Research Philosophy and Methodology
What Factors Contribute To Selection Of Hotels At International Destinations For Londoners?
Methods: Research philosophy is an integral part of conducting any study, in this project. Research philosophy is a standout amongst the most basic perspectives identified with any investigation and in this manner needs uncommon consideration. In this area of the examination a nitty gritty portray of research strategy that has been received by the researcher for effectively finishing the investigation by meeting its destinations and obtaining answers for look into issues recognized has been characterized. The section initially characterizes shifted parts of research approach and afterward gives a legitimization to embracing appropriate techniques for achieving this examination. An exploration theory is one that decides the general structure of the examination by laying its supporting viewpoints. A researcher has the freedom of browsing of any four of research theories specifically epistemology, cosmology, talk and axiology look into reasoning. Epistemology look into rationality can be turned to by a researcher when essential target of an investigation is to separate demeanor and succession of specifics that are on the right territory. Axiology explore theory is utilized as a part of concentrates in which the scientist utilizes style and morals as the most critical factors for ponder.
There are vital philosophical contrasts that considers emphasis on realities and numbers (Gomm, 2008). The distinction between positivist and interpretivist inquire about rationalities or amongst quantitative and subjective research strategies. Additionally, as it is outlined in table beneath, there is well known information accumulation strategies related with each examination theory. Positivism philosophy allows collection of large amounts of quantitative data with high structured samples (Meyers, Gamst & Guarino, 2016). Every study analyses scopes pertaining to their research question. For this study the research question is as follows;
The research question implyies the factors that could determine choices for Londoners while selecting their stays at particular hotels when they were taking international trip was analysed (Myers, Well & Lorch Jr, 2013. In order to conduct this analysis data of primary nature and quantitative characteristics were collected. The dependent and independent variable for the study are as follows;
Dependent variable: These factors were considered to be dependent variable for conducting the study. Frequency of Overseas travel, Trip Planning, Hotel Whereabouts, Purpose of Visit, Arrival & welcome at the hotel, Check in procedure, Friendliness of reception/concierge staff, Atmosphere and peace and quiet of your room, Cleanliness of the room and bathroom, Technical conditions/thermostat control of the room, Room service and minibar content, Atmosphere/cleanliness of public areas, Standard of restaurant services, Quality of food & beverages served, Choice and quality of breakfast, Services of the coffee shop and the bar, Banqueting services and function rooms, Service, quality and cleanliness of the Spa, Fitness and Wellness center, Check-out procedure, price you paid at the hotel, location of the hotel, facilities offered by the hotel, room size provided, child services provided, satisfied were you with your stay, Recommend this hotel to family or friends and overall rating for the hotel on a scale from 1-7.
Dependent and Independent Variables
Independent Variable: The two independent variable for the study are Age and Satisfaction variable.
Hypothesis: Prior to conducting any type of study, it is imperative that hypothesis for the study is assumed. There are two hypotheses for this study as given below;
Null hypothesis (H0): The independent factors do not affect the age of the subject for international travelling.
Alternate Hypothesis (H1): The independent factors affect the age of the subject for international travelling. It is a directional hypothesis that affects age in a positive manner.
In this study positivism philosophy has been followed. Primary data which is also known as the first hand data was collected by questionnaire method from participants (Neuman & Robson, 2014). All data collected was of quantitative nature, meaning that which can easily be measured.
Procedures: The scholar adopted research design of questionnaire method. The scholar set out an advertisement inviting participants, who have travelled in the last 5 years to international holiday destinations to be a part of the University research procedure. Participants are referred to as subjects in this study. In the invitation, it was included that subjects will be asked questions pertaining countries they have travelled and regarding their experiences in the travel (Lewis, 2015). Interested subjects were called to participate in a workshop conducted at a local cafeteria, where they were offered snacks and tea or coffee. They were briefed regarding the study procedure in this workshop. A total of 250 subjects responded to the advertisement. Then they were informed regarding aims of the study, was to analyse factors that affect their choices while selecting a hotel at an international destination. They were told that they will be provided with a questionnaire, which they would require to fill out for the purpose of this study. Each question had a rating scale from 0 to 7, with 0 being the lowest and 7 being the highest possible scores. Once they understood regarding the procedure of the study, they were invited in batches of 25 to the cafeteria from the following Saturday to fill out the questionnaire.
Each participant was provided with the University’s ethical form to make sure that they signed the form before progressing on the study (Rothman, Greenland & Lash, 2008). Though data of diverse nature was collected from subjects, none of them will be disclosed at the time of publishing the study. The scholar abided to maintain strict conformance to adhere to ethical principles, regarding not to disclose names of participants during or after the study.
Hypotheses
Sample: The data collected form the sample was of varied nature comprising of varied age group and nature (Muijs, 2010). Their age group range from 21 years to 68 years of age. Interested subjects that responded by means of email to the advertisement consisted of bag packers, honey moon couples, retired travellers, and students and so on. When actual turn out for the study started only 50 subjects responded and filled up questions of the questionnaire. The applicant was not forced to provide their outlook regarding topics that they did not want to reveal or which they felt would harm their respect.
