INSTRUCTOR’S SOLUTIONS MANUAL
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
2025 RELEASE
CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS AND FUNDAMENTALS
ANSWERS TO REVIEW AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Terms in Review
1. Define…
a. business research
Business research, as it is used in this text, is a systematic inquiry that provides information to guide
managerial decisions. More specifically, it is a process of planning, acquiring, analyzing, and
disseminating relevant data, information, and insights to decision makers in ways that mobilize the
organization to take actions that maximize business performance.
b. data silo
a collection of data or information in an organization that is isolated from and not accessible by other
parts of the organization; its often collected and stored within a business unit, using proprietary
software and protocols of that business unit, making the data incompatible with other data in the
organization.
c. strategic inflection point
A “time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.” Inflection points are
disruptions, often from an unexpected source rather than an expected competitor, that demands a
response.
2. Distinguish among the following sets of items, and suggest the significance of each in a research
context:
a. Data, information, and insights—Data is raw, unprocessed facts; information is processed data,
usually aggregated and summarized; and insight is an interpretation of the information in light of
the organization’s mission, goals, resources, and environment.
b. Concept and construct—Concepts and constructs are both abstractions, the former from our
perceptions of reality and the latter from some invention that we have made. A concept is a bundle
of meanings or characteristics associated with certain objects, events, situations and the like.
Constructs are images or ideas developed specifically for theory building or research purposes.
Constructs tend to be more abstract and complex than concepts. Both are critical to thinking and
research processes since one can think only in terms of meanings we have adopted. Precision in
concept and constructs is particularly important in research since we usually attempt to measure
meaning in some way.
c. Deduction and induction—Both deduction and induction are basic forms of reasoning. While we
may emphasize one over the other from time to time, both are necessary for research thinking.
Deduction is reasoning from generalizations to specifics that flow logically from the generalizations.
If the generalizations are true and the deductive form valid, the conclusions must also be true.
Induction is reasoning from specific instances or observations to some generalization that is
purported to explain the instances. The specific instances are evidence and the conclusion is an
inference that may be true.
, d. Operational definition and dictionary definition—dictionary definitions are those used in most
general discourse to describe the nature of concepts through word reference to other familiar
concepts, preferably at a lower abstraction level. Operational definitions are established for the
purposes of precision in measurement. With them we attempt to classify concepts or conditions
unambiguously and use them in measurement. Operational definitions are essential for effective
research, while dictionary definitions are more useful for general discourse purposes.
e. Concept and variable—Concepts are meanings abstracted from our observations; they classify or
categorize objects or events that have common characteristics beyond a single observation (see a).
One or more variables substitute for a concept or construct; values are assigned to the variable so it
can be measured and any hypotheses based on them can be empirically tested. In informal usage, a
variable is often used as a synonym for construct or property being studied.
f. Hypothesis and Theory—A hypothesis is a conjecture about a relationship between two or more
concepts/constructs that is configured for empirical testing/measurement. A theory is a data-
supported hypothesis; it is no longer conjecture. Hypotheses drive research; theories are derived
from the results of research. While a theory can be derived from a single research project, we will
have more faith in the accuracy of a theory if the results of multiple research projects confirm the
theoretical conclusion.
You may want to extend this topic by asking students to develop a theory. For example, construct
a theory that will explain the differences in academic success that various students achieve in a B-
school:
3. Describe the characteristics of the scientific method.
The scientific method emphasizes (1) direct observation of phenomena, (2) clearly defined variables,
methods, and procedures, (3) empirically testable hypotheses, (4) the ability to rule out rival
hypotheses, (4) statistical rather than linguistic justification of conclusions, and (6) the self-correcting
process.
4. Below are some terms commonly found in a management setting. Are they concepts or
constructs? Give two different operational definitions for each.
a. Employee morale. (construct)
, 1. Degree of mental satisfaction among employees as represented by their score on the XYZ
morale inventory.
