Order 1125645: Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India: A Case Study of Food Industry of India

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

The section mentioned above has explained regarding Factors Influencing social sustainability in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India. In this regard, tThis chapter will explain in detail regarding research strategy, research design, research approach, sampling strategy and research philosophy. Moreover, this section will also have data collection methods techniques and data analysis which has been used to collect the appropriate data, and also allocate the objective of the research.

3.2 Research Philosophy Comment by Christopher Smith: You’ve not got the set up here of the research onion, so these could seem to be a random collection of issues. You need the justification of why you’ve spoken about these things.

There are three types of research philosophy namely positivism, Interpretive, and pragmatism. Positivist helps in producing laws which communicate with the social world by observation the reality. This philosophy manipulates the reality with different variations to form a relationship with the different elements of the social world. On the other hand, Interpretivist contend are reviewed through subjective interpretation and intervention regarding reality which helps in understanding reality in greater extends (Crossan, 2003). Pragmatism is the combination of positivism and interpretivism which is used when both qualitative and quantities methods are used. Here, the researcher will give focus on Interpretive philosophy as this research is based on the subjective approach of data collection methods which includes observations and also interviews. Comment by Christopher Smith: REferences Comment by Christopher Smith: There are lots more than 3, you’ve selected three main ones. Or three extremes. Etc. Comment by Christopher Smith: Not capital letter Comment by Christopher Smith: This is too simplistic description of pragmatism, Comment by Christopher Smith: Your now jumping on to issues that are at different parts of the onion. Here you need to base your decision based on the research question you are trying to answer, not the data collection approached you will be doing.

3.3 Research Approach

The research approach is termed as a plan or a procedure which possess steps regarding assumptions to achieve detail of the data collection, interpretation and also analysis (Richie & Lewis, 2003). This research is designed to acknowledge regarding Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India. The research approach is divided into three types namely qualitative, quantitative and also mixed research approaches. The qualitative approach takes the usage of theories and subjective literature to highlight the findings. On the other hand, quantitative research approach helps in focusing on the numerical data by making a depth analysis of data and also helps in achieving the greater results. The mixed research approach will use both qualitative and quantitative approach to achieve the required results (Richie & Lewis, 2003). This research study has made the use of the qualitative research method to understand regarding Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India in a convenient manner. Qualitative research is used in this research as human elements of social and natural sciences have been focused in a greater manner, and various theoretical data are also evaluated in this research study.

3.4 Research Strategy

The research strategy is known as effective methods which helps in ensuring regarding an appropriate resource have been made available to carry out the research study within the calculated time zone. It also confirms if the objective of the study gets addressed efficiently to increase the efficiency of the work. It is the strategy which assists in the identification of the problem and also solves it by utilizing the tools and techniques. The research strategy is divided into some forms namely case study, surveys, interviews and experimental research to achieve the requirement of the research study. Case study analysis helps in investigating the problems of the business and also examines other solutions to achieve effective output by making the use of the supporting proofs. On the other hand, the interview helps in understanding the views and opinions of the respondents by face-to-face, phone call or video call interaction (Boyce & Neale, 2006). This research study will make use of interviews strategy as it is an effective approach which assists in gathering raw information and responses of the participants to achieve the research’s objectives in a more credible manner (Boyce & Neale, 2006).

The influence of social sustainability can be better understood when respondents are asked regarding the research questions. This research will interview various employees of SMEs to achieve information regarding the effects caused by sustainability in their firms. Thus, interviewed plays a vital role in achieving valid data and information about the research and also helps in evaluating the experiences of the respondents.

3.5 Time Horizon

Time has an essential role in setting as well as organizing of the timeframe in a research study. The time horizon highlights the timeframe which helps in setting the time duration which has been separated to conduct a research study and achieve the desired results. It is termed as important components as it assists in the competition of research work in time. Time horizon is divided into two types namely cross-sectional and longitudinal (Kothari, 2004). This research study will make the use of cross-sectional time horizon to understand the research topic. The use of the time horizon helps in minimizing the time required to finish this research work.

3.6 Data Collection

Data collection is one of the important components of the research study. There are mainly two sources of data, namely primary data and secondary data. Primary data is termed as a first-hand data which is gathered directly from the sources. Primary data is gathering to serve the objective of the research. This data also ensures accuracy and up-to-date scenario of the research study (Wallen & Fraenkel, 2001). On the other hand, secondary data is already published data which is gathered for other purposes. This process of data collection is faster and requires lower costs. The main sources of secondary data are journals, articles, books, magazines, etc. Accordingly, this research will adopt a qualitative method of study wherein both primary and secondary data will be taken into consideration. Primary data is collected by interviewing the employees of different small and medium enterprises. The views and opinions of the respondents will be collected to analyze the data and bring about conclusive findings. On the contrary, secondary data has been considered in this study in the process of completing the research literature review section based on the key objectives of the study (Balanced Scorecard Institute, ND). Those data will be mainly collected from some of the magazines of food industry which is present in India. This will help in understanding the theoretical part in a better manner wherein validity, and authenticity will be kept in top priority while collecting the information and data.

