RESEARCH

& REPORT WRITING

Dr. T.K. Jain.
AFTERSCHOOOL
Centre for social entrepreneurship
Bikaner
M: 9414430763
tkjainbkn@yahoo.co.in
www.afterschool.tk
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 WHY ?????
 Most fundamental question - the
objective or research
 Clarity of final outcome
 Net contribution - to academic and
industry community
 Research should be publishable
 Research should bring out some new
knowledge & insights
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 Starting steps …1.2.3.4.
 Read existing research reports.
 Find the gap in the field and find
areas where you may contribute
 Our field of research may be –
related to our interest – our day to
day experience – our area of choice
for study and research

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Literature review – first step
 Read at least 100 books, journals,
articles, papers, research report, PHD
reports – covering all prominent
thinkers of the field
 Prepare review – summarising findings
of all the research papers – presenting
the main themes and findings of
prominent scholars.
 Send the review for publication and
analyze the feedback.
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 Design your research, its
process and its approach?
 What type of research will suit your
purpose?
 Is it exploratory (finding out
something for the first time at
conceptual level), or descriptive, or
experimental, or analytical or case
study based research.

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 What type of research should
you opt for?
 Itdepends on purpse – fundamental
question – why are you doing your
research – what will be the outcome?
 Design instruments, research plan,
research process, and sampling plan
accordingly …
 All great research start from
fundamental questions … …

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 Research designs & tools
… .. .
 Experiment + observe
 Observe + experiment + observe
 Control group (on which you are not
doing research) + experimental
group
 Very popular research framework

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 Qualitative research
 Based on your experience.
 Based on your own feelings and
observations
 Research is the instrument of research
(for example, for studying leadership,
work under a great leader and observe
and present your observations.).

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 Quantitative research. . .
 We use a research instrument - - it
may be scale, questionnaire,
standards, analytical tool, or other
well accepted measure.
 Instrument focus on your research
objectives – and nothing else.

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 Ensure the fundamentals in
research >…..>……>
 Fundamental issues are :
 VALIDITY (you are doing what you
are supposed to do)
 RELIABILITY (your research will give
same result, if done again).

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 Statistical tools
 First – find is the data set based on normal
distribution – If yes – apply statistical tools
which can be used for normal distribution.
 Normal Distribution = Bell shaped data. –
rules of central tendency are applicable –
Mean = Median = Mode , sample size is
large, data are drawn through random
sampling
 Check out assumptions of the research
tools before applying those tools.
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 Types of research design –
experiments
 Chapter 8 in Babbie & Mouton (2001)

 Introduction to all research designs

 All research designs have specific
objectives they strive for
 Have different strengths and
limitations
 Have validity considerations

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 Validity considerations

– When we say that a knowledge claim (or

proposition) is valid, we make a JUDGEMENT
about the extent to which relevant evidence
supports that claim to be true
– Is the interpretation of the evidence given the
only possible one, or are there other plausible
ones?
– "Plausible rival hypotheses" = potential
alternative explanations/claims
 e.g. New York City's "zero tolerance" crime fighting
strategy in the 1980s and 1990s - the reverse of the
"broken windows" effect

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The logic of causal social research in
the controlled experiment
 Explanatory rather than descriptive
 Different from correlational research - one
variable is manipulated (IV) and the effect of that
manipulation observed on a second variable (DV)
 If … then ….
 E.g.
– "Animals respond aggressively to crowding" (causal)
– "People with premarital sexual experience have more
stable marriages" (noncausal)

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 Three pairs of components:

 Independent and dependent

variables
 Pre-testing and post-testing
 Experimental and control groups

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 Components

 Variables
– Dependent (DV)
– Independent (IV)
 Pre-testing and post-testing
–O X O
 Experimental and control groups
– To off-set the effects of the experiment
itself; to detect effects of the experiment
itself
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 The generic experimental design:

R O1 X O2
R O3 O4

 The IV is an active variable; it is

manipulated
 The participants who receive one level of
the IV are equivalent in all ways to those
who receive other levels of the IV

