RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
According to Johan West, Research is a systematic activity directed towards the
discovery and development of an organized body of knowledge.
Curiosity and desire for searching new dimensions of the facts are the human nature.
Doing different things and doing things differently are related with the finding new
knowledge area and finding new ways of the existing processes. Research demands
systematic and scientific way of giving thoughts to an area of knowledge. Research
requires following proper methods, methodology, techniques, tools, approaches, and
design. Research begins with identification of a problem. It includes detailed
investigation into the facts of the problem or issue, analyze data, and come to the
conclusion. But research process does not end there. Research is a continuous process.
One piece of the research thrusts the other researchers to investigate further into the
same or similar issue. One research opens the avenues for the other problems to
research further. Understanding research methods helps in solving decision based
problems. However, research is not done arbitrarily. Research must be done
scientifically. Methodology tells us which methods, techniques, or tests are applicable
in certain situations. Research methodology also includes reasons and logic behind
how and why every step of the research process is followed. Research is cousin of
scientific thinking/method.
According to Karl Pearson, The scientific method is one and same in the branches
(of science) and that method is the method of all logically trained minds the unity
of all sciences consists alone in its methods, not its material; the man who classifies
facts of any kind whatever, who sees their mutual relation and describes their
sequences, is applying the Scientific Method and is a man of science.1 Bellenger et
1.
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al. say that a good research is systematic, logical, empirical, and replicable. All these
criteria should be checked while following steps such as defining research problem or
issue, undergoing literature, selecting research design and sample design, collecting,
analyzing and interpreting data, and presenting report or thesis. Methodology tells us
how to thinks about nature of the problem or issue and its solution. Induction and
deduction process also become helpful in this reasoning process. It helps the
researchers to use concepts, constructs, definitions etc. derived from the research
problem or issue. Variables and hypotheses help to build models and to develop
theories as a part of the research results. Objectives, motivations, and approaches of
the research are in the base for research methodology. It is always advisable to
understand and then follow prescribed steps and process of planning and conducting
research to avoid errors in the research conducted.
4.1.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
4.1.1. To know the awareness about Permission Marketing and its related concepts
among people.
4.1.2. To measure customers preferences of using marketing communications
tools with permission marketing applied.
4.1.3. To judge the applicability of permission marketing among all the Integrated
Marketing Communication tools.
4.1.4. To find out whether customers take particular actions against marketing
companies for sending unwanted communication messages.
4.1.5. To know what difficulties may come across while implementing permission
marketing in India.
4.2.
RESEARCH DESIGN:
Research design constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and
analysis of data1
Phillips Bernard, Social Research Strategy and Tactics, Macmillan Publishing, 2nd ed, 1971, p 93.
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A research design expresses both the structure of the research problem and the
plan of investigation used to obtain empirical evidence on relations of the
problem.1
Research design is a framework for the research. There are two types of major
research designs: exploratory and formal. Malhotra classifies it as exploratory and
conclusive also as presented below:2
Figure 7
(Source: Malhotra Naresh, Marketing Research, Pearson Education, 5th ed, 2007, p 109.)
Kerlinger Fred, Foundations of Behavioral Research, Harcourt College publishers, 3rd ed, p 279.
Malhotra Naresh, Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, Pearson Education, 5th ed, 2007, p
109.
2
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4.3.
SAMPLING DESIGN:
There are two types of sampling design: probability sampling design and non
probability sampling design. Both types of designs have restricted or unrestricted
element selection. When each sample element is selected individually and directly
from the population, they are known as unrestricted samples. In probability sampling,
Simple Random sampling is unrestricted and in non probability sampling design,
convenience sampling is unrestricted sampling. Random selection principle, where
each population element has a known non-zero chance of selection, is used in
probability sampling. While in non probability sampling design, each population
element does not have a known nonzero chance of selection and researchers own
judgment is used. In this research Convenience sampling is used.
4.3.1. Population:
Some elements of the population are selected to conclude and apply
result to the population. Population in this research is a set of
customers receiving marketing communications such as recorded calls,
live calls, SMS (text messages), spam/junk, and catalogs/brochures.
4.3.2.
4.3.3.
