This chapter presents the methodological analysis that is planned to be used in this present survey. A thorough treatment on diverse options of attacks made for the research, the research designs, altered schemes, choice of samples choice, and method of informations aggregation and analysis of informations are discussed. Specific picks made in this research proposal are besides clarified in this chapter along with distinction in tabular format. Finally, the critical inquiries as to how to manage the dependability and cogency of the survey are besides presented in here.
Our research is largely concerned with the perusal of the specific factors of the function played by the societal networking media in the development of the trade name equity of a selected few of the SMEs houses in London.
As SMEs contribute more than 90 of the economic system of any states economic system and there is a extremist advancement of on-line communities circulating communicating at lightning velocity, our purpose was to analyze the function played by the societal networking media in the development of the trade name equity of the SMEs. For this specific intent we conducted a survey to obtain replies to the undermentioned inquiries: What are the chief tools of selling and trade name edifice used by SMEs at present? ; How are societal networking media different from conventional mass media in footings of trade name edifice for SMEs? ; Can SMEs see societal networking media as their premier tool for trade name equity development? ; What are the best ways for using societal networking media to make out to aim audience?
In this regard we analyzed the informations refering SMEs sector from London and its portion within UK. The primary informations that we used is through interviews with selling personals stand foring assorted houses from 4 sectors viz. IT, Retail, Financial Services and Travel. We used secondary informations from the publication of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills study, London dated October 13, 2010 that is updated with the information refering to estimations of the private sector endeavors in the United Kingdom with country wise informations. Finally we have besides reviewed the Millward Brown Optimor ‘s study on ‘Top 100 most Valuable Global Brands 2010 ‘ that provided us an penetration of the planetary growing of varied sector and facilitated us to analyse the potency of the trade name equity.
Furthermore, for a better apprehension of this behavior, we have besides conducted a non-probable sampling based on questionnaire designed to place the function played by the societal networking media in trade name equity development.
3.1 Research Design
The intent of any research is to supply basic way for transporting out the research. And to transport frontward the research it needs a structural design. Based on established and scientifically proven schemes we have designed the present research in to four classs viz. Research Purpose, Research Approach, Research Method and Research Strategy to accommodate the best among them. Figure-1 depicts the structural design of the present research.
Figure-1: Structure of Research Design
3.1.1 Research Purpose
As stated by Saunders et al. , ( 2009 ) fundamentally there are three classs to province the intent of the research viz. Exploration, Description and Explanation. Acerate leaf to state all these classs differ from each other in several facets that include the preparation of research inquiries or hypothesis and the aggregation of informations. In the present paper all the three stated classs are followed. And the grounds thereof for accommodating all the three classs of research intent are explained as under.
Exploratory Surveies: Adaptation of explorative surveies became necessary for the present survey as this research worker has to analyze new involvements affecting a topic of survey that itself is comparatively new. The major accent of explorative research is find of thoughts and penetrations ( Saunders et.al. 2009 )
As the phenomenon of involvement is well new in this present survey we felt that more information is needed to clear up the construct and range of survey and to do us understand the job in a better manner. Therefore, we conducted explorative research to acknowledge the hypothesis good. For this our research carried out the techniques of literature reappraisals interviews, and instance survey.
Descriptive Surveies: Babbie ( 2004 ) province that descriptive research is conducted to detect state of affairs and events and the research worker describes what he/she has observed. The job stated in our research paper is good structured. As such we employed to supply accurate snapshots of some of the facets of our observations such as individuals, events, state of affairss and environments.
Explanatory Surveies: To explicate the relationships among the variables the present research we focussed on analyzing the state of affairs of the stated job through explanatory surveies. This attack helps to find the cause-and-effect relationship. Explanatory research aims to develop the theory exactly that can be used to explicate the phenomena in a definite manner. And the so developed theory leads to generalisation of the theory. The explanatory survey besides facilitates to understand whether a alteration in one event could convey about a corresponding alteration in another event ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
Because of the small cognition we had refering the relationship between the societal networking media and trade name equity and how this relationship could be established to depict the development of trade name equity through societal networking and farther relate it to the instance survey on SMEs in London all the above three classs i.e. exploratory, descriptive and explanatory surveies are carried out for the present research.
3.1.2 Research Approach
Inductive vs. Deductive
Inductive Approach
Deductive Approach
The natural quality of the inductive attack is that it moves from specific observations to broader generalisations and theories. In this procedure the research worker get down the survey with specific observations and steps and so formulates probationary hypotheses that can be explored. In this procedure the research worker might stop up developing general theories and decisions. As such this attack is executable for the survey of a little sized sample ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
The natural quality of the deductive attack of research is that it establishes more specific theories from the most general 1s. In this procedure the research worker can get down analyzing the theories that are related to the subject of their research. And so they can contract those theories such that they become more specific in nature relating to the research inquiries or hypothesis that can be tested. Than the research worker uses research methods largely in quantitative ways to generalise the findings ( Saunders et al. 2009 ) .
