Lecture 1: Introducing research

What is research?Research in general

Nature of business and management research

Research processStages of research processFactors to consider

The research process: your term projectInitiate your research proposal (Assignment 1)

SPSS Exercise 1 (Introducing ‘SPSS for Widows’)

Research is something that we all do all of the time. Suppose you decide to buy a new television so you make a systematic decision about which is best for you, depending on the availability of the product you are interested in and your purchasing power;

ORdeciding which political party to vote for;

ORdeciding how to get from place A to place B;

ORdeciding what to prepare for the dinner;

OR-----------------

‘Research is simply the process of thoroughly studyingand analysing the situational factors surrounding

a problem in order to seek out solutions to it’ OR

‘Research is a detailed study of a subject, carried outto discover (new) information or reach a (new)

understanding’

Types of Research: Basic & AppliedBasic Research – aims to enhance the

understanding of problems that commonly occur.

Applied Research – done with the intention of applying results to specific problems.

4

» Exploratory» Descriptive» Explanatory or Causal

5

Exploratory Research» Initial qualitative research conducted to clarify and define

the nature of a problem » Does not provide conclusive evidence» Subsequent research is expected

**********************

Descriptive Research» Describes characteristics of a population or phenomenon» Some understanding of the nature of the problem

**********************

Explanatory or Causal Research» Conducted to identify cause and effect relationships

6

Types of Research

8

Assessrelevant existingknowledge

Formulateconcepts &Propositions

Statementof Hypotheses

Design research

Acquire empiricaldata

Analyze &evaluate data

Provide explanation-state newproblem

9 Scientific research

Complex social processes can best be studied by introducing changes into these processes and observing the effects of these changes (Marsick and Watkins 1997).Academics jointly work with practitioners solving a problem.However, it often lacks scientific rigor.

Ethics & Research

Societal Accountability

Corporate Accountability

Moral Accountability

Conflict among accountabilities

12

13

» Is trans-disciplinary

» Engages with both theory and practice

» Involves undertaking systematic research

» Should be undertaken with rigour

The research process?Research stages?

The research process: Stages

» Formulating and clarifying a topic

» Reviewing the literature

» Designing the research

» Collecting data

» Analysing data

» Writing upBased on Figure 1.2: Saunders et al. (2009)

STEPS

Wish to research

Formulate and clarify research topic(Lecture – 2)

Critically review the literature (Lecture – 3)

Choose research approach and strategy (Lecture – 4 & 5)

Research approach? Research strategy?

The research Process

Yourterm

project

STEPS

Gaining access to data and ethical issues

(Lecture – 6)

Research ethics?

The research Process

Yourterm

projectResearch approach = deductive &

inductive types of researchResearch strategy = research methods

STEPS

Research ethics?

The appropriateness of researcher’s behaviour in

relation to the rights of those who become the subject of

or are affected by researcher’s work

The research Process

Yourterm

project

Plan data collection and collect the data usingOne/more of the following:

a. Sampling

(Lecture – 7)b. Secondary data

(Lecture – 8)c. Observation(Lecture – 9)

d. Structured, semi-structured and in-depth interviews (Lecture – 10)

e. Questionnaires (Lecture – 11)

Analyse the data

Write project report & prepare your presentation(Lecture – 14)

Give your presentation(Lectures – 15 & 16)

Quantitative/qualitative methods (Lecture – 12 & 13)

» Start working on a research proposal just now.

» Choose a leader and a recorder (Ideally these duties should rotate amongst all group-members, provided your group wishes so).

» Form a group of 2 - 3 members that will work on this research assignment as long as each group presents its research report in the last two-to-three classes.

» Each one of the group members will select a topic of his/her own and take it to a the meeting of his/her group for discussion.

» The group will then have a brainstorming meeting on all the topics, will discuss each member’s ideas about the selected research topics, and will come up with one research topic considered the best by the group.

» Continues on next slide…….

» The group in next class, through its team leader, will turn in a 4 – 6 page group activity report of the last week, on the following format. Page 1 (front-page)

Assignment 1Topic selected by the groupName of group leaderNames of group members

» Page 2 to 5 (one page for each student’s activity report)Assignment 1Name of the studentTopic selected by the student

Introduction to SPSSData Entry and use of ‘ANALYZE’ &

‘TRANSFORM’ Commands• The Data Editor, Data View & Variable View • Entering data (Steps for data entry)

1. Open SPSS’s ‘Data Editor’2. Enter data in ‘Data View’ taking data from next Slide (You can

even copy data from Excel sheet or from a MS Word’s table)3. Go to Variable View, and change ‘VAR00001’ with P, ‘VAR00002’

with S and ‘VAR00003’ with D.4. Go back to ‘Data View’ and check whether names/titles of the

variables have been changed.5. Go to ‘ANALYZE’ and ‘TRANSFORM’ commands and check what

functions you can perform.

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