Category: Research Design

Research Design and Analysis of Student Satisfaction

As Harvey 1995 suggests satisfaction of learners in an institution goes hand in hand with the development of a culture of continuous quality improvement. It’s one path to identify areas of concern within the college. To depict the rate of satisfaction in students research needs to be conducted.

Research is an activity done to discover new understanding or knowledge about a problem according to many dictionaries. Research emphasizes the systematic and careful nature of the work. The main purpose of doing research is to understand phenomena or a problem and to contribute and to contribute the findings in an already existing knowledge base in a particular discipline or across disciplines. For data to be collected during research, certain methods have to be applied. A method is basically a particular research technique or way to gather evidence about a phenomenon. Specific research tools are used to gain an even deeper understanding of a phenomenon. These tools are also referred to as research designs.

As Astin 1993 suggests, student satisfaction refers to the student’s perception/opinion pertaining value of education received while attending an educational institution. Student satisfaction is associated with the students’ characteristics, quality of relationships with, faculty, curriculum and instruction, student life, support services, resources, and facilities. Astin, (1993) identified these factors as most important, contact time with faculty members and administrators, availability of career advisors, student social life on campus, and overall relationships with faculty and administrators. In 1986, ben and Bradley concluded the best prediction for student satisfaction are academic integration, institutional fit, social life, and difficulty of the program.

However, with the advancement of technology, factors that determine learner satisfaction are evolving every now and then. Institutions, therefore, need to be able to conduct research every now and then. Research design is the basis at which data can be best obtained and analyzed for feedback that both learning institutions and students need. several research design methods can be used to obtain data concerning this topic of study and each method provides data for analysis.

Statement why the 3 can be chosen in the study of Student Satisfaction

Survey Research Design

Survey as a term is used to refer to sampling survey meaning that information is gathered from only a part of the population. Used to contribute to the geral body of knowledge in a particular area of interest.in general, a survey involves the collection of information from individuals through mailed questionnaires, telephone calls personal interviews) about the social units to which they belong ie according to Rossil et al.,1983. The survey sampling process determines information about large populations with a known level of accuracy, as Rea and Parker, 1992 suggest.

Survey research like other types of field study can contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge in different ways Babbie et al., 1990). It can be categorized into exploratory, confirmatory(theory testing) surveys, and descriptive survey research (Grover et al.,1998). Let’s dive into each one of them

Exploratory survey- takes place during the early satges of research into a phenomenon, when the objective is to gain preliminary insight on the topic. It provides a basis for an in-depth survey. Usually, there is no model and concepts of interest to be better understood and measured. In the preliminary stages, exploratory survey research can help determine the concepts to be measured in relation to phenomena of interest, how best to measure them, and how best to discover new facets of the phenomenon under study. Subsequently, it can help uncover a theory. Sometimes this kind of survey is carried out using data collected in previous studies.

Confirmatory / theory testing survey research – takes place when knowledge of a phenomenon has been articulated in a theoretical form using well-defined concepts, models, and propositions. In this case data collection is carried out with the specific aim of testing the adequacy of the concepts developed in relation to the phenomenon of hypothesized linkages among concepts and of the validity boundary of the models. Consequently, all of the error causes have to be considered carefully.

Descriptive survey research – it is aimed at understanding the relevance of a certain phenomenon and describing the distribution of the phenomenon in a population. Its primary aim is not theory development even though it can provide useful hints both for theory building and theory refinement (walker et al.,1998)

Qualitative data analysis methods are used accordingly

Merits of survey

• Favorable when the information can be obtained directly. This is especially for collective subjective data which includes attitudes, beliefs r values
• Surveying is cost-effective and time-saving. Provide researchers with a great deal of evidence at relatively small costs.
• Used when the study is focused on a large population of people such that only a sample is obtained for the study.
• Uses short answer questions that participants find easy and convenient, especially in the case of structured questions

Demerits

• Sometimes surveys can be expensive, especially the theoretical ones
• The population is not always accessible and the feasibility that the right informants will be found is not always a guarantee.
• Also during survey research, it is not possible if know gave the true information or just said things to get past it.
• You are not always sure if your respondents are gonna keep to their word of response.

Combined /Mixed Method Research Design

Over the last two decades, there have been numerous calls for increased methodological diversity and alternative research methods have been made (Howard et al.,1983). As Morrow and smith 2000 described, these calls have led to important discussions about incorporating qualitative methods into qualitative research but more importantly, the discussions have happened to lead to what we now call mixed-method research.

Mixed method research design, therefore, refers to the collection and analysis of both quantitive and qualitative data concurrently or sequentially given a priority and involves the integration of the data at one or more stages in the process of the research (Creswell et al.,2003). We find that true to what (Teddlie et al.,1998) believe, when both qualitative and quantitative data are included in a study researchers may enrich their results in ways that one form of data does not allow.

Researchers normally find themselves at a tight spot in examining human behavior and that kind of study requires a natural setting. Understanding human behavior is but a complex process. It s therefore clear that understanding this complexity requires not one way of knowing and valuing but rather a mix of all ways available in a framework that honors diversity and respects difference. Researchers contribute to social betterment (Henry et al., 1998)

As Thomas cook,(1985), describes it the results of using mixed methods are rewarding in two-fold. There’s a need to marshal all the multiple ways of knowing and valuing in the service of credible and multiple understanding. Good scientific practice is a trial and error process, a process of looking at errors through multiple lenses, a continuous process, according to Greenwood and Levin,(1998)

And because science is uncertain it is better not to abandon experimental and quantitative methods altogether in favor of new ways from the interpretive and critical sciences, instead embracing new ideas or methods of research while we advance the old ones. Also mixed will help us learn new ways of collecting and analyzing wholesomely. The complex,multi-determined, dynamic social phenomena can be better addressed through multiple perspectives of diverse methods than through the limited lens of just

According to Caracelli and Greene(1997), separate methods can be implemented relatively from one another or coordinated interactively in an integrated design. In an integrated design, there are planned, scheduled points of interaction between the different evaluation methods throughout the duration of the study. Such points of interaction include instrument design, sample selection, initial field contact, key data gathering activities, and several points during data analysis.

With an integrated design, the different methods are blended, united, and dialectically combined into a coherent whole so that evaluation results are more of a synthesis of all study data and less of a report of findings from each method separately.

How data is analyzed

‘Parallel tracks’ where each set of data is analyzed separately and then comparisons and connections are made at the stage of drawing conclusions and inferences. Consequently, cross-over track analysis where interim results from one method are clustered, summarized and then crossed over to another analytic track for further processing. Parallel track analyses match properly with pragmatic frameworks for mixing methods while crossover tracks fit well with the dialectic mixed methods.

Merits

Using both forms of data allows researchers to simultaneously generalize results from a sample to a population and to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of interest.

As Green and Caracelli stated in 1997, it allows researchers to test theoretical models and modify them based on participants’ feedback

It also helps illustrate how accuracy can be obtained from instrumental measurements but also be augmented by contextual field-based information.

According to Merten and Punch 2003, mixed methods investigations can be used to better understand a research problem by conveying numeric trends.

The increased importance of data quality. or rather greater comprehensiveness of findings

Promotes enhanced validity and credibility of inferences – this is well illustrated by the classic triangulation mixed method which is used to measure phenomena with intended convergence of results and thus ruling out of various threats to validity.

Increased value of consciousness and diversity- according to Cook,(1985) multiplsim promises to make policy research more intellectual, value, conscious and debate-centered. Moreover, different methods advance different values and interests according to Green (1997),it invites singularity thus provoking public debate but also promotes diverse perspectives (House and Howe,2000)

Demerits

It can be difficult to learn and apply both methods at the same time,(Grieger et al.,1999).

