“Research methods for business students”
Saunders/Lewis/Thornhill
5th Edition
Het auteursrecht is het uitsluitend recht van de maker van een werk van letterkunde, wetenschap of kunst, of van
diens rechtverkrijgenden, om dit openbaar te maken en te verveelvoudigen, behoudens de beperkingen, bij de
wet gesteld.
Auteursrecht: Mx92
,Chapter 1 The nature of business and management research and structure in this book.
Methods: techniques and procedures to obtain and analyze data
Methodology: refers to the theory of how research should undertaken
Research:
Data are collected systematically
Data are interpreted systematically
There is a clear purpose: to find things out
Research is something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby
increasing their knowledge.
Systematic: logical relationships and not just beliefs
Find things out: there are a multiplicity of possible purposes for your research.
Management research comes from different disciplines and need to get in practice. The main reason
of academic management research is to develop valid knowledge to support organizational problem
in the field.
Relevance gap: knowledge producers and knowledge users
Two forms of research:
Basic research:
1. Expand knowledge of processes of business and management
2. Results in universal principles relating to the process and its relationship to
outcomes
3. Finding of significance and value the society in general
Done by: people in university
Applied research:
1. Improve understanding of particular business or management problem
2. Results in solution to problem
3. New knowledge limited to problem
4. Findings of practical relevance and value to managers in organizations.
Done by: people in organizations
The research process: (blz 11)
Formulate and clarify your research topic
Critically review the literature
Understand your philosophy and approach
Formulate your research design
Negotiate access and address ethical issues.
Chapter 2 Formulating and clarifying the research topic
Good topic:
Comfortable with your topic
Have the capabilities
Enough time
Certain gain of access
Symmetry of potential outcomes: your results will be of similar value whatever you find out
Meet your career goals
Checklist of goods topics: (blz 24)
Generating and refining your research ideas:
Auteursrecht: Mx92
,If you have not been given an initial research idea there is a range of techniques that can be used to
find and select a topic that you would like to research:
Rational thinking
Creative thinking
Better use a combination so that you follow your heart and your head. So you enjoy and you have
chosen a wise subject.
Rational thinking:
Examining your own strengths and interests: which your interest and good grades
Looking at past project titles: looking at past projects
Discussion: ask colleagues and friends
Searching the literature: looking in articles, report and books, review articles(future research
has to be undertaken.
Scanning the media
Creative thinking:
Keeping a notebook of ideas: noting down any interesting research ideas
Exploring preference using past projects
Relevance trees
Brainstorming
Another technique: Delphi technique: using a group of people who are either involved or interested
in the research idea to generate and choose a more specific research idea.
The preliminary study: refine your research idea into a research project
Can be review the literature or first iteration of your critical literature review or revisiting the
techniques. The purpose is to gain a greater understanding so that your research question be
defined.
Integrating ideas:
Classifying each research idea first into its area, its field and finally the precise aspect in which you
are interested.
Refining topics given by your employing organization may be difficult:
You may not be interested
Political relationship in the organization
To promise to deliver research outcomes to your employer and not do so
Research questions: you have to write clear research questions.
Goldilocks test to decide if research questions are too big, too small, too hot or just right.
Often a useful starting point is begin with one general focus research question that flow from your
research idea.
Research objectives are more generally acceptable to the research community as evidence of the
researcher clear sense of purpose and direction. We contend that research objectives are likely to
lead to greater specificity than research or investigative questions. (blz 35)
A objective question makes clear that a theory will be developed that will make causal link between
two variables. This precision cannot be made by a research question.
Personal objectives(your specific learning objectives from completion the research) would be better
if they pass the smart test:
Specific: what precisely do you hope to achieve
Auteursrecht: Mx92
, Measurable: what measures you will use to determine you achieved the objectives
Achievable:
Realistic: time and energy to complete the research
Timely: time to complete.
Theory is defined as a formulation regarding the cause and effect relationships between two or more
variables, which may or may not have been tested. Explains to a why question. Explains something
the world would otherwise not see. Covers a range of settings(voor andere experimenten). Moet
falsifiseerbaar zijn.
Be theory dependent in your research means that you will have to develop a ground breaking theory
that will lead to a whole new way of management thinking.
Three types of theories:
Grand theories
Middle range theories
Substantive theories
Deductive approach: first theory then data
Inductive approach: first collect data then produce a theory
Writing your research proposal is a crucial part of your research. The purposes of the research
proposal are:
Organizing your ideas
Convince your audience: that you are able to do it in the time you have
Contracting with your client: if you write for a commission or an organization you have to
write a clear proposal.
The content of the research proposal:
Title
Background: it should tell the reader why you feel the research that you are planning is
worth the effort. Maybe a problem that need to be solved.
Research questions and objectives: what is that your research seeks to archive
Method: how you intend to go about achieving your research objectives. It will also justify
your choice of method in the light of those objectives. Two sections of the method:
1. Research design: where you intend to carry out the research.
2. Data collection: how data are to be collected.
Timescale: produce a timescale of your research. This can be done by: Grantt chart.
Recourses
Reference
Criteria for evaluating research proposals:
The extent to which components of proposal fit together
Viability of the proposal: can this be done within the timescale and with available recourses.
The absence of preconceived ideas: do research on things that are unknown.
The content of the research proposal should tell the reader what you want to do, why you want to
do it, what you are trying to achieve and how you going to plan to achieve it.
Chapter 3 Critically reviewing the literature
Two major reasons exist for reviewing the literature
Preliminary search helps you to generate and refine your ideas
Critical review or critical literature review is part of your research project proper.
