Research Methodology

MS 206
Lets Get Started!
Research
 Literally, research (re-search) means “search
again”.
 Organized analysis of any subject based on
“borrowed” materials, with suitable
acknowledgement.
 A systematic, careful inquiry or examination to
discover new information about something, or
establish new relationships between things, and
to expand and verify existing knowledge for some
specified purposes.
Objectives of Research
 To find out answers to questions by applying
systematic and scientific techniques.
 To obtain familiarity of any phenomenon.
 To determine association between variables.
 To determine characteristics of an individual or
group of activities and frequency of occurrence.
Features of a Good Research
 Objectivity
 Control
 Generalization
 Free from personal bias
 Systematic (well planned research design)
 Reproducible
 Reveal of limitations
 Application of ethical standards
Types of Research
 Basic (or Fundamental) Research
 Applied Research
 Descriptive Research
 Historical Research
 Formulative (or Exploratory) Research
 Experimental Research
 Ex Post Facto Research
 Case Study
 Other types:
 Evaluation Research
 Performance Monitoring Research
More…
 Basic Research:
 Attempts to expand the limits of knowledge.
 Not directly involved in the solution to a pragmatic
problem.
 Applied Research:
 Conducted when a decision must be made about a
specific real-life problem.
Do It Yourself
 Is executive success correlated with high need for
achievement?
 Should McDonalds exclude beef items from its menu
if it opens in Sri Lanka?
 Are members of highly cohesive work groups more
satisfied than members of less cohesive work
groups?
 Should Coke also launch a coloured cola like Pepsi?
 Should MUL come up with a economy car like Tata?
Other Types
 Evaluation Research
 It is the formal, objective measurement and
appraisal of the extent to which a given activity,
project, or programme has achieved its
objectives.
 Performance Monitoring Research
 Research that regularly provides feedback for
evaluation and control.
 Indicates whether things are going as planned or
not.
 Research may be required to explain why
something “went wrong”.
Do It Yourself
 Project Name : “The Impact of Past Social Forces on Present State of
Labour in India”
 Project Name : “Tackling the emerging problems of women prisoners
and their children living with them in prisons”
 Project Name : “Constructing a Digital Historical Atlas of India”
 Project Name : “Why Did New Coke Fail?”
 Project Name : “Managing IJV at Bajaj Auto Ltd.”
 Project Name : “The Scope of Personal Care Industry in Jodhpur”
 Objective: To find out the scope of growth of Personal Care
Industry in Jodhpur in order to know the feasibility of setting up
a new Beauty Parlour”.
 Sample size: 30 beauty parlours and 180 respondents (females).
 Result: 60% of the customers require a parlour that can satisfy
them in terms of quality services and hygiene.
Business Research
 Business research is defined as the systematic
and objective process of generating information
for aid in business decision making.
 It is a systematic inquiry that provides
information to guide managerial decisions.
 It is a process of planning, acquiring, analyzing
and disseminating relevant data, information and
insights to decision makers in ways that mobilize
the organisation to take appropriate actions that,
in turn, maximize business performance.
Inter-Disciplinary Treatment
 Borrowing ideas from related disciplines connected
with the research topic.
 Integral approach to various disciplines.
Why Business Research?
 Growth of Internet
 Greater demand by stakeholders
 More competition
 More government intervention
 Increased globalization
 Enhanced computing facilities
 Maturing of management as a discipline
When Business Research?
 Time constraint
 Availability of data
 Nature of decision
 Benefits versus costs
 Benefits:
 Decreased uncertainty

 Increased likelihood of a correct decision

 Improved business performance and resultant

higher profits
 Costs:
 Research expenditures

 Delay of business decision

 Possible disclosure of information to rivals

 Possible erroneous research results

 Availability of Data Benefits vs.
Time Constraint Nature of the Decision Costs
Does the value
Is sufficient time Is the infor- Conduct
Yes Yes Is the decision Yes of the research Yes
available before mation available
a managerial adequate
of considerable information Business
strategic exceed the cost
decision for making
importance? of conducting Research
must be made? the decision?
research?

