Every sector of the industry requires some spice of innovation which results from continuous research.

What is it that the Japanese did to come up with brands like YAMAHA, TOYOTA and FIJISTSU (Sibiya,
2011).

Gillette engages in marketing research to find out about the needs and requirement of shavers (Sibiya,
2011), banks engage in marketing research to find out about its customers financial services
requirement and Inland Revenue engages in market research to find out about the needs and
requirements of tax payers and other clients ( Ayuba & Kazeem, 2015).

Understand existing customers and why they chose your service/product over competitors

Identify new business opportunities and changing market trend

Market research helps in identifying new business opportunities and designing marketing
campaigns that directly target your potential consumers’ interest helping in increasing sales.
Marketing research provides valuable information about the potential of a particular market
segment, during a specific time, and within particular age group.

Marketing research helps track your company’s progress as well as the growth of your
competitors. By keeping an eye on your competitors, you can devise strategies that would keep
you ahead of your business rivals.

Market research can help in reducing the probability of a business making losses. Before
launching a product, you can identify problems and determine possible solutions. Research
carried out after the launch of a product can help you find loopholes and devise plans to counter
that loss and increase profits.

Market research assists businesses in the process of developing and designing mechanisms to
counter competition.
From a banking perspective, these mechanisms are of paramount importance because they form
part of the basis upon which credit can be advanced or denied. Banks are usually interested in
knowing some pertinent information that can only be generated from carrying out basic market
research.

Market research should also be able to provide information to the various business organisations
on the sources of funding. Once a business has been able to identify its products and markets, it
should be able to tell the type of resources and the source of those resources.

Banks are not the only sources of financing for SMEs, some of the funding can be obtained from
certain Non-Governmental Organisations or State institutions. In the case of trying to source the
funds from the NGO sector, data collected through market research becomes the requisite
information for developing a project proposal and the budgets supporting the proposal.

. To Remain well-informed

During the process of research, a business would acquire key information related to different
areas of the business which the business would analyze, strategize and use the collected business
information for improving the efficiency and performance of the business. Reports sent to the
top-level management usually have information about the employee preference, consumer likes
and dislikes and the different channels that are available effective sales, finance, production, and
marketing.

2. To develop the best strategy

The information so gathered by a business about different areas aids in determining the ideal and
best strategy suited to the organization. Say for instance, before initially starting an organization,
research helps in evaluating whether the said business if started would be a profitable venture
and whether there really exists a demand for the product manufactured by the company.

3. In ascertaining staff satisfaction level

A clearly carried out research aids in not only uncovering but even in a thorough understanding
of the level of staff satisfaction. The management through well-conducted research comes to
know of the difficulties experienced by the staff along with getting a clear picture about how to
handle the situation at the place of work. Thus it is true that well-conducted research helps the
management and the organization in undertaking the needed changes for the efficient, smooth
and successful functioning of the organization and in providing satisfaction level to its
employees at the workplace. This helps to increase their motivational level as they get coached
and trained in their line of need. This helps improve the personal as well as the professional
performance of the employees thus improving the overall performance of the organization.

4. Effective managerial decision-making

By undertaking effective research in different areas, all the areas of the business get thoroughly
analyzed and evaluated thus helping in picking up the good techniques for better and more
efficient ways that would help in increasing the productivity and profitability of the organization.
In short, it cannot be denied that effective research undertaken provides an answer to all the
problems of a business.

The key function of management is take decisions and without help of the research and analysis
of present situation and future forecasting, decisions may not be effective. Therefore, research
helps managers of organisations to take right decisions. Based on research, management can
make intelligent and well informed decisions. Undertaking research in organisations is important
since it aids a business plan for the future, based on what may have occurred in earlier times. If
performed effectively, research can help organizations to make plans on how to become more
viable.

The reasons could range from gathering information about consumers or even about business
customers. The primary role of management comprises of undertaking proper and effective
decisions. A lack of proper research and analysis about the existing as well as future situations
could lead to ineffective decision-making by the management. Thus it is clearly seen that proper
research is very crucial for undertaking correct and proper decisions.
A good and stable research mechanism is very important for any business irrespective of its size
as well as its client strength. Research is crucial for a business to stay ahead in a competitive
environment. The points listed below clearly show the importance of conducting effective
research leading to good decision-making.

