Research Methods in Business

(Code: PG19)
PGDM (BATCH: 2018-20, TERM: III)

By: Harsh Pratap Singh

 About the Course
This course introduces students to the philosophy of research in the
business/management field, including both qualitative and quantitative
methods. It covers the research process and introduces students to the
statistical packages SPSS & MS Excel for data analysis.

It provides a knowledge of how to;

– Decide on business research design options
– Determine Methodologies and analysis methods (both qualitative
and quantitative),
– Implement and evaluation of a research project

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 Why is this Subject Important?
• Research is an integral part of business. This course is highly
recommended for students contemplating postgraduate study in
management or senior managerial roles in business to take following
decisions.
– Testing of new products.
– Guaranteeing adequate distribution
– Studying the competition
– Measuring advertising effectiveness
• This Subject is also provide a useful insight to students for their
Summer internship and Dissertation Reports
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 Course objectives
• The main objective of this course is to make students acquainted
with the different aspects of business research.
• After completion of course, students should be able to:
– Clearly identify and analyze business problems and identify appropriate and
effective ways to answer those problems
– Formulate clearly defined research questions
– Understand and apply the major types of research designs
– Analyze and summarize key issues and themes from existing literature
– Evaluate and conduct research
– Understand the ethical issues associated with business research
– Be able to formulate and present effective research reports

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 What are We Going to Learn?

The course has been divided into five units;

– Unit 1: Introduction to Business Research
– Unit 2: Research Design
– Unit 3: Sampling Concepts and Principles
– Unit 3: Data Analysis Techniques using SPSS
– Unit-5: Advanced Data Analysis using SPSS

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 Teaching Pedagogy
• Lectures
• Lab Sessions
• Mini Projects
• Team Presentation
• Group Discussion
• Research Proposal Preparation & Questionnaire Designing
• Master Thesis Discussion
• Quiz
• Discussion on Research Job Profile & Skill Requirements

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Market Research Analyst Career Path in
India?
• Research Associate Key Skills
• Research Analyst • Analytical skills
• Senior Research Analyst • Communication skills
• Team Lead / Lead Analyst • Critical-thinking skills
• Research Manager • Detail oriented
• Senior Research Manager
• Associate Director Major Teams in Research
• Director • Research team
• AVP • Data team
• VP • Field team
• Sr. VP
• Junior Partner
• Partner etc.

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 Major Job Responsibility
• meeting and liaising with clients to negotiate and agree research projects
• preparing briefs and commissioning research
• formulating plans or proposals to present to your client or senior management
• writing and managing the distribution of surveys and questionnaires
• briefing interviewers and researchers
• liaising with and managing survey staff
• moderating focus groups
• undertaking ethnographic research (observing people in their homes and other
environments)
• conducting qualitative or quantitative surveys, which may involve field, interview or focus
group assessments
• using statistical software to manage and organise information
• monitoring the progress of research projects
• analysing and interpreting data to identify patterns and solutions, including surveys and
focus group transcripts
• writing detailed reports and presenting results
• advising clients or senior management on how to best use research findings
• managing budgets.
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 Teaching Pedagogy
• Lectures will be extensively interactive and students are
requested to be updated about recent industry developments
through news feeds / journals.

• Lab Sessions will be conducted to give students hands on

experience on Data Analysis with the help of SPSS and MS
Excel

• Class Activities/Quiz: These activities mainly includes cross

word puzzle

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 Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
• Mini Projects:
Project 1: You are the brand manager for a shampoo brand in the market. You wish
to conduct a research to find out what is the current perception of customers about
your brand and other brands. You also want to know that what are the most
important factors buyers consider while buying a brand of shampoo. The decision
you will take based on above research are
– Whether to reposition your brand
– Whether to launch line extension of the current shampoo brand.
– Whether to launch new brand of shampoo.
Write a brief research proposal to a leading marketing agency,
describing your proposed research

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 Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
• Project 2: Design a questionnaire for a soft drink manufacturer who
wants to know the followings:
– Demographic profile of users V/s non users of soft drink
– Among users
• The preference for liquid concentration versus powder
• Occasion of use by self
• Whether served to guest
• Rating on convenience, taste, prices and availability
• Brand preference among soft drinks.
– Among non users
– Reasons for not using soft drink
– Substitute product used

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 Teaching
Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
Pedagogy (Conti..)
Project 3:
Given below the various objectives for marketing research
projects. For each objective, specify the type(s) of primary data
that would be needed along with a possible method of data
collection.
– Assess “People flow” patterns inside a shopping mall
– Gauge the effectiveness of a new advertisement.
– Gauge a salesperson’s potential for success.
– Discover how people feel about a new package design.