Inductive attack involves constructing the theory.
Deductive attack involves proving the theory.
Saunders et Al. ( 2009 ) states that the choice of the research attack largely depends on the extent of the cognition or the theories available that are related to the subject of involvement. As the research job was formulated based on the bing theory with an purpose to make more cognition about the specific factors, we adapted deductive attack for the present survey.
3.1.3 Research Method
Qualitative and Quantitative are the two research methods that could be adapted for aggregation and analysis of informations. Each of the method suggests different ways for aggregation and analysis of informations. For the present research that involves varied informations from varied beginnings, both of the methods have been viewed to make up one’s mind upon the most appropriate 1. The following table gives a brief of the distinction of both the methods.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Quantitative Approach
Qualitative Approach
Quantitative method of research involves the aggregation technique and the process of analysis of informations that generates or uses informations that is largely numeral in nature. ( Saunders et al. 2009 )
Qualitative method of research involves the aggregation technique and the process of analysis of informations that generates or uses informations that is largely non-numeric in nature. ( Saunders et al. 2009 )
For quantitative surveies, the critical accomplishments that are needed for the research worker are the ability to develop and prove appropriate hypotheses using proper and standardized statistical techniques.
For qualitative surveies, the research worker gives an exact representation of an nonsubjective world. As such qualitative attack can be used for interviews, observations and analysis of text and paperss.
In quantitative method of researching the statistical information that is generated and interpreted is largely in descriptive information ( Yin 2009 ) .
In qualitative method of researching different techniques are combined covering multiple position of the phenomenon under the survey with a deductive attack ( Yin 2009 ) .
In the present research we have found that there are complex connexions between assorted factors that merely could n’t be quantified numerically. Furthermore we felt that there is a demand to make a deeper apprehension of the state of affairs. Hence we have made a qualitative attack for the survey.
3.1.4 Research Strategy
To carry through the intent of the survey any research involves adaptation of a standard scheme. This becomes of import to reply the research inquiry and analyze the job stated in the research. Largely the pick of adaptation of any of the research scheme is by and large guided by factors such as the inquiries raised in the research ; the purpose and aim of the research ; the philosophical foundation of the research worker. The pick of a research scheme could be anything like a instance survey, a study or an experiment ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
For doing a pick among the available three options of accommodating a research scheme we have studied all of them in item to get at an appropriate decision. The followers is the presentation of our tabular array survey.
Case Study: A By and large when a research worker wishes to carry on a instance survey, the most natural inquiry that arises is whether to concentrate on one individual instance or travel for multiple instances? Yen ( 2009 ) states that instance survey can be chosen as the most suited scheme for a research when the phenomena that are to be investigated are complex in nature and are profoundly embedded in the organisational context of any company. Yin ( 2009 ) further argues that the research worker can take one instance if it represents a unique or an utmost instance in relation to the phenomenon of the survey of research. By and large one instance involves one instance company. Still, such one company can besides incorporate several intertwined sub-cases ( as discussed by Yin ( 2009 ) for the embedded instance design ) . Yin ( 2009 ) states an illustration for this: ‘a one individual and same company established in different markets can go the embedded instance with the local markets as the sub-case and the corporate 1 as an umbrella instance.
Adapting instance survey as a research scheme has its ain advantages because of its multi-facet features. This is apparent from the surveies of Saunders et Al. ( 2009 and Yin ( 2009 ) . Saunders et Al. ( 2009 ) province that to reply the inquiries of ‘why ‘ every bit good as ‘what ‘ and ‘how ‘ instance survey can be conducted utilizing both the exploratory and explanatory theoretical account of research. And Yin ( 2009 ) province that the instance surveies can be conducted using either one or both of qualitative and quantitative methods for informations aggregation and analysis.
Survey: A To reply the most common inquiries like ‘who ‘ , ‘what ‘ , where ‘ , and how involved in a societal research the research scheme of study is largely used. This scheme is the most normally used among societal scientific disciplines including concern subjects ( Saunders et al. 2009 ) . Saunders further argues that study is chiefly used when the research design adapts descriptive and explorative research and when deductive research attack is made.
Saunders et Al. ( 2009 ) goes on to add that the research workers can accommodate the scheme of study at a really low cost to roll up a big sum of informations from a significant population. And the informations are largely quantitative and are gathered by questionnaire. Furthermore it becomes easier to analyze the collected informations with assorted statistical techniques.
