Paste your essay in here…Chapter 3 – Methodology
The previous chapter gave us an inclusive insight of the existing literature available in this research and concluded by providing a rationale for this research. This upcoming chapter will discuss in detail with justification of the chosen research philosophy as an applicable way of approaching research problem.
3.1 Research Philosophy
Chapter 2 discussed in detail about why different celebrities are used for product endorsement (Atkin & Block, 1983). The factors affecting buying behaviour on different type of products were analysed as cultural influences, social influences, family influences and psychological influences but with some limitations on the type of products these consumers choose from different geographical locations. The methodology adopted an interpretivist philosophy to gain some insights about the research topic. Interpretivist paradigm allows researchers to know about the participants through their perceptions and experiences (Nguyen and Tran, 2015). (Willis, 2007) in his book said that interpretive paradigm is based on socially constructed reality, so his statements supports the researchers of this research to investigate if celebrity endorsement creates a positive purchase intention among United Kingdom’s home students and International students and if it does, what kind of products are preferred between these two categories of students. (Willis, 2007) also asserts the fact that viewpoint of each ethic group, nation or region is different and are formed from their personal experiences. The acceptance of different perspectives in interpretivism often leads to a more comprehensive understanding of the situation or research question (Klein and Myers, 1999).
3.1.1. Research Approach
There are two types of approaches inductive approach (qualitative methods) and deductive approach (quantitative methods). This research has adopted inductive approach (Qualitative methods). Whilst deductive approach begins with the hypothesis, the inductive approach will narrow down the study with the help of research questions. In inductive approach the researcher begins the research with the open mind without any predefined our predicted answers (Gabriel, 2013). This approach will help to carry out this research as no conclusion can be drawn if it follows deductive approach.
3.1.2 Consideration of Alternative Approach
Another philosophy which was under consideration was positivism (quantitative methods). This approach was not used in this research because it asserts on statistical data and the complexity of external world like psychological, social linkages are eliminated (Kaboub, 2008). A positivist researcher has a notion that world is fixed to unchanging laws and rules of happenings and the complexity can be overcome by reductionism (Aliyu et al., 2014). This research analysis the social, cultural and economic factors that play a role of influences in purchasing behaviour due to celebrity endorsement for international students and home students of UK.
3.2 Research Design
The aim of this research was to explore the kinds of products which create a positive purchase intention through celebrity endorsement among UK’s home and international students. The research design was planned accordingly comprising of sampling, gaining access strategy, data collection methods, pilot testing and data analysis method.
3.2.1 Sample
In order to gain data for this research, purpose strategy was used for sampling. (Patton, 1990) said that the logic of using purpose sampling is when a researcher selects information rich cases for deep study, and information rich cases are those in which one can learn a lot from issues of central importance of the research. There was no restriction for age, sex or ethnicity for selecting samples for this research. The samples were selected based upon certain criteria which are discussed below:
1) As the research is being conducted in UK, so the first criteria were that the sample should currently be living in UK.
2) They should be students studying in either college or university in UK.
Total 20 participants were taken as a sample from which 10 were British students and 10 international students from different countries. Convenience sampling strategy was also applied in this research to gain access to data. It is a type of sampling that depends on data collection from population who are conveniently available to participate in the study (Dudovskiy, 2018). The research is conducted by students from University of Sheffield in UK, so it was convenient for them to adopt convenience strategy of sampling. (Bostrom, 1998) also states that when convenience sampling is selected as strategy for sampling it indicates that participants are close to researcher or interviewer.
3.2.2 Gaining Access Strategy
Before the interviews were conducted an access was gained to samples in the University of Sheffield’s student Union and Diamond building and the interviewers were introduced to the target samples. This was not done by emails or telephone calls but through interviewers personally talking to the target interviewees face to face. It was informed to the participants the nature of this research and what is required from them. They were given participant information sheet to ensure them the credibility of this research.
(Robson, 2002) also states that it is important to inform the participants what kind of information is required from them.
3.2.3 Data Collection Methods
Qualitative methodology was used for this research due to its exploratory nature and quantitative method would not have been an ideal choice. (Cooper and Schindler, 2008) also said in their book that researchers who aim to look for explanations behind samples response should adopt qualitative methodology.
