Marketing research

Submitted to:
Abid awan

Submitted by:
Ahsan javed butt

Id: 08108145

Date:
29th march 2011.

What is Research onion?

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Research onion:
In order to answer how a research should be answered a clear methodology
was sought which is referred as “research onion”. It presents a clear frame work for the most
suitable methods and strategies to address a research. It promotes the knowledge to answer a
research question. After deciding a suitable philosophy other elements are selected from the
layers which assist in answering a research. Each element in a different layer is discussed below
in order to get a idea why these elements were selected while conducting a research.

Research philosophy:
The first layer of the onion is research philosophies. It gives an idea that
how you think about the research. Several views about research process dominate the literature
which include positivism, realism, interpretivism and others as well. The knowledge is always
judged in different ways and these are the different ways you can judge the knowledge. Lets go
through these views as they play a important role in business and management research.

 Positivism:
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Positivism searches for truth. The positivist takes a rational thought to know the
world that it is always external and objective. This view assumes that everything can be proved
and known. With the help of this research a researcher just works with value free manner and
the research can be generalized into a law like generalization similar to those of natural sciences.
But it is not appropriate when you consider to research on human behavior. As positivism is
more concerned with the science. And positivism is usually associated with quantitative research.

 Interpretivism:

In contrast with subject of positivism, Interpretivism always hold a view that

world is subjective and is generally associated with qualitative research. The interpretative
approach allows researchers to get close to participants to interpret their subjective understanding
of reality and appeals to the author as a way of obtaining depth of understanding. This usually
relates to capturing data on expectations and experiences of performance appraisal which is
usually a subjective matter. This approach allows researchers to get close to participants to
interpret their subjective understanding of reality.

 Realism:
It is a mixture of both the philosophies positivism and interpretivism as it
allows to study for the social issues trying to understand the impact of wider social
forces. It usually consists of three components i.e. the reality, the actual and the
empirical. Reality confers with what actually exists whether we understand it or we have
a experience of that. The actual refers to outcome that what actually is happened after
the structure is applied. And the empirical refers to the experience. The major difference
between positivism and realism is that it differentiates the real from the actual. And
there are cases where real is somewhat different from actual.

 Objectivism:
It is an alternative name for realism, that narrates that there exists a reality
independent of the mind. Objectivism is the notion that an objective reality exists and
can be increasingly known through the accumulation of more complete information. In
order to know the answer there must be a real objective.

 Subjectivism:
Subjectivism is a certain way of conceptualizing subjectivity. Subjectivity
is what makes us subjects rather than objects. Subjectivity includes processes denoted
by the terms mental, mind, conscious, experience, agency, will, intentionality, thinking,
feeling, remembering, interpreting, understanding, learning, and psyche. These
subjective processes comprise the activity of subjects. Without subjectivity, we would
only be physical objects devoid of activity.

 Pragmatism:
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The pragmatic philosophy has intuitive appeal, permission to study areas

that are of interest, embracing methods that are appropriate and using findings in a positive
manner in harmony with the value system held by the researcher. For these reasons it can be
argued that the pragmatic philosophy can adopted for the purpose of social and management
research endeavors as this is congruent with the mixed quantitative and qualitative approach
taken within the predisposition of ”practitioner-based” research.

Research approaches:
The second layer of research onion refers to research approach. There
are two approaches involved in this section namely deductive and inductive approach.

research
types

deductive inductive
approach approach
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Deductive approach:
Deductive approach works from more general to specific. This is
informally called as top-down approach. A deductive approach is consistent with developing a
theory and testing it through research. Arguments based on laws, rules and accepted
principles are generally used for Deductive Reasoning.

Inductive approach:
Inductive reasoning works the other way like deductive moving from specific to
general to broader generalization and theories. And informally it is referred as bottom up
approach. And its conclusion is likely based on premises and usually involves a degree of
uncertainty.

Deductive vs. inductive

deductive inductive
theory
observation

hypothesis pattern

observation tentative hypothesis

confirmation theory
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Research strategies:
The third layer in the research onion is research strategies. In
this strategy different research methods are used to investigate the research question and
aims. Some of the different methods used for research strategies are
 Experiment
 Survey
 Case study
 Action research
 Grounded theory
 Ethnography
 Archival research
Experiment:
Experiment is a classical form of research that owes much to natural sciences. It
will involve typically
 Definition of theoretical hypothesis
 Selection of sample
 Allocation of sample
 Control on other variables

Survey:
Survey research a research method involving the use of questionnaires or statistical surveys to
gather data about people and their thoughts and behaviors.

Case Study:
A case study is one of several ways of doing research whether it is social science related or even
socially related. It is an in-depth study of a single individual, group, incident, or community.

Action Research:
Action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working
with others in teams or as part of a community of practice to improve the way they address issues
and solve problems. Research undertaken by teams that is flexible and iterative; the aim is to
solve the problem in order to improve the way processes are performed and services are
delivered.

Grounded Theory:
Grounded theory is a systematic qualitative research methodology in the social sciences
emphasizing generation of theory from data in the process of conducting research. Practice of
developing other theories that emerge from observing a group. Theories are grounded in the
group's observable experiences, but researchers add their own insight into why those experiences
exist.
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Ethnography:
A study of culture and cultural processes that uses multiple ways to research, observes, and
document people, events, or artifacts.

Research choices:
The fourth layer in research onion refers to research choices. It
includes three different methods which are

 Mono method
 Multi method
 Mixed method

Mono method:
A mono method procedure was considered for the research which would use a
single data collection technique and corresponding analysis. This method is however rejected in
favor of mixed method as mixed method uses both qualitative as well as quantitative techniques.
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Mixed method:
Mixed methods research is a field of inquiry that uses both qualitative and
quantitative methods to answer research questions within a single study. The research is
considered “mixed” because it uses quantitative and qualitative approaches in one or several of
the following ways: it combines different types of research questions, data collection procedures,
data, analytical approaches, or conclusions. One of the main advantages of mixed methods
research is its ability to unite exploratory and confirmation research in other words, it allows
generating and testing a theory in the same study.

Research time horizons:

There arises an important question while doing a research
whether a research is likely to be a “snapshot” or like a “diary”. The snapshot is what we call
cross-sectional while diary is likely to be longitudinal.
Cross-sectional studies:
These are usually used when there is a time constraint and there is no
sufficient time for research. They may be searching for a phenomenon of a different happening
in different organizations at same time or to compare same factors.
Longitudinal studies:
It is usually studying the same thing in different time frames. It usually
refers to study the change and development taking place in different time period.

Research techniques and procedures:

Initially, self administered questionnaires were
considered as a prime method of collecting data. But now the mostly used technique for data
collection is triangulation. It is demonstrated by using different data collection techniques which
enhance the validity of data collected. Its advantage is that the complementary methods will
counter balance the inherent weakness of one approach with the strength of the other approach.
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References:
http://books.google.com.pk/books?
id=oXYWwI21IoEC&pg=PA100&dq=research+onion&hl=en&ei=oe6OTZrrNIjfcfuhhPUB&sa
=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true
http://books.google.com.pk/books?
id=GgPPMK4HZUwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&
q&f=false
http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=-
sTUDbaefgkC&dq=mono+method+research&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1
http://www.articlealley.com/article_35252_15.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51287729/35/Research-Philosophy
http://www.edamba.eu/userfiles/file/Limpanitgul%20Thanawut.pdf
http://www.sonic.net/~cr2/subjectivism.htm
http://www.drburney.net/INDUCTIVE%20&%20DEDUCTIVE%20RESEARCH
%20APPROACH%2006032008.pdf