Introduction - Exploring Applications and Limitations
Quantitative research involves the analysis of numerical data which helps in making general predictions of the data for larger populations. This research method is widely used in various social and natural sciences including chemistry, biology, marketing, sociology, and many others. The collection of data is done through surveys, questionnaires, and polls from either potential or existing customers. The benefit of this research method includes a collection of numerical data that is easy to understand and can be predicted for future analysis. The deployment of mathematical frameworks to collect the data helps in conducting the research on a large sample size and in a more structured way.
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Impact of Digitalization on the well-being of the customer during the pandemic period
The pandemic has affected each sector including the retail industry. This has created digital transformation which increased over a shorter time during the pandemic. Primary quantitative research done on the topic has illustrated the opportunities and challenges related to the experience of the customer in the field of retail marketing. According to Akram, (2021), surveys are considered one of the most valuable tools that help to depict the exact data concerning the experience of the customer in real-time. The survey was done on the customer to understand their behaviour with regard to online shopping which has the potential to create a positive approach for the retailers. The survey was conducted based on two groups that include the first-millennial generation and the second-generation millennial (Sürücü and MASLAKÇI, 2020). Some of the data related to the topic were already known to the researcher, which helped in developing a distinct questionnaire.
Figure 1: Behavioral intention of the customer
The questionnaire that was prepared was later distributed for the collection of data to get the opinion of the potential groups taken for the study. This would evaluate the valuable results that would be useful for the future researcher (Akram et al. 2021). The self-administered questions helped the respondents to complete the survey in their spare time. The most beneficial factor related to choosing this research method is that honest answers could be extracted due to the anonymity of the respondents. According to Fülöp, (2021), this research method has a great advantage that includes the wide use of geographical dispersion to distribute the questionnaire to the respondents and the collection of data from a large sample size. The questionnaire structure that was followed throughout the survey includes the sex of the respondents followed by age criteria. The age criteria chosen for the first respondents were between 21-40 years (Rahman, 2020). The second age criterion chosen was above 41 years and was proceeded accordingly.
The data collected are further analyzed through Cronbach's alpha test to check the reliability of the data. Most of the respondents were mainly millennials with an age group between 21-40 years. The data has stated that customers are expecting a different experience in shopping and overall behavior. According to Topor, (2021), lockdown followed by social distancing has changed the behaviour of the customer in the field of shopping. The choice of the new generations is that they are expecting the store to come to them and this would require great effort from the side of the retailer.
Impact of the pandemic on the hospitality sector
The pandemic has affected the hospitality sector in a negative way resulting in the closure of many tourism and hospitality destinations. This has economic repercussions on the GDP of the nation and increases unemployment. This has necessitated the concept of urban resilience specifically in the hospitality sector. The study conducted on the scenario states the resilience of the managers in the hospitality sector through the conduction of an online survey that was primarily quantitative. According to Ntounis, (2022), the questions that were considered for the survey included the current situation of the business and what are the steps taken to overcome the problems. The data were obtained from nearly 1000 respondents and qualitative thematic analysis was prepared from this data. The majority of the respondents chosen for the study are independent businesses that employees staff around 50 and above (Stockemer, 2019). The turnover amount of each business was considered for the study.
Figure 2: Impact of the pandemic on the hospitality sector
The minimum number of respondents answered that their business was open and operating normally under such pandemic conditions. The maximum number of respondents answered negatively to the question and stated that their businesses were closed during the entire period of lockdown. The collection of proper data helped the researcher to get an analysis of the entire scenario during the period of lockdown. 80 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement that their business had fallout during the pandemic period. According to Parker, (2022), it was quite clear from the analysis that not all the businesses responded equally to the factor of resilience. The tourism industry was really affected by the pandemic as can easily be gauged from the data collected (Hosseini et al. 2019). Various metrics were analyzed before the conduction of the survey including the situation of the business pre-pandemic, the size of the business, the relative impact on the turnovers and overall financial resources.
A calculated method helps in covering all the data that was required for the researcher to analyze the entire situation of the pandemic. The primary research is most suitable in this case as it gives numerical data, that is easy to understand and is predictable when considered for a large sample size. According to Ntounis, (2022), qualitative data was also applied for getting more authenticity related to the data collected through a quantitative approach. It was also noticed during the survey that only one responded that his business had completely ceased to operate even after the normalization of the pandemic situation (Hosseini et al. 2019). The method chosen for the study helped the researcher to summarise the data collected through the primary research approach.
