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BRT Grasple modulesWeek 1
1.1 What is business research?
Business research can be defined as:
"a series of well-thought-out activities and carefully executed data analyses that
are aimed to help a manager avoid, solve, or minimize a problem."
i. Business research is well-thought-out:
Business research needs to pinpoint exactly what the problem is, which factors are
associated with the problem, and which knowledge is already available to address the
problem. While this may sound easy and straightforward, is the most difficult step.
ii. Business research entails gathering and analyzing data:
Data can be collected by means of surveys, experimentation, extraction from companies'
internal databases (e.g., customer account information), extraction from government
databases (e.g., Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek; cbs.nl), web scraping, interviews,
observations, etc.
iii. Business research is meant to help managers make better decisions:
Better decisions are evidence-based decisions: decisions that rely on data and facts (the
results of sound research).
Why should future managers know about business research? (cont’d)
- To be able to perform business research
o To undertake research studies yourself to solve smaller problems you
encounter
- To be able to steer business research
o To interact effectively with internal research departments / external research
agencies
- To be able to evaluate business research
o To discriminate between good and bad research proposals and finalized
research reports
1.2 Hallmarks
!! Hallmarks (kenmerken)
1. Purposiveness (doelgericht): why of your research. The manager has started the
research with the aim of purpose. (f.e. your employees are dissatisfied, you want to
know ‘why’ this is)
2. Rigor (nauwkeurigheid/precisie): strict precision – exactness (the degree of
exactitude in the research investigation) -> more of the motivation behind your
research
• Ensuring a sound theoretical base (existing literature which you can use for
your own study)
, • Ensuring a sound methodological design (can only draw correct conclusions
on the business research study if the sample is representative)
Both (theoretical + methodological) are necessary to succeed
! for exam: need to be representative (a rigorous research study
should not ask bias (vooroordeel) questions. So, questions with a
bias or incorrectness in the responses
3. Objectivity (objectiviteit): drawing conclusions based on facts (rather than on
subjective ideas)
• The more objective, the more scientific the research
4. Parsimony (eenvoud): simplicity in explain the phenomena or problems (f.e. 50
different variables = complicated and a study with the 4 most important meaningful
variables = doable and informative)
• Shaving away what is unnecessary details
• Explaining a lot, with little
• ‘things should be made as simple as possible but not any simpler!’
5. Replicability (repliceerbaar): finding the same results if research is repeated in
similar circumstances. Means that you have to be transparent/describe about the
study set up so that others when they carry out the same steps get the same
conclusions.
• Made possible by a detailed description of the design details of the study (f.e.
the sampling method and the data collection methods that were used)
6. Generalizability (generalizeerbaarheid): being able to apply the research findings in
a wide variety of different settings -> f.e. satisfaction employees -> different
countries? Different businesses?
• The wider the range of applicability of the solutions, the more useful the
research is.
Fundamental vs. applied research
Applied: (Company)
- Solve a current problem faced by managers
- Applies to a specific company; within firms or research agencies
- The research and its results are classified
Fundamental (basic, or pure): (university)
- Generate new knowledge about how problems that occur in several firms can be
solved
- Applied to several organizational settings
- Mainly within universities
So, do you want to share your findings with other companies or institutes? Yes, when it is
fundamental research and probably not when it is applied research.
1.3 7-stap plan for inductive and deductive research
! inductive vs deductive research
Inductive (developing a theory/ ‘from the bottom up’): Data -> theory
, - Start with data an observation and then developing a theory. It is a ‘building theory’,
which means that you have quantitative data. Qualitative data means that you have
words that express nuances, details and depths in the text
Deductive (testing a theory/ ‘from the top down’): Theory-data
- Based on existing theory that is developed by others. You have data and observations
in order to confirm a theory. Quantitative!
Quantitative vs. qualitative research
- Quantitative researchers emphasize the importance of formulating hypotheses based
on previous work and well-supported theories. The reasoning behind quantitative
research is largely deductive.
- Qualitative researchers adopt the opposite approach: they use observations as a
starting point and then seek explanations for their observations. The reasoning
behind qualitative research is largely inductive.
These two research approaches are not mutually competing. They can be used in
combination, within a single research study.
, !!!
Week 2
2.1 defining the steps (deductive)
1. Define the business problem
When does a business problem occur?
Desired state: the actual situation is not seriously wrong but can be improved
Actual state: actual situation is seriously wrong and needs to be solved ASAP.
What makes a good business problem?
Feasibility: is it doable? -> possibility
- Is the problem demarcated (is it too big?)
- Can the problem be expressed in variables?
- Is it possible to gather required data?
o Existing data -> data that the company you work for owns, or purchases
o New data
Extra explanation:
When is a business problem feasible?
1. The business problem should not be too big. When it’s too big you should demarcate
hour problem and focus on a smaller part of it.
2. The business problem should be able to express in variables. If not, you cannot
research your business problem
3. You should be able to gather the required data:
Relevance: is it worthwhile? -> important
- Managerial relevance: who benefits from having the problem solved?
o Managers in three ways:
▪ I: for managers of one company (ABN AMRO)
▪ II: for managers in an entire industry (ABN AMRO, Rabobank etc.)
▪ III: for managers in multiple industries (banking, healthcare etc)
o End users: Consumers, investors etc
o Public policy makers: governments
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