Business Research Methods

[Pages:4]Business Research Methods

Second European Edition

Boris Blumberg, Donald R. Cooper and Pamela S. Schindler

McGraw-Hill Higher Education

London Boston BurrRidge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison, Wl New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogota Caracas Kuala Lumpur Lisbon Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi Santiago Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto

Preface

ix

Guided tour

xii

Technology to enhance learning and

teaching

xiv

Acknowledgements

xviii

PART 1 Essentials of Research

7

1 The nature of business and

management research

3

1.1 Why study research?

4

1.2 What is research?

7

1.3 Is research always problem-solving

based?

13

1.4 What makes good research?

15

1.5 Research philosophies

19

1.6 Understandingtheory: components

and connections

30

1.7 Propositions and hypotheses

39

1.8 Theory

44

Research Methods in Practice 1: Why

should we cooperate?

47

Summary

48

Discussion questions

49

Recommended further reading

54

2 The research process and proposal 55

2.1 The research process

56

2.2 The management question

60

2.3 From research to measurement

question

63

2.4 Research process problems

67

2.5 Designing the study

69

2.6 Resource allocation and budgets 70

2.7 Valuing research information

70

2.8 The research proposal

72

2.9 Pilot testing

74

2.10 Data collection

74

2.11 Analysis and interpretation

75

2.12 Reportingthe results

76

2.13 The research proposal in detail 76

2.14 Types of research proposal

79

2.15 Structuring the research proposal 82

2.16 Bibliography

89

2.17 Appendix

89

2.18 Evaluating the research proposal 95

Research Methods in Practice 2: Boiling

the problem down?

96

Summary

100

Discussion questions

101

Recommended further reading

105

3 Literature review

706

3.1 Aims and objectives o f a review 706

3.2 Assessment of a'good' literature

review

709

3.3 Process and Organization

7 74

3.4 Meta analaysis

735

Research Methods in Practice 3: How

do you write a literature review about

a topic that has hardly been researched? 738

Summary

145

Discussion questions

146

Recommended further reading

148

Spotlight on research 1: Advanced

searching

749

4 Ethics in business research

753

4.1 What are research ethics?

754

4.2 Ethical treatment of participants 756

4.3 Data collection in Cyberspace

767

4.4 Ethics and the Sponsor

764

4.5 Researchers and team members 766

4.6 Ethical obligations to the research

Community

767

4.7 Professional Standards

770

Research Methods in Practice 4: What

to reveal?

776

Summary

179

Discussion questions

180

Recommended further reading

184

Spotlight on research 2: Do data

warehouses challengefair play?

785

PART 2 Research Approaches

789

5 Quantitative and qualitative research 797

5.1 Qualitative and quantitative studies 797

5.2 What is research design?

795;,

Research Methods in Practice 5: Social

embeddedness as a new concept

276

Summary

218

Discussion questions

219

Recommended further reading

222

vu

DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

6 Sampling strategies: from one case

to the whole population

223

6.1 Unit of analysis

224

6.2 The nature of sampling

226

6.3 Sample versus census

232

6.4 Types of sample design

233

6.5 Steps in sampling design

236

6.6 Complex probability sampling

242

6.7 Non-probability sampling

250

6.8 Sampling on the Internet

255

Research Methods in Practice 6:

Purposive sampling

257

Summary

259

Discussion questions

261

Recommended further reading

264

Spotlight on research 3: Applying

concepts

266

7 Survey research

276

7.1 Characteristics of the

communication approach

276

7.2 Choosing a communication

method

281

7.3 Personal interviewing

281

7.4 Telephone interviewing

294

7.5 Self-administered surveys

297

7.6 Web-based surveys

303

7.7 Selecting an optimal method

306

7.8 Outsourcing survey Services

306

Research Methods in Practice 7:

Combining written surveys and

interviews

307

Summary

309

Discussion questions

310

Recommended further reading

314

8 Secondary data and archival sources 375

8.1 Secondary data

375

8.2 Sources of secondary data

327

8.3 How to use secondary data

efficiently

325

8.4 Secondary data in qualitative

research

328

8.5 Data-mining

329

Research Methods in Practice 8:

Digging contract and other archives 337

Summary

339

Discussion questions

339

Recommended further reading

342

9 Observations, content analysis, action

and ethnographic research

343

9.1 The uses of Observation

344

9.2 Evaluation of the observational

method

349

9.3 The observer-participant

relationship

350

9.4 Conducting an observational study 352

9.5 Designing an observational study 358

9.6 Content analysis

367

9.7 Narrative analysis

364

9.8 Action research

365

9.9 Ethnographic studies

366

Research Methods in Practice 9:

Observing cooperative behaviour

367

Summary

369

Discussion questions

370

Recommended further reading

373

10 Case studies and qualitative

interviews

374

10.1 Case studies

374

10.2 Qualitative interviews

385

Research Methods in Practice 10:

Could we have done a case study?

397

Summary

393

Discussion questions

393

Recommended further reading

394

11 Experimentation

395

11.1 What is experimentation?

395

11.2 An evaluation of experiments 397

11.3 Conducting an experiment

398

11.4 Validity in experimentation

403

11.5 Experimental research designs 407

Research Methods in Practice 11:

Trust games

425

Summary

427

Discussion questions

428

Recommended further reading

431

Spotlight on research 4: a job-

enrichment quasi-experiment

432

PART 3 Research Instruments

435

12 Measurement and scales

437

12.1 The nature of measurement

438

12.2 Data types

439

12.3 Sources of measurement

differences

445

12.4 Characteristics ofsound

measurement

447

12.5 The nature of measurement scales 460

12.6 Response methods

463

12.7 Measurement scale construction 473

DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

Research Methods in Practice 12:

Measuring contracts and uncertainty 485

Summary

488

Discussion questions

490

Recommended further reading

496

Spotlight on research 5: Measuring

job satisfaction

497

13 Fieldwork: questionnaires and

responses

502

13.1 Developing the instrument design

strategy

503

13.2 The management research

question hierarchy revisited:

phase 1

503

13.3 Constructing and refining the

measurement questions: phase 2 507

13.4 Question content

510

13.5 Response strategy

520

13.6 Sources ofexisting questions

529

13.7 Drafting and refining the

instrument: phase 3

530

Research Methods in Practice 13

541

Summary

547

Discussion questions

548

Recommended further reading

552

14 Writing up and presenting research

outcomes

554

14.1 The written research report

555

14.2 Research report components

558

14.3 Writing the report

568

14.4 Presentation considerations

575

14.5 Oral presentations

584

Research Methods in Practice 14

591

Summary

593

Discussion questions

594

Recommended further reading

596

Cases

597

1 A G E M o f a study

599

2 Can this study be saved?

603

3 Inquiring minds want to know -

NOW!

605

4 Highland Bank: teeing-up a new

Strategie direction

612

5 Ramada demonstrates its personal

best

627

6 Women getting Equal in public

Services

630

Appendices

633

A Core business reference sources,

printed and electronic

635

B Decision theory problem

648

C Sample Student term projeet

656

D Non-parametric significance tests 665

E Selected Statistical tables

674

Index

PART 4 Statistical Background

(on CD-Rom only)

687

15 Data preparation and description 689

15.1 Introduction

690

15.2 Editing

690

15.3 Useful rulesfor editing

692

15.4 Dataentry

703

15.5 Descriptive Statistical summaries 707

Summary

714

Discussion questions

715

Recommended further reading

717

16 Exploring, displaying and examining

data

778

16.1 Introduction

778

16.2 Exploratory data analysis

779

Summary

735

Discussion questions

736

Recommended further reading

740

Hypothesis testing

747

17.1 Introduction

742

17.2 Hypothesis testing

742

17.3 Statistical testing procedures

751

17.4 Tests of significance

753

Summary

782

Discussion questions

783

Recommended further reading

788

Measures of association

789

18.1 Introduction

790

18.2 Bivariate correlation analysis

791

18.3 Non-parametric measures of

association

812

Summary

821

Discussion questions

822

Recommended further reading

827

Multivariate analysis: an overview 828

19.1 Introduction

828

19.2 Selecting a multivariate

technique

829

19.3 Dependency techniques

832

19.4 Interdependency techniques

854

Summary

867

Discussion questions

868

Recommended further reading

871

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