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 Sampling

 1.
Selecting subjects to participate in
the research
– Careful sampling to ensure that results
can be generalized from sample to
population
– The relationship found might only exist
in the sample; need to ensure that it
exists in the population
– Probability sampling techniques

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 Sampling

 2.
How the sample is divided into two or
more groups is important
– to make the groups similar when they start
off
– randomization - equal chance
– matching - similar to quota sampling
procedures
– match the groups in terms of the most
relevant variables; e.g. age, sex, and race

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 Variations on the standard
experimental design
 One-shot case study

X O

 No real comparison

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A famous one-group posttest-only
design
– Milgram's study on obedience
– Obedience to authority
– The willingness of subjects to follow E's orders to give
painful electrical shocks to another subject
– A real, important issue here: how could "ordinary" citizens,
like many Germans during the Nazi period, do these
incredibly cruel and brutal things?
– If a person is under allegiance to a legitimate authority,
under what conditions will the person defy the authority if
s/he is asked to carry out actions clearly incompatible with
basic moral standards?

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One-group pre-test post-test design

 O1 X O2

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 Example

 We want to find out whether a family literacy

programme enhances the cognitive development
of preschool-age children.
 Find 20 families with a 4-year old child, enrol the
family in a high-quality family literacy programme
 Administer a pretest to the 20 children - they
score a mean of say 50 on the cognitive test
 The family participates in the programme for
twelve months
 Administer a post-test to the 20 children; now
they score 75 on the test - a gain of 25

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 Two claims/conclusions:

1 The children gained 25 points on

average in terms of their cognitive
performance

2 the family literacy programme

caused the gain in scores

 VALIDITY - rival explanations

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 Static-group comparison

X O
O

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 Evaluating research (experiments)

 We know the structure of research

 We understand designs
 We know the requirements of "good"
research
 Then we can evaluate a study
 Is it good? Can we believe its
conclusions?
 Back to plausible rival hypotheses

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 Validity in designs

 If the design is not valid, then the

conclusions drawn are not supported;
it is like not doing research at all
 Validity of designs come in two parts:
– Internal validity
 can the design sustain the conclusions?
– External validity
 can the conclusions be generalized to the
population?

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 Internal validity

 Each design is only capable of supporting

certain types of conclusions
– e.g. only experiments can support conclusions about causality
 Says nothing about if the results can be
applied to the real world (generalization)
 Generally, the more controlled the situation,
the higher the internal validity
 The conclusions drawn from experimental
results may not accurately reflect hat has
gone on in the experiment itself

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 Sources of internal invalidity

 These sources often discussed as part of

experiments, but can be applied to all
designs (e.g. see reactivity)
 History
– Historical events may occur that will be
confounded with the IV
– Especially in field research (compare the
control in a laboratory, e.g. nonsense
syllables in memory studies

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 Maturation

 Changes over time can be caused by

a natural learning process

 Peoplenaturally grow older, tired,

bored, over time

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 Testing (reactivity)

 People realize they are being

studied, and respond the way they
think is appropriate
The very act of studying something
may change it
 In qualitative research, the "on
stage" effects

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 The Hawthorne studies

 Improved performance because of

the researcher's presence - people
became aware that they were in an
experiment, or that they were given
special treatment
 Especially for people who lack social
contacts, e.g. residents of nursing
homes, chronic mental patients

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 Placebo effect

 When a person expects a treatment

or experience to change her/him, the
person changes, even when the
"treatment" is know to be inert or
ineffective
 Medical research
 "The bedside manner", or the power
of suggestion

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 Experimenter expectancy

 Pygmalion effect - self-fulfilling prophecies of e.g.

teachers' expectancies about student
achievement
 Experimenters may prejudge their results -
experimenter bias
 Double blind experiments:
 Both the researcher and the research participant
are "blind" to the purpose of the study.
 They don't know what treatment the participant
is getting

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 Instrumentation

 Instruments with low reliability lead

to inaccurate findings/missing
phenomena

 e.g.human observers become more

skilled over time (from pretest to
posttest) and so report more
accurate scores at later time points

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 Statistical regression to the mean