2. Mental satisfaction measured as an equally weighted self-report on seven point scales:
Mental satisfaction at home: Excellent (1) Average (4) Poor (7)
Mental satisfaction at work: Excellent (1) Average (4) Poor (7)
b. Assembly line. (concept)
1. An assembly line is any work arrangement that meets the following tests:
♦ The work consists of performing specific tasks in a fixed sequence of successive
workstations.
♦ The work at a given station is repetitive.
♦ Materials upon which work is performed moved through the sequence to various
workstations rather than machines or workers moving to the material.
2. An assembly line is any process on the production floor of building A where the process leads
to a gross value addition to the product.
c. Overdue account. (construct)
1. All accounts receivable that remain unpaid by the 5th day after the invoice date.
2. All accounts receivable that remain unpaid after the due date of payment, as applicable, based
on terms of credit allowed to the vendor.
d. Leadership. (construct)
1. An act of leadership shall be recorded when any member of the small groups under
observation is:
1. Recognized by group members as their leader by their submission to his/her assignments
to specific roles in one of the exercises, or
2. Agrees to his/her suggestion as to how to proceed in making assignments.
2. The degree of leadership embodied in a manager would be measured by:
1. The number of executives of rank K, and above, reporting to the executive directly or
indirectly
2. The increase in the number of executives of rank K and above, reporting to the manager
directly or indirectly, over the last three years
In keeping with management perceptions of weight to be assigned to various factors, (1)
could be assigned a weight of 60% and (2) 40%, leading to an index of leadership.
Personnel may be ranked on this basis.
e. Ethical standards. (construct)
♦ Norms or standards for our behavior and relationships with others, that go beyond known
legal standards or where legal standards do not exist.
♦ Norms or standards that assure that no one is harmed or suffers known or anticipated
adverse consequences from a decision.
5. Develop some Key Risk Indicators for your university or your major department.
Risk Situation Possible KRI
People Popularity of the major is declining. Major declarations
Complaints that a professor is poorly Number of days a prof. cancels
prepared. class.
, Number of days a prof. teaches only
a portion of designated class time.
Process Inadequate number of seats in critical classes Avg class size; number of sections
during registration offered of critical classes.
Technology Inaccuracy of Registrar’s records Number of times Registrar’s
databases were hacked.
Complaints about poor access to tablets Ratio of number of tablets to
students in any class requiring their
use.
Facilities Faculty complaints about assignment to Faculty classroom match ratio
undesirable classrooms or times.
Health and safety concerns Ratio of the number of bathrooms to
the number of students enrolled in a
particular building for each class
period.
6. Chipotle Mexican Grill continues to suffer from perception issues after a string of outbreaks
including E.coli worried customers about the safety of eating at the fast casual chain. Their
strategy for getting customers back into their restaurants was to give away free tacos, burritos
and chips. And while their customer survey scores are improving, they are still operating at a
loss. What concepts and constructs, and operations definitions, should any future research deal
with?
Concepts/Constructs of interest
• Safe Food (construct)…food that will not make you sick
• Perception of Safe Food…whether a Chipotle customer expects to get sick from food prepared in
the restaurant.
• Safe food preparation environment (construct)…specific government-approved procedures in
place (refrigeration, employee cleanliness, grill cleaning, food delivery, etc. ) to ensure safe food
• Fast casual chain (construct)…a group of restaurants that does not offer full table service, but
promises higher quality food by using few frozen or processed ingredients during food
preparation.
• Customer satisfaction score (construct) …on a survey, a 9 or 10 on a ten-point scale asking
whether Chipotle exceeded the customer’s expectations.
Making Research Decisions
7. You observe the following condition: “Our female sales representatives have lower customer
defections than do our male sales representatives.”
a. Propose the concepts and constructs you might use to study this phenomenon.
b. How might any of these concepts and/or constructs be related to explanatory hypotheses?
There are a variety of answers to this question. One example might be:
A. Concepts—sales representative, male, female
Constructs—customer defection.
B. Female sales representatives who are more culturally supported in establishing and maintaining
relationships extend that personal behavior into the work place.
Lower customer defections = fewer current customers lost at time of contract renewal resulting in
a smaller customer defection percentage.