Interview Research Design

The process by which a researcher and a participant engage in a conversation focused on questions related to the topic of study. Questions about the participants’ thoughts, opinions, perspectives, or descriptions of specific experiences are normally what you find in an I interview room. According to Maccoby and Maccoby 1954, an interview a face-to-face verbal interchange in which one person the interviewer, attempts to elicit information or expressions of opinions or beliefs from another person to person or persons.

Unstructured as we see (Lofland, 1994) define is a guided conversation whose aim is to elicit information from the interviewee rich detailed materials that can be used in qualitative analysis. It si important to note that although an interview is sometimes defined as a conversation it s very different from an everyday conversation. In an interview research the a lot of responsibility rests on the shoulders of the researcher since he has to determine the purpose of the research, design of the study, selection of participants and intention to implement it

An interview process normally starts with a researcher approaching a potential source of information he or needs for his/her study, in this case, the participant/interviewee, who in turn agrees or disagrees to participate in that study. If the participant agrees, he signs a document and an agreed time is set for the real interview to take place. On the day of the meeting, the researcher proceeds to ask the questions he had prepared for theat particular study. Normally the participants speak more than the interview expressing their views and experiences.

A qualitative interview mainly involves developing a rapport with participants and discussing in detail aspects of the phenomenon being guided. Because each participant is unique, each qualitative interview is also unique. And questions can be tailored to fit comfortably into the experience of each research interview they also enable the participants to guide the discussion more than others. Qualitative interviews are categorized differently :, clinical, long interview(McCracken,1988), nondirective and focused interviews(Merton &Kendall,1946), focus group interviews(Barbour et al.,1999), and many more.

Designing a qualitative interview study begins with a clear statement of the purpose of the study which is the problem statement. The problem usually describes the gaps in the literature or what is not well understood and simultaneously that provides for the rationale of the study. It is worth noting that sometimes the purpose of the study comes only after the researcher has known what types of people to be interviewed, or the kinds of questions to be structured.

Selecting participants – once again the purpose of the study guide toward the possible participants. An interview researcher should select people who have the knowledge and experience in that particular area of study. This is to enhance the accuracy of the findings. It is also a wise decision to select from a wide range of the population of participants. As LeCompte and Preissle (1993), describes. qualitative research uses criterion-based selection which is a process upon which they make a list of characteristics or attributes the participants in the study possess. Common criterion-based strategies qualitative researchers use to select participants include comprehension selection, network selection,typical-case selection, unique case selection, and reputation-based selection.

But how many participants should be in interview research? Since this type of research is so contextualized, it depends on the weight of the interviews, and the extent to which the participants are able to respond to the research purposes and questions. It is also important that a researcher decide hitherto on the type of database to be used to analyze the data and interpret it so that as to consider that a database can analyze. In terms of timing a good interview will use one and half hours, few participants interviewed at greater depth will give more than more and no quality time is invested during the interview process.

Additionally, it is important while planning an interview to always consider and put in place the gain of participants. How will they benefit after contributing to certain research? The interview may lead to an article or book but most importantly is that the participant be able to agina from the interview involvement as well, like a sense of satisfaction. Again the gains cannot be defined as they evolve with time and the depth of interview and interaction with the researcher.

Constructing an interview guide

One should really invest time in this activity because it clears their minds first, on the specific issues they want to talk about. But basically, interview questions should:

• Short and clear and objective- this means precise and at the same time they would lead to detailed responses from participants and be understood easily, nobody wants to confuse the interviewee. It should also go a long way toward encouraging participants to provide a detailed narrative
• Ask participants to recall specific events or experiences in detail to encourage fuller narratives-a retelling event would lead to wonderfully detailed stories. These types of stories enable a researcher to fully understand a human phenomenon. As opposed to when questions are so general that they drive away the mind f the respondent and they are left wondering what to answer and real-life experiences fade in such time.
• Be open-ended in place of close-ended- close-ended questions are normally biased in that the researcher gets to ask the questions expecting a structured answer. A good research question will give for the interviewer to fully express themselves in their own way and the information that is so rich for the researcher.
• Descriptive and evaluative- according to Whyte (1984), a descriptive question requests for a telling of what happened at a particular time and event and the evaluative is a request for an assessment/examination of how a participant feels about that event or happening.
• The information is raw and most importantly accurate
• Information obtained is precise and rich in terms of outcomes

Demerits

• Can be time-consuming and expensive
• Sometimes locating participants is not an easy task
• Survey as the research design I choose to do study Student Satisfaction

Rationale – the target group is in large numbers given the number of students in my institution. Also, it will be easier for students to fill out a questionnaire than participate thus won’t consume a lot of time as opposed to participating in a research method that will consume a lot of time and energy which may not pleasant to students. Finally getting participants will not be such a hectic activity, which is valuable for my research, the more participants the more accurate my results will be, and also because students can easily understand the meaning of research questions since they can easily relate to them.

In this study :

• Both open-ended and closed questionnaires will be used.
• The questions will be administered through telephone and mail.

Well-defined questionnaires and detailed questionnaires addressing the issues that are concerned for students will be distributed occasionally during data collecting periods. Emails will be sent calls made and calls made at appropriate times.

References

1. Salkind, N.J. ed., 2010. Encyclopedia of research design (Vol. 1). Sage.
2. Leech, N.L. and Onwuegbuzie, A.J., 2009. A typology of mixed methods research designs. Quality & quantity, 43(2), pp.265-275.
3. Hanson, W.E., Creswell, J.W., Clark, V.L.P., Petska, K.S. and Creswell, J.D., 2005. Mixed methods research designs in counseling psychology. Journal of counseling psychology, 52(2), p.224.
4. Creswell, J.W., Hanson, W.E., Clark Plano, V.L. and Morales, A., 2007. Qualitative research designs: Selection and implementation. The counseling psychologist, 35(2), pp.236-264.
5. Saris, W.E. and Gallhofer, I.N., 2014. Design, evaluation, and analysis of questionnaires for survey research. John Wiley & Sons.
6. Owens, L.K., 2002. Introduction to survey research design. In SRL fall 2002 seminar series (pp. 78-105).
7. Lavrakas, P.J., 2008. Encyclopedia of survey research methods. Sage Publications.

A Study on Perception Towards Branded Apparels Amongst Youth in Tricity: Research Design

Introduction

Apparels and accessories retailing is the largest segment of organized retailing in India. To remain competitive and profitable in present marketplace, the apparel industry must continue to expand its capability to fulfil the needs and wants of customers, its overall retail picture has shown long-term growth with the increase of income, and increased exposure to foreign brands. In last few years, apparel market has seen changes with respect to dressing design, style, usage of branded items and choice of fibers and awareness of trends. According to an article in Economic Times, the market of branded apparels in India may rise to Rs. 250K Cr. by 2020.

Consumer Buying Behaviour:

For consumers brands can simply choose, promise a particular quality level, reduce risk or trust. Brands are built on product itself, the marketing activity and its use by customers as well as others or non-users. Brands reflect the consumer’s complete experience they have with products or apparel. Also, Brands play an important role in determining the marketing efforts such as advertising effects and channel placement. Thus, Brands manifest their impact at three primary levels- customer-marketing, product-market, and financial market. The value accrued by these various benefits is often called Brand equity.

Consumer buying behaviour is the study of individuals and the procedures they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society Consumer behaviour is gradually a part of strategic planning for the upcoming investment and growth of any industry. Retail industry or specifically to say apparel industry is no exception, Consumers can either be subjective or objective, testing the persuasion of brand names. Consumers may select specific products/brands not only because these products deliver the functional or performance pay backs projected, but also because products can be used to express consumers’ personality, social status or association or to fulfil their internal psychological requirements, such as the need for change or freshness.

Consumer behaviour denotes to the emotional and mental process and the observable behaviour of consumers during search of product, purchasing process and post consumption of a product or service. Consumer behaviour includes study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy.

