BUSINESS Research Methods

UNIT1
 Introduction of Research
MEANING OF RESEARCH
• Research in common parlance refers to a search for
knowledge. Once can also define research as a
scientific and systematic search for pertinent
information on a specific topic. In fact, research is an
art of scientific investigation.
• The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English
lays down the meaning of research as “a careful
investigation or inquiry specially through search for
new facts in any branch of knowledge.”
• Redman and Mory define research as a “systematized
effort to gain new knowledge.”
 OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH

1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new

insights into it (studies with this object in view are termed as
exploratory or formularize research studies);
2. To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular
individual, situation or a group (studies with this object in
view are known as descriptive research studies);
3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs
or with which it is associated with something else (studies
with this object in view are known as diagnostic research
studies);
4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between
variables (such studies are known as hypothesis-testing
research studies).
 Characteristics of Research
• Controlled
• Rigorous
• Systematic
• Valid and Verifiable
• Empirical
• Critical
 Types of Research
• Descriptive vs. Analytical
Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-
finding enquiries of different kinds. The major
purpose of descriptive research is description of the
state of affairs as it exists at present.
In analytical research, the researcher has to
use facts or information already available, and
analyze these to make a critical evaluation of the
material.
• Applied vs. Fundamental:
Applied research aims at finding a solution for an
immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business
organisation, whereas fundamental research is mainly
concerned with generalisations and with the formulation of a
theory. “Gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake is termed
‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research.”

• Quantitative vs. Qualitative:

Quantitative research is based on the measurement of
quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be
expressed in terms of quantity.
Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned
with qualitative phenomenon, i.e.,phenomena relating to or
involving quality or kind. For instance, when we are
interested in investigating the reasons for human behaviour
(i.e., why people think or do certain things),
• Conceptual vs. Empirical
Conceptual research is that related to
some abstract idea(s) or theory. It is generally
used by philosophers and thinkers to develop
new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.
On the other hand, empirical research
relies on experience or observation alone,
often without due regard for system and
theory.
• Some Other Types of Research

 one-time research or longitudinal research.

 field-setting research or laboratory research or
simulation research.
 clinical or diagnostic research
 Historical research
 conclusion-oriented
 Research process
• Research process consists of series of actions
or steps necessary to effectively carry out
research and the desired sequencing of these
steps.
 research

• Basic research : the basic premise is the need

to KNOW and the concern is primarily
academic in nature.

• Applied research: Solution or action oriented

research, that is contextual and practical in
approach.
Research Process
1. Formulating the research problem
• There are two types of research problems,
viz., those which relate to states of nature
and those which relate to relationships
between variables.
• two steps are involved in formulating the
research problem, viz., understanding the
problem thoroughly, and rephrasing the
same into meaningful terms from an
analytical point of view.
2. Extensive literature survey
The researcher should undertake extensive literature
survey connected with the problem. For this
purpose, the abstracting and indexing journals and
published or unpublished bibliographies are the first
place to go to.
3. Development of working hypotheses
• After extensive literature survey, researcher should
state in clear terms the working hypothesis or
hypotheses. Working hypothesis is tentative
assumption made in order to draw out and test its
logical or empirical consequences.
4.Preparing the research design
• The preparation of such a design facilitates research to
be as efficient as possible yielding maximal
information. In other words, the function of research
design is to provide for the collection of relevant
evidence with minimal expenditure of effort, time and
money.
5. Determining sample design
• All the items under consideration in any field of inquiry
constitute a ‘universe’ or ‘population’.
• The researcher must decide the way of selecting a
sample or what is popularly known as the sample
design. In other words, a sample design is a definite
plan determined before any data are actually collected
for obtaining a sample from a given population.
6. Collecting the data
• There are several ways of collecting the
appropriate data which differ considerably in
context of money costs, time and other
resources at the disposal of the researcher.
• Primary data can be collected either through
experiment or through survey.
7. Execution of the project
• If the execution of the project proceeds on correct
lines, the data to be collected would be adequate
and dependable. The researcher should see that the
project is executed in a systematic manner and in
time.
8. Analysis of data
• The analysis of data requires a number of closely
related operations such as establishment of
categories, the application of these categories to raw
data through coding, tabulation and then drawing
statistical inferences.
9.Hypothesis-testing
• Various tests, such as Chi square test, t-test, F-test,
have been developed by statisticians for the purpose.
10. Generalisations and interpretation
• The real value of research lies in its ability to arrive at
certain generalisations. If the researcher had no
hypothesis to start with, he might seek to explain his
findings on the basis of some theory.
11.Preparation of the report or the thesis
• The researcher has to prepare the report of what has
been done by him.
• (i) the preliminary pages; (ii) the main text,
and (iii) the end matter.
Research applications in marketing
• Market & consumer analysis

