INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS RESEARCH

 What is a research
 a process of investigation that is carried out in an
organised and systematic manner to address a
specific problem or issue.
1. Basic research also known as fundamental of pure
research is conducted to improve our
understanding of certain issues rather than its
immediate application. This research is also
known as fundamental of pure research. For
example, you might be interested in whether
personal characteristics influence students’
courses choices. Basic research aims to make a
contribution to knowledge rather than providing
solution to a specific problem or issue.
2. Applied research is done with the emphasis
of solving a specific, existing problem. It is
very specific in nature and is directed
towards making decisions. An example of
an applied research is when an organisation
wants to improve its employees’
performance that has been declining lately.
1. Check whether a specific action, program or policy has
the expected effect.

2. Research will provide managers to make decisions or to

determine whether a problem exists.
3.
4. Allows managers to identify problem situation before
they grew out of the management’s control.

4. To understand various factors and effects of factors

contributed to an existing situation or problem.
1. Should not engage in plagiarism, fraud or
deceptions.
2. Research must be treated as private and
confidential.
3. To the people involve – no physically,
psychologically and legally harm.
 4. Cannot force any respondents to answer
the questions.

 5. Cannot disclose any information related to

the outcomes of the research without prior
consents of the respondents.
 To provide information about what is
accruing within an organisation or in its
business environment.
 After analyzing the indicator, a manager faces
the initial decision of whether or not a
research should be undertaken.
 Time constraint
 Manager should decide whether there is sufficeint time to conduct the
research or not, before a managerial decision is made.
 Availability of data
 Managers should investigate if current existing information is sufficient to
make appropriate decisions for an issue on hand.
 Nature of the decision
 Should also consider the strategic and tactical importance of decisions to be
made. If it is of vital interest to the organisation, a thorough business
research should be conducted.
 Benefits versus costs
 The last factor to be taken into consideration whether a research should be
conducted is the expenditure involved in a research. In conducting the
research, managers should ask the following questions:
◦ Will the payoff or rate of return be worth the investment?
◦ Will the research information gather improve the quality of the decison?
◦ Is the proposed research expenditure the best use of available funds?
◦ AREA OF INTEREST/EXPERTISE
◦ Should embark research that in your area of interest.

 General Business Condition and Corporate research:
ie.Business and Industry trends
Global environments
 Financial and Accounting Research: ie. Risk-return trade
offs, Impact of taxes
 Management and Organisational Behaviour: ie.
Leadership style, Employee productivity, Absenteeism
and turnover
 Sales and Marketing Research: ie. Market shares, Sales
analysis
 Information System Research: ie. Data mining, Database
analysis
 Corporate Responsibility Research: ie. Social values and
ethics
 CHAPTER 3

Research Process
Before discussing the process involved in
research. The amount of information that is
accessible to you when making a decision is very
crucial. The nature of the problem is ambiguous,
the objectives are vague and it is not easy to
determine alternatives, then an in-depth study of
the problem must be undertaken to ensure that
incorrect decision based on the ambiguity
conditions are not made. Research is definitely
required if you are facing with conditions of
uncertainty.
 TYPE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
1. Exploratory Research
• This type of research is conducted when there are
very few or no previous studies to which you can
refer to (Collis and Hussey, 2003).
• This research merely provides you with information
needed to analyse a situation and give guidance on
what future research should be conducted.
• Cannot use the findings to provide conclusive answers
to problems or issues, eg. a research conducted to
determine the reaction of people on the
implementation of the new policy in an organisation.
 TYPE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH

2. Descriptive Research
• A studies designed to describe the major
characteristics of some problem situation.
• Results of this study can be used to determine
a course of action and therefore should be
conducted as accurate as possible.
• If the study does not reflect an accurate
measurement of demand for Islamic financial
products and services, then the decision
made based on that study is misleading.
 TYPE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
3. Causal Research
• To determine the cause and effect relationships between/among
variables. Through this research you attempt to establish that if you do
one thing (e.g. increase employees’ fringe benefit), another will follow (e.g.
increased productivity).
• Before identifying the cause and effect relationships between variables,
causality, Zikmund (2003) suggests that you should:
• establish the appropriate causal order;
• measure the concomitant variation between the presumed cause and the
presumed effect; and
• recognise the presence or absence of other possible explanations or
casual factors;
• Due to uncertainty of the research problem, it has an influence on the type
of research undertaken. The more certain and define is the research
problem, you as a researcher will be moving from exploratory to
descriptive to causal research.
 Research Process: Research
Problem Stages
1. Identify a Problem
• A research process begins with a problem that
requires a solution or an important decision to
be made. At this initial stage, you as the
researcher will need to identify a problem
and investigate whether such problem is
really a problem or just a symptom. It involves
interviewing key people, checking records
and documents, observations and talking
with persons involved
 Research Process: Research
Problem Stages
2. Defining the Research Problem
• Once you have identified a research
problem or issue, there is a need to define
it into a research problem and come up
with specific research questions to be
answered.
• Research question is “the single question
or hypothesis that best states the objective
of the research study.”
 Research Process: Research
Design Stages
• Kervin (1992) states that research design is the blueprint for the
researcher to fulfil his objectives and answer questions. To
choose an appropriate research design is not that simple. Your
research design must factor in the research objectives;
– identify the sources of information
– identify the design techniques such as survey, case study or experiment,
the sampling method, the time schedule and the budget for the research.
• The first step in a research design is to determine a unit of
analysis.
• What is “unit of analysis”?
• Unit of analysis refers to the kind of case to which the variables
under study and the research problem is defined, and about
which data is collected and analysed (Collis and Hussey, 2003).
 Research Process: Determining
the unit of analysis
• Unit of analysis must be relevant to the research
problem. For example, if your key variable is
turnover rate then your unit of analysis may refer to
individual (e.g., employees), to bodies (e.g.,
departmental turnover rates) or to events (e.g.,
incidents of turnover).
• Consistency among key and primary variables
• Should be adequate for statistical analysis to ensure
research validity
• Decide on the sampling design, type and size of
the sample.
 Research Process: Collecting
Research Data