Literature review

1. Kevin Lane Keller, Donald R. Lehmann (2004) opines that branding has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have. Driven in part by this intense industry interest, academic researchers have explored a number of different brand-related topics in recent years, generating scores of papers, articles, research reports, and books. It identifies some of the influential work in the branding area, highlighting what has been learned from an academic perspective on important topics such as brand positioning, brand integration, brand equity measurement, brand growth, and brand management. The research also outlines some gaps that exist in the research of branding and brand equity and formulates a series of related research questions. Choice modelling implications of the branding concept and the challenges of incorporating main and interaction effects of branding as well as the impact of competition are discussed.
2. P.S. Venkateswaran, N. Ananthi, U. Geetha, Binith Muthukrishnan. K (2011) study the influence of brand loyalty on apparel’s buying behaviour of consumers at Dindigul. Rising costs of living around the world cause consumers to stretch their incomes more thinly, meaning necessities are being weighed against apparel. Fashion must have value and purpose and truly resonate to the consumer. Strong brands with consistent powerful messages can create loyalty and a sense of worth that transcends the burden of choice. Branding may communicate several meanings to the consumer, which include the attribute, benefit, value, culture, personality, and user. In addition, branding will indicate the importance of loyalty, awareness, quality, association and others.
3. Namita Rajput, Subodh Kesharwani and Akanksha Khanna(2012) study the relationship between consumers’ decision-making styles and their choice between domestic and imported brand clothing is investigated using a sample of Indian consumers. The researcher analyze the significance of demographic profile of consumers affecting the purchase decision of branded garments and to observe from gender perspective the consumer awareness about different apparel brands available in the Indian market and also to find out whether there is a significant difference in total expenditure on branded apparels done by males vise- a – versa females. The results exhibit no significant differences in the brand awareness, shopping frequency and shopping expenditure between males and females.
4. Md. Mazedul Islam and Adnan Maroof Khan (2013) contend that the preference of consumers for readymade branded apparels is fast changing which is caused by the creation of personality and status with the quality and comfort they deliver. Customers have become highly brand conscious presently. Hence, brand image is a significant factor in choosing the product or brand to buy. Driven by the competitive environment in fashion business, marketers have realized that creating a favourable brand image is a key to win larger market share in its market niche. An understanding of brand image can provide better foundation for developing a more effective marketing program. The understanding of consumers’ desires, behaviour and of the purchase process of fashion products is extremely important to the design of fashion products collections as well as to the placement of these products in the market. A fashion product must satisfy the demands of the target customers, so the main idea (message) behind the brand (sender) must reach the consumer (receiver).
5. Md. Mazedul Islam, Muhammad Mufidul Islam, Abu Yousuf Mohammad Anwarul Azim, Md. Russel Anwar and Md. Mijan Uddin (2014) propound that the garment manufacturing sector earned $19 billion in the year June 2012, one of the impoverished nation’s biggest industries. Bangladesh is the world’s second largest exporter of clothing after China. Readymade garments make up 80 percent of the country’s $24 billion in annual exports. Consultancy firm McKinsey & Company said that Bangladesh could double its garments exports in the next 10 years. Definitely it is news that our local apparel products are trying to satisfy the need of local customers along with strengthening the countries economical growth. So, knowing the customers desired requirements when they purchase such local apparel brand products are mandatory to better clothing’s brand developments. Brand management holds the key in the modern markets, particularly in case of Bangladeshi local apparel markets. Bangladeshi people are very traditional in clothing’s choice.
6. Syed Tabrez Hassan, Bilal H Hurrah, Amit Lanja (2014) opines that as in this competition era, from business point of view, we must be aware about the customer needs & wants & what a consumer expects from a company. We should have this information or a customer database if we want to stay in the market and to develop a competitive edge in the market. After conducting this study we must be able to understand what customers want from a brand, why they switches to other brand, what are the factors which force them to purchase branded apparels. By analyzing these, company can formulate the strategies as per the customer needs and deliver them the products which consumer wants from the company, which will be profitable for the company.
7. Rizwana Begum and K.S. Sarala (2016) feel that brand positioning is the key of marketing strategy. A strong brand positioning directs marketing strategy by explaining the brand details. Effective brand positioning is contingent upon identifying and communicating a brand’s uniqueness, differentiation and verifiable value. Positioning is the base for developing and increasing the required knowledge and perceptions of the customers. In this background, the present study aims at examining the impact of attributes of brand positioning on consumer purchase decision for men apparel brands in Udupi.
8. Prof. Lakshmi Narayana. K, Dr. Sreenivas D L (2016) investigates the relationship between the factors which affects the buying behaviour towards branded apparels in Bangalore city. The Data has been collected from the respondents who presently living in Bangalore city and regular buyers of branded apparels. The study offers insights and evidence about the relationship between the variables which impact consumer buying behaviour for branded apparels. In the study under consideration, the results indicate that there is significant relationship between reference group and purchase intention also promotion, Store attributes, product attributes, Income of the respondent and occupation have positive significant relation between consumer buying behaviour.

The relationship between consumers’ decision-making styles and their choice between branded and non-branded clothing is investigated using a sample of consumers of Chandigarh only. The research investigates youth of Chandigarh to examine if any factor dominates in their buying behaviour for apparel. In addition, consumer attributes (i.e., apparel involvement, brand consciousness, reference group, social class, and other factors) and personal characteristics were investigated separately and in relation to the purchase behaviour of youth.

Objectives

1. To understand the concept of perception and its role in influencing consumer behavior
2. To measure the perception of branded apparels amongst 18-24 years old customers in tri city.

Research Methodology

This study is undertaken to assess the buying pattern of consumers in Chandigarh city. Data is collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data is collected through questionnaire which consisted of two sections and secondary data is collected from books, journals, websites, etc. The questionnaire consisted of four factors on the basis of which the questionnaires is divided. This research is descriptive in nature with a target sample size of 40+ respondents. The study covered consumers taste and preference towards the branded apparels, impact of sales promotional and Measures and buying patterns of consumers in Chandigarh city.

Methodology is the most essential for the research work. It is also called as main body or part of the research format. In this chapter the researcher has been described the Research design the method adopted for the sources of data, Selections of subjects, Selection of the test items, Scoring of the question, Administration of the schedule and test items.

Research Design

Richey says that (2007) a Research design handles with the matters such as selecting participants for the Research and making for data collection and the activities that compact the research process.

Research designs basically are of two types as shown in the following figure.

As the above figure research design are of Two Types i.e. of conclusive research design and exploratory design.

Exploratory research design:

According Burns and Bush (2006) exploratory research design is referred as gathering Information in an informal and unstructured manner. The exploratory research design is proper when the researchers knows small about the opportunity or issue. Exploratory research design is not limited to one specific paradigm but may use either qualitative or quantitative approaches.

Conclusive research design:

Conclusive research design is defined by Malhatra, (1999) as a research designed to assist the decision maker in deciding, evaluating and choosing the better action course in a given situation. Conclusive research may be either descriptive or causal research design respectively. Casual research is referred as the research design where the major emphasis is on deciding a cause and effect relationship. In fact the causal relationship could be due to other factors specifically when dealing with perceptions and attitudes of people. On the other hand Brannon(1992) described that descriptive research as the name suggests describes descriptive data about the population being studied and does not try to set up casual relationship between events. It is used to explain happening, an event or to offer accurate and factual description of the population being studied. In a descriptive study the things are measured as they are. This study makes use of descriptive research design. Descriptive research design needs a clear specification of what, who, where, when, how and why the research is to be done formal design is needed to insure that description encloses all phases (Mohan, 2007). The main deference between descriptive and exploratory research is that unlike, exploratory research, descriptive research formulates a hypothesis in advance. Kirsch G (1992) say that who, what, where, when and how questions are answered by descriptive research. Descriptive research deals with everything that can be measure or counted. The present research study is descriptive in nature because it analysis in detail the variation of levels of Emotional Intelligence, Aggression, Burnout and Stress Vulnerability of cricket players at University level with respect to the role of the players.

