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Abstract
Technology and people are directly influenced by each other as they both are interlinked. Every

person in the world is somehow directly or indirectly gets affected by technology. This report is

the review of the methodology used by ten articles. These articles are given by the tutor to

examine how the author conducted its research and collected information to derive a result. To

gather all the information researcher downloaded these article from the online platform. These

articles are from the Journal of Technological Forecasting & Social Change, volume number 96.

First nine articles are from page number four to eighty-eight, and the last article is from page

number ninety-two to hundred of the journal. Most of the articles used a quantitative approach to

evaluate the data, and their sampling method was non-probability. Some of the articles do not

even have limitations. Doing research and reviewing the way to collect data helps beginners in

research field to pursue further research and prove any of the results by using various type of

methods. The implication of methodology reviewing is that it will persuade the young

researchers to collect more data and study these concepts again in more depth.

Introduction
The prime objective of this report is to review the style of 10 articles from Journal of

Technological Forecasting & Social Change, volume number 96.The tutor has given these

articles for their methodological evaluation. It is essential to review the methodology of research

papers because it helps the researcher to identify how the author collected the data about the

investigation. Moreover, it helps in finding out the instruments used by the researcher which lead

them to the findings. These articles are about technology and social change which means they all

are linked with technological development and its effects on government and society.

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Technology is expanding enormously and affecting most parts of the globe with significant

innovations in the field of science, whether it is in medical, sports, education or any other field. It

is making life easier of the vast population including disabled people. There are a plethora of

advantages of technology in humans life. The methodology is an essential portion of any

research document as it evaluates the sources and tools employed by the author to conclude

results. Most of the information about the research is present in this portion of the paper. In this

report, there will be methodology part, results, and conclusion at the end.

Methodology

As the name suggest, it is a section in the report which indicates the methods which can be used

to get information. For instance, conducting interviews is a way of collecting the data. There are

three types of interviews, namely unstructured, semi-structured, and structured interviews. Apart

from this, there are other various methods too for gathering information. In these articles, authors

used qualitative, quantitative and mixed approach to collect data.

Qualitative method

The qualitative method of evaluation is the process of collecting records in the form of

Interviews, etcetera. Out of 10 given articles, only one (Gao, 2015) used a qualitative approach.

It was the case to study the way of governmental interference in technology innovation. The

author used previous academic published data and later conducted interviews with government

officials, specialists, and firm senior managers.

Quantitative method

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This type of mechanism is utilized to analyze numeric data. The articles which contain surveys,

questionnaires, analytical data, database, etcetera fall under this category. In a study by Jiao,

Koo, and Cui (2015), they analyzed the activities of Chinese firms to find out governance issues

in innovation deeds of the companies. They took 18 cities of China for consideration. They

acquired the dataset from the World Bank's Investment Climate Surveys to calculate all related

variables in the study and to test the hypotheses. Testing the hypothesis is also considered as a

quantitative method of collecting data. After analyzing all the articles, nine out of ten provided

items used this kind of approach for gathering the data. They used the non-probability method of

sampling. Another study by Wu and Guo (2015) was about the measurement of e-government

performance of a provincial government website in China. They took 31 municipalities of China

to measure the performance of the sites. The DEA method was utilized to evaluate e-government

performance of provincial government website in China.

They choose seven evaluation indices and use the J-SBM model with slacks-based efficiency

metric to assess ability for each provincial e-government websites and give the direction for

efficiency improvement. In the case of Chen and Lin (2014), they conducted an empirical study

of the impact of customer experience and perceived value of sustainable social relationship in

blogs. They used the non-probability method of sampling. A partial least square (PLS) research

model was used to verify the model stability and hypotheses testing. SmartPLS 2.0 software was

utilized to perform the PLS analysis. They found that direct influence was still missing. The

quantitative approach is applicable in those studies which have to evaluate any algebraic

calculations to drive the results. Furthermore, proving any hypothesis is also considered to be a

quantitative approach towards it. Not only to prove but to verify whether it is true or not. For

verifying anything, research is necessary any researching means finding evidence for the truth.

