RESEARCH-GROUP 3

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Definition of Research, Charasteristics of Research, Research Process,

and Function of Research

Lecturer : Dr.Sri Wahyuni, M.Pd.

Arranged By:

Laily Anzalina (932213119)
Mochammad Alvino Faizhal Ridho (932213219)
Laily Nur Rakhma Sari (932213319)

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING

STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE (IAIN) KEDIRI
2021

A. DEFINITION OF RESEARCH
Research is defined as careful considerating of study regarding a particular

concerm or problem using scientific methods . According to the american sociologist
earl robert rabbie , research is a sytematic inquary to describe, explain, predict, and
control the observed phonemon it involves inductive and deductive methods.
Inductive research methods analyze an observed event , while deductive methods
verifily the observed event, include approches are associated with qualitative research,
and deductive methods are more commonly associated with quantitative analysis.
Research is concluded with a purpose to :

• Identify potential and new customers

• Understand existing customers

• Set pragmatic goals

• Develop productive market strategies

• Addres bussines challenge

• Put together a business expansion plan

• Identify new business opportunities

Research begins by asking the right questions and chooing thourgh an
apporpiate method to investigate the problem after collecting answer to your
questions, you can analyze the findings or observation to draw reasonable conclusion.
When it comes to customers and market studies, the more through yout questions , the
better the analysis you get essential insight into brand perception and product needs
by througly collecting customer data through surveys and questionaires . you can use
this data to make smart decisions about your marketing strategies to position your
bussines effectively. To be able to make sense of your research and get insiight faster,
it helps to use a research repository as single source of truth in your organization and
to manage the research data in one contralozed repository.

B. CHARACTERISTIC OF RESEARCH
Research has several characteristics that need to be considered.According to

Corryn (2006) there are three distinct and equally significant part. First, research is
truth seeking. Truth seeking is the search, or investigation, of or for a body of real

things, events, or facts, or the explanation of them. Second, research describes or
explains. To describe involves representing or giving an account of. To explain is to
give the reason for or cause of. Combined, or separately, these two parts result in a
contribution to knowledge. Third, research is conducted and governed by those who
have the requisite proficiency or expertise. To be a good researcher, there are several
essential characters that have to be adopted by researcher. There are some
fundamental characteristic of research.

1. Uses Scientific Methods. Research uses scientific methods to discover facts
and tries to give solution to specified problems. Researchers follow organised
procedure to carry out research. To receive bettter results,scientific method is
used for carrying out investigation.

2. Continuous Process. Research is a countinuous process that studies existing
facts and also develops new facts. It also tries to distinguish the relationship
among variables.

3. Multipurpose Activity. The research not only includes collection of data but
also includes predicting future, establishing relationship between variables,
finfing solutions to problems, and developing new theories, tools, and
concepts.

4. Maintains Objectivity and Eliminates Impartiality. It means that the research is
based on suitable procedures. It collects appropriate, precise, and objective
data to understand research problem. After collecting the data collection,
researcher process data, the next step is analyzing it and finding appropriate
solutions.

5. Empirical Nature. Empirical research can be undertaken to study situations
where methods such as observation, experimentation or survey can be used for
conducting research. Empirical approach is used to contribute towards
enchancing the understanding of the main research problems.

6. Generalistaion. The conclusion of the research can be applied to a large
populatuon which can be carried on sample of respondents that represents the
universe where the conclusions generated through research.

7. Researches Controlled Movement of the Research Procedure. Some of various
factors can be considered as controlled factors while others can be tested for
possible consequences.

8. Development of Concepts and Theories. Research helps to develop the new
concepts and theories where the innovations can be useful for the betterment
of society at a large scale. Moreover, each type of research has individual
specific character.

