Research Methodology
Introduction
Research methodology is the process of collecting data and information for the purpose of establishing decision for the research. As stated by Friend and Jessop (2013), research methodology is the procedure through which the researcher can describe, predict and explain the phenomena. In this research, the researcher has collected the data about the influence of corporate social responsibility on social media and consumer buying behaviour. Through collecting the data, the researcher has strived to evaluate the extent to which the consumers care about CSR and to ascertain the concern about CSR affects buying behaviour. Proper use of methodology has provided a chance to the researcher to collect primary data to determine the different demographics uses social media to gather information on company’s CSR.
Research Onion
In research methodology, research onion is a layered approach to collect the data in a systematic way. Research onion is segregated in three different layers, ontology, epistemology and axiology. Research onion concept was developed by Saunders and other researchers to conduct the research following some specific layers of conducting the research. As stated by Saunders et al. (2015), research onion helps the researcher for the effective progression for collecting data and most importantly, it provides the exact framework to formulate the process of data collection and data analysis.
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy deals with the source, nature and development of knowledge. In business research, research philosophy is an assumption about the ways in which data about a phenomenon should be gathered, analysed and used (Neuman 2014). In this research, the researcher has collected data based on the impact of corporate social responsibility on social media and consumer behaviour. There are four kinds of research philosophy, positivism, realism, interpretivism and post-positivism.
Justification of selecting positivism philosophy
In this research, the researcher has used positivism research philosophy as it helps in directing the research in a logical way. Positivism philosophy of research depends on quantifiable data those analyses through statistical data analysis process. In this research, data on consumers’ observation towards corporate social responsibility has been gathered and the data have been collected using scientific process. Positivists believed that objectivity was a characteristic that resided in the individual scientist. Scientists are responsible for putting aside their biases and beliefs and seeing the world as it ‘really’ is (Panneerselvam 2014). In positivism research, the data must be empirically observable through human senses and it is based on inductive reasoning. Positivism assumes in the deductive process where the researcher can generalise in leading towards prediction through explanation and understanding (Garcia-Rosello et al. 2015). On the other hand, realism philosophy has not been selected by the researcher as this philosophy deals with the conceptual scheme, linguistic and perceptions of the respondents. In addition, interpretivism is based on social science and it mainly helps in qualitative research and its related discipline. However, this research has been based on the quantitative data.
Research Approach
Research approach is an arrangement of which a research should be done. Research approach depicts the detail strategies through which information can be gathered (Smith 2015). There are two principal kinds of research approach, inductive and deductive approach.
Justification of selecting a deductive approach
In this research, the researcher has followed deductive approach as this approach helps the researcher to deduce knowledge from the existing literature sources. There are a large amount of data already present in the existing literature based on corporate social responsibility (CSR) on social media and consumer behaviour. Deductive approach aims to test the theory from which the information can be gathered. The fundamental aim of the CSR is to respond more to demands of the customer to create awareness; the organisations can do this through the social media. CSR is the primary factor in the relationship between brand and customers that in turn can affect consumers’ behaviour. Moreover, deductive approach helps to analyse the data from generalised to specific perspective. The deductive approach starts with a proposition and ends with the result either confirmed or reject (Palinkas et al. 2015). On the other hand, the inductive approach has not been selected in this research as inductive theory starts with observation and the researcher tries to create a theory out of this. Through inductive approach, the researcher needs to establish a theory deducted from the observation. In this research, the researcher did not want to conceive any theory as large numbers of existing literature already explained about CSR and consumer buying behaviour.
Research design
Research design helps to collect the data in a systematic plan. Research design helps the researcher to recognise the issues keeping in mind the objectives to sum up (Knobe and Nichols 2015). Therefore, research design tries to analyse the problem statement of the research. The research design is mainly three specific kinds, descriptive, exploratory and explanatory.
Justification of selecting an explanatory research design
In this research, the researcher has selected explanatory research design as explanatory research is generally conducted for the research problem that is not well-researched before. As stated by Bowling (2014), explanatory research is mainly conducted to recognise the extent and nature of the cause-and-effect relationship between the variables. The researcher can find the operational definition of CSR, consumer behaviour and social media; however, the relationship between these variables is hard to establish. In addition, explanatory research design focuses on describing the aspects of the research in details manner. On the contrary, exploratory research design aims to provide the conclusive answers to the research questions and it merely describes (Creswell and Poth 2017). Exploratory research design mainly uses for the subject area which has not been researched yet and it helps to develop a definition and improve the final research design. Moreover, descriptive research design has not been taken as the researcher did not know the participants of the research individually and descriptive research design helps to depict the respondents in an accurate way.
Data collection procedure
There are mainly two types of data collection procedure, primary data collection and secondary data collection. Primary data are mainly based on raw data that are collected directly from the participants of the research. On the other hand, secondary research is based on the secondary data sources as this type of data is collected from the secondary sources like books, journals, websites, magazines, online articles, websites and government reports. In this research, the researcher has taken help of both primary and secondary data sources. Secondary data sources have been used in the literature review section where the researcher has analysed a significant amount of secondary data to underpin the theoretical understanding of the study. The researcher has gathered the idea about the relationship between CSR and the behaviour of the consumers as these are the two important variables of the research. In addition, the researcher has collected primary data for this research. In order to collect the primary data, the researcher has conducted the survey. Survey method is useful to collect the primary data from the respondents. Online survey allows the researcher to have unlimited respondents and the users can share the survey with each other so that they can collaborate the different accounts on the same survey. According to Hewson and Stewart (2016), the survey is low-cost process among all the data collection process and survey is convenient for data gathering. Most importantly, the survey can be done through online and questionnaire can be delivered to the respondents using online method also. The research topic is based on consumers’ behaviour and primary data was needed to understand the perspectives of the customers’ behaviour. Through the survey, the researcher has gathered information regarding the influence of company’s CSR policies on consumer buying behaviour and determines the role of social media in informing the customers about company’s CSR. Through online survey; customers’ perspective of the relationship between CSR and the social media has been strived to judge. As stated by Flick (2015), a survey has inflexible design as the researcher cannot change the process of data gathering. The survey can also provide possible inappropriateness of questions that the respondents do not like. The alternative to the survey is an interview and the researcher did not take the process of the interview as interview takes a lot of time to collect the data. The interview process is time-consuming and the researcher cannot take the interview a large number of persons. The researcher has faced the issue of designing the survey questions and at the initial stage; the researcher has faced the issue of uploading the survey question on BOS.
