Question

Task: For this assessment, students are expected to write a weekly journal over the
duration of the 12-week teaching period that documents a critical analysis of their learning
process for this unit. In the journal students need to reflect/review how they have
progressed with the learning goals related to assessments 1 and 2 of engaging in Business
Research.

Students need to write their individual reflective journal concurrently with performing
assessment tasks 1 and 2, i.e. from the first week of the subject. For each week, students
need to make journal entries that provide a reflection of their ‘journey’ of gaining, and
applying knowledge of the research paradigm. For each week students should reflect and
compare the theoretical knowledge with what they apply into practice. As assessment 1 and
2 are completed, students should clearly identify learning goals achieved.

Answer

Introduction
The objective of this reflective journal assignment is to document the critical analysis of the
learning process of the overall unit. In this reflective journal assignment, I will review or
reflect how I have progressed with the learning goals related previous assessment in
business research. Basically, the entries will provide a reflection of a ‘journey’ of achieving
and applying the knowledge of research paradigm. Business research can be described as
the process of methodical examination to achieve innovative facts about the management
and business along with findings which have some of the practical results (Zikmund, Babin
Carr & Griffin, 2012). By the classroom learning, I gained knowledge about the process and
methods to attain secondary data for research. Further, by the class lectures, I learned how
to best respond the study question. The reflective journal assignment will focus on the
analysis of strategy and actions which I adopted to conduct business research along with
methodological selections, models and selected theories. Basically, there will be no learning
from experience without reflection (Fisher, 2007).

Week 1: First lecture was all about the nature, process and strategy of business research.
By this lecture, I learned about the research strategy, quantitative research, uniqueness of
quantitative research, qualitative research and its distinctiveness and mixed method
research. I gained significant knowledge about the research process and applied the
knowledge in my research project i.e. Role o cloud computing in efficiency and productivity
of business. I learned about the reason for conducting business research i.e. gap in
literature, inconsistency amongst studies, unresolved issues and to understand any topic
(Crowther & Lancaster, 2012). Further, in the lecture, I learned about evidence-based
management which is crucial to enhance the management practice. I also learned about the
process of business research which I applied in my project easily.

In the reflective journal assignment, used mixed method including qualitative as well as
quantitative method for conducting the research in the proper way. From the class lectures,
I learned that no hypothetical structure is correct and it is my selection to examine own
definitive approach and prepare the research design to best answer the research question
(Gill & Johnson, 2010).
Week 2: This lecture was helpful for me in understanding the research design and planning
the research process. I learned about various research designs and methods which are
important to conduct a proper research. Along with this, by the lecture, I learned about the
types of validity and threats to internal and external validity. This lecture was also helpful
for me in formulating research question and preparing them for the study. Basically,
research design presents an outline for data collection and investigation. Preparing and
selecting the research subject is the initial level of the research project. The choice of my
research topic was attained by the brainstorming process which helped me in generating
and defining research ideas. By the assessment of ideas, I discovered my interest in the role
and importance of cloud computing on the efficiency and productivity on business. I used
Google Drive method to sustain the significant activities of process and distribution of my
results so that valuable information can be accessed easily. The selection of using Drive to
share the work process was helpful in enhancing my experience in the business research.
This decision was proved to be excellent by which I was able to use the limited resources in
the efficient manner (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2010).

In the next step of the project, I conducted secondary research for identifying and refining
the research question. I conducted the body of literature by which I could have advantages
from additional results. The literature was very perceptive and later than the analysis, I
decided to draft the research question for overall study i.e. what is the impact of cloud
computing on efficiency and productivity of business? After this, I undertook another
brainstorming session to identify additional research areas and terms (Ridley, 2008).

Week 3: By the next week lecture, I learned about writing the literature review which is
helpful in presenting the facts related to research topic. I learned that writing literature
review is all about reviewing the main ideas and research related to my chosen areas of
research. By the systematic review, I can enhance the reliability of my study. I gathered
secondary data from the review of various literatures which provided me contextual and
comparative data. By this, I was able to compare the findings about the use and importance
of cloud computing in the business management. I conducted proper literature review for
the selected research question. In addition to this, I reviewed the current state of my
knowledge on subject matter to complete the research in proper manner (Brinkman &
Kvale, 2014).

