Chapter-4:

The Business Research

Process: An Overview

© 1–1

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 Introduction
• Key ways in which researchers contribute to
decision making:
1. Helping to better define the current situation
2. Defining the firm—determining how consumers, competitors,
and employees view the firm
3. Providing ideas for enhancing current business practices
4. Identifying new strategic directions
5. Testing ideas that will assist in implementing business
strategies for the firm
6. Examining how correct a certain business theory is in a
given situation

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 Decision Making Terms
• Business opportunity
 A situation that makes some potential competitive
advantage possible.
• Business problem
 A situation that makes some significant negative
consequence more likely.
• Symptoms
 Observable cues that serve as a signal of a problem
because they are caused by that problem.

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 Decision Making
• Decision making defined
 The process of developing and deciding among
alternative ways of resolving a problem or choosing
from among alternative opportunities.
• Research’s role in the decision making process
 Recognizing the nature of the problem or opportunity.
 Identifying how much information is currently
available and how reliable it is.
 Determining what information is needed to better deal
with the situation.

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 Conditions Affecting Decision Making
• Certainty
 The decision maker has all information needed to
make an optimal decision.
• Uncertainty
 The manager grasps the general nature of desired
objectives, but the information about alternatives is
incomplete.
• Ambiguity
 The nature of the problem itself is unclear such that
objectives are vague and decision alternatives are
difficult to define.

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 EXHIBIT 4.1 Describing Decision-Making Situations

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 Exhibit 4.8
Different stages of a Research Process

A Question Formulation
Suggest Literature
Research
is raised of Research Design
Hypotheses Review
Questions Formulation

Research Design Formulation

Report
Hypotheses Data
Writing & Data Analysis Acquire Data
Support Interpretation
Presentation

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 Types of Business Research
• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Causal

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 Exploratory Research
• Exploratory Research
 Conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover
ideas that may be potential business opportunities.
 Initial research conducted to clarify and define the
nature of a problem.
 Does not provide conclusive evidence
 Subsequent research expected

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 Descriptive Research
• Describes characteristics of objects, people,
groups, organizations, or environments.
 Addresses who, what, when, where, why, and how
questions.
 Considerable understanding of the nature of the
problem exists.
 Does not provide direct evidence of causality.
• Diagnostic analysis
 Seeks to diagnose reasons for market outcomes and
focuses specifically on the beliefs and feelings
consumers have about and toward competing
products.

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 Descriptive Research (cont’d)
• Examples
 The average Weight Watchers’ customer
 Is a female about 40 years old
 Has a household income of about $50,000
 Has at least some college education
 Is trying to juggle children and a job
 Characteristics of leaders
 Empathetic
 Resourceful
 Ability to delegate

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 Causal Research
• Research conducted to identify cause and effect
relationships (inferences).
• Evidence of causality:
 Temporal sequence—the appropriate causal order of
events.
 Concomitant variation—two phenomena vary
together.
 Nonspurious association—an absence of alternative
plausible explanations.

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 EXHIBIT 4.2 The Spurious Effect of Ice Cream

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 Degrees of Causality
• Absolute Causality
 The cause is necessary and sufficient to bring about
the effect.
• Conditional Causality
 A cause is necessary but not sufficient to bring about
an effect.
• Contributory Causality
 A cause need be neither necessary nor sufficient to
bring about an effect.
 Weakest form of causality.

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 Experiments
• Experiment
 A carefully controlled study in which the researcher manipulates
a proposed cause and observes any corresponding change in
the proposed effect.
• Experimental variable
 Represents the proposed cause and is controlled by the
researcher by manipulating it.
• Manipulation
 The researcher alters the level of the variable in specific
increments.
• Test-market
 An experiment that is conducted within actual market conditions.

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 EXHIBIT 4.3 Testing for Causes with an Experiment

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 EXHIBIT 4.4 Characteristics of Different Types of Business Research

Uncertainty Influences the Type of Research Conducted

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 Stages in the Research Process
• Process stages:
1. Defining the research objectives
2. Planning a research design
3. Planning a sample
4. Collecting the data
5. Analyzing the data
6. Formulating the conclusions and preparing the
report
• Forward linkage—earlier stages influence later stages.
• Backward linkage—later stages influence earlier stages.

