Seventh Component of the LCI: Research Methodology

Research Methodology

The seventh component of the LCI is the Research Methodology. In the previous components, the questions, checklists and the hand-on activities guided to answer the WHAT and WHY questions of the LCI. However, in this component, the focus is shifted towards the HOW question of the LCI process. After identifying the problem, building evidence around it, exploring novelty feature and developing the most valuable research question, the focus is now towards understanding how the solution will be conceived. It is very important to understand, what methods the academic inventors and entrepreneurs may plan to opt for their future inventions.

It is observed that different types of inventions need different types of methods and therefore different researchers, and academic inventors adopt different methods and techniques. In literature, a research method is known as an investigation technique the academic inventors apply to commence the research (Kothari, 2004). At the same time, it is also evident that multiple investigation techniques are combined to develop a system of methods for solving the real-world problem. Therefore, academic inventors and entrepreneurs systematically associate multiple methods and develop an approach as the research methodology for inventing their solutions (Pandey & Pandey, 2021).

Though methodologies for solving real-world problems vary with respect to the nature of invention, however, a general process may be sketched to guide the academic inventors and entrepreneurs to facilitate the process of invention. Therefore, this component intends to help in designing flowcharts, along with justified timelines (Kunte & Rungruang, 2018) to achieve the key deliverables, to keep the academic inventors and entrepreneurs on track throughout their invention process. To move forward in the journey of inventing solutions for the real-world problem the following three questions are proposed by seventh component of the LCI to be answered by the academic inventors and entrepreneurs:

• 1.

  How each stage of the research process will be accomplished?

• 2.

  How the key deliverables associated with each stage of the research process will be achieved? (Listing of all deliverables).

• 3.

  How long will it take to achieve each key deliverable?

These three questions reassure the academic inventors to view the entire research process through a lens having distinct deliverables. The learning derived in the LCI component six, highlighted about different objectives and hypotheses supporting the MVRq. In fact each of the research objectives is associated with its distinct key deliverable. For example, if a research objective is characterization of Nano material then its key deliverable would be a report presenting an analysis of the Nano particles. If a research objective is the image processing then its key deliverable would be enhanced image after adopting types of signal processing etc.

For different types of inventions, different types of research objectives are framed, similarly for different types of research objectives different types of key deliverables are planned. But for achieving any key deliverable, it is mandatory to define a method and decide upon time and effort to be dedicated to each one of them. To facilitate in this process of defining and deciding about the research methodology, this chapter proposes the LCI Checklist – VII. Similarly, as each checklist assists each component of the LCI, the LCI Checklist – VII will enable academic inventors in planning for the research methodology. The expected outcome is a detailed flowchart reflecting upon each key deliverable of the entire research process of invention. The said task is expected to be achieved after answering above three questions, exploring items of the LCI Checklist – VII and seeking assistance from LCI Templates XIV and LCI Template XV designed for hands-on activities. The six items in the LCI Checklist – VII are given in Table 1.