Sampling Frame:
For the given research customers at point of purchase like banks, retail
stores, telecom companys outlets and households receiving personal
selling communication for consumer durables and financial products
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have been selected. Sampling frame is the list of elements from where
the sample is to be selected.
4.3.4.
Sampling Unit:
A set of residents of Ahmedabad, Anand, Vadodara, Jamnagar, Rajkot,
and Surat city who are receiving marketing communications such as
recorded calls, live calls, SMS, spam/junk, and catalogs/brochures.
4.3.5.
Sampling Method:
Convenience sampling as a part of non-probability sampling methods
has been used for selecting the sample.
4.3.6.
4.4.
Data
source:
Books,
Journals,
Published
Reports,
4.5.
Variables
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Variables
10
11
12
13
14
Disturbed by Catalogs/Brochures
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Disturbed by SMS
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17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Internet Usage
36
Internet Users
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4.6.
37
38
39
40
41
42
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45
46
47
48
49
50
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Hypotheses
Hypotheses are formulated on the basis of theories and concept developed from the
previous studies. Study conducted by Sheehan Kim and Hoy Mariea (1999) shows
consumers responses to privacy1. They found that as concern for privacy increased;
respondents provided incomplete information to websites, notified ISP about
unsolicited e-mail, requested for opting out from mail list, sent negative messages,
registered for websites requesting information.
Sheehan Kim and Hoy Mariea, Flaming, Complaining, Abstaining: How Online Users Respond to
Privacy Concerns, Journal of Advertising, vol 28, No. 3, Fall 1999, p 37-51.
2
Carroll Amy , Barnes Stuart J, and Scornavacca Eusebio, Consumers Perceptions and Attitudes
towards SMS Mobile Marketing in New Zealand, Proceedings of the International Conference on
Mobile Business, IEEE Computer Society, USA , 2005 , p 434 440.
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Karjaluoto Heikki, Lehto Heikki, Leppniemi Matti, and Jayawardhena Chanaka, Exploring Gender
Influence on Customers Intention to Engage Permission-Based Mobile Marketing, Electronic Markets,
vol 18, No. 3, 2008, p 242-259.
2
Ingall Jon, Why Permission is the Biggest Issue, Precision Marketing, 8th Aug, 2008, p 14.
3
Email is Most Acceptable Channel for Permission-Based Marketing, NMA, 9th Nov, 2006, p 9.
4
Rogers Jean, Mail Advertising and Consumer Behavior, Psychology and Marketing, vol 13, No. 2,
March 1996, p 211233.
5
Wells William, Burnett John and Moriarty Sandra, Advertising: Principles & Practice, 6th ed, PHI,
New Delhi, 2005, p 23.
6
Rowley Jennifer, E-business Principles and practice, Palgrave, New York, 2002.
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4.7.
Customers can opt for not receiving any marketing communication from marketers
and thus protect themselves from time consuming, irritating, and irrelevant
information. Customers can select specific information, in which they are interested
and filter out the information, which they feel useless. Marketers can allocate their
attention, budget, and time on sending relevant and the messages which interest the
customers by knowing customers preferences. Marketers can avoid wrath of the
customers, if customers get irritated from the marketing messages. Marketers can
avoid creating negative impressions in the mind of their potential or existing
customers. Taking prior permission by the marketers from the customers can be
included in the law as a part of consumerism movement. The customers can have
evidence of their willingness to receive particular information in the case of any legal
matter.
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4.8.
Geographic limit:
The survey is limited to geographic boundaries of Gujarat state. Moreover,
each and every city, town, or village is not possible to include in the study
due to time and cost constraints.
4.9.
RESEARCH GAP
Permission marketing is not widely studies in India. The research has been carried out
to know the awareness, preferences, and perceptions related to permission marketing.
The inter-relationship among with various Integrated Marketing Communication
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Taking base of this research, further study can be undertaken regarding permission
marketing and new media, role of government in practicing permission marketing,
prospective legislation needed to be applied in various countries, socio-psychological
impact of permission marketing on customers, applicability of permission marketing
to broadcast media, magazines, and outdoor media etc.
4.10.
