Lecture 2

Research Process &

Research Topic

1
 Learning Objectives
 Define research steps
 Explain stages of economic research
 Identifying researchable issue/topic
 Choosing a topic
 Criteria for choosing a topic
 Attributes of good research topic
 Writing the research proposal
 Research steps
Recap on Scientific Research
▪ to investigate a problem systematically, carefully and
thoroughly. This requires the researcher to follow a
process or a sequence of steps from formulating the
research problem to publishing the results.
The procedures include:
✓Selecting a scientific problem or question;
✓Apply a theory to derive a hypothesis about the problem
or question;
✓Test the hypothesis;
✓If hypothesis fails – modify it or reject it;
✓If the hypothesis passes – provisionally accept it;
✓Test the hypothesis in a new context.
Research Steps
 Research Steps
 The first step is preparing for research.
• brainstorm ideas and get possible sources of
information;
• narrow the topic to make it manageable; and
• plan how you are going to do your research.

 The second step is accessing resources

• decide what sources of information will be best;
• find them; and
• locate the information that might be helpful in
answering your research question.

Adopted from http://www3.sympatico.ca/sandra.hughes/sandra.hughes/research/researchs.html

 Research Steps…
 The third step is processing information.
• look closely at the information from sources;
decide what is important; and take notes.
• Then organize the information; make sense of it;
and develop your own ideas about it.

 The fourth step to successfully solving the

information problem is to transfer your learning.
• Transmit ideas and information collected to other
people by presenting your findings and solutions.

Adopted from http://www3.sympatico.ca/sandra.hughes/sandra.hughes/research/researchs.html

Stages of Economic Research
 Stages of Economic Research..
Stage 1: Formulation of the Research Problem
• Research begins with a question or problem.
• From a general idea, you must decide more
specifically what you wants to know and for what
purpose.
• The best ideas on how to refine the problem are
from literature review.
 Stage 2: Preparation of Research Design
• Once the problem has been clearly formulated, the
next step is to develop an overall plan or framework
for the research.
• The researcher must anticipate;
1. What sorts of observations are needed to solve
the research problem?
2. What strategy is appropriate for obtaining the
observations? (e.g. experiment, survey, field
research, secondary data etc).
3. What is the unit of analysis, what are the relevant
variables and how they are measured?
4. How best to analyze the data?
• Thinking through all these in advance should prevent
serious mistakes and omission in a study.
 Meaning of Research Design
 “A research design is the arrangement of conditions for
collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to
combine relevance to the research purpose with
economy in procedure” (Claire Selltiz, Research Methods
in Social Sciences, 1962, p. 50).

Research design is the conceptual structure within which

research is conducted. It constitutes the blueprint for the
collection, measurement and analysis of data. Thus, the
design includes an outline of what the researcher will do
from writing the hypothesis and its operational
implications to the final analysis of data.
 Meaning of Research Design
 More explicitly, the research design happen to
be in respect of:
1. What is the study about?
2. Why is the study being made?
3. Where will the study be carried out?
4. What type of data is required?
5. Where can the required data be found?
6. What periods of time will the study include?
7. What will be the sample design?
8. What techniques of data collection will be
used?
9. How will the data be analysed?
 Descriptive
research

Causal
Exploratory
/Experimental
research
Research

Research
Designs
 • The main purpose of such studies is that of formulating
a problem for more precise investigation or of
developing the working hypotheses from an
ER operational point of view. The major emphasis in such
studies is on the discovery of ideas and insights.

• studies which are concerned with describing the

characteristics of a particular individual, or of a group,
whereas diagnostic research studies determine the
DR frequency with which something occurs or its
association with something else.

• are those where the researcher tests the hypotheses of

causal relationships between variables.
CR
 Stage 3: Measurement
• Involves devising operations that will link specific
concepts to empirically observable events.

Stage 4: Sampling
• Determine how many units should be selected
and how to choose them.
a.How will we select them?
b.Why will we select them?
c. Note: even for qualitative research we need to
identify the participants/respondents and justify
 Stage 5: Data Collection/ Data Preparation
• Obtain the observations for the research.
a.How data is collected?
b.How it is recorded?

