Business Research - An Introduction: Dr. Abhilasha Jindal Asst. Professor

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Business Research –

An Introduction

Dr. Abhilasha Jindal


Asst. Professor
Research Definitions

1.Research is Systematic2 and an


Organized3 way of finding
4
answers to Questions1
Questions:
Questions1
 They are Central
 They are Crucial
 No Question, No Research
Features of Questions:
1. Relevant
2. Important
3. Useful
4. Driving
5. Focused
Systematic2
 Step by step

 Definite set of procedures

 Scientific methods

 Leading Towards the Accurate Results


Organized3

 Planned step
 Structural Approach
 Not-Spontaneous
 Focused
 Limited to Specific Scope
Answers4

 Finding Answers
 End step of Research
 “Research is Successful when one finds final Answer (s)”
Introduction
 Business researchers systematically collect, compile,
analyze, and interpret data to provide quality
information based on which a decision maker will be able
to take a decision in an optimum manner.

 Conducting research to deal with any problem is a


scientific, systematic, and interlinked exercise, which
requires sound experience and knowledge.
Difference Between Basic and
Applied Research
 Basic research is generally not related to a specific
problem and its findings cannot be immediately applied. It
is done for the development of theories or principles.
However, it has no immediate or planned application; it
may later result in further research of an applied nature

 Applied research directly addresses the problem at


hand. Applied research is launched by the firm, agency, or
individual facing a specific problem.
Disciplinary, Subject-matter, and
Problem-solving Research (Johnson, 1986)

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Qualitative versus Quantitative Research
Data
• Quantitative = numeric data
• Qualitative = non-numeric data
– Caveat – all qualitative data can be coded and all
quantitative data is based on judgment
• Common Assumption:
– Qualitative Data = preliminary
– Quantitative Data = confirmatory
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

Objective To gain a qualitative To quantify the data and


understanding of the generalize the results from the
underlying reasons and sample to the population of
motivations interest

Sample Small number of non- Large number of representative


representative cases cases

Data Collection Unstructured Structured

Data Analysis Non-statistical Statistical

Outcome Develop an initial Recommend 11a final course of


understanding action
Stages in the Research Process
Formulate Problem

Determine Research Design

Design Data Collection


Method and Forms

Design Sample and Collect Data

Analyze and Interpret the Data

Prepare the Research Report


RESEARCH DESIGN

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RESEARCH
DESIGN
 RESEARCH DESIGN refers to the plan, structure, and strategy of
research--the blueprint that will guide the research process.

 The research design is the master plan specifying the methods and
procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information.

 A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the


marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for
obtaining the information needed to structure or solve marketing
research problems.

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A Classification of Research
Designs
Research Design

Exploratory Conclusive
Research Design Research Design

Descriptive Causal
Research Research

Cross-Sectional Longitudinal
Design Design
Overview of Research Design
Exploratory
• “discovery”
Descriptive
• “relationships”
Causal
• “cause-and-effect”
Exploratory Research
 As the name indicates, exploratory research is mainly used
to explore the insight of the general research problem. This
is used for the following purposes:

• Obtaining Background Information


• Research Problem Formulation or Defining it More
Precisely
• Identifying and Defining the Key Research Variables
• Developing Hypotheses
The refined theoretical model to measure the buying
intentions (obtaining inputs from exploratory research)
Methods of Conducting Exploratory
Research
1. Secondary Data Analysis

 The secondary data are not only used for problem


understanding and exploration but are also used to develop
an understanding about the research findings.
2. Expert Survey
 To get the authentic information about the problem, the
researchers sometimes consult the experts of the concerned
field. These experts provide authentic and relevant
information useful for the research, which otherwise is
difficult to obtain.
3. Focus Group Interviews

 The focus group interview is a qualitative research


technique in which a trained moderator leads a small group
of participants to an unstructured discussion about the topic
of interest.
4. Depth Interviews
 A depth interview is a probing between a highly skilled
interviewer and a respondent from the target population to
unfold the underlying opinions, motivations, emotions, or
feelings of an individual respondent on a topic generally
coined by the researcher.
5. Case Analysis
 A case study research method actually combines the record
analysis and observations from individual and group
interviews. The case studies become particularly useful
when one needs to understand some particular problem or
situation in great depth and when one can identify the cases
rich in information.
6. Projective Techniques
 Projective technique is achieved by presenting the
respondents with ambiguous verbal or visual stimulus
materials, such as bubble cartoons, which they need to
make sense of by drawing from their own experiences,
thoughts, feelings, and imagination before they can offer a
response.