 Studying extreme scores can lead to

inflated differences, which would not
occur in moderate scorers

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 Selection biases

 Selectionsubjects for the study, and

assigning them to E-group and C-
group

 Look out for studies using volunteers

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 Attrition

 Sometimes called experimental (or

subject) mortality
 If subjects drop out, it creates a bias
to those who did not
– e.g. comparing the effectiveness of family therapy with
discussion groups for treatment of drug addiction
– addicts with the worst prognosis more likely to drop out
of the discussion group
– will make it look like family therapy does less well than
discussion groups, because the "worst cases" were still
in the family therapy group

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Diffusion or imitation of treatments

 When subject can communicate to

each other, pass on some
information about the treatment (IV)

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 Compensation

 In real life, people may feel sorry for C-

group who does not get "the treatment" -
try to give them something extra
– e.g. compare usual day care for street children
with an enhanced day treatment condition
– service providers may very well complain about
inequity, and provide some enhanced service
to the children receiving usual care

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 Compensatory rivalry

 C-group
may "work harder" to
compete better with the E-group

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 Demoralization

 Opposite to compensatory rivalry

 May feel deprived, and give up
– e.g. giving unemployed high school dropouts
a second chance at completing matric via a
special education programme
 ifwe assign some of them to a control
group, who receive "no treatment", they
may very well become profoundly
demoralized

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 External validity

 Can the findings of the study be

generalized?
 Do they speak only of our sample, or
of a wider group?
 To what populations, settings,
treatment variables (IV's), and
measurement variables can the
finding be generalized?

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 External validity
 Mainly questions about three aspects:
– Research participants
– Independent variables, or manipulations
– Dependent variables, or outcomes
 Says nothing about the truth of the result that we
are generalizing
 External validity only has meaning once the
internal validity of a study has been established
 Internal validity is the basic minimum without
which an experiment is uninterpretable

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 External validity
 Our interest in answering research questions is rarely
restricted to the specific situation studied - our
interest is in the variables, not the specific details of a
piece of research
 But studies differ in many ways, even if they study
the same variables:
– operational definitions of the variables
– subject population studied
– procedural details
– observers
– settings
 Generally bigger samples with valid measures lead to
better external validity

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 Sources of external invalidity

 Subject selection - Selecting a sample which

does not represent the population well, will
prevent generalization
 Interaction between the testing situation and
the experimental stimulus
 When people have been sensitized to the
issues by the pre-test
 Respond differently to the questionnaires the
second time (post-test)
 Operationalization
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 Operationalization

 We take a variable with wide scope

and operationalize it in a narrow
fashion

 Willwe find the same results with a

different operationalization of the
same variable?

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 Field experiments

 "natural" - e.g. disaster research

 Static-group comparison type
 Non-equivalent experimental and
control groups

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 Strengths and weaknesses

 Strengths
– Control
– Manipulating the IV
– Sorting out extraneous variables
 Weaknesses
– Articifiality - a generalization problem
– Expense
– Limited range of questions

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 Report writing … …. …..
 No grammatical errors
 All the tables must be numbered and
their should be proper format
 Put bulky data in annexures
 Follow APA /IIMA / other standard
guidelines for preparation of report,
bibliography
 Do at least 4 proof reading

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 Common mistakes . . .
 Writing report in firm form (in
qualitative research it is permitted).
 Inappropriate hypothesis (it is
required in experimental research).
 The end of exploratory research will
be hypothesis or propositions.

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 Other guidelines . . .
 Make your report a collection of
short papers, articles and
continuously build upon them .
 Develop model / framework at the
end of research.

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 ABOUT AFTERSCHOOOL
Afterschoool conducts three year integrated PGPSE (after class
12th along with IAS / CA / CS) and 18 month PGPSE (Post
Graduate Programme in Social Entrepreneurship) along with
preparation for CS / CFP / CFA /CMA / FRM. This course is
also available online also. It also conducts workshops on social
entrepreneurship in schools and colleges all over India – start
social entrepreneurship club in your institution today with the
help from afterschoool and help us in developing society.