3.7 Sampling

Sampling is termed as one of the convenient ways of selecting the respondents who are capable of giving responses in this research study. The samples that will get selected will have enough knowledge regarding the research topic, and thus, it will increase the effectiveness of the research (Biggam, 2008). Random sampling technique will be used in this research study to make the research study successful. Small and medium Enterprise which is present in India will be taken into consideration wherein total 10 organizations will be randomly selected to conduct the research. Moreover, these interviews will adopt 1 employee per organization which means a total of 10 employees will be interviewed in this research study. The employees, supervisors as well as managers who work at the highest level will be used in the questionnaire. They will have to complete the online forms which will be sent to their emails by the researchers to achieve the required answers. Those respondents who are not reached will be contacted with a phone call. All the responses collected will be recorded for further research. The findings which will be collected from the sample will help the researcher to understand regarding Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India. Comment by Christopher Smith: I don’t think you can use random sampling here. Definition of a random sample: Every member of a population has an equal chance of being chosen, every possible sample of n values has an equal chance of being chosen. I don’t think you can prove either of these two conditions. Comment by Christopher Smith: Didn’t you say you’d be doing interviews. Why supplement with this.

This research will be conducted using the primary sources and to achieve a proper result, both close-ended, and the open-ended question will be prepared for the interview. This research interviews will have a total of 15 questions which will be regarding the Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India which also affect the employee’s performances in their workplace. The question will be related to social sustainability regarding the industry and also about the company altogether. The close-ended questions will be helpful in answering the question of research directly (Boyce & Neale, 2006). The interview question will be well-structured and will be related to the research to achieve the objective of the research in an effective manner.

3.8 Data Analysis

Data analysis is the process which is used to understand the data gathered in a better manner using different sources to achieve growth and effectiveness. This research study will collect both primary and secondary data where the primary data will be gathering by interviewing the respondents, and secondary data will be collected by reviewing the literature present in the literature review chapter (Malhotra, 2010). Data analysis techniques are taken into consideration while establishing an understanding of the various themes that has been acquired from the interviews conducted with the target respondents. Data analysis helps in analyzing all the collected data and achieving the findings out of it. Both primary data and secondary data have been utilized in this study of research so interview results and literature reviews have been analyzed in this research. The primary data will be analysed with the assistance of thematic analysis methods whereas secondary data will be analyzed using literature review technique. The main motive of this research is to understand regarding the Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India. Thus, information needs to be analyzed more deeply to achieve accurate and appropriate results (Malhotra, 2010). It is very essential to acknowledge that primary data which are collected after interviewing the respondents are taken without biasing them. Various themes will be utilized to analyze the gathered data after interviewing different employees of small and medium enterprise firms. The different opinions are gathered from the interviews to achieve information regarding the study of the research. Thematic analysis will be considered for the purpose of elaborating the data gathered as well as analysing the same towards attaining the key research objectives in concern. Comment by Christopher Smith: This needs abetter deffinition Comment by Christopher Smith: This section heading is data analysis, but you are talking about collection, they should be in seprate bits. Comment by Christopher Smith: Use British English, not US.

3.9 Limitation

This research study has used different steps to attain effectiveness in a greater manner. However, there are plenty of challenges and problems which are faced by the researcher while doing the study of the research. The limitation which is overviewed in this research study is the size of the sample as a researcher could take fewer samples due to time constraints. The employees of small and medium enterprise firms are interviewed one by one, and thus, this process consumes more amount of time which results in a limitation of this research study. Paid sources are also another limitation in which the researchers had to pay lots of money to collect the information in relation with the research study. It is very difficult for the researcher to provide a huge amount of money in achieving information regarding the research study and hence, researchers limit its research and thus, the quality of the research paper deteriorates.

3.10 Ethical Consideration

Ethics is considered as an important consideration which is required while conducting the study of research. Ethical consideration is used while collecting both primary and secondary data (Oliver, 2003). This research is based on Factors Influencing Social Sustainable in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India, and thus, reliable and academic websites and sources are used to achieve the secondary data and information. On the other hand, ethical consideration is also applied during the time of collecting the primary data wherein none of the respondents were harassed. Moreover, the identity of the interviewed respondents was kept confidential to keep them safe from any kinds of issues. None of the respondents were forced to participate in the interview session and also none of the responses were altered in the whole research study. The validity of data is termed as the main priority of this research study. All of the primary and secondary data are analyzed without making any biases to maintain ethics. Furthermore, this research study is prepared with more amounts of focus and attention, and thus neither plagiarism nor errors will be encountered in this research study (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 2006). This research had also provided all the respondents to give responses to the entire question effectively and efficiently, and thus, this research study can be termed as an ethical thesis.

OK there are some bits missing here. I need to know how respondents were selected, what is the sample, how did you get it. What data did you collect, how many interviews etc.

You need to expand further on the thematic analysis element. You could try reading (the involvement/exclusion parados of spontaneous volunteering: new lessons and theory from winter flood episodes in England. ) The methodology there has some info on coding.

How will you integrate this coding with your secondary data, indeed why do you need secondary data? I am not sure you can have an interpretivist study with secondary data, as it is abou the interpretation of the situation, and can you have that with secondary data?

Lets talk on Monday or Tuesday next week, I should be able to help you pull this back around.

Chris