232095?accountid=10382. Sãveanu, Sorana. 2012. "Introducing Research Methodology. A Beginners Guide to Doing a Research Project." Journal of Social Research & Policy 3 (1): 127-130. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1318921008?accountid=10382. Taneja, Pawan Kumar. 2007. "Research Methodology: Methods & Techniques." Journal of Services Research 7 (2): 197-197. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=27617097&site=ehost-live. Read More