Empirical application of research design in management sciences

Abstract

This paper examined the guidelines and procedures for conducting research design in management sciences. The objective of the paper is the empirical demonstration of the application of research design. The secondary method of data collection in the form of content analysis of documents, records, reports and projects was adopted as research methodology. Also, 10 undergraduate student’s projects were selected from the Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Abuja as case study. At the end of the study, the research findings revealed that researchers who are supposed to demonstrate the mastery of research design techniques practically end up defining the concept of research design by various scholars in the field of management sciences without adopting a single research design. Also, most investigators failed to adopt appropriate research designs that are capable of addressing the stated research problem or determine the target population and the nature of data collection/analysis of instruments. Similarly, many do not know, when and why a particular research design is suitable or appropriate for a particular study. On the whole, the study recommended that researchers should not only study to acquire knowledge on the meaning, types and procedures for the adoption of a research design but they must make frantic efforts to know why, how and when a particular research design is the most appropriate for a particular study.

Keywords: Research, research design, management sciences.