Table 1
Classifying Micro-Conceptual Frameworks[1]
|
Research purpose (1) |
Research Question (2) |
Micro-Conceptual Framework (3) |
Research Technique/ Method (4) |
Statistical Techniques (5) |
|
Exploration |
Anything Goes What, When, Where, Why, Who, How, or any combination
of the above |
Working
Hypotheses |
Usually qualitative techniques: field research,
structured interviews, focus groups, document/ archival record analysis |
Qualitative evidence may
not be statistical But anything goes Any type
of statistical analysis possible |
|
Description |
What |
Descriptive
categories |
Survey and content analysis |
Simple descriptive
statistics: Mean median, mode frequency distribution, percentages,
t-statistics |
|
Gauging |
How close is process/policy to an ideal or standard? How can x
be improved? |
Practical
Ideal Type |
Case study, survey, content analysis, document
analysis, structured interviews |
Simple descriptive
statistics: Mean median, mode frequency distribution, percentages,
t-statistics |
|
Decision making |
What is the best decision? Which approach? |
Models of
Operations Research |
Cost Benefit analysis, Cost Effectiveness
Analysis, linear programming, decision tree, etc. |
Quantitative techniques of
Operations Research |
|
Explanation |
Why |
Formal
Hypothesis |
Usually Quantitative, Experimental and quasi
experimental design, Survey, existing data analysis |
t-statistics, correlation,
Chi-Square, analysis of variance, simple and multiple regression |