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TIME HORIZON: CROSS-SECTIONAL VERSUS LONGITUDINAL STUDIES 135

It is now even easier to see why the unit of analysis should be given serious
consideration even as the research question is being formulated and the research
design planned.

TIME HORIZON: CROSS-SECTIONAL VERSUS
LONGITUDINAL STUDIES

Cross-Sectional Studies
A study can be done in which data are gathered just once, perhaps over a period
of days or weeks or months, in order to answer a research question. Such stud-
ies are called one-shot or cross-sectional studies.

Example 6.24 Data were collected from stock brokers between April and June of last year to
study their concerns in a turbulent stock market. Data with respect to this par-
ticular research had not been collected before, nor will they be collected again
from them for this research.

Example 6.25 A drug company desirous of investing in research for a new obesity (reduction)
pill conducted a survey among obese people to see how many of them would
be interested in trying the new pill. This is a one-shot or cross-sectional study to
assess the likely demand for the new product.
The purpose of both the studies in the two foregoing examples was to collect
data that would be pertinent to find the answer to a research question. Data col-
lection at one point in time was sufficient. Both were cross-sectional designs.

Longitudinal Studies

In some cases, however, the researcher might want to study people or phenom-
ena at more than one point in time in order to answer the research question. For
instance, the researcher might want to study employees’ behavior before and
after a change in the top management, so as to know what effects the change
accomplished. Here, because data are gathered at two different points in time,
the study is not cross-sectional or of the one-shot kind, but is carried longitudi-
nally across a period of time. Such studies, as when data on the dependent vari-
able are gathered at two or more points in time to answer the research question,
are called longitudinal studies.

Example 6.26 UPS experienced a shutdown for 15 days during the Teamsters’ walkout and their
clients shifted their business to other carriers such as FedEx and the U.S. Postal
Service. After the termination of the strike, UPS tried to woo their customers back
through several strategies and collected data month after month to see what
progress they were making in this regard.