Stage 6: Data Processing

• The data obtained from stage 5 must be
transformed or processed for analysis to be
carried out.
 Stages of Economic Research...
Stage 7: Data Analysis and Interpretation
• The processed data must be manipulated
further so that their meaning and implications
on the problem and hypotheses can be
extracted.
• There are many types of analysis, mostly
involve statistical tests.
• Having analyzed the data, we need to draws
conclusions about the hypotheses and theory,
and assesses the practical implications of the
findings. Finally, reports the results.
Identify Researchable
Issue/Topic
 The processes of identify the
researchable issue

• Choosing a topic to research

• Framing the research questions or objectives
• Design the project (thesis) – decide the style
of research you are going to use.
 Choosing a topic

• What is the researchable and non-

researchable topic?
• What is the suitable topic? Is the topic too
wide or too narrow?
• Some of the topic are not researchable.
 Choosing a topic …
1. Select a general topic that interests you.

2. List key words to help you look up information

about the topic.

3. Get an overview of the topic.

 by finding a source of information that gives
simple understanding about a topic.
 An overview should have some basic facts and
clear.
 It should answer the questions;
"who", "what", "when" and "where", and only
briefly some of the "why" and "how" questions.
 Choosing a topic …
 Using the general overview, begin to focus the
topic into something you can cover well.
 Focusing a research topic is narrowing a
topic so that you can demonstrate a good
understanding of it.
 This is the biggest pitfall in the research
process.
◦ If choose a topic that is too big - trouble selecting what
to include from a huge selection of material available.
◦ If choose topic that is too narrow – will not find
enough to write.
◦ It is challenging when you don't know too much about
a topic.
 Choosing a topic…
• What is the scope of research?
• Since the world economy is complex, there
cannot be insufficient research problems.
• The difficulties lies with your unfamiliarity with
the literature.
• It is not uncommon for students to be told
their research proposal contain ‘nothing new’.
 Criteria for choosing a topic
1. Interest and relevance
• Choose a topic that interests you, otherwise you will
have trouble sustaining the motivation and
commitment necessary to complete the project (thesis)
• Do not embark on a research if you have no interest in
it.
• The topic should also be of interest to the scientific
community or industry or policy makers in terms of
its theoretical or practical significance.
• Often, the students tend to investigate or research
something that is impossible to research (do not be
overly ambitious)
 Criteria for choosing a topic
2. Durability
• Try to choose a topic that will be relevant at
least in a year (or 2-3 years) time.
• The ability to conduct the research in terms
of time, costs and skills.
 Criteria for choosing a topic
3. Breadth of research questions
• Is the topic chosen to broad or narrow? How
detail should we go? Is the topic sufficient for
the time frame provided? Beware of ‘dead’ topic.
If you going to invest a year (or 2-3 years), make
sure it is significant.
• Reformulating a research question over and
over again is normal. The biggest mistake is to
stick to a ‘dead’ topic because you have done
some preliminary work. Be more flexible.
 Criteria for choosing a topic
4.Access
• You may have excellent topic in mind, but
unless you can get access to the people (in
terms of questionnaire, interview) or database
(for secondary data) then the research will be
a non-starter.
5. Resources
• Sufficient literature must be available on the
topic so that a critical review of the literature
could be carried out.
• A common difficulty these days is too much
literature not too little.
• With limited research experience, students
tend to adopt a coping strategy such as by
relying on previous dissertations as a guide but
it is seldom worthwhile because it is one
novice leading another. The same mistakes tend
to be repeated.
 A six-stage process for choosing topic
1. Identify broad topic and academic discipline
• Decide your broad topic of interest; some
example
o Currency misalignment
o Exchange rate determination
o Human capital and economic growth
o Suitability of exchange rate regime for Malaysia
o Flexibility of the monetary conduct in Malaysia
o Export-led growth or import-led growth
o Foreign Direct Investment
 A six-stage process for choosing topic
o Macroeconomics sustainability
o Crime and unemployment
o Underground economy and economic growth
o Tourism Demand
o Financial integration in East Asian
o Financial market development

It is quite likely that your interest in the topic will

driven by a need to come out with some
answers
Economic growth & International factor
International trade movements
FDI Globalization/Trade Liberalization
International MNCs
monetary Capital flows
Labor/ migration/ Comparative advantage
system and Specialization
Brain drain
Intra-industry trade
Trade & Poverty
INTERNATIONAL Economic integration
Money, interest & ECONOMICS
Exchange rate

Regional trade Multilateral trade

BOP crises Impact of agreements Agreements
Trade policies AFTA (WTO)
Tariffs & Non APEC GATT
Trade, natural resources Tariff barriers NAFTA GATS
and environment OIC TRIPs
MENA TRIMs
EU
 A six-stage process for choosing topic

