Lecture 1

Question 1

Business research

Answer 1

A systematic process of testing hypotheses through carfully executed data analyses that are aimed to help a manager solve, avoid or minimize a problem

Question 2

Business research does/is 3 things

Answer 2

Is a systematic process

Tests hypotheses

Business reseach entails collecting and analyzing data

meant to help managers make better decisions

Question 3

Three most common cognitive biases

Answer 3

confirmation bias

Availability bias

What you see is all there is (WYSIATI) bias

Question 4

confirmation bias

Answer 4

Refers to the tendency to only consider informatino that agrees with your preexisting beliefs. You cherry pick the information you consider

Question 5

Availability bias

Answer 5

Cognitive bias in which you make a decision based on readily available information, even though it may not be the best information to inform your decision

Question 6

what you see is all there is

Answer 6

When deciding whether there is a relationship between an event and an outcome, we tend to notice what is present but we often forget to consider what is absent.

Question 7

Evaluating business research

Answer 7

To judge to what extend academic and popular press articles can be trusted as a basis for your decisions

Question 8

to delegate business research

Answer 8

To interact effectively with your firms in-house research department and/or external research agencies that will conduct research studies for you

Question 9

To perform business research

Answer 9

you should be able to perform research studies yourself to solve the smaller problems that you will encounter in your future jobs

Question 10

Inductive research approach

Answer 10

researchers first collect data, next they try to find a pattern in these data, after which they develop a theoretical framework based on this pattern

Question 11

Deductive research approach

Answer 11

Researchers first hypothesize relationships between variables based on theory. These hypotheses are then tested using data

Question 12

What is the aim of inductive and deductive research?

Answer 12

inductive research aims at developing a theory

Deductive research aims at testing a theory

Question 13

two major types of equivalences (international studies)

Answer 13

Translation equivalence

Metric equivalence

Question 14

Translation equivalence

Answer 14

One person translates the original text/questions. Then another person translates the text back into the original language. After comparing the two files in the original language, adjustments can be made in case of discrepancies

Question 15

Metric equivalence

Answer 15

Use a pictorial scale, this especially cancels out differences in level of education between countries or standardizing the response to each variable within each country sample and performing the analyses on the standardized variables

Question 16

Three types of equivalences needed to be established in international research

Answer 16

Construct equivalence

Sampling equivalence

Metric equivalence

Question 17

Construct equivalence

Answer 17

are we studying the same phenomena/concepts in different countries

Question 18

Sampling equivalence

Answer 18

Are the samples used in different countries representative within countries and comparable across countries

Question 19

types of observation

Answer 19

Participant vs nonparticipant observer

Concealed vs unconcealed observation

structures vs unstructured observation

Question 20

Participant vs nonparticipant observation

Answer 20

The researcher either observes the behavior from participants from the outside or acts as a group member while observing participants

Question 21

Structured vs unstructured observation

Answer 21

Structured means the data is gathered in a structured way. The researcher knows what he is looking for and writes it down when specific behavior is performed. Unstructured means the research is writing down all the behavior of participants, since he does not know what he is looking for

Question 22

Spillover

Answer 22

Treatment of other participants - Employees might talk to each other. An employee in the non manipulation group might become aware of the possible 3% bonus and hence the results might be biased. As such, the different effect on employee productivity for informed vs non-informed groups is not soley affected by the information provision manipulation

Question 23

Non compliance/failure to treat

Answer 23

Entrails that subjects so people of the sampling dont receive treatment