Week 4: In this week lecture, I learned about ethical and legal considerations while
conducting the business research. I understood that there can be various ethical issues in
the business research i.e. hurt to contributors, dishonesty, assault of isolation, and lack of
informed approval etc. In order to avoid the ethical issues and focus on legal and ethical
considerations, I conducted the ethical review so that research should be kept in the ethical
parameters by applying the research ethics (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2012). In the ethics
parameters, I decided to ask any personal questions to the participants to maintain privacy
in the research. Before the survey, respondents were requested to sign the consent form
explaining the objective of research, the length of survey, and confidentiality of study
(Myers, 2013).

Week 6: In lecture 6, I learned about the process of qualitative research which is helpful in
conducting proper data and information related to research. I gained knowledge about the
method of quantitative research i.e. the method is meant to be flexible and should not be too
structured. I decided to use mixed method including qualitative as well as quantitative
research method. This decision was taken to understand the use and significant impact of
cloud computing on business operations and this was possible by conducting qualitative
research. The approaches of both the studies were very iterative and interactive (Teddlie &
Tashakkori, 2011). The mixed method provided the scope for the effective approach of data
collection in future. In the quantitative method, I conducted the research by using the
questionnaire including open-ended questions which was helpful for me to design the
quantitative research questions. By this research method, I was able to better understand
the process of achieving the significant data for overall study (Rowley, 2012).

Week 7: In this week, I learned about the process of qualitative research method. As I am
going to use both qualitative as well qualitative method in the research so this week lectures
was also important for me. Qualitative method is important to gather large amount of data
and this is the most prominent approach. Documents in qualitative research must be in
printed, digital, visual, and in other retrievable format (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson,
2012).

Week 9: Next lecture was very crucial for my research project as it was all about structured
in interviewing and questionnaire design. As I was using the questionnaire method in my
study so I focused on this part and gained significant knowledge about the process of
preparing questionnaire. This lecture was helpful for me in framing the questions which I
need to ask from the respondents. I learned that closed ended questions should be used in
the questionnaire as open ended questions can create coding issues in the research. In
addition to this, the layout and presentation of closed ended questions is important in the
study. So, I conducted the research by using the questionnaire including closed-ended
questions which was helpful for me to design the quantitative research questions. By this
research method, I was able to better understand the process of achieving the significant
data for overall study (Rowley, 2012).

Week 10 : This week learning is all about structured observation to study the behavior
which is an alternative to survey-based measure. I learned that there should be content
analysis in the quantitative research method. For the content analysis, I can use coding
schedule coding manual for the content analysis (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012). .

Week 12: The last lecture was about mixed method research which is helpful in achieving
the best answers of research questions. In the mixed method, there are qualitative and
quantitative methods which can be used in the research. I used all my knowledge and
learning in conducting research of my project. The requirement of the research was to
collect both quantitative as well as qualitative information to address the identified research
questions (Bryman & Bell, 2011). I gained significant knowledge about the method of
collecting the data. So, I decided to use mixed method including qualitative as well as
quantitative research method. This decision was taken to understand the use and significant
impact of cloud computing on business operations and this was possible by conducting
qualitative research. The approaches of both the studies were very iterative and interactive
(Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011). The mixed method provided the scope for the effective
approach of data collection in future.

Conclusion
In conclusion of this reflective journal assignment, I can say that I am confident about the
research project which was successfully managed with the potential scope of improvement.
It can be said that by the evaluation of ideas, I discovered my interest in the role and
importance of cloud computing on the efficiency and productivity on business. By the class
learning, I was able to conduct proper literature review for the selected research question. I
gained significant knowledge about the method of collecting the data. So, I decided to use
mixed method including qualitative as well as quantitative research method. I applied
process with maximal objectivity into my business research i.e. having clear objectives, and
presenting facts and findings. Reflective journal assignments are being prepared by our top
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