SOLUTION MANUAL
Research Methods For Business Students
8th Edition Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis
Chapters 1 - 14, Complete
3
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, Contents
Chapters Pages
Introduction 5
1 Business and management research, reflective diaries and the purpose
of this book 15
2 Choosing a research topic and developing your research proposal 19
3 Critically reviewing the literature 23
4 Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development 27
5 Formulating the research design 32
6 Negotiating access and research ethics 36
7 Selecting samples 40
8 Utilising secondary data 44
9 Collecting data through observation 48
10 Collecting primary data using research interviews and research diaries 54
11 Collecting primary data using questionnaires 59
12 Analysing data quantitatively 63
13 Analysing data qualitatively 68
14 Writing and presenting your project report 72
Appendix 75
1 Research project assignment 75
2 Group poster research project assignment 80
3 Research proposal assignment 84
4 Additional cases on the companion website 89
INTRODUCTION
An overview of the instructors’ manual
This instructors’ manual provides commentary for the eighth edition of the textbook Research
Methods for Business Students. The commentary is on a chapter by chapter basis and includes:
chapter learning outcomes;
summary of the content;
comments on likely student reactions and possible use of materials;
ideas for students’ preparatory work;
suggestions for delivery in the classroom;
4
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, ideas for students’ follow-up work.
In addition, we have included a copy of a research project assignment, a group research
project poster assignment and a copy of a dissertation proposal assignment as appendices.
Research Methods for Business – an overview of the eighth edition
Pedagogic features
The over-riding purpose of Research Methods for Business Students is to help undergraduate and
postgraduate students and students on professional courses to undertake research. Each chapter
deals with a part of the research process and discusses the ideas, techniques and methods using as
little jargon as is possible. Tables, checklists and diagrams are used to aid this discussion. Where
new terms are introduced for the first time, they are shown in bold, and a definition or explanation
follows shortly afterwards. They are also listed with a brief definition in the glossary. The
application of appropriate information technology is considered, in most instances as an integral
part of the text. Chapters have been cross-referenced as appropriate, and an index is provided
to help students find their way around the book.
Focus on student research boxes are included within the text of each chapter. These are based on
actual research projects, undertaken by students, in which points made in the text are illustrated.
In many instances, these worked examples illustrate possible pitfalls students may come across
while undertaking their research. Where a pitfall has been illustrated, it will, it is hoped, help
your students avoid making the same mistake. Further illustrations are provided by focus on
management research and research in the news boxes.
Focus on management research boxes discuss recent research in business and management. These
are normally derived from refereed academic journal articles, and students are likely to be able
to download the actual articles from online databases at their university.
Focus on research in the news boxes provide topical news articles that illustrate pertinent
research-related issues. All these will help students to understand the technique or idea and to
assess its suitability or appropriateness to their research. Boxed checklists provide students with
further focussed guidance for their own research.
A summary of key points at the end of each chapter can be used by students before and after
reading the chapter to ensure that they have digested the main points.
Self-check questions enable students to check they have understood the chapter. These can all be
answered without recourse to other (external) resources. Answers are provided to all the self-
check questions at the end of each chapter.
Review and discuss questions follow the self-check questions. These suggest a variety of activities
students can undertake to help them further develop their knowledge and understanding of the
material in the chapter, often involving discussion with a friend.
Self-test multiple choice questions and true/false questions for each chapter are available on this
book’s companion website.
All chapters include a section towards the end titled “Progressing your research project” that can be
undertaken as part of the student’s research project. These are presented in sufficient detail to
enable them to focus on the techniques that are most appropriate to his or her research. By
completing all these sections, the student will have also completed his or her project report.
Each chapter is also accompanied by references, further reading and a case study.
Further reading is included for two distinct reasons:
5
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
▪ to direct students to other work on the ideas contained within the chapter;
▪ to direct students to further examples of research where the ideas contained in the chapter
have been used.
Case studies at the end of each chapter are all new to the eighth edition. They have been drawn from
a variety of business and management research scenarios and have been based on the case
study’s authors’ students’ experiences when undertaking a research project. They have been
written to highlight real issues that occur when undertaking business and management research. To
help focus students’ thoughts or discussion on some of the pertinent issues, each case is followed by
evaluative questions, answers to which are provided on the Instructors’ Companion Web Site. A
case study follows every chapter. A further 75 case studies from earlier editions of the book are
available on the Students’ Companion Web Site; answers to these cases are provided on the
Instructors’ Companion Web Site. A complete list of these cases is provided in Appendix 4.
