Research process and traditions

Research is a ‘voyage of discovery’ (Fellows and Liu 2008) that ‘begins with a curiosity’

(Stebbins 2001) and continues with a ‘systematic process’ to discover a solution to a contemporary problem. This systematic process guides the researcher to undertake the study in a logical sequence, from identifying the problem through to reporting and publishing the results (Punch 1998, Sekaran 2003). In its broader sense, the research process concerns the ‘conceptual organisation’ of the overall research, ideas to express ‘needed understanding’, ‘conceptual bridges’ from what is already known, ‘cognitive structures’ to guide data gathering and ‘interpretations’ to present the data (Stake 1995, Robson 2002, Sekaran 2003, Lanksher and Knobel 2004, Neuman 2011). A typical research process is illustrated in Figure 3-1 and the key elements are discussed in this section.

Figure 3-1: Research process

Source: Adapted from Robson (2002), Flick (2006)

The fundamental issues for designing a research endeavour, and therefore underpinning the selection of suitable methods (qualitative, quantitative, mixed and multi), concern the research question and the problem contexts. The research question lays the foundation for any scientific research while encouraging the researcher to undertake it within the

RESEARCH DESIGN

boundaries of time, cost and quality. A preliminary literature review is often used to identify the research problem and further to determine the research objectives. Generally, much research begins with a specific purpose/s that is surrounded by broader contextual phenomena. From these broader contexts, a workable research question needs to be identified and well defined to provide an achievable target within the given boundaries.

Corbin and Strauss (2008 p.12) critically argue that ‘the research question should dictate the methodological approach that is used to conduct the research’. Well-defined research questions are able to identify what is to be measured or explored, while ensuring the rigour (the reliability and validity) of the research. The key characteristics of a workable research question are noted in Table 3-2.

Table 3-2: Characteristics of workable research questions

Clear Easily understood and unambiguous.

Specific Concepts are at a specific enough level to connect to data indicators.

Answerability Can see what data is required to answer them and how the data will be obtained.

Interconnectedness The questions are related to each other in some meaningful way, rather than being unconnected.

Substantively relevant

The questions are interesting and worthwhile, justifying the investment of the research effort.

Source: Punch (1998 p.254)

The research problem discussed in this investigation emanated from the Adaptable Futures¹ (AF) research project. The project acknowledges the importance of undertaking economic evaluations for different adaptable strategies encapsulated in their framework (Figure 5-5).

However, this study was able to focus on a single but most influential strategy, i.e. change of use, and investigate the economic considerations. An extensive literature review and informal discussions were exploited to refine the research question and to establish the

1Integrated research project, funded by the Research Council (EPSRC) through Loughborough's Innovative Manufacturing &

Construction Research Centre (IMCRC), and industrial partners. (www.adaptablefutures.com)

research objectives. There is a variety of research traditions (turning points) discussed in the literature. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explain these research traditions and discuss the appropriate traditions for this investigation.

 Applied - pure tradition

Research can be categorised into traditions of applied - pure by analysing the ‘use’ of it.

Applied research is considered a practical problem-solving method that attempts to solve known problems while pure research is undertaken in order to expand knowledge and probe into the unknown (Encyclopaedia of Business 2010). The main difference between these dichotomies is that the researcher in pure research does not define the research problem (Vogt 2005). However, applied research is rarely undertaken to build, test or make a connection to theory, but it offers practical solutions for a particular problem within a short period of time (Neuman 2011). This study is placed under the category of applied research as it seeks reasonable solutions to a contemporary problem.

 Explorative – explanatory – descriptive – predictive traditions

A research project can be placed into exploratory, explanatory, descriptive or predictive categories by identifying the ‘purpose’ of it. ‘Exploratory’ studies look for patterns, ideas or hypotheses, rather than try to test or confirm a hypothesis. Exploratory studies are well suited if the area/subject is new and little information is available to undertake the study (Neuman 2011). They are qualitative in nature and provide answers for ‘what’ questions. By contrast, explanatory research seeks to understand variables by discovering and measuring causal relationships among them. Explanatory studies are mostly quantitative by nature and address the ‘why’ questions. In fact, descriptive research describes phenomena as they exist (Vogt 2005), while identifying and maintaining records of all the elements of a phenomenon, process or system (Fellows and Liu 2008). Descriptive research answers the ‘how’ and ‘who’

questions (Neuman 2011). Most often, predictive research is undertaken to envisage the outcomes of future occurrences and behaviours (Fellows and Liu 2008). In addition, Neuman (2011) proposes that some research studies have multiple purposes; however, in all cases the dominant purpose needs to be identified. Even though this study has some aspects of descriptive and explanatory traditions, its key purpose is explorative.

 Within – across case tradition

Within - across case studies are another popular form of research tradition. Within-case study research is undertaken to investigate certain phenomena in detail and across-case

study research aims to gather surface information from a large number of cases (Neuman 2011). The sample size is comparatively smaller in within-case study than in across-case study research. This study follows within-case study traditions while exploiting two different case studies to understand the macro and micro level changes to buildings. The selected cases provide in-depth information about building change over the last 100 years while discussing the economic implications of change of use.

 Cross-sectional – longitudinal tradition

Neuman (2011) explains that research can be further differentiated into cross-sectional or longitudinal categories, which includes a time dimension. Cross-sectional research gathers data at a single point in time and longitudinal research gathers data over a period of time.

The Loughborough town centre case study accessed the building maps of a selected cluster of buildings over the last 100 years (1886 – 2008 maps in 15-year intervals). Moreover, the available census and statistical data of England and Loughborough’s populations were analysed (1821 – 2004 at 10 year intervals) to identify the growth of populations to understand the economic impacts. Thus, the Loughborough town centre case study is identified under the longitudinal tradition. The second case study (the Stewart Mason building) did not follow a time series analysis. However, it considered the changes to the building (physical and functional) in 1957 (as a foundry) and in 2004 (as a teaching learning unit). Hence, it provided cross-sectional data for this investigation.

 Qualitative – quantitative – mixed tradition

Qualitative research intends to ‘explore issues’ (Hakim 1987) or ‘understand phenomena’

(Flick 2006) that ‘individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem’ (Creswell 2009 p.3). Quantitative research is a ‘means for testing objective theories by examining the relationships among variables’ (Creswell 2009 p.3) and mixed method research considers both qualitative and quantitative approaches to answer a particular problem. Qualitative and quantitative data were used in this investigation to achieve the set objectives. Hence, the study has the characteristics of the mixed method category.