Post on 21-Dec-2015
Chapter Twelve
Research and Planning
for Business Reports
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2014 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Learning Objectives
LO12.1 Explain how planning and conducting business research for reports impacts you credibility.
LO12.2 Create research objectives that are specific and achievable.
LO12.3 Explain principles of effective design for survey questions and choices.
LO12.4 Develop charts and tables to concisely display data and accentuate key messages.
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Learning Objectives (cont.)
LO12.5 Evaluate the usefulness of data sources for business research.
LO12.6 Conduct secondary research to address a business problem.
LO12.7 Evaluate research data, charts, and tables for fairness and effectiveness.
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Analyzing Your Audience for Business Reports
The first step in developing research-based business reports is identifying what decision makers want to accomplish.
You should spend time with your target audience of decision makers to carefully consider their primary business goals, research objectives, and expectations
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Developing Your Ideas with Primary Research
Primary research the analysis of data
that you, people from your organization, or others under your direction have collected.
Secondary research the analysis of data
collected by others with no direction from you or members of your organization.
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Developing Your Ideas with Primary Research
Survey research is increasingly common because of the ease with which online surveys can be administered
Survey research generally involves administering written questionnaires
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Developing Your Ideas with Primary Research
Closed questions restrict respondents
to certain answers (rating scales, multiple choice, etc.).
Open-ended questions allow respondents to
answer in any way they choose.
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Creating Research Objectives
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Creating Surveys
Surveys are particularly useful because you can quickly get the responses of dozens if not hundreds of colleagues, current or potential customers, or members of other groups of interest.
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Creating Surveys
Survey questions should be: a) simple to answerb) non-leadingc) exhaustive and unambiguousd) limited to a single idea.
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Creating Simple Survey Questions
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Creating Non-Leading Survey Questions
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Creating Exhaustive and Unambiguous Survey Choices
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Creating Survey Questions with a Single Idea
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Analyzing Your Data
Learn as much as you can about forecasting and other forms of statistical and quantitative analysis
Learn as much as you can about spreadsheet, database, and statistical software
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Analyzing Your Data
Rely on others in your analysis
Stay focused on your business problem and look for the big picture
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Communicating with Charts and Tables
After conducting survey research or other forms of business research, you typically have many statistics and figures that you could include in reports to decision makers
Overloading your audience members with data is a sure way to guarantee they’ll forget almost everything you say
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Designing Effective Charts
Line charts useful for depicting events and trends over time
Pie charts useful for illustrating the pieces within a whole
Bar charts useful to compare amounts or quantities
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Creating Effective Charts
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Creating Effective Charts
Title descriptiveness title should explain
the primary point of the chart.
Must be short enough for the reader to process quickly
Focal points should support one
main idea can be visually
generated in many interesting ways
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Creating Effective Charts
Information sufficiency Charts should contain
enough information for the reader to quickly and reasonably understand the ideas that are being displayed
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Creating Effective Charts
Ease of processing By selecting only the necessary information and
placing labels and data at appropriate places, you enable your reader to process the information quickly and efficiently
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Creating Effective Charts
Takeaway message essence of your chart how the information, title, focal points, and other
formatting combine to convey a lasting message.
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Formatting Guidelines for Specific Chart Types
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Less-Effective TableFigure 12.8
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More-Effective TableFigure 12.8
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Formatting Guidelines for Tables
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Evaluating Data Quality
Reliability relates to how dependable the data is—how current
and representative
Relevance relates to how well the data apply to your specific
business problem
Adaptability relates to how well the research can be altered or
revised to meet your specific business problem
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Evaluating Data Quality
Expertise relates to the skill and background of the
researchers to address your business problem.Biases
tendencies to see issues from particular perspectives
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Strengths and Limitations of Data Quality for Primary and Secondary Research Sources
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Evaluating Data Quality
White papers reports or guides that
generally describe research about solving a particular issue
Industry publications written to cater to
the specific interests of members in particular industries
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Evaluating Data Quality
Business periodicals provide stories, information, and advice about
contemporary business issuesScholarly journals
contain information that comes from carefully controlled scientific research processes and has been reviewed by experts in the field
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Conducting Library Research
Aside from a significant collection of books across a wide range of disciplines and topics, your library likely contains a wealth of digital resources
You likely also have access to thousands of company and industry reports and scholarly journals
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Documenting Your Research
Decision makers expect excellent documentation of your information because this helps them evaluate the credibility of your report
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Using Online Information for Business Research
Always evaluate data quality
Do more than just “Google it.” Go to reputable business and industry websites
and conduct searches. Find online discussions and forums about your
selected topic Search beyond text-based information
Be persistent
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Creating Fair Charts