2. Determine the scope

• What is scope of the research?
o Studying a country, a set of countries,
companies
o Making comparison on the subject(s)
o Studying on sector(s)
• This is important as the scope of the study will
have impact on the research questions you
can ask and answer.
 A six-stage process for choosing topic

3. Brainstorm issues, puzzles and

questions
• Brainstorm on the research questions of the
selected topic.
•Research question is the specific focus of the
research.
• Research questions are those to which is it
possible in theory at least, to go out and find
answers.
• Research questions mostly refer to what is
happening or what has happened.
 Research questions should:
◦ Be clear and problem-oriented.
◦ Be researchable ( in terms the development of
research design and data collection).
◦ Connect with the established theory and
research ( linking to literature)
◦ Be linked to each other. Unrelated research
questions are unlikely to be acceptable.
◦ Have potential for making a contribution to
knowledge
◦ Feasible. Be neither too broad nor too narrow
 Example: Steps in selecting research questions ( adapted
form Bell and Bryman (2007)

Research Area (TQM)

Select aspect of research area (Impact of TQM on work)

Research Questions
•Does TQM have a positive or negative impact on job satisfaction?
•Does the effect of TQM on job satisfaction vary by level in the organizations?
•Does TQM disrupt traditional methods of working in firms?
•Do workers try to resist TQM and if so how far are they successful?
•Does TQM lead to empowerment or disempowerment?
•Does the way that TQM is introduced have an influence on the nature of its
impact on job satisfaction?

Select Research Questions

•Does TQM have a positive or negative impact on job satisfaction?
•Does the effect of TQM on job satisfaction vary by level in the organizations?
•Does the way that TQM is introduced have an influence on the nature of its
•Impact on job satisfaction?
 A six-stage process for choosing topic

4. Map and structure the issues

• After the identification of the research questions,
they need to be structure and organized.
• Sort and cluster all the research questions in a
relevance tree or diagram.
• The relevance tree would provide a map of all
the issues and questions you could research
under your broad area of interest.
• This is useful to identify researchable study and
topic for thesis/dissertation/project
paper/conferences paper.
 A six-stage process for choosing topic
5. Conduct a reconnaissance – an active
gathering of information
• Discuss with others about your research
topic about their coherent and importance.
Should done some initial literature scan.

6. Frame your research question(s)

• The final step is to ensure that you are clear
in what you doing where all the research
questions is express in plain, laymen English.
 Checklist of attributes of a good
research topic for thesis
1. Does the topic fit specifications and meet the
standards set by the examining institutions?
2. Is the topic something with which you are
really fascinated?
3. Does your research topic contain issues that
have a clear link to theory?
4. Do you have, or can you develop within the
project time frame, the necessary research
skills to undertake the topic?
Checklist of attributes of a good
research topic for thesis

5. Is the research topic achievable within the

available time?
6. Is the research topic achievable within the
financial resources that are likely to be
available, if any?
7. Are you reasonably certain of being able to
gain access to data you are likely to require
for this topic?
Checklist of attributes of a good
research topic for thesis
8. Are you able to state your research
question(s) and objectives clearly?
9. Will your proposed research be able to
provide fresh insights into this topic?
 Writing the research proposal
 A proposal is an exercise in persuasion, whereby
you seek to convince your audience that you can
complete a meaningful and interesting research
on the selected topic.
 Need to sketch out in detail how you propose to
do that.
 Ethridge (1985, 1989 and 1995) points out that
“ The more thorough and complete the proposal,
the clearer and more complete the research plan”
and also that “the proposal is evidence of the
quality of thought that has gone into the project”.
 Writing the research proposal
 A research proposal should have five
components:
1. Statement of the nature of the problem
• What is the issue or problem the research
will address? Why is it interesting, significant
and amenable to economic analysis?
2. The research question
• What is the question that is the focus of the
research?
 Writing the research proposal
3. Survey of the literature
• Outline the major studies in the literature
that have a bearing on the research question.
Explain how they are relevant to your
research question.
4. Research design
• What is the analytical framework of the
model?
• Theory that will be used
• Data for testing hypothesis
• Analysis that will be used
5. References
• List all the references and use the appropriate
bibliographic style.
 Requirements for a Good Research
Project
 A good research question
 A testable hypothesis
 A good data set
 An empirical methodology that adequately
tests the hypothesis
 Correctly interpretation of empirical
results
 Lecture Summary
 Define research steps
 Explain stages of economic research
 Identifying researchable issue/topic
 Choosing a topic
 Criteria for choosing a topic
 Attributes of good research topic
 Writing the research proposal
 Requirements for a good research project