Research methodology and design Essay

CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 INTRODUCTION
After developing the research model and hypotheses from the past studies review in Chapter 2, this chapter outlines the methodology that used in the research study. Research methodology shows how the research study is conducted. This chapter aims to describe the research design, data collection methods, sampling design, research instrument and data analysis technique.
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is a comprehensive description of how a research is occurs. Research design generally contains data collection method, which tools will be used, how the instruments will be used and the projected purposes for analyzing data. In this research, quantitative method is being used. Conducting quantitative research involves collecting measurable data to the variables being studied and analyzing the data using statistical procedures. This method is employed as the research needs to collect relevant data from a numbers of target respondents.
This research paper is going to determine whether perceived value, brand trust, brand price and customer's satisfaction have relationship with brand loyalty in cosmetics products in Northern State in Malaysia. According to Smith (1988), quantitative research involves tabulating and gauging events and performing statistical studies of numerical data. Furthermore, quantitative research also clearly and precisely specifies both the independent and dependent variables under investigation. By using quantitative approach in the research, it can make a more convincing interpretation associated with the result derived from the questionnaire (Bernard, 2000).
The research design for this study is exploratory based. This is because the research objective is to further discover the ideal about the relationship between the perceived value, brand trust, brand price and customer's satisfaction towards brand loyalty on cosmetics products. Through this research, it will further explore the relationship between the variables and thus reduce the ambiguity.
3.2 DATA COLLECTION METHOD
Information is derived from primary data and secondary data. Both primary and secondary data will be used in this study to answer the hypotheses. Primary data obtained by using questionnaire, while secondary data obtained from online databases.
3.2.1 Primary Data
Primary data are the information collected for particular research problems, employing the steps and methods that suit the research problem (Hox & Boeije, 2005). Data can be obtained from observation, direct communication with the respondent, survey or questionnaire. In current study, primary data is obtained through survey method. A questionnaire is a research instrument containing a series of questions for gathering information and feedback from respondents. Questionnaires are distributed to target respondents to obtain specific information. Survey method is employed because the size of coverage of many people means that data will be collected based on a representative sample more likely than some other approaches, and therefore can be generalized to a population (Kelly, Clark, Brown &Sitzia, 2003). It is also inexpensive and often provides standardizes answers for respondents to choose from that make it uncomplicated to compile data (Saunders et al, 2009). Data is collected from a clustered sample of Northern State youth in Malaysia whose age primarily ranges from 18 to 40 years