Evaluative research is conducted in more or less the same manner as
             traditional research however it can be distinguished from other social
             researches on the basis of the fact that evaluative research is usually
             carried out mainly to evaluate or assess the effectiveness of a certain
             Thus evaluative research is "a special kind of social research, in which
             the dependent variables are by definition normative. In some cases the
             "desired outcomes" of a program are well known in advance, but in other
             cases the full range of outcomes (desired and perhaps not so desired) of
             interventions is not fully known at the outset." (Sofaer, 1999)
             Like other researches, evaluative research also requires appropriate source
             of funding and this source is usually single since one organizational or
             political group initiates the research. Professional researches are hired
             by the sponsors to conduct evaluative research of a certain product or
             program to find out about such things as the significance of the product,
             the need and demand for it and the future trends in the specified area.
             The same applies to various social or political programs and in this case,
             government is usually the sole sponsor. For example if the government
             decides to launch a new drug control program in schools, it will first hire
             a professional researcher or team of researchers to learn about the
             potential impact of the program and the need for such programs in schools.
             Every evaluative research is therefore carried out on the request of the
             sponsor, which may often be the single most important source of funding for
             However since sponsors have vested interests in evaluative research and
             since they are usually the sole source of funding, this creates tremendous
             potential for bias. Usually the firms that want evaluative research can
             influence the research outcomes to make them more favorable to the firm and
             ...