C. RESEARCH PROCESS
All research involves certain common elements such as defining the questions,

reviewing the literature, planning the methodology, collecting and analyzing data, and
disseminating findings. Research is dynamic, it evolves as activities unfold and the
elements of the research process interact and impact on one another. Research process
consists of series of actions or steps necessary to effectively carry out research and the
desired sequencing of these steps:

a. Formulating the research problem.
At the very outset the researchers must single out the problem they want to

study. They must decide the general area of interest or aspect of a subject-matter that
they would like to inquire into. The researchers must at the same time examine all
available literature to get themselves acquainted with the selected problem.

b. Extensive literature survey
Once the problem is formulated, a brief summary of it should be written down.

For this purpose, the abstracting and indexing journals and published or unpublished
bibliographies are the first place to go to. Academic journals, conference proceedings,
government reports, books etc., must be tapped depending on the nature of the
problem. In this process, it should be remembered that one source will lead to another.

c. Developing the hypothesis.
After extensive literature survey, researcher should state in clear terms the

working hypothesis or hypotheses. Working hypothesis is tentative assumption made
in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences. Hypothesis should
be very specific and limited to the piece of research in hand because it has to be
tested. working hypotheses arise as a result of a-priori thinking about the subject,
examination of the available data and material including related studies and the
counsel of experts and interested parties.

d. Preparing the research design
The preparation of such a design facilitates research to be as efficient as

possible yielding maximal information. In other words, the function of research
design is to provide for the collection of relevant evidence with minimal expenditure

of effort, time and money. A flexible research design which provides opportunity for
considering many different aspects of a problem is considered appropriate if the
purpose of the research study is that of exploration.

e. Determining sample design
The researcher must decide the way of selecting a sample or what is popularly

known as the sample design. In other words, a sample design is a definite plan
determined before any data are actually collected for obtaining a sample from a given
population. The sample design to be used must be decided by the researcher taking
into consideration the
nature of the inquiry and other related factors.

f. Collecting the data
In dealing with any real life problem it is often found that data at hand are

inadequate, and hence, it becomes necessary to collect data that are appropriate. There
are several ways of collecting the appropriate data which differ considerably in
context of money costs, time and other resources at the disposal of the researcher.

g. Execution of the project
Execution of the project is a very important step in the research process. If the

execution of the project proceeds on correct lines, the data to be collected would be
adequate and dependable. The researcher should see that the project is executed in a
systematic manner and in time.

h. Analysis of data
After the data have been collected, the researcher turns to the task of analysing

them. The analysis of data requires a number of closely related operations such as
establishment of categories, the application of these categories to raw data through
coding, tabulation and then drawing statistical inferences. The unwieldy data should
necessarily be condensed into a few manageable groups and tables for further
analysis. Thus, researcher should classify the raw data into some purposeful and
usable categories.

i. Hypothesis testing
After analysing the data as stated above, the researcher is in a position to test

the hypotheses, if any, he had formulated earlier. Do the facts support the hypotheses
or they happen to be contrary? This is the usual question which should be answered
while testing hypotheses. Hypothesis-testing will result in either accepting the
hypothesis or in rejecting it. If the researcher had no hypotheses to start with,

generalisations established on the basis of data may be stated as hypotheses to be
tested by subsequent researches in times to come.

j. Generalisations and interpretation
If a hypothesis is tested and upheld several times, it may be possible for the

researcher to arrive at generalisation. As a matter of fact, the real value of research
lies in its ability to arrive at certain generalisations. If the researcher had no
hypothesis to start with, he might seek to explain his findings on the basis of some
theory. It is known as interpretation. The process of interpretation may quite often
trigger off new questions which in turn may lead to further researches.

k. Preparation of the report or presentation of the results
Finally, the researcher has to prepare the report of what has been done by him.

