Business Research Methods CURMCS 223
What is Business Research Methods
Saunders et al. 2007:5 define business and management research as undertaking systematic research to find out things about business and management.
Three things combine to make business andmanagement a distinctive focus for research:
■ the way in which managers (and researchers) draw on knowledge developed by otherdisciplines;
■ the fact that managers tend to be powerful and busy people. Therefore, they areunlikely to allow research access unless they can see personal or commercial advantages;
■ the requirement for the research to have some practical consequence. This means iteither needs to contain the potential for taking some form of action or needs to takeaccount of the practical consequences of the findings.
Business Research can either be basic or applied:
Basic, fundamental or pure research is research that is undertaken purely to understand the processes of business and management and their outcomes. Such research is undertaken largely in universities and largely as the result of an academic agenda. Its key consumer is the academic community, with relatively little attention being given to its practical applications.
Applied research is of direct and immediate relevance to managers, addresses issues that they see as important,andispresentedinwaysthattheyunderstandandcanacton.
Table 1.1 Basic and applied research
Purpose:
• expand knowledge of processes of business
and management
• results in universal principles relating to the
process and its relationship to outcomes
• findings of significance and value to society
in general
/ Purpose:
• improve understanding of particular business
or management problem
• results in solution to problem
• new knowledge limited to problem
• findings of practical relevance and value to
manager(s) in organisation(s)
Context:
• undertaken by people based in universities
• choice of topic and objectives determined
by the researcher
• flexible timescales
/ Context:
• undertaken by people based in a variety of
settings, including organisations and universities
• objectives negotiated with originator
• tight timescales
Sources: Authors’ experience, Easterby-Smith et al., 2002, Hedrick et al., 1993
For the purpose of our training, we concentrate much on Applied research since we are managers, entrepreneurs and administrators. The common element of all research is rigour as the researcher goes through the research process.
The Research Process
While literature has different processes, we shall follow the following process:
- Formulating the research problem
- Literature review
- Research Methodology/Data collection
- Data presentation and analysis
- Research conclusions and recommendations
- Formulating the Research Problem
Research problems are based on management, administrative or entrepreneurial problems which are prevalent in industry and commerce, normally company specific. Examples supply chain bottlenecks, SMEs accounting challenges, continuous reduction in sales, high brand switching rate. These are a set of conditions needing discussion, a solution, and information.
A Research problemrepresents the information gap which needs to be filled through research for managers, administrators and entrepreneurs to make informed decisions. It implies the possibility of empirical investigation, that is, of data collection and analysis
Research topic is the sentence/statement that expresses what the research is about (purpose), reflecting the independent and dependent variables and the scope of the study.
Steps in choosing a Research Topic
The research problem or the research questions should be formulated in a sequential manner. This will reduce the chances of ambiguities to a minimum. There is no hard and fast rule for formulating the research problem. One can adopt a logical manner to reach the desired research problem, objectives and research questions.
Before deciding about the research area or the research problem in specific the researcher should ask two questions for him/herself: does he have the desired knowledge in the particular research area or not and does he have interest in conducting research on that particular area. Knowledge is necessary in order to deal with the research justly and clearly. On the other hand interest enables the researcher to give proper concern, time and energy in the accomplishment of the research.
Distinguish the subject area of interest:
The first step in the formulation of the research problem is to decide on a broad subject area on which you have thorough knowledge. Your knowledge in that particular subject area will enable you to decide about the research problem. It will also help you to carry out the overall research. The subject area can be selected with the help of your adviser if you are a student. When you are doing an independent research you can consult some senior researchers in your particular field. Distinguishing or selecting the subject area is the first step in the research problem formulation.
Example:
For example you have to select the research problem for your university thesis. You should first consider your major and the subject areas that you are studying in your university. You can select one subject area among all of them and that will be of your interest. Your major is a Nutrition and you want to select childhood nutrition as the particular subject area for your thesis.
Dissect the subject area into sub-areas:
The subject area of your interest will be broad and you need to dissect it into small areas. In this way you will be able to select one of your interest and convenience. You can get help of an experienced person in this regard.
