Transcript Chap_004 NEW

Chapter 4
The Business
Research
Process:
An Overview
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Business Research Methods, 10e
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Stage 1: Clarifying the Research
Question
Management-research question hierarchy process
begins by identifying the management dilemma
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Stage 2: Proposing Research
Budget Types
• Rule-of-thumb
• Departmental
• Task
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The Research Proposal
Purpose
Legallybinding
contract
Methods
Written
proposals
establish
Obligations
Extent
Timing
Delivery
Budgets
4-5
Stage 3: Research Design
4-6
Stage 3: Designing the Research
Research
Design
The
Research
Project
Sampling
Design
Pilot Testing
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Stage 4: Data Collection
4-8
Data Characteristics
•
•
•
•
Abstractness
Verifiability
Elusiveness
Closeness
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Stage 5: Data Analysis and Interpretation
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Steps in Data Analysis and Interpretation
Reducing data to manageable size
Developing summaries
Looking for patterns
Applying statistical techniques
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., McGraw-Hill/Irwin
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Stage 6: Reporting the Results
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Parts of the Research Report
Research
Overview
Executive
Summary
Research
Report
Technical
Appendix
Implementation
Strategies
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The Research Report Overview
Problem’s background
Summary of exploratory findings
Research design and procedures
Conclusions
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Research Process Problems to Avoid
•Ill-defined management
problem
•Unresearchable
questions
•Politically-motivated
research
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Research Process Problems to Avoid
•Company Database
Strip-Mining
•The FavoredTechnique Syndrome