MB010207-Business Research

Methods

Ligo Koshy
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies
MACFAST, Thiruvalla
 Module-1
• Introduction To Business Research
• 1.1 Role of Business Research – Information
and Competitive Advantage
• 1.2 Characteristics of Good research
• 1.3 Steps in Problem Formulation
• 1.4 Value and Cost of Information
• 1.5 Research Process with Illustration
• 1.6 Ethics in Business Research
 Suggested Readings
• Donald R. Cooper, Pamela S. Schindler, J.K. Sharma – Business
Research Methods 12e, - McGraw Hill 2019 (Special Indian Edition)
• Deepak Chawla, Neena Sondhi – Research Methodology – Vikas
Publications
• C.R. Kothari – Research Methods and Techniques – New Age
International, New Delhi
• Alan Bryman, Emma Bell – Business Research Methods – Oxford
University Press
• K.N. Krishnaswamy, Appa Iyer Sivakumar, Mathirajan M.,
Management Research
• Methodology, Integration of Principles, Methods & Techniques –
Pearson Education
• Sachdeva – Business Research Methods – Himalaya Publishing
House
• William G. Zikmund, Barry J. Babin, John C. Carr, Mitch Griffin –
Business Research Methods –Cengage Learning
• SPSS Handbook – Himalaya Publications
 Introduction
• Research
• Literally, research (re-search) means “to search again.”
• The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English lays
down the meaning of research as “a careful investigation
or inquiry specially through search for new facts in any
branch of knowledge.”
• Research is an organised, systematic, structured,
sequential way of finding answers to questions.
• Redman and Mory define research as a “systematized
effort to gain new knowledge.”
 Business Research
• Business research
• Business research is a systematic inquiry that provides
information to guide managerial decisions.
• it is a process of planning, acquiring, analysing, and
disseminating relevant data, information, and insights
to decision makers in ways that mobilize the
organization to take appropriate actions that, in turn,
maximize performance.
 Definition- Business Research
• EasterbySmith, et al. (2002) state, “ business research
must have some practical consequences, either
immediately, when it is conducted for solving an
immediate business problem or when the theory or
model developed can be implemented and tested in a
business setting.”
• It’s a systematic and organised effort to investigate a
specific problem encountered in the work setting, which
needs a solution.
• Management research is an unbiased, structural and
sequential method of enquiry, directed towards a clear
business objective.
 Role of Business Research:
Research Should Reduce Risk
• The primary purpose of research is to reduce the level of risk
of a managerial decision.
• Types of Risk
• Financial /economic risk
• Social risks (preserving their reputation)
• Physical risk (represented by dangers to living things:
product recalls in pet food and human food,
pharmaceuticals, etc.)
• Environmental risk (preserving the organization’s
relationship with their physical environment)
• Technological risk (falling behind—or having the
opportunity to leap ahead—of their competition).
 Managers and Research
• A grasp of research methods enables managers to
understand, predict, and control their environment.
• Eg: A newly developed product may not be
“taking off,” or a financial investment may not
be “paying off” as anticipated.
• Knowledge of research and problem-solving
processes helps managers to identify problem
situations before they get out of control.
• Assist the mangers in making quality decisions.
Some commonly researched areas in business-
/Application/:- Human Resource
• Performance Management
• Employee Selection and Staffing
• Organisational Culture
• Compensation, Incentives & Benefits
• Training and Development
• Labour Relations, Absenteeism, Job satisfaction,
Labour turnover, motivation, work-life balance,
Organisational Commitment, Employer branding
etc
 Some commonly researched areas in business-
/Application/:- Marketing
• Product Research
• New product, product testing , product differentiation and
positioning etc.
• Pricing Research
• Price determination, competitor pricing
• Promotional Research
• Designing of communication mix, impact of alternative
media vehicles
• Place Research
• Location analysis , design and planning of Distribution
channels
• Service Delivery, Digital marketing, Customer satisfaction,
customer relationship management, buying behaviour etc.
 Some commonly researched areas in
business- /Application/:- Operations
• Operation Planning
• Product / service design and development ,
resource allocation and capacity planning
• Demand Forecasting
• Process planning
• Production scheduling, materials requirement
management.
• Project management
• Maintenance Management
• Logistics, supply chain and inventory Management
• Quality estimation and assurance studies(TQM)
Some commonly researched areas in
business- /Application/:- Finance
• Capital markets
• Working capital management
• Behavioural Finance
• Subjective and perceptual values are studied to predict
consumer sentiments
• Financial econometrics
• Modelling and forecasting in volatility, risk estimation
and analysis
 Other Areas of Research
• Enterprise resource planning Systems (ERP)
• Knowledge Management
 Information and Competitive
Advantage
• An organization’s mission drives its business
goals, strategies, and tactics and,
consequently, its need for business decision
support systems (DSS) and business
intelligence.
Organizational Business
Mission Goals

Business Business
Strategies Tactics
 Information and Competitive Advantage
• Selecting business strategies and tactics often drive research.

