UNIT- 1

BUSINESS
RESEARCH
 Research- Two Syllables: Re + Search Meaning
again a new or over again searching carefully
 Grinnell- Research is a structured enquiry that
utilizes acceptable scientific methodology to
solve problems and create new knowledge that
is generally applicable.
 Burns defines research as a systematic
investigation to find answers to a problem.
 Kerlinger- Scientific research is a systematic,
controlled empirical and critical investigation of
propositions about the presumed relationships
about various phenomenon.
 In order to qualify as research the process must
contain following characteristics:
It should be:
 Controlled
 Rigorous
 Systematic
 Valid and Verifiable
 Empirical
 Critical
 Formulation of Research Problem
 Literature Review
 Developing Research Questions and
formulating Research Objectives
 Conceptualizing Research Design
 Constructing Hypothesis
 Universe and Sampling Design
 Constructing the instrument of data collection
 Data processing and Analysis
 Report Writing
 Step I : Formulating a Research Problem:
 Formulating a research problem is the first and fare most
step in the research process.
 A research problem initially is broad which describes the
area of interest of the researcher.
 It is mostly based upon the past research or the
relationship observed/conceived between two variables.
 It becomes clear and makes the topic more precise after
the researcher has undertaken an in depth literature
review.
 The clearly defined problem helps in understanding the
length, width and depth of the problem.
Essentials of defining a problem:
 What is the purpose of the study?
 How much is already known?
 Is additional information necessary?
 How is it to be measured?
 How to collect data?
 Is time/money adequate for the research
Important considerations in formulating the research
problem:
 Interest of the researcher
 Magnitude
 Measureable Concepts
 Level of Expertise
 Relevance
 Availability of Data
 Ethical Issues
 Reviewing the available literature is one of the
essential preliminary tasks while undertaking a
research study.
It has the following functions:
 It provides a theoretical background to your study.
 It brings forth the relationship between what you
propose to study and what has already been
studied earlier by the other researcher.
 You can identify the existing gaps in the available
literature and come up with how your findings will
contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the
discipline of your study.
 It also helps to contextualise your findings
 Thus the final outcome of undertaking a review of
literature is to bring clarity and focus to your research
problem, improve your research methodology,
 Broaden your knowledge base in your research and to
contextualise your findings by identifying gaps in the
reviewed literature
 The literature review helps in framing objectives of
the study
Raising Research Questions

The research questions are developed by dissecting the

title of the research problem into smaller sub areas. Once
you have developed an exhaustive list of the sub areas,
you develop the research questions which you feel are
relevant for your study and are needed to be answered in
the course of your study.
Formulating Objectives
The objectives are generally listed under two headings:
 Main Objectives
 Sub objectives

It is usual to say for the researchers that their objectives are ‘SMART’
 ‘S’ Specific- states exactly what one needs to achieve.
 ‘M’ Measurable – includes an indicator to measure the concepts used.
 ‘A’ Achievable- objectives are achievable in a specific time frame.
 ‘R’ Realistic- Can be challenging but must be achievable.
 ‘T’ Time bound - with a clear end date or timescale.
Establishing Operational Definitions
 In every research study you establish a set of rules,
indicators to clearly define the concepts used in the
research problem, research questions or objectives
E.g. you need to define who all will be the
adolescents in your study if the study is on
adolescents etc.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
 The researcher needs to define the criteria for
including/ excluding the sampling units in the
research study in order to maintain uniformity in
selection/rejection of items. This criteria needs to
be clearly spelled before undertaking the study.
 An extremely important feature of research is the use of
appropriate research design.
 The main function of selecting the right research design
will determine how you will find answer to your research
question?
 The research design sets out the logic of your inquiry. It
helps you in deciding the method of data collection, the
sampling strategy or the frame of analysis.
 For any investigation, the selection of an appropriate
research design is crucial to enable you to arrive at valid
findings, comparisons and conclusion.
 The research design can be Exploratory, Descriptive or
Experimental depending on the purpose and of the
research study and its specified objectives.
Hypothesis bring clarity, specificity and focus to a research
problem, but are not always essential for a study.

