Assignment 3Melissa Chanduvi

Stratford University

EBM502 Research Methods

Dr. Sandra Mohabir-McKinley

INTERVIEW

An interview is a qualitative research method that entails posing open-ended questions to engage participants and obtain information about a topic. Interviews were performed with a population sample, and the conversational style is an important aspect.

Advantages:

It permits interviewers to become more versatile with their questions. People that are unable to write or read can also engage in the interview, which has a greater response rate than sent questions. The interviewer can evaluate the nonverbal behavior of the individual. Unlike online interviews, which can actually happen in a completely different environment, the interviewer has the option of choosing a quiet and private venue for the interview. Apart from a questionnaire, the interviewer has complete command over the sequence in which the questions are asked and can judge the participant’s spontaneity. They help you clarify, better comprehend, and investigate research participants’ perspectives, behavior, experiences, and occurrences. Most interview queries are open-ended, providing for in-depth data collecting (Bailey 1994).

Disadvantages:

Conducting an interview study can be both costly and time-consuming. As a result of the interview, biases may emerge. Answers to the interviewer’s race, age, class, or bodily attractiveness, for instance, can affect the participant’s responses. Most respondents are worried about interview research’s lack of confidentiality. Because participants can be in any area of the globe or nation (unlike in mailed questionnaire research), there is a shortage of accessibility to participants. Mistakes in recording, or intentionally producing errors in recording (Krouwel et al., 2019).

FOCUS GROUP

A focus group is a gathering of ten or fewer volunteers who meet to discuss a certain product or idea. The business research organization will present them with a set of questions or provide them with a product to test, after which they will be allowed to express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. All of their responses are analyzed to predict how the rest of the market will react. Focus groups are commonly employed in the advertising business to assess a new product’s possible impact (Vaportzis et al., 2017).

Advantage:

A focus group is an excellent way to get feedback from customers on new goods or company objectives. Usually, focus groups provide quick suggestions for refining certain goods or concepts. They also aid in the identification of end-user product demands and other requirements that the firm and its rivals are unable to fulfill. Focus groups also measure the reactions of customers to a product’s, packaging, design, pricing, and purpose, as well as providing information on your competitors’ current position in the eyes of buyers (Nyumba et al., 2018).

Disadvantage:

One drawback of a focus group is that participants may be unable to express their actual and personal views about the topic. They could be hesitant to speak up, particularly if their viewpoint differs from that of a fellow participant. In traditional in-person focus groups, certain participants tend to lead the way. The participant bias in focus groups is substantially lower (Vaportzis et al., 2017).

SURVEY

A survey is a sort of research that entails gathering information from a planned group in order to gain insight and knowledge into a number of topics. For its multiple advantages, features, and perks, most researchers prefer the survey approach to alternative methods of data collection for research purposes. But on the other side, surveys have shortcomings and downsides that should be noted (Rice et al., 2017).

Advantage:

When it refers to representing a large group of individuals, surveys have a lot of core skills. Because of the huge number of people who reply to surveys, the data collected has a better representation of the relative characteristics of the broader population included in the research. Surveys, in contrast to other data gathering methods, can examine data that is similar to the actual features of the larger population.

When performing surveys, you simply have to spend for the survey questions themselves. Other data collection approaches, like focus groups and individual interviews, on either side, require researchers to spend more (Rice et al., 2017).

Identifying statistically significant outcomes is typically easier with the obvious survey approach than for other data gathering methods because of its significant representativeness. Surveys could also be conducted to evaluate a variety of issues. Since the questionnaire survey should be rigorously inspected and standardized, all of the people who will be completing out the surveys will have comparable ideas. As a consequence, the data acquired may be evaluated more precisely (Rice et al., 2017).

Disadvantage:

Participants might not always feel motivated to give correct, honest information. Participants might not even feel comfortable giving replies that are unpleasant in nature. Due to a major loss of memory or boredom, participants may not be completely informed of their motives for any provided response (Al Kindy et al., 2018).

OBSERVATION

An observational study is a sort of qualitative research wherein researchers observe the activity of participants in a realistic context. The purpose of this kind of research is to gather more reliable data. In a different way, researchers can get data on what individuals genuinely do instead of what they pretend to do.

