Chapter 6 Researching Your Subject
Chapter 6 Researching Your Subject
Chapter 6 Researching Your Subject
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CHAPTER 6
RESEARCHING YOUR SUBJECT
2
TYPES OF RESEARCH
ACADEMIC
RESEARCH
PRIMARY
RESEARCH
&
SECONDAR
Y
RESEARCH
WORKPLACE
RESEARCH
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Understand the differences between
Academic and Workplace research
Example Example
1.What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health in 1.What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of
the general population? our organisational employees?
2. What is the perceived effect of VAT on the country’s economy? 2. How can our construction company effectively reduce, plan, and
manage scaffolding costs ?
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THE RESEARCH PROCESS
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THE RESEARCH PROCESS
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THE RESEARCH PROCESS
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ALWAYS CHOOSE APPROPRIATE
RESEARCH METHODS
Print Empirical
Sources Sources
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CONDUCTING SECONDARY RESEARCH 12
Know the four types of information media:
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PRINT MEDIA
NEWSPAPER
BOOKS MAGAZINES
S
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ONLINE DATABASE
An online research database is an electronic collection of information that include
scholarly articles, books, journals, reports, magazines, books, and newspapers.
Some research databases also include video, images, and more.
An online database allows users to create, store, and manage data in one centralized
online location.
Online databases are often used to manage business data such as customer data,
medical information, sales data, and inventory.
Libraries purchase access to online databases for patron use.
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ONLINE DATABASE - SQU
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TRADITIONAL RESEARCH
TOOLS
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1. ONLINE CATALOG
Periodicals: A publication issued or produced at regular intervals – weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually
Examples of Periodicals: Journal, Magazine, Newspaper
Periodicals are excellent sources of information-they offer recent, authoritative discussions of limited
subjects
Periodical Index: A periodical index is a subject, author and keyword index to a selected list of
periodicals; it's the key to finding articles on a particular topic.
Some periodical indexes contain abstracts or brief summaries of the articles. A few contain the full text or
entire content of whole articles as they originally appeared in the periodical.
Eg: Business Periodical Index
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4. NEWSPAPER INDEX
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5. ABSTRACT SERVICES
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6. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
Government Information include government
publications on:
Statistical data
Publication
of laws & official
announcements
Census data
Guides, Reports & Official Records
Eg: Official Gazette- Ministry of Justice &
Legal Affairs; Ministry of Tourism
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IF LIBRARY DOES NOT HAVE A
SOURCE/ARTICLE YOU ARE SEEKING:
DOCUMENT-
INTERLIBRARY LOAN
DELIVERY SERVICE
Your library finds another library that Document delivery service (DDS)
has the article you are seeking or document supply service “refers
to the physical or electronic delivery
of a document from a library
collection to the residence or place
That library photocopies the article of business of a library user, upon
and sends it/faxes to your library request.”
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USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
RESEARCH
Social media broadly refers to websites or applications that focus on communication and
shared, community-generated content.
Advantage of social media for research: speed and ease of content; Disadvantage: Lack of
formal review of content
There are several different types of social media platforms, each with their own purpose, such as
Social & professional networking (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
bookmarking(Pinterest)
sharing news (Reddit, Digg)
sharing media (Instagram, TikTok)
and blogging (Tumblr)
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Understand forms of social media and web
based resources :
DISCUSSION
WIKIS BLOGS
BOARDS
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CATEGORIES OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
DISCUSSION
BOARDS WIKIS BLOGS
- - - Informational website published on World
Online bulletin board or online Web site where members create
discussion forums to tap or seek and edit content collaboratively Wide Web with articles from several
community’s information disciplines
- Be careful when you use Wikis-
- Sponsored by professional - Private companies and organisations provide
may not be trustworthy
organisations and private companies useful information on blogs for researchers
- Eg: Wikipedia, Wikihow
- Eg: Kialo, Moodle, Yo Teach
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Eg: IBM Blog
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2 techniques for finding information on social 28
media:
Tagging and RSS Feeds
Tagged Content RSS Feeds
Tags are descriptive keywords to label internet RSS- Rich Site Summary OR Really
content
Simple Syndication
This helps researchers to find information Feature available on sites to receive
Blog tags and social media tags alerts on new content posted on a
Eg: One word descriptors OR multiword website
descriptors OR Hashtag (#) on Twitter used to Eliminates wastage of time on
aggregate information on a topic
checking posts on a website
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EVALUATING SECONDARY SOURCES
OF INFORMATION
COMPREHENSIV
ACCURATE UNBIASED
E
APPROPRIATELY
CURRENT CLEAR
TECHNICAL
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EVALUATING SECONDARY SOURCES
OF INFORMATION
• Does the source support its arguments and conclusions with evidence?
UNBIASED
• Does the information promote any agenda?
• Is the information presented objectively?
• Is the source free of advertising?
COMPREHENSI • A source is comprehensive if it provides both sides of an argument or more than one viewpoint.
