Research in business studies

Department of Business Administration

Fall 2017-18

Research in Business Studies

Chapter 1
By
Prof. Dr. Sami Fethi

Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Map of A Research Research in business studies

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Figure 1 Map of A Research 2

Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies
Gantt chart for a research project

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Figure 2 Gantt chart for a research project Midterm-subject
Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Research in Business Studies

 Why do we make research

 Research vs. common sense
 Different research orientations
 Inductive vs. deductive research
 What Comes First, Theory or Data?
 Research Never Stops
 Research and Ethics

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Why do we make research

 Why do we make research
 We make research because we want to know more about ourself
and the world around us. The basic purpose of research in every
discipline is to teach students to work systematically and for them to
learn critically to analyse issues before acting upon them. However,
research is essential for understanding even basic everyday
phenomena that need to be handled by individuals and
organizations.
 e.g If you want to buy a car, how do you make a research?
 which car satisfies our needs
 Compare prices at different dealers
 Can we sell the car purchased at second hand market so on....
 we really cannot take decisions on important issues unless we
investigate more deeply the relevant information and gathering more
information on the particular aspect we are interested in. Then we
analyse all these information to make a judgement about the right
solution to our problem.

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Why do we make research

 The research, therefore, makes life easier, not only in
business but also in general.
 Kuhn, 1970 said that the research can be considered as
a process of problem solving for a specific problem
under specific conditions.
 e.g Through systematic research it was found that
serious stomach and digestion problems were
caused by the salmonella bacteria. Research also
shows that the salmonella bacteria did not survive at a
temperature of 800 C or higher so when it is suspected
the bacteria, the food can be heated at that
temperature in the practise.

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Research vs. common sense

 Research vs. common sense
 There is a common belief that research is an academic activity
undertaken by researchers who are not at all familiar with
managerial culture and the nature of problems faced by business
managers.
 At the same time, several studies have revealed that managers
do not know how to use research findings and therefore cannot
utilise the results and conclusions of research (whitley, 1984;
Gill and Johnson, 1991).
 In an opinion, research in business studies and managerial problem
solving are not much different from each other.
 In business life, managers need to have systematic insights into
what causes dissatisfaction and frustration is crucial to solve the
problem and improve.
 An observer with common sense or belief can reach different
conclusions compared to a researcher with scientific findings.
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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Research vs. common sense

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 Research vs. common sense
 e.g. A man and his son are involved in an automobile accident.
The man is killed and the boy, seriously injured, is rushed to the
hospital for surgery. The sergeon takes one look at him and
says ‘ I am sorry, but I cannot operate on this boy. He is my
son.’
 Non-conscious ideologies and beliefs should be chalIenged by
scientific research so new things or beliefs may be comfortable.
 In a conservative environment, new things beliefs may not be
comfortable. For example, it is not allowed to include Darwin’s
evolution theory in the school curriculum due to the beliefs in religion
as such the creation of mankind.
 The research corrects our misbeliefs and provides new perspectives.
 Bottom line is that a research should be systematic, arguable
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and challengeable.
Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Different research orientations

 Different research orientations
 The research process and the research method used are
influenced by the researcher’s background when it comes to
research orientation.
 A particular research orientation prescribes the relationship
between methods, data, theories and the values of researcher.
 ‘Originality’ or ‘original contribution to knowledge’ is a basic
condition for a scientific study. Sometimes, students believe that
topics used by other in their theses should not be studied, because
by doing this, the topics would lose Originality.
 A research tries to be as objective as possible and does not ask
whether the social activity observed is good or bad, he/she just
analyses, present and explain. A reseacher may not accept or
reject any case due to a number of speculations unless
critically investigate and find out reliable and logical
explanations.
 In an opinion, a researcher may have different orientation from
general to specific in terms of problem solving for a business life.
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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Inductive vs. deductive research Research in business studies

 Inductive research (specific to general) (Bacon)

 There are two ways of establishing what is true or false to draw
conclusions, induction and deduction. Former is based on
empirical evidence whilst latter is based on logic.
 Induction; A particular research orientation prescribes the
relationship between methods, data, theories and the values of
researcher. We can draw general conclusions from our empirical
observations.
 In this type of research, the process goes from observation→ findings
→ literature →theories, so theory is the outcome of research (Bryman
and Bell, 2003). This type of research is often associated with the
qualitative type of research and the process goes from assumption to
conclusions.
 e.g.
Assumption: Psychiatrists have found that psychological problems in patients
depend upon their experiences in chilhood.
conclusion: All psychological problems are based on experiences in chilhood.
 It is, however, important to note that we can never be 100 percent sure about
the inductive conclusions as based on some empirical observations.
 e.g. The prognosis ( estimation) of election results in a general election. We can
arrive at more or less probable results but not with hundred percent certainty. 10
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 Research in business studies