PILOT STUDY
The attempts are made to know what customers think about marketing
communications they receive through phone calls, SMS, e-mails or printed matter.
Simple, undisguised, structured questionnaires are run among the respondents who are
First Year Undergraduate students. Students, particularly youngsters are more likely
to use cell phones and internet. Hypotheses are formed to know awareness about
permission marketing concept, awareness about Do Not Call Registry, awareness
about Permission Marketing, perceptions and preferences towards marketing
communications, Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission and Consumer Protection
Act awareness etc.
4.10.1.
After checking normality of the sample distribution, it was found that sample is
not normally distributed. Data do not satisfy assumptions of parametric tests.
Thus, Chi-square (2) Test is used. Most commonly adopted 0.05 Level of
Significance is taken.
4.10.2.
The pilot study was conducted among First year BBA students. So the result may
show similar response pattern for data such as age, education, occupation, income,
city etc. However, the same pattern will not be observed in the large sample
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actual research. It is found that there is no major changes required in the design of
the data collection instrument i.e. questionnaire, in sampling frame or in method
of the survey. Pilot study helped to find out more relationships among variables.
Clear planning became possible before collecting survey data.
2.
Those who want to stop the calls have surely attempted to stop them. Out of
those who are willing to stop marketing calls, not a single respondent has
given up to stop marketing calls by informing the Mobile Service Providers.
There is no gap in the mind of respondents in thinking to stop calls and taking
action to stop calls.
3.
Those who want to stop the SMS have surely attempted to stop them. Out of
those who are willing to stop marketing SMS, not a single respondent has
requested to stop marketing SMS. There is no gap in the mind of respondents
in thinking to stop SMS and taking action to stop SMS.
4.
Those who have attempted to stop the calls have not attempted to stop SMS
simultaneously. It is found that there are some respondents who have
attempted to stop calls but not SMS. At the same time there are respondents
who have tried to stop SMS but not marketing calls.
5.
Those who are aware about DNCR (Do Not Call Registry) are ready to stop
calls than others. Comparison is made between two types of respondents
respondents aware about DNCR and who are unaware about DNCR. The
result shows that those who are aware about DNCR are much ready to stop
SMS than others.
6.
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7.
After analyzing results of the pilot study, it was required to make correction in the list
of questions. Necessary changes were made in the questions and more questions were
added in the questionnaire. Filled up questionnaires are collected from 462
respondents. The respondents are from six cities of Gujarat, India. The cities are
Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, and Anand.
After, coding the data, following tests are conducted with the help of SPSS (Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences) software:
1. Measures of Central tendency or location (mean, median, mode), measures of
variability or spread (range, standard deviation, variance), measures of shape
(kurtosis, and skewness)
2. Frequency with Histogram with Normal curve
3. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, and Shapiro-Wilk Tests
4.11.
HYPOTHESES TESTING
4.11.1.
Deciding which statistical technique and tests to use for testing hypotheses depends
upon factors such as defined research problem, research design, sampling design,
scale of measurement used in data collection, distribution of data etc. First step is to
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To check normality of the data, histograms, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test are
used. If data are normally distributed then we can assume that the data belong to
normally distributed population. Histograms give overview of whether variables have
bell-shaped symmetrical curve or not. Variables with bell- symmetrical shaped curve
are normally distributed. We can interpret that sample distribution does not deviate
from normal. Though, histograms do not show magnitude of the deviation. Therefore,
Kolmogorov-Smirnov, and Shapiro-Wilk tests are conducted to check whether data
are normally distributed or not. When p value in these tests is greater than 0.05,
then sample distribution is normal. When p value is less than 0.05, then the
distribution is not normal.
4.11.2.
The observations in this research come from one samples. Data are measured at
nominal and ordinal scales. Histograms show variables do not have normality curve.
It is interpreted that sample data are not normally distributed and they do not belong
to normally distributed population. Mean, median, and mode are not identical.
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Further, K-S (Kolmogorov-Smirnov) test, and Shapiro-Wilk tests are used. Results
show that distribution in not normal. Parametric tests are not applicable. KolmogorovSmirnov test is one-sample test. It is goodness of fit test. The comparison is made
between observed and theoretical sample distribution. When calculated value is
greater than the critical value, the null hypothesis is rejected. It is more powerful than
Chi-Square test.