Impact of the pandemic on the education sector
Universities and schools all around the world took corrective action steps to ensure that continuity is maintained during the entire lockdown period. Students located in disadvantaged locations primarily faced hardship in accessing education and other online courses (weforum.org, 2023). A study conducted in the country of Jordon showed how the experience of the students related to e-learning changed during the entire pandemic period. According to Alsoud, (2021), this has pushed for the adoption of a resilient system in education supported by a proper approach taken from the side of the government. The study also stated the role played by electronic commerce in transforming the education stem in remote locations (Bell et al. 2022). The impact of the pandemic was not only on the particular education area, the whole learning experience of the students changed.
Figure 3: Impact of a pandemic on the education sector
The pandemic situation limited the conduction of the survey in offline mode and hence online-based survey was considered. The survey proved more favorable for the researcher as it helped them to collect the data more smoothly, and quickly followed by the deployment of low-cost resources. It also helped in the expansion of the survey to the larger audiences that were once considered unreachable. The after-collection of data is also considered important in a crisis. According to Harasis, (2021), specific data was chosen for the online survey and a question in the form of Google Forms was sent to the students through social media platforms, e-mail, and other such forums. Nearly 700 questionnaires were sent, out of which 550 came back with a complete set of information (L. Haven and Van Grootel, 2019). The faculty members of the universities and schools also helped in the distribution of questionnaires to the students.
Descriptive statistics were followed to understand the distribution of the participants considered for the study. These statistics help in the organization of a large amount of data, followed by their interpretation and summarization (mdpi.com, 2023). Out of the total 550 participants that responded to the survey, three-fourths of them were in the age interval 18-21 and are generally undergraduates. According to Alsoud, (2021), nearly 20 percent were aged above 21 and males responded to the survey more compared to females. More than 50 percent of the participants were from the urban area which showed the relevance of the digital mode in the urban area. The lower number of respondents from the rural area illustrates the lesser reach of the digital mode in the area. The novelty of the study involves the conduct of a survey in such a situation followed by limited scope in any form of external help (Pandey and Pandey, 2021). Future research was decided to be conducted on the faculty members so that a relative understanding related to the experience of the teachers can be analyzed.
Critical appraisal of the adopted research methods
The research method adopted for the study is the primary quantitative method that includes the survey, questionnaires followed by polling. The numerical data collected through primary research in the above three research papers will be critically analysed in this section (Hair et al. 2019). This would create a broader perspective for the audience on the advantages and disadvantages that is related to this research method. This would also help the future researcher in strategically following the appropriate methods that would include minimum errors and defects in the collection of data.
The first paper discusses the impact of the pandemic on the retail sector and its positive and negative impact on the shopping behavior of the customer. The survey was conducted on two groups with particular age criteria but it failed to validate the honesty of the data based on that age preference (Thomas et al. 2022). The small sample size might not fit the criteria if considered for a larger sample size. The anonymity of the respondents could result in the collection of responses that might be given by some other person. This is considered one problem when the survey is conducted with an anonymous sample size and analyzed for a larger population. The behavior of the customer depends on various other scenarios that include the accessibility of the tool, resources, and geographical location (Noyes et al. 2019). So predicting the data for the future researcher might not be helpful.
The second paper discusses the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality sector by conducting surveys on businesses. The sample size considered for the survey is nearly 1000 which would evolve a huge data that could help in proper analysis (Oakshott, 2020). The larger sample size has its own limitations too that include the proper collection and organizing of the data. The study also followed the calculated approach for organizing the large amount of data that has helped the researcher to segment each data according to their preferences. Various metrics were followed for the collection of data that was useful for understanding the entire scenario of the sector during the pandemic period. The qualitative method was followed for gauging the authenticity of the data collected through the primary method (Rashid et al. 2019). The collection of data from a huge sample size helps in eliminating the information that is connected to the analysis through the qualitative data collection method.
The third paper analyses the impact of the pandemic on the education sector and understanding the behavior of the students related to e-learning. Descriptive statistics were used for organizing and collecting the data and this proved beneficial for the researcher (Thomas et al. 2022). The online survey proved very effective during the pandemic as large respondents were able to answer the questions irrespective of geographical location. The involvement of the faculty members helped a lot in distributing the questionnaire to a large number of students on social media platforms. This collaboration helped in making the process much faster and smoother followed by completing it in a definitive time frame (Hair et al. 2019). The research paper studied the students of Jordan to understand the case study. Many researchers have taken similar approaches so that proper data is there to define the problem related to the education sector.
