Milestone Two
5-1 Final Project Milestone Two: Draft of Research Design
Department of Business, Southern New Hampshire University
QSO-500-X5239 Business Research 21TW5
Dr. Kevin Van Sloten
Research Problem:
MSIL is experiencing a decrease in sales of the entry-level A-Segment automobiles due to
changing consumer demands.
Research Objective:
To add features to the A-Segment automobiles in response to changing consumer demands
Research Question:
Will offering a more spacious and fuel-efficient hatch model with a lower overall cost help MSIL
to respond to changing consumer demands?
Research Design
Research design is the blueprint or plan for the collection, measurement, and analysis of
data, created to answer research questions (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Research design is how the
research will be conducted. Timely preparation is particularly valuable to ensure that the data is
factual and precise. The research design should involve the methods under which the research
will be conducted, quantitatively, qualitative, or a mixture of both. Qualitative research focuses
on the problem through multiple lenses and can include feelings and thoughts and other
unmeasurable data, while quantitative data is precisely Boolean. This research design will apply
a combination of 'mixed method research' comprising of both quantitative and qualitative data. It
will contribute a wider and fuller picture and deeper understanding of the phenomenon (Johnson,
Onwuegbuzie & Turner, 2007).
Research Design & Methods
Consumer preferences are the primary catalyst in the pursuit of design change at MSIL.
While a sizeable amount of consumer preferences are qualitative this will be the predominant
method of data collection although there are similarly some quantitative preferences also. The
data collection methods that will be made use of are action research, survey research, descriptive
research, ethnography, and case study.
Action research made its appearance in 1994, first introduced by Kurt Lewis, a professor
at MIT. In 1946 he authored an essay titled "Action Research and Minority Problems" defining
action research as a comparative research on the condition and effects of various forms of social
action and research leading to social action in such a way that it utilizes a spiral of steps, each of
which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of the action
(Reason, 2001). The steps comprise problem identification, data collection, organization,
analysis, and interpretation of the data. This is trailed by the development of a strategy to tackle
the problem, an implementation strategy, and the evaluation of the results of the action taken.
Subsequently, a new problem is identified, and the process repeats itself.
Survey research qualitatively collects information from or about people to describe,
compare, or explain their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Surveys
can be very beneficial in detaining both quantitative and qualitative data. By developing a
numerical scale such as the one seen in Exhibit 8 of the MSIL case study, consumers are
encouraged to rate product attributes such as price and fuel economy as they pertain to their
personal preferences (Mukherjee, Mathur, & Dhar, 2015).
EXHIBIT 8: IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENT PRODUCT