• Product research

• Pricing research

• Promotional research

• Distribution Research
 Research applications in finance
• Asset pricing, capital markets and corporate finance

• Financial derivatives and credit risk modeling research

• Market-based accounting research

• Auditing and accountability

• Other areas: financial forecasting, behavioural finance,

volatility analysis
 Research applications in
human resources
Training & development studies

Selection and staffing studies

Performance appraisal–design and evaluation

Organization planning and development

Incentive and benefits studies

Emerging areas–critical factor analysis, employer

branding studies
 Research applications in
production & operations management
Operation planning and design
Demand forecasting and demand estimation
Process planning
Project management and maintenance effectiveness
studies
Logistics and supply chain-design and evaluation
Quality estimations and assurance studies
 Criteria of Good Research
1. The purpose of the research should be clearly
defined.
2. The research procedure used should be described in
sufficient detail
3. The procedural design of the research should be
carefully planned
4. The researcher should report with complete
frankness, flaws in procedural design
5. The analysis of data should be sufficiently adequate
to reveal its significance and the methods of analysis
used should be appropriate.
6. Conclusions should be confined
7. Greater confidence in research is warranted if the
researcher is experienced
 Qualities of a good research
• Good research is systematic
• Good research is logical
• Good research is empirical
• Good research is replicable
Problem Definition and Objective Formulation

• Defining the Research Problem

In research process, the first and foremost
step happens to be that of selecting and properly
defining a research problem.

• WHAT IS A RESEARCH PROBLEM?

A research problem, in general, refers to some
difficulty which a researcher experiences in the
context of either a theoretical or practical situation
and wants to obtain a solution for the same.
• There must be an individual (or a group or an
organisation), let us call it ‘I,’ to whom the problem
can be attributed.
• There must be at least two courses of action, say C1
and C2, to be pursued.
• There must be at least two possible outcomes, say
O1 and O2, of the course of action
• The courses of action available must provides some
chance of obtaining the objective, but they cannot
provide the same chance, otherwise the choice
would not matter
 SELECTING THE PROBLEM
• The research problem undertaken for study must be carefully
selected. The task is a difficult one, although it may not appear to be
so.
• Subject which is overdone should not be normally chosen, for it will
be a difficult task to throw any new light in such a case.
• Controversial subject should not become the choice of an average
researcher.
• Too narrow or too vague problems should be avoided.
• The subject selected for research should be familiar and feasible.
• The importance of the subject, the qualifications and the training of
a researcher are considered.
• The selection of a problem must be preceded by a preliminary
study.
TECHNIQUE INVOLVED IN DEFINING A PROBLEM
• Defining a research problem properly and clearly is a
crucial part of a research study and must in no case
be accomplished hurriedly.
• The technique for the purpose involves the
undertaking of the following steps generally one
after the other:
• (i) statement of the problem in a general way;
• (ii) understanding the nature of the problem;
• (iii) surveying the available literature
• (iv) developing the ideas through discussions; and
• (v) rephrasing the research problem into a working
proposition.
 Exploratory Research
• Exploratory research is conducted for a problem
that has not been studied more clearly, intended
to establish priorities, develop operational
definitions and improve the final research design.
• Exploratory research helps determine the best
research design, data-collection method and
selection of subjects.
• The objective of exploratory research is to gather
preliminary information that will help define
problems and suggest hypotheses.
 Characteristics of Exploratory research
• They are not structured studies
• It is usually low cost, interactive and open ended.
• To carry out exploratory research, generally there is no prior research done or the
existing ones do not answer the problem precisely enough.
• It is a time consuming research and it needs patience and has risks associated with
it.
• The researcher will have to go through all the information available for the
particular study he is doing.
• There are no set of rules to carry out the research per se, as they are flexible,
broad and scattered.
• The research should also have a few theories which can support its findings as that
will make it easier for the researcher to assess it and move ahead in his study
• Such a research usually produces qualitative data, however in certain cases
quantitative data can be generalized for a larger sample through use of surveys
and experiments.
 For More Understanding
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/
exploratory-research-definition-methods-
examples.html
  Conclusive research
•  Conclusive research is meant to provide
information that is useful in reaching
conclusions or decision-making. It tends to be
quantitative in nature, that is to say in the
form of numbers that can be quantified and
summarized.
 Research
“Go back and search until we find – explore”

