RESEARCH FOR MANAGERIAL DECISIONS

1. ROLE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH

• Scope, definition, managerial value

• Need for business research
• Broad areas for research
• Research Design

2. RESEARCH PROCESS: AN OVERVIEW

• Decision making under certainty, uncertainty, ambiguity
• Types of business research: Exploratory, descriptive, and casual
• Stages in research process
• Problem definition and research proposal:
- Nature of business problem
- Importance of proper problem definition
- Process of problem definition
- Hypothesis formulation & testing

3. EXPLORATORY RESEARCH AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

• Exploratory research: What it is and what it is not
• Why conduct exploratory research
• Categories of exploratory research

4. DATA SOUECES & COLLECTION

• Primary data : Advantages; disadvantages
• Secondary data : Advantages; disadvantages
• Data mining
• Data collection and fieldwork

5. SURVEY RESEARCH
• Nature of surveys
• Error in survey research
• Respondent error, administrative error
• Rate of thumb estimates for systematic error
• Reduction in survey error
• Survey research methods:
- Interviews
- Self administered questionnaire
- Observations
- Experimental research
6. MEASUREMENT AND SCALING TECHNIQUES
• What to measure
• Types of scale
• Index measures
• 3 criteria for good measurement

7. ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT AND QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

• Definition
• Techniques for measuring attitude
• Psychological measures of attitude
• Attitude rating scales; selection of a scale
• Other methods
• Questionnaire design:
- What should be asked
- Phrasing questions
- Art of asking questions
- Right question sequence
- Pretesting and revising

8. SAMPLING
• Sample: Termnology, concepts, types of sampling
• Appropriate sampling design
• Determination of appropriate sample size

9. PROCESSING AND ANALYSING DATA

• Data processing analysis and interpretation of data
• Application of advanced statistical techniques: Correlation, regression, cluster
analysis, factor analysis, and conjoint analysis

10. REPORT WRITING AND PRESENTATION

• Report format
• Content
• Presentation style
• Presentation: Written and oral

Reference books
• Zikmund : Business Research Methods ( South Western: 2003 ):
Relevant chapters
• Donald R. Cooper: Business Research Methods (TMH: Latest edition):
Supplementary text.