 In the field of business research, the projective techniques


are broadly classified as word association, completion task,
construction task, and expressive task.
Classification of Projective
Techniques
 Word Association: Word Association Word association provides a
technique that facilitates the study and shading of attitudes, which
cannot be ordinarily uncovered through standard interview methods.
In the word association technique, the respondents are required to
respond to the presentation of an object by indicating the first word,
image, or thought that comes in his or her mind as a response to that
object.

 Completion Task: In a completion task, the respondent is


presented with an incomplete sentence, story, argument, or
conversation and asked to complete it. In the field of business
research, the two widely used completion task techniques are
sentence-completion task and story-completion task.
Classification of Projective
Techniques

Completion Task

People who use Sony Tv’s are_______________________


Classification of Projective
Techniques
 Construction Task : Construction task is related to the completion
task technique with a little difference. In the construction task
technique, the respondent is provided with less initial structure as
compared with the completion task where the respondent is provided
with an initial structure, and then, he or she completes the task.
 In the field of business research, third-person questioning and bubble
drawing (cartoon testing) are two commonly used construction
techniques.

 Expressive Task: In expressive task technique, the respondents are


asked to role-play, act, or paint a specific (mostly desired by the
researcher) concept or situation. In the roleplaying technique, the
participant is required to act someone else’s behavior in a particular
setting.
Descriptive Research
 As evident from the name, descriptive research is conducted to
describe the business or market characteristics.

 The descriptive research mainly answers who, what, when, where,


and how kind of questions.
 It attempts to address who should be surveyed, what, at what time
(pre- and post-type of study), from where (household, shopping mall,
market, and so on), and how this information should be obtained
(method of data collection).

 It can be further classified into cross-sectional study and


longitudinal study.
Examples:
• Market segmentation studies, i.e., describe characteristics of various
groups, size of market, buying power of consumers.

• Determining perceptions of company or product characteristics

• Price and promotion elasticity studies

• Product usage studies that describe consumption patterns

• Sale potential studies for particular geographic region or population


segment

• Advertising studies that describe media consumption habits and


audience profiles for specific television programs and magazines
Cross-Sectional Study
 Cross sectional research design involves the collection of
information from a sample of a population at only one point of time.

 In this study, various segments of the population are sampled so that


the relationship among the variables may be investigated by cross
tabulation (Zikmund, 2007).

 Sample surveys are cross-sectional studies in which the samples


happen to be a representative of the population.

 The cross-sectional study generally involves large samples from the


population; hence, they are sometimes referred as “sample surveys.”
Longitudinal Study
 Longitudinal study involves survey of the same population
over a period of time.

 There is a well-defined difference between a cross-


sectional study and a longitudinal study.

 In a longitudinal study, the sample remains the same over a


period of time. In a cross-sectional design, a representative
sample taken from the population is studied at only one
point of time.
Cross Sectional vs. Longitudinal Designs
Cross Sample
Sectional Surveyed at
Design
T1

Same Sample
Longitudinal Sample
also Surveyed
Design Surveyed at
at T2
T1

Time T1 T2
Causal Research
 Causal research is conducted to identify the cause-and-
effect relationship between two or more business (or
decision) variables. Many business decisions are based on
the causal relationship between the variables of interest.

 As discussed, the descriptive research is able to answer


who, what, when, where, and how kind of questions but not
the “why” part of the question. The causal research is
designed to address the why part of the question.
Exploratory & Conclusive Research
Differences
Exploratory Conclusive
Objective: To provide insights and To test specific hypotheses and
understanding. examine relationships.

Characteris- Information needed is defined Information needed is clearly


tics: only loosely. Research process defined. Research process is
is flexible and unstructured. formal and structured. Sample is
Sample is small and non- large and representative. Data
representative. Analysis of analysis is quantitative.
primary data is qualitative.

Findings Tentative. Conclusive.