Critically analyzing all three papers helps in the clear development of advantages related to the use of this research method. The different sectors chosen for the study will help the audience understand the relative use of this method in gauging the details of each sector that is affected by the pandemic (Pandey and Pandey, 2021). The use of different modes of data collection including the questionnaire, offline survey, and online survey helps the researcher to understand the use of each method for efficient collection of data. The sample size also differed from one study to another which shows the flexibility that can be applied through this research method. Different methods were applied to organize and analyze the data collected which shows the wide availability of various tools for summarising and organizing the data (Oakshott, 2020). Ethical considerations were also followed during the entire survey which helped the researcher to derive accurate information.
The primary goal of applying this method involves the larger collection of data that is considered accurate and complete. Both online and offline processes have been approached according to the need of the situation but the proper analysis was done on both the collection of data (L. Haven and Van Grootel, 2019). The shortest time involved in the collection of data is the most useful factor for choosing this research method. The first-hand collection of rich information can later be interpreted with the qualitative research method for checking the authenticity of the data. Thus a mixture of both will help in maintaining the accuracy of the data followed by clear insight into the information. The ability to check the changes over time can be easily gauged through primarily conducting the data (Bell et al. 2022). The insights gained through the primary collection are not always enough to understand the authenticity of the data and therefore the involvement of the qualitative research methods helps a lot.
Conclusion
The collection of data through primary quantitative research is considered more valuable and authentic as compared to the qualitative research method. This eliminates the need for any secondary source of data and can be collected over a shorter time period. The limitation of error in the primary collection of data helps in obtaining accurate and rich information of the data. The limited use of cloud-based services is considered a hindrance to storing information in a primary data center. The three research papers used for the study helped the audiences to understand the benefits and flexibility of the research methods. The different scenario was therefore taken for the study to understand the use of this research method for the larger collection of data. The collection of data in real-time helps in tracking the changes that are associated with the pandemic situation.
References
Journals
Akram, U., Fülöp, M.T., Tiron-Tudor, A., Topor, D.I. and C?pu?neanu, S., 2021. Impact of digitalization on customers’ well-being in the pandemic period: Challenges and opportunities for the retail industry. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), p.7533.
Alsoud, A.R. and Harasis, A.A., 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student’s e-learning experience in Jordan. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 16(5), pp.1404-1414.
Bell, E., Bryman, A. and Harley, B., 2022. Business research methods. Oxford University Press.
Chilisa, B., 2019. Indigenous research methodologies. Sage publications. (Chilisa, 2019)
Hair, J.F., Page, M. and Brunsveld, N., 2019. Essentials of business research methods. Routledge.
Hosseini, S., Ivanov, D. and Dolgui, A., 2019. Review of quantitative methods for supply chain resilience analysis. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 125, pp.285-307.
Haven, T. and Van Grootel, D.L., 2019. Preregistering qualitative research. Accountability in research, 26(3), pp.229-244.
Noyes, J., Booth, A., Moore, G., Flemming, K., Tunçalp, Ö., and Shakibazadeh, E., 2019. Synthesising quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform guidelines on complex interventions: clarifying the purposes, designs and outlining some methods. BMJ Global Health, 4(Suppl 1), p.e000893.
Ntounis, N., Parker, C., Skinner, H., Steadman, C. and Warnaby, G., 2022. Tourism and Hospitality industry resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from England. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(1), pp.46-59.
Oakshott, L., 2020. Essential quantitative methods: For business, management and finance. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Pandey, P. and Pandey, M.M., 2021. Research methodology tools and techniques. Bridge Center.
Rahman, M.S., 2020. The advantages and disadvantages of using qualitative and quantitative approaches and methods in language “testing and assessment” research: A literature review.
Rashid, Y., Rashid, A., Warraich, M.A., Sabir, S.S. and Waseem, A., 2019. Case study method: A step-by-step guide for business researchers. International journal of qualitative methods, 18, p.1609406919862424.
Stockemer, D., 2019. Quantitative methods for the social sciences a practical introduction with examples in SPSS and Stata. by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Sürücü, L. and MASLAKÇI, A., 2020. Validity and reliability in quantitative research. Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 8(3), pp.2694-2726.
Thomas, J.R., Martin, P., Etnier, J. and Silverman, S.J., 2022. Research methods in physical activity. Human kinetics.