Research instrument
The instrument of the research was the questionnaire. 12 close-ended Multiple Choice Questions type questions have been prepared for conducting the survey. In addition, there were two types of questions, demographic questions and subjective questions. Through this survey questions, the researcher has gathered the information regarding respondents’ idea of corporate social responsibility and the consumers’ behaviour. A survey has been conducted as part of research; the researcher has used BOS (Boston Online Survey tool) and UWL is subscribed to this survey software. The researcher has asked the supervisor to give student number to IT services and the researcher has asked them to create an account for me. The questionnaire has been uploaded on BOS software tool. BOS software is designed for the academic researchers and this tool was easy for getting the primary data as part of the research. BOS is easy-to-use service and it allows the researcher to deploy, develop and analyse the survey. BOS was not a complicated set-up for or minimal technical knowledge is required for using BOS. On the other side, questionnaire does not provide conscientious responses and the questionnaire of the survey does not make differences between interpretation and understanding. The respondents cannot convey emotions and feelings. The researcher overcame the issue of making the appropriate questionnaire through doing pilot testing. The researcher has done the validity testing through doing the conscientious responses.
Sampling technique
The sample population of the research was university students. The researcher has taken the decision to take the data from the university students as they are adults now, they are sensible and they use social media sites. The university students have the idea about CSR and it would be easier to get the data from the university students as it was the convenient way for me. The researcher chose the sample size of the research was 100. The researcher sent out a survey to the masses and hoping to get 100 respondents. The researcher has used the sample frame as the BOS tool through which the researcher sent research questionnaire.
|
Sample population |
Sample size |
Sampling frame |
|
All university business students |
100 |
A questionnaire using BOS tool |
Table 1: Sampling technique
(Source: Self-developed)
The appropriate size of sampling helps in order to conduct the research in an accurate way to extract the information from the respondents (Flick 2015). In this research, 100 respondents have been chosen about the corporate social responsibility, social media and the consumers’ behaviour. Sampling is the accurate representation of the larger population of the research. The researcher has conducted a pilot testing before conducting the actual survey using 100 sample sizes. The researcher has sent to 20 respondents using questionnaire. The researcher has given them 5 days to revert. The respondents reverted with their responses and some of the respondents did not answer all the questions. They have given some feedback on the questionnaire. The researcher has changed accordingly to prepare a final set of questions.
Stratified Random Sampling is a sampling which involves the division of population from the group or strata. In addition, in cluster sampling, the researcher divides the population into many groups. Quota sampling is non-probability sampling wherein the assembled sample has the same proportion of respondents as the entire population (Friend and Jessop 2013). The researcher has selected the sample size using the simple random sampling technique. Simple random sampling is the subset of the statistical population through which each of the members of the subset has an equal chance of getting selected (Hair et al. 2015). Simple random sampling is very difficult to achieve as it requires money and time. Simple random method carries larger errors from the sample size. Simple random sampling cannot be employed where the units of the population are heterogeneous in nature.
Data analysis process
This research is based on quantitative data as the survey questionnaire provides the researcher quantitative data. Quantitative data analysis is based on numerical data (Garcia-Rosello et al. 2015). Quantitative data are gathered using the survey as the researcher has used a statistical method to analyse the data. The quantitative method of research is designed to provide summaries of data that support a generalisation about the phenomenon under the research. The researcher has used the variables like corporate social responsibility, social media and consumer behaviour. Therefore, maximum questions in the subjective genre have been developed using these variables to ensure reliability and validity of the study. Since the researcher has used quantitative data analysis method, the researcher has analysed the survey questions using SPSS analysis. SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Science) is a statistical data analysis method that helps to show the correlation and regression between independent and dependent variables. SPSS is used for complex data analysis and it helps to manipulate the data with just simple instruction (Friend and Jessop 2013). SPSS graph and tables have been used in the data findings and analysis section.
Research Ethics
This research is associated with the human participants. The ethics of the research is associated with following the norms and as a researcher; the researcher followed all the ethical standards. Most importantly, the researcher followed Data Protection Act 1998 UK. According to this act, the researcher has not revealed the names of the respondents and the confidentiality of the respondents has been maintained throughout. The researcher has collected the data only for the research purposes. As a researcher, the researcher has not done any coercion during the research. Any kind of the exchange of money has not been done. After the research process is done, the researcher would destroy the data. The researcher has taken the permission of the university students who have participated in this research process. The researcher has filled in Ethics Forms given by the university. The researcher has followed all the details given in the ethical form.
Summary
Therefore, research methodology has helped the researchers to gather the information in a uniform way that aids contextualise data findings for the research. The researcher has followed positivism research philosophy, deductive approach and explanatory research design in order to collect the data as the researcher wanted to put fundamental stride to collect the data in a systematic way. Primary data have been collected through an online survey. Various research processes have helped to decide the findings and legitimacy of the data. Collected data will be analysed on Data Findings and Analysis section to meet the research objectives.
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