Although you can use sources that do not provide more than one viewpoint, you need to balance them
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EVALUATING SECONDARY SOURCES
OF INFORMATION
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OTHER CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING
PRINT & ONLINE SOURCES
KNOWLEDGE
AUTHORSHIP PUBLISHER OF
LITERATURE
ACCURACY &
VERIFIABILITY
TIMELINESS
OF
INFORMATION
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1. AUTHORSHIP FOR
PRINTED & ONLINE SOURCE
Details of
Name of Biographical
position and
author information
credentials
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2. PUBLISHER FOR PRINTED
& ONLINE SOURCE
Check Check
Publisher & sponsorship
reputation details
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LITERATURE FOR PRINTED &
ONLINE SOURCE
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VERIFIABILITY FOR PRINTED &
ONLINE SOURCE
Check Check for proper Check for design &
methods/theories reasons & evidence layout of online
used for information supporting data webpage
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5. TIMELINESS FOR
PRINTED & ONLINE SOURCE
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CONDUCTING PRIMARY
RESEARCH
OBSERVATION
DEMONSTRATION
INSPECTION
EXPERIMENT
FIELD RESEARCH
INTERVIEWS
INQUIRIES
QUESTIONNAIRE
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Difference between Observations/Demonstrations
& Inspections
DEMONSTRATIONS
OBSERVATIONS INSPECTIONS
Observation is an act of Demonstration involves Inspection involves active
watching an activity to examining of an activity when
watching someone carry
understand some aspect of the researcher participates in the
out a process activity.
it.
Eg: Inspecting a machinery-
Eg: Observing how a involves examining parts of
machinery works. machinery and questioning of
people handling that machinery,
understanding the functions of
the machinery etc.
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EXPERIMENT
variable (e.g. The running of a sales
promotion) produces a change in another
dependent variable (e.g. The level of sales).
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4 PHASES OF
CONDUCTING AN EXPERIMENT
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Step 1:Experiment Hypothesis Statement
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Eg: The new employee training program will
increase work productivity
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Field Research
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INTERVIEWS
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Consider three factors 47
when choosing a person to interview:
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IMPORTANT TIPS ON
HOW TO CONDUCT AN INTERVIEW
CONCLUDIN
PREPARING BEGINNING DURING the
G the
for the the Interview Interview
Interview
Interview
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1. PREPARING for the Interview
Do your homework.
Prepare good questions ( CLEAR, FOCUSED, OPEN).
Example:
Clear Q: What was your driving force that led you to become an
entrepreneur?
Focused Q (narrowed): How did you raise funding for your SME
business?
OPEN Q: What marketing tactics has been the most successful one so
far?
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2. BEGINNING the Interview
Arrive on time.
Thank the respondent.
State the subject and purpose of the interview.
If you want to record the interview, ask permission
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3. DURING the Interview
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4. CONCLUDING the Interview
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Eg: USE UNBIASED LANGUAGE
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Eg: WORD SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
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Using questionnaires effectively
calls for four steps:
Step1: Ask effective questions
Use unbiased language
Word specific questions
Step 2:Test the questionnaire on few people to “know” problems
Step 3:Administer the questionnaire. (Identify the right sample and
administer)
Step 4: Present questionnaire data in your document
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Common types of Questions used in
Questionnaire
MULTIPLE-
CHOICE
SHORT LIKERT-
ESSAY SCALE
TYPE OF
QUESTIONS IN
QUESTIONNAIRE
SEMANTIC
SHORT
ANSWER DIFFERNETIAL
RANKIN
G
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TYPES OF QUESTIONS USED IN QUESTIONNAIRES
Type of Question Definition Example
MULTIPLE CHOICE Type of closed-ended question where a respondent Do you own a car?
chooses among a range of given alternatives Agree
Disagree
LIKERT SCALE Type of closed-ended survey question that asks I own a car
respondent to rank (mark) the degree to which the Agree
respondent agrees or disagrees to a given statement. Disagree
SEMANTIC Type of closed-ended survey question that asks How did you find the
DIFFERENTIALS respondents to register a response to a question on a process of owning a car?
continuum between pair of opposing adjectives (scale) Simple
Difficult
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Scaling of Likert Question
2 point scale Agree
Disagree
Yes
No
5 point scale
Strongly agree
Agree
Undecided/don’t know/neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree
1 2 3 4 5
BORING 1 2 3 4 5 EXCITING
DULL1 2 3 4 5 INTERESTING
DIFFICULT 1 2 3 4 5 SIMPLE
PASSIVE 1 2 3 4 5
ACTIVE
RANKING Type of closed-ended survey question that asks respondents to compare a list of items Rank the importance of the following features of
(choices) with each other and arrange in order of preference(factor) a car, in your opinion
Excellent Navigation System
Place “1” for the feature that is MOST IMPORTANT to you, a “2”for the Good Mileage
feature that is next important….and “5” for the feature that is least Remote Start
Leather Seats
important.
Central Locking
SHORT ANSWER Type of open-ended question where respondent answers briefly to What is the best feature of the car
a question ( in keywords, phrases or in one or two sentences) you own?
( Write ONE best feature ONLY)
SHORT ESSAY Type of open-ended question where the aim is to let the Explain the features that you looked
respondent express freely in a detailed manner for when buying a car.
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End of Chapter