Week 1 – Introduction to Research

1. Introduction
During your programme of study, you have come across research conducted by different scholars
about different problems within the broad field of business. You will have noticed that different
scholars follow different approaches when it comes to research and that research is conducted
for different purposes. You will have also come across research outputs which are contradictory
or opposing or in disagreement between them. The nature of research allows for this multiplicity
of approaches and views and even opposing findings.

This week’s notes will explore the definition of research, explain the scientific method of
conducting research and the formulation of a research project based on the scientific method,
discuss how a research topic can be developed and explore potential research topics in the field
of Business.

1.1 Topic Learning Outcomes

During this topic you should be able to achieve the following learning outcomes:

LO1. Understand the formulation of a research project and the importance of research

LO2. Reflect on the research process, purpose, characteristics and applications

LO3. Examine potential areas within the Business Sector to design a research project

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 2. Definition of Research
We conduct research in everyday life in order to obtain basic information that we require in order
to complete basic tasks and activities and to solve simple problems. For example, we conduct
research in order to buy a new washing machine or a new car. Similarly, we conduct research in
order to negotiate an agreement, in order to treat a simple wound or to cultivate a plant.

However, in order to investigate more complex matters, a more systematic approach is required.
The Cambridge Dictionary (2020) defines research as “a detailed study of a subject, especially in
order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding”. Along the same lines,
different scholars define research as a systematic inquiry aiming to increase our knowledge and
understanding or a problem or situation (O’Gorman & MacIntosh, 2015; Adams, Khan & Raeside,
2014). Business research refers to the systematic investigation which enhances our knowledge
and understanding of various business problems and situations. Business research is conducted
for the purpose of supporting organisations, sectors, economies, and business actors in general,
to address problems, handle situations and to enhance business practice and decision-making
(O’Gorman & MacIntosh, 2015; Adams, Khan & Raeside, xxxx).

3. Importance of Research

Research in the field of business and management is contributing so much to the generation of
new knowledge in the field, as well as to advancing business and management practice. Through
research we are able to advance our knowledge and understanding of issues and matters related
to the discipline and at the same time to provide solutions to various practice-based problems
and tools to address business issues and managerial problems (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill ,
2015). In addition to its significance for knowledge, business, industry and organisation, business
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and management research is relevant to society through its contribution toward understanding
the interrelationship between business and society (e.g. the study of stakeholder relationships,
the impact of business on various aspects of social life, etc.). Figure 1.1. below summarizes the
purpose and context of business and management research.

Figure 1.1 Purpose and Context of Research

Source: Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2015, p. 9)

Within this context, the contribution of your research project may be a contribution to the
company or organisation, the industry or field, to business and management knowledge or to
society. This contribution may be different, depending on the topic that you are going to select
for your research. You may seek to understand the impact of something on something else in a
particular context, or to explore why certain business practices are in place in a certain industry

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and possibly to a comparison with another industry, or you may wish to discover and understand
the underlying factors driving certain processes.

4. Scientific Method and Research Process

In order to conduct research in a systematic way, you will be required to follow a scientific
method. A scientific method is a cyclical process or method used for the purpose of producing
knowledge and answering questions about the research topic. The eventual goal of conducting
the research is to explain how and why events or processes occur, supported by evidence. Mind
you that simply collecting information or evidence with no clear purpose or simply reassembling
evidence or information without any original interpretation does not constitute research.
Research involves the systematic collection and interpretation of data for a clear and specific
purpose (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2015).

Conducting research will usually involve the following stages:

Figure 1.2 Research stages

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 Forumate and clarify the research topic

Critically review the literature

Understand your philosophy and approach

Formulate the research design

Arrange access to data and address ethical issues

Collect data

Analyse and interpret data

Report findings

Source: Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, (2015)

Note that although the process above appears like a linear process, in practice, research is more
a cyclical and iterative process, where you may have to revisit stages of the process and make
adjustments are required.

