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Business Research Process

The document discusses different types of research designs used in business research. It describes exploratory research as an initial research that explores relationships between variables without known applications. Descriptive/diagnostic research is carried out with specific objectives to describe characteristics of respondents or estimate proportions. Experimental/causal research tests hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships. The key stages of research process are defining the problem, preparing a proposal, designing the study, analyzing data, preparing a report, and making decisions.

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Ridwan Mohsin
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165 views5 pages

Business Research Process

The document discusses different types of research designs used in business research. It describes exploratory research as an initial research that explores relationships between variables without known applications. Descriptive/diagnostic research is carried out with specific objectives to describe characteristics of respondents or estimate proportions. Experimental/causal research tests hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships. The key stages of research process are defining the problem, preparing a proposal, designing the study, analyzing data, preparing a report, and making decisions.

Uploaded by

Ridwan Mohsin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BRM UNIT I - BUSINESS RESEARCH PROCESS

Research is a process of enquiry and investigation. It is systematic and


methodical. Research is all about having predetermined questions and them
trying to answer these questions through gathering information and later
analyzing this information. Systematic and methodical implies that research must
be well organized and go through a series of stages. Research is defined as a step
– by – step process that involves collecting, recording, analyzing and interpreting
of information. Research is all about generating answers to questions to improve
knowledge. The nature of these questions depends on the topic of the research.
For example, a marketer might carry out research to investigate consumer
perceptions about a certain brand or a medical researcher may want to explore
the association between recovery times and different medical treatments.

The purpose of business research is to gather information in order to aid business


related decision making. Business research is defined as the systematic and
objective process of collecting, recording, analyzing and interpreting data for
solving managerial problems. These managerial problems can be related to any
business function namely marketing, finance, human resources etc.

Research process: it consists of the following 6 steps.

Step1: defining the research question / problem clearly

Step2: preparing a research proposal

Step3: preparation of research design (Sample and data collection technique)

Step4: data analysis and interpretation

Step5: preparation of research report

Step6: managerial decision

Types of research design

1. Exploratory Research Design: it is an initial research which analyses the


data and explores the possibility of obtaining as many relationships as

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possible between different variables without knowing their applications.
The primary purpose of an exploratory research is to provide insights into
unexplored areas, where as conclusive research is carried out with specific
problem in mind. Exploratory design and results are more conclusive. This
research provides basis for general findings. This type of research lays
foundation for the formulation of different hypotheses of research
problems. Exploratory research is carried out with the purpose of gaining a
better insight into a problem. Its objective could be
 Formulate a problem statement
 Provide alternative options / approaches to problem
 Evaluate feasibility of a research project
 Establish possibilities for further research
Exploratory research is of great use when a researcher has only a vague
idea of the problems he would encounter during a study. It may also help
in saving money and time because if a problem is not as significant as it was
first thought, then project can be cancelled or he may review hypotheses
already developed for further studies.

Different types of exploratory research designs are literature survey,


experience survey and case studies. Literature survey is involving a
collection of literatures in the selected area of research in which the
researcher has limited experience. It helps the researcher to update with
the past data, data sources and the results which will be useful for related
researches in future. Experience survey is a survey of experiences of
experts/ specialists in a particular field which will act as database for future
research. The outcome of this survey is to generate ideas which will help
carry out future research with minimal data collection. Case studies are
oriented to have insights into research topics. For example the success of
implementation of JIT (Just In Time inventory technique) in Indian
industries can be studied through case studies.

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2. Descriptive and Diagnostic research design: it is carried out with specific
objectives and hence results in definite conclusions. This research tries to
describe the characteristics of the respondents in relation to a particular
product or a practice of importance. Thus the descriptive research design is
used when the purpose of the study is to learn who, what, when, where
and how of a topic. Descriptive research is conducted with the following
intention
 To describe the characteristics of relevant groups like consumers,
producers etc
 To study or estimate the proportion of people in a particular
population who holds certain specific opinions/attitudes
 To make predictions related to a particular phenomenon. For
example what will be growth of retail sector in the rural places?

Thus the objective of the descriptive research is to describe things such as market
potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy
the product. Descriptive research also called as statistical research describes data
and characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied.
Descriptive research can not be used to create a causal relationship; where one
variable affects another. The basic difference between exploratory and
descriptive research is the research design. Exploratory follows a format that is
less structured and more flexible than the descriptive research.

Types of Descriptive research:

1. Correlation studies: this tries to study the correlation between dependent


variable and independent or explanatory variables.
2. Cross sectional studies: often referred to as surveys, in this type of study a
cross section of community is studied at a particular period of time.
Population includes different age groups or different education levels. Thus
time is an important element of any research. A cross sectional study is one
that takes place at a single point of time. For instance, a study of students
pursuing MBA course.

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3. Longitudinal studies: a longitudinal study is one that takes place over a
period of time. It is the historical data and time series. For example a study
of exports during a particular period. Thus in this research, study is done at
different points of time in the life of an individual or object under study.
Longitudinal descriptive study involves the collection of data from a sample
at different points of time.
3. Experimental / Causal research: the objective of causal research is to test
hypothesis about cause – and - effect relationships. If this type, the
researcher tries to determine if the change in one variable called
independent variable affects another variable called dependent variable. To
be effective the design of causal research is highly structured and
controlled so that other factors do not affect those being studied. Causal
research is used for testing marketing scenarios such as what might happen
to product sales if changes are made in the product design or if advertising
medium is changed.

Exploratory Descriptive/Diagnostic Experimental /


Causal
Objective Discover insights Describe the Develop a cause
into new areas characteristics of a and effect
and problems phenomenon relationship
Characteristics Flexible design Well developed, Structured
preplanned and involving more
structured variables
Methodology Uses non-random Random sample design
sampling preplanned analysis
No preplanned techniques
analysis Use of primary and
techniques secondary data
Uses method of
expert survey
Secondary data
and
Case studies used
for collection of
data

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Descriptive and diagnostic research differs from the exploratory research.
Descriptive / Diagnostic research is characterized by prior formulation of
the problem / specific hypothesis where as exploratory is generally used for
problem formulation. Hence the design for descriptive research is more
clearly defined, preplanned and structured. Descriptive design makes use of
6 W’s of research. They are
 Who is the part of the study?
 What information to be collected?
 When is the information collected?
 Where the respondents should be contacted?
 Why are we obtaining the information?
 Way of obtaining information

It can be said that a descriptive research design should clearly state the
subject of study, objectives of study, content of study, time and place of
conducting study and the method adopted to conduct study.

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