"For those whose livelihood is based on the ability to design, conduct, and report marketing research in an accurate, concise, and clear way, John W. Creswell's book, Research Design, provides guidance in dealing with some of the more difficult decisions that must be made along the way. Additionally, for marketing professors who teach others how to perform the basic tasks of research, Creswell's book provides a framework that aids students in learning many of the more difficult 'ins and outs' of the research process. Creswell's book is a valuable tool for either purpose. "John W. Creswell is well qualified to write a book on research design. He is a well-known authority in the field of educational research design and methods. "Each chapter uses a reader-friendly format that includes bullets to emphasize key points, boxed materials, and tables with examples taken from journal articles, dissertations, and dissertation proposals. A concise summary is included at the end of each chapter, along with end-of-chapter writing exercises and an annotated bibliography of additional readings. The writing exercises seem to be especially thought provoking, and they are designed so that the reader will have completed a written plan for a scholarly research study once finishing the set of writing assignments. "One major theme that seems to run throughout the book is the unique perspectives offered by the two major approaches to research--qualitative and quantitative. In each chapter, Creswell makes an effort to provide some meaningful perspectives on the important differences between qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. . . . This clear distinction between the two types of research and, more importantly, the continuous comparisons of the resulting differences in the stages of the research design process, serve as Creswell's main contribution to the field of research design. "One of the unique features here is a thoughtful discussion of whether a particular topic should be selected. Along these lines, criteria are given for selecting topics that lead to meaningful and interesting research projects. Many researchers, I believe, could benefit from this discussion. "In reviewing this book, it quickly became obvious that the approach used by the author provides a valuable perspective on the research design process. In short, Creswell's insights are impressive; and my overall evaluation of Creswell's book is positive. Many researchers, both academic and practitioners, would benefit from the disciplined approach advocated by Creswell. "Fortunately, Creswell's book is now available to researchers. . . . The primary audience for this book is the student who needs to learn how to conduct high-quality research. . . . Creswell's book could be a useful addition to their course work. "The text is written broadly enough so that it applies to all aspects of the social and behavioral sciences. In addition, Research Design fits nicely into Sage Publications' product line of research-oriented texts, many of which would be appropriate companions to Creswell's text to provide students with a well-rounded course in research design and execution. examples include Miller's (1992) Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, Fifth Edition, Stewart and Kamins' (1993) Secondary Research, Second Edition, and Bausell's (1994) Conducting Meaningful Experiments. A wide range of topics enables instructor's to customize a set of texts that meet their specific needs. It seems that Creswell's Research Design could be an important component to this approach to a doctoral education and the building of a high-quality set of reference texts. Alternatively, Creswell's book could be used as a supplement in a course in which the major text is a more traditional marketing research text. Either way, there is no doubt that Creswell's book is a valuable addition to the literature in the field of research design." --R. Dale Wilson in Journal of Marketing Research "Three features of this book stand out: (1) emphasis on paradigm choice and its influence on subsequent design decisions, (2) use of a written plan for a scholarly study as a vehicle for study design, and (3) provision of practical guidance for designing decisions. . . . This explicit linking of assumptions and design choices encourages reflection about paradigmatic distinctions and their implications for design, and the comparison/contrast format organizes many of the often discussed characteristics of qualitative and quantitative research in a useful structure. The brevity of the discussion of paradigm assumptions necessarily simplifies these complex issues, and readers who are new to the idea of paradigms will want to follow the author's excellent references for further reading. . . . As every practicing researcher knows, things happen between initial design and final write-up that were not anticipated, so using the book again as a guide when writing up the study will also prove valuable. . . . Research Design can be useful both as a reference for the individual researcher or graduate student seeking advice and as a text in research methods courses." --Jana Bradley in The Library Quarterly "I like the blend of discussing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. . . . The book will be very helpful to research advisers who wish for their students to have better grounding in research design before jumping into the dissertation process. The examples used in each chapter are excellent. The entire book is written in a way that is useful and practical for students." --Kathryn S. Whitaker, University of Northern Colorado How do you decide whether to use a qualitative or a quantitative approach when designing a research study? How do you write up the results of a study for a scholarly journal article or dissertation? This book addresses these issues by providing a guide to major design decisions such as deciding a paradigm, stating a purpose for the study, identifying the research questions and hypotheses, using theory, and defining and stating the significance of the study. Each chapter is organized to first present the principles about composing and writing qualitative and quantitative approaches followed by specific examples from journal articles and dissertations from a variety of fields within the social and human sciences. The chapters also conclude with writing exercises that relate back to these formats so that the reader can end the book with a written plan for a scholarly study. Research Design is aimed at the upper-division to graduate-level research methods course that is taught to prepare students to plan and write up an independent research study.