BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
Chapter 1 – Foundations of Research Methods
1. RESEARCH ENTERPRISE
What is research?
- The modern society relies upon research.
- Systematic investigation: The term research means many different things across different fields, however what
they all have in common is that it is a systematic investigation. One conducts research in a rational, careful
manner as opposed to everyday thinking which is done dynamically - changing and adapting to the ever-
changing world.
- Empirical endeavor: it involves collecting data. A systematic observation that yields data.
- Public effort: researches typically conduct research so that it can contribute to a broader base of knowledge.
- Research: a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to contribute to public
knowledge.
- Social research: things we do, how we interact, how we live, feel and see ourselves.
- Every research project has prior research and that research projects have flaws. It is unlikely that any research
will give a definitive answer. Research is never done in a vacuum.
- Research enterprise: the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple empirical systematic public
research projects.
Translational Research
- Research contributes to instrumental knowledge that we hope can make our lives better one day – knowledge
gained from research may at some point be put into practice.
- Translational research: the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practice and ultimately to
impacts on our lives.
- Research-practice continuum: the process of moving from an initial research idea or discovery to practice, and
the potential for the idea to influence our lives or world.
- The research enterprise encompasses the research-practice continuum.
1. Basic research: research that is designed to generate discoveries and to understand how the discoveries
work.
2. Applied research: research where a discovery is tested under increasingly controlled conditions in real-world
contexts.
3. Implementation and dissemination: research that assesses how well and innovation or discovery can be
distributed in and carried on in a broad range of contexts that extend beyond the original controlled studies.
4. Impact research: research that assesses the broader effects of a discovery or innovation on society.
5. Policy research: research that is designed to investigate existing policies of develop and test new ones.
- Different discoveries take different pathways through this continuum and the process even works in reverse
order.
Research Synthesis and Guidelines
- Research literature has become voluminous and technical – it is a barrier for practitioners and therefore reduced
adoption of new discoveries.
- Research synthesis: a systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the same research
question or topic and that summarizes the results in a manner that can be used by practitioners.
- It is believed that a research synthesis will become the normative way that research about new discoveries
moves from the basic-applied stage to the implementation & dissemination in broader contexts.
- There are two major types of research syntheses:
1. Meta-analysis: a type of research synthesis that uses statistical methods to combine the results of similar
studies to quantitatively in order to allow general conclusions to be made.
• Always a quantitative synthesis of results.
, 2. Systematic review: a type of research synthesis that focuses on a specific question or issue and uses
preplanned methods to identify, select assess and summarize the findings of multiple research studies.
• It may or may not include a meta-analysis or a judgmental expert-driven synthesis or both.
- However, meta-analyses and systematic reviews are sometimes not by themselves sufficient to be used by
practitioners as guides for how they might change what they implement. These reviews are technical and in
a scientific style that does not make formal recommendations.
- Guideline: a systematic process that leads to a specific
set of research-based recommendations for practice
that usually includes some estimates of how strong the
evidence is for each recommendation.
- Moving to research syntheses and guidelines is a major
shift as it combines all previous research projects and
distills the core results that are needed to guide
practice, as reflected in the guidelines.
Evidence-Based Practice
- Evidence-Based Practice (EBP): a movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to employ
practices that are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice guidelines.
- The EBP movement represents a major attempt of the research enterprise to achieve a better integration of
research and practice.
- Controversial – significant debates about which kinds of research projects (types of research methods) should be
allowed in research syntheses and guidelines.
An Evolutionary Perspective on the Research Enterprise
- Evolutionary epistemology: the branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the process of natural
selection.
- Research based on evolutionary system.
- An individual discovery is equivalent to an organism in biology. It competes with other established and emerging
discoveries. It is either selected or not through a complex selection mechanism that involves the communities
engaged in assessing the constantly emerging research projects in the research enterprise.
2. CONCEPTUALIZING RESEARCH
* How to formulate good research problems?
Where Research Topics Come From
- Most common sources for research ideas is the experience of practical problems in the field. Many researchers
are directly engaged in their fields and come up with ideas based on what they see happening around them.
- A source for research ideas is the literature in your specific field. Many researches get their idea by reading the
literature and thinking of ways to extend or refine previous research.
- Literature that acts as a source of good research ideas is the requests for proposals.
- Requests for proposals (RFPs): a document issued by a government agency or other organization that, typically
describes the problem that needs addressing the contexts in which it operates, the approach the agency would
like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency would be willing to pay for such research.
- Researchers also think up their research topic on their own.
The Literature Review
- Literature review: a systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published in scientific
journals that is related to a research topic of interest. A literature review is typically included in the introduction
selection of a research write-up.
- Most important early steps in research project.
- A literature review is designed to find related research to set the current research project within a conceptual
and theoretical context. It does not include articles that revolve around the exact same research question.
- Tips:
1. Concentrate your efforts on the research literature: try to find credible research journals. Put emphasis on
journals that use a blind or juried peer review system. Peer review: a system for reviewing potential research
publications where authors submit potential articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who agree
to give a critical review of the paper. The paper is sent to the reviewers with no identification of the authors that
, there will be no personal bias. Based on viewers recommendations, the editor can accept the article, reject it or
recommend that the author revise and resubmit it.
