Business Research Fundamentals

Study Notes

Business research: a systematic and organized way of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information to help business organizations make better decisions
Purpose:
- Identify business opportunities and challenges
- Develop effective business strategies
- Solve business problems
- Create competitive advantage

Exploratory research: explores a topic or issue to gain a deeper understanding
Descriptive research: describes a phenomenon or situation
Causal research: examines cause-and-effect relationships between variables
Applied research: focuses on solving a specific business problem
Basic research: seeks to develop new knowledge or theories

Problem definition: identify a business problem or opportunity
Literature review: review existing research and knowledge on the topic
Hypothesis formulation: develop a hypothesis or research question
Research design: choose a research methodology and design
Data collection: gather data through various methods (e.g., surveys, interviews, experiments)
Data analysis: analyze and interpret the data
Conclusion and recommendation: draw conclusions and make recommendations
Implementation and follow-up: implement the findings and monitor the results

Primary data collection:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Experiments
- Observations
Secondary data collection:
- Published reports and articles
- Government statistics
- Company data and records
- Online databases

Descriptive statistics: summarize and describe data
Inferential statistics: make inferences about a population based on a sample
Qualitative analysis: analyze non-numerical data (e.g., text, images)
Quantitative analysis: analyze numerical data (e.g., regression, correlation)

Business research is a systematic and organized way of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information to help business organizations make better decisions.

Problem definition: identifies a business problem or opportunity
Literature review: reviews existing research and knowledge on the topic
Hypothesis formulation: develops a hypothesis or research question
Research design: chooses a research methodology and design
Data collection: gathers data through various methods
Data analysis: analyzes and interprets the data
Conclusion and recommendation: draws conclusions and makes recommendations
Implementation and follow-up: implements the findings and monitors the results

Primary data collection: uses surveys, interviews, experiments, and observations
Secondary data collection: uses published reports, government statistics, company data, and online databases

Descriptive statistics: summarizes and describes data
Inferential statistics: makes inferences about a population based on a sample
Qualitative analysis: analyzes non-numerical data
Quantitative analysis: analyzes numerical data

Cost and time constraints: affects the research process
Data quality and accuracy: impacts the reliability of results
Sampling bias and errors: influences the representativeness of the sample
Ethical considerations: includes privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent
Interpretation and generalizability of results: affects the applicability of findings