The participants were interviewed face to face with open ended questions. (Gill et al., 2008) also state that the interviews should be two principles, one: questions should towards from general to more specific in an order and second: the questions should be related to important issues in the research. The interviews were mixed together depending on the response of each participant. A structured approach was taken for interviews from participants and were voice recorded to make sure that the transcripts remain unbiased and stay accurate.
3.2.4 Pilot Testing
Before the interviews were conducted, they were first pilot tested upon 3 colleagues from the University of Sheffield to make sure the interviews were cohesive and logical. Pilot testing also enabled us to check if there were any closed ended questions, but our researchers found none. (Wright, 2017) states that it is important to take time to analyse, improve and test your research design because it allows the research to undergo smoothly without any hindrances.
3.2.5 Data Analysis Methods
Textual analysis of data was conducted in this dissertation manually and coding couldn’t be conducted. Inductive approach is used when raw audio or video data has to be converted into brief summary format, while establishing clear linkages between research objectives and the summary extracted from the raw data (Thomas, 2006). As qualitative methodology was used, inductive approach was adopted in this research to formulate new theory from raw data collected through interviews. The participants were divided into two parts, international and home students. For clarity and ambiguity avoidance they were categorised as H1-10and I11-20 in the order they were interviewed. (Liu, 2016) state that the inductive approach develops and becomes focused and important during research process, so it needs dedication of researcher to keep moving forward and backward during research questions and data analysis. The researchers should halt their own perceptions during data analysis and should not be biased. A number of theories were available to be adopted for this research like grounded theory, but they were not adopted as they were not related to this research
3.3 Ethical issues & consideration
(Aluwihare and Samaranayake, 2012) state that the adequate research ethics is associated with getting a required ethical approval from Research Ethics Board which evaluate the researcher’s principles of confidentiality, respect and autonomy. In this case the researches of this dissertation took an ethical approval from (REB) of University of Sheffield’s Management School which was approved in due course of time. Before this qualitative research was conducted it was analysed that there could be three potential issues which were consent, harm and confidentiality. To avoid such issues, all participants were handed with participant information sheet which clearly defined the purpose and aims of this research. The participants were also given consent form which they were required to fill as a pre-requisite for aspects as recording audio interviews and writing them down.
The interviews took place at participants own chosen location to avoid further risks. Face to face interviews were conducted instead of telephone calls or emails to reduce the risk. All participants were kept anonymous and none of their identity was disclosed in the research. All of the data collected was destroyed in the end after the completion of this dissertation in order to maintain confidentiality. (Denzim, 2007) also said that guidelines and principles are set to save and protect the participant, ensure no harm is being done, minimize risks, and enable trust.
3.4 Quality Assurance
Without rigour, conducting and presenting research is useless and worthless and becomes more like a fiction. Therefore, a great deal of time and attention was applied in this qualitative research to ensure it credibility, reliability and validity (Morse et al., 2002). There are four aspects of trustworthiness: credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability (Lincoln, 1998).
(Morse, 1991) states that sampling must contain clear saturation of categories with peerless quality and that’s how the researchers of this dissertation categorised the samples and provided them with clear questions for the interview. Following steps were taken for quality assurance of this research.
1) Credibility/trustworthiness: The information gathered in this research were rechecked by fellow colleagues who are also doing research on some other topics as well as by researchers of this dissertation.
2) Transferability: The methodology and analysing techniques used in this research were applied to a similar situation by fellow colleagues and they found out that the specifics were comparable
3) Dependability: An external researcher performed an inquiry audit to check the analysis methods, data collection and results of this dissertation study.
4) Confirmability: This was also checked by a fellow researcher to check if the data collected matched with the findings to see if the researcher who conducted the interview is not biased.
5) Pilot Testing: The interviews were conducted from 3 colleagues in order to check if they are logical and cohesive and doesn’t mislead the interviewee.
6) Literature: In chapter 2, credible journal papers were used to study about the literature around celebrity endorsement and its effects on purchase intentions. Literature review was structurally organised without getting off-track from the topic which ensures the credibility of this research