4.11.3.
Chi-Square Test ( 2 )
Pearson Chi-Square test is used for testing relationship between two or more
categorical variables. It is widely used nonparametric test to check significance
difference between the observed frequency (fo) and the expected frequency (fe) with
reference to the null hypothesis.
Degree of freedom (df) is important in Chi-Square test. For every degree of freedom,
Chi-Square distribution is different. Degrees of freedom are calculated by multiplying
number of rows minus 1 and number of columns minus 1. For 2 X 2 table (a table
with 2 rows and 2 columns), degree of freedom will be (2 1) X (2 1) = 1.
df = (r 1) X (c 1)
One of the limitations of the Chi-Square test is it does not indicate strength of
association among the variables. Chi-Square test cannot be conducted if any cell in
the contingency table has frequency of less than 5.
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4.11.6. Crosstabulation
With the help of Crosstabulation, relationship between two or more categorical
variables can be examined. Crosstabulation tables are also knows as Contingency
Tables. Categorical variables have categories of people, places, objects, situations etc.
For example, Gender, City etc. It is also possible to check various measures of
association such as Chi-Square, Phi, Contingency Coefficient, Cramers V etc. with
the help of Crosstabulation. Chi-Square statistic is used for crosstabulating two or
more variables with nominal categories. Phi Coefficient is used to check strength of
association of 2 X 2 contingency table. Contingency Coefficient is used to check
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strength of association of a contingency table of any number of rows and any number
of columns. Cramers V is used to check strength of association of the tables larger
than 2 X 2 (tables with more than 2 rows and 2 columns). Crosstabulation is done by
taking two or more variables present in the hypotheses formulated.
4.11.7. Correlation
Correlation helps to know linear relationship between variables. Two variables can be
positively related or not related or negatively related. For example, higher the
awareness about the product, higher the interest level in buying (positive relation). It
can be higher the product awareness, lesser the interest in buying (negative relation)
or product awareness and buying interest are independent, there is no change in level
of buying interest with changing product awareness (no relation). If variables have
correlation, it is called that they covary. When one variable deviates from mean and
the other variable also deviates from the mean, these variables are related. Variance of
a variable is a measure of level of data that vary from the mean of those data. When
one variable deviates from mean and the other variable also deviates from the mean in
the same direction, the variance is positive. For example, if interest in the product
increases with the increase in product awareness, variance is positive. When one
variable deviates from mean and the other variable deviates from the mean in the
opposite direction, then variance is negative. For example, interest in the product
decreases with increase in the product awareness.
4.11.8.
Spearmans Rho
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statistic is applied to these ranks. If the significant value is less than 0.05, then it is
interpreted that a significant relationship between two variables exists. If the value is
more than 0.05, then there is no significant relationship between two variables. If the
correlation is positive, then change in one variable result in the change of the other
variable in the same direction.
4.11.9.
Phi
Phi is used for 2 X 2 contingency tables to measure the strength of association. Phi
coefficient is calculated as below:
When value of Phi is zero, there is no any association between variables. When this
value is 1, there is perfect association between the variables.
4.11.11. Cramers V
Cramers V is used for the tables with more than two rows and more than two
columns. The larger the value of V, the higher the association. Cramers V is
calculated as below:
2
V=
min (r 1), (c - 1)
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Chapter Bibliography
Books
1. Abdel Baset I M Hasouneh, Research Methodology, Sublime Publications,
Jaipur, 2003.
2. Beri G C, Marketing Research, 3rd ed, TMH, New Delhi, 2006.
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Publications, Jaipur, 2005.
4. Cooper Donald and Schindler Pamela, Business Research Methods, 6th ed, TMH,
New Delhi, 1999.
5. Creswell John, Research Design, 2nd ed, SAGE Publications. California, 2003.
6. Kothari C R, Research Methodology, 2nd ed, New Age International Publishers,
Delhi, 2004.
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Sciences, 2nd ed, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai, 2006.
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Education, New Delhi, 2007.
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