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Another article by Chen and Xie (2014) tried to answer whether Chinas e-governance is

sustainable or not. For finding out this they used the SBM and super SBM method, they

measured the confined efficiency and production in China and then conducts an empirical

investigation to examine whether the Solow paradox applies in China or not. Their sampling

method was non-probability. One of the other articles by Zhang and Xie (2014), evaluated

Chinese electronic information industrys sustainable modeling. By using a non-radial efficiency

model, technical, environmental efficiency and environmental regulatory costs can be estimated.

There are some restrictions of conducting research by using these methodologies. For example,

Choosing random candidates or cities for particular studies, that means, a non-probability

method of sampling which implies that result cannot be generalized in overall effect. For

instance, conducting research for finding out student satisfaction in using library services,

students are selected randomly, and they are provided with the questionnaire to answer their

opinion. However, the results of that study cannot apply for whole students in the educational

institution which is why it is a big drawback of this type of research method.

Mixed Methodology

The third type of methodology is called combined method. As the name predicts, it is the

combination of both qualitative and quantitative method analyzing. It is common in those studies

where the qualitative method is used to support quantitative method or vice-versa. Many of the

researchers use this type of methodology as they find it easy to evaluate previous studies and

then driving result from them using numbers and calculations. For accessing the data, some

researchers use already published articles or issues to get an overview of the study and then

calculate for putting up outcome of it.

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Results

These articles are mostly concerning technological advancements, governments intervention,

green IT, e-governance and sustainability concepts. The data about the general information of

these articles is provided in the form of table (see Table 1). In this chart, author name and the

research area of that article is clearly mentioned.

Table 1: General Information of the article reviewed

Article Number Author Area of Research

Gao (2015) Administrative
1
intervention In China
2 Jiao, Koo, and Cui(2015) moderating influence of
government ownership
3 Wu and Guo (2015) Measuring E-government
performance
4 Choi (2015) the role of intermediation
on the international aid
5 Chen and Lin(2014) customer experience
6 Chen and Xie (2014) e-governance

sustainability
7 Zhang and Xie (2014) sustainable production
characteristics
8 Yu (2014) the relationship between
environmental
performance and
sustainable e-governance
9 Song and Guan (2014) electronic government
performance
10 Park, Choi, and Hong Club convergence

(2015)

These articles have used different sample size, methodology and data analysis. The sample size

is the participants, interviewees, firms or countries which are considered for the research. There

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are different sample sizes in all these articles which are explicitly mentioned in the second table

(see Table 2). Methodology and data analysis are also given in the second table.

Table 2

Article number Sample size Methodology Data Analysis

1 32 Qualitative longitudinal
2 18 Quantitative correlation
3 31 Quantitative J-SBM model
4 37 Quantitative PLS algorithm
5 466 Quantitative PLS analysis
6 27 Quantitative Empirical analysis
7 1 Quantitative Empirical analysis
8 30 Quantitative Empirical analysis
9 16 Quantitative correlation
10 108 Quantitative Empirical analysis

Conclusion

The review of the methodology is quintessential to get the basic idea of how the author of that

paper has collected the data for giving out results. Researchers need to evaluate and learn these

ways of finding material which is relevant to their study, and it can also contribute to their

findings. Making it simpler it can also be said that new researchers need to evolve more ways by

looking and reviewing the methodology of other researchers so as to get an accurate outcome.

For example, these articles which the tutor has given to the researcher are from the journal

Technological Forecasting & Social Change from volume number 96 are about the similar

theoretical background. The first article by Gao (2015), uses the non-probability method of

sampling do not have any limitation. It is about the interference of the government of China in

technological innovations. The next article from Jiao, Koo and Cui (2015) describes the impact

of government possession in government efficiency and industrys novelty. This article also does

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not have any drawbacks in it. They found a positive effect of legitimate setting on efficiency and

innovation of the firm. The third article by Wu and Guo (2015) demonstrates the e-government

enactment of the website of provinces of China. This study does not have a limitation, and they

found western regions attained much better than the eastern and middle ones. The next article by

Choi (2015), studied the role of intermediation on international aid. They used questionnaires for

their participants. This study lacked some members, the main limitation of this study is that they

used the minor size of the sample which does not provide a clear or generalized result of the

survey. Another article by Chen and Lin (2014) determined consumer understanding in the

sustainable relationship in blogs. They used questionnaires and distributed them among scholars.