A Hypothesis is an assumption, or an idea about a

phenomenon, relationship or situation, the reality or truth of
which is needed to be tested. A researcher calls these
assumptions as hypothesis which becomes the basis of
inquiry.
Hypothesis has following characteristics:
 It is a tentative preposition.
 Its validity remains unknown till it is empirically tested.
 It always specifies a relationship or comparison between
two variables taken together.
 Broadly there are two hypothesis for each constructed assumption:
 Research hypothesis and Null Hypothesis.
 It is to be remembered that it is always the Null hypothesis (Ho)
which is mostly put to test and it is always neutral claiming that
there is no relationship between the two variables under study.
Based on the decision of rejecting/accepting Ho, the research
hypothesis (H1) is finally accepted/ rejected. These are two
hypothesis are always completely opposite in nature. The usual
steps followed in testing the hypothesis are always specific and the
order is followed.
 The research hypothesis is a study can be more than one (any
number) but for each research hypothesis an alternative null
hypothesis is constructed. Thus there are always equal number of
research hypothesis and null hypothesis.
 In most of the research studies a complete
enumeration of all the items in the ‘universe’ is
not possible under many circumstances, due to
the requirement of great deal of time, money
and energy.
 It is a definite plan chalked out prior to actual
collection of data for obtaining a sample from
the universe. The sample selected must be
adequate in size and also represent the
universe.
 There are three types of sampling designs:
 Random/ Probability sampling design.
 Non Random/ Non probability sampling designs
and
 Mixed sampling designs.
 The data may be collected from either of the two sources –
secondary data and primary data.
 Secondary data are collected from books, journals,
newspapers, reports of the available studies.
 Primary data is always collected by the research her by
interviewing the subjects or by using the questionnaire or the
interviews schedule.
 Depending on the objectives of the research study, the
researcher will decide about the method and tool of data
collection.
 There are specific consideration which are needed to be kept
in mind while constructing the instrument type of questions
to be included/exclude in the instrument.
The information collected is called raw data. It required specific
steps to be followed before being able to draw inferences.
It includes
 Data Editing
 Coding Data : Developing a code book
 Developing a frame of analysis for questions studies.
 The researcher can analyse the data by processing it
manually as well as with the help of computers (Making use
of SPSS Package)
 The last step in the research process is writing the
research process is writing the research report.
 As Burns writes ‘extremely valuable and interesting
practical work may be spoiled at the last minute by a
student who is not able to communicate the results
easily (1994).
 In addition to your undertaking of research
methodology, the quality of the report depends
upon :
 Written communication skills
 Clarity of thought,
 Ability to express thoughts in a logical, rational and
sequential manner and also
 Knowledge base of the subject area is crucial.
 Experience in conducting research
 Report Writing Skills
 The knowledge of statistical procedures
 The ability to make use of diagrams and graphs
 The report must be followed by developing proper
chapterization followed by an academic style of
referencing at the end. There are several well
established systems for writing a bibliography and
your choice is dependent upon the preference of
the discipline and university. The most common
styles used are the American Psychological
Association system (APA Style) and the Harvard
System.
 In the end it can only be said that all the steps are
formulated at the convenience of the researcher.
By and large they are all inter related and
overlapping. The neglect in any step is likely to
affect the reliability and validity of findings.
Therefore, a scientific mind based on objective
thinking is really needed in undertaking any
research study.
 Scientific method aims at discovering facts as they
are in reality.
 Scientific method is concerned with ‘Classes of
objects’ and not ‘individual objects’.
 Scientific method is objective in nature.
 Scientific method makes it possible to make
predictions about the phenomenon.
 It is systematic observation, classification and
interpretation of data.
 The scientific method is, thus, based on certain basic
postulates which can be stated as under:
 It relies on empirical evidence;
 It utilizes relevant concepts;
 It is committed to only objective considerations;
 It presupposes ethical neutrality, i.e., it aims at nothing but
making only adequate and correct statements about
population objects;
 It results into probabilistic predictions;
 Its methodology is made known to all concerned for critical
scrutiny are for use in testing the conclusions through
replication;
 Brainstorm for ideas
 Choose a topic that will enable you to read and
understand the literature
 Ensure that the topic is manageable and that material
is available
 Make a list of key words
 Be flexible
 Define your topic as a focused research question
 Research and read more about your topic
 Formulate a thesis statement
Ethics are norms or standards of behavior that guide
moral choices about our behavior and our relationship
with others. The goal of ethics in research is to ensure
that no one is harmed or suffered adverse consequences
from research activities –
 Protect the rights of the participant or subject.
 Ensure the sponsor receives ethically conducted and
reported research
 Follow ethical standards when designing research
 Protect the safety of the researcher and team
 Ensure the research team follows the design
• The research design is the master plan specifying the
methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the
needed information.
• Although every problem and research objective may seem
unique, there are usually enough similarities among
problems and objectives to allow decisions to be made in
advance about the best plan to resolve the problem.
• There are some basic marketing / business / social
research designs that can be successfully matched to
given problems and research objectives.
• Three traditional categories of research design:
• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Causal
• The choice of the most appropriate design depends largely
on the objectives of the research and how much is known
about the problem and these objectives.
• The overall research design for a project may include one
or more of these three designs as part(s) of it.
• Further, if more than one design is to be used, typically we
progress from Exploratory toward Causal.
Research Objective Appropriate Design

