Fundamentals of Quantatative Research

 University of Phoenix Material

Fundamentals of Quantitative Research Template

• Complete the following University of Phoenix Fundamentals of Quantitative Research template.

• Base your responses on at least four current scholarly sources, of which two are articles from peer-reviewed journals.

• Cite references used according to APA 6th edition. Include an APA-formatted reference list.

• Insert your reference list at the end of the document.

• Select three published quantitative research studies in your field. One must be an experimental or a quasi-experimental study, one must be an ex post facto study, and one must be a correlational study. Each of the three studies must be current in the field of study and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Note. Do not use dissertations or articles used in previous assignments in this class.

• Respond to the prompts about the following concepts as they apply to these studies. Limit your response of each item to 100 words.

Experimental or Quasi-Experimental Study

• How the application of the designs differ

The application of the designs differs in that the approach uses graphs, charts and other quantitative experimental theories and applications. Experimental research, often called true experimentation, uses the scientific method to establish the cause-effect relationship among a group of variables that make up a study ("Key Elements Of A Research Proposal Quantitative Design", ). It is difficult to have an experimental study on the watch industry worldwide, but the overall approach can be scientific and experimental when comparing numbers and contrasting different sourcing and components.

• The sampling: rationale and techniques

  The true experiment is often thought of as a laboratory study, but this is not always the case; a laboratory setting has nothing to do with it.  A true experiment is any study where an effort is made to identify and impose control over all other variables except one.  An independent variable is manipulated to determine the effects on the dependent variables.  ("Key Elements Of A Research Proposal Quantitative Design", ). In the high end watch and jewelry industry experimental sampling can only come into play when quality or customer based is referred to.

• Data collection techniques

Subjects are randomly assigned to experimental treatments rather than identified in naturally occurring groups ("Key Elements of a Research Proposal Quantitative Design",).  For the watch industry it is imperative that data is collected from all over the world and many different markets to compare diligently.

• Levels of measurement of the variables

Categorical variable a variable that is made up of different types or categories of a phenomenon

The variable gender is made up of the categories of male and female. Quantitative variable a variable that varies in degree or amount of a phenomenon the variable annual income varies from zero income to a very high income level ("Quantitative, qualitative, And mixed research",). 

• Types of statistics used to analyze the data and generate results

Thus, manipulation, an intervention studied by an experimenter, is the key defining characteristic of experimental research. The use of manipulation in studying cause-and-effect relationships is based on the activity theory of causation (Collingwood, 1940; Cook & Shadish, 1994). ("Quantitative, qualitative, And mixed research",). 

• Inferences that can be drawn from the results

The listing suggests that the Japanese watch industry will be able to move with vigor into the direction of electronic watches, in the first place because of the industry's dynamic, aggressive and flexible nature and in the second place because electronics companies might enter the production also ("The Future Of The "world Watch Industry:" ", ). 

• Special considerations: validity, reliability, generalizability

No Special considerations were made in this study of the watch industry. Overall, it is a quite precise and multifaceted study with many different levels charts, graphs, and statistical comparisons showing different watch companies and the projections with detailed research.

Ex Post Facto Study

• How the application of the designs differ

Ex-post facto research is systematic empirical inquiry in which the scientist does not have direct control of independent variables because their manifestations have already occurred or because they are inherently not manipulated. Inferences about relations among variables are made, without direct intervention, from co commitment variation of independent and dependent variables. This kind of research is based on a scientific and analytical examination of dependent and independent variables  ("What Is Ex-Post Facto Research", ).  In this study, the watch industry buyers and different locations that the watches are sold all tie together in that they are all independent variables.

• The sampling: rationale and techniques

The two different manufacturing locations ant types Swiss versus Chinese and or Japanese movements for the watches is a perfect example of how a ex post facto study and ‘casual comparisons comes into play within the watch industry. When cost of goods sold and sales and marketing are taken into consideration, these comparisons are vital to managerial decision making.

• Data collection techniques

Th4 data is public record when it comes to what was sold in the watch industry and what was imported from China and or Switzerland. These facts and numbers are vital for comparisons and needed for contrasting pricing and profit margins.