The Business Research Process: An Overview

Question 1

Key ways in which researchers contribute to

decision making:

Answer 1

1. Helping to better define the current situation
2. Defining the firm—determining how consumers, competitors,
   and employees view the firm
3. Providing ideas for enhancing current business practices
4. Identifying new strategic directions
5. Testing ideas that will assist in implementing business
   strategies for the firm
6. Examining how correct a certain business theory is in a given
   situation

Question 2

Decision Making Terms

Answer 2

Business opportunity
• A situation that makes some potential
competitive advantage possible.
• Business problem
• A situation that makes some significant
negative consequence more likely.
• Symptoms
• Observable cues that serve as a signal of a
problem because they are caused by that
problem.

Question 3

Decision Making

Answer 3

Decision making defined
• The process of developing and deciding among
alternative ways of resolving a problem or
choosing from among alternative opportunities.
• Research’s role in the decision making process
• Recognizing the nature of the problem or
opportunity.
• Identifying how much information is currently
available and how reliable it is.
• Determining what information is needed to better
deal with the situation.

Question 4

Conditions Affecting Decision Making

Answer 4

Certainty
• The decision maker has all information needed
to make an optimal decision.
• Uncertainty
• The manager grasps the general nature of
desired objectives, but the information about
alternatives is incomplete.
• Ambiguity
• The nature of the problem itself is unclear such
that objectives are vague and decision
alternatives are difficult to define.

Question 5

Types of Business Research

Answer 5

Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Causal

Question 6

Exploratory Research

Answer 6

Exploratory Research
• Conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or
discover ideas that may be potential business
opportunities.
• Initial research conducted to clarify and define
the nature of a problem.
◗ Does not provide conclusive evidence
◗ Subsequent research expected

Question 7

Descriptive Research

Answer 7

Describes characteristics of objects, people,
groups, organizations, or environments.
• Addresses who, what, when, where, why, and
how questions.
• Considerable understanding of the nature of
the problem exists.
• Does not provide direct evidence of causality.
• Diagnostic analysis
• Seeks to diagnose reasons for market
outcomes and focuses specifically on the
beliefs and feelings consumers have about and
toward competing products.

Question 8

Causal Research

Answer 8

Research conducted to identify cause and
effect relationships (inferences).
• Evidence of causality:
• Temporal sequence—the appropriate causal
order of events.
• Concomitant variation—two phenomena vary
together.
• Nonspurious association—an absence of
alternative plausible explanations.

Question 9

Stages in the Research Process

Answer 9

Process stages:
1. Defining the research objectives
2. Planning a research design
3. Planning a sample
4. Collecting the data
5. Analyzing the data
6. Formulating the conclusions and preparing
the report

Question 10

Defining the Research Objectives

Answer 10

Research objectives
• The goals to be achieved by conducting
research.
• Deliverables
• The consulting term used to describe research
objectives to a research client.

Question 11

Exploratory Research Techniques

Answer 11

Previous Research
• Literature review
◗ A directed search of published works, including periodicals and
books, that discusses theory and presents empirical results that are
relevant to the topic at hand.
• Pilot Studies
◗ A small-scale research project that collects data from respondents
similar to those to be used in the full study.
◗ Pretest
 A small-scale study in which the results are only preliminary and
intended only to assist in design of a subsequent study.
◗ Focus Group
 A small group discussion about some research topic led by a moderator
who guides discussion among the participants.

Question 12

Planning the Research Design

Answer 12

Research Design
• A master plan that specifies the methods and
procedures for collecting and analyzing the
needed information.
• Basic design techniques for descriptive and
causal research:
◗ Surveys
◗ Experiments
◗ Secondary data
◗ Observation

Question 13

Selection of the Basic Research Method

Answer 13

Survey
• A research technique in which a sample is
interviewed in some form or the behavior of
respondents is observed and described.
◗ Telephone
◗ Mail
◗ Internet
◗ In person

Question 14

Sampling

Answer 14

• Involves any procedure that draws conclusions
based on measurements of a portion of the
population.
• Sampling decisions
• Who to sample?—target population
• What size should the sample be?
• How to select the sampling units?

Question 15

Gathering Data

Answer 15

Unobtrusive Methods
• Methods in which research respondents do not
have to be disturbed for data to be gathered.

Question 16

Processing and Analyzing Data

Answer 16

Editing
• Involves checking the data collection forms for
omissions, legibility, and consistency in classification.
• Codes
• Rules for interpreting, categorizing, recording, and
transferring the data to the data storage media.
• Data analysis
• The application of reasoning to understand the data
that have been gathered.