Research Methods in Business Studies

The research design is the overall plan for relating the conceptual research problem to relevant and practicable empirical research. In other words, the research design provides a plan or a framework for data collection and its analysis. It reveals the type of research (e.g. exploratory, descriptive, or causal) and the priorities of the researcher. The research methods, on the other hand, refer to the techniques used to collect and analyse data. This chapter looks at a variety of research designs and methods, as well as at the concept of validity.