ICB - Bedfordshire

Autumn 2008

Research Methods for Business

Students

Instructor: Mark Henderson

Email: markrob.henderson@googlemail.com
 How the Classes Will be Structured

• My preferred method is to set pre-work and

reading prior to each session, and to,
• run the interactive, taught part of the
research methods course alongside an
assignment in which the students,
• plan their own piece of primary research.
Course Aims
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
The
Text
Using this book in the
second year of study
 The Nature of Business and Management Research

• Three things combine to make business and

management a distinctive focus for research:
1. The way in which managers draw on knowledge
developed by other disciplines;
2. The fact that managers tend to be powerful and busy
people: they are unlikely to allow research access
unless they can see personal or commercial
advantages;
3. The research must have some practical consequence.
Business and management
research involves
undertaking systematic
research to find out things.

It is transdisciplinary, and
engages with both theory
and practice.
 Theory and Practice
• It is generally held that business research should
complete a virtuous circle of theory and practice.
• Business and management research needs to
engage with both the world of theory and the
world of practice.
• So, the problems addressed should grow out of
interaction between these two worlds rather
than either on their own.
The Basic–Applied Continuum
 The Basic–Applied Continuum

Figure 1.1 Basic and applied research

Source: Authors’ experience, Easterby-Smith et al., 2002, Hedrick et al., 1993
The Importance of Rigour
 An Example Where Rigour was Lacking

May 12, 2006

Disgraced Korean Cloning Scientist Indicted
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea, Friday, May 12 (AP) — Prosecutors on
Friday indicted a disgraced cloning scientist on violations linked
to faked stem cell research, officials said.
The scientist, Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, and five members of his
research team were indicted, a prosecution official, Lee In Kyu,
said at a nationally televised news conference.
Dr. Hwang was hailed as a global stem cell pioneer and treated
as a national hero until investigations late last year showed that
he had fabricated key data in two papers published in the
journal Science.
He was later fired from his post as a professor at Seoul National
University, where he did his research.
The Stages of Research are Flexible
• In this course, research is represented as
a multi-stage process;
• however, this process is rarely
straightforward and will involve both
• reflecting on and revising stages already
undertaken and forward planning.
Figure 1.2 The research process
Source: © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2006
 Theory and Practice
1. Business and management research need to
provide findings that advance knowledge and
understanding.
2. It needs to address business issues and
provide a process for solving managerial
problems.
3. You may satisfy your intellectual curiosity but
you must also consider the practical
implications of your findings.
 In Class Activity

• Read chapter 1 and make notes when

answering the three self-check
questions at the end.
 In-Class Assignment
• Brainstorm two interlinked questions in
groups of four to six.
• These are the following:
1. What do you understand by the term
“research”?
2. What distinguishes business and management
research from research more generally?
Potential Purposes and Context of your Research Project

 Policies,
 Similarities,
 Differences,
 Context,
 Behavior,
 Underlying
Processes…
Figure 1.2 The research process (Continued)
Source: © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2006
http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_he_saunders_resmethbus_4/

• Chapter-by-chapter resources;
• Extra case studies;
• Tutorials and datasets;
• Test questions;
• An in-depth glossary;
• An on-line search facility;
For Next Class
Read Chapter 2.
As you read think about the following:
1. What is your proposed research topic?
2. Which of the attributes in Box 2.2 on p. 22 does your topic
possess?
3. What research questions are suggested by your research
topic?
4. What research objectives are suggested by your research
topic?
5. To what literature does your research topic relate?
6. What are the key dependent and independent variables in
your proposed study?
7. What relationship between the dependent and independent
variables do you think you will find?