Example:
Childhood nutrition is still a broad subject area and you need to dissect it more. You can dissect it into childhood development series, malnutrition in children, child immunization, childhood diseases, childhood mortality and childhood vaccines. There can be many other categories and you can select a category or sub area among all of them. The research problem will revolve around that subject area. For example you have selected malnutrition in children as your sub-area of the research problem. This process will help you in becoming more directional. It will lead you to the formulation of the research problem.
Decide about an area:
Select an area among all the sub-areas, one that interests you most. This will help you in creating the research problems among which you have to choose one. During all these steps you need to constantly look at the possibilities of further narrowing down the subject area in order to become more specific.
Example:
You have already selected childhood malnutrition as your sub-area to formulate the research problem.
Generate research questions:
Research Problem is a partial solution
Generate as many research questions as possible, from these questions you have to choose those questions that you want to answer through your research. You should take as much time as possible to generate many questions so that you have plenty of choices. Research questions should be such that can be answered using scientific techniques and research procedures. Suppose does God exists is a question that you want to be answered but this question cannot be answered using current scientific techniques therefore such questions should be avoided.
Example:
The research questions or the research problems can be generated easily as you have your subject area selected. Suppose you have generated the following research questions. What factors influence childhood malnutrition? Is there a correlation between childhood mortality and malnutrition? What is the prevalence of childhood malnutrition around the world? Why childhood malnutrition is increasing worldwide? Now you can select those questions that you can answer from your research. There can be several factors that affect your selection of questions: availability of time, money and other resources, knowledge, skills and your abilities. You can select more than one question but your research will become longer. You can even select more than one related question.
Decide about the objectives:
Objectives are the possible answers to the research question or the research problem that you have formulated. They should be formulated in a clear manner. Objectives make you specific, as you conduct your study around the objectives that you have decided. The objectives need to be specific in nature but you can also generate general objectives. General objectives and specific objectives both will have their own importance in the research.
In the last step you need to analyze your research questions and objectives again so as to minimize any confusion. Take as much time as you have to create the research problem and objectives, you should become fully satisfied before starting your research. You can get assistance from someone who has experience in conducting research. You can also get help from a statistician to know whether the research problem and hypothesis is one that can be statistically analyzed or not.
Characteristics of a Good research Topic are:
- Relevant: Arising from issues raised in literature and/or practice, the question will be of academic and intellectual interest.
- Manageable: You must be able to access your sources of data (be they documents or people), and to give a full and nuanced answer to your question.
- Substantial and original: The question should showcase your imaginative abilities, however far it may be couched in existing literature.
- Fit for assessment: Remember, you must satisfy the learning outcomes of your course. Your question must be open to assessment, as well as interesting.
- Clear and simple: A clear and simple research question will become more complex as your research progresses. Start with an uncluttered question then unpeel the layers in your reading and writing.
- Interesting: Make your question interesting, but try to avoid questions which are convenient or flashy. Remember, you will be thinking about this question for an entire year.
Key Questions
- What aspect do you find the most interesting about your chosen field or topic?
- Is there 'room' for investigation in this sub-topic area?
- Have you tried formulating questions in different ways?
- Are you happy with your questions? (You will be the one working on them!)
- Have you discussed your topic with your supervisor?
A research proposal
What is a Research Proposal? A research proposal is a document that outlines:
- The research problem (research topic)
- States its associated research questions
- Summaries the prior literature related to the topic
- Specifies the procedure to be followed in answering the research questions
The purpose of your proposal is to sell your research idea by showing that you have thought it through very carefully and have devised a good strategy to address the questions of the study
A Problem Statement:
A problem statement identifies the problem, when it started, who and what is affected to what extend, what was ever done to address the problem, what were the results and why do we still need a research.
Others may say, the research problem statement consists of:
* the type & purpose of study
* who or what
* limits of when (time period)
* major constructs (identified as observable variables)
* theoretical framework (this supports how the construct is defined and defines the lens used to analyze & interpret the data)
Furthermore it can be said that a problem statement:
1. Introduces the reader to the importance of the problem. The reader is oriented to the significance of the study and the research questions or hypotheses to follow.
