Problem Definition and Research Design

1
Problem Definition and Research Design
2
Theory

• Theory- A set of propositions used to explain
  behaviors or phenomena to provide prediction and
  understanding
• Example Theories of Consumption (Keynesian,
  PIH, life cycle consumption theory)
• The goals of theory are prediction and
  understanding
• Theories are the nets cast to catch what we call
  the world to rationalize, to explain and to
  master it. We endeavor to make the mesh ever
  finer and finer.
• -Karl R Popper.

3
The Role of Theory in Business Research

• The Fuel for Research
• Theory offers explanations and predictions.
• Normative decision rules suggest what should be
  done when faced with a situation described by a
  theory, but there are many gaps in knowledge used
  to develop normative decision rules.
• Theory is Practical
• Narrows down things to be studied.
• Law-like generalizations provide hypotheses.
• Hypotheses based on theory determine what must be
  measured.
• Theory-based versus intuition-based explanations.

4
Hypothesis

• An unproven proposition or supposition that
  tentatively explains certain facts a proposition
  that is empirically testable.

5
The Scientific Method

• Assessment of relevant existing knowledge
  (Literature Review)
• Formulation of concepts and propositions
• Statement of hypothesis
• Design the Research to test the hypothesis
• Acquisition of meaningful empirical data
• Analysis and evaluation of data
• Provide explanation and state new problems raised
  by the research

6
Overview

• The Research Proposal
• Existing knowledge on topic my contribution
• Research design (survey/experiment/observation)
• Sample design
• Data gathering
• Data analysis
• Report preparation

7

• The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating
  the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
• Bertrand Russell British author, mathematician,
  philosopher (1872 - 1970)

8
Problem definition

• The process of identifying the problem and
  formulating and narrowing a researchable question.

9
What is the unit of analysis?

• Make sure to identify the target of the research
• ie husband-wife, or head of household, business
  owner, customer, 3rd party payer, etc.

10
What are the relevant variables?

• Variable- anything that may assume different
  numerical values
• Categorical (discreet) Sex
• Continuous (infinite number of values) Salary
• Dependent variable (to be explained) endogenous
• Independent variable (explanatory) exogenous

11
Past Projects

• Social Acceptance of Plastic Surgery
• Whitney Dining Hours (optimal?)
• Impact of Drinking on GPA
• Consumer Sentiment Index and Voting Behavior
• Smoking Bans and Bar Attendance
• STD testing behavior

12
Mind Mapping

• Visualizing ideas and relationships
• http//bubbl.us/

13
Prison Break and BitTorrent
14
Background Research
15
Murphy Library web page

• http//www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/

16
Catalog

• You can search the librarys electronic card
  catalog for books or periodicals on the subject
  matter youre interested in.
• http//www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/

17
Databases

• You can also look for information using one of
  the databases Murphy has access to. These
  databases primarily index the articles in
  periodicals (academic journals, magazines,
  newspapers, etc). You can find the list of
  databases the library has access to at
• http//libdata.uwlax.edu/page.phtml?page_id25
• They provide titles and brief descriptions of the
  general subject area of the materials. For
  example ABI Inform indexes articles in the Wall
  Street Journal and the American Economic Review.
  Sometimes they even provide the full text of the
  document online. Other times, they simply
  provide the citation.

18
Web searches

• Finally you may search the web. Be careful,
  there are many pages of highly suspicious
  quality. Examine the information with care.
  Look for related government web pages.
• http//www.yahoo.com
• http//scholar.google.com/

19
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

• Deductive- the logical process of deriving a
  conclusion from a known premise
• When it is hot out people eat ice cream, so
  next time it is hot out people will probably
• Inductive- The process of establishing a general
  proposition from observation and generalization
• When people are warm they attempt to cool their
  bodies in many ways. One way is by eating ice
  cream. So we would expect when its hot out more
  ice cream will be consumed