Chapter 2

Scientific Investigation and Business

Research Process
by Prem Beachile Geoffrey Kitingan
(BEN16041058)
Contents Know the eight charactheristics of a scientific research
Ⅰ

Differentiate between two types of thought process-

Ⅱ Deduction and Induction

Differentiate between quantitative and qualitative

Ⅲ research

Know the different scientific stages of business

Ⅳ research process
 What are the 8 distinguished
charactheristics of a scientific research?
 Parsimony Purposive Rigour

Generalizability Testability

Objectivity Accuracy Replicable

1) Purposive
• What is the aim of for this research?(measurement of
the service quality)
• it will help the management to know the customer's
expectations as well as perception in terms of critical
factors in delivering services.
• It provides insight to the banks
• It will provide guidelines for the banks to develop
proper strategies and react faster to the changes
2) Rigour
• The research needs to be scientific and rigour
• It should be based on a good theoretical base and
sound methodological design
• In the above study, it is important to decide what critical
factors need to be measured as determinants of service
quality of a bank
3) Testability
• After determining the critical factors of service quality
based on past literature and having random selections
of reasonably good sized samples.
• The researcher may be developing a set of questions or
hypothesis to be tested.
• Example:
• Does the perception of Maybank customers on
different critical factors of servicec quality differ
from their expectation on the above factors?
• Does the service quality gap differ across various
groups of customers?
4) Replicability
• The result of the test of research objectives should be
supported again and again when the same type of
research is being repeated in other similar circumstances
.
• If the results are to be repeated, the confidence of
getting scientific research is more.
5) Accuracy
• Unlike natural science research, it is difficult to draw a
definite conclusion in management or social science
research.
• There is every possibility that the sample in the question
may not reflect the true charactheristics of the target
population.
• Accuracy refers to how close the findings, based on a
sample, are to reality.
6) Objectivity
• The conclusion drawn for the study should be based on
the facts derived from the results of data analysis, and
not based on one's own subjective or emotional values.
• Assuming the hypothesis that, “the service quality gap
does not differ across different regions in Malaysia” is
not supported by the results, it makes no sense if the m
anager continues to argue based on his preconceptionth
at quality of service is uniform throughout the nation.
7) Generalizability
• Refers to the applicability of research in one
organizational setting to other settings
• The wider the applicability of the solutions generated by
the research, the more useful the research is to others.
8) Parsimony
• A simple approach in explaining the current problem
and findings the solution to it si preferred to complex re
search frameworks that consider an unambiguous
number of factors.
• Rather than having 15 factors to be measured, it is
better to restrict it to a few of the most important and
critcal factors.
Two types of thought process:

Induction VS Deduction resoning

What is Induction reasoning?

An inductive reasoning is an agument that is intended to

provide probabilistic support for its conclusion, but NOT
logically conclusive support for its conclusion. In inductive
reasoning, if all the premises are true, the conclusion is
possibly true, or highly likely to be true, but not necessarily
true.
Examples of inductive reasoning;

Premise 1: Mr. Dune has poor performance record in the

company
Premise 2: Mr. Dune is usually late to work
Premise 3: Mr. Dune makes fewer calls than an average sales
person
Conclusion: Mr. Dune is lazy.

Premise 1: Joji is a grandfather

Premise 2: Joji is bald
Conclusion: Therefore, all grandfathers are bald.
What is Deductive reasoning?

A deductive reasoning is an argument whose conclusion

necessarily follows from the truth of the premises. A
deductive reasoning is valid if it is successful in providing the
logical support for its conclusion. In deductive reasoning, the
conclusion is bound to be true if all its premises are true.
Syllogisms are deductive arguments that are written
in the form:

A=B
B=C
Therefore, A=C
Examples of deductive reasoning;

Premise 1: All regular employees can be trusted not to steal.

Premise 2: Mr. Khairul is a regular employee.
Conclusion: Mr. Khairul can be trusted.

Premise 1: All girls like to wear make-up

Premise 2: Cheryl is a girl
Conclusion: Therefore, Cheryl likes to wear make-up
Quantitative versus Qualitative
research
Quantitative research
• Focuses on statistical analysis of numerical data collected
through the use of large-scale survey research, using
methods such as questionnaire or structured interview.
These studies often require large sample sizes to have
more statistical power for generalization of findings.

Qualitative research
• Is used to explore and understand people's beliefs,
experience, attitudes, behaviour and interactions through
methods such as interviews or focus group discussions. It
generates non-numerical data, very often in words or
pictures rather than numbers. It attempts to get an in-
depth opinion from participants. As a result, qualitative
research has fewer participants than quantitative studies.
Strength & Weaknesses
Business Research Process
Problem Identification

The initial step in the research process is the

identification of the problem or opportunity. As
businesses today operate in a highly volatile
environment governed by various macro
environmental factors, they need to constantly assess
their relative position and identify the various problem
areas or opportunities they need to work upon in
order to sustain themselves competitively in the
market.
Defining the Research Objective

The next step is to define the objectives in terms of the

information need. The research objectives can be
specified broadly or narrowly. The number of objectives
should be limitted as it too much data that can distrupt
the main objective of the research.
Research Design

A research design provides the framework to be used

as a guide in collecting and analyzing data. There are
different types of research design where each of them
have their own strength and also weaknesses.
Experience with different research design will genrally
provide the researcher with the capability to match a
research problem with appropriate research design.

• Exploratory research design

• This research design is generally used to clarify
the thoughts and opinions about the research
problem or to provide insight on how to do m
ore conclusive research.
• Generate hyphothesis for further study
• Methods: surveys, focus groups
Research Design

• Descriptive research design

• Longitudinal study design- This generally
takes the form of sample of respondents who
are studied over a period of time
• Cross-sectional study- This is most widely
used research design in business research. This
is one-shot research study at a given point of
time and consists of a sample(cross-section) of
the population of interest. It gives a good over
all picture of the position at a given time.
Designing Research Methodology

Research methodology depends, to a large extent, on

the target population, and how easy or difficult it is to
access it.

• Major parts of research methodology

• Research method: Primary/secondary
• Method of data collection
• Sampling plan
• Field work plan
• Analysis plan
Budget and Cost Estimation

There are two or three basic parameters which provide

an estimate of how much a study is going to cost.

• Sample size
• How difficult it is to find the sampling units (
respondents) and their geographical dispersion?
• Who will do the fieldwork?
Presentation, Report and Decision-making

After the analysis is completed, the next step is the

preparation of the major findings. This includes the
presentation of all major tabulations. A formal report
should contain the followings:
Summary

• A scientific research has eight distinguished

characteristics such as purposive, rigour, testability,
replicability, accuracy, objectivity, generalizability an
parsimony.
• Reasoning is the process by which we apply our
knowledge to draw the conclusion or infer something
about the domain of interest. These are basically two
different thought processes (deductive and inductive
reasoning)
• Resarch can be qualitative or quantitative depending
on the purpose of the research.
• A business research starts with problem identification
and ends win an actionable report.
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION.