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1. INTRODUCTION--------------------------------------------------------------------3

2. WHAT IS BUSINESS RESEARCH? ---------------------------------------------------3

TYPES OF BUSINESS RESEARCH-----------------------------------------------------3

BENEFITS OF BUSINESS RESEARCH-------------------------------------------------4

3. WHY IS BUSINESS RESEARCH IMPORTANT? -----------------------------------4

4. What is research Methodology? --------------------------------------------5

5. When is qualitative research methodology appropriate? ----------------7

6. When is quantitative research methodology appropriate? -----------------8

7. When are qualitative and quantitative research methods beneficial? ------------9

8. Describe Cross-sectional research and longitudinal research-------------------------11

A) Cross-sectional research-----------------------------------------------------------------------11

Types of cross-sectional studies------------------------------------------------------------------------13

B) Longitudinal study and characteristics ------------------------------------------------------------14

Types of Longitudinal Study------------------------------------------------------------------------------16

9. difference between dependent, independent and intervening variables in research------18

REFERENCE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21

CONCLUSION-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21

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ASSIGNMENT OF BUSSINESS RESEARCH

1. INTRODUCTION

Chances of failures are less with business research as it gives an idea of the target customers and
the perfect time to launch a product. In addition, with a deep understanding of brand value,
businesses can constantly innovate to meet customer requirements. This is essential to grow
market share and revenue. The SWOT analysis in business research is crucial to make an
informed decision and making the business a huge success.

Research is the building block of any business. It acts as a catalyst to thrive in the market. So,
never underestimate the value of market research and leverage its benefits to give an extra edge
to your business.

2. WHAT IS BUSINESS RESEARCH?

Business research is a process of obtaining a detailed study of all the business areas including the
market and the customers and using that information to maximize the sales & profit of the
business.

When you run a business, there are several things you can research on. You research everything
from market shares to sales. Business research helps you make intelligent and informed decisions
and identify the key areas to invest your money in.

For example, an automobile company plans to unveil the latest car model in the market. For that,
they need to develop strategies to explore and monitor customer demand. So, the company will
conduct research to collect information and analyze market trends. This will help them draw
better conclusions and come up with a fine quality car at the right price resulting in a larger
market share.

TYPES OF BUSINESS RESEARCH

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Researchers use various research methods to collect relevant data so that business enterprises can
make wiser decisions. There are two main types of methods to carry out business research.

Quantitative Business Research

It is a method of analyzing the largest group that meets your target goals. It uses mathematical
techniques and data to explain the important stats about your business and market.

Qualitative Business Research

This business research focuses on attitudes, intentions, and beliefs. Qualitative research includes
questions such as “Why”? Or “How?”

The aim of this research is to gain insights into customers’ distinct behaviors and response to a
new product. This research is beneficial for your new products and marketing initiatives to test
reactions and rectify your approach. You can collect qualitative data using common methods
such as case studies, focus groups, and interviews. This data is often valuable but can be time-
consuming and expensive to collect, especially for a small business or a startup.

BENEFITS OF BUSINESS RESEARCH

Using business research, they can reduce costs and design solutions that aim at the market
demand and their target audience. Business Research helps you communicate with current
and potential customers in a better way.

 It helps you identify opportunities and threats in the marketplace.

 It helps you minimize risks.
 Business research is used to plan investments and financial outcomes effectively.
 It helps you build a better market position.
 It can keep you updated with current trends and innovations in the market.

3. WHY IS BUSINESS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?

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Business research helps businesses understand their customers’ buying patterns, preferences and
pain points, gain deeper insights into the contenders, current market trends, and demographics.
Using effective strategies to understand the demand and supply of the market, businesses can
always.

4. What is research Methodology?

The process used to collect information and data for the purpose of making business decisions.
The methodology may include publication research, interviews, surveys and other research
techniques, and could include both present and historical information. Research methodology is
the strategy or architectural design by which the researcher maps out an approach to problem
finding or problem solving.

A research method is a systematic plan for conducting research. Sociologists draw on a variety of
both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including experiments, survey research,
participant observation, and secondary data. Quantitative methods aim to classify features, count
them, and create statistical models to test hypotheses and explain observations. Qualitative
methods aim for a complete, detailed description of observations, including the context of events
and circumstances.

