Business research

methodology
Course contents
Introduction, definition and value of research

What is research?

What is the value of research?

Scientific method of research and its special features

Important characteristics of scientific research

Classification of research

Purpose of doing a research

The uses of research

The time dimension of research

Research techniques used

Variables and types of variables

Relationship among variables

Hypothesis testing and characteristics

Types of hypothesis

The role of the hypothesis

The characteristics of a testable hypothesis

Review of literature

Goals of a literature Review

Type of review

Where to find the research literature

Theoretical framework

The components of a theoretical framework

Problem definition and research proposal

Techniques for narrowing a topic into a research question

From the research question to hypotheses research

proposal sections

The research proposal sections

The research process

Broad problem area

Preliminary data collection

Problem definition
Theoretical framework

Generation of hypotheses

Research design data collection, data, procession and analysis

Testing the hypotheses; answering the research questions

Report writing

The graphic presentation of a research process

Measurement of concepts
Research: it is properly defined as “an organized,
systematic, data based, critical, objective, scientific inquiry
into a specific problem undertaken with the purpose”

Value of a research: almost every field of life,

we can find the element of research, as human being came
into this world we was living a life full of difficulties…then
later on gradually he become curious about how to make life
comfortable…and in this way he start search…whose second
step is research…and we all can easily judge in every field
this element of research…like I am here adding a few
examples of daily life…you all can get the importance of
research from them easily. These are university, new
product, style, management, evolution, competitors,
pollution, investment, defense, fashion, economy revival,
virus, software and much more.

Basic steps followed in research

These are given below
• Identify problem or opportunity(for development)
• Diagnose or assess the problem or opportunity
• Selecting and implementing course of action
• Evaluate the course of action

Important characteristics of
scientific research
 Empirical: observing realities through sensory
experiences (both in direct or indirect way).
 Verifiable: results that are proved or confirm by others
also.
 Cumulative: scan through literature and see that their
study is not a repetition in ignorance, link between
present and previous knowledge has to be established.
 Deterministic: explain emerging phenomenon by
identifying its cause.
“Nothing just happen, it happen for a reason”
  Ethical and ideological neutrality: Base on facts derived
from actual data(do not take care of any ethical or
ideological concept-feel free in your research)
 Statistical generalization: scope of the research finding
in one organization setting applicable to other
organization settings.
“Statistical device compare what is logically expected”
 Rationalism: based on reasons rather then emotions.
”scientific explanation must make a sense”
This is of two type’s i.e.
○ Inductive: particular fact to general rule (theory)
○ Deductive: from general to particular.

Classification of
research
Research has been classified on the following four bases.
1. Purpose of doing a research
2. The use of research
3. Time dimension in research
4. Research techniques
And these are further explained below
Purpose of doing a research
On the basis of purpose it is divided into four types and
these are;
• Explore a new topic
It is also called as explorative/formulative research (formula,
chemical etc) Here you have to explore a new topic and you
need to start from beginning. It is initial research conducted
to classify the nature of a problem. Exploratory research is
preliminary step to conduct more conclusive future study.
• Describe a social phenomenon
It describes the factual problematic situation, identifies its
causes and suggests suitable solution to it.

• Explain why something occur

It seeks to determine answers to who, what, when, where
and how questions. E.g. earth quake

The use of research (practical

implementation)
➢ Enhance general knowledge (explore)
This is also called as basic research, academic research,
pure research and fundamental research. It improves our
understanding and knowledge. It helps to bring out new
scientific ideas. Inductive in nature…i.e. particular to general
…and it is often theoretical in nature.
➢ Solve the specific problem (applied research) it solves
particular solution to existing problem in various sphere
of life. It verifies the findings of pure and descriptive
research. And it’s deductive in nature…i.e. general to
particular.

Time dimension in research

This is of two type’s i.e.
○ Fixed time: research is conducted in a fixed
time/date.
○ Over a period of time: here we plan for future
(annual development plan) or we can say here we
compare two time periods in our research e.g.
(fashion trends in 1992 and 2000) some research
conducted in different times.
 Research techniques
Research techniques are of two types in nature i.e.
a) Quantitative research
• Experiences
• surveys
• using existing statistics
Its example is population census
a) Qualitative research
• Field research (door to door questionnaire)
• Case study
• Focus group discussion (FGD) such as talk
shows.

Variable
It is define as anything that varies or changes its value e.g.
age gender, marital status , speed ,tie, wages, weight, GPA,
inflation, status, behavior, attitude, motivation , habits, taxes
etc
It is generally anything that may assume different numerical
(time, temperature etc) or categorical value (behavior,
demand etc).