Hypothesis:

On the basis of the literature gone through, research findings and the scholar’s own understanding of the problem the following hypothesis are formulated.

1. It is hypothesized that there will be significant difference in the level of emotional intelligence among the three groups of cricketer viz. batsmen, fast bowlers and spin bowlers.
2. It is hypothesized that the fast bowlers will have more aggression level in compare to batsmen and spin bowlers.
3. It is hypothesized that Fast bowler will have more burnout level in compare to other two groups.
4. It is further hypothesized that the batsmen will be more prone to stress vulnerability.

The research design allows researchers to isolate causes and effect, and determines the effect of several marketing variables on further variables. The variable causing the change is the independent variable, while the one which is being altered as a result is the dependent variable.

This research utilizes two different sets of data, that is, primary and secondary data. Secondary data has been collected through marketing journals, former research articles and studies, while primary data has been collected from the research sample by means of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire has been used as the primary instrument for the purpose of data collection from the sample. The answers were then analyzed and evaluated through various statistical tests for the purpose of this research.

The sample population selected for this research includes students of Greenwich University, as well as staff members. The appropriate sample size was chosen through a sample size calculator out of the Greenwich University population that included both staff members and students numbering 50 individuals.

The Concept of Car-sharing: Analysis of Research Design

1: Research Proposal

· Introduction

A global trend is increased urbanization, and most countries in the world are becoming increasingly urbanized. Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this percentage is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. (UN, 2018) This fact, in combination with the projection of overall growth of the world’s population, this could add an estimated 2.5 billion people to urban areas by 2050. A large part of this increase is forecasted to take place in Asia and Africa, however, the trend of increased urbanization is happening all over the world, including European countries. (UN Report, 2018)

Increased urbanization creates challenges for cities, including housing, transportation, health care, and infrastructure. This means that there is an urge to develop smarter cities in order to manage the urbanization in a sustainable way. (UN Report, 2018) According to Geoffrey West (x) there is a need for constant innovation in order to sustainably manage the growth of people living in cities, and thereby avoid a collapse of cities. (Geoffrey West, TedTalk)

As mentioned, one of many challenges related to increased urbanization is transportation in cities. More individuals within cities, and hence more cars, has consequences for mobility. Consequences of more cars in cities include increased congestion, limited parking space, as well as increased pollution. This means that there is a need for smarter ways of car usage. (X) A report from McKinsey (year) about car utilization in Europe, shows that the typical European car is neither used efficiently nor in a sustainable way. The report highlights that the typical European car is parked 92% of the time, spends 1,6% looking for parking, 1% sitting in congestion, and is only 5% for actual driving. In addition, the average European car has 5 seats but only carries 1,5 people per trip. (X) Hence, there is a need and opportunity to create smarter ways of car utilization, which will benefit both individuals, cities, and the planet.

One potential solution to the problem of inefficient and unsustainable car utilization is car-sharing. The concept of car-sharing is defined by Automotive Technologies (2016) as: “a model of car rental where vehicles are rented out for shorter periods of time (usually on a per hour basis) and often intended for shorter distance trips in urban areas where personal car ownership can be challenging.” There are further several categories of car-sharing, including Peer-to-Peer Car-sharing, Business to Consumer (B2C) Car-sharing, and Not-For-Profit Car-sharing. (Automotive Technologies, 2016) In this research car-sharing refers to B2C Car-sharing.

Several automotive companies have released B2C Car-sharing and are continuing to develop the service. (X) One of them is Volvo Cars, who is the owner of Sunfleet; one of the world’s first car sharing companies that has been operated by Volvo since 1998 (Volvo Cars, 2017). Volvo has recognized that today’s notion of mobility and car ownership is changing, and “that urban consumers are rethinking traditional car ownership” (Automotive News Europe, 2018). As an answer to that, Volvo Cars has announced that they in 2019 will release a new mobility brand that provides car-sharing. (Automotive News Europe, 2018) However, even if people are starting to rethink the traditional ownership of cars, the challenge still remains for people to change their old habits as well as their traditional views on how things should be. Many people are resistant to change, and therefore it may take time for people to change their old behaviors. (X) How to make car-sharing more attractive compared to car ownership, in order for consumers to change their traditional relationship to a car, is therefore worth investigating.

· Research question and purpose

It is essential to develop a well-formulated research question, as this will serve as a guide for the remainder of the study. The decision is important as it plays a vital part in the selection of media to be analyzed but also due to the future coding schedule. A not clearly articulated research questions could result in inappropriate media being analyzed or in the coding schedule missing out on certain vital dimensions. (Bryman and Bell 2013) Furthermore, Bryman and Bell (2013) presents some tips and recommendations (in the form of six criterias), which can be used in order to evaluate the appropriateness of the research questions at hand. Firstly, the questions should be clear and understandable to everyone. Second, the questions should be researchable, (they should be possible to develop into a fitting research design). Thirdly, the questions should be connected to already established theory and research. Fourthly, the proposed questions should be linked together as it would be difficult to construct coherent arguments connected to unrelated research questions. Fifthly, the questions should exhibit potential for contributing to knowledge generation. Sixth and lastly, the questions should not be too broad but either too narrow.

Before applying the mentioned criteria the main area of interest, which within the research was going to be conducted, was identified. Due to personal interests in innovative technological solutions in combination with challenges linked to the growing urbanization, a focus on mobility within cities was selected. As the researchers started to gather more information on the topic it became clear that a focus on a shift from a buying economy towards a sharing one would be central. The researchers were eventually able to narrow down the scope and identify the car, its current usage and ways to alter these towards incorporating a sharing thinking, as the main priority for investigation. The purpose of this research was gradually developed through discussions and investigations into the area of interest. This resulted in the purpose of investigating how the concept of sharing cars can be developed in order to attract more users. This knowledge could be of value for companies working within the automotive industry but also for governments and other companies invested in the development and planning of future cities. Several potential research questions were identified during the process. However, by adhering to the criterias mentioned by Bryman and Bell (2013) the researchers were able to navigate through the various alternatives before ending up with the following one;

How should the concept of sharing cars be developed to attract users and create smarter cities?

· Research Strategy

A research strategy is the “general orientation to the conduct of business research”. It is basically an action plan that gives direction and provides guidance on how to best answer the set research question. The research strategy introduces several important considerations that need to be addressed, such as the decision between selecting a qualitative or quantitative course of action as well as the decision to apply an inductive or deductive approach. (Bryman and Bell 2013)

This study is based on a qualitative research method. The research question is exploratory as it aims to understand how the concept of sharing cars should be developed in order to attract users. This is an unobservable process and the focus of study is perceptions. Based on these circumstances, a qualitative method is viable.

Furthermore, a decision whether to apply a quantitative or a qualitative research strategy also needs to be made. When having an inductive approach and thereby aiming to generate theory, a qualitative method is most common and also to prefer (Bryman & Bell, 2013). This is because it focus on words and meanings rather than testing existing theories through quantitative generalization, an method associated with a quantitative approach. Furthermore, quantitative research is described by Bryman and Bell as being more static in comparison to the more process-oriented qualitative research. As the role of fintech startups for financial inclusion in India is likely to be changing, it is of importance to understand how and why such changes can occur. This implies that a qualitative strategy is more fitting as well.