2. Do the review early in the research process: in order to determine the necessary trade-offs.
- What should you look for in the literature review?
• A study that is quite similar to the one you are doing. They also had to do a literature review and will help
you with yours.
• Prior research can help you include all the major relevant constructs in your study.
• Previous literature reviews can help you find and select appropriate measurement instruments.
• Previous literature reviews can help you anticipate common problems in your research context which can be
prevented.
Feasibility Issues
- Considerations about whether your study is feasible or not:
• Making trade-offs between rigor and practicality. There are limited resources and no complete control over
circumstances and thus are forced to look for the best trade-offs they can find to get the rigor they desire.
• How long the research will take to accomplish.
• Potential ethical constraints.
• Whether you can acquire the cooperation needed to take the project to its successful conclusion.
• Whether or not the costs are manageable.
3. THE LANGUAGE OF RESEARCH
Research Vocabulary
- Social research is theoretical, empirical, probabilistic and causal.
- Theoretical: pertaining to theory. Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is concerned with
developing, exploring, or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates.
- Empirical: bases on direct observations and measurements of reality.
- Probabilistic: based on probabilities. The inferences made in social research have probabilities associated with
them.
- Causal: pertaining to a cause-effect relationship., hypothesis, or relation-ship. Something is causal if it leads to
an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
- Causal relationship: a cause-effect relationship. For example, when you evaluate whether your treatment or
program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining a causal relationship.
- Not all studies are based on the cause-effect relationship. Some studies just observe (survey) and others explore
relationships (descriptive and correlational studies).
- Causal studies go beyond observing the world and looking at the relationships. They help to change and improve
problems.
Types of Studies
1. Descriptive studies: a study that documents what is going on or what exists.
2. Relational studies: a study that investigates the connection between two or more variables.
3. Causal studies: a study that investigates a causal relationship between two variables.
- The three study types can be viewed as cumulative.
Time in Research
- Cross-sectional study: a study that takes place at single point in time.
- Longitudinal study: a study that takes place over time.
• Measure your research participants on at least two separate occasions/points in time.
• Measuring multiple waves of measurement – taking measurements on a variable several times.
1. Repeated measures: two or more waves of measurement over time.
2. Time series: many waves of measurement over time. (approximately more than 20)
Types of Relationships
Relationship: an association between two variables such that, in general, the level on one variable is related to the
level on the other.
*The nature or the pattern of a relationship.
Chapter 1 – Foundations of Research Methods
1. RESEARCH ENTERPRISE
What is research?
- The modern society relies upon research.
- Systematic investigation: The term research means many different things across different fields, however what
they all have in common is that it is a systematic investigation. One conducts research in a rational, careful
manner as opposed to everyday thinking which is done dynamically - changing and adapting to the ever-
changing world.
- Empirical endeavor: it involves collecting data. A systematic observation that yields data.
- Public effort: researches typically conduct research so that it can contribute to a broader base of knowledge.
- Research: a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to contribute to public
knowledge.
- Social research: things we do, how we interact, how we live, feel and see ourselves.
- Every research project has prior research and that research projects have flaws. It is unlikely that any research
will give a definitive answer. Research is never done in a vacuum.
- Research enterprise: the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple empirical systematic public
research projects.
Translational Research
- Research contributes to instrumental knowledge that we hope can make our lives better one day – knowledge
gained from research may at some point be put into practice.
- Translational research: the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practice and ultimately to
impacts on our lives.
- Research-practice continuum: the process of moving from an initial research idea or discovery to practice, and
the potential for the idea to influence our lives or world.
- The research enterprise encompasses the research-practice continuum.
1. Basic research: research that is designed to generate discoveries and to understand how the discoveries
work.
2. Applied research: research where a discovery is tested under increasingly controlled conditions in real-world
contexts.
3. Implementation and dissemination: research that assesses how well and innovation or discovery can be
distributed in and carried on in a broad range of contexts that extend beyond the original controlled studies.
4. Impact research: research that assesses the broader effects of a discovery or innovation on society.
5. Policy research: research that is designed to investigate existing policies of develop and test new ones.
- Different discoveries take different pathways through this continuum and the process even works in reverse
order.
Research Synthesis and Guidelines
- Research literature has become voluminous and technical – it is a barrier for practitioners and therefore reduced
adoption of new discoveries.
- Research synthesis: a systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the same research
question or topic and that summarizes the results in a manner that can be used by practitioners.
- It is believed that a research synthesis will become the normative way that research about new discoveries
moves from the basic-applied stage to the implementation & dissemination in broader contexts.
- There are two major types of research syntheses:
1. Meta-analysis: a type of research synthesis that uses statistical methods to combine the results of similar
studies to quantitatively in order to allow general conclusions to be made.
• Always a quantitative synthesis of results.
, 2. Systematic review: a type of research synthesis that focuses on a specific question or issue and uses
preplanned methods to identify, select assess and summarize the findings of multiple research studies.