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 Why such a programme?
 To promote people to take up
entrepreneurship and help develop the
society
 To enable people to take up franchising and
other such options to start a business /
social development project
 To enable people to take up social
development as their mission
 To enable people to promote spirituality and
positive thinking in the world
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 Who are our supporters?
 Afterschoolians, our past
beneficiaries, entrepreneurs and
social entrepreneurs are supporting
us.
 You can also support us – not
necessarily by money – but by being
promotor of our concept and our
ideas.

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 About AFTERSCHOOOL PGPSE – the
best programme for developing great
entrepreneurs
 Most flexible, adaptive but rigorous programme
 Available in distance learning mode
 Case study focused- latest cases
 Industry oriented practical curriculum
 Designed to make you entrepreneurs – not just an
employee
 Option to take up part time job – so earn while you
learn
 The only absolutely free course on internet

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 Workshops from
AFTERSCHOOOL
 IIF, Delhi
 CIPS, Jaipur
 ICSI Hyderabad Branch
 Gyan Vihar, Jaipur
 Apex Institute of Management, Jaipur
 Aravali Institute of Management, Jodhpur
 Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneshwar
 Pacific Institute, Udaipur
 Engineering College, Hyderabad

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 Flexible Specialisations:
 Spiritualising business and society
 Rural development and transformation
 HRD and Education, Social Development
 NGO and voluntary work
 Investment analysis,microfinance and inclusion
 Retail sector, BPO, KPO
 Accounting & Information system (with CA /
CS /CMA)
 Hospital management and Health care
 Hospitality sector and culture and heritage
 Other sectors of high growth, high technology and
social relevance

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 Salient features:
 The only programme of its kind (in the whole world)
 No publicity and low profile course
 For those who want to achieve success in life – not just a degree
 Indepth knowledge and expertise
 Professional approac: World class approach
 Strong intellectual and business capabilities
 Flexible – you may stay for a month and continue the rest of the
education by distance mode. / you may attend weekend classes
 Scholarships for those from poor economic background
 Latest and constantly changing curriculum – keeping pace with the
time
 Placement for those who are interested
 Admissions open throughout the year
 Latest and most advanced technologies, books and study material

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 Components
 Pedagogy curriculum and approach based on IIM Ahmedabad and
ISB Hyderabad (the founder is alumnus from IIMA & ISB Hyderabad)
 Meditation, spiritualisation, and self development
 Essential softwares for business
 Business plan, Research projects
 Participation in conferences / seminars
 Workshops on leadership, team building etc.
 Written submissions of research projects/articles / papers
 Interview of entrepreneurs, writing biographies of entrepreneurs
 Editing of journals / newsletters
 Consultancy / research projects
 Assignments, communication skill workshops
 Participation in conferences and seminars
 Group discussions, mock interviews, self development diaryng
 Mind Power Training & writing workshop (by Dr. T.K.Jain)

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 Pedagogy
 Case analysis,
 Articles from Harvard Business Review
 Quiz, seminars, workshops, games,
 Visits to entrepreneurs and industrial visits
 Presentations, Latest audio-visuals
 Group discussions and group projects
 Periodic self assessment
 Mentoring and counselling
 Study exchange programme (with institutions out of
India)
 Rural development / Social welfare projects

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 Branches
 AFTERSCHOOOL will shortly open its
branches in important cities in India
including Delhi, Kota, Mumbai,
Gurgaon and other important cities.
Afterschooolians will be responsible
for managing and developing these
branches – and for promoting social
entrepreneurs.

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 Case Studies
 We want to write case studies on
social entrepreneurs, first generation
entrepreneurs, ethical entrepreneurs.
Please help us in this process. Help
us to be in touch with entrepreneurs,
so that we may develop
entrepreneurs.

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Basic values at afterschoool
 Share to learn more
 Interact to develop yourself
 Fear is your worst enemy
 Make mistakes to learn
 Study & discuss in a group
 Criticism is the healthy route to mutual support
and help
 Ask fundamental questions : why, when, how
& where?
 Embrace change – and compete with yourself
only

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social entrepreneurship for
better society

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