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 Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
• Topics of Presentations: A team of six students has to prepare
a draft research proposal for research problems pertaining to
any Marketing, Human Resources and Financial issues and
finally give a team presentation on the same. Tentative research
topics are as below;

– A study of corporate social responsibility practices in banking sector

– A survey of financial literacy among individual investors in India
– Assessing service quality in commercial banks
– Study of capital structure and its impact on firm value of BSE listed companies
– A comparison of the effectiveness of banner advertising on different social
media networks?

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 Teaching Pedagogy
Conti… (Conti..)
• Study of challenges faced by small companies in adopting social media
marketing.
• Study of customers’ perceptions towards green marketing
• Effect of advertisements on children with special reference to confectionary
products
• Effect of corporate social responsibility on brand equity of automobile
companies?
• A study of gap analysis of services offered in retail banking
• Study of working capital management practices adopted by Indian SMEs

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 Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
• Group Discussion Topics: Group discussions will be conducted on
Scenario based Discussion Questions. A scenario in the form of case will be given
to students in advance along with discussion questions. List of Case Based
Scenarios are as below;
Case 1: Relationship between Stress and Smoking
– Discussion Question: Based on the research objective in case, what type of
research design will be best suited and why?
Case 2: Role of Supervisor and organization policy in employees’ Satisfaction
– Discussion Question: What measurement scale can be best explain the each
variables used in the study.
• Case 3: Factor affecting Consumption of Biscuits
– Discussion Question: Does the questionnaire in the case have a proper
sequence of question. Do you find some ambiguity in any question?

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 Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
• Case 4: Employees’ Satisfaction in Departmental Store
– Discussion Question: What is the rationale of using a sample for this study? Is
decision to use a two stage proportional sampling justified?

• Case 5: Nike: Associating Athletes, Performance, and the Brand

– Discussion Question: How can qualitative research be used to strengthen
Nike’s Image? Which qualitative research technique should be used and why?

• Case 6: Mayo Clinic: Staying Healthy with Marketing Research

– Discussion Question: Define the market research problem corresponding to
case. What type of research design should be adopted and why?

• Case 7: National Football League: The King of Sport

– Discussion Question: What type of research design would you recommend for
investigating the marketing research problem?
•
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 Teaching Pedagogy (Conti..)
• Case Studies:
– Case 1: Consumer perception of high end IT education
– Case 2: Casual Clothing Preference of youth
– Case 3: Product Placement in Bollywood
– Case 4: Market analysis of BPL
– Case 5: Internet Advertising and your Brain
– Case 6: Procter & Gamble: using Marketing research to build Brand
– Case 7: The online Grocery Competition

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 Resources
• Text Books:
Mishra, P. “ Research Methods in Business” Oxford University Press
• Reference Books:
– Malhotra, N.K & Dash, S. “Marketing Research an Applied Orentation” Pearson Education
– Field, A. (2009). “Discovering statistics using SPSS”. Sage Publications.
– Cooper, D. R., Schindler, P. S., & Sun, J. (2006). “Business Research Methods (Vol. 9). New York:
McGraw-Hill Irwin.
– Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). “Business Research Methods” Oxford University Press, USA.

• Magazines:
– Research World Magazine

• Journals:
– Journal of Indian Business Research
– Global Business Reviews
– Indian Business Journal

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 Assessment

S.No. Activity Marks

1 Case Study Analysis with Group Discussion 10
Mini Projects 5
2 Quiz/class Activity 5
3 Team Presentation 10
4 Mid Term Examination 20
5 End Term Examination 50

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