Contents
Chapter 1 outlines the nature of research and, more specifically, of business and management
research. The basic versus applied research and relevance debates are considered and advice
offered regarding keeping a reflective diary or notebook. The chapter concludes with an overview
of the purpose and structure of the book.
Chapter 2 is written to assist students in the generation of ideas, which will help them to choose a
suitable research topic, and offers advice on what makes a good research topic. If your students
have already been given a research topic, perhaps by an organisation or tutor, they will need
to refine it into one that is feasible and should still therefore read this chapter. After their idea
has been generated and refined, the chapter discusses how to turn this idea into clear research
question(s) and objectives. (Research questions and objectives are referred to throughout the
book.) Finally, the chapter provides advice on how to write a research proposal.
The importance of the critical literature review to students’ research is discussed in Chapter 3.
This chapter outlines what a critical review needs to include and the range of secondary and
primary literature sources available. The chapter explains the purpose of reviewing the literature,
discusses a range of search strategies and contains advice on how to plan and undertake a
search and to write the review. The processes of identifying key words and searching using
online databases and the Internet are outlined. It also offers advice on how to record items and to
evaluate their relevance as well as discussing plagiarism.
Chapter 4 addresses the issue of understanding different research philosophies including
positivism, critical realism, interpretivism, post modernism and pragmatism. Within this, the
functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralist paradigms are discussed.
Deductive, inductive, abductive and retroductive approaches to theory development are also
considered. In this chapter, students are challenged to think about their own values and how they
view the world and the impact this will have on the way they undertake their research.
These ideas are developed further in Chapter 5, which explores the process of research design. As
part of this, the methodological choice of quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods is considered. A
variety of research strategies are explored and longitudinal and cross-sectional time horizons
discussed. Consideration is given to the implications of design choice for the credibility of
students’ research findings and conclusions.
Chapter 6 explores issues related to gaining access and to research ethics. It offers advice on how
to gain physical and cognitive access both to organisations and to individuals using both
traditional and Internet-mediated strategies. Potential ethical issues are discussed in relation to
each stage of the research process and different data collection methods. Issues of data
protection and data management are also introduced.
A range of the probability and non-probability sampling techniques available for use by
6
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
Research Methods For Business Students
8th Edition Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis
Chapters 1 - 14, Complete
3
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, Contents
Chapters Pages
Introduction 5
1 Business and management research, reflective diaries and the purpose
of this book 15
2 Choosing a research topic and developing your research proposal 19
3 Critically reviewing the literature 23
4 Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development 27
5 Formulating the research design 32
6 Negotiating access and research ethics 36
7 Selecting samples 40
8 Utilising secondary data 44
9 Collecting data through observation 48
10 Collecting primary data using research interviews and research diaries 54
11 Collecting primary data using questionnaires 59
12 Analysing data quantitatively 63
13 Analysing data qualitatively 68
14 Writing and presenting your project report 72
Appendix 75
1 Research project assignment 75
2 Group poster research project assignment 80
3 Research proposal assignment 84
4 Additional cases on the companion website 89
INTRODUCTION
An overview of the instructors’ manual
This instructors’ manual provides commentary for the eighth edition of the textbook Research
Methods for Business Students. The commentary is on a chapter by chapter basis and includes:
chapter learning outcomes;
summary of the content;
comments on likely student reactions and possible use of materials;
ideas for students’ preparatory work;
suggestions for delivery in the classroom;
4
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, ideas for students’ follow-up work.
In addition, we have included a copy of a research project assignment, a group research
project poster assignment and a copy of a dissertation proposal assignment as appendices.
Research Methods for Business – an overview of the eighth edition
Pedagogic features
The over-riding purpose of Research Methods for Business Students is to help undergraduate and
postgraduate students and students on professional courses to undertake research. Each chapter
deals with a part of the research process and discusses the ideas, techniques and methods using as
little jargon as is possible. Tables, checklists and diagrams are used to aid this discussion. Where
new terms are introduced for the first time, they are shown in bold, and a definition or explanation
follows shortly afterwards. They are also listed with a brief definition in the glossary. The
application of appropriate information technology is considered, in most instances as an integral
part of the text. Chapters have been cross-referenced as appropriate, and an index is provided
to help students find their way around the book.
Focus on student research boxes are included within the text of each chapter. These are based on
actual research projects, undertaken by students, in which points made in the text are illustrated.
