INTRODUCTION TO
RESEARCH
CHAPTER 1
Objectives
• Describe what research is and how it is defined
• Distinguish between applied and basic research, giving
examples, and discussing why they fall into one or the
other of the two categories
• Explain why managers should know about research
• Discuss what managers should or should not do in
order to interact most effectively with researchers
• Identify and fully discuss specific situations in which a
manager would be better off using an internal research
team, and when an external research team would be
more advisable, giving reasons for the decision
Definition - Research
A Process
• Formal, systematic, intensive process of scientific
method
• Careful inquiry or examination
• Systematic, controlled, empirical and critical
investigation
• Unusually stubborn and persisting effort to think straight
(“Research without important ideas is busy work”)
• The process of finding solutions to a problem after a
thorough study and analysis of the situational factors.
Definition – Research
Aims of Research
• Discover new information or relationships; to expand
and to verify existing knowledge
• Gathers new knowledge; discovery of general principles
• Provide new knowledge
• Investigation of hypothetical propositions about the
presumed relations among natural phenomena. End
sought by science (research) is theory
• To solve problems and for decision making purposes
(business research)
Definition – Research
Aims of Research
• Gage:
- Increase our power to understand, predict, control
outcomes
- Predict an event by relating it empirically to
antecedents in time
- Control an event by manipulating the independent
variables to which it is functionally related
Definition – Research
How of research
• Define the problem areas
• Identify specifically the problems which need to be
studied and resolved
• Gather information, analyze data and determine the
factors associated with the problem
• Solve the problem by taking the necessary corrective
measures
Definition – Business Research
Business research as an
“organized, systematic, data-based, critical, objective,
scientific inquiry or investigation into a specific
problem”,
undertaken with the
“purpose of find answers or solutions.”
Definition – Business Research
Quantitative Research
“structured questions usually questionnaires based on
certain scale and analyzed statistically”
Qualitative Research
“open ended questions in a questionnaire, interviews,
observation, or information gathered from various
sources.”
Definition – Business Research
Basic Research, Fundamental or Pure Research
“for the purpose of contributing to existing body of
knowledge”
Applied Research
“to solve a current problem.”
What are some typical examples of
research areas?
In Accounting?
In Finance?
In Management
In Marketing?
Managers & Research
• Identify and effectively solve minor problems in the work
setting
• Know how to discriminate good from bad research
• Appreciate and be constantly aware of the multiple
influences and multiple effects of factors impinging on a
situation
• Take calculated risk in decision making, knowing full
well the probabilities associated with the different
possible outcomes
• Prevent possible vested interests from exercising their
influence in a situation.
Managers & Research
• Relate to hiring researchers and consultants more
effectively
• Combine experience with scientific knowledge while
making decisions
Internal vs. External /Consultants
Research
Discuss the advantages /disadvantages of using/hiring
internal /external consultants to conduct company’s
research
Ethics and Business Research
Code of conduct and societal norm of behavior
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Reporting
• Dissemination of information on the Internet
Business Ethics
Journal of Business Ethics
Business Ethics Quartery
SCIENTIFIC
INVESTIGATION
Chapter 2
Objectives
• Explain what is meant by scientific investigation, giving
examples of both scientific and non scientific
investigations
• Explain the eight hallmarks of science
• Briefly explain why research in the organizational
behavior and management areas cannot be completely
scientific
• Describe the building blocks of science
• Discuss the seven steps of the hypothethico-deductive
method, using an example of your own
• Describe the processes of induction and deduction
• Appreciate the advantages of knowledge about
scientific investigation
Scientific vs. Non scientific
Investigation
• Scientific Investigations – more objective rather than
subjective, for effective problem solving, purposive,
rigorous, state their findings with accuracy and
confidence
• Non scientific research – hunches, experience, and
intuition
Scientific Research
• Purposiveness
definite aim or purpose
• Rigor
good theoretical base and a carefully thought-out
methodology, carefulness, scrupulousness and the
degree of exactitude in research investigations
• Testability
Testing logically developed hypotheses / the data
support the educated conjectures or hypotheses that
are developed.
• Replicability
Can be repeated with the same results
Scientific Research
• Precision
Closeness of findings to “reality” based on a sample
• Confidence
Probability that our estimations are correct
• Objectivity
Based on the facts of findings derived from actual data
/not subjective emotional values
• Generalizability
Scope of applicability of the research findings in one
organizational setting to other organizational settung
Scientific Research
• Parsimony
The most relevant, manageable factors should be
considered when conducting research
The hypothetical-deductive method
• Identify a broad problem area
• Define the problem statement
• Develop hypotheses
• Determine measures
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Interpretation of data
Review of the hypothetical-deductive
method
• Deductive reasoning
- general to specific
• Inductive reasoning
- specific to general conclusion
Other types of research
• Case studies
- Purpose is to explore and to describe, for problem
solving purposes
- Usually qualitative rather than quantitative, analysis
of documented case studies, interviews, observation
• Action research
- Immediate application type of research to solve
current problems