Now let's take a look at each of the different research methods in detail.

The Experiment

An experiment is a research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled
conditions. When conducting an experiment, researchers will test a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a
statement of how two or more variables are related. For example, let's say we wanted to examine
whether studying affects a person's GPA. Our hypothesis might be: the more a person studies,
the higher a person's GPA will be. In this example, studying would be the independent variable
(the cause), while a person's GPA would be the dependent variable (the effect).

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If we wanted to test this hypothesis, we would randomly assign subjects into two groups. The
experimental group is a group of individuals that are exposed to the independent variable. The
control group, on the other hand, is not exposed to the independent variable. We would require
that the control group doesn't study at all, but that our experimental group has to study at least 10
hours a week. After one semester, we would then determine which group has the higher GPA. If
the experimental group has a statistically higher GPA, we can assume our hypothesis is correct.

It is important to note that sometimes a change in the dependent variable could be the result of
something entirely different than what was being studied (maybe, for example, those chosen for
the experimental group were simply more intelligent than those in the control group). When two
variables change together but neither one causes the other, we call this a spurious correlation.

Survey Research

A survey is a research method in which subjects respond to a series of statements or questions in

a questionnaire or an interview. Surveys target some population, which are the people who are
the focus of research. Because populations are usually quite large, the researcher will target a
sample, which is a part of a population that represents the whole.

Once our sample is selected, we need a plan for asking questions and recording answers. The
most common types of surveys are questionnaires and interviews. A questionnaire is series of
written statements or questions. With an interview, the researcher personally asks subjects a
series of questions and gives participants the freedom to respond as they wish. Both
questionnaires and interviews can include open-ended questions (allowing the subjects to
respond freely), or close-ended questions (including a selection of fixed responses.

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

The most widely used strategy for collecting qualitative data is participant observation.
Participant observation is a research method in which investigators systematically observe
people while joining them in their routine activities. Fieldwork makes most participant
observation exploratory and descriptive and has very few hard and fast rules. Unlike other

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research methods, participant observation can be a lengthy process. In fact, it may require that
the researcher stay in the field for weeks or even months.

From a scientific point of view, participant observation lacks scientific rigor because it depends
on the viewpoint of a single person. However, its personal approach is also its strength - an
observant researcher can often gain important insight into people's behavior that a survey or
interview cannot obtain. Observation might be overt or covert as well.

5. When is qualitative research methodology appropriate?

Qualitative and quantitative research methods are often juxtaposed as representing two
different world views. In quantitative circles, qualitative research is commonly viewed
with suspicion and considered lightweight because it involves small samples which
may not be representative of the broader population, it is seen as not objective, and the
results are assessed as biased by the researchers' own experiences or opinions. In
qualitative circles, quantitative research can be dismissed as over-simplifying
individual experience in the cause of generalization, failing to acknowledge researcher
biases and expectations in research design, and requiring guesswork to understand
human meaning of aggregate data.

As social scientists who investigate psychosocial aspects of human reproduction, we

use qualitative and quantitative methods, separately or together, depending on the
research question. The crucial part is to know when to use what method.

‘Qualitative’ methods are used to answer questions about experience, meaning and
perspective, most often from the standpoint of the participant. These data are usually
not amenable to counting or measuring. Qualitative research techniques include ‘small-
group discussions’ for investigating beliefs, attitudes and concepts of normative
behavior; ‘semi-structured interviews’, to seek views on a focused topic or, with key
informants, for background information or an institutional perspective; ‘in-depth
interviews’ to understand a condition, experience, or event from a personal perspective;
and ‘analysis of texts and documents’, such as government reports, media articles,
websites or diaries, to learn about distributed or private knowledge.