• Business strategy

• The general approach an organization will follow to

achieve its business goals.

• A strategy might describe how an organization can best

position itself to fulfill customer needs or establish a
general approach to gaining brand equity.

• Business tactics

• Are specific, timed activities that execute a business

strategy.
 Information Sources
Decision Support Systems
• Numerous elements of data
organized for retrieval and
use in business decision
making
• Data is Stored and retrieved
via
– Intranets
– Extranets
Business Intelligence Systems
• Ongoing information
collection
• Focused on events, trends
in micro and macro-
environments
 Sources of Business Intelligence

Government/ Competitive
Regulatory information

Demographic Economic
Business
Intelligence

Technological Cultural/
Social
Hierarchy of Business Decision Makers

Visionaries
Visionaries

Standardized
Decision Makers

Intuitive Decision Makers

 Types of Business research
Business Research

Basic Research Applied Research

Exploratory Research Conclusive Research

Descriptive Research Causal Research

 Types of Business Research
• Fundamental/ Basic Research
– Research done mainly to make a contribution to existing
knowledge.
– Eg: studies on employee dissatisfaction and attrition
• Applied Research
– Research done with the intention of applying the results
of the findings to solve problems currently being
experienced in an organization.
– It has implications for immediate action/ action-oriented
research.
– Eg: a pharmaceutical company, which has developed a
new hair growing formulation wants to test whether to
package the liquid in a spray type or capped dispenser.
 Types of Business Research
• Exploratory Research
• Used to gain a deeper understanding of the issue or problem that is
troubling the decision maker.
• The idea is to provide direction to subsequent and more structured
and rigorous research.
• Eg: A diet food company wants to find out what kind of snacks
customers like to eat and where they generally buy health food.
• Conclusive Research
• Is carried out to test and validate the study hypotheses.
• These studies are more structured and definite.
• The variables in the research are clearly defined.
• Eg: Finding customer satisfaction levels of heavy consumers of
different pizzas in the Pizza Hut menu.
• Now, this needs clear definition of customer satisfaction; secondly,
how we will identify heavy consumers. The timeframe of the study and
respondent selection are more formal and representative.
 Types of Business Research
• Descriptive Research
• The major purpose of descriptive research is description of
the state of affairs as it exists at present.
• The researcher has no control over the variables; he can only
report what has happened or what is happening.
• Eg: Census, A study to distinguish between the characteristics
of the customers who buy normal petrol and those who buy
premium petrol.etc.
• Causal Research
• Explore the effect of one thing on another
• Effect of one variable on another
• Highly structure, requires systematic approach in selecting
sample, mostly used in experimental studies
• Eg: if the price of the product is increased by 10% what will be
the impact on sales
 1.2 Characteristics of Good research
• It must have a clearly stated purpose. This not only refers to the objective of
the study, but also precise definition of the scope and domain of the study.
• It must follow a systematic and detailed plan for investigating the research
problem. The systematic conduction also requires that all the steps in the
research process are interlinked and follow a sequence.
• The selection of techniques of collecting information, sampling plans and
data analysis techniques must be supported by a logical justification about
why the methods were selected.
• The results of the study must be presented in an unbiased, objective and
neutral manner.
• The research at every stage and at any cost must maintain the highest
ethical standards.
• Research carried out must be replicable-means that the process followed
must be ‘reliable’, i.e., in case the study is carried out under similar
conditions it should be able to reveal similar results.
• Limitations frankly revealed.
 Value and Cost of Information

