Business Research Methods Final Review

Part 1
(Page 7) Basic research is driven by a scientist's curiosity or interest in a scientific
question. The main motivation is to expand man's knowledge, not to create or invent
something. There is no obvious commercial value to the discoveries that result from basic
research.
For example, basic science investigations probe for answers to questions such as:
How did the universe begin?
What are protons, neutrons, and electrons composed of?

(Page 7) Applied research is designed to solve practical problems of the modern world,
rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledge's sake. One might say that the goal of the
applied scientist is to improve the human condition.
For example, applied researchers may investigate ways to:
 improve agricultural crop production
 treat or cure a specific disease
 improve the energy efficiency of homes, offices, or modes of transportation

(Page 21) Data in everyday language is a synonym for information. In the exact sciences
there is a clear distinction between data and information, where data is a measurement
that can be disorganized and when the data becomes organized it becomes information.
Data may relate to reality, or to fiction as in a fictional movie. Data about reality consists
of propositions. Large classes of practically important propositions are measurements or
observations of a variable. Such propositions may comprise numbers, words or images.
For example, numbers, text, images, and sounds, in a form that is suitable for storage in
or processing by a computer.

(Page 21) Information is the result of processing, gathering, manipulating and

organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver. In other words, it is
the context in which data is taken. Information as a concept bears a diversity of
meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of
information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data,
form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and
representation. For example the collected facts and data about a particular subject a
telephone service that supplies telephone numbers to the public on request. The
communication of facts and knowledge computer data that has been organized and
presented in a systematic fashion to clarify the underlying meaning. A formal accusation
of a crime brought by a prosecutor, as opposed to an indictment brought by a grand jury.

(Page 21) Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (a) expertise,
and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or
practical understanding of a subject, (b) what is known in a particular field or in total;
facts and information or (c) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or

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situation. There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any
prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.
Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning,
communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the
confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose. Clear
awareness or explicit information, for example, of a situation or fact. All the information,
facts, truths, and principles learned throughout time. Familiarity or understanding gained
through experience or study.

(Pages 98 & 99) Problem statement is simply the research question while a hypothesis
is an "educated guess," formed as a statement that you propose to be the answer to the
research question. For example: when conducting a research on increase of
unemployment: a problem statement would be “what cause increase in unemployment”
and a hypothesis can be “the huge number of bankrupted companies”.

(Pages 300 & 301) Reliability: the degree to which measures are free from error and
therefore yield consistent results. Two dimensions underline the concept of reliability:
repeatability and internal consistency. Test-retest method of determining reliability
involves administering the same scale or measure to the same respondents at two separate
times to test for stability. To measure internal consistency of a multiple-item measure,
scores on subsets of the items with the scale are correlated.

(Pages 301 & 302) Validity addresses the problem of whether or not a measure does
indeed measure what it purports to measure; if it does not, there will be problems
There are three basic approaches to dealing with the issue of validity:
Face or content validity: This refers to the subjective agreement of professionals that a
scale logically appears to be accurately reflecting what it purports to measure.
Criterion validity: Criterion validity is an attempt by researchers to answer the question
“Does my measure correlate with other measures of the same construct?”
Construct validity: Construct validity is established by the degree to which the measure
confirms a network of related hypotheses generated from a theory based on the concept.

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Total Survey Error

(Pages 176 & 179) Total survey error comes in two varieties: (1) variance or variable
error which is random and has no expected impact on mean values and (2) bias or
systematic error which is directional and alters mean estimates. It is the sum of these two
components added together

(Page 98) Dependent Variables: A dependant variable is a criterion or variable that is to

be predicted or explained. It is expected to be dependent on the experiment on the
experiment's manipulation of the independent variable.

(Page 98) Independent Variables: A variable that is expected to influence the dependent
variable. Its value may be changed or altered independently of any other variable.
For example: average hourly rate of pay may be a dependent variable that is influenced or
can be predicted by an independent variable such as number of years of experience.