Qualitative methods have been used to reveal, for example, potential problems in
implementing a proposed trial of elective single embryo transfer, where small-group
discussions enabled staff to explain their own resistance, leading to an amended

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approach. Small-group discussions among assisted reproductive technology (ART)
counsellors were used to investigate how the welfare principle is interpreted and
practiced by health professionals who must apply it in ART. When legislative change
meant that gamete donors could seek identifying details of people conceived from their
gametes, parents needed advice on how best to tell their children. Small-group
discussions were convened to ask adolescents (not known to be donor-conceived) to
reflect on how they would prefer to be told.

6. When is quantitative research methodology appropriate?

In psychosocial research, ‘quantitative’ research methods are appropriate when

‘factual’ data are required to answer the research question; when general or probability
information is sought on opinions, attitudes, views, beliefs or preferences; when
variables can be isolated and defined; when variables can be linked to form hypotheses
before data collection; and when the question or problem is known, clear and
unambiguous. Quantitative methods can reveal, for example, what percentage of the
population supports assisted conception, their distribution by age, marital status,
residential area and so on, as well as changes from one survey to the next ( Kovacs et al.,
2012); the number of donors and donor siblings located by parents of donor-conceived
children (Freeman et al., 2009); and the relationship between the attitude of donor-
conceived people to learning of their donor insemination conception and their family
‘type’ (one or two parents, lesbian or heterosexual parents.

Quantitative research ends with conclusions/recommendations, as it tries to quantify a problem

and understand how prevalent it is by looking for results that can be projected to a larger
population. A researcher may want to determine the link between income and whether or not
more people pay taxes. This is a question that asks “how many” and seeks to confirm a
hypothesis.

The method will be structured and consistent during data collection, most likely using a
questionnaire with closed-ended questions. The data can be used to look for cause and effect
relationships and therefore, can be used to make predictions.

The results will provide numerical data that can be analyzed statistically as the researcher looks
for a correlation between income and tax payers. Quantitative methodology would best apply to
this research problem.

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Use quantitative research methods such as A/B testing for validating or choosing a design based
on user satisfaction scores, perceived usability measures, and/or task performance. The data
received is statistically valid and can be generalized to the entire user population.

Basically, quantitative research is helpful when you get feedback from more than a handful of
participants; need to present a more convincing case to an audience; you want to gather feedback
from a diverse population of users NOT all located in the same place; you have a limited budget.

7. When are qualitative and quantitative research methods beneficial?

5 Reasons to Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Qualitative and quantitative market research approaches are designed to give you very different
perspectives, even if you are using them with the same audience. Qualitative research gives you
rich, detailed and often emotionally driven, insights based on the personal views of those you
interview – for example, what do people feel about your product? In contrast, quantitative
surveys give you a broader, robust view, based on hard statistics – i.e. what % of people like or
dislike your product?

Given that both qualitative and quantitative market research provide vital ingredients of the
understanding you are looking for (the Why and the What), combining them should deliver
significant benefits, enabling you to compare and contrast results and gain much deeper insights.

However, traditionally this hasn’t been achievable, due to deeply rooted industry perceptions of
the different purposes of each methodology. Firstly, qualitative and quantitative methods are
often seen as providing opposing viewpoints, with the former a more open style, based on the
power of human interaction, and the latter more closed and metrics driven. This meant they were
seen as requiring different skill sets and to meet different needs, leading to specialism in one or

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the other. This, in turn meant gaining a combined and universal view proved to be complex and
costly.

1. THE POWER OF ONLINE RESEARCH

Previously all qualitative research had to be carried out face-to-face through focus groups. The
growth of digital channels provides new and more accessible ways of gauging qualitative
insights, such as through online communities or online focus groups where you can share and
show information, stimulus and materials with your audience. Well-designed online communities
allow you to collect quantitative data through quick polls and surveys, from the same audience,
in a unified way.

2. HOW TO GAIN A HOLISTIC PICTURE

Bringing qualitative and quantitative market research together through one, unified online
platform enables you to gain a holistic picture. It means you can have a multi-stage discussion
where you can validate a hypothesis, gain an understanding of it (through qualitative research)
then widen your scope to get statistical data (quantitative), before testing a solution through
further qualitative exploration. This creates a virtuous circle – all in the same system, and with
the same audience.

