Definition of Business Research

Business research is a systematic and organized effort to investigate a specific

problem encountered in the work setting that needs a solution.

The research provides the needed information that guides managers to make
informed decisions to successfully deal with problems.

The Importance of Business Research

Business research consists of a programmed who tells how applicable

information is to be gathered and examined, so that the consequences are
helpful and appropriate for making promotion decisions. Once the research and
analysis are done, the outcome is communed to management. This is why
business research is important as it provides information concerning critical
issues that have an influence on the aim market and existing marketing mix.
Business research also helps to make great changes in the market. For more
information you must check the link given below:

The Importance Of Research- Why We Do Research

We must first understand what research is. It is another word for gathering of
information. The more information we have the closer we get of making our own
decision. Research is the result of advancing knowledge created in the past.
There are people from all walks of life that contribute to gathered information.
These are ordinary people and extraordinary people. They include, teachers,
students, scientists, professors, scholars, business owners, librarians, book
keepers, writers, politicians and many more unknown out there. These are
everyday citizens we interact with. They all help with the flow information that
people use for self help.

Research is designed to solve a particular existing problems so there is a much

larger audience eager to support research that is likely to be profitable or solve
problems of immediate concern. We also must understand how research impact
our decision making. Most people make decisions without gathered informations
to back them up. Only few do. The problem is most people aren't patient
enough to put in the effort. Research requires time, effort, and sometimes
money to have the evidence you need to make a sound decision that's why many
avoid it. The research you do and evidence you gathered will have impact on
your future. Be adviced, considered the risks or consequences of making an
important decision with inadequate evidence.

In conclusion research is very vital to our everyday decision making. It arms you
from wrong informations and save time and money. It is important to your
success as you take on life's challenges and career decisions making. But be
careful though, becasue too much research without action on what you' re
learning is not good either. The question is how much information is enough?
How much information can you afford? Information obesity can be research
problem just my advice. Research plus action will most likely guarantee a
successful research. Now go out there and make good decisions. I wish you
success. To learn more about taking charge of your future go to my resource
box at http://www.unlimited-mlmwealth-online.com Email: prince@unlimited-
mlmwealth-online.com cell: 612-363-7576

The phrase research and development (also R and D or, more often, R&D),
according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,
refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the
stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the
use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications".[1]

Research and development is often scientific or towards developing particular

technologies and is frequently carried out as corporate or governmental activity.

New product design and development is more often than not a crucial factor in
the survival of a company. In an industry that is changing fast, firms must
continually revise their design and range of products. This is necessary due to
continuous technology change and development as well as other competitors
and the changing preference of customers. Without an R&D program, the firm
must rely on strategic alliances, acquisitions, and networks to tap into the
innovations of others.

A system driven by marketing is one that puts the customer needs first, and only
produces goods that are known to sell. Market research is carried out, which
establishes what is needed. If the development is technology driven then it is a
matter of selling what it is possible to make. The product range is developed so
that production processes are as efficient as possible and the products are
technically superior, hence possessing a natural advantage in the market place.

R&D has a special economic significance apart from its conventional association
with scientific and technological development. R&D investment generally reflects
a government's or organization's willingness to forgo current operations or profit
to improve future performance or returns, and its abilities to conduct research
and development.

The top eight spenders in terms of percentage of GDP were Israel (4.53%),
Sweden (3.73%), Finland (3.45%) Japan (3.39%), South Korea (3.23%),
Switzerland (2.9%), Iceland (2.78%) and United States (2.62%).[2] The
Commitment to Development Index ranks these countries, rewarding them for
research and development that support the creation and dissemination of
innovations of value to developing countries.

In general, R&D activities are conducted by specialized units or centers

belonging to companies, universities and state agencies. In the context of
commerce, "research and development" normally refers to future-oriented,
longer-term activities in science or technology, using similar techniques to
scientific research without predetermined outcomes and with broad forecasts of
commercial yield.

Statistics on organizations devoted to "R&D" may express the state of an

industry, the degree of competition or the lure of progress. Some common
measures include: budgets, numbers of patents or on rates of peer-reviewed
publications. Bank ratios are one of the best measures, because they are
continuously maintained, public and reflect risk.

In the U.S., a typical ratio of research and development for an industrial company
is about 3.5% of revenues. A high technology company such as a computer
manufacturer might spend 7%. Although Allergan (a biotech company) tops the
spending table 43.4% investment, anything over 15% is remarkable and usually
gains a reputation for being a high technology company. Companies in this
category include pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co. (14.1%) or
Novartis (15.1%), and engineering companies like Ericsson (24.9%).[3] Such
companies are often seen as poor credit risks because their spending ratios are
so unusual.

Generally such firms prosper only in markets whose customers have extreme
needs, such as medicine, scientific instruments, safety-critical mechanisms
(aircraft) or high technology military armaments. The extreme needs justify the
high risk of failure and consequently high gross margins from 60% to 90% of
revenues. That is, gross profits will be as much as 90% of the sales cost, with
manufacturing costing only 10% of the product price, because so many individual
projects yield no exploitable product. Most industrial companies get only 40%
revenues.

On a technical level, high tech organizations explore ways to re-purpose and

repackage advanced technologies as a way of amortizing the high overhead.
They often reuse advanced manufacturing processes, expensive safety
certifications, specialized embedded software, computer-aided design software,
electronic designs and mechanical subsystems.

Research has shown that firms with a persistent R&D strategy outperform those
with an irregular or no R&D investment programme.