Auteursrecht: Mx92
Saunders/Lewis/Thornhill
5th Edition
Het auteursrecht is het uitsluitend recht van de maker van een werk van letterkunde, wetenschap of kunst, of van
diens rechtverkrijgenden, om dit openbaar te maken en te verveelvoudigen, behoudens de beperkingen, bij de
wet gesteld.
Auteursrecht: Mx92
,Chapter 1 The nature of business and management research and structure in this book.
Methods: techniques and procedures to obtain and analyze data
Methodology: refers to the theory of how research should undertaken
Research:
Data are collected systematically
Data are interpreted systematically
There is a clear purpose: to find things out
Research is something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby
increasing their knowledge.
Systematic: logical relationships and not just beliefs
Find things out: there are a multiplicity of possible purposes for your research.
Management research comes from different disciplines and need to get in practice. The main reason
of academic management research is to develop valid knowledge to support organizational problem
in the field.
Relevance gap: knowledge producers and knowledge users
Two forms of research:
Basic research:
1. Expand knowledge of processes of business and management
2. Results in universal principles relating to the process and its relationship to
outcomes
3. Finding of significance and value the society in general
Done by: people in university
Applied research:
1. Improve understanding of particular business or management problem
2. Results in solution to problem
3. New knowledge limited to problem
4. Findings of practical relevance and value to managers in organizations.
Done by: people in organizations
The research process: (blz 11)
Formulate and clarify your research topic
Critically review the literature
Understand your philosophy and approach
Formulate your research design
Negotiate access and address ethical issues.
Chapter 2 Formulating and clarifying the research topic
Good topic:
Comfortable with your topic
Have the capabilities
Enough time
Certain gain of access
Symmetry of potential outcomes: your results will be of similar value whatever you find out
Meet your career goals
Checklist of goods topics: (blz 24)
Generating and refining your research ideas:
Auteursrecht: Mx92
,If you have not been given an initial research idea there is a range of techniques that can be used to
find and select a topic that you would like to research:
Rational thinking
Creative thinking
Better use a combination so that you follow your heart and your head. So you enjoy and you have
chosen a wise subject.
Rational thinking:
Examining your own strengths and interests: which your interest and good grades
Looking at past project titles: looking at past projects
Discussion: ask colleagues and friends
Searching the literature: looking in articles, report and books, review articles(future research
has to be undertaken.
Scanning the media
Creative thinking:
Keeping a notebook of ideas: noting down any interesting research ideas
Exploring preference using past projects
Relevance trees
Brainstorming
Another technique: Delphi technique: using a group of people who are either involved or interested
in the research idea to generate and choose a more specific research idea.
The preliminary study: refine your research idea into a research project
Can be review the literature or first iteration of your critical literature review or revisiting the
techniques. The purpose is to gain a greater understanding so that your research question be
defined.
Integrating ideas:
Classifying each research idea first into its area, its field and finally the precise aspect in which you
are interested.
Refining topics given by your employing organization may be difficult:
You may not be interested
Political relationship in the organization
To promise to deliver research outcomes to your employer and not do so
Research questions: you have to write clear research questions.
Goldilocks test to decide if research questions are too big, too small, too hot or just right.
Often a useful starting point is begin with one general focus research question that flow from your
research idea.
Research objectives are more generally acceptable to the research community as evidence of the
researcher clear sense of purpose and direction. We contend that research objectives are likely to
lead to greater specificity than research or investigative questions. (blz 35)
A objective question makes clear that a theory will be developed that will make causal link between
two variables. This precision cannot be made by a research question.
Personal objectives(your specific learning objectives from completion the research) would be better
if they pass the smart test:
Specific: what precisely do you hope to achieve
Auteursrecht: Mx92
, Measurable: what measures you will use to determine you achieved the objectives
Achievable:
Realistic: time and energy to complete the research
Timely: time to complete.
Theory is defined as a formulation regarding the cause and effect relationships between two or more
variables, which may or may not have been tested. Explains to a why question. Explains something
the world would otherwise not see. Covers a range of settings(voor andere experimenten). Moet
falsifiseerbaar zijn.
Be theory dependent in your research means that you will have to develop a ground breaking theory
that will lead to a whole new way of management thinking.
Three types of theories:
Grand theories
Middle range theories
Substantive theories
Deductive approach: first theory then data
Inductive approach: first collect data then produce a theory
Writing your research proposal is a crucial part of your research. The purposes of the research
proposal are:
Organizing your ideas
Convince your audience: that you are able to do it in the time you have
Contracting with your client: if you write for a commission or an organization you have to
write a clear proposal.
The content of the research proposal:
Title
Background: it should tell the reader why you feel the research that you are planning is
worth the effort. Maybe a problem that need to be solved.
Research questions and objectives: what is that your research seeks to archive
Method: how you intend to go about achieving your research objectives. It will also justify
your choice of method in the light of those objectives. Two sections of the method:
1. Research design: where you intend to carry out the research.
2. Data collection: how data are to be collected.
Timescale: produce a timescale of your research. This can be done by: Grantt chart.
Recourses
Reference
Criteria for evaluating research proposals:
The extent to which components of proposal fit together
Viability of the proposal: can this be done within the timescale and with available recourses.
The absence of preconceived ideas: do research on things that are unknown.
The content of the research proposal should tell the reader what you want to do, why you want to
do it, what you are trying to achieve and how you going to plan to achieve it.
Chapter 3 Critically reviewing the literature
Two major reasons exist for reviewing the literature
Preliminary search helps you to generate and refine your ideas
Critical review or critical literature review is part of your research project proper.
Auteursrecht: Mx92