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 EXHIBIT 4.5 Stages of the Research Process

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 EXHIBIT 4.6
Flowchart of
the Business
Research
Process

Note: Diamond-shaped boxes indicate stages in the research process in which a choice of one or more
techniques must be made. The dotted line indicates an alternative path that skips exploratory research.

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 Defining the Research Objectives
• Research objectives
 The goals to be achieved by conducting research.
• Deliverables
 The consulting term used to describe research
objectives to a research client.

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 Exhibit 4.10
Formulation of Research Questions

Tasks Involved

Discussions Interviews
Secondary Qualitative
with Decision with Industry
Data Analysis Research
Makers Experts

Environmental Context

Past Marketing &

Resources & Buyer Legal Economic
Information Objectives Technological
Constraints Behavior Environment Environment
& Forecasts Skills

Problem Definition

Management Decision Problem

Marketing Research Problem

Formulation of Research Questions

Broad Marketing Research Problem

Objective / Specific Marketing Research Problem

Theoretical
Framework
Research Questions
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 Exploratory Research Techniques
• Previous Research
 Literature review
 A directed search of published works, including periodicals and
books, that discusses theory and presents empirical results that are
relevant to the topic at hand.
 Pilot Studies
 A small-scale research project that collects data from respondents
similar to those to be used in the full study.
 Pretest
– A small-scale study in which the results are only preliminary and intended
only to assist in design of a subsequent study.
 Focus Group
– A small group discussion about some research topic led by a moderator
who guides discussion among the participants.

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 EXHIBIT 4.7
4.7 Example Decision Statements, Research Objectives, and
Research Hypotheses

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 Planning the Research Design
• Research Design
 A master plan that specifies the methods and
procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed
information.
 Basic design techniques for descriptive and causal
research:
 Surveys
 Experiments
 Secondary data
 Observation

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 Research Design Formulation

Research Design Formulation

Decision Whether the Research is Exploratory or Conclusive

Situational Analysis

Estimation of the Value of the Information

Secondary Data
Collection
Selection of Data Collection Approach
Primary Data
Collection
Selection of the Measurement and Scaling Technique

Selection of the Sample and Sampling Process

Selection of the Model of Analysis

Evaluation of the Ethics of the Research

Estimation of Time and Financial Requirement

Preparation of Research Proposal

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 Selection of the Basic Research Method
• Survey
 A research technique in which a sample is
interviewed in some form or the behavior of
respondents is observed and described.
 Telephone
 Mail
 Internet
 In person

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 Sampling
• Sampling
 Involves any procedure that draws conclusions based
on measurements of a portion of the population.
• Sampling decisions
 Who to sample?—target population
 What size should the sample be?
 How to select the sampling units?
 Random sample
 Cluster-sample

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 Gathering Data
• Unobtrusive Methods
 Methods in which research respondents do not have
to be disturbed for data to be gathered.

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 Acquire Data

Selection of Field Workers

Training of Field Workers

Data Collection Method

Secondary Data Collection

Primary Data Collection

Journals , Articles , Literature,

In-Depth Interview Focus Group Discussions Questionnaire
etc

Gathered Data

Validation of Field Work

Evaluation of Field Workers

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 Processing and Analyzing Data
• Editing
 Involves checking the data collection forms for
omissions, legibility, and consistency in classification.
• Codes
 Rules for interpreting, categorizing, recording, and
transferring the data to the data storage media.
• Data analysis
 The application of reasoning to understand the data
that have been gathered.

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 Hypotheses Support

Theoretical Framework/Analytical Model

Hypotheses

Data Collection

Findings Hypothesis Rejected

Hypothesis Confirmed Revise Analytical Model

Proceed for Report and Presentation Justify the Rejection

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 Drawing Conclusions and Preparing a
Report
• Steps in communicating the research findings:
 Interpreting the research results
 Describing the implications
 Drawing the appropriate conclusions for managerial decisions
• Reporting requirements
 Conclusions fulfill the deliverables promised in the research
proposal
 Consider the varying abilities of people to understand the
research results
 A clearly-written, understandable summary of the research
findings

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 The Research Program Strategy
• Research project
 A single study that addresses one or a small number
of research objectives.
 Uses specific techniques for solving one-dimensional
problems, such as identifying customer segments, selecting
the most desirable employee insurance plan, or determining
an IPO stock price.
• Research program
 Numerous related studies that come together to
address multiple, related research objectives.
 Because research is a continuous process,
management should view business research at a
strategic planning level.

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