Although the response rate was very high, however, there were few limitations of the study. For

instance, they do not analyze various types of blogs, and the items of the questionnaire were

unordered just to lower the possibility of CMV. Overall, it can be said that as a result of this

analyzation, there is a possibility that any other young and new researcher can carry on this study

for where the researcher has left. However, the future researchers are suggested to consider all

the aspects of this research and then review the methodology of these articles.

Reference list

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Gao, P. (2015). Government in the catching-up of technology innovation: Case of administrative

Intervention In China. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 96, 4-14.
Jiao, H., Koo, C.K., & Cui, Y., (2015). Legal environment, government effectiveness and firms'
innovation in China: Examining the moderating influence of government ownership.
Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 96, 15-24.
Wu, J., & Guo, D. (2015). Measuring E-government performance of a provincial government
website in China with slacks-based efficiency measurement. Technological Forecasting &
Social Change, 96, 25-31.
Choi, Y., (2015). The role of intermediation on the international aid for the governance of
technical training program. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 96, 32-39.
Chen, S., & Lin, C. (2014). The impact of customer experience and perceived value on
sustainable social relationship in blogs: An empirical study. Technological Forecasting &
Social Change, 96, 40-50.
Chen, S., & Xie, Z. (2014). Is China's e-governance sustainable? Testing Solow IT productivity
paradox in China's context. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 96, 51-61.
Zhang, N., & Xie, H. (2014). Toward green IT: Modeling sustainable production characteristics
for Chinese electronic information industry,19802012. Technological Forecasting & Social
Change, 96, 62-70.
Yu, Y. (2014). An empirical analysis of the relationship between environmental performance and
sustainable e-governance in China. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 96, 71-78.
Song, M., & Guan, Y. (2014). The electronic government performance of environmental
protection administrations in Anhui province, China. Technological Forecasting & Social
Change, 96, 79-88.
Park, S. R., Choi, D. Y., & Hong, P. (2015). Club convergence and factors of digital divide
across countries. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 96, 92-100.

Task-2 (Summary)

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The article provides an overview of the different type of instruments which can be used for gathering
data. The discussion is mainly about two kinds of methods; Interviews and Focus group. Interviews
mainly are of several types. However, the most common type are Unstructured, Semi-structured and
Structured interviews.
Informal interviews are used in qualitative research where researchers collect data from interviewee
about their life events, past incidents, etcetera. These type of conversations sometimes yield information
which might be difficult to examine. Next type of interview is Semi-structured. These are commonly used
in the qualitative approach of research. While doing an interview, the researcher needs to ask same
questions to each and every participant. To collect data, researcher gives a list of questions or topics for
discussion. The third type of interview is a structured interview. These type of interviews are commonly
used to collect data for the quantitative study. The researcher who want to do research on the market often
uses this kind of interview. It can be done face-to-face, online or even using the telephone as well. The
researcher gives a list of selected questions along with ticks boxes with every response to choose
(Dawson, C. 2009).
Another important method of collecting the data is called Focus groups. It is also known as a discussion
group or group interviews. In Conducting study group, some people are persuaded to discuss a topic
about a particular subject in a group. This type of data collection have some drawbacks as well. For
instance, some of the people might feel uncomfortable while speaking in front of others. There might be
conflicts among members of the group about someones perspective (Dawson, C. 2009). Although all
these methods are very crucial while performing research in any field, however, the researcher needs to
have a better understanding of all the methods and which particular way should they use to collect the
data.

Reference
Dawson, C. (2009). How To Choose Your Research Method. In C. Dawson, Introduction to Research
methods: A practical guide for anyone undertaking a research project (4th ed.). (pp. 27-30).
Oxford, UK: How to Books.

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