When the population is excessively big to be observed straight and the research workers ‘ chief involvement is in roll uping original informations refering the population the scheme of accommodating study could be the most preferable scheme argues Babbie ( 2004 ) . Barbie besides states that chance trying collected with attention can reflect the features of a larger population from a group of respondents taken for the survey. This scheme can besides take to get in the same signifier from all the respondents through a carefully constructed inquirer.
Apart from questionnaires and interviews structured observations can besides be employed for aggregation of informations in study research. Still questionnaire remain as the most normally used tool whilst accommodating study as the scheme for carry oning research.
Experiment: To reply the inquiries ‘how ‘ and ‘why ‘ utilizing the tools of exploratory and explanatory method the scheme of experiment can be adapted in a research. The scheme of experiment can be employed both in natural and societal scientific discipline research ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
The procedure of experiment in a research is both simple and complex in nature and is employed to analyze the being of any insouciant relationship between the independent and dependent variable. Before adaptation of a scheme we have besides made a thorough survey for the possibility of carry oning an experiment for the present research. Our findings of the procedure of experiment are presented here.
The procedure of experiment in a research involves puting up of members into two groups that are fundamentally similar in all facets. Of the two groups one would be the experimental and the other control group. Initially a dependent variable is measured and compared for both the groups. After comparing of the variables a planned intercession or use is placed for the experimental group. Here the intercession or the use is an independent variable. After puting the independent variable the dependent variable from each group is once more re-measured. This facilitates the research worker to do a comparative survey of the derived consequences both before and after intervention/manipulation and farther help the research worker to set up any being of insouciant relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. Saunders et Al. ( 2009 ) argues that this scheme of research can be both applied to research lab or field experiments.
Our tabular array survey reveals that adaptation of experiment as a scheme for behavior of the present survey could non merely be typical in nature but besides has the complexness of being expensive and complicated. For such grounds we adapted instance survey as the scheme because it besides tend to reply the research inquiries and embrace the research tools: explanatory, descriptive, exploratory and aid with the deductive attack made.
For the aforesaid grounds and the fresh thought of the present survey this research will be conducted as a instance survey with SMEs in London as the instance survey and some of the sectors like IT, Retail, Financial Services and Travel as sub-cases of the survey.
The purpose is to make a profound cognition about the instance and to look into profoundly into the organisational context of the instance.
3.2A Sample SelectionA
When we conducted a tabular array survey for adaptation of sample choice for the research we understood that the division of trying techniques can be of two types viz. the chance and the non-probability. In certain instances of research i.e. the little group possibilities are such that every possible instance or the full members of the population can be explored to roll up and analyze informations. But when the involvement of a research consists of typically big group encompassed with excessively many instances or members it becomes impossible for aggregation of informations from all the beginnings. Such fortunes lead to use sampling processs.
Probability vs. Non-probability
Probability
Non-probability
Creates Statistical Interference. This is because here each of the unit or component of the sampling frame has an equal opportunity of being included in the sample.
Rely on Personal Judgement. This is because it is non possible to do valid illations as samples may non stand for the full population.
Used to statistically gauge the features of the population minor expense from the sample.
Facilitates to germinate generalised theories from the samples about the population, but non statistical point of view.
By and large associated with study and experimental research schemes ( Saunders et al. 2009 ) .
Used largely in instance survey research ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
Our purpose in this survey is to garner information sing the function played by the societal networking media in the development of trade name equity. To adhere to the research job and questionnaire this research will be performed utilizing non-probability sampling. For this a judgmental choice has been used to take four sectors that will be investigated and several employees be interviewed.
3.3 Data Collection Methods
Data aggregation methods are of two types, secondary and primary informations. Babbie ( 2004 ) states that the chief differentiation between these two types of information is that primary informations is collected for specific anticipated survey and the secondary informations are collected for another primary intent. And both the primary and secondary informations output quantitative and qualitative informations.
By and large primary informations is collected by observation, interviews or questionnaires and the secondary information is largely the natural information that includes published sum-ups. Secondary information may besides include informations collected by other administrations, authoritiess, or informations gathered by research administrations ( Saunders et al. 2009 ) .
For the present survey in this research it is of import to garner information, positions and sentiments from the individuals who are responsible for the information and stigmatization of the chosen company.
But because of the narrative nature of the present research job and inquirer that is being looked into we decided to construct primary informations through hunt on the company ‘s web site and interviews with the functionaries and the secondary informations from the authorities published statistical study.
3.4 Data AnalysisA
Babbie ( 2004 ) argues that quantitative analysis is the numerical representation and use of observations. This is to depict and explicate the phenomena that these observations are reflected. And qualitative analysis discovers the implicit in significances and spiels of relationships non-numeric scrutiny and reading of observations.