Inductive method

Before diving deeper into the task it was essential for the researchers to decide whether the research was going to be of an inductive or deductive nature. In accordance with what is most commonly used within qualitative research, an inductive approach was applied. Unlike the deductive approach, where the researchers on the basis of what is already known creates hypothesis that are later on tested, the inductive approach, in general, generates research questions in an attempt to narrow down the scope of the research. In addition, while a deductive approach aims towards testing already existing theory, an inductive approach is more focused on generating new ones. With these requirements in mind, it became apparent that an inductive approach was considered suitable, especially as the investigated area is relatively unexplored. Also, the research question is quite open-ended and of an exploratory character, thus supporting an approach beginning in observations and later leading to theory generation.

· Research Design

The research design can be described as the strategy selected by the researchers, in order to integrate all relevant parts of the research in a logic and coherent manner. Thus ensuring that the research question is addressed in a efficient way. According to Bryman and Bell (2013) there are five different research designs namely; experimental design, cross-sectional design, longitudinal design, comparative design, and case study design.

The experimental design requires intervention, in order to create or produce change, and is commonly connected to a quantitative research strategy. Based on these criterias it was concluded that this type of research design would not be optimal. First, the research will be of a qualitative nature, which is in direct opposition to the experimental research design. Secondly, the researchers agreed that an experiment would not be suitable due to time and cost constraints. The cross-sectional design aims towards investigating more than one case at a single point in time. Similar to the experimental research design, the cross-sectional design is often associated to a quantitative strategy, however, it can be realized in the context of qualitative research. Due to the nature of the stated research question, which aims to investigate how the concept of sharing cars can be developed to attract more users, the researchers concluded that a cross-sectional design would not be optimal for the stated task. This as the goal is not to carry out an observational study in order to collect a quantifiable or quantitative body of data later used to analyze the relationship between identified variables. Furthermore, the longitudinal design is typically used to map change and requires a comparison over time on at least two separate occasions. As the purpose of this study is to investigate how the concept of sharing cars can be developed it was considered unsuitable, considering time and cost constraints, to apply this kind of research design. (Bryman & Bell, 2013) According to (Bryman and Bell 2013) the comparative design “embodies the logic of comparing as it implies that we can understand social phenomena better when they are compared in relation to two or more meaningfully contrasting cases or situations.” This type of design can be realized in both a quantitative and qualitative context, but was, however, deemed not applicable onto this particular study as the concept of sharing cars is to be considered as one entity which should not (within the scope of this study) be compared or contrasted to other situations or cases.

The remaining research design, presented by Bryman and Bell (2013), is the case study design, which is also the primary design selected for this study. The case study design involves a detailed in-depth and up-close examination of a case that can the distinguished from the other designs through its intense examination of a single system, entity or situation, which is difficult to separate from the overall context. The case study design, which is one of the more commonly used approaches within qualitative research, is considered to be an appropriate design for this study as the focus is to investigate how the concept of how the sharing economy currently is being implemented into today’s society, and how it further can be developed in order to attract more users. It is important to mention that a focus on the sharing economy within the entire transportation industry might be too broad, which is why a focus on the automotive industry has been selected for this case study.

Research Methodology

Primary and Secondary Data

Primary as well as secondary data will be collected in this research. Secondary data will be used to acquire information from already existing research within the area of urbanization, mobility in cities, sharing economy, and more specifically car-sharing. Considering the fact that companies as well as researchers have already investigated car-sharing in order to implement the service, secondary data within this area of research is accessible. Literature about urbanization as well as mobility in cities will be useful in order to gain a deeper understanding about the challenges associated with mobility in cities with an increasing population in urban areas. Literature about the concept of sharing economy will be used to create a deeper understanding of this concept, which will consequently give a deeper insight into the concept of car-sharing. More narrowly, literature about the concept of car-sharing will further be investigated and defined. Additionally, secondary data will be gathered from companies that have implemented car-sharing into their offerings. This is useful in order to understand how car-sharing has been working in practice. The secondary data gathered will be used as a base for further research into the area of car-sharing. A main benefit of secondary data as data collection includes easy and time-efficient access to good-quality data, which give the researchers more time to analyze the data (Bryman & Bell, 2013).

In order to investigate how car-sharing should be developed, it is of great importance to first understand the concept of car-sharing, as well as how it is currently used in practice. Primary data will, therefore, be gathered in order to understand what factors attract potential users of car-sharing, both from a user perspective but also from a service-provider perspective. Primary data collected by using a qualitative approach is a good way of gaining a deeper understanding of what individuals see as valuable or problematic (Bryman & Bell, 2013), which is useful in the investigation of how the concept of car-sharing should be developed in the future.

Semi-structured interviews

Bryman & Bell (2013) further mention three general ways of collecting qualitative data. The forms mentioned are data collection through ethnography and participant observation, focus groups, and qualitative interviews. The most suitable way to collect data for this research is to conduct qualitative interviews, using a semi-structured approach. The main reason for this is the flexibility, such as opportunities to follow up on the interviewee’s answers and the possibility to change direction during the interview, and thereby gain a deeper understanding of the interviewees’ perspective due to more detailed answers. The semi-structured interview is in other words a preferential approach to keep a structure while at the same time be open for unexpected directions. Before the interview, an interview guide will be created. The schedule in the interview guide can be followed, however there are also freedom to add questions or change order of the questions throughout the interview. This flexible approach enables the researchers to gain a deeper knowledge about the interviewees. The approach also reduces the risk of missing important aspects that the interviewees would not share if the questions would have been too structured and narrow. (Bryman & bell, 2013)

• In qualitative interviewing, interviewers can depart significantly from any schedule or guide that is being used. They can ask new questions that follow up interviewees’ replies and can vary the order of questions and even the wording of questions.
• As a result, qualitative interviewing tends to be flexible (see Research in focus 18.3 for an example), responding to the direction in which interviewees take the interview and perhaps adjusting the emphases in the research as a result of significant issues that emerge in the course of interviews
• In qualitative interviewing, the researcher wants rich, detailed answers;
• A semi-structured interview. The researcher has a list of questions on fairly specific topics to be covered, often referred to as an interview guide, but the interviewee has a great deal of leeway in how to reply. Questions may not follow on exactly in the way out- lined on the schedule. Questions that are not included in the guide may be asked as the interviewer picks up on things said by interviewees. But, by and large, all the questions will be asked and a similar wording will be used from interviewee to interviewee

Sampling

The aim of the qualitative interviews is to generate an in-depth analysis, which means representativeness is less important in this case compared to a quantitative research. A convenience or opportunistic sampling will therefore be used in this research. To answer the research question, both the service-provider perspective and the user perspective need to be analyzed. It is of great importance to understand how the concept of sharing-cars has been working in practice, as well as how it is being developed, in order to generate a theory of how it should be developed in the future. To analysis this, people that work in an automotive company that provides car-sharing services are chosen as interviewees. Furthermore, people that are using, or have been using, the service are potential interview objects used to analyze how car-sharing works in practice. Car-owners will, therefore, be interviewed in order to find out what value, as well as problems, owning a car gives them. This is important to analyze in order to see how these values can be transferred to car-sharing as well as how car-sharing can solve the user’s problems related to owning a car. Potential users of car-sharing, such as people who normally use public transportation, will be another segment to interview. Interviewing them can generate insights to how car-sharing should be developed in order to attract this segment and make them change to adopting car-sharing as means of transportation. Due to convenience, the sampled people will be situated in the Gothenburg area. Since Gothenburg is an urban area it can be assumed that people in Gothenburg face the same problems and have similar values as people living in other urban areas. Furthermore, Gothenburg is known for the presence of manufacturing car companies, including Volvo Cars. This increases the opportunity to interview people working in an automotive company. Interviewing people in Automotive companies can furthermore lead to snowball sampling, which is the case when the interviewee recommends other potential interviewees. (Bryman & Bell, 2013)

Data Analysis

According to Bryman & Bell (2013) there are two main strategies of qualitative data analysis; analytic induction and grounded theory. The aim of these strategies is to guide the analysis of the data. In the analytic induction an hypothetical explanation of the research question is conducted before data is collected and used to try the hypothesis. This approach is not seen as applicable in this research since the researchers do not have a hypothetical explanation prior to the data collection of how the concept of car-sharing should be developed. The grounded theory is thereby chosen as the strategy of qualitative data analysis in this research. In the grounded theory strategy a theory is, on the contrary to analytic induction, derived from data that is systematically gathered and analyzed through the research process. (Bryman & Bell, 2013) Since the aim of this research is to answer the question how the concept of sharing-cars should be developed in order to attract users and create smarter cities, the formulation of a formal theory will be the last step of the research after all data has been collected and analyzed. This approach is in line with grounded theory.