Do not follow where the path may lead.

Go instead where there is no path.

Ralph Emerson

“An objective and systematic effort to gain new knowledge”

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 outline

• Literature survey-Why.
• Sources of literature
• Strategies
• Tips for Literature Review

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 WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW
• A literature review is a description of
the literature relevant to a particular
field or topic

• A literature Review is designed to be a

critical analysis of what others have
already discovered about the subject

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 outline
• Literature survey-Why.
• Sources of literature
• Strategies
• Tips for Literature Review

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 IT GIVES AN OVERVIEW OF:

• What has been said

• Key writers
• Prevailing theories and hypotheses
• Appropriate and useful methods and
methodologies

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 Literature Survey- Why
 What approaches have been used by others
 What Difference are you making
 Placing in Current context
 Avoiding duplication
 Clarification of Controversial results
 Narrow down your Research Problem
 Variable identification
 Is Instrumental in the process of research
design?
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 Literature Survey- Why
• Helps to form significant question
• Gives background information to your work
• Generate New ideas
• Progress of Scientific Knowledge
• Builds new work on old work
• Compare, extend, contrast
 Identifying areas where research is needed

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 SOURCES OF LITERATURE

 Open access
 Research papers- Published research paper in
established Journal, Peer Reviewed journal .
 Recent Papers ( Last 5years to 10 years)
 Classic or Seminal (Year old)
 Conference proceedings
 Official publication
 Reviews

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 SOURCES OF LITERATURE
 The Indian national digital Library in engineering
Science and Technologies(INDEST)
 Refereed Academic Journals
 Books and book chapters
 Conference proceedings
 Reports
 Doctoral Theses
 Professional/Trade journals and Magazines
 Newspapers

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 Identifying the Relevant Literature
 Keyword based search in important
databases/indexed sources
 -Scopus, Web of Science, ABI/Inform (ProQuest), Google Scholars

 When you want trace the history of a particular

paper backward and forward in time
 Backward: through the list of references after
the paper (cited references)
 Forward: through the subsequent citations
 Scanning leading journals’ table of contents
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 strategies
• When you want trace the history of a
particular paper backward and forward in
time

• Backward: through the list of references after

the paper (cited references)
• Forward: through the subsequent citations

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 Tips on Literature Review

• When should I do the literature review

– At the beginning, when you start looking for a

problem
– In the middle, once your work is under way
– Towards the end, when you have your results

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How should I select papers to read
 Ask your guide
 Survey / review articles are a good starting point
 Try to identify seminal or key papers. For
example, if several current papers on an article
point to a previous article on a specific point.
 Locate follow-up work from key paper.
 Follow references from within the first
interesting / relevant paper you read.

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 What to do if I find too few sources

• Discuss with expert, guide

• Look for related topics, synonyms
• Broaden scope of topic a little, then
narrow back
• Look harder !

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What to do if I find too many sources

• Plan to scope or scale down your search

• Restrict by year (recent)
• Restrict by source (only two most well-known
journals in field)
• Restrict by topic (further narrow topic)

• Again, an expert’s help is valuable.