Ethical Consideration: It was guaranteed that no mauling of data has been was initiated in any shape. Respondents are provided with security of data that has been collected in the research procedure. The investment of respondents was through free assent and they were not constrained in any shape to take an interest. Reason and extent of this investigation was properly disclosed to the respondents along these lines making certain clarity of correspondence. The researcher likewise guaranteed of not honing biasness in any frame.
Limitation: The examination is constrained by the way that example measure utilized for this exploration is little when contrasted with populace estimate. It is because of this reality the example can’t be considered as a due illustrative of whole populace. The study is focused on analysing behaviour of respondents for London citizens only hence cannot be applied to any other population.
Primary quantitative data once collected from a sample size of 50 subjects on various independent variables and dependent variables (Brinkmann, 2014). Data collected for factors as age, satisfaction variable, Frequency of Overseas travel, Trip Planning, Hotel Whereabouts, Purpose of Visit, Arrival & welcome at the hotel, Check in procedure, Friendliness of reception/concierge staff, Atmosphere and peace and quiet of your room, Cleanliness of the room and bathroom, Technical conditions/thermostat control of the room, Room service and minibar content, Atmosphere/cleanliness of public areas, Standard of restaurant services, Quality of food & beverages served, Choice and quality of breakfast, Services of the coffee shop and the bar, Banqueting services and function rooms, Service, quality and cleanliness of the Spa, Fitness and Wellness center, Check-out procedure, price you paid at the hotel, location of the hotel, facilities offered by the hotel, room size provided, child services provided, satisfied were you with your stay, Recommend this hotel to family or friends and overall rating for the hotel on a scale from 1-7. A weighted distribution of their scores was obtained and thereafter their Multifactor ANOVA was determined. Multi-factor analysis of variance is a model that determines level of significance for one or more than one factor (Burns & Burns, 2008). From the data collected it was observed that significance level of subjects was at 95% confidence and 5% level margin was observed. Then data was analysed using SPSS tools to arrive at findings regarding the study. Data analysis tools adopted for this study was statistical techniques using SPSS software. The calculations were made for the factors as sum of squares, df, mean square and their level of significance. Data that had significance level below 0.05 can be avoided as they are insignificant. Appendix includes graphical representation of the dependent and independent variable for each factor. Attached SPSS output in Excel files.
- What is your age?
- 18-34
- 35-44
- 45-64
- 65 or above
- How often do you travel overseas for leisure trip?
- At least once a month
- Few times per year a year
- Once in 3 years
- Less frequently than that
- Never
- How do you plan your trip?
- By yourself
- Through a travel agent
- How did you get to know about our hotel?
- Newspaper
- Online adverts
- Emails
- Billboard
- Others
- Purpose of your visit
- Leisure
- Official
- Educational
- Others
- Rate services from 0-7, Arrival & welcome at the hotel
- Rate services from 0-7, Check in procedure
- Rate services from 0-7, Friendliness of reception/concierge staff
- Rate services from 0-7, Atmosphere and peace and quiet of your room
- Rate services from 0-7, Cleanliness of the room and bathroom
- Rate services from 0-7, Technical conditions/thermostat control of the room
- Rate services from 0-7, Room service and minibar content
- Rate services from 0-7, Atmosphere/cleanliness of public areas
- Rate services from 0-7, Standard of restaurant services
- Rate services from 0-7, Quality of food & beverages served
- Rate services from 0-7, Choice and quality of breakfast
- Rate services from 0-7, Services of the coffee shop and the bar
- Rate services from 0-7, Banqueting services and function rooms
- Rate services from 0-7, Service, quality and cleanliness of the Spa, Fitness and Wellness center
- Rate services from 0-7, Check-out procedure
- Rate services from 0-7, price you paid at the hotel
- Rate services from 0-7, location of the hotel
- Rate services from 0-7, facilities offered by the hotel
- Rate services from 0-7, room size provided
- Rate services from 0-7, child services provided
- Rate services from 0-7, room services given
- On a scale of 1 to 7 how satisfied were you with your stay?
- On a scale of 1 to 7 how likely is it you would recommend this hotel to family or friends?
- Give an overall rating for the hotel on a scale from 1-7.
Reference Lists
Brinkmann, S., 2014. Interview. In Encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 1008-1010). Springer New York.
Burns, R.P. and Burns, R., 2008. Business research methods and statistics using SPSS. Sage.
Gomm, R., 2008. Social research methodology: A critical introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Meyers, L.S., Gamst, G. and Guarino, A.J., 2016. Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation. Sage publications.
Muijs, D., 2010. Doing quantitative research in education with SPSS. Sage.
Myers, J.L., Well, A.D. and Lorch Jr, R.F., 2013. Research design and statistical analysis. Routledge.
Neuman, W.L. and Robson, K., 2014. Basics of social research. Pearson Canada.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Rothman, K.J., Greenland, S. and Lash, T.L., 2008. Modern epidemiology