/Results:

Outcome: Generally followed by further Findings used as input into


exploratory or conclusive decision making.
research.
A Comparison of Basic Research
Designs
Exploratory Descriptive Causal
Objective: Discovery of ideas Describe market Determine cause
and insights characteristics or and effect
functions relationships

Characteristics: Flexible, versatile Marked by the prior Manipulation of


formulation of one or more
specific hypotheses independent
variables
Often the front Preplanned and
end of total structured design Control of other
research design mediating
variables
Expert surveys Secondary data
Methods: Pilot surveys Surveys Experiments
Secondary data Panels
Qualitative Observation and
research other data
Business research process design
Step 1: Problem or Opportunity
Identification
 The process of business research starts with the problem or
opportunity identification.

 Actually, the management of the company identifies the problem or


opportunity in the organization or in the environment. The
management can identify the symptoms or the effects of the problem,
but to understand the reasons of the problems, a systematic research
has to be adopted.

 This required research should either be executed by a business


research firm or a business researcher.
Step 2: Decision Maker and Business
Researcher Meeting to Discuss the Problem
or Opportunity Dimensions

 The decision maker contacts the business research firm and


then discusses the problem or opportunity with the business
researcher.

 The researcher can only suggest solution to a problem, but


the actual decision is taken by the decision maker.
Step 3: Defining the Management Problem and
Subsequently the Research Problem

 The management problem is concerned with the


decision maker and is action oriented in nature. For
example, the management problem offers a psychological
pricing to enhance the quantum of sales. This management
problem focuses on the symptoms.

 Research problem is somewhat information oriented and


focuses mainly on the causes and not on the symptoms.
This is to determine the consumer’s opinion on
psychological pricing and to estimate their purchase
behaviour for the psychological price being offered.
Step 4: Formal Research Proposal and
Introducing the Dimensions to the Problem

 Now, the researcher prepares a formal proposal of the


research and develops the approaches to the research
problem. The first part is to develop a theoretical model to
quantify an attitude.

 For example, to estimate the “buying intentions” for a


particular product, first, the researcher has to prepare a
theoretical model to measure an attitude like buying
intentions.
Framing Hypotheses
 Hypothesis 1: “Brand image” has a significant liner impact
on the buying intention.
 Hypothesis 2: “Brand awareness” has a significant liner
impact on the buying intention.
 Hypothesis 3: “Price” has a significant liner impact on the
buying intention.
 Hypothesis 4: “Availability” has a significant liner impact
on the buying intention.
 Hypothesis 5: “After-sales services” has a significant liner
impact on the buying intention.
 The researcher can also test the combined impact of
these five variables on the buying intention. The
proposed multiple regression model will be

 Hypothesis 6: All the five factors in combination have a


significant linear impact on the buying intention.
Step 5: Approaches to Research
 The research approach is formulated is the next step.

 In the light of the “type of data,” questions are framed and


scientifically placed in the questionnaire.

• deals with measurement and scaling,


• aspects of the questionnaire design in detail,
• a sample size is determined and a sampling technique is selected
Step 6: Field Work and Data Collection
 is exclusively based on secondary data sources. The
researcher has to also decide whether he or she has to go
for a survey or has to adopt the observation methods and
decide whether the research will be based on the field data
collection or it will be a laboratory experiment.
Step 7: Data Preparation and Data Entry

 After field work, the collected data are in raw format.

 Before performing data analysis, it is important for a


researcher to structure the data.

 There is a specific scientific procedure to deal with the


missing data and other problems related to the data-
collection process.
Step 8: Data Analysis

 After feeding the data in the spreadsheet, data analysis is


launched. Various sophisticated statistical analytical
techniques to execute the data analysis exercise. These
include univariate statistical analysis, bivariate statistical
analysis, and multivariate statistical analysis.
Step 9: Interpretation of Result and Presentation of
Findings

 It has been already discussed that after applying data


analysis techniques, a statistical result is obtained.

 There is need to interpret the result and present the non-


statistical findings derived from the statistical result. A
meaningful interpretation of the result is a skillful activity
and is an important aspect of research.

 The researcher has to determine whether the result of the


study is in line with the existing literature.
Step 10: Management Decision and
Its Implementation
 As the last step of conducting a research programme, the
findings are conveyed to the decision maker after
consultation with the research programmer.

 The decision maker analyses the findings and takes an


appropriate decision in the light of the statistical findings
presented by the researcher.

 This is not a formal part of the research process. Here, it is


included as a step of the research process, because it is the
decision maker who will ultimately take the decision and is
the managerial implication of the research programme.
Case – Castrol India Ltd.

• Facts??
• What CIL is willing to examine???
• How you will undertake the research???
• Steps???

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