Slide 1.1

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 1

Slide 1.2

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Just collecting facts or information with no clear purpose;

Reassembling and reordering facts or information without interpretation

As a term to get your product or idea noticed and respected.

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Slide 1.3

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Like any other term of social science there is no agreement in the literature on how research should be defined. It means different things to different people. Nevertheless, from the many different definitions presented, there appears to be agreement that:

Research is a process of enquiry and investigation.

It is systematic and methodical.

Research enhances knowledge (Hussey and Hussey, 1997).

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Slide 1.4

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Maylor and Blackman, (2005, p. 5) define research as, ‘A systematic process that includes defining, designing, doing and describing an investigation into a research problem.’ Having said that research subsequently includes the process of inquiry, investigation, examination and experimentation. These processes have to be carried out systematically, diligently, critically, objectively and logically. The expected end results would be to discover new facts that will help to deal with the problem situation

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Slide 1.5

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

A definition for research from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of English (Hornby, 1995) is broadly stated as ‘a careful study or investigation, especially in order to discover new facts or information.’ It is evident that all the previous definitions agree with what has been clarified by Hussey and Hussey above

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Slide 1.6

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

The specific aims of most research usually depends on what is being investigated. Nevertheless, generally speaking, the purpose of research can be summarised as follows (Hussey and Hussey, 1997):

To review and synthesise existing knowledge

To investigate some existing situation or problem

To provide a solution to a given dilemma or problem

To discover and analyse more general issues

To generate a new system To explain a new phenomenon To create a new knowledge A combination of any of the above.

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Slide 1.7

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Definition:

‘Something that people undertake in order to find things out in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge’

Saunders et al. (2009)

Characteristics:

Data are collected systematically

Data are interpreted systematically

There is a clear purpose to find things out7

Slide 1.8

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Mode one knowledge creation emphasizes research in which the questions are set and solved by the academic interests, emphasizing a fundamental rather than applied nature, where there is little if any focus on utilization of the research by practitioners.

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Slide 1.9

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Mode two emphasizes a context for research governed by the world of practice, highlights of collaboration both with and between practitioners.

Based upon this it has been argued that research within the mode two offers a way of bringing the supply side of knowledge represented by universities together with the demand sides represented by the business.

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Slide 1.10

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Knowledge production focuses on apperception of the human condition as it might become its purpose being to ‘assure survival and promote the common good at various levels of social aggregation’. This emphasizes the importance of broader issues of human relevance of research. Consequently, in addition to research that satisfies your intellectual curiosity for its own sake, the findings of business and management research might also contain practical implications, and these findings may have societal consequences far broader and complex than perhaps envisaged by mode 2.

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Slide 1.11

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Stages of the research process

Formulating and clarifying a topic

Reviewing the literature

Designing the research

Collecting data

Analysing data

Writing upBased on Figure 1.2: Saunders et al. (2009)

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Slide 1.12

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

Factors to consider

The impact of your personal feelings and beliefs

Access to data

Time and other resources

Validity and reliability of the data

Ethical issues

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Slide 1.13

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

“there is no one best way for undertaking all research”

Saunders et al. (2009)

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