No No No No

Do Not Conduct Business Research

Where Business Research?
 General Business Conditions and Corporate Research
 Financial and Accounting Research
 Management and Organizational Behaviour Research
 Sales and Marketing Research
 Information Systems Research
 Corporate Responsibility Research
Who Does Business Research?
 Internal
 Research department (or individual)
 External
 Research firms
 Agencies
 Consultants
 Trade Associations
Lets Get Down to Basics!
 Variable:
 The quantity in which we are interested, that
varies in the course of the research.
 It may have different values for different
sample in the study.
 Dependent variable:
 Changes in the variable the researcher wants
to explain or understand.
 Independent variable:
 We try to understand the effects of this
variable on the dependent variable.
 Information:
 Reduces uncertainty
 Helps focus decision making
More…
 Population:
 The group of individuals (or their attributes)
which can be specified numerically (directly or
indirectly).
 Sample:
 Part of population selected to investigate the
properties of the population.
 Parameters:
 Measures about some characteristics of a
population, calculated from the population as a
whole.
 Statistic:
 Measures about some characteristics of a
population, calculated from the sample.
 Statistics vary from sample to sample.
More…
 Census Survey
 Covers the entire population
 Sample Survey
 Covers a part of the population
 Objective is to investigate the properties of the parent
population
Do It Yourself
 A parameter is a characteristic of a sample.
 A census survey is cheaper than a sample survey.
 More detailed information can be collected in census
survey.
 Numerical value of statistic may not give the correct
value of parameter.
 True value of a population parameter is an unknown
constant.
 The objective of sample survey is to estimate
population parameters.
Common Types of Business Research
 Exploratory
 Initial research conducted to clarify and define the
nature of a problem
 Carried out when little research has been done in
past
 Does not provide conclusive evidence
 Subsequent research expected
 Descriptive
 Describes characteristics of a population or
phenomenon
 Some understanding of the nature of the problem
 Answers who, what, how, when, where
 Causal
 Conducted to identify cause and effect relationships
 Conducted when the research problem has already
been narrowly defined
Research Objectives and Design
 Objective: To gain background information, to
define terms, to clarify problems and hypotheses,
to establish research priorities, to determine
direction of future research.
 Design: Exploratory
 Objective: To describe and measure phenomena
at a point in time.
 Design: Descriptive
 Objective: To determine causality, to make “if-
then” statements.
 Design: Causal
 Influence of Uncertainty on the
Type of Research

CAUSAL OR COMPLETELY ABSOLUTE EXPLORATORY

DESCRIPTIVE CERTAIN AMBIGUITY
Do It Yourself
 Project Name : “Job satisfaction of bank employees and quality of
their service”
 Project Name : “Finding the reason why sale of Motorola mobiles is
falling”
 Project Name : “If we go for campus recruitment, can we have
better engineers in our company?”
 Project Name : “What features would customers expect from Tata
Nano?”
 Project Name : “If Pepsi comes in a throw away pack, would
people buy it?”
 Project Name : “In-house child care facility”
 Project Name : “Identify characteristics of consumers purchase of
processed food”
 Project Name : “Is there any problem of absenteeism in the firm?”
 Project Name : “What is the difference in absenteeism rates
among male and female workers in the firm?
 Project Name : “What are the reasons behind absenteeism?”
Problems in Business Research
 Research can provide facts, not many actionable
results.
 Some problems just cannot be researched!
 Research mainly provides a set of guidelines.
 Managers rely more on intuition and judgment
rather than on research.
 relying heavily on intuition without research
can lead to wrong decisions.
 Data analysis and reporting is often injected with
errant biases, inappropriate statistical and
analytical methods, and fraudulent reporting of
study conclusions.
 Limited experience and specific competence in the
methodologies used.
Do It Yourself
 There is a vigorous debate about the impact of
cigarette advertising on consumers. On the one
hand, public health advocates argue that such
advertising does increase consumption. In
contrast, the tobacco industry has argued that its
advertising does not recruit new smokers but
merely encourages confirmed smokers to stay
with, or switch to, a particular brand. On the face
of it, empirical studies of the relationship between
advertising and sales have tended to conclude
either that advertising has no positive effect on
consumption, or that it shows only a very modest
positive effect. However, these studies may be
misleading.
Do It Yourself
 An organization commits to a new process because
the research and analysis determines that it will
provide better results. However, the new process
fails to generate anything in the way of better
results, and the change in processes causes great
disruption in the organization. Resources and time
are sunk in a bad decision.
 A company determines that it has real potential in
the development of a new product category based
on research and analysis. However, the data and
subsequent interpretation does not reflect several
barriers to business development and the
company squanders not only the business
opportunity, and many development resources.
Lets See If You Guessed Right!
 Further investigation into this situation determined
that those directing the research and analysis had
a vested interest in the new process and its
intended benefits. They brought their bias into the
assessment, to the detriment of the business.
 Further investigation into this situation determined
that those directing the research had limited
experience and specific competence in the
methodologies they used to determine feasibility
and development requirements.
Major Steps in Research
 Problem discovery and problem definition
 Plan a research design
 Decide on sampling procedure
 Collect data
 Data processing and analysis
 Formulate conclusions and prepare report
 Cyclical process - conclusions generate new
ideas
Do It Yourself
 What if there are more than one problems?
 What if a less important problem is chosen?
Stages of the Research Process
Problem Discovery Discovery and
and Definition Definition