• Cost and benefit analysis of Research

• Cost involved in conducting a research Process and the
benefits received from it
• Return on investment (ROI).
• Calculate the financial return for all expenditures.
• The decision maker wants a firm cost estimate for a project
and an equally precise assurance that useful information will
result from the study.
• The value of research information may be judged in terms of
“the difference between the result of decisions made with
the information and the result that would be made without
it.
Cost and benefit analysis of Research
Research Process
Research
Process
1.5
 Research Process
• Management Dilemma
• This is usually a symptom of an actual problem
• Eg: Rising costs, Declining sales, Customer
complaints, Employee turnover, more number
of defects etc.
• The need might be purely academic (basic or
fundamental research) or there might be an
immediate business decision that requires an
effective and workable solution (applied research).
 Research Process
• Defining Research Problem
• First and the most critical step of the research journey
• Involves two steps, viz.,
• Understanding the problem thoroughly.
• Rephrasing the same into meaningful terms from an
analytical point of view.
• Discussions with expert in the area, collecting
Information on the organization and its environment –
that is, the contextual factors.
• Information on the topic of interest(Review literature)
• Review concepts and theories
• Review previous research findings
 Example: Problems versus symptoms
of problems
“5 Times Why”.
• Developed by the Japanese industrialist Sakichi Toyada, the
idea is to keep asking “Why?” until the most basic cause is
arrived at.
• Managers Problem: My best employees are leaving the
organization.
1. Why? Because they are not satisfied with their jobs.
2. Why? Because they do not find a challenge in their
jobs.
3. Why? Because they do not have control over their
work.
4. Why? Because they do not have a lot of influence over
planning, executing, and evaluating the work they do.
5. Why? Because we have been reluctant to delegate.
 Research Variables
• Variable:
• Anything that has a quantity or quality that varies
• Eg: age, gender, religion, motivation, attitude, weight, height,
satisfaction ……..
• Types of research Variables
• Independent Variable
• Dependent variable
• Moderating variable
• Mediating variable
• Extraneous variable
 Research Variables
• Dependent variable(DV)
• Effect variable
• Variable of primary interest to the researcher
• Researchers primary goal is to describe the dependent
variable, or to explain its variability or predict it.
• Independent Variable(IV)
• Cause variable
• Influences the dependent variable
• Eg: Attitude towards healthy lifestyle influence the purchase
intention
• DV is purchase intention & IV is attitude
 Research Variables
• Moderating variable
• It may either modify the direction as well as magnitude of
Independent Variable –Dependent Variable association
Attitude towards
Purchase intention
organic products-
• Eg:
Independent Dependent
Moderating
variable variable
Variable
Income Level
Education
 Research Variables
• Mediating variable
• Which mediates the relationship between IV & DV
• Eg:

Job Stress(IV) Organisational Commitment (DV)