The process of the data analysis in this research begins with a general research question; How should the concept of sharing cars be developed to attract users and create smarter cities? Thereafter, relevant people are theoretically sampled. The sampled people in this research include car-owners, other potential users of car-sharing, people that are using the car-sharing service, as well as people working in a company that provides the service. Secondary data will be collected in order to generate relevant concepts. In addition, relevant primary data from the sampled people will be collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews. The collected data will be coded in order to find concepts. There are three different types of coding in grounded theory; open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Open coding will be used in this research, which means data will be broken down, examined, compared, categorized, and lastly conceptualized. By doing so, relevant concepts will be generated. Coding may propose new data, which means there will be a movement backwards and forwards between these initial four steps in the process. Categories will be generated by comparing indicators and concepts. From relationships between categories, hypothesis will emerge. The hypothesis will be tested by collecting further data via theoretical sampling. This step in the process will generate a substantive theory, which will be explored. From that exploration a formal theory may be generated. To sum up, outcomes that will be generated from grounded theory are concepts, categories, properties (attributes or aspects of a category), hypothesis, and theory. Using grounded theory as a strategy for data analysis is useful in this research because it captures complexity and is linked with practice. (Bryman & Bell, 2013)

References

1. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/urbanization/index.shtml
2. https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html
3. http://www.automotivetechnologies.com/car-sharing
4. https://europe.autonews.com/article/20180705/COPY/307069986/volvo-plans-car-sharing-in-2019
5. https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/202338/volvo-cars-to-establish-new-shared-mobility-business-unit

Analysis of Castle Lager: Research Design and Data Collection

1.1 Research Problem

The research problem with reference to the case study is the stereotyping and labelling that is prevalent in South Africa. Racism has always been a prevalent issue in South Africa, there are too many incidents that involve racism. For example, according to Jordaan (2018) the South African Human Rights Commission in 2018 had dealt with 505 complaints related to racism, this was an 82% increase from 2017. This shows how racism is still an issue in South Africa. SAB on the other hand aim to solve this problem and try to unite South Africans through their #SmashTheLabel campaign. According to the case study SAB encourages South Africans to share a Castle beer and get to know the person behind the label.

Since the research problem has been identified SAB would then need to translate the research problem into a hierarchy of questions Cant and van Heerden (2017) lists them as management, research, investigative and measurement. In the case of SAB their hierarchy of questions would be:

• How can SAB try and unite South Africans and end stereotyping and labelling?
• What are the various methods that can be employed to try and promote unity in South Africa?
• Can launching an anti-prejudice campaign help unite South Africans?
• How successful was #SmashTheLabel advert in promoting social unity in South Africa?

1.1.1 Situational Analysis of Castle Lager

A situational analysis according to Cant and van Heerden (2017) is a process that entails collecting information in order to assess potential internal and external factors which may possibly impact the organisation’s plan of action when solving the research problem. These factors according to the respective authors include secondary data, macro-environment, customer buying behaviour and marketing strategies.

According to de Villiers (2018) Castle Lager took the 25th spot of most valuable beer brands in the world. The beer brand beat US Based competing beer brand Miller to claim the spot. This gives it a competitive advantage in terms of being recognized internationally. In terms of suppliers, SAB according to Tessenforf (2018) own a hop farm particularly in George in the Western Cape. This would mean that they wouldn’t rely on external suppliers for the production of their beer brand including Castle Lager. According to Financial Mail (2017) SAB had just below the 90% of the beer market in South Africa by 2017. According to Nkanjeni (2019) Castle Lager released a new jersey for three of South Africa’s national teams. This would have a positive impact on their brand awareness as they show their support for the national teams. SAB has also experienced internal problems for instance, according to de Villiers (2018) the brewery had run out of beer bottles in some stores. This would decrease Castle Lager sales.

1.2 Research Design Types

The types of research design types that can be used in this study are descriptive and qualitative research designs.

Descriptive research refers to describing a certain situation by answering questions such as “When? Who? Where? Why? What?”. However, this design type does not answer why certain relationships occur but it does aim to get an accurate description of a certain situation. Descriptive research can be quite complex which leads to statistical methodology being used by the researcher. This includes conducting personal interviews, telephone interviews and questionnaires (Cant & van Heerden, 2017).

Descriptive research can be applied to the case study. The feedback on the campaign would have to be descriptive in nature. This would mean that respondents would have to describe how they felt about the campaign and point out positive and negative aspects from the campaign. These descriptive responses would then be analysed to determine the success of the campaign.

Qualitative research according to Cant and van Heerden (2017) entails obtaining open ended responses from respondents. This enables respondents to express their opinions freely on a given matter. This technique can be applied to the case study because in order to determine whether the campaign was a success or not feedback from respondents would need to be obtained through questionnaires. The questionnaires would have to contain open questions to allow for open ended responses.

1.3 Research Design

The first thing that SAB would have to do is determine their source of information. Information can either be primary or secondary. Primary data is collected is and used by the researcher to solve the research problem at hand. Secondary data is simply data that has been collected before. In the case of SAB, they would use primary data since they want feedback on their campaign to determine its success.

1.3.1 Data Collection Approach

SAB would then need to consider their collection approach. There are three approaches observation, survey and experimentation. Observation involves descriptive research where the actions of the respondents are observed without direct interaction. An example of this would be the surveillance cameras in stores to observe customers. Survey involves giving people questionnaires to fill in and giving their opinions on a subject matter. Experimentation involves conducting a controlled test in order to find out the unknown effect. The independent variable is usually controlled and manipulated to determine its relationship with the dependent variable. Due to its nature, experimentation is difficult to conduct in the market place as humans would be considered the subjects The best approach would be surveys as they would be able to generate feedback from the respondents. Surveys enable respondents to answer questions.

1.3.2 Data Collection Instruments

Once the data collection approach has been chosen, SAB would need to determine the data collection instrument they would use. The data collection instruments include questionnaires and mechanical or electronic equipment. Questionnaires are the most common instrument used for the collection of primary data. Questionnaires have structured questions which can either be closed or open. They must be formatted with consideration. Mechanical or electronic equipment for examples, may refer to galvanometer or eye cameras which may be used for measuring the reactions of respondents (Cant & van Heerden, 2017).

A mixed methods study would have to be done. Due to this, a questionnaire would be an appropriate instrument for this study. This is because questionnaires enable respondents to answer based on their opinions. In this regard, the sole aim is to get feedback from people on the success of the campaign. Respondents can give their feedback by answering questions from the questionnaire.

1.3.3 Data Collection Method

The next step is for SAB to choose a data collection method which can be personal interviews, telephone interviews or self-administered survey. Personal interviews according to Cant and van Heerden (2017) are done when the researcher meets with the respondents face to face and interviews them. They can be done at a public venue or at the respondents’ homes. Telephone interviews as stated by Cant and van Heerden (2017) are when interviews are conducted over the phone and self-administered surveys according to the authors, are done when the respondents are asked to fill in questionnaires in their own time. An example of this are postal questionnaires.

