Introduction
The study was conducted using longitudinal research method. According to Dumitrica, (2010), longitudinal research method involves conducting research of a single individual entity over a specified period in order to deduce the development changes. Longitudinal research is essential in exploring the history and development of the trade relationship between China and Angola to illuminate future prospects. The main benefit of using this research method is that it allows a researcher to observe trends over time. This make longitudinal research method proves useful when studying lifespan and development issues.
My dissertation topic involves developments that have taken place in the relationship between China and Angola. This research method allows for an in depth analysis of past trends to extrapolate future trend in relation to these developments. This study uses a cohort approach that looks into the past by looking at the historical information such as past literature on the topic. The literature review provides an in depth presentation of past trends in the development of the relationship between the two countries. The literature review looks at the relationship between the two countries that find its foundation in the oil business.
The chosen research design is suitable for this study because it allows for analysis of a single entity over a specific period in order to deduce the development changes. My dissertation conducts an analysis on the development of trade relations between China and Angola over a specified period. This dissertation will look at the development in trade relationship over the last ten years, analyzing the pros and cons in order to come up with a way forward.
Opportunities and challenges
The main advantage of using this research method is that it provides valid research results as people find it hard to remember past events that have occurred in their lives. This will help in finding accurate data for the study that will make the dissertation produce results that are more valid. In addition, longitudinal research design allows researchers to observe changes over time and because of this, this research method provides useful data when studying development or lifespan issues (Menard, 2002). In the context of my dissertation project, this research design will help observe the historical developments in trade relations between these two countries and make recommendations for the future. Longitudinal research method also allows the researcher to pick up and use long-term changes in the development process. Observing changes over a long duration of time helps in coming up with more valid results. This research design can be used with some level of flexibility because it allows for the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods.
However, this research method has its challenges. To start with, longitudinal studies requires a vast amount of time to gather data and are usually expensive. Because of this, longitudinal research involves only a small group of subjects, which makes it difficult to apply the results to a large population (Ployhart & Ward, 2011). Using this method will reduce the depth of research and produce unsatisfactory results in the study. My research topic requires an analysis of several aspects in the relationship between China and Angola, but longitudinal research will limit the scope of the research due to time limit and lack of resources to conduct in depth research. Another problem with this research method is that participants sometimes drop out of the study, thereby contracting the sample size and reducing the amount of collected data. Furthermore, longitudinal study requires a large sample size and accurate sampling to achieve representativeness. As a student, locating and finding many participants for the study might prove cumbersome due to the time limit and unavailability of funds to reach the sample population.
Unlike cross-sectional study that looks at different subjects, longitudinal studies focus on single individuality over a long period, which means that people can trace the changes more easily. Longitudinal studies usually involve observation, which means that the results cannot be strongly manipulated. However, it has been argued that researchers have less power in detecting casual relationships (Lugtig, et al., 2012). For the case of my dissertation, observing changes between the two countries over time would prove easy because there is readily available information from a wide array of sources. Such information is available from government websites, international trade organization, and other non-governmental organizations.
The application of a longitudinal study to qualitative research involves focusing on the information acquired over a specific duration of time. This dissertation studies the relationship between China and Angola, for which, a large volume of information exist that researchers can use in making their analysis and conclusion. In relation to my dissertation, trade information between the two countries for the last ten years will help understand the reason behind the shifting interest that China has exhibited in her trade relations with Nigeria towards Angola and study them to understand what affects the change. Longitudinal study can also be used to analyze statistical and financial data on the trade relationship between the two countries in order to identify the reason behind those changes. Throughout the world, scientifically and financially longitudinal design methods have been growing due to its precise and reliable information as it could be primary or secondary data.
Recommendation
Longitudinal research can be used for this research as it provides a good basis for observing recorded data over a given period. This study will involves analysis of statistical data on import and export between the two countries as well as qualitative information over a specific period. Measuring these changes over time will help in analyzing past trends and predict the future trend in the relationship between the two countries. Even though, longitudinal study can be used in this study, cross-sectional research method can provide more fruitful results for the study because it involves observation of a population over a specific point in time. Cross-sectional study takes a descriptive approach unlike in longitudinal that concentrate on observation of the population at different points in time.
Cross-sectional approach would prove more helpful in this study because it does not consume a lot of time because data collection is usually less complicated (Rindfleisch, 2008). This also makes this method cheap as compared to longitudinal approach. Because of ease of data collection and moderate cost, this cross-sectional approach is more suitable for students because they lack resources and time to conduct exclusive research. This is so because the ease of collecting the required information translates to low cost (Babbie, 2010). Many books, census bureau, government trade offices, and international organizations such as World Bank have readily available information, which saves the researcher the trouble of collecting the information. Because of the low-cost, cross-sectional approach makes it possible to conduct a thorough investigation on the relationship between China and Angola.
For these two reasons, the group should consider using the cross-sectional approach as students would be able to get access to readily available data on the dissertation topic. Longitudinal research method would consume more time and resources that the students might not have at their disposal. Comparative research method would not apply in this research because it is used in making comparisons across different cultures or countries. This dissertation only looks into the relationship between the two countries and comparative study would not help improve the research method used in the study. Additionally, case study design would also not prove useful because it is such a narrow field that its results cannot give answers to an entire question and that they only show narrow examples.
Conclusion
In conclusion, both longitudinal and cross-sectional research approaches can be used for this research as both looks at past trends in a given area of study to give a way forward. Longitudinal study requires longer time duration and resources that students might not readily access. On the other hand, cross-sectional research method is economical and less time consuming. This makes cross-sectional method more suitable for conducting this study because the study will highly depend on information that is already available through government agencies and other trade organizations. Cross-sectional study uses readily available relevant information for the topic of study. For this dissertation on the relationship between China and Angola, students can look for information from organizations such World Trade Organization, Country Intelligence Information, government websites among others. For the purpose of this research, case study and comparative research methods cannot help in developing a quality dissertation on the topic.
Bibliography:
Babbie, E.R., 2010, The Practice of Social Research, Connecticut: Cengage Learning.
Dumitrica, DD 2010, 'Choosing Methods, Negotiating Legitimacy. A Metalogue on Autoethnography', Graduate Journal Of Social Science, 7, 1, pp. 18-38, SocINDEX with Full Text, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 December 2012.
Lugtig, P, Boeije, H, & Lensvelt-Mulders, G 2012, 'Change? What change? An exploration of the use of mixed-methods research to understand longitudinal measurement variance', Methodology: European Journal Of Research Methods For The Behavioral And Social Sciences, 8, 3, pp. 115-123, PsycARTICLES, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 December 2012.
Menard, S., 2002, Longitudinal Research, Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
Ployhart, R, & Ward, A 2011, 'The 'Quick Start Guide' for Conducting and Publishing Longitudinal Research', Journal Of Business & Psychology, 26, 4, pp. 413-422, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 December 2012.
Rindfleisch, A, Malter, A, Ganesan, S, & Moorman, C 2008, 'Cross-Sectional Versus Longitudinal Survey Research: Concepts, Findings, and Guidelines', Journal Of Marketing Research (JMR), 45, 3, pp. 261-279, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 December 2012.
