Business Research Methods chapter 1
Research methods provides you with ideas, instruments and models that demonstrate how to
conduct sound research (gedegen onderzoek verricht). The study of research will provide you with
the knowledge and skills you need to solve the problems and meet the challenges of a fast-paced
decision-making environment.
Business research is a systematic inquiry (onderzoek) whose objective is to provide the information
that will allow managerial problems to be solved. Business research courses recognize that students
preparing to manage business, not-for-profit and public organizations –in al functional areas-need
training in a disciplined process that will enable (in staat stellen) them to investigate and solve a
research dilemma (i.e. any problem or opportunity that requires a management decision).
Three factors have stimulated an interest in this scientific approach to decision-making:
The need for more and better information as decisions become more complex;
The availability of improved techniques and tools to meet this need;
The resulting information overload if discipline is not employed in the process;
Factors that characterize the complex business decision making environment are:
There are more variables to consider in every decision;
More knowledge exists in every field of management;
Global and domestic competition is more vigorous (krachtig);
The quality of theories and models available is improving;
Government is continuing to show concerns for all aspects of society;
The explosive growth of company websites have heralded (aangekondigd) the presence of
extensive new arrays of information;
Workers, shareholders etc. are demanding (veeleisend) to be include in company decision
making.
Factors below demonstrates how recent developments have affected the business research process:
Organizations are increasingly practicing data mining learning to extract meaningful
knowledge from volumes of data contained within internal databases;
Advances in computing technology have allowed businesses to create the architecture
required for data warehousing;
The power and user friendliness of today’s computers means that data may easily be
analyzed and used to deal with complex managerial problems
Quantitative analysis techniques take advantage of increasingly powerful computing
capabilities;
The communication and measurement techniques used in researched haven been enhanced
(versterkt).
Different types of studies can be classified in different categories, namely: --> examples pages 6-9
Reporting: the most elementary level, a reporting study, may be produced simply to provide
an account or summation of some data, or to generate some statistics. The task may be quite
simple and the data readily available. A reporting study calls for knowledge and skill in using
information sources and dealing with their gatekeepers. Such a study usually calls for a little
in the way of inference or conclusion drawing;
Descriptive: a descriptive study tries to discover answers to the questions who, what, when,
where and, sometimes, how. The researcher attempts to describe, or define, a subject, often
creating a profile of a group of problems, people or events. Descriptive studies may or may
not have the potential for drawing powerful inferences (conclusies). Organizations that
Research methods provides you with ideas, instruments and models that demonstrate how to
conduct sound research (gedegen onderzoek verricht). The study of research will provide you with
the knowledge and skills you need to solve the problems and meet the challenges of a fast-paced
decision-making environment.
Business research is a systematic inquiry (onderzoek) whose objective is to provide the information
that will allow managerial problems to be solved. Business research courses recognize that students
preparing to manage business, not-for-profit and public organizations –in al functional areas-need
training in a disciplined process that will enable (in staat stellen) them to investigate and solve a
research dilemma (i.e. any problem or opportunity that requires a management decision).
Three factors have stimulated an interest in this scientific approach to decision-making:
The need for more and better information as decisions become more complex;
The availability of improved techniques and tools to meet this need;
The resulting information overload if discipline is not employed in the process;
Factors that characterize the complex business decision making environment are:
There are more variables to consider in every decision;
More knowledge exists in every field of management;
Global and domestic competition is more vigorous (krachtig);
The quality of theories and models available is improving;
Government is continuing to show concerns for all aspects of society;
The explosive growth of company websites have heralded (aangekondigd) the presence of
extensive new arrays of information;
Workers, shareholders etc. are demanding (veeleisend) to be include in company decision
making.
Factors below demonstrates how recent developments have affected the business research process:
Organizations are increasingly practicing data mining learning to extract meaningful
knowledge from volumes of data contained within internal databases;
Advances in computing technology have allowed businesses to create the architecture
required for data warehousing;
The power and user friendliness of today’s computers means that data may easily be
analyzed and used to deal with complex managerial problems
Quantitative analysis techniques take advantage of increasingly powerful computing
capabilities;
The communication and measurement techniques used in researched haven been enhanced
(versterkt).
Different types of studies can be classified in different categories, namely: --> examples pages 6-9
Reporting: the most elementary level, a reporting study, may be produced simply to provide
an account or summation of some data, or to generate some statistics. The task may be quite
simple and the data readily available. A reporting study calls for knowledge and skill in using
information sources and dealing with their gatekeepers. Such a study usually calls for a little
in the way of inference or conclusion drawing;
Descriptive: a descriptive study tries to discover answers to the questions who, what, when,
where and, sometimes, how. The researcher attempts to describe, or define, a subject, often
creating a profile of a group of problems, people or events. Descriptive studies may or may
not have the potential for drawing powerful inferences (conclusies). Organizations that
