This summary covers the complete course Business Research Techniques for Pre-master students at Tilburg University. This includes: Lectures, Slides, Tutorials and all obligatory study material such as the Grasple modules.
Business Research Techniques Summary + Modules Grasple Notes
,Module 1: The Research Process
What is Business Research?
‘’A series of well thought out activities and carefully executed data analysis which are aimed to
help a manager to avoid, solve, or minimize a problem’’
Why should managers have knowledge about Business Research?
- Managerial decisions based on Business Research tend to be more effective than
decisions made solely based in experience or intuition.
- Intuition and experience without Business Research may go completely wrong.
Myths about Business Research:
- Managers are from Mars and Researchers are from Venus (Managers and Researchers
are not the same).
- Most Business Research is not even read.
- Business Research is only for big companies (‘’Big Bucks’’)
- Business Research is only necessary when a big decision must be made.
The Hallmarks of doing good Business Research:
Hallmark Description
Purposiveness Knowing the ‘’why’’ of the research.
Rigor Ensuring a good theoretical base and
methodological design. A question should
not be bias.
Objectivity Conclusions must be drawn based on facts.
Parsimony Shaving away unnecessary details.
Replicability Obtaining the same results if the research
would be done again under the same
circumstances.
Generalizability Being able to apply the research findings in a
wide variety of different settings.
*Note: ‘’Generalizability’’ is mainly important for fundamental research.
,Fundamental Research versus Applied Research
Applied Research:
- Aims at solving a problem faced by a manager.
- Applies to a specific company.
- Executed by departments within companies or by research agencies.
Fundamental Research:
- Generating new knowledge about how problems occur in several firms, and how it can
be solved.
- Applies to several organizational settings.
- Executed mainly by universities (or other knowledge institutes).
To come back to the question on the previous page: ‘’What is Business Research?’’
We know that Business Research is a series of well-thought-out activities and carefully executed
analysis, which aim at to help a manager solve, avoid, or minimize a problem. However, the
following facts about Business Research are also important to know:
- Business Research is well-thought out since it must exactly pinpoint the problem with
all the already available knowledge.
- Business Research entails gathering and analyzing data, which can be obtained from all
sorts of sources.
- Business Research is meant to help managers make better decisions since better
decisions are evidence-based decisions that rely on data and facts.
Deductive Research versus Inductive Research
Deductive Research: Aims at testing a theory.
Inductive Research: Aims at creating a theory.
Both have different approaches as well.
Deductive Research: A researcher first hypothesize the relationships between variables
based on theory. These hypotheses are then tested by using data.
‘’If it rains outside, everything becomes wet.’’ (Theory)
‘’It rains.’’ (Observation)
‘’The car is outside.’’ (Observation)
‘’So, the car will become wet!’’ (Conclusion)
Inductive Research: A researcher first makes observations and then tries to find a pattern in
these observations, after which he creates a theoretical framework based on this pattern.
‘’The first duck in the park is brown.’’ (Observation)
‘’The second duck in the park is brown.’’ (Observation)
, ‘’The third duck in the park is brown.’’ (Observation)
‘’Every duck in the park is brown!’’ (Observation)
The 7-step (Deductive) research process:
1. Defining the Business Problem.
2. Formulating the Problem Statement.
3. Developing a Theoretical Framework.
4. Choosing a suitable Research Design.
5. Collecting Data.
6. Analyzing Data.
7. Writing it up.
Quantitative Research Versus Qualitative Research
Quantitative Research: Focusses on formulating Hypothesis based on previous work and well-
supported theories (mostly Deductive Research).
Qualitative Research: Focusses on using observations as a starting point and then seek
explanation for their observations (mostly Inductive Research).
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