Summary of the book Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach (Seventh edition). Written in the academic year 2018/2019 for the course Business Research Techniques at Tilburg University, Pre-master.
Business Research Techniques for Pre-master_320087-B-6_2021
Business Research Techniques for Pre-master_320087-B-6
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Tilburg University (UVT)
Pre-master Marketing management
Business research techniques
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH
Business research = a series of well-thought-out actiites and carefully executed data analyses that
help a manager to aioid, solie or minimize a problem.
Types of business research
1. Applied research: to solie a current problem face by a manager, applies to a specifc company.
Within frms or research agencies
2. Fundamental (or basic/pure) research: to generate new knowledge about how problems that
occur in seieral frms can be solied. Applies to seieral organizatonal setngs. .nowledge is usually
later applied in organizatonal setngs for problem soliing
Internal vs. external consultants/researchers
Internal consultants: Management Seriices department, Research and Deielopment department.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Beter chance of being readily accepted by 1. The team may fall into a stereotyped way of
the employees in the subunit where research looking at the organizaton and its problems.
needs to be done. This inhibits any fresh ideas.
2. Requires much less tme to understand the 2. Scope for coalitons in the organizaton to
structure, philosophy and climate, and the influence the internal team to conceal, distort,
functon and work systems of the organizaton. or misrepresent certain facts.
3. Aiailable to implement their 3. The most highly qualifed internal research
recommendatons afer the research fndings teams may not be perceiied as experts, and
haie been accepted. Also aiailable to eialuate hence their recommendatons may not get the
the efectieness of the changes. Important! consideraton they deserie.
4. Might cost considerably less than an external 4. Organizatonal biases of the internal research
team, because they will need less tme to team might make the fndings less objectie
understand the system. For problems of low and consequently less scientfc.
complexity, the internal team is ideal.
External consultants:
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Wealth of experience from haiing worked 1. The cost of hiring an external research team
with diferent types of organizatons that haie is usually high and is the main deterrent, unless
had the same/similar types of problems. This the problems are critcal.
enables them to think both diiergently and
coniergently.
2. Might haie more knowledge of current 2. Solicitng employees’ help and enlistng their
sophistcated problem-soliing models through cooperaton in the study is more difcult and
their periodic training programs. tme-consuming.
3. Also charges additonal fees for their
assistance in the implementaton and
eialuaton phases.
CHAPTER 2: THE SCIENTIFIC AND ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
1
, Scientfc research = focuses on soliing problems and pursues a step-by-step logical, organized, and
rigorous method to identfy the problems, gather data, analyze them, and draw ialid conclusions
from them. Applies to both basic and applied research.
Scientfc iniestgaton = tends to be more objectie than subjectie and helps managers to highlight
the most critcal factors at the workplace that need specifc atenton to aioid, minimize or solie
problems.
The hallmarks of scientic (good business) research:
1. Purposiieness = knowing ‘the why’ of your research
2. Rigor = ensuring a theoretcal base (don’t miss the important driiers) and ensuring a sound
methodological design (representatie sample, ask unbiased questons)
3. Testability = a scientfc hypothesis must be testable
4. Replicability = fnding the same results if the research is repeated in similar circumstances.
Describe the study design in detail, someone else can repeat your study.
5. Precision (= the closeness of the fndings to reality based on a sample) and confdence (= the
probability that estmatons are correct)
6. Objectiity = drawing conclusions based on facts (rather than on subjectie ideas)
7. Generalizability = being able to apply the research fndings in a iariety of diferent setngs.
Way more important for fundamental research than for applied research.
8. Parsimony = simplicity (keep it as simple as possible). Select the most important elements
and shaiing away unnecessary details. Don’t make it more difcult than it has to be.
Deductve vs. inductve research
- Deductie research = theory (general) data (specifc) = testng theory.
- Inductie research = data (specifc) theory (general) = building theory.
The seien-step deductie is. inductie research process
Deductie Inductie
1. Defne the business problem 1. Defne the business problem
2. Formulate the problem statement 2. Formulate the problem statement
3. Deielop a theoretcal framework (incl. hypotheses) 3. Proiide a conceptual background
4. Choose a research design (determine measures) 4. Choose a research design
5. Data collecton 5. Data collecton
6. Data analysis 6. Data analysis
7. Interpretaton of data (write-up fndings) 7. Deielop theory
CHAPTER 3: DEFINING AND REFINING THE PROBLEM
1. When does a business problem occur?
- Desired state: the actual situaton is not seriously wrong but can be improied
- Actual state: the actual situaton is seriously wrong and needs to be solied
2. What makes a good business problem (statement)?
Feasibility: is it doable? (possibility)
o Is the problem demarcated? (specifc, not broad)
o Can the problem be expressed in iariables? (lead to research)
2
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