Preparing the Research Design:
Research design is the conceptual structure within which research should be conducted. A research design specifies the methods and procedure for conducting a particular study. The researcher should specify the approach he intends to use with respect to the proposed study. The function of research design is to provide for the collection of relevant evidence with minimal expenditure of effort time and money. Research design can be grouped into three categories exploratory research descriptive research and causal research.
a. Exploratory Research: An exploratory research focuses on the discovery of ideas and is generally based on secondary data. It is preliminary investigation which does not have a rigid design.
b. Descriptive Research: A descriptive study is undertaken when the researcher wants to know the characteristics of certain groups such as age sex educational level income occupation etc. In contract to exploratory studies descriptive studies are well structured.
c. Casual research: A casual research is undertaken when the researcher is interested in knowing the cause and effect relationship between two or more variables. Such studies are based on reasoning along well tested lines .
The preparation of the research design appropriate for a particular research problem involves usually the consideration of the followings.
a.The means of obtaining the information.
b. The availability and skills of the researcher and his staff ( if any) :
c. Explanation of the way in which selected means of obtaining information will be organized and the reasoning leading to the selection.
d.The time available for research and
e.The cost factors relating to research i e, the finance available for the purpose.