Dare to Ask Mian Aamir Part 6 All about Research (2013)

Dear sir,

Sir what is funded project Please explain with example.

Funded projects are those projects which have some funds associate with them. Such projects are done for either institutes or individuals who want to get done certain project. Funds are given to the researchers for conducting the research. For example, National Research Program for Universities (2010) was a funded program/project lead by HEC.

What is sponsored research Please explain with examples?

Sponsored research is a research in which researcher is hired for his services. In such researches researcher do research for the body who hires him. Nowadays many organizations use this practice in such a way that management usually hires services of researchers to do certain assignment. We see sponsored research organizations around us who do researches for big companies. For example, Neilsen is the company that does research for different MNCs in Pakistan.

Please describe the parts of research report proposal for quantitative research.

 

Research report for quantitative research has following parts;

1. Introduction (background, objectives and significance of study)
2. Literature review
3. Research design includes (data collection technique, Population, sampling technique, tool of data collection, plan of data analysis)
4. Budget
5. Time schedule
6. Team of researchers (if any)

Dear SIR

Sir please explain the specify the intervening process and consider relations.

Intervening variable, mediates between independent variable and dependent variable. In such a model, independent variable first affects the intervening variable and then intervening affects the dependent variable. Hence, intervening variable acts as a dependent variable with respect to independent variable and it works as independent variable with respect to dependent variable. For example, a high intelligence leads to high self-esteem among students which in turn shows results that student show more confident behavior if they are more intelligent. Here intelligence is independent variable, self-esteem is mediating and confident behavior is dependent variable. 

What are techniques for arranging a topic into a research question?

 Dear student 

Forming research questions become easy when step by step research process is followed. First of all a general topic is selected, then relevant material is gathered to get an overview of the topic. After this a statement of purpose is written. When questions are brainstormed keeping in mind the statement of purpose, these questions become research questions.

Respected Sir,
Assalam-O-Alaikum,

Is “Raw Material” also known as “Opening Inventory” and “Closing Inventory” for an accounting period?

Firstly  question is not related to research, any way Raw material can appear in opening and closing balance, depending on the situation. The closing balance of the last year becomes the opening balance of current year. Similarly closing balance of current year becomes opening balance of next year.

Dear Mian Sab

Please tell me 3rd point / component of theoretical framework in detail and then tell me through example 

 Dear student,

Third component of theoretical framework is Give a clear explanation of why we should expect the proposed relationships to exist in which we need to explain and give arguments that why certain relationship; either positive or negative, exists among variables. The argument can be built on base of previous findings as well however researcher has to give justification of certain relationship. The example given in book clearly gives argument regarding existence of relationship. Higher the education higher the age at marriage, arguments built are; for getting higher education women spend 16-18 years of education at age of 22-25. Later on they want to make careers for them self and defer marriage at that time period. It takes 2-3 years for making career which make their age 26-28 years old that is higher age as compare to marriage at 16 years of age. That is how higher education higher the age at marriage is justified.

Sir what is exposure to mass media of communication?

Mass media communication is print, electronic and nowadays social media which helps in increasing knowledge. For example, we have jung, dawn, nawa-e-waqt newspaper which are basically print media. We have news as well as entertainment channels e.g. Geo, Hum, Ary which are basically electronic media.  In social media we have Facebook as great source of knowledge. Exposure to mass media means access to media and more awareness.

 Sir Please explain the arrange proposition in sequent orders.

Proposition are statements in which concepts are logically connected with each other. You can say concepts are building blocks of proposition.

For example you are doing a research on employee’s behavior and organizational effectiveness. Assume that employees are lazy which leads organization towards ineffectiveness. You can make following propositions;

Employees are lazy so they get rid of work the most they can. Employees are lazy so they do not take responsibility of work. Employees are lazy so managers supervise them all the time. Employees are lazy so they do resist organizational change. Employees are lazy so they do not indulge in creative ideas. Employees are non-creative which leads organization towards ineffectiveness.

Sir what is abstract and concept?

Abstract is not a separate term. Abstract is used in reference with concept. However, answering your query requires understanding of concept.

A concept is a name, term or terminology which a researcher gives to evidences found in reality. The task of the researcher is to find out the reality; in finding out this reality he observes various objects, attributes, or processes. These objects, attributes, or processes when given a name are called concepts. For example, the researcher wants to find out how much employees are satisfied with job. This attribute of satisfaction is given a name “job satisfaction”, now job satisfaction is a concept.

What I infer from term abstract you asked is “Ladder of abstraction”. Ladder of abstraction refers to movement from abstract level to concrete level. When we move up the ladder the concept becomes wider, abstract and it becomes rather difficult to measure it. Similarly on the other end, the empirical level exists i.e. the concept becomes from specific and measurable.

Some concepts stand at the abstract level such as motivation and some are on the empirical level, by empirical it is meant that those concepts are easily measurable such as income level of an employee which can be derived from his pay slip.

Dear Mian Sab

When we gather a series of research reports to have a complete view of it or to understand it we come up with a summary but it is mentioned that review is not very effective or good because it fails to communicate the sense of propose so how can one make his review effective or good while he is including help from the summary of the research reports? As summary is also very important to understand the research.

Kindly elaborate.

The purpose of reviewing article is to evaluate it rather make summary. As summary is just a description of article in short form in order to understand it whereas review means to evaluate article critically whether it has written well or not. When you make summary you agree with what is written and when you review article critically you evaluate strengths as well as weaknesses of article.

Yes summary is important to understand the article but you are guided to write review while doing literature review rather summary of article.

Please tell me about descriptive research and exploratory research with easy example.

Exploratory research is used when the researcher does not know the precise research questions to begin with, and thus uses a flexible design to make sure nothing is missed. This design is often used at the initial stages of the research process when the problem is not yet completely defined. The objective here is to explore all the facets, and possibilities. For example; a food processing company XYZ develops several new formulations of potato chips.

It wants to determine whether it should try to develop the products further for sale. Here, the researcher may not know the research questions to begin with. Now the research conducted to know whether potential customers would like or dislike about the products and can this idea be taken further to product development is categorized as exploratory research.

Descriptive research is done when researcher already knows or understands the underlying relationship among variables in the problem, or s/he knows about the research questions already. It helps to answer who, what, when, where, and how questions.

For example: A researcher wants to know what brands of soaps households purchase, where they purchase them, what price they pay for them, how much they buy. The researcher also wishes to know how these variables are affected by where the family lives, family size, and the number of children. To answer the how much, which, when would come under descriptive research.

Basic research attempts to expand the existing knowledge or to learn more about the concept. Its basic aim is not to solve the problem rather to learn about the concept or expand the knowledge area. For example; what can be possible methods to teach to play group kids would come under basic research.