Chapter 13 Pp Flashcards
Plan your research
Learn about the subject
Target information gaps
Keep an open mind
Learn about the subject
Industry publications Competitors websites Interviews with experts Online resources Books and indexes Problem statement
Problem statement
Defines the problem or purpose of your research (decision you need to make at the end of the process)
Prioritize research needs
Constraints :
Limited time
Limited resources
Information:
“Need to know “
“Nice to know”
Data and information
Secondary research
Primary research
Secondary research
Research materials previously created for another purpose
Start with secondary research
Primary research
New research done specifically for your current project
Ex: surveys, interviews, observations, experiments
Evaluating sources
Honesty and reliability Potential bias Purpose of the material Authors credibility Data collection methods Independent verification Timeliness Completeness Logic and good sense
Secondary research
Inside the company:
Company documents
Knowledge management systems
Outside the company:
Hardcopy resources
Online resources
Finding information at the library
Business books Electronic databases Newspapers Periodicals Directories Almanacs Statistical resources Government publications
Four categories of periodicals
Popular magazines
Trade journals
Business magazines
Academic journals
Finding information online :
Search engines
No human editor
Different results
Is incomplete
Disadvantages of search engines that affect quality of research
Process search engines use to find lists of web pages has no human editors to evaluate quality
Can’t reach content in limited access collections (back issues of newspapers, magazines, and professional journals)
Might be able to find certain pages through one engine, but not another
Web directories
Use human editors to categorize and evaluate web sites
Metacrawlers or metasearch engines
Sends search request on multiple search engines and tells how many hits each engine was able to find you
Online databases
Offers access to newspapers, magazines; and journals you’re likely needing for many research projects
Documenting sources
Credit your sources
Support your message
Help your readers
Fahd use doctrine
Use other people’s work as long as you don’t prevent them from benefiting as a result
Documenting sources
Direct quotes Specialized knowledge Fair use doctrine Paraphrased material Common knowledge Copyright law
Two most common primary research methods
Surveys
Interviews
Conducting surveys
Effective surveys use representative sample
Effective surveys are reliable and valid
Survey is reliable when
Produces identical results when repeated
Survey is valid when
It measures what its intended to
Effective questionnaire
Clear instructions Short answer questions Easy to analyze questions No leading questions Unambiguous questions No compound questions Adapt the survey
Types of questions
Open ended
Direct open ended
Restatement
Close ended
Open ended
offer opinions (lose control of interview, but not yes/no)
Close ended questions
Yes or no or short response
Less effort for interviewer, but might miss important information
Direct open ended
Suggest a response
Give you more control, give interviewee freedom in response
Restatement questions
Mirror a respondents previous answer and encourage expansion on answer .
Show you’re paying attention
Processing data and information
Quoting
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
Paraphrasing
Restatement in your own words
Maintain consistent feel
Avoids choppy sentences
Summarizing
Gist of material with fewer words than original
Identifies main idea, major support, leaves out most details
Analyzing the data
Mean, median, and mode
Overall trends
Cause and correlation
Cross- tabulation
Mean
Sum of all intend in group divided by number of items in that group
Median
Average or midpoint of series
Mode
Number that occurs most often in sample
Trend
Steady upward or downward movement in pattern of events
Causation
One factor causes the other to happen
Correlation
Simultaneous change in two variables that you’re measuring
Cross tabulation
Relationships between subsets of data
Looking separately at age, gender, location, product type, etc
Applying your findings
Unbiased summary
Logical conclusion
Recommendations