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
2025 RELEASE
CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS AND FUNDAMENTALS
ANSWERS TO REVIEW AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Terms in Review
1. Define…
a. business research
Business research, as it is used in this text, is a systematic inquiry that provides information to guide
managerial decisions. More specifically, it is a process of planning, acquiring, analyzing, and
disseminating relevant data, information, and insights to decision makers in ways that mobilize the
organization to take actions that maximize business performance.
b. data silo
a collection of data or information in an organization that is isolated from and not accessible by other
parts of the organization; its often collected and stored within a business unit, using proprietary
software and protocols of that business unit, making the data incompatible with other data in the
organization.
c. strategic inflection point
A “time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.” Inflection points are
disruptions, often from an unexpected source rather than an expected competitor, that demands a
response.
2. Distinguish among the following sets of items, and suggest the significance of each in a research
context:
a. Data, information, and insights—Data is raw, unprocessed facts; information is processed data,
usually aggregated and summarized; and insight is an interpretation of the information in light of
the organization’s mission, goals, resources, and environment.
b. Concept and construct—Concepts and constructs are both abstractions, the former from our
perceptions of reality and the latter from some invention that we have made. A concept is a bundle
of meanings or characteristics associated with certain objects, events, situations and the like.
Constructs are images or ideas developed specifically for theory building or research purposes.
Constructs tend to be more abstract and complex than concepts. Both are critical to thinking and
research processes since one can think only in terms of meanings we have adopted. Precision in
concept and constructs is particularly important in research since we usually attempt to measure
meaning in some way.
c. Deduction and induction—Both deduction and induction are basic forms of reasoning. While we
may emphasize one over the other from time to time, both are necessary for research thinking.
Deduction is reasoning from generalizations to specifics that flow logically from the generalizations.
If the generalizations are true and the deductive form valid, the conclusions must also be true.
Induction is reasoning from specific instances or observations to some generalization that is
purported to explain the instances. The specific instances are evidence and the conclusion is an
inference that may be true.
, d. Operational definition and dictionary definition—dictionary definitions are those used in most
general discourse to describe the nature of concepts through word reference to other familiar
concepts, preferably at a lower abstraction level. Operational definitions are established for the
purposes of precision in measurement. With them we attempt to classify concepts or conditions
unambiguously and use them in measurement. Operational definitions are essential for effective
research, while dictionary definitions are more useful for general discourse purposes.
e. Concept and variable—Concepts are meanings abstracted from our observations; they classify or
categorize objects or events that have common characteristics beyond a single observation (see a).
One or more variables substitute for a concept or construct; values are assigned to the variable so it
can be measured and any hypotheses based on them can be empirically tested. In informal usage, a
variable is often used as a synonym for construct or property being studied.
f. Hypothesis and Theory—A hypothesis is a conjecture about a relationship between two or more
concepts/constructs that is configured for empirical testing/measurement. A theory is a data-
supported hypothesis; it is no longer conjecture. Hypotheses drive research; theories are derived
from the results of research. While a theory can be derived from a single research project, we will
have more faith in the accuracy of a theory if the results of multiple research projects confirm the
theoretical conclusion.
You may want to extend this topic by asking students to develop a theory. For example, construct
a theory that will explain the differences in academic success that various students achieve in a B-
school:
3. Describe the characteristics of the scientific method.
The scientific method emphasizes (1) direct observation of phenomena, (2) clearly defined variables,
methods, and procedures, (3) empirically testable hypotheses, (4) the ability to rule out rival
hypotheses, (4) statistical rather than linguistic justification of conclusions, and (6) the self-correcting
process.
4. Below are some terms commonly found in a management setting. Are they concepts or
constructs? Give two different operational definitions for each.
a. Employee morale. (construct)
, 1. Degree of mental satisfaction among employees as represented by their score on the XYZ
morale inventory.