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 stay ahead of the competition. Using business research, they can reduce costs and design
solutions that aim at the market demand and their target audience.

Research entails systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics, and
outcomes of programs, services, organizations and communities served by nonprofit
organizations. Research activities, which may include needs assessment, quality improvement,
monitoring, and evaluation, are undertaken to inform organizational direction, develop programs
and refine services.

Research provides us with the information and knowledge needed for problem

solving and making decisions.

Conducting thorough research in organisations such as market research is an excellent strategy to

learn more about the target market market, customers and competition. With information
collected from business research, management of organisations can make innovative and well-
thought-out decisions towards growth and survival of the organisations. Research has helped
many companies to plan new products, develop advertising campaigns and compete with direct
competitors. Without conducting a research, companies may face challnges in navigating and
entrering new markets especiaaly new frims.

Conducting research to better understand the industry your company operates in is integral to
success. Knowing who your competition is, who your customers are and what products or
services to offer will help you to develop a solid plan. In addition, business research helps
organizations avoid future failures. Organizations can determine whether they should expand
operations or scale back based on how the industry is doing as a whole. They can even decide if
they should apply for a new loan or pay back debts sooner based on current interest rates.
Understanding the industry also helps businesses price their products or services effectively,
ensuring they are in line with market rates and competitors.

Your customers are the reason your business exists. As a result, it’s vital to know who they are,
how they think, how they feel and why they might need your products or services. Organizations
conduct market research in various ways, such as through phone or online surveys, and can also
purchase research that has already been published for their industry. It’s a great way to
understand what your customers’ biggest challenges are so that you can determine how to help
them. Market research is also vital to new product development. Research helps to reduce risk
when making a big investment in creating a new product or offering a new service. Knowing
your customers also helps to fine-tune marketing campaigns. This way, you can target customers
effectively, really honing in on their pain points and offering your organization as a viable
solution. Brand research helps organizations to understand how their customers view them and
shows any changes needed to improve the business' overall image.

Every business has some kind of competition; no one operates alone. As a result, it’s important
to know who your true competitors are and how you compare. Companies that are honest about
their strengths and weaknesses as compared to their competitors have a higher chance of success.
Through effective competitor analysis and research, organizations can determine if they need to
develop new products or services, whether they should consider new marketing strategies or if
their pricing plan needs some tweaks. By understanding the competition better, organizations
also can develop new ways to increase market share.

Business research tests the possible success of fresh products. Businesses need to know what
kinds of services and products consumers want before they produce them. Research will reduce
risk – Research can help design a new product or service, figuring out what is needed and ensure
that the development of a product is highly targeted towards demand.

Guaranteeing adequate distribution. Businesses can also use research to guarantee sufficient

distribution of their products. For instance, a consumer products’ company might want to speak
with merchants about the various brands they offer. The outcomes of the business research can
help managers decide where they need to increase their product distribution.
In-house research is required for professional and self development of the workers through
training and mentoring. Organisational research and analysis would also be needed for
assessment of performance management, process reengineering, departmental assessment and
well-being of staff members.

Undertaking research can help a company avoid future failure. Carrying out research can also
help a business determine whether now is the right time to expand into another town or whether
it needs to apply for a new loan. It may also help a small business decide if a process should be
altered or if more needs to be done to meet the requirements of the customer base.

Studying the competition. Businesses frequently make use of research to study key rivals in their
markets. Businesses will often begin with secondary research information or information which
is currently accessible. Research is important for any organization to remain competitive in the
market. The top function of research is to supply a business with an outlet to correctly determine
its customers. With the help of surveys, an organization can analyze the preferences of its target
consumers. Furthermore, these studies could also provide a business the chance to examine its
competitors in the industry and analyze and emulate key strategies which could help in its
operations.

It can also help in the recruitment of employees. It’s through proper research that human
resource managers are able to determine and recruit qualified manpower. Recruitment of workers
with the right skills and attitudes aids the company to improve its productivity levels. Research
for the right staff members can be done via the internet, consultancy firms and institutions of
higher learning.

