Unit 1

 Fundamentals of research ◦ Meaning of research ◦ Objectives of research ◦ Significance of research  Types of Research  Approaches to research ◦ Quantitative ◦ Qualitative  Importance of research in management decisions  Various areas of research in business

◦ What is research? ◦ How to do research?

 Not information gathering  Not transportation of facts  Not rummaging to find out something new  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 Wilson Mizner

 A search for the truth  A movement from the known to the unknown  An ORGANISED and SYSTEMATIC way of finding ANSWERS to QUESTIONS  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

 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

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 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 A systematic process of

Defining and redefining problems Identification and Definition of the research problem 10BY DR. MADHUKAR DALVI

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 Quantitative ◦ Inferential ◦ Experimental ◦ Simulation  Qualitative ◦ Ethnographic ◦ Phenomenological ◦ Field Research

 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

 Inference is the process of trying to reach conclusions that extend beyond the immediate data  Makes inference from specific data to general conditions

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

 Study conducted in a natural setting with minimum amount of researcher interference  Collecting first hand information  The information thus collected is primary data

 Importance of research in management decisions  Various areas of research in business  THANK YOU