Archival Research

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SOLUSI UNIVERSITY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

COURSE BSAD 550: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

ASSIGNMENT

TITLE: ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

This assignment is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course BSAD 550: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

Lecturer:  Dr Chitate

                                                     SUBMITTED BY

                                                 BEKEZELA CHUMA

                                                        (SU160401A)

         Date:         19 September 2016

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Dwyer et al (2012) states that archival research itself is not an analytical method but rather a set of approaches to understanding physical data and their meanings.

Archival research involves use of secondary data. According to Dale et al (1988) as cited in Kothari et al (2004), this is “an empirical exercise carried out on data that has already been gathered or compiled in some way”. This secondary data can be either numeric or non-numeric. This means that archival research can be either qualitative or quantitative

The researcher’s role is to select which information to use and how to analyze it, this is according to McBurney and White (2010) as cited in Dwyer et al (2012). In my view, archival research is similar to historical research as they both focus on historical /secondary data. Kothari et al (2004) defines historical research as that which utilizes historical sources like documents and remains to study events or ideas of the past.

Since archival research entails use of existing data, various sources of data can be used to ensure that a lot of information is gathered. According to Ghosh et al (2003), the data sources are classified into internal and external. Internal secondary data is that which exists within an organization and is more focused & pertinent to the organization. External sources are usually collected by another party and can be found in libraries, museums, government publications and journals).

Archival sources can be direct or indirect (Howell and Prevenier, 2001 as cited in Dwyer et al (2012) Direct sources of data are used by the researcher as is, i.e no modification, whereas indirect sources are modified by the researcher .Archival research has at its disposal, vast sources of information as anything from the past can be regarded as a data source depending on the research questions being investigated and availability/accessibility of the source.

Data collection by archival means was earlier done manually, however technology has now been incorporated and data collection has now been simplified through storage of visual and textual data on microfilms. This is highlighted by Dwyer et al (2012)and also shows that the researcher can be able to access these microfilms on the internet. Thus the archival research method cuts down on time & costs associated with data collection as there might be no need for the researcher to do physical visits in some cases. The researcher is also required to abide by the archives rules & regulations.eg some archives do not allow the researcher to publish photographs.

To ensure that the research gathers reliable and valid data. Arthur J et al (2012) recommends that the researcher evaluates the data taking into cognisance the methodology used for data collection, eg sampling method and sample size. Stewart further adds that triangulation can also be applied to ensure accuracy of the data.

Dwyer et al (2012) mentions that all forms of archival research involve content analysis to infer meaning from the data. Data collected from archival sources can be interpreted either qualitatively or quantitatively depending on the nature of the data. Quantitatively, statistical tests can be used for content analysis.