A proper knowledge of the employees and healthy conversation would be important factors for a
manager to boost performance of the individuals in the team. A good approach, winning attitude
and behaviour of the manager with proper systems set up would certainly call for sound research
to understand and improve the system.

Businesses use research to ascertain the success of their advertising. For instance, a dairy
manufacturer may want to find out what percentage of the people saw its latest tv commercial.
The dairy manufacturer may find that more individuals become aware of its advertising the
longer the tv ad runs. The company may decide to run its tv ads at different times if few people
have seen the ads.

A business can make well-informed decisions due to research. In the research process, the
business will be able to acquire details about key business areas, analyze it, create a strategy and
distribute business information. Reports, presented to the top management, often contain details
on consumer and employee preferences and all the available channels for sales, marketing,
finance and production.

Management makes use of these details to determine the best strategy. Research is a necessity at
all stages and phases of business operations. Initial research is needed to evaluate whether
getting into the given kind of business would be profitable and whether there exists demand for
the proposed product.

Regarding the staff, a correctly carried out research can uncover important details on their
satisfaction quotient, the difficulties experienced by them and how the problems related to
relationships at the workplace could be handled. An analysis into the results would allow the
management to bring about changes for the all round effective functioning of the organisation
and its employees. The workers can be trained and coached in line with the needs. This would
help personal as well as professional development improving overall organisational performance.

Research is important for managerial decision making. All strategic business areas are analyzed
and evaluated; then techniques for more efficient procedures are created. All businesses usually
have many ways of doing an activity. Through proper research, the organization will be able to
pick the most effective, productive and profitable one. Research could possibly be applied to
marketing, production, finance, IT and Human resources.

Research can answer questions for various problems, from getting a grip on industry trends,
identifying new products to produce and deliver to the market, or deciding on which site to
locate an outlet, to better understanding what it needs to fulfill customer demands. Research can
also help evaluate if a product is accepted in the market. Research aids expansion into new
markets.
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.

Research has its special significance in solving various operational and planning problems in the
business. The Industrial Network Theory aims to describe and explain the business relationships
and networks in which the focal firm is deeply embedded. One of its major propositions is that
business relationships somehow influence, to different extents and over time, the focal firm’s
survival. This pertains to the diverse and time-varying significance of business relationships for
the focal firm. It has often been implicitly sustained that such significance is strongly related to
the role played by business relationships and consequently the relationship outcomes accruing to
the focal firm. The logic underlying the relationship significance proposition is outwardly
oriented, somewhat overlooking the focal firm’s inside and in particular the conspicuous
influence of business relationships on what the focal firm does competently both within and
across its vertical boundaries.

Research is very important in the marketing. In marketing the companies use to market their
products in order to sell them and to make familiar with the consumers with the

products. However there is strong need for research in the marketing. Many companies use the
research in marketing to discover the changing trends in the market, to measure the changing
consumer behavior of the specific location. So research has become the need for the business due
to the tough competition in the market. So many companies are doing different research for their
product development, for increasing their sales volume.
Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve
discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to
market our product.

So there are different types of research which is carried by the marketing companies. The most
common example is that the companies are doing research for finding out that how many visitors
pay attention to the bill boards during the travel. So in this way the companies measure the
number of the times the visitor pay attention during the traveling and how they get influence
from that advertisement on the bill boards. Similarly many companies are doing their research on
the consumer eating habits to check that how the consumer likes to eat in a specific environment.
So the research is very important in the marketing.

That means it is understand, research is significant in any business to aid decision making.
Before anything happens, the marketer needs to do environmental scanning. To do that, research
is conducted. Then the marketer needs to do market segmentation, again research is required.
Selecting the target market is a decision that is made based on the results of the research. The
product is here, the marketer needs to know if the target market likes it or not= research,
deciding on whether to cease production of that product or not= results of the research… a
marketer thinks, he\she has made his\her point already completed.

Conclusion

Above explanation we can say that, the term of research is much stricter in science than in
everyday life. It revolves around using the scientific method to generate hypotheses and provide
analyzable results. All scientific research has a goal and ultimate aim, repeated and refined
experimentation gradually reaching an answer.

