Clarifying the Research

Question through Secondary

Data and Exploration

組員
603530045 黎旭崴
603530017 李承霖
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 Learning Objectives

 The purpose and process of exploratory research.

 The two types and three levels of management decision-
related secondary sources.
 The five types of external information and the factors for
evaluating the value of a source and its content.
 The process of using exploratory research to understand the
management dilemma and work through the stages of
analysis necessary to formulate the research question (and,
ultimately, investigative questions and measurement
questions).
 What is involved in internal data mining and how internal
data-mining techniques differ from literature searches.
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Exploratory phase search strategy
Discovery and
analysis of
secondary sources

Expert Search Group

Interview Strategy Discussions

Individual
Depth
Interviews 3
Objectives of exploratory research phase

 Expand your understanding of the management

dilemma

 Gather background information

 Identify information that should be gathered

 Identify sources for and actual questions

 Identify sources for and actual sample frames

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 Literature search has five steps

 1.Define management dilemma or management question

 2. Consult books for relevant terms
 3. Apply these key terms to searching
 4. Locate and review specific secondary sources
 5. Evaluate the value of each source and its content

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Levels of information
 Primary sources
Memos Letters Interviews Speeches Laws
Internal records

 Secondary sources
Encyclopedias Textbooks Handbooks Magazines
Newspapers Newscasts

 Tertiary sources
Indexes Bibliographies Internet search engines
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Types of information source

 Indexes and Bibliographies

 Dictionaries
 Encyclopedias
 Handbooks
 Directories

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Evaluating information sources
Purpose

Authority
Scope
Evaluation
Factors

Audience Format
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 Mining Internal Sources

 The tern data mining describes the process of

discovering knowledge from databases stored in
data marts or data warehouses.The purpose of
data mining is to identify valid, novel, useful,
and ultimately understandable patterns in data.
 A data warehouse is an electronic repository for
databases that organizes large volumes of data
into categories to facilitate retrieval,
interpretation, and sorting by end users.
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 Evoulution of Data Mining(cont.)
Evolutionary Investigative Question Enabling Characteristic
Step Technologies s

Data collection “What was my average Computers, tapes, Retrospective,

(1960s) total revenue over the disks static data
last five years?” delivery

Data access “What were unit sales in Relational databases Retrospective,

(1980s) California last (RDBMS), structured dynamic data
December?” query language (SQL), delivery at
ODBC record level
Data navigation “What were unit sales in Online analytic Retrospective,
(1990s) California last processing (OLAP), dynamic data
December? Drill down multidimensional delivery at
to Sacramento.” databases, data multiple levels
warehouses
Data mining “What’s likely to happen Advanced algorithms, Prospective,
(2000) to Sacramento unit multiprocessor proactive
sales next month? computers, massive12 information
Why?” databases delivery
Data Mining Process

 Sample: The researcher must

decide whether to use the entire
data set or sample of the data.

 Explore :After the data are

sampled,the next step is to explore
them visually or numerically for
trends or groups .
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Data Mining Process

 Modify: a data reduction program, such as factor

analysis 、correspondence analysis or clustering may
be used.
 Model:Modeling techniques in data mining include
neural networks as well as decision tree, sequence-
based, classification and estimation and genetic-
based models.
 Assess: the final step in data mining is to assess the
model to estimate how well it performs.A common
method of assessment involves applying a portion of
data that was not used during the sampling stage.If
the model is valid,it will work for this ”holdout”
sample.
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Data Mining Process

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 The Question Hierarchy：
How Ambiguous Question
Become Actionable Research

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 WHAT IS MANAGEMENT QUESTION?

Management questions are the restatement of the

management dilemma in question form.

No matter how the management question is

defined,many research directions can be taken.
A specific question can lead to many studies.

Therefore,it is the joint respon-sibility of the

researcher and the makerter to choose the most
productive project.
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Management-Research Question Hierarchy

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 Management Question
 Types of Management Questions
Categories General Question

Choice of Purpose or What do we want to achieve?

Choice of Objectives

Generalization and Evaluation of How can we achieve the ends that

Solutions we seek?

Troubleshooting or Control How well is our marketing

program meeting its goals?

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Management Question
 Exploration
To move forward in the management-research
question hierarchy and define the research
question, we need to collect some exploratory
information.

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The Research Question

 Research Question:
 Research question best states the objective of
the business research study.It is a more
specific manage-ment question that must be
answered.

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Research Question

 Fine – Tuning
Fine-tuning the question is precisely
what a skillful practitioner must do
after the exploration is complete.
At this point, a clearer picture of the
management and research questions
begins to emerge.

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Research Question
Evaluate
hypotheses Break
Examine
questions
variables
down
Fine-
Tuning the
research
question
Determine Set the
necessary scope of
evidence study
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Investigative Question

 Investigative Question: Investigative

questions represent the information that the
decision maker needs to know;they are the
questions the researcher must answer to
satisfactorily arrive at a conclusion about the
research question.

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Investigative Question

 As you develop your information needs,

think broadly.In de-veloping your list of
investigative questions,include
 1. Performance Considerations
 2. Attitudinal Issues
 3. Behavioral Issues

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Measurement Question

 Measurement questions are the actual

questions that researchers use to collect data
in a study.
 Two types of measurement questions are
common in business research：
1.Predesigned measurement questions
2.Custom-designed measurement questions

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Thank You for listening
^0^

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