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Business Research Methods, OXFORD University Press, ISBN: 978 983 47074 77

Book · December 2012

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Dr. Mukesh Kumar Salim Abdul Talib

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Business Research Method is a comprehensive textbook which is designed to meet the needs of
students pursuing their undergraduate programs in all business disciplines and Master in
Business Administration. This book also acts as a comprehensive guide for students embarking
on their management research projects and for the students in the early stage of their doctoral
programs. The book has been written keeping three objectives in mind: (i) to enable researchers,
irrespective of their disciplines, in developing the most appropriate methodology for their
research studies; (ii) to make them familiar with the art of using different research methods and
techniques; and (iii) provide practical guide on data analysis through the step-by-step instructions
on SPSS.

Key Features
 Written in simple and easy-to-understand language.
 Business research process explained through the logical structure.
 Analytical techniques explained through worked out examples and cases.
 Step-by-step instructions on SPSS for processing and analyzing the data.
 Screenshots for the beginners to get self trained in SPSS.

Structure of the book

The scope of this book ranges from the issue of problem identification to research report writing
through step-by-step systematic and scientific business research approach. The book consists of
fifteen chapters which are well organized and spread into four major parts.
Part 1: Fundamental of Business Research consists of Chapters One and Two. Chapter
One is an introductory chapter, presenting an overview of business research method and its
importance and scope. It also discusses the important elements that should be considered by a
manager to resolve the dilemma whether or not research should be conducted if the organization
is encountered with a specific issue. It further discusses some ethical considerations that a
researcher should taken into account while dealing with sponsor, respondents and research team.
Chapter Two takes an information approach in explaining the characteristics of a scientific
research and different stages of a business research process and sets the tone for the remaining
chapters. It also discusses two different thought processes namely, deduction and induction
through which we draw the conclusion or infer something about the domain of interest. Further,
it discusses the basic characteristics of qualitative and quantitative research.
Part 2: Initial Stages of Business research consists of Chapters Three to Five. Chapter
Three provides in-depth treatment of the most critical step in the process - identifying the
research problem and deciding on the appropriate research objectives. It explains how to identify
the broad problem area of research through several ways and how the preliminary information
gathering aids in deciding whether the problem is worth investigating. Further, it explains how
one can narrow down the broad problem area that has been identified in the early stage of
investigation to a clearly defined research problem in the form of research statement through in-
depth literature review. Chapter Four comprehend the need for a framework in the research
process. It discusses the interrelationships among the variables, thus making logical sense of the
relationships of the variables and factors that are deemed relevant/important to the problem in
hand. It further provides insights on developing the relevant hypotheses for the study in hand.
Chapter Five dwells on various research designs and highlight their main characteristics. It
explains how the choice of a research design provides the right framework to be used as a guide
to ensure that the accurate data is collected and analyzed so as to obtain the precise solution to
the problem. Further, it provides the detailed guidelines for preparing a research proposal.
Part 3: Data Collection, Measurement and Sampling consists of Chapters Six to Ten.
Chapter Six covers the various types of data collection method, their usage and limitations. In
quantitative approach, the various survey methods have been discussed with primary focus on
personal interview (face-to-face). A number of qualitative methods used in exploratory research
situations are explained with emphasis on in-depth interview, focus group discussion and other
projective techniques. Further, it explains how a researcher must judiciously select the method(s)
for his/her own study keeping in view a number of factors. Finally, it discusses the ethical issues
involve in one’s procedures of collecting the information from the target respondents. Chapter
Seven advances the concepts of scale measurement. The properties of four basic scaling
techniques namely, nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio have been discussed with examples. It
explains the various types of comparative and non-comparative scaling techniques and their
advantages and disadvantages. Further, it explains a number of practical decisions a researcher
should take into consideration while developing the scale. Finally, it discusses the characteristics
of good measurement instrument in order to ensure its validity, reliability and practicability.
Chapter Eight provides the important guidelines to the researchers in developing the