(Pages 453 & 458) Stages of data analysis in any given research:
Editing: There are many errors, such as fieldworkers’ erroneous recording of responses,
that must be dealt with before the data can be coded. Editing procedures are conducted to
make the data ready for coding and transfer to data storage.
Coding: The process of identifying and classifying each answer with a numerical score
or other character symbol is called coding. Codes are generally considered to be
numbered symbols; however, they are more broadly defined as rules for interpreting,
classifying, and recording the data.
Coding Open-Ended Response Questions: The usual reason for using open-ended
questions is that the researcher has no clear hypotheses regarding the answers, which will

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be numerous and varied. Code construction in these situations necessarily must reflect the
judgment of the researcher.
Computerized Data Processing
1. Input medium: Most studies having large sample sizes use a computer for data
processing. Technological changes now offer researchers several alternative
means of putting data into the computer. A research study using computer-assisted
telephone interviewing or a self-administered Internet questionnaire with direct
data entry can automatically store and tabulate responses as they are collected.
Direct data capture substantially reduces clerical errors that occur during the
editing and coding process. A research system using on-line direct data entry
equipment can reduce a three-to-four week research study to a few days. Also, for
highly structured questionnaires, optical scanning systems may be used to directly
read material from marked sensed questionnaires onto magnetic tape.
2. Data entry (keyboarding): The process of transforming data from a research
project, such as answers to a survey questionnaire, to computers is referred to as
data conversion. As computers have become more sophisticated, data entry is
either instantaneous, or converted to magnetic media for storage. When data are
not directly entered into the computer the moment they are collected, data
processing for the computer begins with keyboarding. This keyboard equipment
transfers coded data from the questionnaires or coding sheets onto a magnetic tape
or floppy disk. However, keyboard operators may make errors. To ensure 100
percent accuracy, the job is verified by a second keyboard operator who checks
the accuracy of the data entered. Keyboard operators prefer to have the data on
coding sheets so that they do not have to page through the questionnaire to punch
the data. However, this usually increases the time and effort required for coding.
The particular resources of the project will dictate which source is used as input to
the keyboard operators.

(Page 177) Respondent’s error: Faulty recollections, tendencies to exaggerate or

underplay events, and inclinations to give answers that appear more 'socially desirable'
are several reasons why a respondent may provide a false answer.

(Page 178) Non-response errors are the result of not having obtained sufficient answers
to survey questions. There are two types of non-response errors: complete and partial.
Complete non-response errors: errors can occur when the survey fails to
measure some of the units in the selected sample. Reasons for this type of error may be
that the respondent is unavailable or temporarily absent, the respondent is unable or
refuses to participate in the survey, or the dwelling is vacant.
Partial non-response errors: error deals with incomplete information obtained
from the respondent. For certain people, some questions may be difficult to understand.
To reduce this form of bias, care should be taken in designing and testing questionnaires

(Page 369) Sampling: Involves any procedure that uses a small number of items, or that
uses part of the population to make a conclusion regarding the whole population - There
are two basic types of samples:

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(Page 379) Probability sample: In which every member of the population has known,
non-zero probability of selection.

(Page 380) Non-probability sample: In which the sample is selected on the basis of
personal judgment.

(Page 369) Sample & population: Sampling is the procedure a research uses to gather
people, place, or things to study. Research conclusions and generalizations are only as
good as the sample they are based on. Samples are always subsets or smaller parts of the
total number that could be studied by social scientists. Before gathering the sample, we
need to find out as much as possible about the population. Population refers to the larger
group from which the sample is taken. After all the theoretically important things about
the population are learned, the researcher then has to obtain a list or contact information
on those who are accessible or can be contacted.

(Page 96) Unit of Analysis: Specify whether the level of investigation will focus on the
collection of data about the entire organization, department, work groups, individuals, or
objects. For example a study for home buying husband-wife dyad rather than individual
typically the unit of analysis because the purchase decision is made jointly by husband
and wife.

(Page 110) Exploratory Research: conducted to classify the nature of problems. It is not
intended to provide conclusive evidence from which a particular course of action can be
determined. Exploratory research merely crystallizes the problem and identifies
information needed; subsequent research is usually required.

