Business Communication

and Reporting
Techniques

2.1 What is research?

David Zaruk
0475 61 51 01
david.zaruk@odisee.be
Starting the second semester early
… Wishful thinking?

This class

What is research?
Why do we gather data?
Setting the parameters for Reporting Techniques
So where are we now?
From the course outline, we will be looking at
 Identifying good data – gathering data
 Research tools (conducting qualitative and
quantitative surveys, analyses …)
 Research reporting tools
 Preparing a market analysis research report
 In other words: Learning everything to write a thesis
 Assessment (Post-corona)

As a writing course, the students will work throughout the year (there will be no
exams).
Permanent assessment is really essential in this course. Hence active participation
during the contact hours and willingness to perform a lot of autonomous work is
a prerequisite to meet the requirements of this course. Apart from the work you
have to do during the contact hours you will also work autonomously for at least
50 hours.
In the first half of the year, students will present two written projects, a group
evaluation and a presentation and will be graded accordingly (4 X 10%). The
market analysis report in the second half of the year (and implementing
research tools leading up to it) will be worth 40%.
Participation and attendance will be worth 10% for each half of the course. Let me
What is research?

Is it about finding the information I need?

For what?
… and what is information? How can I
value it?
Is research about finding truth?
Confirming my truth? Is there a “truth”?
Can you handle the truth?
Is research part of our quest to control
reality, nature, randomness, uncertainty?
Before we go any further
…

Are there facts?…or rather: Are facts relative (do “alternative

facts” exist?)?
Is research confirming what we want to believe, and rejecting
what (and who) we don’t like? Are you post modernish?
Post-modernism implies everything is relative (Kuhn)
Post-normal implies our demand for certainty is wrong
Marcel Kuntz: “Post-modernism is an assault on science”:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3463968/
Objective v Subjective
Two meanings of objective
Objective = Universal, true, unchanging
Or
Objective = Not subjective (peer reviewed) – define
peers (if I ask ten people …)
Do we seek truth or do we seek affirmation?
See Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason
More is better … right?
Our quest is to gather information, data to move
towards a more certain evaluation.
Goal is to have a better, more reliable decision process.
Facts need to be challenged by skeptics (built-in bias)
See Karl Popper: Science is more robust the longer it
resists falsification - We need to be skeptical
More data you have, the more confident you should be
Here is a challenge to bring
into the (heart)break!

Auguste Comte invented the social

sciences to replace religion with
objective empirical research that
would eventually allow humans to
achieve perfection in this world rather
than waiting for the next.
https://spectator.org/cabinet-science-denial-or-scientific-skepticism/
What is data?
Is it all numerical?
What is the relationship of data and statistics?
How do values come in?
Isn’t data objective?
Case (chat-bar) study: Morbidity data on COVID-19 does
not justify lockdown’s economic and social consequences
https://www.aier.org/article/cost-of-us-lockdowns-a-preliminary-report/
What is good data?
Today we have access to so much data
What’s the weather like tomorrow?
At what point do we decide we have enough data?
Emotional question – when we feel we have enough.
AI will always be able to gather more data (challenge)
Back to the chat bar:  Is AI data valuable on its own?
Why do we gather data?
To ease the decision-making process
To achieve affirmation
To learn
To challenge preconceptions
To replicate (to confirm preconceptions)
To add to the body of knowledge
To avoid making a mistake
When do we gather data?  Chat
bar
When we are hungry?
When we are debating dating that guy?
When we are getting dressed?

What kind of decision should be data-dependent?

For that parasite who doesn’t bother attending class who

asks you what this slide means, tell him what you want!
Some cases for data
gathering
A doctor deciding whether to operate
An investor deciding whether to sell or to accumulate
A marketing director deciding on a campaign
A policy-maker deciding to regulate on a product
A girlfriend deciding whether to dump the chump
A mother deciding how to dress a daughter for a trip
A student deciding how to use his/her time while studying
What data did you gather today?  Chat bar
How is this related to
marketing?
Marketing is built on data, market research, more data
The better the data, the better the marketing strategy
You need to challenge your preconceptions, test your
knowledge and confound conventional wisdom
That is how insights are born, marketing tricks develop
Think of campaigns that got the data right  Chat bar
Watch out!!!
We’re human … emotions get in the way
We may start with a gut feeling
This can influence (compromise) our approach to data
This may skew the nature of the questions we ask
Confirmation bias is a far cry from science
 Confirmation bias?

I only accept data that confirms

what I want to believe.
If you have another idea, I’d
consider what that means (if I
didn’t think you were an idiot!)
Welcome to the Age of Stupid!
So how do we start out?
You need to show me you can go out and get good data
It is core to marketing so you need to get it
This is not just something to do to get a credit to get out
Next year you need to submit a thesis / market research
Your preparation for that starts today
Now get out of here

David Zaruk
0475 61 51 01
david.zaruk@odisee.be