In many instances, these worked examples illustrate possible pitfalls students may come across
while undertaking their research. Where a pitfall has been illustrated, it will, it is hoped, help
your students avoid making the same mistake. Further illustrations are provided by focus on
management research and research in the news boxes.
Focus on management research boxes discuss recent research in business and management. These
are normally derived from refereed academic journal articles, and students are likely to be able
to download the actual articles from online databases at their university.
Focus on research in the news boxes provide topical news articles that illustrate pertinent
research-related issues. All these will help students to understand the technique or idea and to
assess its suitability or appropriateness to their research. Boxed checklists provide students with
further focussed guidance for their own research.
A summary of key points at the end of each chapter can be used by students before and after
reading the chapter to ensure that they have digested the main points.
Self-check questions enable students to check they have understood the chapter. These can all be
answered without recourse to other (external) resources. Answers are provided to all the self-
check questions at the end of each chapter.
Review and discuss questions follow the self-check questions. These suggest a variety of activities
students can undertake to help them further develop their knowledge and understanding of the
material in the chapter, often involving discussion with a friend.
Self-test multiple choice questions and true/false questions for each chapter are available on this
book’s companion website.
All chapters include a section towards the end titled “Progressing your research project” that can be
undertaken as part of the student’s research project. These are presented in sufficient detail to
enable them to focus on the techniques that are most appropriate to his or her research. By
completing all these sections, the student will have also completed his or her project report.
Each chapter is also accompanied by references, further reading and a case study.
Further reading is included for two distinct reasons:
5
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
▪ to direct students to other work on the ideas contained within the chapter;
▪ to direct students to further examples of research where the ideas contained in the chapter
have been used.
Case studies at the end of each chapter are all new to the eighth edition. They have been drawn from
a variety of business and management research scenarios and have been based on the case
study’s authors’ students’ experiences when undertaking a research project. They have been
written to highlight real issues that occur when undertaking business and management research. To
help focus students’ thoughts or discussion on some of the pertinent issues, each case is followed by
evaluative questions, answers to which are provided on the Instructors’ Companion Web Site. A
case study follows every chapter. A further 75 case studies from earlier editions of the book are
available on the Students’ Companion Web Site; answers to these cases are provided on the
Instructors’ Companion Web Site. A complete list of these cases is provided in Appendix 4.
Contents
Chapter 1 outlines the nature of research and, more specifically, of business and management
research. The basic versus applied research and relevance debates are considered and advice
offered regarding keeping a reflective diary or notebook. The chapter concludes with an overview
of the purpose and structure of the book.
Chapter 2 is written to assist students in the generation of ideas, which will help them to choose a
suitable research topic, and offers advice on what makes a good research topic. If your students
have already been given a research topic, perhaps by an organisation or tutor, they will need
to refine it into one that is feasible and should still therefore read this chapter. After their idea
has been generated and refined, the chapter discusses how to turn this idea into clear research
question(s) and objectives. (Research questions and objectives are referred to throughout the
book.) Finally, the chapter provides advice on how to write a research proposal.
The importance of the critical literature review to students’ research is discussed in Chapter 3.
This chapter outlines what a critical review needs to include and the range of secondary and
primary literature sources available. The chapter explains the purpose of reviewing the literature,
discusses a range of search strategies and contains advice on how to plan and undertake a
search and to write the review. The processes of identifying key words and searching using
online databases and the Internet are outlined. It also offers advice on how to record items and to
evaluate their relevance as well as discussing plagiarism.
Chapter 4 addresses the issue of understanding different research philosophies including
positivism, critical realism, interpretivism, post modernism and pragmatism. Within this, the
functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralist paradigms are discussed.
Deductive, inductive, abductive and retroductive approaches to theory development are also
considered. In this chapter, students are challenged to think about their own values and how they
view the world and the impact this will have on the way they undertake their research.
These ideas are developed further in Chapter 5, which explores the process of research design. As
part of this, the methodological choice of quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods is considered. A
variety of research strategies are explored and longitudinal and cross-sectional time horizons
discussed. Consideration is given to the implications of design choice for the credibility of
students’ research findings and conclusions.
Chapter 6 explores issues related to gaining access and to research ethics. It offers advice on how
to gain physical and cognitive access both to organisations and to individuals using both
traditional and Internet-mediated strategies. Potential ethical issues are discussed in relation to
each stage of the research process and different data collection methods. Issues of data
protection and data management are also introduced.
A range of the probability and non-probability sampling techniques available for use by
6
© Pearson Education Limited 2019