Job Stress Work Exhaustion Organisational

Commitment

• Extraneous variable
• Variables which might influence the study but have
been excluded from current study
 Research Process
• Formulating the Research Hypothesis
• A hypothesis can be defined as a tentative, yet testable,
statement, which predicts what you expect to find in your
empirical data.
• Hypothesis are often Descriptive or relational in nature.
• Eg: The mean IQ level of students is 70
• Eg: There is a relationship between age and job satisfaction
• Defined problem need to be converted into working
hypotheses.
• Every research study might not always begin with a hypothesis;
in fact, the task of the study might be to collect detailed data
that might lead to, at the end of the study, some indicative
hypotheses to be tested in subsequent research.
 Illustration
• While studying the lifestyle and eating-out
behaviour of consumers at Pizza Hut, one may
find that the young student group consume
more pizzas.
• This may lead to a hypotheses that
– young consumers consume more pizzas than older
consumers.
 Exercise
• A production manager is concerned about the low
output levels of his employees. The articles that he has
read on job performance frequently mention four
variables as being important to job performance: (1)
skills required for the job, (2) rewards, (3) motivation,
and (4) satisfaction. Given this situation:
1. Define the problem.
2. Create a diagram showing the relationship among
different variables.
3. Develop at least 4 hypothesis.
 Research Process
• Developing Research Proposal
• The written proposal ensures that the parties agreed on the
• Project’s purpose
• The proposed methods of investigation
• The extent of analysis
• The timing of each phase
• Delivery of results.
• Budgets
• Other responsibilities and obligations.
• The proposal may serve the purpose of a legally binding
contract.
 Research Process
• Research Design
• A research design is a blueprint or plan for
the collection, measurement, and analysis
of data, created to answer the research
questions.
• Different types of techniques are available
for exploratory, descriptive , causal,
quantitative and qualitative research.
 Research Process
• Sampling Design
• The way of selecting a sample(sub-group) from the population/
universe. Can be either probability and non-probability sampling
technique.
• Eg: selecting 20 students from a class of 50
• Population
• The population refers to the entire group of people that the
researcher wishes to investigate.
• Sample
• Small and representative sub-group/subset of the population.
• Sample frame
• Representation/List of all the elements in the population from which
the sample is drawn.
• Sample Size
• Number of respondents taken for the study.
 Research Process
• Data collection Plan
• The data collection methods may be classified into
• primary data methods
• secondary data methods
• Primary data
• Is original and collected first hand for the problem under study.
• It includes observation, interviews, focus group discussions,
personal/telephonic interviews/mail surveys and questionnaires,
schedules.
• Secondary data
• Information that has been collected and compiled earlier for some
other problem or purpose.
• It includes company records, magazine, articles, expert opinion surveys,
sales records, customer feedback, government data and previous
researches done on the topic of interest published in journals, books
etc.
 Research Process
• Instrument Design
• Set of questions developed for measuring topic of
interest in research.
• If there is no measurement scales are available
researcher need to construct an new measuring scale.
• Pilot Testing
• Also known as pretesting
• A pilot test is conducted to detect weaknesses in design
and instrumentation.
• The size of the pilot group may range from 25 to 100
subjects/samples.
• Help in refine questions, instruments, or procedures.
 Research Process
• Data Refining and Preparation for Analysis
• Once the data is collected, it must be refined and
processed in order to answer the research question(s) and
test the formulated hypotheses (if any).
• It requires editing of the data for any omissions and
irregularities.
• It is coded and tabulated in a manner in which it can be
subjected to statistical testing
 Research Process
• Data Analysis and Interpretations of Findings
• This stage requires selecting the analytical tools for
testing the obtained information.
• Various statistical techniques available to the
researcher—frequency analysis, percentages,
arithmetic mean, t-test and chi-square analysis, uni-
variate, bi-variate, multivariate analysis etc.
• Once the data has been analysed and summarized,
researcher need to link the results with the research
objectives and stating clearly the implications of the
study.
 Research Reporting
Preparation of the report or presentation of the results
• The layout of the report should be as follows:
• (i) The preliminary pages; (ii) the main text, and (iii) the end matter.
• Preliminary Pages
• Title, acknowledgements, table of contents, list of tables and list of graphs and
charts, if any, given in the report.
• Main text :
• (a) Main report: presented in logical sequence and broken-down into readily
identifiable sections.
• (b) Introduction: statement of the objective, explanation of the methodology
adopted in accomplishing the research, the scope and limitations of the study.
• (c) Summary of findings: If the findings are extensive, they should be
summarised.
• (d) Conclusion & Recommendations
• End of the report:
• Appendices should be enlisted in respect of all technical data.
• Bibliography, i.e., list of books, journals, reports, etc., consulted, Index
Steps in Problem Formulation
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Management Decision Problem
• Statement of the problem in a general way
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Surveying the available literature
• Developing ideas through discussions with experts
• Organisational Analysis
• Qualitative survey
• Rephrasing the research Problem
• Management Research Problem
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Management Decision Problem
• The problem recognition process starts when the decision
maker faces some difficulty or decision dilemma.
• Sometimes, this might be related to actual and immediate
difficulties faced by the manager (applied research) or gaps
experienced in the existing body of knowledge (basic research).
• There must be absolute clarity about what is the purpose of
getting a study done.
• Decision to conduct the study himself or gives it to a researcher
or a research agency.
• Eg:
• What should be done to increase the consumers of organic food
products in the domestic market?
