Brm 2

Business Research Methods

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Topic Outline The Primary Purpose of Research Research Problem/Opportunity Steps in Research Process Implementation of Research Proposal

Topic & Structure of the lesson

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Learning Outcomes

On completion of this chapter you should be able to understand:

• Research is decision- and dilemma-centered.

• The Research Question is the result of careful exploration and analysis and sets the direction for the research project

•Planning research design demands an understanding of all the stages in research process

•Reality testing at each stage of the process is critical to successful implementation of research proposal

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Primary Purpose of Business Process

The primary purpose of

research is to reduce the level of

risk of a business decision

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Management-research question hierarchy

Begins with management dilemma

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Decision Problem Research Problem1. What should be done to increase the customer base of organic products in the domestic market?2. How to reduce turnover rates in the BPO sector?

1. What is the awareness and purchase intention of health conscious consumers for organic products? 2. What is the impact of shift duties on work exhaustion and turnover intentions of the BPO employees?

3. Should the company continue with its existing security services vendor or look at an alternative?

4. Can the Housing and real estate growth be accelerated?

5. Whom should SBI choose as its next Managing director- Mr ABC or Mrs. XYZ?

3. What is the satisfaction level of the company with the existing vendor? Are there any gaps? Can they be effectively handled by the vendor?4. What is the current investment in Real Estate and Housing? Can the demand in the sector be forecasted for the next six months? 5a. what has been the Leadership initiatives and performance record of ABC viz. XYZ?5b. Can a leading aggressive govt. sector bank accept a woman as its leader?

Stress – the cost to employer

Age discrimination in the workplace

The cashless society – imminent reality or impossible dream

The impact of development in IT on financial services

Corporate strategy and planning: the role of personnel department in its formulation

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Research Process Whenever a research is to be undertaken the best way

is to consider it as a process, which has certain sequence.

There may be some variations for different situations.

No one claims that research requires completion of each step before going to the next. Recycling and skipping occur. Despite this, the idea of sequence is useful in developing a research project.

We conceptualize the research process as consisting of seven steps. Step 1: Problem Defining/Identifying the Opportunity Step 2: Planning the Research Design Step 3: Selecting a Research Method Step 4: Selecting a Sampling Procedure Step 5: Fieldwork or Data Collection Step 6: Data Evaluation and Analysis Step 7: Report Preparation and Presentation

Management decision problem: the issue/decision that needs to be resolved through research

Discussion with experts: to get the right perspective on the issue, discussion/dialogue is held with subject/industry expert.

Review of literature: the most valuable source of framing the research question is to review the past work done on related topic(s).

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A research problem can be defined as a gap or uncertainty in the decision makers’ existing body of knowledge which inhibits efficient decision making. The gap could be academic & theoretical (basic) or real time and action oriented (applied).

A hypotheses is any assumption/presupposition that the researcher makes about the probable direction of the results that might be obtained on the completion of the research process

Descriptive hypotheses: This is simply a statement about the magnitude, trend, or behaviour of a population under study. e.g. The educational system is not oriented towards human needs of a country; The rate of unemployment amongst art graduates is higher than that of commerce graduates.

Relational hypotheses: These are the typical kind of hypotheses which state the expected relationship between two variables.e.g. Upper-class children have fewer children than lower class people.Labour Productivity decreases as working duration increases.

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Defn: Framework of a Research that provides specific details regarding the process to be followed in conducting the research.

• Information to be obtained from• Time & budget allotted• Appropriate measurement techniques

Factors like Research objective, the importance of decision, cost involved in conducting the research, & the availability of data sources determine the selection of an appropriate research design.

Methods of conducting a research study: Secondary data studies Surveys Experiments Observations

Analyzing Research Design:– Work backward i.e. from the end results that needs to be obtained

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Probability/Non Probability Sampling

Defining the population

Size of the sample

Pre-testing of Data Collection Main Data Collection

Questionnaire technique Telephonic Interview Technique

Errors in Data Collection: Human Error, Missing Values

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◦ Editing & Coding & of Data CollectedEditing-Verifying data & check for inconsistency,

errors cropped up during the interview e.g. not understanding the question/recording the answer under wrong column

Coding-Data can be fed and interpreted easily using computers. Direct method of coding -telephonic interview

◦ Tabulation of Data Collected

◦ Analysis

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Oral/Written FormatContents:• Objective of the research• Summary of the research design adopted• Summary of major findings• Conclusion with the limitations &

recommendations, as per requirement of the management

1. Business Research Methods – Cooper, Schindler; Tata Mc Graw Hills

2. Marketing Research – G C Beri; Tata Mc Graw Hills.3. Business Research Methods – William G Zikmund; Thomson.4. Marketing Research – Tull, Hawkin; PHI

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Q & A