DimEnSioN oF ReSeaRcH

    

My research is about exploratory and explanatory or causal research. As explained by DJS Research Ltd., exploratory research is simply allows the marketer to gain a greater understanding of something that he or she does not know enough about. Differing mainly in design from descriptive research, exploratory research is used principally to gain a deeper understanding of something. The design is far more flexible and dynamic than that of descriptive research. So, refer to my research topic, just because I known that the offensive advertisements will make the ads to become controversial, it does not means that I understand the attitude and behaviour towards the advertisement. While explanatory research focuses on why questions. For example, it is one thing to describe the customer’s attitude and behavior towards the controversial advertisements. It is quite a different thing to develop explanations about the reasons of the factors that make the advertisements become offensive. The way in which I develop research designs is fundamentally affected by whether the research question is descriptive or explanatory. It affects what information is collected. Answering the ‘why’ questions involves developing causal explanations.

    There are two dimensions of use of research that are basic and applied research. Basic research or fundamental research is the sources of most new scientific ideas and ways of thinking about the world.  For example, academics (professors and lecturers) engage in basic research in an effort to understand and generate more knowledge about various aspects of businesses, such as “how to improve the effectiveness of information system?” It is different with applied research that tries to solve specific policy problems or help practitioners accomplish tasks. In the context of business research, it is use to solve a current problem in the work setting. For example, “Apple’s iPod sales increased by 200% from 2001 to 2008, however it was decreased by 6% in 2009. What is the reason for this decrease?”  So, my research is about basic research because I will engage in an effort to understand and generate more knowledge about the customer’s attitude and behavior towards the controversial advertisements, such as “what are the attitude and behavior of customers towards the advertisement that create controversial?

     There are two time dimensions in research that are cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. In the cross-sectional studies, a study can be done in which data are gathered just once, perhaps over a period of days or weeks or months in order to answer a research question. There advantages and disadvantages from this kind of time dimensions. It is cheapest and cheap. That is one of its advantages, but it cannot capture social processes or change. Longitudinal studies are studying people or phenomena at more than one point in time in order to answer the research question. It is more powerful and can capture social processes or change compare to cross-sectional studies. However, it more complex and sometimes costly. So, refer to my topic research, its time dimension is longitudinal studies because its need to study more than one point in time in order to answer the research question. Another that, data are gathered not only just once, but it needs to explore many times until it satisfied. Sometimes gathering the data still in progress even though the research has finished.