• How to reduce turnover rates in the BPO sector?
• Can the housing and real estate growth be accelerated?
 Illustration
• A soft drink manufacturer who is making and selling
aerated drinks now wants to expand his business. He
wants to know whether moving into bottled water
would be a better idea or he should look at fruit juice
based drinks.
• A comprehensive and detailed survey of the bottled
water as well as the fruit juice market will have to be
done. He will also have to decide whether he wants to
know consumer acceptance of a new drink.
• There has to be complete clarity in the mind of the
researcher regarding the information he must collect.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Statement of the problem in a general way
• Problem should be stated in a broad general way
• The problem stated in a broad general way may contain
various ambiguities which must be resolved by cool thinking
and rethinking over the problem.
• Feasibility of a particular solution has to be considered and
the same should be kept in view while stating the problem.
• Eg:
• Young workers in the organization show low levels of
commitment to the organization.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Surveying the available literature/Literature Review
• Comprehensive collection of the information obtained from
published and unpublished sources of data in the specific area
of interest to the researcher.
• This may include journals, newspapers, magazines, reports,
government publications, and also computerized databases.
• It provides different perspectives and methodologies to be
used to investigate the problem, as well as identify possible
variables that may be studied.
• It helps to identify whether our research problem has already
been investigated and this might be useful in solving the
decision dilemma.
• It also helps in narrowing the scope of the study into a research
problem.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Surveying the available literature/Literature Review
• Once the data has been collected, the researcher must write
it down in his/ her own words and clearly show how this is
linked to the research topic under study.
• The reporting should cite the author and the year of the
study clearly.
• There are several internationally accepted forms of citing
references and quoting from published sources.
• The Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (sixth edition, 2009) and the Chicago Manual of
Style (seventeenth edition, 2017) are academically accepted
as referencing styles in management.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Developing ideas through discussions with subject experts
• May be from within and outside the company.
• Experts are knowledgeable about the industry as well as the
organization.
• The researcher must have a predetermined set of questions
related to the doubts experienced in problem formulation.
• The purpose of the interview is simply to gain clarity on the
problem area and not to arrive at any kind of conclusions.
• Eg: for the organic food study, the researcher might decide
to go to food experts like doctors and dieticians to seek their
opinion
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Statement of the problem in a general way
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Organisational Analysis
• Consists of industry and organizational data.
• Easily available if the researcher/investigator is the manager
himself/ herself
• This data include the organizational demographics—origin
and history of the firm; size, assets, nature of business,
location and resources; management philosophy and
policies as well as the detailed organizational structure, with
the job descriptions.
• Organizational data might not be always essential in case of
basic research, where the nature of study is not company
specific but general.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Statement of the problem in a general way
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Qualitative survey
• These surveys are done on small samples and might make
use of focus group discussions or interviews with the
respondent population to help uncover relevant and current
issues which might have a significant bearing on the problem
definition.
• Eg: focused group discussions with young and old consumers
revealed the level of awareness about organic food and
consumer sentiments related to purchase of more expensive
but a healthy food product.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Rephrasing the research Problem
• Finally, the researcher must sit to rephrase the research
problem into a working proposition.
• Once the nature of the problem has been clearly understood,
the environment (within which the problem has got to be
studied) has been defined, discussions over the problem have
taken place and the available literature has been surveyed and
examined, rephrasing the problem into analytical or operational
terms is not a difficult task.
• Through rephrasing, the researcher puts the research problem
in as specific terms as possible so that it may become
operationally viable and may help in the development of
working hypotheses.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Management Research Problem
• Once the secondary review and interviews and survey is
over, the researcher develops an unambiguous and clearly
defined research problem.
• ‘Problem’ here means the gaps in information or
knowledge base available to the researcher.
• Eg:the lack of sales of a newly launched product could
be due to consumer perceptions about the product,
ineffective supply chain, gaps in the distribution
network, competitor offerings or advertising
ineffectiveness.
• Researcher has to identify and then refine the most
probable cause of the problem and formalize it as the
research problem.
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Management Decision Problem
• Statement of the problem in a general way
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Surveying the available literature
• Developing ideas through discussions
• Organisational Analysis
• Qualitative survey
• Rephrasing the research Problem
• Management Research Problem
 Steps in Problem Formulation
• Management Decision Problem
• Statement of the problem in a general way
• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Surveying the available literature
• Developing ideas through discussions
• Organisational Analysis
• Qualitative survey
• Rephrasing the research Problem
• Management Research Problem
 Management Research Problem
• A good problem statement is relevant but also
feasible.
• 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?
• Has the new advertising message resulted in
enhanced recall?
 Illustrations
Decision Problem Research Problem

