1. BUSINESS RESEARCH SKILLS
BUS-141- Dr Tamas Lestar

2. In teams WE DISCUSS WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO LEARN in this module
Learning outcomes
STUDENTS’ expectations (write on blackboard)
Lecturer’s expectations

3. Introduction to Social Scientific Research, Business Research
Why study business research?
The researcher and their assumptions!
Scientific paradigms. Positivist and Interpretivist.
Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology.
Research aims and questions.
Research ethics.

6. INTERPRETIVISM

11. Ontology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of existence.
Belief/Assumption: What is out there (reality)?

13. Epistemology is the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity
Brief aim: What is the source of knowledge? How can we obtain knowledge.

16. WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS OCCUR IN A BUSINESS AND ORGANISATIONAL ENVIRONMENT?
EXAMPLES
Return on Investment
Restaurant (why waiters leave? Atmosphere changes…)
Trends. Should a company follow trends? (for example in supplying certain types of foods)
Or NOT FINANCIAL REASONS, E.G. EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION…
Etc.

17. Technological connectivity
WHAT MAKES RESEARCH AN IMPORTANT PATH TO PURSUE?
Information overload
Technological connectivity
Increasingly critical scrutiny of big business
Continiued….

18. WHAT MAKES RESEARCH AN IMPORTANT PATH TO PURSUE?
Shifting global centres of economic activity and competition
More government intervention
Battle for analytical talent
Greater computing power and speed
New perspectives on established research methodologies.
To do well in such an environment, you will need to understand how to identify quality information and to recognize the solid, reliable research on which your high-risk managerial decisions can be based.

19. Recently a group of research clients participated in a Green Book
Client Perspective of Consultancy Skills Needed to Be an Effective Researcher
Recently a group of research clients participated in a Green Book
blog about researchers consultancy skill needs. Here is what
they shared.
• Researchers need to think strategically. Insights
are ultimately about strategy—spelling out implications and recommendations, highlighting opportunities, and describing how business decision makers might use them.
• Researchers need to be insights- and action specialists.
Researchers need to think like business decision makers, delivering concrete, call-to-action
insights. The insights and recommendations need to reflect an understanding of the rapidly changing contexts and landscapes that the business faces—nimble, flexible, proactive, and forward thinking.
Continued….

20. Client Perspective of Consultancy Skills Needed to Be an Effective Researcher
• Researchers need to challenge decision makers.
Insights need to be bold, provocative. Business decision
makers are looking for solutions, direction.
• Researchers need to advocate. Researchers need to
tell a story, engage an audience, inspire and impassion
business decision makers to action. They should learn
to become as comfortable using the word should as
the word could. Advocacy is fact-supported beliefs, not
ambivalence

21. Hierarchy of Information-Based Decision Makers
Successful organisations increasingly use business research

23. Two types of Business Research
1. Action research Responds to problems and seeks solutions. Immediate. For example: A specific company loses its managerial workers. Why?
2. Pure research (Basic research) No direct relevance to immediate practical problems, performance or solutions. To obtain new knowledge. For example: The emotional aspects of company mergers and acquisitions.

24. What is good research? GOOD RESEARCH
generates dependable data that are derived by professionally conducted practices
can be used reliably for decision making
follows the standards of scientific method: systematic, empirically based
procedures for generating replicable research.

25. CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Purpose clearly defined
Research process detailed
Research design thoroughly planned.
High ethical standards applied
Limitations frankly revealed
Adequate analysis for decision maker’s needs
Findings presented unambiguously
Conclusions justified
Researcher’s experience reflected

26. TYPES OF RESEARCH STUDIES (P. 18)
REPORTING
DESCRIPTIVE
EXPLANATORY
PREDICTIVE
(In class we read four different management dilemmas to represent the above cases. Page Or plan other case study activities, e.g. VIDEO case studies)

28. IN TEAMS WE DISCUSS WHAT THESE 7 Steps mAY INCLUDE EACH TEAM REPORTS ON ONE of the STEPS