Research Design

In focusing on the different kinds of research design, we are paying attention to the different frameworks for the collection and analysis of data. A research design relates to the criteria that are employed when evaluating business research. It is, therefore, a framework for the generation of evidence that is suited both to a certain set of criteria and to the research question in which the investigator is interested. This chapter is structured as follows: • Reliability, replication, and validity are presented as criteria for assessing the quality of business research. The latter entails an assessment in terms of several criteria covered in the chapter: measurement validity; internal validity; external validity; and ecological validity. • The suggestion that such criteria are mainly relevant to quantitative research is examined, along with the proposition that an alternative set of criteria should be employed in relation to qualitative research. This alternative set of criteria, which is concerned with the issue of trustworthiness, is outlined briefl y. • Five prominent research designs are then outlined: – experimental and related designs (such as the quasi-experiment); – cross-sectional design, the most common form of which is social survey research; – longitudinal design and its various forms, such as the panel study and the cohort study; – case study design; – comparative design. • Each research design is considered in terms of the criteria for evaluating research fi ndings.