Month: May 2014

Tips for Writing Online Questionnaires

Web Based Surveys are the most commonly used method for data collection these days. It helps to fight against the constraint of paucity of time, long distances and also helps to largely eliminate human error. Some of the rules for preparing online questionnaires are Short is the key:  The survey takers get alienated by long … Continue reading “Tips for Writing Online Questionnaires”

Web Based Surveys are the most commonly used method for data collection these days. It helps to fight against the constraint of paucity of time, long distances and also helps to largely eliminate human error. Some of the rules for preparing online questionnaires are

Short is the key:  The survey takers get alienated by long questionnaires. The researcher must ensure to limit the number of questions to 25. In the situation, when surveys are much longer, people tend to abandon them and then it becomes difficult to use them. To add to it, the same respondent may escape from responding to any future endeavour from your end to fill the questionnaire. A status bar at the top of each page is very advantageous and certainly helps in letter the survey taker know how far or close they are from finishing the survey.

Restrain from Open Ended Questions: People often want to zip through the questionnaire and if too many open ended questions are there which require typing of answers then it goes against the speed of the respondent.  Close ended questions that could be responded with a click on a button do a much better job as compared to these ones. The depth of analysis for closed ended or open ended questions does not differ much.

Persistent: In the case of online surveys it is perfectly fine to send more than one invite to a prospective respondent, more so to those who have earlier shown interest and willingness to participate. However, permission from people is very important.

Patience: This is the last but the most important rule for online surveys. Researchers, particularly business researchers tend to get very impatient when the results do not come right away.

It could be concluded that, online surveys do reduce a lot of work. The designing and administering of these web based surveys takes much longer and when the results pour in, the interpretation of online surveys is all the more time consuming. There should be one picked person to shepherd the process is what the experts often indicate

Designing of Research Issues

There is a general trend amongst the academic community to develop many different methods of looking at research and develop many categories and approaches which could be used describe these activities. There are largely three ways in which a design could be made into a research issue: The first one is that any specific research … Continue reading “Designing of Research Issues”

There is a general trend amongst the academic community to develop many different methods of looking at research and develop many categories and approaches which could be used describe these activities. There are largely three ways in which a design could be made into a research issue:

The first one is that any specific research programme that has the purpose of a degree or has a publication cause has to be planned before and all the options that be adopted in the plan may be called or referred to as the research design. Undertaking a research programme without a carefully conceived and structured research design will lead to questions related to its authenticity and validity.

The second approach is focus on the design science research methodology which is an important discipline in itself focussing on the creation of successful artefacts. Research focussing on creation of successful artefacts may have its own challenges but irrespective there should be a collaboration of this in research programme development.

Academic research for the purpose of degrees and publishing has to ensure some contribution in the field of study. There may be trouble faced by some academicians in defining this but it has to be understood that there has to be a constructive contribution and input into the theoretical is knowledge through the research. To add to it the research has to be conducted in a scholarly manner keeping in mind what is already known by the academic community about this specific topic.

For a lot of years all this was sufficient for quality academic research. In an attempt to be sure of the success of a degree of a paper publication the researcher should have the content, ability and potential to point out the ways in which the addition to the body of theoretical knowledge can be of use solving practical problems. Not all universities giver their consent for the translation of the new theoretical contribution into practical guidelines but there indeed is increasing support towards this approach. New distinctions in research should be named and recommended in such a way that they do not confuse and complicate some researchers.

The Big Data Bandwagon

The Big Data Bandwagon has picked up momentum and all the consultants, professors, organisers, writers pundits, crooks, cheats, equity firms are queuing up to get aboard. A bandwagon has rarely before called for so much attention and passengers. The basic premises for big data are: There is common perception that more data is always better … Continue reading “The Big Data Bandwagon”

The Big Data Bandwagon has picked up momentum and all the consultants, professors, organisers, writers pundits, crooks, cheats, equity firms are queuing up to get aboard. A bandwagon has rarely before called for so much attention and passengers.

The basic premises for big data are:
There is common perception that more data is always better than less data.
Greater volume, variety and the velocity of the data creates further avenues of knowledge that can be called potential.

It is possible to answer “ALL” the question through big data and it is all the more easy to predict the future.
The questions that still create ripples are that, “Can we create an accurate picture of the future through Big Data or is it just a glittery mirage that shimmers far away in the distance in the heat of a desert? Is it the final truth or a bandwagon of overstated commitments and mirage dreams?

The truth to all this is that the solution to the business problems and the determining of strategic opportunities often rests in the boundary of little data and not Big Data. It is not required to boil the ocean to find out the salt content in it and nor is it required to eat the full steer to understand it is tough.
Corporate decision makers would be served better if they could trust on tools from the world of little data that were tried and tested and not like the illusionary Big Data. Sampling theory does state that in the case of a random sample it is possible to measure the behaviour or mood of the entire universe of the population even by taking a very few people.

A sample of 2000 suffices to predict the winner of the Lok Sabha Elections. A random sample of 200-300 would sufficiently predict the response of the whole population towards a new product.

With those examples of little data it becomes evident that survey research is comparatively less costly yet quite accurate. However it is dependent upon the knowledge of the source, stimulus, context and history by the researcher. It is also important that the measuring instruments are tried and tested and the researcher has normative data, quality assurance and controls.

Components of an effective Literature Review

A Literature Review is an account of what has been published on a given topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Effective and relevant Literature Review helps the researcher to enlarge knowledge on a given topic and apart from that gain and demonstrate skills in two key areas: Getting information: The skill to scan the literature … Continue reading “Components of an effective Literature Review”

A Literature Review is an account of what has been published on a given topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Effective and relevant Literature Review helps the researcher to enlarge knowledge on a given topic and apart from that gain and demonstrate skills in two key areas:

  • Getting information: The skill to scan the literature in such a manner, with manual efforts or the aid of computerised methods and identify useful articles and books.
  • Appraisal with a critical perspective: the skill to apply the principles of effective analysis of study so as to be able to distinguish between valid and invalid studies with an unbiased perspective.

The researcher must shoot to himself the following questions:

  • What is the defining line of the literature review in terms of its research problem and question?
  • What is the type of Literature Review that the researcher desires to conduct? This depends upon the quest of the researcher who needs to specify the research in terms of methodology, policy, quantitative research, qualitative research or any other specification?
  • What is the defined scope of the Literature Review and what are the kinds of publications that need to be used in context to the discipline of the study?
  • What is kind of information seeking of the researcher and has the search of relevant Literature Review been wide enough to ensure all the relevant material has been explored and at the same time narrow enough to exclude the irrelevant material?
  • Will my content be found worthy, significant and useful by the reader and other researchers?

A literature Review should be looked upon as a discursive prose rather than a list of researches describing the literature one after the other. A quality and worthy literature review would not have a list of paragraphs beginning with the names of the researcher. On the other hand, the Literature Review should be organised in such a way that the trend, theories and themes that are relevant must be presented in a synthesized manner. The researcher must remember that rather than being a list of published material, it should be a consistent flow of guiding material in coherence with the concept of the thesis.