3. THE BENEFITS OF COMBINING THE WHY AND THE WHAT

You don’t need to run a multi-stage process to gain value from combining qualitative and
quantitative market research. You can simply use the two methodologies together to gain deeper
insight into particular questions. For example, recent research found that 83% of ecommerce
shoppers add products to their online carts, but don’t then finalise the transaction, costing
businesses millions in lost revenue. Rather than merely quantifying the challenge, retailers could
add a qualitative dimension to find out the precise reasons as to why a shopper didn’t buy, giving
a much richer, and more directly actionable, insight into consumer behaviour.

4. HOW AUTOMATION DRIVES AGILITY

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Previously a large part of the complexity of bringing qualitative and quantitative research
together was that they used different systems to collect, analyses and report results. Put very
simply, budgets didn’t stretch to both so you had to choose. Technology can now provide a
single platform that handles both, lowering time to results through automation and reducing cost,
complexity and resources. Qualitative research was previously very time consuming and labour
intensive – online qualitative projects are considerably faster.

5. CONNECT MORE DEEPLY WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

At a time of growing competition, brands realise that they need to build strong connections to
their customers if they are to retain their loyalty. This means creating a deeper understanding
based on empathy, and combining qualitative and quantitative market research enables you to
build a more human, emotional connection to your audience, but also take direct action to
address their needs.

8. Describe Cross-sectional research and longitudinal research

A) Cross-sectional research

Cross-sectional study is defined as an observational study where data is collected as a whole to

study a population at a single point in time to examine the relationship between variables of
interest.

In an observational study, a researcher records information about the participants without

changing anything or manipulating the natural environment in which they exist.

The most important feature of a cross-sectional study is that it can compare different samples at
one given point in time. For example, a researcher wants to understand the relationship between
joggers and level of cholesterol, he/she might want to choose two age groups of daily joggers,
one group is below 30 but more than 20 and the other, above 30 but below 40 and compare these
to cholesterol levels amongst non-joggers in the same age categories.

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The researcher at this point in time can create subsets for gender, but cannot consider past
cholesterol levels as this would be outside the given parameters for cross-sectional studies.

Cross-sectional studies allow the study of many variables at a given time. Researchers can look
at age, gender, income etc in relation to jogging and cholesterol at a very little or no additional
cost involved. However, there is one downside to cross-sectional study, this type of study is not
able to provide a definitive relation between cause and effect relation (a cause and effect
relationship is one where one action (cause) makes another event happen (effect), for example,
without an alarm, you might oversleep.)

This is majorly because cross-sectional study offers a snapshot of a single moment in time; this
study doesn’t consider what happens before or after. Therefore in this example stated above it is
difficult to know if the daily joggers had low cholesterol levels before taking up jogging or if the
activity helped them to reduce cholesterol levels that were previously high.

A cross-sectional study is a type of observational research that analyzes data of variables

collected at one given point in time across a sample population or a pre-defined subset. This
study type is also known as cross-sectional analysis, transverse study, or prevalence study.
Although cross-sectional research does not involve conducting experiments, it is often used to
understand outcomes in the physical and social sciences, as well as many business industries.

Some of the key attributes of a cross-sectional study are:

 Conducted with the same set of variables

The cross-sectional study is conducted with the same set of variables over a set period of time.
Similar research may look at the same variable of interest, but each study observes a new set of
subjects.

 Assesses subjects during a single instance

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Cross-sectional research assesses subjects during a single instance with a defined start and
stopping point, unlike longitudinal studies, where variables can change during extensive
research.

 Provide the researcher with the flexibility

Cross-sectional studies provide the researcher with the flexibility to look at one independent
variable as the focus of the cross-sectional study and one or more dependent variables. Think of
a snapshot of a group of people at one event, say a family reunion. The people in that extended
family are used to determine what is happening in real–time, at the moment. All of the people
have at least one variable in common – being related – and multiple variables that they do not
share. From that starting point, you could make all kinds of observations and analyses. Hence,
this research type “takes the pulse” of population data at any given point in time.

Types of cross-sectional studies

When you conduct a cross-sectional research study, you will engage in one or both types of
research: descriptive or analytical. Read their descriptions to see how they might apply to your
work.