Personal interviews would be suitable for getting feedback on the campaign. This is because any questions that respondents may have can be answered by the interviewer. The respondents can also be chosen accurately to meet the requirements of the sample size which in this case is ten. Due to this, respondents can be evenly chosen to avoid biased results for example five males and five females.

1.3.4 Sampling Plan

The last step that SAB would take is to determine the sampling plan which includes probability or non-probability sampling. According to Cant and van Heerden (2017) probability sampling contains four methods which are simple, stratified, cluster and systematic random sampling. As defined by Cant and van Heerden (2017) simple random sampling is when respondents are selected randomly much like picking numbers from a hat. Stratified random sampling according to Cant and van Heerden (2017) is a method used to divide a population into strata or smaller group where each group shares similar characteristics. An example of this is dividing a sample into male and female and selecting 3 males and 3 females from each stratum.

According to Cant and van Heerden (2017) cluster random sampling groups the population into clusters and a few are selected for study. Each cluster is treated individually. Systematic random sampling as defined by Cant and van Heerden (2017) is a sampling method whereby units are selected by the process of skipping at regular intervals. An example would be selecting store number 4 then every 10th store is selected for the sample.

Non probability sampling includes convenience, judgement, quota and snowball sampling. Cant and van Heerden (2017) define convenience sampling as a statistical method where respondents volunteer to be part of the study or when they are chosen based on their availability. Judgement sampling according to Cant and van Heerden (2017) refers to researchers choosing the units based on their knowledge. Quota sampling involves collecting data from a group which requires the individuals to be selected from a sub segment. For example, 10 people who earn less than R7000 per month. Snowball sampling as defined by Cant and van Heerden (2017) is used to identify possible respondents in a study that involves a sensitive topic. Trying to find out how many respondents take drugs would be an example.

Due to the nature of SAB’s research it would be suitable to use the non probability sampling plan using the convenience sampling method. This is because the respondents will be chosen based on their availability since the sample size is small.

1.4 Fieldwork

The fieldwork was conducted in a step by step approach. Firstly, questionnaires were drawn up and used to interview ten respondents. Each respondent was given roughly five minutes to answer the questions and they were permitted to ask for clarification on any question they did not understand. When conducting the fieldwork certain aspects need to be considered. Cant and van Heerden (2017) lists them as preventing bias, administrative procedures, quality and control measures, issues regarding fieldworkers and situational factors. Bias was prevented by dividing the sample size evenly as possible. For example, 6 females and 4 males were questioned instead of 8 females to 2 males. In terms of administrative procedures, each interview was conducted for roughly 5 minutes. For quality and control, the fieldwork was not costly. Questions were clarified to the respondents so that they would answer with accuracy. Most of the interviews were done outside in a public venue but at places where there were few people around

1.5 Analysis

The following is an analysis of the results drawn from the ten questions asked in the questionnaires.

1. What is your age?

Based on the bar graph it was found that 8 of the participants were in the 18-29 age group and 2 participants were over 40 years old.

2. What is your gender?

Based on the graph above it was found that 6 of the respondents were female and 4 of the respondents were female.

3. How would you describe your employment status?

Based on the graph above it was found that 5 of the respondents were students, 4 of the respondents were employed and 1 of the respondents was unemployed.

4. How would you describe your highest level of education?

Based on the graph above it was found that 8 of the respondents had matric and 2 had completed an undergraduate course.

5. How would you describe your belief system?

Based on the graph above it was found that 9 of the respondents were Christians and 1 believed in another religion.

6. Have you purchased a Castle Lager beer before?

Based on the graph above it was found that 7 of the respondents had purchased a Castle Lager beer before and 3 who had never purchased one.

7. Have you seen Castle Lager’s #SmashTheLabel advert? If so, what were your initial thoughts on it?

For this question it was found that 8 respondents have seen the advert and found generally liked the idea of it, 2 respondents have never seen it.

8. What are your thoughts on all types of South Africans coming together and sharing a Castle Lager beer?

For this question the respondents generally found that it would be a positive thing for all South Africans to share a Castle Lager beer together.

9. How has stereotyping affected you personally?

Generally, most of the respondents were affected by stereotyping.

10. How successful do you think was the Castle Lager’s #SmashTheLabel advert in promoting social unity in South Africa?

It can be deduced that more than half of the respondents found the advert to be successful in terms of promoting social unity in South Africa.

1.6 Report

The following report will demonstrate in terms of research findings on the success of the #SmashTheLabel campaign. The research findings will be analysed and a conclusion will be drawn from the findings.

1.6.1 Introduction

The purpose of this report is to indicate how successful the #SmashTheLabel campaign was and to which target audience it appealed to the most. The feedback of the respondents will be discussed and analysed. Recommendations on the results will be made and potential gaps in the.

1.6.2 Overview of Research

In order to find out the success of campaign and to which target audience it mostly appealed to, research had to be done. Due to the nature of the research problem, qualitative research was done. The main instrument that was used was a questionnaire. Questionnaires were each administered to 10 respondents.

1.6.3 Feedback

The results from the questionnaires revealed a few things. The sample generally was comprised of the younger population and mostly students. There were more females than males. Most of the respondents were Christians. It can be found that most of the respondents have purchased a Castle Lager beer. In terms of the views about the campaign, most respondents have seen the #SmashTheLabel advert and had something positive to say about it. Most respondents felt that it was good idea for South Africans to share a Castle Lager beer together as it promotes unity. In terms of the success of the campaign, most respondents thought that the advert was successful in promoting social unity in South Africa.

1.6.4 Conclusion

It can be deduced that the #SmashTheLabel campaign was a success as most of the respondents have seen the #SmashTheLabel advert and said something positive about it. It appealed more to the younger population since most of the respondents said something positive about the #SmashTheLabel campaign.

1.6.5 Recommendations

The research was a success as feedback was obtained. As stated earlier, the campaign was indeed successful however it was quite surprising to find that there are a few people who have not seen the advertisement or heard about the campaign. According to the research there three out of the ten respondents who have not seen the advertisement. SAB should try to advertise the campaign and ensure that every South African sees it. Instead of using the television they could focus more on social media.

1.6.6 Potential Gaps in the research

Although the research was carried out successfully there were a few gaps. The time that was allocated to conduct the research was quite short. This would mean that the research was conducted under pressure leading to inadequate results. The sample size was too small. Questioning ten people is not enough in determining how successful the campaign was. More people would need to be questioned to get more feedback. Students were mostly questioned. It would have been better to broaden the sample.

2. Comparative Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

• Characteristics
• Quantitative
• Qualitative
• Researcher Involvement

The researcher according to Deviant (2016) is quite involved since the researcher has to administer questionnaires and surveys to respondents. The researcher would then have to quantify the results.

Fink (2000) states that this research design is qualitative in nature and open ended responses are required from respondents. In order to obtain such responses, the researcher would need to be extensively involved by conducting personal interviews and administering questionnaires.

Research Purpose

DeFranzo (2011) explains that the aim of this research design is to quantify the problem by means of generating numerical data which is then transformed into usable statistics.

Morse and Field (1996) mention that the purpose of this research type is to make sense of reality and to try and explain the social world through the development of explanatory theories.

Sample size

According to Deviant (2016) samples sizes for this research design are usually large.

Deviant (2016) explains that sample size as a characteristic of this research design tend to be small and specific.

Characteristics

Quantitative

Qualitative

Focus of Research

Cant and van Heerden (2017) state that this research design is concerned with presenting its findings in figures, numbers and statistical parameters.

According to Cant and van Heerden (2017) the main focus is to get a better understanding of the attitudes of the respondents.

Data Type and Preparation

As mentioned by Cant and van Heerden (2017) this research design presents its findings in figures, numbers and statistical parameters. It can be said that the data type of this research design is numeric.

According to Deviant (2016) this research design uses non statistical methods and does not deal with numbers. It can therefore be concluded that the data type used for this research design is non numeric.