• There are various methods of data collection

among them are observation, interviews,
questionnaires, and panel studies. You can
minimise errors in the study by pre-testing the
measures, research instruments and
procedures.
 Research Process: Analysing and
Interpreting Research Data

Once you have completed the data collection stage,

you will now have to prepare the data for analysis,
which involves:
• Editing
• Coding
• Entering into a computer
• Cleaning up errors
• Kervin (1995) suggests that you should perform a
preliminary analysis as well as carrying out
descriptive analysis for pertinent variables.
Research Process: Analysing and
Interpreting Research Data

The next step is to carry out bivariate and

multivariate analysis on the relationships
among the variables. Further supplementary
analysis should be done if you have
unexpected findings. Based on the analysed
results, you will have to draw conclusions and
make necessary recommendations pertaining
to the research problem.
 Research Process: Writing the
Research Report

• Finally, you will have to prepare a formal research

report and present it to the clients for the purpose of
decision making. Your research report should
effectively convey the results of the research.
Usually a research report should contain the
following items:
– Executive Summary
– Overview of the Research
– Problem Statement
– Findings
– Recommendation
 Research Process: HYPOTHETICO-
DEDUCTIVE METHOD
Sekaran (2003) stated that hypothetico-deductive
method involved the following seven steps:
– Observation
– Preliminary Information Gathering
– Theory Formulation
– Hypothesising
– Execute Scientific Data Collection
– Data Analysis
– Deduction
Research Process: HYPOTHETICO-
DEDUCTIVE METHOD
1. Observation
• In this step, through your observation,
you notice changes in the environment
that could have important implications.
Example. in increase in market shares,
high turnover rates, a drop in profit
margin. Whether such changes give
rise to a problem or only a symptom,
you need to gather more information to
clearly define the problem.
 Research Process: HYPOTHETICO-
DEDUCTIVE METHOD
2. Preliminary information gathering
In this stage, you will seek in-depth
information based on the observation
made. Begin by informally talking or
interviewing the people that are related
to the problem or issue. Informal
interview can later be turn into
structured interview. At the same time,
you can also gather information
through secondary data.
 Research Process: HYPOTHETICO-
DEDUCTIVE METHOD

3. Theory formulation This step involves putting all

the information together into logical manner, that
is, to conceptualise and put them in tested form.
Each of the variables identified needs to be
theoretically linked together. This is known as
theory formulation process or developing theoretical
framework. It is important to note that not all
theoretical frameworks can be put into a schematic
diagram since they are best depicted in a
mathematical form
 Theoretical framework
Situation 1
Motivation to work as an Independent Variable
The performance of employees is influenced by
their motivation to work.

Motivation Performance

Iv Dv
 Theoretical framework
Situation 2
Motivation to work as an Intervening variable.
Employee perform better when they are given
challenging jobs, because such jobs tend to
motivate them to work.

Job Performance
challenge Motivation

Independent Intervening Dependent

variable variable variable
 Theoretical framework
Situation 3
Motivation to work as a Moderating Variable.
The performance of employees with low levels
of motivation to work will not improve despite
increases in job challenge

Performance
Job Challenge
Motivation

Iv Mv Dv
 Research Process: HYPOTHETICO-
DEDUCTIVE METHOD

4. Hypothesising
• From theory formulation, you then need to
develop hypotheses and test them to
determine if these hypotheses statements
would be supported. You can formulate the
hypotheses in the null and alternate form and
in the directional and non-directional form
 Research Process: HYPOTHETICO-
DEDUCTIVE METHOD

4. Scientific data collection

• Once you have developed the hypotheses, you will
then need to search for data related to each variable
identified. For example, if you set out to test the
hypothesis that better fringe benefits reduce
employees’ turnover rate, the data required will be
what is the existing fringe benefits offered, current
level of employees’ satisfaction in relation to the
existing fringe benefits. Additional data collected
would also include what would be a good fringe
benefits package that would at least sustain
employees from leaving the organisation