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Discussion Outline
RESEARCH METHODS FOR
BUSINESS
CHAPTER 3 & 4:
Information needed for business research by using technologies.
Information Systems and Managerial decision making.
The business research process
Course Instructor: Rizwan Shabbir (PhD)
Assistant Professor,
Department of Business Administration, GCUF
Email: rizwanshabbir@gcuf.edu.pk
BBA 5th
Identifying broad problem areas
Preliminary data collection
Commonly used Technologies in business
research
Information systems & Managerial decision
making
The internet
Data warehousing is described as the process of extracting, transferring and
integrating data spread across multiple external databases and even operating
systems with a view to facilitate analysis and decision making. For decision
making (OLAP) online analytical processing tool is used.
It is a vast global network of computers connecting people and information.
Electronic mail
Known as (E-mail), it is a primary mode of business communication both within and outside
the company. It is also a simple and effective way to obtain data.
The intranet
It is a internal system of the organization. Surveys regarding employees performance and
motivation can be easily conducted through the intranet.
Browsers
Like internet explorer or google chrome
Websites: websites are considered as an important source of data collection
Data mining is a strategic tool for reaching new levels of business intelligence
by using different algorithms to analyze data in a meaningful way.
Operational research (OR) or management science (MS) is also a sophisticated
tool used to simplify the complex problems and data collection process.
Other information systems are: MIS (Management Information System), DSS
(Decision Support System), EIS (Executive Information System) and Expect
Systems
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The business research process
The Broad Problem Area
Specific problems that are required to be researched within the
situation:
1. Problems currently existing in an organizational setting
2. Areas that managers believes need to be improved
3. Conceptual or theoretical issue that needs to be tightened up for basic
research to understand current phenomena
4. Research questions that a basic researcher want to answer empirically.
The Broad Problem Area (discussion)
The Problem Statement
Examples of broad problem areas that a manager could observe at
the workplace:
Examples of Well-defined Problem Statements
Training programs are not as effective as anticipated.
The newly installed information system is not being used by the managers for
whom it was primarily designed.
The introduction of flexible work hours has created more problems than it has
solved in many companies.
To what extent has the new advertising campaign been successful
in creating the high-quality, customer-centered corporate image that
it was intended to produce?
How has the new packaging affected the sales of the product?
What are the effects of downsizing on the long-range growth
patterns of companies?
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Preliminary data collection
The nature of information needed by the researcher for the purpose
could be broadly classified:
1. Background information of the organization such as facts.
2. Managerial philosophy, company policies and other structural
aspects
Preliminary data collection (sources)
Data gathered through existing sources are called secondary data
such as: organizational records, annual reports and published records.
3. Perception, attitudes and behavioral responses of clients and
employees.
The data gathered for research from the actual site of occurrence of
events are called primary data. Such as: perception and attitudes of
employees, observing events & people and administering
questionnaire to individuals.
Background information
What is literature survey?
Before conducting research, background information is obtained to
understand organization:
Literature survey is one way of summarizing secondary data
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Origin and history
Size
Charter (purpose and ideology)
Location
Resources
Interdependent relationships
Financial positions
It is an important step in the research process for defining the
research problem.
The literature survey is the documentation of a comprehensive
review of the published and unpublished work from secondary
sources of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher.
