Unit 1
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Fundamentals of research
◦ Meaning of research
◦ Objectives of research
◦ Significance of research
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Types of Research
Approaches to research
◦ Quantitative
◦ Qualitative
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Importance of research in management decisions
Various areas of research in business
◦What is research?
◦How to do research?
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Not information gathering
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Not transportation of facts
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Not rummaging to find out something new
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Not reading articles and books, taking notes, and writing an essay on
the notes
If we knew what it was we were doing,
it would not be called research.
Albert Einstein
If you steal from one author it's plagiarism; if you steal from
many it's research.
Wilson Mizner
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A search for the truth
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A movement from the known to the unknown
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An ORGANISED and SYSTEMATIC way of finding ANSWERS to
QUESTIONS
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A systematic process of identifying a question or problem, setting
forth a plan of action to answer the question or resolve the problem
and rigorously collecting, analyzing and interpreting data for the
purpose
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Search for knowledge
Search again and again
Scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a
specific topic
An original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge
making for its advancement
Pursuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison
and experiment
Way Of Finding
ANSWERS to QUESTIONS
A systematic process of
1. Identifying a question or problem
2. Setting forth a plan of action to answer the question or
resolve the problem
3. Rigorously collecting, analyzing and interpreting data
for the purpose
Defining and redefining problems
Identification
and
Definition of
the research
problem
BY DR. MADHUKAR DALVI
10
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The process of systematically obtaining accurate answers to
significant and pertinent questions by the use of scientific
method of gathering and interpreting information.
◦ Clover and Basley
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To gain familiarity with a particular situation or to achieve
new insights into it
To find appropriate solutions to specific problems
To collect information
To verify and test existing facts and theory
To analyze inter relationships between variables and to derive
causal explanations
To develop new tools , concepts and theories
To plan for national development
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Provides basis for govt. in making policies
Facilitates decisions of the policy maker
Collects information on the economic and social structure
Facilitates understanding of market
Facilitates understanding of operations
Determines consumer behaviour
Helps social scientists in studying social relationships
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Used to draw inference from the findings of a study or for
arriving at a conclusion
Consists of –
◦ Induction: Moving from particular to general
◦ Deduction : Moving from general to particular
Basic
Research
Applied
Research
Descriptive
Research
Historical
Research
Exploratory
Research
Experimental
Research
Ex Post
Facto
Case study
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Undertaken for the sake of knowledge without any intention to
apply it in practice
Undertaken out of intellectual curiosity
Not necessarily problem oriented
Basis of many scientific inventions
Basis of many principles
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To find solution to a real life problem requiring an action or
policy decision
It seeks immediate and practical result
It utilizes the knowledge gained in basic research to find
practically implementable solutions
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Provides factors or details of a particular event or situation
Also known as statistical research
It describes the data and characteristics about the population or
phenomenon being studied
Answers the questions who, what, when, where and how
The researcher has no control over variables
The researcher only reports what has happened or is happening
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Research based on describing past
Includes investigations like recording, analysis and interpretation of
events in the past
The generalizations and deductions are used in understanding the past,
the present and anticipate the future
Researcher is dependant on availability of documentary sources
Only compilation of chronological events is not considered research in
itself
Researcher must interpret the events that took place by pointing out
their relationship to the problem investigated
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Deals with subject about which either no information or little
information is available
Generally qualitative
Helps us to investigate a problem with a suitable hypothesis
and then testing it with tools
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Designed to assess the effects of particular variables on a
phenomenon by keeping the other variables constant or
controlled
It aims to determine whether and in what manner variables are
related to each other
Consists of a test group and a control group
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An experiment in which the researcher, rather than creating the
treatment , examines the effect of a naturally occurring
treatment after it has occurred
It is the research after the happening of the event
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An in-depth comprehensive study of a person, a social group,
an episode, a process, a situation or any other social unit
Rather than using samples and following a rigid protocol to
examine limited number of variables, case study methods
involve an in-depth , longitudinal examination of a single
instance or event : a case
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Quantitative
◦ Inferential
◦ Experimental
◦ Simulation
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Qualitative
◦ Ethnographic
◦ Phenomenological
◦ Field Research
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Applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of
quantity
Involves collecting and analyzing numerical data and applying
statistical tests
Types
◦ Inferential
◦ Experimental
◦ Simulation
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Inference is the process of trying to reach conclusions that
extend beyond the immediate data
Makes inference from specific data to general conditions
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An experiment is a study involving intervention by the
researcher
Characterized by control over the research environment
Used to assess effects of particular variables on a phenomenon
by keeping the other variables constant or controlled
Used to determine whether and in what manner variables are
related to each other
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Involves constructing an artificial environment within which
relevant information and data can be generated
Used as an alternative to lab or field observation
A model building technique
Artificially created environment not much different from
reality
Reproduces conditions of a real life situation
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Subjective assessment of attitude, opinion and behaviour
Based on researcher’s impressions
Results generated either in non quantitative form or in the form which
are not subjected to rigorous quantitative analysis
Its reliability is often questioned.
Types
◦ Ethnographic
◦ Phenomenological
◦ Field Research
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Ethno -- folk; graphy -- description;
Ethnography – partial or full description of a group
Researcher becomes part of the group he/she studies
Derived from the field of Anthropology-study of man kind
No preset limitation of what will be observed
No end point as it is a continuous process
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Used in areas such as sociology, psychology, political science
Stresses on people’s subjective experiences and interpretation
of the world
Finding our how the world is seen by others
Individuals interact with outside world through their sense
organs
They organize the world around them into phenomena based
on their perception
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Study conducted in a natural setting with minimum amount of
researcher interference
Collecting first hand information
The information thus collected is primary data
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Importance of research in management decisions
Various areas of research in business
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THANK YOU
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