(Page 244) Participant Observation: is a set of research strategies which aim to gain a
close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious,
occupational, or subcultural group, or a particular community) and their practices through
an intensive involvement with people in their natural environment, often though not
always over an extended period of time. Such research usually involves a range of
methods: informal interviews, direct observation, and participation in the life of the
group, collective discussions, and analyses of personal documents produced within the
group, self-analysis, and life-histories

(Pages 136 & 137) Secondary data studies: Typically this involves using past data to
project future figures for a particular event or phenomena. This technique uses greater
quantitative sophistication than is involved in using secondary data at the exploratory
level of research, but it still has the same advantages and disadvantages attached to it.
Limitations of secondary data analysis:
1. Outdated information: Secondary data must be timely in order to predict the
future.

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 2. Variation in definition of terms: Researchers frequently encounter secondary
data that reports on a population of interest that is similar to, but not directly
comparable to, the population of interest to the researcher.
3. Differing units of measurement: Differing units of measurement may cause
problems if they are not identical to the researcher’s needs; often the primary
study may dictate that the data be summarized, rounded, or reported in such a way
that it is not useful to the secondary research needs. In this case data conversion
may be necessary. Data conversion is the process of changing the original form of
the data to a format suitable to achieve the research objective.
4. Biased secondary data: Another shortcoming of secondary data is that it may be
inaccurate or even biased to support the vested interest of the source. The
reputation of the organization gathering the data should be considered and the
research design should be critically assessed. Certain sources of data, for example
the U.S. government, are more prone to acceptance.
Secondary data is commonly used because acquiring it is always faster and less
expensive than acquiring primary data. Many of the activities normally associated with
primary data collection are eliminated.

(Page 336) Observation Definition: The systematic process of recording the behavioral
patterns of people, objects and occurrences as they are witnessed
The nature of observation Studies
 Visible
Situation in which the observer’s presence is known to the subject
 Hidden
Situation in which the subject is unaware that observation is taking place
Types of Observations:
 Participant Observation
Observer gains firsthand knowledge by being in or around the social setting being
investigated
 Mechanical Observation
Observation that uses video cameras, traffic counters and other machines to record
behavior

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 Part 2
1- Explain Theory building process & provide example?
(Pages 41 & 42) Theory is coherent set of general propositions used as principles of
explanation of the apparent relationships of certain observed phenomena.
Theory development is essentially a process of describing phenomena at increasingly
higher levels of abstraction. A concept (or construct) is a generalized idea about a class of
objects, occurrences, or purposes. Concepts are our building blocks and some examples
of organizational theory concepts might be “leadership,” “productivity,” and “morale.”
Concepts abstract reality. That is, concepts are expressed in words that refer to various
events or objects. Concepts, however, may vary in degree of abstraction. The abstraction
ladder indicates that it is possible to discuss concepts at various levels of abstraction. The
basic or scientific business researcher operates at two levels: the abstract level of
concepts (and propositions) and the empirical level of observation and manipulation of
objects and events.
Examples:
Two concepts—(1) the “perceived desirability of movement” to another job and (2) the
“perceived ease of movement” from the present job—are expected to be the primary
determinants of “intentions to quit.” This is a proposition. The concept “intentions to
quit” is expected to be a necessary condition before the actual “voluntary turnover
behavior” occurs. This is a second proposition that links concepts together in this theory.
At the abstract, conceptual level, theory may be developed with deductive
reasoning. Deductive reasoning is the logic process of deriving a conclusion from a
known premise or something known to be true. For example, we know that all managers
are human beings. If we also know that Mary Fisher is a manager, then we can deduce
that Mary Fisher is a human being.
At the empirical level, theory may be developed with inductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning is the logical process of establishing a general proposition on the
basis of observation of particular facts. All managers that have ever been seen are human
beings; therefore, all managers are human beings. Theory construction is often the result
of a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning.