Descriptive research

A cross-sectional study may be entirely descriptive. A descriptive cross-sectional study assesses

how frequently, widely, or severely the variable of interest occurs throughout a specific
demographic. Think of the retail example we mentioned above. In that cross-sectional study
example, researchers make focused observations to identify spending trends. They might use
those findings for developing products and services and marketing existing offerings. They
aren’t necessarily looking at why these gendered trends occur in the first place.

Analytical research

Analytical cross-sectional research investigates the association between two related or unrelated
parameters. This methodology isn’t entirely foolproof, though, because the presence of outside

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variables and outcomes are simultaneous, and their studies are, too. For example, to validate
whether coal miners could develop bronchitis looks only at the variables in a mine. What it
doesn’t account for is that a predisposition to bronchitis could be hereditary or this health
condition could be present in the coal workers before their employment in the mine. Yes, other
medical research has shown that coal mining is detrimental to lungs, but you don’t want those
assumptions to bias your current study. In a real-life cross-sectional study, researchers usually
use both descriptive and analytical research methods.

Cross-sectional study example: Gender and phone sales

Phone companies rely on advanced and innovative features to drive sales. Research by a phone
manufacturer throughout the target demographic market validates the expected adoption rate and
potential sales of the phone. In a cross-sectional study, men and women across regions and age
ranges are enrolled for this research. If the study results show that Asian women would not buy
the phone because it is bulky, the mobile phone company can tweak the design before its launch
or develop and market a smaller phone to appeal to a more inclusive group of women.

B) Longitudinal study and characteristics

Longitudinal studies often use surveys to collect data that is either qualitative or quantitative.
Additionally, in a longitudinal study, a survey creator does not interfere with survey participants.
Instead, the survey creator distributes questionnaires over time to observe changes in
participants, their behaviors, or their attitudes. Many medical studies are longitudinal;
researchers observe and collect data from the same group of subjects over what can be many
years.

The purpose of using the same individuals or samples in the longitudinal study is to observe any
measurable change over time. This ensures that you can account for the same variables of
interest in the duration of your study.

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A longitudinal study is not restricted to the field of science or medicine. It also impacts business.
With a longitudinal survey, researchers can measure and compare various business and branding
initiatives. Some of the classic examples of longitudinal surveys include:

Many medical studies are longitudinal in nature, here a set of sample or same individuals form a
group and observed and studied over the years. The purpose of using the same individuals or
sample in longitudinal study to observe them study any measurable change over a period of time.

Longitudinal study is not just restricted to the field of science or medicine; it has a tremendous
impact in the field of business as well. With longitudinal study, one can measure and compare
various business and branding aspects by deploying surveys.

Some of the classic examples of surveys that can be used for longitudinal studies are:

Market trends and brand awareness: Use a market research survey and marketing survey to
identify market trends and develop brand awareness. Through these surveys, businesses or
organizations can learn what customers want and what they will discard. This study can be
carried over time to assess market trends repeatedly, as they are volatile and tend to keep
changing.

Product feedback: If a business or a brand has launched a new product and wants to know how
it is faring with consumers, product feedback surveys are a great option. Collect feedback from
customers about the product over an extended time. Once you’ve collected the data, it’s time to
put that feedback into practice and improve your offerings.

Customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction surveys help an organization get to know the level
of satisfaction or dissatisfaction among its customers. A longitudinal survey can gain feedback
from new and repeat customers for as long as you’d like to collect the data, so it’s useful whether
you’re starting a business or hoping to make some improvements to an established brand.

Employee engagement: When you want to check the “pulse” of your workplace, gather
feedback with an employee engagement survey. Find out whether employees feel comfortable

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collaborating with colleagues and gauge their level of motivation at work. When you check in
regularly over time with a longitudinal survey, you’ll get a big-picture perspective of your
company culture. Now that you know how longitudinal studies are used across several
disciplines.

Types of Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal studies are versatile, repeatable, and able to account for quantitative and qualitative
data. Consider the three major types of longitudinal studies for future research:

Panel study: A panel study involves a sample of people from a bigger population and is
conducted at specified intervals for a longer period. One of the most important features of the
panel study is that data is repeatedly collected from the same sample at different points in time.
Most panel studies are designed for quantitative analysis, though they are also used for collecting
qualitative data and analysis.