2. Mental satisfaction measured as an equally weighted self-report on seven point scales:
Mental satisfaction at home: Excellent (1) Average (4) Poor (7)
Mental satisfaction at work: Excellent (1) Average (4) Poor (7)
b. Assembly line. (concept)
1. An assembly line is any work arrangement that meets the following tests:
♦ The work consists of performing specific tasks in a fixed sequence of successive
workstations.
♦ The work at a given station is repetitive.
♦ Materials upon which work is performed moved through the sequence to various
workstations rather than machines or workers moving to the material.
2. An assembly line is any process on the production floor of building A where the process leads
to a gross value addition to the product.
c. Overdue account. (construct)
1. All accounts receivable that remain unpaid by the 5th day after the invoice date.
2. All accounts receivable that remain unpaid after the due date of payment, as applicable, based
on terms of credit allowed to the vendor.
d. Leadership. (construct)
1. An act of leadership shall be recorded when any member of the small groups under
observation is:
1. Recognized by group members as their leader by their submission to his/her assignments
to specific roles in one of the exercises, or
2. Agrees to his/her suggestion as to how to proceed in making assignments.
2. The degree of leadership embodied in a manager would be measured by:
1. The number of executives of rank K, and above, reporting to the executive directly or
indirectly
2. The increase in the number of executives of rank K and above, reporting to the manager
directly or indirectly, over the last three years
In keeping with management perceptions of weight to be assigned to various factors, (1)
could be assigned a weight of 60% and (2) 40%, leading to an index of leadership.
Personnel may be ranked on this basis.
e. Ethical standards. (construct)
♦ Norms or standards for our behavior and relationships with others, that go beyond known
legal standards or where legal standards do not exist.
♦ Norms or standards that assure that no one is harmed or suffers known or anticipated
adverse consequences from a decision.
5. Develop some Key Risk Indicators for your university or your major department.
Risk Situation Possible KRI
People Popularity of the major is declining. Major declarations
Complaints that a professor is poorly Number of days a prof. cancels
prepared. class.
, Number of days a prof. teaches only
a portion of designated class time.
Process Inadequate number of seats in critical classes Avg class size; number of sections
during registration offered of critical classes.
Technology Inaccuracy of Registrar’s records Number of times Registrar’s
databases were hacked.
Complaints about poor access to tablets Ratio of number of tablets to
students in any class requiring their
use.
Facilities Faculty complaints about assignment to Faculty classroom match ratio
undesirable classrooms or times.
Health and safety concerns Ratio of the number of bathrooms to
the number of students enrolled in a
particular building for each class
period.
6. Chipotle Mexican Grill continues to suffer from perception issues after a string of outbreaks
including E.coli worried customers about the safety of eating at the fast casual chain. Their
strategy for getting customers back into their restaurants was to give away free tacos, burritos
and chips. And while their customer survey scores are improving, they are still operating at a
loss. What concepts and constructs, and operations definitions, should any future research deal
with?
Concepts/Constructs of interest
• Safe Food (construct)…food that will not make you sick
• Perception of Safe Food…whether a Chipotle customer expects to get sick from food prepared in
the restaurant.
• Safe food preparation environment (construct)…specific government-approved procedures in
place (refrigeration, employee cleanliness, grill cleaning, food delivery, etc. ) to ensure safe food
• Fast casual chain (construct)…a group of restaurants that does not offer full table service, but
promises higher quality food by using few frozen or processed ingredients during food
preparation.
• Customer satisfaction score (construct) …on a survey, a 9 or 10 on a ten-point scale asking
whether Chipotle exceeded the customer’s expectations.
Making Research Decisions
7. You observe the following condition: “Our female sales representatives have lower customer
defections than do our male sales representatives.”
a. Propose the concepts and constructs you might use to study this phenomenon.
b. How might any of these concepts and/or constructs be related to explanatory hypotheses?
There are a variety of answers to this question. One example might be:
A. Concepts—sales representative, male, female
Constructs—customer defection.
B. Female sales representatives who are more culturally supported in establishing and maintaining
relationships extend that personal behavior into the work place.
Lower customer defections = fewer current customers lost at time of contract renewal resulting in
a smaller customer defection percentage.