Saunders et Al. ( 2009 ) states that through in-depth interviews and or first-hand observations natural informations is generated. And this information is analysed through qualitative method. The cardinal measure in treating all such informations for analysis is through sorting and coding all the spots of informations. This is in footings of theoretical constructs.
Babbie ( 2004 ) further provinces that the qualitative informations treating involves making and delegating codifications by reading and re-reading the information files.
For the present survey whilst analysing the interviews conducted with the questionnaire, chances can non be ruled out that numerical descriptions to the replies are given. On the other manus they could be categorised utilizing a qualitative information analysis.
3.5 Reliability vs. Validity
Two of the most of import indexs for the scientific nature and public presentation of a research theoretical account are dependability and cogency. For any research theoretical account it is of import that the measuring of the informations consequences should be every bit accurate as possible to the contemplation of world.
And for any survey the research theoretical account is valid if it tends to accomplish its aims and dependable if the consequences are accurate contemplation to the variables that are being measured ( zebrasone.eu ) .
Reliability vs. Validity
Dependability
Cogency
Estimates the extent to which the information aggregation technique outputs consistent findings.
Estimates the extent to which the information aggregation method accurately step to the purpose of the survey.
Measures how sense was made from the natural information i.e. the grade to which an instrument steps with similarity ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
Measures the grade to which the survey is measured to what was supposed to be measured by the research worker for the survey ( Saunders et Al. 2009 ) .
Figure 2: Dependability versus Validity
Beginning: Columbia Centre for New Media Teaching and Learning 2009
Figure-2 shows three possible state of affairss refering dependability and cogency. In the first section of the image though the mark is hit systematically it is losing the Centre of the mark. This shows that the value measured for the respondents is non right. This step is dependable but non valid. In the 2nd section of the figure we find that the hits are indiscriminately dispersed across ; still losing the Centre of the mark. Through this theoretical account we may acquire valid group estimations but can non expect consistence. The 3rd section is a clear indicant of hitting the Centre of the mark. This section is both dependable and valid.
3.6 Justification
True to Bell ( 1987 ) a instance survey complements and puts flesh on the castanetss, and adds an of import 3rd dimension – existent pattern to theory and findings. For the present survey the methods used to transport out the research were a instance survey, literature and documental groundss.
The denseness of the issues raised by the research inquiries ( function of societal networking ) and the cavernous nature of the research job ( trade name equity ) was such that it itself required extended reappraisal and a profound research. Furthermore the demand to analyze the impact and deduction of the survey on the instance survey ( SMEs in London ) the methodological analysis of the research had to be chosen carefully. This becomes of import as Edwards & A ; Talbot ( 1999 ) have noted that the instance survey can be used in practician research to exemplify a set of rules, to supply some elaborate description of a subject of involvement, or to research a field of survey and gather information on it. The purpose is to make a profound cognition about the instance and to look into profoundly into the organisational context of the instance.
As Edwards & A ; Talbot ( 1999 ) point out, questionnaires are utile on the minus side ; as they provide neither deepness nor a good return, the present survey had to be focused on background information accessed from a distance this became necessary because the focal point of the present research is non a well-researched subject.
The present research involves analyzing interviews wherein the chances of numerical description to the replies could n’t be ruled out as such qualitative informations analysis is adapted a research method.
To adhere to the research job and questionnaire in the present survey we utilized non-probability sampling.
Our purpose sing the present involvement was to make a deeper apprehension of the state of affairs that compelled us to do a qualitative attack towards and survey. And to make more cognition about the specific factors we adapted deductive attack.
Because of the small cognition we had refering the relationship between the societal networking media and trade name equity and how this relationship could be established to depict the development of trade name equity through societal networking and to further associate it to the instance survey on SMEs in London exploratory, descriptive and explanatory surveies are carried out for the present research.
3.7 Research Restrictions
Lincoln & A ; Guba ( 1985 ) says that the trustiness of a research largely depends on “ what counts as cognition? ” and the general intent of any survey of research tends to include cognition production, apprehension, and anticipation.
We focused on the first two intents of a research i.e. production of applied cognition and procedure the cognition ; both of which are suited for developmental research ( Richey and Nelson ( 1996 ) .
Still this research had some defects. And the possible defects are the beginnings for prejudice that include the big sum of informations and the complexness of the stated job. Probabilities are such that our survey might hold missed some of import information or we might hold even overweighed some of the findings. This might hold happened due to larger focal point on a peculiar and big set of informations.
Furthermore, our personal engagement with the class might hold besides increased the possibility that the observations that we recorded highlighted peculiar incidents and ignored others.
However, we have taken every attention to carry through the major aim of the research i.e. what counts as cognition.