Cohort Study: A cohort study samples a cohort (a group of people who typically experience a
common event at a given point in time). Medical researchers tend to conduct cohort studies.
Some might consider clinical trials similar to cohort studies. However, in cohort studies,
researchers merely observe participants without intervention, unlike clinical trials in which
participants undergo tests.

Retrospective study: A retrospective study makes use of already existing data, collected during
previously conducted research with similar methodology and variables. While conducting a
retrospective study, the researcher uses an administrative database, pre-existing medical records,
or one-to-one interviews.

Advantages of Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal study can identify and relate to events. You can reveal chronology between events
like long-term and short-term changes in variables, making this ideal for medical studies.

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Similarly, because a longitudinal study is carried out over a long period, it helps identify and
establish a particular sequence of events.

Longitudinal study provides meaningful insights that might not be possible with other forms of
research like cross-sectional and similar studies.

Longitudinal study allows researchers to trace development over a timeline instead of drawing
conclusions based on a “snapshot” of data.

Disadvantages of Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal studies are not cost-effective. Because they can run long, the costs can add up.

An extended period may lead to longitudinal survey respondents dropping out during the study.

Participants may start to act unnaturally because they know they are under observation, which
spoils the research.

Continuity over the years may be challenging to maintain. For example, if the lead researcher of
the study retires, the person replacing them may or may not have the same rapport.

Longitudinal Study Example: Violence and Video Games

In this second example, a researcher is studying whether there is a link between violence and
video game usage. They collect a large sample of participants for the study. To reduce the
amount of interference with their natural habits, these individuals come from a population that
already plays video games. Here the age group is restricted to teenagers (13-19 years old).

The researcher records how prone to violence participants in the sample are at the onset. This
creates a baseline for later comparisons. Now the researcher will give a log to each participant to
keep track of how much and how frequently they play and how much time they spend playing
video games. This study can go on for months or years. During this time, the researcher can

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compare video game-playing behaviors with violent tendencies. Thus, investigating whether the
link between violence and video games.

9. The difference between dependent, independent and intervening variables in

research?

Variables are an important part of science projects and experiments. What is a variable?
Basically, a variable is any factor that can be controlled, changed, or measured in an experiment.
Scientific experiments have several types of variables. The independent and dependent variables
are the ones usually plotted on a chart or graph, but there are other types of variables you may
encounter.

Variable is central idea in research. Simply defined, variable is a concept that varies. There are
two types of concepts: those that refer to a fixed phenomenon and those that vary in quantity,
intensity, or amount (e.g. amount of education). The second type of concept and measures of the
concept are variables. A variable is defined as anything that varies or changes in value. Variables
take on two or more values.  Because variable represents a quality that can exhibit differences in
value, usually magnitude or strength, it may be said that a variable generally is anything that may
assume different numerical or categorical values. Once you begin to look for them, you will see
variables everywhere. For example gender is a variable; it can take two values: male or female.
Marital status is a variable; it can take on values of never married, single, married, divorced, or
widowed. Family income is a variable; it can take on values from zero to billions of Rupees. A
person's attitude toward women empowerment is variable; it can range from highly favorable to
highly unfavorable. In this way the variation can be in quantity, intensity, amount, or type; the
examples can be production units, absenteeism, gender, religion, motivation, grade, and age. A
variable may be situation specific; for example gender is a variable but if in a particular situation
like a class of Research Methods if there are only female students, then in this situation gender
will not be considered as a variable.

Dependent and Independent Variables

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Researchers who focus on causal relations usually begin with an effect, and then search for its
causes. The cause variable, or the one that identifies forces or conditions that act on something
else, is the independent variable. The variable that is the effect or is the result or outcome of
another variable is the dependent variable (also referred to as outcome variable or effect
variable). The independent variable is "independent of" prior causes that act on it, whereas the
dependent variable "depends on" the cause.