Inductive vs. deductive research

 Deductive research (general to specific) (Aristoteles)
 In this case, it is not necessarily be true in reality but it is logical.
 The researcher in this type of case builds or deducts hypotheses
from existing literature which can be subject to empirical testing and
thus can be accepted or rejected.
 This type of research is associated with quantitative type of
research and the process goes from assumption to
conclusions.
 e.g.
Assumption: All metals expand when heated.
Assumption: Rail tracks are built of metal.
conclusion: Rail tracks will expand when heated.
 Induction is the process of observing facts to generate a theory
and is likely to be the first step in scientific methods.
 Deduction involves the gathering of facts to confirm or disprove
hypothesized relationship among variables that deducted from
existing knowledge.
 In both case, researchers need to know the nature of the existing
knowledge. 11
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 Research in business studies

What Comes First,

Theory or Data?

Figure 3 Theory or data as starting point 12

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

What Comes First, Theory or Data?

 Theory or Data?
 It is usually assumed that theory should precede (lead)
data, that is, observations. This impression is easily
supported by the way the ‘research process’ is illustrated
or research often takes place this way.
 A key step in this case is to construct theory with an
adequate explanation then deal with data.
 When a researcher test a specific hypothesis, she/he can
get unexpected finding. So if there does not exist the
relevant theory, such finding can not be explained
adequately.
 These kind of studies may be groundless (or baseless),
thus its contents can be partial.
 Bottom line is that any topic with data can not be
directly selected regardless of its relevant theory.
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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Research Never Stops

 Why?
 Mankind never stop learning that’s why research
never stop. Researcher always explore new things or
they are so open-minded for innovation.
 A key step in this case is to find out new findings where
the previous findings or results would be wrong or old-
fashioned or out of date.
 This means that reaserchers coming after us, working
on the same topic, will start where we left off.
 If research stops, we will review earlier knowledge
or information.
 The never-ending research activity is illustrated in the
following figure.

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Research Never Stops

Figure 4 The wheel of research 15

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Research and Ethics

 Ethics?
 Ethics are moral principles and values that
influence the way a researcher(s) conducts their
research activities.
 Researhers should have a moral responsibility to
explain and find answers to their questions honestly and
accurately.
 Researhers have to point out the strengths of their
methods and models but also have to inform us about
their weakness and reliability of their results.
 A reader have to ensure that the results of a research
did not provide wrong implementation(s) about the
topic.
 Ethics or moral principles in a reserach are serious
and inevitable issues.
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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Researcher and Respondent

 Relationship?
 The researcher-participant relationship is the most sensitive
one in the process of research in business studies.
 Sometimes, A researcher hesitates to inform the participant about
the real purpose of the research. It is believed that telling the whole
truth might result in the participant refusing or being reluctant
to give full cooperation .
 In a realistic opinion, a researcher has to be honest and open
with the participants and convince them that their position will not be
endangered.
 The violation of ethics is often associated with disguised
observations and the use of deception while collecting data.
 One way is to consider whether the participant has a right to know
the whole truth or not.
 Churchill (1999: 50) presents ethical concerns on eight areas of the
researcher-participant relationship in the following Table (see
Table1).
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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Responsibility towards respondents

Table 1 Ethical issues in the researcher–participant relationship 18

Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

The Researcher’s moral responsibility

 Moral responsibility?
 The moral responsibility of the researcher deals with social
guidelines and constraints upon research techniques and
measeruments. The researcher has to make a moral judgement
about the appropriateness of research procedures.
 Although value judgement of the research depends on the
researcher’s own perception and interpretation of the findings, this
evaluation is also influenced by the researcher’s environment and
time period.
 As no research findings are final, the researcher has to make a
decision on whether the evidence is strong enough to draw
certain conclusions out of these findings.
 The researher has to be ethically correct in reporting his or her
results, methods, techniques and instruments used so that the
readers can make a judgement about the reliability of the
findings.
 The following figure summarizes the factors that may influence
conducting research and the acceptance, rejection, concealing or
revealing of its results (Forcese and Richer, 1973:22). 19
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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

Factors influencing research

Figure 5 Factors influencing research

Source: Forcese, Dennis P.; Richer, Stephen, Social Research Methods, 1st edition  1973. 20

Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.
 Research in business studies

THANKS

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Research Methods in Business Studies © 2011/12, Sami Fethi, EMU, All Right Reserved, Pearson Education, 2010, 4. Ed.