BRM I
Business Research Methods I - Lecture Summary
Lecture One: Introduction
- Managerial decisions are based on:
1. The the results of good research tend to be more effective
2. Hunches, intuition, and past experiences are more likely to be wrong
- Why should future managers know about research?
• To be able to perform business research: undertake research yourself to solve the
smaller problems you encounter.
• To be able to steer business research: effectively interact with researchers/research
agencies.
• To be able to evaluate business research: to discriminate between good and bad
research proposals of researchers/research agencies and to discriminate between good
and bad published research studies.
- There are several myths about business research:
• "There is no need to study business research for a future manager" - where in reality,
managers with knowledge about research have an advantage over those without.
• "Business research ends up in the bottom drawer" - where in reality, for knowledgable
managers, research does not need to be intimidating.
• "Business research is only for the wealthiest organisations" - where in reality, business
research is very diverse (it can be cheap and/or expensive).
• "Business research is only useful when you have a major decision to make" - where in
reality, for small decisions, the best managers carry out their own research.
• "There is just one best way of researching a business problem" - where in reality, there
is no such thing as an absolute truth in business... but this does not imply that any
research is good.
- Business Research is a series of well-thought-out and carefully executed activities that
can enable the manager to know how organizational problems can be solved, or at least
considerably minimised.
- A business researcher:
→ Specifies the information necessary to address these issues
→ Designs the method for collecting information
→ Manages and implements the data collection process
→ Analyses the results
→ Communicates the findings and their implications
!1
, BRM I
- Eight hallmarks of scientific research:
- The eight hallmarks explained:
1. Purposiveness - knowing "the why" of your research
2. Rigor - ensuring a sound theoretical base and methodological design
3. Testability - being able to test logically developed ideas based on data
4. Replicability - finding the same results if the research is repeated in similar
circumstances
5. Precision & Confidence - drawing accurate conclusions with a degree of confidence
6. Objectivity - drawing conclusions based on facts (rather than on subjectives ideas)
7. Generalisability - being able to apply research findings in a wide variety of different
settings
8. Parsimony - shaving away unnecessary details, explaining a lot with a little
- Applied Research solves a current problem faced by a manager that will be applied to a
specific company (within firms or research agencies).
!2
, BRM I
- Fundamental (or basic) Research aims to generate new knowledge about how problems
that occur in several firms can be solved that apply to several organizational settings
(mainly within universities and knowledge institutions).
- The Research Process involves six stages:
- The six stages on research process explained:
Stage 1: Problem Definition
Identify problem area & define problem statement.
Stage 2: Research Approach Development
Theoretical framework, hypothesis, and model.
Stage 3: Research Design Development
Determine nature of research, measures, sampling...
Stage 4: Field Work or Data Collection
Data collection.
Stage 5: Data Integrity and Analysis
Data analysis.
Stage 6: Communicate Research Findings
Data interpretation.
!3
, BRM I
- A theoretical framework consists of:
• A conceptual model - a graphical representation, that covers all variables and
relationships.
• A description of all relevant variables and their definitions (motivate why these are
important).
• A hypothesis (statements of expected relationships between variables) that is based on
existing theory, that is testable, and unambiguous.
- A Research Design is a framework or plan for conducting a (...) research project. It details
the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure or solves (...)
research problems).
- Typically, a research design involves:
→ Defining the information needed
→ Deciding on nature of research
→ Deciding on techniques and measurement
→ Constructing and pre-testing the research
→ Deciding on sampling process and sample size
→ Developing a data analysis plan
- Exploratory Research is a flexible and evolving approach to understand phenomena that
are inherently difficult to measure. It is often required when prior theory is absent and an
in-depth understanding is required. Here, the aim is to develop new theory since
phenomena is new or previously uninvestigated.
- Conclusive Research is characterised by clearly defined phenomena that can be
measured by means of quantitative data. It can be descriptive hence, testing the
correlational relationship between two or more variable (i.e., by means of a survey or
archival data), or casual by testing the casual relationship between two or more variable
by means of a (laboratory or field) experiment.
