Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Business Research
Research information is neither intuitive nor haphazardly gathered. Literally, research (re-search) -search again Business research must be objective Detached and impersonal rather than biased It facilitates the managerial decision process for all aspects of a business.
Information
Reduces Uncertainty
Basic Research
Attempts to expand the limits of knowledge. Not directly involved in the solution to a pragmatic problem.
Is executive success correlated with high need for achievement? Are members of highly cohesive work groups more satisfied than members of less cohesive work groups? Do consumers experience cognitive dissonance in low-involvement situations?
Applied Research
Should McDonalds add Italian pasta dinners to its menu? Business research told McDonalds it should not? Should Procter & Gamble add a highpriced home teeth bleaching kit to its product line? Research showed Crest Whitestrips would sell well at a retail price of $44
Basic research
aims at expanding the boundaries of our knowledge or verifying the acceptability of a given theory.
Applied research
Scientific method
- set of techniques and procedures - systematic analysis and logical interpretation of evidence
Business research:
1. Exploratory research - initial research conducted to clarify and define the nature of a problem - sometimes the general problem is realized but a better understanding is needed before a detailed research Examples: Absenteeism is increasing and we dont know why would people be interested in our new product idea? - methods: interviews, basic statistical calculations
2. Descriptive research - research designed to describe the characteristics of a phenomenon - who? what? when? where? how? Examples: What kind of people prefer Big Mac hamburgers? What are the characteristics of students in this class? - methods: surveys, analysis of already existing data 3. Causal research - research conducted to identify cause-and-effect relationships among variables Examples: the influence of price and advertising on sales Which of two training programs is more effective? - methods: experiments, econometric analyses
For each situation below, decide whether the research should be exploratory, descriptive, or causal:
- establishing the functional relationship between advertising and sales - investigating reactions to the idea of a new method of defense budgeting - identifying target-market demographics for a shopping center - estimating stock prices for IBM two years in the future - learning how many organizations are actively involved in just-in-time production - learning the extent of job satisfaction in a company
What research design seems appropriate for each of the following studies?
the manufacturer and marketer of flight simulators and other pilot-training equipment wish to forecast sales volume for the next five years a corporation wishes to evaluate the quality of its college-recruiting program - an academic researcher wishes to investigate if the United States is losing its competitive edge in world trade - a food company researcher is interested in knowing what types of food are carried in brown-bag lunches to learn if the company can capitalize on this phenomenon
Yes
Does the value of the research Yes information exceed the cost of conducting research?
No
No
No
No
Potential Value of a Business Research Effort Should Exceed Its Estimated Costs
General Business Conditions and Corporate Research Financial and Accounting Research Management and Organizational Behavior Research Sales and Marketing Research Information Systems Research Corporate Responsibility Research