< Specific definition of a concept in a research study
An operational definition defines a concept solely in terms of the operations (or methods) used to produce and measure it. For example, we might operationally define "social capital" using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire designed to measure indicators of social capital such as number of partners a company has, the reputation a company enjoys, and the position of a company in its industry. To operationally define the "contracting" we might look at how many men hours were invested in the contracting process or we might even count the number of pages of a contract. With these operational definitions, we might test the hypothesis that social embeddedness reduces contracting.
Not everyone may accept these definitions. For example, some may say that important aspects of social capital are missing from our questionnaire. From a cross-cultural perspective, others may criticize our operational definition of "contracting" because some in some industries agreements are codified in written contracts, while in other industries oral agreements are rather common. However, once we decide on a particular operational definition for our study, no one can argue about the definition of the concept for our study. Operational definitions help researchers to communicate about their concepts. An important question you should ask as you read research is, How did the researcher operationally define his/her concepts?