Saunders (2009) defines research design as an overall plan for the research and how the researcher goes about answering the research question. Bryman and Bell (2003) reinforces the idea by viewing the research design as a series of advance decisions taken to constitute a model on how the investigation to answer the research question will be conducted. A research design seeks to conduct a study such that the information gathered is a true representation of reality and such that similar results can be obtained in the event of someone else conducting the same study at a different time (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000).
Lancaster (2005) posits that the research design specifies the data type to be gathered, from whom it is gathered as well as how the data will be analysed.
A research design serves the purpose of planning the research and enhancing the validity of the research findings by providing a specific structure. As a plan used to gather data and answer the research question, it may include surveys, case studies, experimentation, action research and others.
Having been justified by researchers such as Robson (2002) and Saunders, et al. (2009), the descriptive research design was adopted for this study. They argue that a descriptive
study is a type of observational research where the investigator observes the events occurring in the population without interruption which managed to portray an accurate profile of the events and situation in the informal sector. The objective was to describe the perceived benefits and barriers to formalisation by answering the questions who is involved in what, where, when, why and how questions. As supported by Saunders, et al.
(2009), through this descriptive study, the researcher knew what was to be studied and where to look for the solution. In this case, the independent and dependent variables were known before hand, that is, the perceived barriers and benefits to formalisation and the decision to formalise. This led into having a clear picture about formalisation enablers leading to business formalisation which will result in business and or economic growth.
The study adopted a cross sectional approach as it was based on a single examination of the cross section of informal entrepreneurship in Harare metropolitan at one point in time.
The results were projected on the whole population since the sampling had been done randomly.
3.2.1 Research Philosophy
The research was premised on the positivist research philosophy. Research philosophies are the beliefs and assumptions about the way in which researchers view the world, and these will influence them to study phenomenon differently (Saunders, et al., 2009). This research adopted positivism because it seeks to test and confirm the researcher’s hypothesis in order to explain and predict the effect of one factor on another (Johnson &
Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Schiffman & Kanuk, 2009; Sedmak & Longhurst, 2010 cited in Sandada, Pooe & Dhurup, 2014).
Since the philosophy underpins the fact that knowledge is explained by cause and effect relationship, the research focused on facts that were gathered and measured using surveys and statistical analysis. The approach enabled the establishment of the relationship between the variables “barriers to formalisation, business formalisation and benefits of formalisation”.
Positivism was adopted mainly because of its advantage of placing emphasis on numerical analysis and objectivity which brings about reliability and replication of findings. Informality is a national problem in Zimbabwe, yet the study was carried out in Harare Metropolitan area and hence the need to replicate findings to other areas. The
approach also allowed economical collection of large amounts of data, a situation which was handy considering the hard economic environment prevailing in the country.
There are quantitative and qualitative data collection and data analysis techniques in business research. Quantitative techniques predominantly use data collection and data analysis procedures that generates or uses numbers while qualitative techniques generates or uses non-numeric data (Saunders, et al., 2009. p. 151). This research adopted a quantitative approach which is suited for macro aspects such as the large sample of 180 respondents. The approach’s high reliability, efficiency of data and high precision are some of the advantages that prompted the adoption of the paradigm. The approach was more suited to ensure meeting the research question and objectives (Bryman, 2007) as it answers the questions what, where, how, when and why.
3.2.2 Research Strategy
The important thing about choosing the correct research strategy is whether it will enable the researcher to answer particular research questions and meet the stated objectives (Saunders, et al., 2009). He goes on to explain that the choice of a research strategy is guided by the research questions, objectives, extent of existing knowledge and the time and resource availability.
Research strategies can be divided into grounded theory, ethnography, survey, experiment, case study or archival research depending on whether it is used for exploratory, explanatory or descriptive research (Yin, 2003). Some of the research strategies will either belong to inductive or deductive approach.
The purpose of the research study is descriptive in nature as it seeks to explain the relationship between the variables. A descriptive study according to Saunders, et al.
(2009), seeks to portray an accurate profile of events and clarify an understanding of a problem providing relationship between the variables at hand.
The survey strategy was adopted in this research project. It is usually associated with the deductive approach which seeks to answer the questions what, who, where how much and how many for explanatory and descriptive research purposes. The strategy was ideal because it allowed the collection of quantitative data which could be analysed quantitatively. The data solicited could be a forerunner for future explanatory studies that may suggest possible reasons for certain relationships between variables. The advantage with this strategy is that it gives the researcher more control over the research process
(Saunders, et al., 2009). It also allows sampling which generates findings representative of the whole population at a reduced cost. Besides allowing the administering of a structured questionnaire as a data collection technique, structured interviews where standardised questions are asked of all respondents were used. He opines that surveys allow the collection of a large amount of data from a sizable population in a very economical way. The data will also be standardised, allowing easy comparison and can suggest possible reasons for particular relationships between the variables.