ch1 Flashcards
What is business research?
A series of well-thought out activities and carefully executed data analyses that help a manager to avoid, solve or minimise a problem
Why should future managers know about research?
To be able to perform, steer and evaluate business research
Hallmarks of “good” (business) research
Purposiveness, Rigor, Objectivity, Parsimony, Replicability and Generalizability
Hallmark #1: Purposiveness
Knowing “the why” of your research
Hallmark #2: Rigor
Ensuring a sound theoretical and a sound methodological design
(representative? unbiased questions?)
Hallmark #3: Objectivity
Drawing conclusions based on facts (rather than on subjective ideas)
Hallmark #4: Parsimony
“Shaving away” unnecessary details
explaining a lot with a little
Hallmark #5: Replicability
Finding the same results if the research is repeated in similar circumstances
(describe your study design in detail)
Hallmark #6: Generalizability
Being able to apply the research findings in a wide variety of different settings
(this should hold for fundamental research, but much less so for applied research)
Applied research
- To solve a current problem faced by a manager
- Applied to a specific company
- Within firms or research agencies
Fundamental research
- Also called basic or pure research
- To generate new knowledge about how problems that occur in several firms can be solved
- Applies to several organisational settings
- Mainly within universities (and knowledge institutes)
(Ideally the goal of fundamental research is that at a later stage it can be applied by organisations in smaller settings to solve their own problems)
INDUCTIVE RESEARCH
- Data -> Theory
- Building theory
- “from the bottom up”
DEDUCTIVE RESEARCH
- Theory->Data
- Testing theory
- “from the top down”
7 steps in inductive research
1 define the business problem 2 formulate the problem statement 3 provide a conceptual background 4 choose a research design 5 collect data 6 analyse data 7 develop theory
7 steps in deductive research
1 define the business problem 2 formulate the problem statement 3 develop a theoretical framework (incl. hypotheses) 4 choose a research design 5 collect data 6 analyse data 7 write-up
Advantages of internal consultants
1 Better chance of being readily accepted by the employees
2 Team requires less time to understand the structure, philosophy and climate, and the functioning and work systems of the organisation
3 Available to implement their recommendations after the research findings have been completed
4 Might cost less than external consultants
Disadvantages of internal consultants
1 May fall into stereotyped way of looking at the organization and its problems
2 Powerful coalitions to influence the internal team
3 Research team not perceived as experts
4 Bias: findings less objective
Advantages of external consultants
1 External team can draw on a wealth of experience from having worked with different types of organisations have had the same or similar types of problems
2 More knowledge of current sophisticated problem-solving models and latest innovations through their periodic training programs, which the teams within the organisation may not have access to
Disadvantages of external consultants
1 Costs of hiring is usually high
2 External team seldom get a warm welcome, nor are readily accepted by employees (more difficult to enlist their cooperation)
3 Additional fees for assistance in implementation and evaluation phases