questionnaire on a number of elements such as the language, deciding what and how to ask,
wording of an individual question, sequencing of questions, length of questionnaire, coding and
recording, and analysis required. Further, it explains what should be the physical appearance of
the questionnaire in order to obtain the accurate information with high response rate. Finally, it
explains how a researcher should effectively plan for a fieldwork so as to ensure timely
completion of data collection with the given budget. Chapter Nine discusses the various types
of probability and non-probability sampling techniques. It also explains how a researcher can
determine the sample size given the variability in data, the level of precision required and the
level of confidence at which one wants to estimate the parameters of the population. Further it
explains the two types of errors – sampling and non-sampling errors and the trade-off between
them and how one can minimize the total error in any research study. Chapter Ten deals with
different types of experimental design. It explains in details with examples the process of
experimentation to establish the cause and effect relationship among the variables of interest and
the process of identifying the contaminating factors and how to control them while conducting an
experiment. Further, it explains the factors that may affect the internal and external validity while
conducting an experiment. Finally, it deals with some of the complex experimental designs and
explain how to select the right design for a given research problem.
Part 4: Data Analysis, Research Reporting and Decision Making consists of Chapters
eleven to fifteen, out of which, first four chapters are devoted to data analysis wherein the
various analytic techniques are discussed with step-by-step procedures using SPSS. Chapter
Eleven thrash out basic concepts of data analysis and explains the procedure of processing the
raw data collected from the field which includes editing, coding, data entry, handling missing
data and detecting outliers. Further it explains how to make the choice of different types of data
analysis based on a number of factors such as scale of measurement, research design and the
assumptions about test statistics. Then, it discusses various types of univariate and bivariate data
analysis with examples and cases. Finally, it explains how to present statistical data in visual
 form through graphs. Chapter Twelve is devoted to the inferential statistics and discusses the
hypothesis testing procedure pertaining to univariate and bivariate analysis. It discusses the
applications of various test statistics and explains how to make the choice of most appropriate
statistical technique to suit a hypothesis based on number of criteria. Some of the important
statistical tests such as Chi-square test for goodness of fit, independent sample t-test, paired-
sample t-test, Analysis of Variance are discussed in details with examples. It further deals with
measures of associations between two variables and associated tests. At the end of the chapter,
step-by-step instructions along with screenshots are provided for the students to run all discussed
techniques in SPSS. Chapter Thirteen deals with two important multivariate data analysis
techniques, namely multiple linear regression and discriminant analysis for predicting the
dependent variable from a set of independent variables. In the first part of the chapter, it explains
step-by-step procedure to estimate the simple linear regression model using least square method.
Then, move to a more generalized case with more than one independent variable, its estimation,
important tests of significance and the interpretation of outputs through a case study. Further it
explains how to select a regression model using a step-wise selection method in case of complex
situation with a large number of explanatory variables. Finally, it explains how to detect and deal
with the multicollinearity problem in a multiple linear regression model. The second part of the
chapter discusses the applications, data requirement, basic concept and method of discriminant
analysis. It discusses two scenarios of a case – (i) discriminant analysis with two groups and (ii)
discriminant analysis with three groups, interpretation of SPSS outputs and implications.
Chapter Fourteen deals with interdependence models of multivariate data analysis wherein
three important techniques namely, factor analysis, cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling
are discussed. Under each technique, the application, assumptions, data requirements and the
basic concepts has been discussed in details. First, it explains the step-by-step logic of deriving
the meaningful constructs (factors) using the principal component analysis from a set of
variables. Further, it discusses a case to conduct the factor analysis and how to interpret the
findings obtained through SPSS. Next it discusses how cluster analysis can be used to cluster
objects and individuals and interpret the solution of cluster analysis. Finally, it explains the
procedures to create perceptual maps and interpret the solution of multidimensional scaling.
Chapter Fifteen discusses the characteristics of a well- written research report and provides the
description of various integral parts of written research report and oral presentation.

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