To gain background information, to define terms, to clarify Exploratory

problems and develop hypotheses, to establish
research priorities, to develop questions to be
answered
To describe and measure marketing phenomena at a point Descriptive
in time
To determine causality, test hypotheses, to make “if-then” Causal
statements, to answer questions
• Exploratory research is most commonly unstructured,
“informal” research that is undertaken to gain background
information about the general nature of the research
problem.
• Exploratory research is usually conducted when the
researcher does not know much about the problem and
needs additional information or desires new or more
recent information.
• Exploratory research is used in a number of situations:
• To gain background information
• To define terms
• To clarify problems and hypotheses
• To establish research priorities
• A variety of methods are available to conduct exploratory
research:
• Secondary Data Analysis
• Experience Surveys
• Case Analysis
• Focus Groups
• Projective Techniques
• Descriptive research is undertaken to provide answers to
questions of who, what, where, when, and how – but not
why.
• Two basic classifications:
• Cross-sectional studies
• Longitudinal studies
• Cross-sectional studies measure units from a sample of
the population at only one point in time.
• Sample surveys are cross-sectional studies whose samples
are drawn in such a way as to be representative of a
specific population.
• On-line survey research is being used to collect data for
cross-sectional surveys at a faster rate of speed.
• Longitudinal studies repeatedly draw sample units of a
population over time.
• One method is to draw different units from the same
sampling frame.
• A second method is to use a “panel” where the same
people are asked to respond periodically.
• On-line survey research firms recruit panel members to
respond to online queries.
• Two types of panels:
• Continuous panels ask panel members the same
questions on each panel measurement.
• Discontinuous (Omnibus) panels vary questions
from one time to the next.
• Longitudinal data used for:
• Market tracking
• Brand-switching
• Attitude and image checks
• Causality may be thought of as understanding a
phenomenon in terms of conditional statements of the
form “If x, then y.”
• Causal relationships are typically determined by the use of
experiments, but other methods are also used.
• An experiment is defined as manipulating (changing
values/situations) one or more independent variables to see how
the dependent variable(s) is/are affected, while also controlling the
affects of additional extraneous variables.
• Independent variables: those over which the researcher has
control and wishes to manipulate i.e. package size, ad copy,
price.
• Dependent variables: those over which the researcher has little
to no direct control, but has a strong interest in testing i.e.
sales, profit, market share.
• Extraneous variables: those that may effect a dependent
variable but are not independent variables.
• An experimental design is a procedure for devising an
experimental setting such that a change in the dependent
variable may be solely attributed to a change in an
independent variable.
• An experiment is valid if:
• the observed change in the dependent variable is, in
fact, due to the independent variable (internal validity)
• if the results of the experiment apply to the “real
world” outside the experimental setting (external
validity)
• Two broad classes:
• Laboratory experiments: those in which the
independent variable is manipulated and measures of
the dependent variable are taken in a contrived,
artificial setting for the purpose of controlling the many
possible extraneous variables that may affect the
dependent variable
• Field experiments: those in which the independent
variables are manipulated and measurements of the
dependent variable are made on test units in their
natural setting