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 ASSUMPTIONS
 Pre-requisite to reading a technical research
paper
 You are “somewhat” familiar with the broad idea
 Else
 Better to first become somewhat familiar
 Read a textbook for fundamental concepts
 Take a course
 Go through tutorials
 Read a survey / review paper
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 Stage 1: Get the big picture
 What you are looking for?
 Where to find it
 What research area / sub-topic does the paper fall under? Title,
Abstract
 What problem does the paper attempt to solve? (Title), Abstract,
Introduction, Problem definition
 What is related work and why is it not sufficient, what are the
gaps?
Introduction
 What key contribution does the paper claim? (Title),
(Abstract),Introduction, Conclusion
 Broadly, how does the paper solve the problem?
Introduction, figures
 How do the authors defend the solution? Introduction, figures
 What category of paper is this? Introduction, headings
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 GET the Big Picture

what you are looking for where to find it

What research area/sub-topic does the
paper fall under
What problems does the paper
attempts to solve
What is Related work and why is not
sufficient
What Key contribution Does the paper
claim
How Does the paper solves the Problem
How does the authors Defend the
Solution
What category of paper is this
Title, Abstract
Title, Abstract, Introduction, Problem
Definition
Introduction
Title ,Abstract, Introduction,
Conclusion
Introduction, Figure
Introduction, Figure
introduction, heading
 Get the details
what you are looking for where to find it
What problem does the paper attempt to Introduction, Problem definition
solve?

What is related work? What are gaps? Introduction, Literature Survey or

Related Work

What contribution does the paper claim – Introduction, Conclusion

idea, technique, proof, surprising result etc?

How does the paper solve the problem? Solution, Experiment, figures

How do the authors defend the solution? Methodology, Experiment, Results

 Get the details
What you are looking for Where to find it
What is the precise research Introduction, Problem definition
question addressed?

What are assumptions, scope? Problem defn, solution approach

What are details of proposed argument, proof,

solution –argument, proof, implementation, experiment
implementation, experiment

What is the take-away message Overall

from the paper?
 Evaluate the details
• Is the research problem significant ?
• Is the problem novel?
• Is the solution approach novel ?
• Are the contributions significant ? –
• Is relevant related work surveyed “sufficiently” enough?
• Have alternate approaches of solution been explored?
• Are assumptions valid? Has paper violated assumptions?
• Are the claims valid?
• Are the different parts of the paper consistent?
• Are the figures, graphs, diagrams precise?
• Does the paper flow logically?

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 Synthesize, Ask Creative Questions
 What are some alternative approaches to address
the research problem?
 Could there be a different way to substantiate the
claim?
 Are their counter-examples or arguments against
the paper’s claims?
 Are all assumptions identified and validated?
 How can the research results be improved?
 How can the results be generalized?
 What are the new ideas and open problems
suggested by this work?
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 What if I still don’t understand the
paper
• Possible reasons:
• New subject matter, unfamiliar terminology, acronyms.
• Don’t understand technical details of experiment methodology
or proof
• You may be (mentally) tired. The paper is “heavy”.
• The paper is poorly written!

• What to do:
• Nothing! (In case the paper is not important to you)
• Sleep, read again tomorrow with a fresh mind
• Discuss with colleague
• Read a textbook or survey article, then return to paper
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 Literature Review: Other Issues
(Saunders et al., 2016

One should take utmost care not to plagiarise the work

of others
 Copy and paste from the Internet without
citation and referencing
 Copy and paste from journal articles and other
sources without quotation marks, citation and
referencing
 Paraphrasing material from one or more
sources without citation and referencing

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 Organization of literature review

• A general organization looks like a funnel

– Broader topics
– Subtopics
– Studies like yours

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 How to organize studies
• Chronological
– By publication date
– By trend
• Thematic
– A structure which considers different themes
• Methodological
– Focuses on the methods of the researcher, e.g.,
qualitative versus quantitative approaches

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 Summary table
• It is useful to prepare.
• Such a table provides a quick overview that allows the
reviewer to make sense of a large mass of information.
• The tables could include columns with headings such as
– Author
– type of study
– Sample
– Design
– data collection approach
– key findings

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When I hear, I forget
When I see, I remember
When I do, I learn

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 Reporting verbs
• Argue • Note
• Assert • Object
• Assume • Observe
• Challenge • Persuade
• Claim • Propose
• Contend • Prove
• Contradict • Purport
• Describe • Recommend
• Dispute • Refute
• Emphasize
• Reject
• Establish
•
• Remark
Examine
• Find
• Suggest
• Maintain • Support

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 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

 Deakin University –
 http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/research/inde
x.php
 University of Wisconsin-Madison –
 http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Review
ofLiterature.html
 University of North Carolina –
 http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/literature
-reviews/

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