Chapter 1 - Nature and Process of Business Research Flashcards
1
Q
What are characteristics of business research?
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P L E R D
- systematic way with purpose to find out things
- data are collected and interpreted systematically
- based on logical relationships, not just beliefs
- will involve explanations of methods used
- will argue why results obtained are meaningful and where are limitations
2
Q
Why is business research needed?
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U S I G
- gap in literature
- inconsistency amongst studies
- societal development prompting research question
- to understand topic/ phenomena better
3
Q
What are factors that affect the context in which research takes place?
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Sozial Phänomenale politische Trainer kritisieren akademische Faktoren
- academic theories and existing knowledge
- researchers assumptions and views regarding research process
- researchers assumptions regarding nature of social phenomena
- quality criteria used to evaluate research
- political context of research study
- training and personal researcher values
4
Q
Which comes first, theory or research?
What are the two types?
A
- inductive reasoning | from specific to general -> many observations are made -> discern a pattern -> make generalization -> infern explanation or a theory | making broad generalizations from specific observations and conclusions drawn from data
- deductive reasoning | generally accepted theory of how things work -> find evidence for it in the problem (theory) -> specific -> observations (making predictions)
5
Q
What is the research practice gap?
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- evidence based management does not exist, no translation of research evidence into practices solving organizational problems
- instead, decision making in businesses relies solely on experience
6
Q
Should business research be relevant to practice?
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- ideally yes, but two things went wrong:
1. lost in translation: no managers are turning to academic journals
2. lost before translation: researchers design studies without input from practitioners
7
Q
What is the idea of evidence based management?
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- systematic use of the best available evidence
- information partly from the expertise and judgement of managers working in individual firms
8
Q
What is the process of business research? [deductive]
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- literature review (what is already known about the topic? what concepts have been applied to it? what controversies exist about he topic? who are the key contributors?)
- concepts and theories
- research questions (needs to be explicit, presented as statement but also as question)
- sampling (representative samples, e.g. in survey research or case study research)
- data collection (e.g. structured interview or participant observation)
- data analysis (transcriptions, coding, thematic analysis, secondary analysis)
- writing up (generally to include the literature review, research methods, results, discussion and conclusion)
9
Q
What are techniques for research ideas?
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- rational thinking (examining strenghts, scanning media, searching literature)
- creative thinking (keeping notebook with ideas, exploring personal preferences, brainstorming)
10
Q
What are the steps of brainstorming?
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- defining the problem (what am i interested in?)
- asking for suggestions
- recording suggestions (dont criticize)
- review of suggestions (what is meant by each)
- analysing suggestions (work thorugh list of ideas and decide which appeal most and why)
11
Q
What types of research questions are there?
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E C O D E P
- predicting an outcome (will they eventually get the title if they beat the other team?)
- explaining causes and consequences of a phenomena (chicken or egg, what was first?)
- evaluating a phenomena (does y really have the benefits that it is claimed to have?)
- describing a phenomena (which can jump higher, dog flea or cat flea?)
- developing good practice (how can we improve xy?)
- controversy around empowerment (do political motives impede high quality research?)