Writing of report must be done with great care keeping in view the following:
• The layout of the report should be as follows: (i) the preliminary pages; (ii)
the main text, and (iii) the end matter.
In its preliminary pages the report should carry title and date followed by
acknowledgements and foreword. Then there should be a table of contents
followed by a list of tables and list of graphs and charts, if any, given in the
report.
The main text of the report should have the following parts:
(a) Introduction: It should contain a clear statement of the objective of the
research and an explanation of the methodology adopted in accomplishing
the research. The scope of the study along with various limitations should
as well be stated in this part.
(b) Summary of findings: After introduction there would appear a
statement of findings and recommendations in non-technical language. If
the findings are extensive, they should be summarised.
(c) Main report: The main body of the report should be presented in
logical sequence and broken-down into readily identifiable sections.
(d) Conclusion: Towards the end of the main text, researcher should again
put down the results of his research clearly and precisely. In fact, it is the
final summing up.
At the end of the report, appendices should be enlisted in respect of all

technical data. Bibliography,i.e., list of books, journals, reports, etc., consulted,

should also be given in the end. Index should also be given specially in a published
research report.

• Report should be written in a concise and objective style in simple
language avoiding vague expressions such as ‘it seems,’ ‘there may be’,
and the like.

• Charts and illustrations in the main report should be used only if they
present the information more clearly and forcibly.

• Calculated ‘confidence limits’ must be mentioned and the various
constraints experienced in conducting research operations may as well be
stated.

D. FUCTION OF RESEARCH
Research methodologies have a lot of functions. It applies to a number of jobs
being done in research process.
• Research methodology identifies the research activity in a true sense.
• It further specifies and defines the actual concepts.
• It further declares what sort of methods will be required for further inquiry.

Moreover, how progress can be measured.
• Research methodology offers a platform to demonstrate how we can

communicate research activity in a true sense.
Three main purposes of research:

1. Exploratory: Exploratory research is the first research to be conducted
around a problem that has not yet been clearly defined. Exploration research
therefore aims to gain a better understanding of the exact nature of the
problem and not to provide a conclusive answer to the problem itself. This
enables us to conduct more in-depth research later on. Exploratory research
typically seeks to create hypotheses rather than test them. Data from exploratory
studies tends to be qualitative. Examples include brainstorming sessions,
interviews with experts, and posting a short survey to a social networking website.

2. Descriptive: Descriptive research expands knowledge of a research
problem or phenomenon by describing it according to its characteristics and
population. Descriptive research focuses on the ‘how’ and ‘what’, but not
on the ‘why’. This research requires the use of a probability sampling technique,
such as simple random sampling. Data from descriptive research may be
qualitative or quantitative, and quantitative data presentations are normally limited
to frequency distributions and summary statistics, such as averages. Customer
satisfaction surveys, presidential approval polls, and class evaluation surveys are
examples of descriptive projects.

3. Explanatory: Explanatory research, also referred to as casual research, is
conducted to determine how variables interact, i.e. to identify cause-and-
effect relationships. Explanatory research deals with the ‘why’ of research
questions and is therefore often based on experiments. The data are
quantitative and almost always require the use of a statistical test to
establish the validity of the relationships

Here is a comparative analysis for better understanding:

Approach Exploratory Descriptive Explanatory Research
used Research Research Highly structured
Conducted Unstructured Structured
through
Time Asking questions Asking questions By using hypotheses.

Early stages of Later stages of Later stages of decision

decision making decision making making

Research begins by asking the right questions and choosing an appropriate
method to investigate the problem. After collecting answers to your questions, you
can analyze the findings or observations to draw reasonable conclusions.

BLIBIOGRAPGHY

https://www.writeawriting.com/academic-writing/what-is-research-methodology/

Sue, V. M. & Ritter, L. A. (2012). Concluding comments. In Conducting online
surveys (pp. 211-213). SAGE Publications, Inc.,
https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781506335186

Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology: Methods & Techniques. New Delhi:
New Age International (P) Limited,Publishers

Coryn, L.S. Chris.(2006). The Fundamental Characteristic of Research. Journal of
MultiDisciplinary Evaluation. No.5, 124-133

Anderson,G. & Arsenault,N. (2005). Fundamental Educational Research.
Pennysilvania: The Falmer Press.

Islam,Md Sirajul & Samsudin, Sofiah. (2020). Characteristics, Importance and
Objectives of Research: An Overview of the Indispensable of Ethical Research.
International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications,10(5), 331-335.