• What should be done to • Awareness and purchase intention of

increase the consumers of health conscious consumers for
organic food products in organic food products.
the domestic market?

• How to reduce turnover • impact of shift duties on the turnover

rates in the BPO sector? intentions of the BPO employees.
 An Illustration
• “Why is productivity in Japan so much higher than in
India”?
• Narrowing down the question to
• “What factors were responsible for the higher labour
productivity of Japan’s manufacturing industries during
the decade 1971 to 1980 relative to India’s manufacturing
industries?”
• Further rethinking and rephrasing might place
• “To what extent did labour productivity in 1971 to 1980 in
Japan exceed that of India in respect of 15 selected
manufacturing industries? What factors were responsible
for the productivity differentials between the two
countries by industries?”
 1.6 Ethics in Business Research
• Ethics are norms or standards of behaviour
that guide moral choices about our behaviour
and our relationships with others.
• Ethics in business research refers to a code of
conduct or expected societal norm of
behaviour while conducting research.
• The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that
“no one is harmed” or suffers adverse
consequences from research activities.
 Ethical Treatment of Participants/ Respondents
• Ethical Issue
– Deception
• Deception occurs when the participants are told only part of the truth or when
the truth is fully compromised / hiding the true research objective.
• Researcher need to be ethical in his treatment of respondents
• Ensure that participation is voluntary
• Obtain informed consent
• Participants are fully aware about the procedure and risk involved
in research
• Explain study benefits.
• Researcher should not put the participants in a situation where
they might be at risk of harm as a result of their participation.
• Confidentiality of the information provided by the participants.
• Assurance of anonymity throughout the study
 Debriefing

Explain any deception

Describe purpose

Share results

Provide follow-up

2-66
 Research Ethics in Cyber Space
• Choice:
• Consumers/participants must be provided with an opt-out mechanism
for any secondary uses of data and for disclosures to third parties.
• Access:
• Individuals must have access to personal information about
themselves that an organization holds and be able to correct, amend,
or delete that information where it is inaccurate.
• Security:
• Precautions to protect personal information from loss, misuse, and
unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.
• Data integrity:
• Reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that data collected are
reliable, accurate, complete, and current.
• Enforcement:
• Mechanisms to investigate consumer complaints
 Ethics and the Sponsor
• Confidentiality
• Some sponsors wish to undertake research without revealing
themselves.
• It includes
• sponsor nondisclosure
• Purpose nondisclosure
– Protecting the purpose of the study or its details. A research
sponsor may be testing a new idea that is not yet patented
and may not want the competition to know of its plans.
• Findings nondisclosure
 Ethics and the Sponsor
• Sponsor’s Ethics
• Occasionally, research specialists may be asked by sponsors to
participate in unethical behaviour.
• Compliance by the researcher would be a breach of ethical
standards. Some examples to be avoided are:
• Violating participant confidentiality.
• Changing data or creating false data to meet a desired
objective.
• Changing data presentations or interpretations.
• Interpreting data from a biased perspective.
• Omitting sections of data analysis and conclusions.
• Making recommendations beyond the scope of the
data collected.
The Sponsor–Researcher Relationship
• Managers obligations
– Managers need to specify their problems and provide
adequate background information and access to company
information.
• Researchers also have obligations.
– Organizations expect them to develop a creative research
design that will provide answers to important business
questions. Not only should researchers provide data
analysed in terms of the problem specified, but they also
should point out the limitations that affect the results.
• Sources of manager–researcher conflict are:
• Knowledge gap between the researcher and the
manager.
• Job status
• Unneeded or inappropriate research.
 The Sponsor–Researcher Relationship
• Knowledge Gap
• Some conflicts between decision makers and researchers are
traced to management’s limited exposure to research.
• Job Status
• Managers often see research people as threats to their personal status.
• Unneeded or Inappropriate Research
• Not every managerial decision requires research.
• Right to Quality Research
• sponsor’s right to quality research. This right entails:
• Providing a research design appropriate for the research
question.
• Maximizing the sponsor’s value for the resources expended.
• Providing data-handling and data-reporting techniques
appropriate for the data collected.
Ethics for Researchers and Team Members
• Safety of the researchers and their team members, observers,
respondents etc. .
• Protecting the anonymity of both the sponsor and the participant
if specified.
• Researchers should require ethical compliance from team
members
• Research carried out without bias, and to accurately record all
necessary data.
• Restrain from unethical behaviour, such as filling in an interview
sheet without having asked the participant the questions
• All assistants should be well trained and supervised.
• Researchers and assistants protect the confidentiality of the
sponsor’s information and the anonymity of the participants.
 Assignment-1
1. What is business Research?
2. Explain the role of business Research?
3. Explain the characteristics of a good Research.
4. Explain the business research Process.
5. Explain the Steps in Problem Formulation.
6. Explain the ethics in business research.

Submission: 17-01-2020