There are alternative processes that work successfully, and there are processes
that are a dismal failure.
The most successful are by entrepreneurs who start with a good understanding
of a rather focused market. They get ideas that might be called "a better
mousetrap" something that will work better than what the industry is now doing,
or which will make more money for the people involved.

After getting the idea, they next patent protect their idea, then they hire
professionals to implement the idea. The professionals sign documents
promising to keep everything a secret, because in today's world, millions of
people are seeing the same stuff, thousands are getting ideas how to improve it.
The person, who makes the money, is the one who implements the ideas the
fastest.

Research Objectives

The main goal of the research presented in this dissertation is to investigate

issues pertinent to high performance programming in Java, design Java
interfaces to High Performance Computing software’s, and research
implementation issues associated with their development. The dissertation has
the following objectives:

• Investigate various issues and options for parallel programming in Java--

data parallelism and message passing libraries. These include discussing
motivations for introducing HPJava, an HPspmd programming model. It
allows programs to combine data parallel code and SPMD library calls
directly. We present sample code that directly calls to MPI from within the
data parallel program.
• Develop mpiJava, an object-oriented Java interface to MPI. This could be
implemented by ``native methods'' wrappers around some pre-existing
MPI implementation. However, interfacing Java to MPI is not always trivial.
The new native thread feature in JDK 1.2 might be a solution to eliminate
conflicts between the Java runtime and the interrupt mechanisms used in
the MPI implementations. Also, the syntax of mpiJava should be easy to
understand and use, thus making it relatively simple for programmers with
either a Java or Scientific background to take up.
• Incorporate automatic object serialization in mpiJava. In order to support
derived datatypes or handle a multidimensional array, the Java object
serialization model for marshalling general communication data in MPI-like
APIs should be introduced, because the standard MPI approach
describing user-defined types does not map very naturally into Java. In
addition, we should evaluate overheads introduced by object serialization
in mpiJava, and then consider optimized methods that reduce serialization
overheads.
 • Develop real applications written in mpiJava and evaluate their
performance. It is also interesting to compare the results of benchmarks
written in Java with equivalent C or Fortran code. Applications include
graphical visualization parallel Potts model simulation with GUI using Java
AWT.
• Publically release mpiJava on a Web site. This includes complete source,
makefiles, and configuration scripts, compiled libraries for WMPI, test
codes (based on the IBM MPI test suite), example applications, javadoc
documentation, and installation and usage notes.

Classifications of Research

Qualitative Research - Qualitative research allows you to explore perceptions,

attitudes and motivations and to understand how they are formed. It provides
depth of information which can be used in its own right or to determine what
attributes will subsequently be measured in quantitative studies. Verbatim quotes
are used in reports to illustrate points and this brings the subject to life for the
reader. However, it relies heavily on the skills of the moderator, is inevitably
subjective and samples are small. Techniques include group
discussions/workshop sessions, paired interviews, individual in-depth interviews
and mystery shopping (where the researcher plays the role of a potential student,
etc in order to replicate the overall experience).

Quantitative Research - Quantitative research is descriptive and provides hard

data on the numbers of people exhibiting certain behaviors, attitudes, etc. It
provides information in breadth and allows you to sample large numbers of the
population.

It is, however, structured and does not yield the reasons behind behavior or why
people hold certain attitudes. Techniques commonly used in HE/FE include
postal surveys (particularly appropriate in the case of student populations where
name and address information is available), telephone surveys (appropriate for
surveys of employers), on-line or web-based surveys (very cost-effective for
reaching audiences where e-mail penetration is high, such as students and
university/college staff) and mystery shopping (in this case to test quantifiable
aspects of the service).

Secondary or desk research - The collating and analysis of secondary data is

called desk research. Secondary data is data that already exists and may be
found within your own organization or is published by another party and readily
available.

What are the functional areas of management

There are many tasks every business needs to do if it is going to succeed. Each of these
tasks is described as being a function of a business. The following is a brief introduction
to each of these functions:

• Human Resources - ensures the business has the best staff for the job and that
they are able to work effectively in a safe environment;

• Finance - will keep a record of all money coming in and going out of the business.
They have responsibility for securing finances for future expansion and paying
staff and suppliers;

• Administration and ICT support - ensure the smooth running of the business on a
day-to-day basis. They have responsibility for clerical duties, cleaning, computer
and software support, security and health and safety;

• Operations - have the task of producing the goods or service in the most efficient
way. This is done by making best use of the business's staff, machinery, building
and raw materials;

• marketing and sales - will try and maximize the level of sales by carrying out
market research and promoting the goods or service through a motivated sales
team;

• Customer Service - will help the customer before and after a sale has been made
by providing information, giving advice, providing credit facilities, delivering
goods and providing after-sales support;

• research and development - will help the business remain competitive by

developing new goods and services and updating the existing ones; Use of ICT -
ICT will be used in each of these functional

What are the functional areas of a business?

Administration- Deals with paperwork

Finance- Deals with budget and money related issues
Customer service- Deals with customers problems and questions
Distribution- Making sure goods reach their destination
Human Resources- Makes sure every one does their job up to standard/ deals
with hiring and firing staff
Information Technology- Updates websites and deals with tech related problems
Marketing and Sales- The deal with advertising
Production- Produce goods to sell/give
Research and Development- Researching new ways to improve the company

Why Managers should Know Research?

‡ facilitates good decision making
‡ become discriminating about research
findings
‡ prevent vested interests
‡ educates to share pertinent and relevant
information with researcher