Chapter 6. Research Methodology
This chapter discusses the research method to be used, the respondents of the study, the sampling technique, the instrument to be used and the administration of the of the instrument.
6.1 Research Method
The research described in this document is based on qualitative and quantitative method. At the time of data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified which was based on ongoing analysis. In this manner, it allows the investigation of important new issues and questions. This also allows the investigators to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan. Apparently, this study uses the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research will utilize observations in the study. To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Creswell (1994) stated," Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena.”
6.2 Sampling Design
Simple Random sampling is the sampling design of this study. The said design is the most appropriate design to use in this study since the population size is not available and the researcher decided the sample size of the study. This design is popular in the field of opinion research because it is done by merely looking for individuals with the requisite characteristics, particularly electrical engineering students for this study. Moreover, this paper utilizes the Slovin’s formula to obtain the reliability and validity of the samples. The formula of Slovin (1960) is given as follows:
Where:
n = a sample size
N= population size
e= desired margin of error (percent allowance for non-precision because of the use of the sample instead of the population).
6.3 Respondents of the Study
In this study, primary research and secondary research was used. Primary research was conducted using questionnaire surveys had been sent to respondents that are familiar and experience the services provided by Telecom and technology-based companies like PCCW-HKT. The researcher tallied, scored and tabulated all the responses in the provided survey questions. A major aim of the survey is to know the perception of the respondents regarding the applicability of marketing strategies offered wireless service provider in Hong Kong and other issues. Furthermore, ten selected individuals related to wireless service provider companies were interviewed personally by the researcher to have an in-depth understanding on the issues. Each interview with these personalities lasted for almost an hour. The main aim of the interview is to know the variables in marketing wireless services/products that affect the progress of a certain business and identify whether wireless services and products marketing in Hong Kong is applicable. The researcher conducted the survey personally with the respondents, or either through e-mail or snail mail.
6.4 The Instrument
To evaluate the problem at hand, the researcher prepared a questionnaire and a set of guide questions for the interview that is asked to the intended respondents. It was indicated that this will be answered with no more than 15-20 minutes of the respondents’ time. Furthermore, the answers will be completely anonymous and confidential and if there were any particular questions the respondents do not want to answer, it was a standard that they should inform the researcher. The respondents graded each statement in the survey-questionnaire using a Likert scale with a four-response scale wherein respondents are given five response choices. The equivalent weights for the answers are:
Range Interpretation
4.00 – 5.00 Strongly Agree
3.00 – 3.99 Agree
2.00 – 2.99 Disagree
0.00 – 1.99 Strongly Disagree
6.5 Statistical Treatment
After the survey questionnaire responses have been collected, the researcher used statistics to analyze all the data. The researcher uses Statistical Package for Social Sciences (or SPSS software) in coming up with the statistical analysis for this study.
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[1] All information are from http://www.ctihk.com/ otherwise indicated
[2] Adapted from Porter (2006).
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