- The conditions for Causality are:
1. X and Y co-occur (correlate)
!4
Business Research Methods I - Lecture Summary
Lecture One: Introduction
- Managerial decisions are based on:
1. The the results of good research tend to be more effective
2. Hunches, intuition, and past experiences are more likely to be wrong
- Why should future managers know about research?
• To be able to perform business research: undertake research yourself to solve the
smaller problems you encounter.
• To be able to steer business research: effectively interact with researchers/research
agencies.
• To be able to evaluate business research: to discriminate between good and bad
research proposals of researchers/research agencies and to discriminate between good
and bad published research studies.
- There are several myths about business research:
• "There is no need to study business research for a future manager" - where in reality,
managers with knowledge about research have an advantage over those without.
• "Business research ends up in the bottom drawer" - where in reality, for knowledgable
managers, research does not need to be intimidating.
• "Business research is only for the wealthiest organisations" - where in reality, business
research is very diverse (it can be cheap and/or expensive).
• "Business research is only useful when you have a major decision to make" - where in
reality, for small decisions, the best managers carry out their own research.
• "There is just one best way of researching a business problem" - where in reality, there
is no such thing as an absolute truth in business... but this does not imply that any
research is good.
- Business Research is a series of well-thought-out and carefully executed activities that
can enable the manager to know how organizational problems can be solved, or at least
considerably minimised.
- A business researcher:
→ Specifies the information necessary to address these issues
→ Designs the method for collecting information
→ Manages and implements the data collection process
→ Analyses the results
→ Communicates the findings and their implications
!1
, BRM I
- Eight hallmarks of scientific research:
- The eight hallmarks explained:
1. Purposiveness - knowing "the why" of your research
2. Rigor - ensuring a sound theoretical base and methodological design
3. Testability - being able to test logically developed ideas based on data
4. Replicability - finding the same results if the research is repeated in similar
circumstances
5. Precision & Confidence - drawing accurate conclusions with a degree of confidence
6. Objectivity - drawing conclusions based on facts (rather than on subjectives ideas)
7. Generalisability - being able to apply research findings in a wide variety of different
settings
8. Parsimony - shaving away unnecessary details, explaining a lot with a little
- Applied Research solves a current problem faced by a manager that will be applied to a
specific company (within firms or research agencies).
!2
, BRM I
- Fundamental (or basic) Research aims to generate new knowledge about how problems
that occur in several firms can be solved that apply to several organizational settings
(mainly within universities and knowledge institutions).
- The Research Process involves six stages:
- The six stages on research process explained:
Stage 1: Problem Definition
Identify problem area & define problem statement.
Stage 2: Research Approach Development
Theoretical framework, hypothesis, and model.
Stage 3: Research Design Development
Determine nature of research, measures, sampling...
Stage 4: Field Work or Data Collection
Data collection.
Stage 5: Data Integrity and Analysis
Data analysis.
Stage 6: Communicate Research Findings
Data interpretation.
!3
, BRM I
- A theoretical framework consists of:
• A conceptual model - a graphical representation, that covers all variables and
relationships.
• A description of all relevant variables and their definitions (motivate why these are
important).
• A hypothesis (statements of expected relationships between variables) that is based on
existing theory, that is testable, and unambiguous.
- A Research Design is a framework or plan for conducting a (...) research project. It details
the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure or solves (...)
research problems).
- Typically, a research design involves:
→ Defining the information needed
→ Deciding on nature of research
→ Deciding on techniques and measurement
→ Constructing and pre-testing the research
→ Deciding on sampling process and sample size
→ Developing a data analysis plan
- Exploratory Research is a flexible and evolving approach to understand phenomena that
are inherently difficult to measure. It is often required when prior theory is absent and an
in-depth understanding is required. Here, the aim is to develop new theory since
phenomena is new or previously uninvestigated.
- Conclusive Research is characterised by clearly defined phenomena that can be
measured by means of quantitative data. It can be descriptive hence, testing the
correlational relationship between two or more variable (i.e., by means of a survey or
archival data), or casual by testing the casual relationship between two or more variable
by means of a (laboratory or field) experiment.
- The conditions for Causality are:
1. X and Y co-occur (correlate)
!4