These results are a way of gradually uncovering truths and finding out about the processes that
drive the universe around us. Only by having a rigid structure to experimentation, can results be
verified as acceptable contributions to science.

Some other areas, such as history and economics, also perform true research, but tend to have
their own structures in place for generating solid results. They also contribute to human
knowledge but with different processes and system
Market research is the process of collecting data to determine whether or not a particular product
or service will satisfy customer’s needs. This information is essential to the success of business
ventures especially those in the SME business sector.

The information generated is useful for making strategic business decisions, uncovering unmet
customer needs, and in many cases, help you discover new ideas for products or services.

Market research can identify market trends, demographics, economic shifts, customer’s buying
habits, and important information on competition.

Broadly speaking, research results can be said to be practically relevant if they influence
management practice; that is, if they lead to the change, modification, or confirmation of how
managers think, talk, or act (Nicolai & Seidl, 2010).

The just ended discussion has pointed the importance of research in organisations. It has been
found that research is vital to the scussess of business in this competeitive business enviroment.
Research is necessary to gather facts and statistics with regards to a company’s customers,
employees and competitors. Based on these, organisations are able to make better managerial
decisions. Therefore it can be concluded that research is of great importance to organisstions.

Just like nation states rely on the intelligence units popularly known as the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) in Zimbabwe, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in America etc,
Basically, research is a strategy that seeks to make basic discoveries and undercover new
principles of factors so far not unknown or unrecognised. Simply put, research is the
systematic search for knowledge.
 Unpacking business research

, Business Research Methods, 2002,p6).

Systematicness and objectivity are the hallmarks of business research, which is an important tool
for managers and decision makers in corporate and non-corporate organisations.

When is business research used?

Some Aspects where Business Research is important.

Importance of research

Research can be used as an important element in business administration such as testing of new
products. Companies must know what types of products and services customers want
before they market them.

Market research will minimise risk Market research can help shape a new product or service,
identifying what is needed and ensure that the development of the product is highly
focussed towards demand.

Companies may also use business research to ensure the adequate distribution of their products.
For example, a consumer products company may want to talk to retailers about all the
different brands they sell.

Basically, research is an essential part of any business that wants to offer products or services
that are more focussed and well targeted. Business decisions that are based on good
intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends. Given the
foregoing, it is imperative that business executives should make market research part and
parcel of the business process.

Research creates benchmarks, and helps you measure your progress. Unless you measure it, you
may no be able to gauge how well your business is performing.
Early research may highlight glaring holes in your service or shortfalls .in your product. Regular
market research will show if improvements are being made and this will motivate the
team if there is positive progression.

Research will help you better communicate. Your current customer experiences could be your
valuable information source. Not only will they allow you to gauge how well you
currently meet their expectations: they can tell you, where you are getting things right
and more importantly where you are getting things wrong.

Business research types

These can be put into two broad categories; basic research and applied research. Basic research
attempts to expand the limits of knowledge but is ot directly involved in the solution to a
pragmatic problem.

For instance, is executive success correlated with a high need for achievement? According to
Zikmund, basic research aims to expand the frontiers of science and knowledge by
verifying or disapproving the acceptability of a given theory or attempting to discover
more about a certain concept.

For instance how does motivation affect employee performance?

Applied research focusses on real life problem or situation with a view to helping reach a
decision to deal with it. It is conducted when a decision must be made about a specific
real-life problem. For example, should corporate x adopt a paperless office environment?
I will not delve into science and scientific methods of research but suffice it to say
business research impacts on the decision making process and is associated with the
development and implementation of a strategy.

Value of business research

Reduction of uncertainty and improvement in the quality of decision making, with several
consequent advantages (eg strategic, operational) and benefits for organisations. Business
research methods can be employed in each of the following four stages;
Identification of problems and or opportunities useful for strategy planning, analysis of internal
and external organisational development.

Diagnosing and assessment of problems and/or opportunities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, every business needs to conduct research and small budgets are no excuse for lack
of a research plan. By starting out with some accessible resources, you can begin to
develop better marketing strategies that can position you for market growth.