2. Places the problem in a context
3. Provides the framework for reporting the results. Indicate what is probably necessary to conduct the study and explain how the findings will present this information.
Research Objectives:
Objectives are how you intend to achieve the purpose of the study. They will include the specific means of answering the research question that you have posed and details of the key issues involved.
It can be difficult to develop realistic research objectives. There are common pitfalls such as the scope being too broad, not including enough detail, being too simplistic, being too ambitious, etc.
Use these S.M.A.R.T. guidelines to try and develop your objectives:
Specific – avoid general statements, include detail about what you are going to do.
Measureable – there should be a definable outcome.
Achievable – be realistic in what you hope to cover, don’t attempt too much. A less ambitious but completed objective is better than an over-ambitious one that you cannot possible achieve. Realistic – think about logistics. Are you practically able to do what you wish to do? Factors to consider include: time; expense; skills; access to sensitive information; participant’s consent; etc. Time constrained – be aware of the time-frame of the project
What characterises good specific objectives?
- They state why the objective is importantB
- They specify the individual actions to be taken in order to address the research problemC
- They state the level of ambition for each objectiveD
- They can be used to draw conclusions from within the scope of the thesisE
- They specify which literature the study is based onF
- They state where the study will take placeG
They point at the relevant type of study or method
Research Questions
Research questions are research objectives expressed in question form. However there are at least two research questions per research objective.
It's absolutely essential to develop a research question that you're interested in or care about in order to focus your research and your paper (unless, of course, your instructor gives you a very specific assignment). For example, researching a broad topic such as "business management" is difficult since there may be hundreds of sources on all aspects of business management. On the other hand, a focused question such as "What are the pros and cons of Japanese management style?" is easier to research and can be covered more fully and in more depth.
Literature review
The “literature” of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world.
What is a literature review, then?
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organised pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.
The focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.
Types of Literature Review
There are different types of literature review that can be undertaken, depending on the purpose of the research.
The main types of literature review are:
An Evaluative Review
An Exploratory Review
An Instrumental Review
These are not mutually exclusive and will often be mixed together. However, in the case of academicresearch, it is the second type of literature review which is the most common.
Evaluative Review
Evaluative literature review focuses on providing a discussion of the literature in terms of its coverage andcontribution to knowledge in a particular area. An apt example of this type of review is meta-analysis whichprovides a comprehensive commentary on a very large number of research projects focused on a specific topic.
It is often used to directly compare research findings from these projects when the findings are directlycomparable—for example, in measuring reliability coefficients, regression coefficients, and also artificialconstructs defined in the same way but applied in different projects. The field of Econometrics is oftentypified by literature reviews of this type.
Exploratory Review
Exploratory literature review which is seeking to find out what actually exists in the academic literature in termsof theory, empirical evidence and research methods as they pertain to aspecific research topic and its relatedwider subject area. It is also used to sharpen, focus and identify research questions that remain unansweredin the specific topic. The key to conducting a review of this type is to remain focused on the field of studyand not allow yourself to be taken into other directions just because they may be interesting. It is not asimportant here to provide a comprehensive review of the literature (as in meta-analysis) but it is much more
important to focus on the specific area of the research topic.
The review should be seen as being informative to the researcher and providing him/her with clearerideas on the common theories, methods and types of data analysis conducted on this topic. It is also criticalin this type of review that the literature is properly cited and a proper bibliography is presented. This isto enable other researchers and readers to follow up aspects of the work they find especially interesting.In academic work, the most common referencing system is the Harvard system. This is very much the basisof an academic literature review designed to inform and to create a ‘path’ between previous and currentresearch.
Instrumental Review
Instrumental literature is used exclusively as a source of information on how to conduct some researchon a highly specific research problem. It is not designed to identify the state of current knowledge in an areabut to identify the best way to carry out a research project without reinventing the wheel and without incurring unnecessary and avoidable costs. This is the type of review which would be typically done in-house bycompany employees who are tasked to solve an urgent or unexpected business problem. This type of reviewwill also be less concerned with properly citing the literature, unlike the two discussed earlier.