3. Market measurements used by South African Breweries

According to Cant and van Heerden (2017) market measurements such as product, consumer, geographic and time level are used by businesses to examine markets in terms of quantitative measures and are usually concerned with current size and characteristics of the market. South African Breweries (SAB) have used two market measurements namely product and time level. According Cant and van Heerden (2017) product level is concerned with total number of buyers for certain products. SAB have used product level because according to the research done, it was found that seven out of the ten respondents have purchased a Castle Lager beer before. Due to this research finding it can thus be deduced that SAB have used product level as a market measurement. They have also used time level. According to Cant and van Heerden (2019) time level refers to information about monthly sales and annual sales over a period of time. As provided by Financial Mail (2017) AB Inv a company acquired SAB, showed that there was a 10.8% increase in volume from April to June 2017.

4. Bibliography

1. Cant, M. C. & van Heerden, C. H., 2017. Marketing Management A South African Perspective. 3rd ed. Cape Town: Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd. de Villiers, J., 2018. Castle has just been named one of the top 25 most valuable beer brands in the world. [Online]
2. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/castle-lager-named-worlds-25th-most-valuable-beer-brand-brand-finance-2018-11 [Accessed 24 March 2019].
3. de Villiers, J., 2018. No Castle Lager at some liquor stores – as SAB runs out of bottles. [Online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/castle-lager-beer-shortage-south-africa-2018-12 [Accessed 24 March 2019].
4. Deviant, S., 2016. Research Methods: Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research. [Online] Available at: https://www.statisticshowto.datasciencecentral.com/research-methods-qualitative-research-and-quantitative-research/ [Accessed 22 March 2019].
5. Financial Mail, 2017. Heineken Grabs Market Share From Under SAB’s Nose. [Online] Available at: https://www.drinkstuff-sa.co.za/heineken-grabs-market-share-sabs-nose/ [Accessed 24 March 2019].
6. Fink, A., 2000. The Role of the Researcher in the Qualitative Research Process. A Potential Barrier to Archiving Qualitative Data. [Online] Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1021/2201 [Accessed 22 March 2019].
7. Jordaan, N., 2018. Racism complaints by blacks are on the rise, with Gauteng the worst. [Online] Available at: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-12-10-racism-complaints-by-blacks-are-on-the-rise-with-gauteng-the-worst/ [Accessed 25 March 2019].
8. Nkanjeni, 2019. New jersey to rally support for Bafana, Springboks and Proteas. [Online] Available at: https://www.heraldlive.co.za/sport/2019-03-25-new-jersey-to-rally-support-for-bafana-springboks-and-proteas/ [Accessed 25 March 2019].
9. Tessenforf, K., 2018. Welcome to beer school: How hops are grown and harvested in South Africa. [Online] Available at: https://www.food24.com/Drinks/Beer/welcome-to-beer-school-how-hops-are-grown-and-harvested-in-south-africa-20180319 [Accessed 24 March 2019].

Research Design and Its Main Types

Research design refers to the overall strategy used to conduct research, which defines a concise and logical plan for addressing established research questions through the collection, interpretation, analysis, and discussion of data. The study design defines the study type and subtype, study problem, hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, experimental design, and, if applicable, data collection methods, and statistical analysis plan. Research design is a structure created to find answers to research questions.

The main types of research design are: descriptive research design, experimental research design, and explanatory research design.

Descriptive Research Design

Descriptive research design aims at accurately describing a population as stated by both Kothari (2004) and Mugenda and Mugenda (2003), it is the suitable research design for the research concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular group or its association with something else thus being the reason why it will be used during the study. This design will be appropriate for this study because Borden and Bruce (2008) content that choosing an appropriate research design is crucially important to the success of a project. The study therefore will adopt a correlation research design that involves observing the value of two or more variables and determine what relationships exist between them (Bo;8rden &Bruce, 2008). The design yielded both qualitative and quantitative data. The data that will be collected on performance targets and timelines will essentially quantitative since this is going ;2to be presented in form of percentage and frequencies. Qualitative data will be collected on performance indicators and measure of moderating effect of organizational performance.

Experimental Research Design

Experimental research design processes on intervening in a process and measure its outcome, in order to know that your research is valid it will mostly depend on experimental design. This research design is the best choice when it comes to answering questions about cause and effect. The reason this study will use experimental research design is because it contributes to solving a problem. Thus, experimental design being the quantitative research. According to Vander Merwe (1996), quantitative research is a research approach that aims at testing theories, determining facts, demonstrating relationships between variables and predicting outcomes.

Explanatory Research Design

Explanatory research design is a type of research design which its main focus is on explaining the aspects of the study in a detailed manner. According to Khotan (2004) defines explanatory research design as a conductor for a problem that has not been well researched before, demands priorities, generates operational definitions and provides a better-research model. Despite explanatory design being a problem finder, it does not give any conclusive evidence but helps in understanding the problem more.

Water Pollution Index of Batujai Reservoir, Central Lombok Regency-Indonesia

Clean, fresh water is a valuable natural resource that ensures the survivability of the nation. Despite having 6% of the world’s water resources, Indonesia’s management and environmental policies have not only been raising concerns but also pushed the country to the brink of water crisis (“Indonesia’s water and sanitation crisis”). In their 2019 study, Rahim and Soeprobowati aimed at finding an answer to the following research question: “What is the water pollution index of Batujai, the largest water reservoir in Lombok (219)?” This article review will provide the highlights of their research and discuss its implications.

Methods and Research Design

The choice of research methodology is justified by two facts. First, Rahim and Soeprobowati employed purposive randomized sampling of the water surface of Batujai reservoir at five sampling stations. Second, the water samples were taken and processed in compliance with the Indonesian National Standard (SNI 6989.57–2008) regarding the Method of Taking Surface Water Samples (Rahim and Soeprobowati 220).

The guidelines provided in Government Regulation No. 82/2001 concerning Management of Water Quality and Water Pollution Control were used as the reference point for sufficient water quality and for comparison to expose deviations (Rahim and Soeprobowati 220). Composite depth was generated by mixing the water samples from the surface and the bottom. The samples were later analyzed at the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Faculty, Mataram University.

Results and Findings

The findings of the study pertain to its rationale, and the authors succeeded in answering the research question. As expected, the water quality in Batujai Reservoir leaves a lot to be desired. While the average water temperature was found to be within the norm, the researchers were not quite satisfied with the total suspended solids (TSS) contents in the water (Rahim and Soeprobowati 223).

A higher concentration of TSS around the sampling station established at an elevation showed that the flow carries TSS from upstream erosion areas. The measurement results for dissolved oxygen fell below the first class national standards, and so did the contents of phosphates in the water. What the researchers found the most concerning of all is the alarming concentration of heavy metals that exceeded the first, second, and third class national standards (223).

Discussion and Implications

Rahim and Soeprobowati concluded that the water was heavily polluted according to the first, second, and third class standards and moderately polluted by the fourth class standards (224). The findings of the study have the potential to start a serious conversation on the water management policy in Indonesia. It is evident that the quality of Batujai reservoir akin to many other water resources needs to be addressed, but it might not be possible while formally, it stays within the national norm. The problem could be avoided, or its severity could be assuaged in the first place were the government more involved with water management. The growing microfinance sector reaching out to poor households could also be more environmentally aware and collaborate with the government.

Conclusion

The Southeast Asian country suffers from poor water quality and limited access to water supply. Given the challenges faced by Indonesia, it is imperative to raise national awareness by examining the cleanliness of remaining water reservoirs and taking measures accordingly. A recent study by Rahim and Soeprobowati showed that while Batujai reservoir might be objectively heavily polluted, the quality was still compliant with the fourth class national standards. The issue cannot be left untackled and requires heavy government control and involvement.