Advantage:

Direct accessibility to research phenomenon, high rates of application versatility, and the creation of a rich, durable record of occurrences to be referred to later are all benefits of observation techniques. The observation method is the most basic way of data collection. Despite the fact that scientifically recorded observations necessitate some technological skills, they are far more accessible and simple than other approaches. The information gathered from the participants is the data with which the researchers should operate in both questionnaire and interview procedures. There is also no method to test the validity of any of these techniques because they are all indirect. But, when using the observation method, the accuracy of the data can be validated by a series of tests. As a consequence, data collected through observation is significantly more trustworthy (Khakimova 2019).

Disadvantage:

One of the biggest drawbacks of participant observation is how time-consuming it is. Participants must make significant efforts to manage their biases, which can have a significant impact on what they notice, record, and evaluate. The observer has little control over the action and must frequently wait for the actions of interest to happen. Over-identification with or disdain for the group under investigation might be hazardous. This technique raises ethical issues, especially when uncaught offenders are the focus of the investigation. It usually produces nonquantitative data and may necessitate more literary and statistical skills throughout the writing stage (Wagstaff et al., 2018).

CASE STUDY

A case study is a sort of research in which a subject of study is thoroughly examined so that a thorough assessment of the individual’s experience may be used to comprehend his or her situation.

Advantage:

They are effective for rare conditions or diseases with a considerable time between exposure and onset of symptoms. They are much less costly and less time-consuming; they are useful when exposure data is difficult or expensive to gather. Offers a lot of (extremely qualitative) information. It inspires you to do further research. allowing the study of situations that otherwise would be impractical to research (or unethical) (Casado-Vara et al., 2018).

Disadvantage:

A single participant is usually the center of a case study, and just one investigator collects data. This can lead to data collection bias, which can affect outcomes more than other methods. It’s also difficult to deduce a definite cause-and-effect relation from case studies. For them, selection bias is a concern. They are inefficient for infrequent exposures. Observation bias may have affected exposure data. They do not, in most situations, allow for the estimation of occurrence (absolute risk) (Oh & Shong 2017).

Selection of method

I want to select the Survey method for research because of its huge benefits and fewer drawbacks. It is found the most useful method in business-related studies. Through a survey, responses to some essential questions and specific queries can be conducted. It helps in choosing a target audience and provides easy access to the audience. It helps in performing a study at once with less time and less cost than any other qualitative research method (Baig 2019). A survey questionnaire can be prepared with specific and essential questions. Then survey can be filled by a target population of choice. It will provide honest feedback and responses from consumers. It will allow discussion on the responses from participants and evaluate outcomes from responses will benefit in making conclusions to the research through statistical analysis of the responses (Boberg 2017).

References

Baig, M. I., Shuib, L., & Yadegaridehkordi, E. (2019). Big Data Tools: Advantages and Disadvantages. Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Support Systems, 6(6), 14-20.

Bailey, K. (1994). Interview Studies in Methods of social research. Simonand Schuster, 4th

Boberg, C. (2017). Surveys: The use of written questionnaires in sociolinguistics. In Data Collection in Sociolinguistics (pp. 134-143). Routledge.

Casado-Vara, R., Prieto, J., De la Prieta, F., & Corchado, J. M. (2018). How blockchain improves the supply chain: Case study alimentary supply chain. Procedia computer science, 134, 393-398.

ed. The Free Press, New York NY 10020.Ch8. Pp.173-213.

Khakimova, D. (2019). ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF OBSERVATION. Вопросы науки и образования, (7), 144-146.

Krouwel, M., Jolly, K., & Greenfield, S. (2019). Comparing Skype (video calling) and in-person qualitative interview modes in a study of people with irritable bowel syndrome–an exploratory comparative analysis. BMC medical research methodology, 19(1), 1-9.

O. Nyumba, T., Wilson, K., Derrick, C. J., & Mukherjee, N. (2018). The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(1), 20-32.

Oh, J., & Shong, I. (2017). A case study on business model innovations using Blockchain: focusing on financial institutions. Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Vaportzis, E., Giatsi Clausen, M., & Gow, A. J. (2017). Older adults perceptions of technology and barriers to interacting with tablet computers: a focus group study. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1687.

Wagstaff, A., Flores, G., Hsu, J., Smitz, M. F., Chepynoga, K., Buisman, L. R., … & Eozenou, P. (2018). Progress on catastrophic health spending in 133 countries: a retrospective observational study. The Lancet Global Health, 6(2), e169-e179.