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 2- Describe problem definition process?
(Pages 94 – 98) Problem definition is the indication of a specific business decision area
that will be clarified by answering some research questions. Problem definition will
determine the purpose of the research and, ultimately, the research design. When a
problem or opportunity is discovered, managers may have only vague insights about a
complex situation.
If quantitative research is conducted before the researchers understand exactly what is
important, then false conclusions may be drawn from the investigation. Problem
definition indicates a specific business decision area that will be clarified by answering
some research questions.

The process of problem definition:

1- Ascertain the decision maker’s objectives: Decision makers should express their
goals to the researcher in measurable terms.
Iceberg principle: the principle indicating the dangerous part of many business problems
is neither visible to nor understood by business managers. 10 percent of the problem
known while 90 percent submerged (not visible not understood by managers).

2- Understand the background of the problem:

Situation analysis: the informal gathering of background information to familiarize
researchers or managers with the decision area. Environmental conditions are examples
of background information.

3- Isolate and identify the problem rather than its symptoms: Identify most likely
causes of the problem. A problem with advertisement effectiveness could be caused by
low brand awareness, wrong brand image, use of wrong media or too small budget.

4- Determine the unit of analysis: Specify whether the level of investigation will focus
on the collection of data about the entire organization, department, work groups,
individuals, or objects. For example a study for home buying husband-wife dyad rather
than individual typically the unit of analysis because the purchase decision is made
jointly by husband and wife.

5-Determine the relevant variables: (variable: anything that may assume different
numerical values). Example is attitude toward mobile SMS advertisement could be a
variable that varies from positive to negative.
 Categorical variable: Any variable that has a limited number of distinct values.
Example is sex variable which is limited to male or female distinct values.
 Continues variable: Any variable that has an infinite number of values. Sales
volume is an example which got to infinite number of values.
 Dependent variable: A criterion or a variable that is to be predicted or explained
 Independent variable: A variable that is expected to influence the dependent
variable. Its value may be changed or altered independently of any other variable.
Average hourly rate of pay is a dependent variable that can be influenced or can
be predicted by an independent variable such as number of years of experience.

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6- Start the Research Questions and Objectives: Including research questions in the
statement of a business problem make it easier to understand what is perplexing
managers and indicates the issues to be resolved. Example of question could be “How
effective are training efforts in increasing knowledge and use of the new applications”
Research objectives are the researcher’s version of the business problem. These
objectives explain the purpose of the research in measurable terms and define standards
of what the research should accomplish. Objectives could be like “To determined
managers awareness using aided recall”

3- Types of survey research methods?

(Pages 54 – 57)
1. Exploratory
– Initial research conducted to clarify and define the nature of a problem
– Does not provide conclusive evidence
– Subsequent research expected

2. Descriptive
– Describes characteristics of a population or phenomenon
– Some understanding of the nature of the problem

3. Causal
– Conducted to identify cause and effect relationships

Exploratory Research Descriptive Research Causal Research

(Unaware of Problem)
“Our sales are declining and
we don’t know why.”
“Would people be interested
in our new product idea?”
(Aware of Problem) (Problem Clearly Defined)
“What kinds of people are “Will buyers purchase more
buying our product? Who of our products in a new
buys our competitor’s package?
product?” “Which of two advertising
“What features do buyers campaigns is more
prefer in our product?” effective?”

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 4- Types of measurements?
(Pages 294 – 298) Measurement is a three steps process:
1- Selecting observable empirical events.
2- Using numbers or symbols to represent features of the event,
3- Mapping rule to connect the observation to the symbol.

Nominal Measurement: A measurement scale in which numbers are assigned to

attributes of objects or classes of objects solely for the purpose of identifying the objects.
Example is coding 1 as on and 0 as of in programming language. Telephone numbers and
zip codes are also examples of nominal scale.
Ordinal Measurement: A measurement scale which orders objects according to the
degree to which may possess some shared attributes. Examples of ordinal scales are the
top ten records and rankings of graduating seniors and football teams. As the name
implies, the ordering of the numbers on an ordinal scale does imply a similar ordering of
the objects.
Interval Measurement: A measurement scale which orders objects according to the
degree to which they possess some attribute, and the intervals along the scale are equal.
An example of an interval scale is the Fahrenheit temperature scale. One hundred degrees
is hotter than fifty degrees, and the increase in temperature between 100 and 101 is the
same as the increase between 50 and 51. However, we cannot say that 100 is twice as hot
as 50 just because it involved a ratio of 2 to 1 any more than we can say that 1 degree is a
million times hotter than .000001 degree just because a ratio of 1,000,000 to 1 is
involved.