5. The Research Project

As the culminating point of your studies, you are required to complete a research project. What
this means is that you are required to engage in a systematic inquiry about a selected topic,
problem or issue that will be supported by the scientific method. Your research project will have
specific scope and you will have limited time to complete it. Also, during the research project,
you will be required to complete specific steps and at the end you will be required to produce
structured documents such as the research proposal and the final report.

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The purpose of your research project will be one or a combination of the following:

● To review and synthesize existing knowledge

● To investigate some existing situation or problem
● To provide solutions to a problem
● To explore and analyse more general issues
● To explain a new phenomenon
● To generate new knowledge

6. The Research Topic

6.1 Sources of research topics and techniques for generating and refining research ideas

The first step toward successfully completing a research project is the definition of the research
topic. But how can you define your research project? To start with, you need to keep in mind that
your research topic needs to be a business research topic. You may draw from your personal
experience in order to formulate your research topic. For example, your research topic may be
related to a problem at work. Or you may brainstorm research ideas with your colleagues at work
or with your peers in class. Alternatively, you may draw from information shared by practitioners.
For example, reports from practitioners in a field may suggest that there is a certain issue in the
field that requires additional research. Or, you may have spotted that a certain business issue or
question is featuring in the media (general or business/professional). Alternatively, you may have
read in the literature that you used during your studies about a business issue that requires
further research. For example, in a module that interested you, you may have conducted some

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literature search and identified a relevant issue that is of interest to you. Or you may have read
about a research idea that others are exploring, and you may want to contribute to that research.
For example, often in research papers, the scholars are suggesting areas for further research or
directions for further research. To refine your research idea, you may keep a notebook or you
may discuss your idea with a colleague or a peer from class.

6.2 Appropriateness, Feasibility, Capability, Fulfilment

Clearly framing an appropriate and feasible topic for the research project may be challenging and
it should be carefully considered. As you consider various ideas for your research there are some
criteria that you can use to evaluate the appropriateness and feasibility of your research topic.

Table 1.1 Appropriateness of the research topic

Appropriateness:

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 ● Is your topic related to business/management studies?

● Does the research topic fit the specifications and meet the standards set by the
examining institution?

● Does the research topic contain issues that have a clear link to the theory?

● Are you able to state your research question(s), aim(s) and objective(s) clearly?

● Will the proposed research be able to provide fresh insights into the topic?

● Are the findings of the research likely to be symmetrical: that is of similar value
whatever the outcome?

Source: Adapted from Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2015)

In many cases, it is difficult to imagine how a research project will be able to provide fresh insights
into a topic and a common misconception is that a research project must encompass various
aspects of an issue or problem in order to provide fresh insights. However, providing fresh insight
could be accomplished by for example considering a different geographical scope or a different
industry or sector or a different company. For example, if there is existing research looking at the
digitalisation process of the Swiss banking sector, a novel angle could be to look at the
digitalisation process of the banking sector in a different country where the issue has not been
researched. Or if there is research looking at talent management at HSBC in the UK, a novel angle
would be to look at talent management at a different bank in a different country.

Also, you want to frame your topic in such a way that your findings will be important irrespective
of the outcome of the research. You do not want to conduct a research project that will find
something that is trivial or insignificant.

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If the responses to the questions above are ‘Yes’, then this is a good indicator that your topic is
appropriate.

Feasibility of the research project has to do with gaining access to the appropriate sources and
with your ability to collect the required data for the completion of the research project. As you
consider the feasibility of your research project, you should keep in mind that for your research
project you are allowed to collect only open source/publicly available secondary data. You
should not collect any primary data involving human participants. Also, it will not be allowed
to use secondary data for which permission to access and use will be required. What this means
is that your data sources should be secondary sources.

As you consider ideas for your research project you should also consider the capability of
completing the research project.

Table 1.2 Capability to complete the research project

Capability:
● Do you have, or can you develop within the project time frame, the necessary research
skills to undertake the research project?