It is not always easy to determine whether a variable is independent or dependent. Two questions
help to identify the independent variable. First, does it come before other variable in time?
Second, if the variables occur at the same time, does the researcher suggest that one variable has
an impact on another variable? Independent variables affect or have an impact on other variables.
When independent variable is present, the dependent variable is also present, and with each unit
of increase in the independent variable, there is an increase or decrease in the dependent variable
also. In other words, the variance in dependent variable is accounted for by the independent
variable. Dependent variable is also referred to as criterion variable In statistical analysis a
variable is identified by the symbol (X) for independent variable and by the symbol (Y) for the
dependent variable. In the research vocabulary different labels have been associated with the
independent and dependent variables like:

Independent variable Dependent variable

Presumed cause presumed effect
Stimulus Response
Predicted from Predicted to
Antecedent Consequence
Manipulated Measured outcome
Predictor Criterion

Example, research studies indicate that successful new product development has an influence on
the stock market price of a company. That is, the more successful the new product turns out to
be, the higher will be the stock market price of that firm. Therefore, the success of the new
product is the independent variable, and stock market price the dependent variable. The degree
of perceived success of the new product developed will explain the variance in the stock market
price of the company. It is important to remember that there are no preordained variables waiting

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to be discovered "out there" that are automatically assigned to be independent or dependent.  It is
in fact the product of the researcher's imagination demonstrated convincingly

Intervening Variables

A basic causal relationship requires only independent and dependent variable. A third type of
variable, the intervening variable, appears in more complex causal relationships.  It comes
between the independent and dependent variables and shows the link or mechanism between
them. Advances in knowledge depend not only on documenting cause and effect relationship but
also on specifying the mechanisms that account for the causal relation. In a sense, the intervening
variable acts as a dependent variable with respect to independent variable and acts as an
independent variable toward the dependent variable.

A theory of suicide states that married people are less likely to commit suicide than single
people. The assumption is that married people have greater social integration (e.g. feelings of
belonging to a group or family). Hence a major cause of one type of suicide was that people
lacked a sense of belonging to group (family).  Thus this theory can be restated as a three-
variable relationship: marital status (independent variable) causes the degree of social integration
(intervening variable), which affects suicide (dependent variable). Specifying the chain of
causality makes the linkages in theory clearer and helps a researcher test complex relationships.

Example, look at another finding that five-day work week results in higher productivity. What is
the process of moving from the independent variable to the dependent variable? What exactly is
that factor which theoretically affects the observed phenomenon but cannot be seen? Its effects
must be inferred from the effects of independent variable on the dependent variable. In this
work-week hypothesis, one might view the intervening variable to be the job satisfaction. To
rephrase the statement it could be: the introduction of five-day work week (IV) will increase job
satisfaction (IVV), which will lead to higher productivity (DV).

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CONCLUSION

Generally, business research is one of the most effective ways to understand customers, the
market and competitors. Such research helps companies to understand the demand and supply of
the market. Using such research will help businesses reduce costs, and create solutions or
products that are targeted to the demand in the market and the correct audience.

In-house business research can enable senior management to build an effective team or train or
mentor when needed. Business research enables the company to track its competitors and hence
can give you the upper hand to stay ahead of them. Failures can be avoided by conducting such
research as it can give the researcher an idea if the time is right to launch its product/solution and
also if the audience is right. It will help understand the brand value and measure customer
satisfaction which is essential to continuously innovate and meet customer demands. This will
help the company grow its revenue and market share. Business research also helps recruit ideal
candidates for various roles in the company. By conducting such research a company can carry
out a SWOT analysis, i.e. understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. With
the help of this information, wise decisions can be made to ensure business success.

REFERENCE

 Adcock, R. & Collier, D. (2001). Measurement validity: A shared standard for qualitative
and quantitative research. American Political Science Review 95: 529-546.
 Campbell, D. T. & Stanley, J. C. (1963b): Experimental and quasi- experimental designs
for research. Chicago: Rand-McNally.
 Carmines, E. G. & Zeller, R. A. (1979): Reliability and validity assessment. Quantitative
Applications in the Social Sciences series 07-017, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
 Cook, T. D. & Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design and analysis
issues for field settings. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Chapter 2 is a classic statement of

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