• It may or may not include a meta-analysis or a judgmental expert-driven synthesis or both.
- However, meta-analyses and systematic reviews are sometimes not by themselves sufficient to be used by
practitioners as guides for how they might change what they implement. These reviews are technical and in
a scientific style that does not make formal recommendations.
- Guideline: a systematic process that leads to a specific
set of research-based recommendations for practice
that usually includes some estimates of how strong the
evidence is for each recommendation.
- Moving to research syntheses and guidelines is a major
shift as it combines all previous research projects and
distills the core results that are needed to guide
practice, as reflected in the guidelines.
Evidence-Based Practice
- Evidence-Based Practice (EBP): a movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to employ
practices that are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice guidelines.
- The EBP movement represents a major attempt of the research enterprise to achieve a better integration of
research and practice.
- Controversial – significant debates about which kinds of research projects (types of research methods) should be
allowed in research syntheses and guidelines.
An Evolutionary Perspective on the Research Enterprise
- Evolutionary epistemology: the branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the process of natural
selection.
- Research based on evolutionary system.
- An individual discovery is equivalent to an organism in biology. It competes with other established and emerging
discoveries. It is either selected or not through a complex selection mechanism that involves the communities
engaged in assessing the constantly emerging research projects in the research enterprise.
2. CONCEPTUALIZING RESEARCH
* How to formulate good research problems?
Where Research Topics Come From
- Most common sources for research ideas is the experience of practical problems in the field. Many researchers
are directly engaged in their fields and come up with ideas based on what they see happening around them.
- A source for research ideas is the literature in your specific field. Many researches get their idea by reading the
literature and thinking of ways to extend or refine previous research.
- Literature that acts as a source of good research ideas is the requests for proposals.
- Requests for proposals (RFPs): a document issued by a government agency or other organization that, typically
describes the problem that needs addressing the contexts in which it operates, the approach the agency would
like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency would be willing to pay for such research.
- Researchers also think up their research topic on their own.
The Literature Review
- Literature review: a systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published in scientific
journals that is related to a research topic of interest. A literature review is typically included in the introduction
selection of a research write-up.
- Most important early steps in research project.
- A literature review is designed to find related research to set the current research project within a conceptual
and theoretical context. It does not include articles that revolve around the exact same research question.
- Tips:
1. Concentrate your efforts on the research literature: try to find credible research journals. Put emphasis on
journals that use a blind or juried peer review system. Peer review: a system for reviewing potential research
publications where authors submit potential articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who agree
to give a critical review of the paper. The paper is sent to the reviewers with no identification of the authors that
, there will be no personal bias. Based on viewers recommendations, the editor can accept the article, reject it or
recommend that the author revise and resubmit it.
2. Do the review early in the research process: in order to determine the necessary trade-offs.
- What should you look for in the literature review?
• A study that is quite similar to the one you are doing. They also had to do a literature review and will help
you with yours.
• Prior research can help you include all the major relevant constructs in your study.
• Previous literature reviews can help you find and select appropriate measurement instruments.
• Previous literature reviews can help you anticipate common problems in your research context which can be
prevented.
Feasibility Issues
- Considerations about whether your study is feasible or not:
• Making trade-offs between rigor and practicality. There are limited resources and no complete control over
circumstances and thus are forced to look for the best trade-offs they can find to get the rigor they desire.
• How long the research will take to accomplish.
• Potential ethical constraints.
• Whether you can acquire the cooperation needed to take the project to its successful conclusion.
• Whether or not the costs are manageable.
3. THE LANGUAGE OF RESEARCH
Research Vocabulary
- Social research is theoretical, empirical, probabilistic and causal.
- Theoretical: pertaining to theory. Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is concerned with
developing, exploring, or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates.
- Empirical: bases on direct observations and measurements of reality.
- Probabilistic: based on probabilities. The inferences made in social research have probabilities associated with
them.
- Causal: pertaining to a cause-effect relationship., hypothesis, or relation-ship. Something is causal if it leads to
an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
- Causal relationship: a cause-effect relationship. For example, when you evaluate whether your treatment or
program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining a causal relationship.
- Not all studies are based on the cause-effect relationship. Some studies just observe (survey) and others explore
relationships (descriptive and correlational studies).
- Causal studies go beyond observing the world and looking at the relationships. They help to change and improve
problems.
Types of Studies
1. Descriptive studies: a study that documents what is going on or what exists.
2. Relational studies: a study that investigates the connection between two or more variables.
3. Causal studies: a study that investigates a causal relationship between two variables.
- The three study types can be viewed as cumulative.
Time in Research
- Cross-sectional study: a study that takes place at single point in time.
- Longitudinal study: a study that takes place over time.
• Measure your research participants on at least two separate occasions/points in time.
• Measuring multiple waves of measurement – taking measurements on a variable several times.
1. Repeated measures: two or more waves of measurement over time.
2. Time series: many waves of measurement over time. (approximately more than 20)
Types of Relationships
Relationship: an association between two variables such that, in general, the level on one variable is related to the
level on the other.
*The nature or the pattern of a relationship.