● Is the research topic achievable within the available time frame?

● Is the research topic achievable within the financial resources that are likely to be
available?

Source: Adapted from Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2015)

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For example, it may be that the research idea that you are considering requires that you master
using some data analysis software that you are not familiar with. If that is the case, will you be
able to master the tool within the project time frame? Also, it may be that your research idea
requires the collection of data from different periods (a longitudinal study). But does the time
frame of your project allow for that? Or you may have a research idea which requires, but the
data required for that is not publicly available and you have to purchase access to the required
data set. Will you be able to do that?

If your responses to the capability questions are ‘Yes’, then this is a good indicator that you will
be capable of completing the research project within the time frame.

Finally, when you consider ideas for your research project, you should consider whether this is a
research project that is fulfilling for you. This project will take considerable of your time and
energy and the fulfilment criterion is very important!

Table 1.3 Fulfillment from the research project

Fulfilment:
● Does the research topic really interest and motivate you?

● Will the research topic help towards achievement of your future aspirations?

● Will the research topic support your future career?

Source: Adapted from Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2015)

6.3 Choosing a research topic

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You will likely come up with more ideas for your research topic and choosing one of them may
be equally challenging as coming up with the ideas. Choosing the research topic is a process of
formulating, clarifying and re-formulating ideas. Your initial idea(s) is likely to be broad which
means that it will have to be narrowed down and focused before it can be finalised into a research
topic. Also, your initial idea will have to pass the appropriateness, feasibility, capability and
fulfilment criteria outlined above. It is likely that your initial idea will be informed with some
evidence and some theory, but you will have to conduct additional literature review to decide
whether an appropriate theoretical framework for the research can be developed. Also, you will
have to consider the availability of data, the research strategy and the data analysis techniques.
Finally, you should choose a research topic for which you can clearly devise research question(s)
and for which you can clearly come up with research aim(s) and objective(s).

6.4 Examples of research ideas and topics

Table 1.4 Examples of research ideas

Research idea 1: ERP implementation on small- and medium sized enterprises

Research idea 2: The impact of CRM practices on retail banking

Research idea 3: The interrelationship between business sectors and the challenges that this
can create

Research idea 4: The different strategies employed by business to improve quality of life,
wellbeing, productivity, engagement, business strategies, mental wealth,
etc.

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If you are thinking that none of these are refined enough to be considered as research topics as
you are reviewing these research ideas, you are correct. These four ideas are at very preliminary
stages and they all require additional refining and narrowing down before they can be formulated
into research topics.

For example, research idea 1 does not say anything about which aspect(s) of ERP implementation
on SMEs would be considered. Also, it would be useful to specify a geographical focus and
possibly a sector focus as well. For example, a research topic could be:

Research idea 1: ERP implementation on small- and medium sized enterprises

Research Topic: An exploration of the factors that impact successful ERP implementation: A
study of 5 construction SMEs

Similarly, in the case of research idea 2, CRM practices are relevant to various aspects of retail
banking so it would be useful to select one such aspect to look at. Also, the idea could be refined
even further to focus on a specific country’s banking sector and even to focus on a specific bank.
For example, a research topic could be:

Research idea 2: The impact of CRM practices on retail banking

Research Topic: Exploring customer perceptions of CRM practices in the UK banking sector:
A case study on bank X

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References:

Adams, J., Khan, H.T.A. & Raeside, R. (2014) Research Methods for Business and Social Science
Students. 2nd Ed. Sage. India: New Delhi.

Cambridge Dictionary (2021) Research. Available at:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/research [accessed: 14/07/2021].
O’Gorman, K. & MacIntosh (2015) Research Methods for Business & Management: A guide to
writing your dissertation. 2nd Ed. Goodfellow Publishers Limited. UK: Oxford.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2015) Research Methods for Business Students. 17th Ed.
Pearson Education. England: Essex.

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