Research and so on
Design Conclusion and
Report

Sampling
Data Processing
and Analysis
Data
Gathering
The Business Research Process

Problem Discovery Selection of Sample

and Definition Design

Exploratory Collection of Data

Research

Selection of the
Basic Research
Method
Contd.
Editing and Coding
Report

Data Processing
Management
Decision

Interpretation of the
Findings
 “The formulation of the
problem is often more
essential than its solution”

Albert Einstein
Problem Discovery and Definition
 First step
 Often the most difficult part
 Discovery before definition
 A problem well defined is half solved
 Too often neglected leading to costly errors
 Provides direction for the project
 Must not mistake symptoms for problem
Steps in Problem Definition
 Statement of the problem in a general way
 Understanding the nature of the problem
 Surveying available literature
 Developing idea through discussion
 Rephrase the research problem into a working
proposition
Research Design
 Master plan
 Framework for action
 Specifies methods and procedures
 “Blue print for collection, measurement and
analysis of data”
Types of Research Design
 Exploratory Research
 Small sample size
 Vague data requirements
 Objective is general instead of specific
 No definite recommendations
 Survey of existing literature, discussions and
analysis of selected case studies
 Descriptive Research
 Data collected refer to demographic variables of
respondents
 Specific objective
 Clear cut data requirements
 Large sample size
 Definite recommendations
More…
 Causal Research
 Provide stronger basis to existence of causal
relationships
 Researcher is able to control the influence of
exogenous variables on the dependent variable.
 Confounded variable
Do It Yourself
 Project Name : “A study on the location of a new
plant”
 Project Name : “A study to determine reasons for
rise in cost of inventory in the factory”
 Project Name : “A study to forecast demand for
small cars in India till 2020”
 Project Name : “Factors influencing smokers to quit
smoking”
 Project Name : “Determination of sales volume
quotas for different territories of Vodafone postpaid
connections”
Basic Research Methods
 Surveys
 Interview
 Questionnaire
 Experiments control conditions so that one or
more variables can be manipulated to test a
hypothesis
 Field
 Laboratory
 Secondary data
 Observation
The Research Process
Problem
Discovery

Selection of
Exploratory
Technique
Problem
Discovery
& Definition
Secondary Experience Pilot
Case Study
Data Survey Study

Problem Definition
(Research Objectives)

Selection of Research
Method
Research
Design
Survey
Experiment Interview/Questionnaire Observation Secondary Data Study

Sampling
The Research Process (contd.)
Selection of
Sample Design
Sampling

Probability Non-Probability

Collection of data Data Gathering

(fieldwork)

Editing and coding

data Data Processing
and Analysis

Data processing

Interpretation of Conclusions
findings Report and Report