Ratio Measurement: A measurement scale which have absolute rather than relative
quantities and possessing an absolute zero. Example is to say that 10 meters is twice as
long as 5 meters. This ratio hold true regardless of which scale the object is being
measured in (e.g. meters or yards). This is because there is a natural zero.

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 5- Sampling stages?
(Pages 372 – 397)

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 6- Stages of data analysis?
(Pages 453 –458)

Editing: There are many errors, such as fieldworkers’ erroneous recording of responses,
that must be dealt with before the data can be coded. Editing procedures are conducted to
make the data ready for coding and transfer to data storage.
Coding: The process of identifying and classifying each answer with a numerical score
or other character symbol is called coding. Codes are generally considered to be
numbered symbols; however, they are more broadly defined as rules for interpreting,
classifying, and recording the data.
Coding Open-Ended Response Questions: The usual reason for using open-ended
questions is that the researcher has no clear hypotheses regarding the answers, which will
be numerous and varied. Code construction in these situations necessarily must reflect the
judgment of the researcher.
Computerized Data Processing
3. Input medium: Most studies having large sample sizes use a computer for data
processing. Technological changes now offer researchers several alternative
means of putting data into the computer. A research study using computer-assisted

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 telephone interviewing or a self-administered Internet questionnaire with direct
data entry can automatically store and tabulate responses as they are collected.
Direct data capture substantially reduces clerical errors that occur during the
editing and coding process. A research system using on-line direct data entry
equipment can reduce a three-to-four week research study to a few days. Also, for
highly structured questionnaires, optical scanning systems may be used to directly
read material from marked sensed questionnaires onto magnetic tape.
4. Data entry (keyboarding): The process of transforming data from a research
project, such as answers to a survey questionnaire, to computers is referred to as
data conversion. As computers have become more sophisticated, data entry is
either instantaneous, or converted to magnetic media for storage. When data are
not directly entered into the computer the moment they are collected, data
processing for the computer begins with keyboarding. This keyboard equipment
transfers coded data from the questionnaires or coding sheets onto a magnetic tape
or floppy disk. However, keyboard operators may make errors. To ensure 100
percent accuracy, the job is verified by a second keyboard operator who checks
the accuracy of the data entered. Keyboard operators prefer to have the data on
coding sheets so that they do not have to page through the questionnaire to punch
the data. However, this usually increases the time and effort required for coding.
The particular resources of the project will dictate which source is used as input to
the keyboard operators.

7- Descriptive analysis?
(Pages 473 – 479) Descriptive research: in order to determine what a set of data has
to tell the investigator, we must extract the information in the data. Typically a first
step in a statistical analysis is to simply describe the data and look at it using
appropriate graphing techniques.
Conducted to discover and determine the characteristics of a population. It seeks to
determine the answers to the questions “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “how.”
It does not tell us “why.” Although it is impossible to completely eliminate error, this
type of research should be conducted as accurately as possible because, unlike
exploratory research, the evidence it provides will be used to determine a course of
action.
Business researchers edit and code data to provide input that will result in
tabulated information for answering the research questions. With this input,
researchers statistically describe project results. Within this context the term analysis
is difficult to define, because it refers to a variety of activities and processes. All
forms of analysis attempt to portray data so that the results may be studied and
interpreted in a brief and meaningful way. Descriptive analysis refers to the
transformation of the raw data into a form that will make them easy to understand and
interpret. Such analysis rearranges, orders, and manipulates data to provide
descriptive information.
Some basic descriptive statistics (means, medians, standard deviations, etc.)

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