SEMESTER II

BUSINESS RESEARCH
METHODS
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Session 11-13
Scales & Measurement – Attitude
Measurement- Comparative V Non-
comparative scales
Reliability & Validity Tests
Sessions 10
Case Analysis – CEC 2
SPSS
Sessions 9 SPSS Lab
Analysis & Interpretation of
output - ANOVA
Sessions 5– 8
CEC 1 Case Analysis
Assignment of Group Projects
Research Design – Experimental
Design , Validity Types - Pre , Quazi,
True & Statistical- ANOVA-
Randomized, Block, Latin Square &
Factorial (SPSS )
Sessions 14-17
Survey Research – Data Collection
Methods Questionnaire Design
Qualitative V Quantitative Methods
Observation, Indepth Interviews,
Projective Techniques (Guest Sessions
from industry experts) Mid Sem
STRUCTURE
Business Research
Methods
Semester II
Session 18
Data Preparation
Coding, Outliers,
Missing Values
Session 19-23
Multivariate Techniques –
Introduction Multiple
Regression - Testing of
goodness of fit Dummy
Variables, SPSS Lab Analysis
& Interpretation
Numericals Case Analysis
CEC 4
Session 24-28
Multivariate Techniques –
Interdependence Techniques
Factor Analysis - SPSS Lab
Analysis & Interpretation
Numericals Case Analysis

Session 29-30
CEC 5
Session 1 -4 Presentations - Projects
Introduction to Research- Meaning
& Definition, Significance, Overview Session 31-32
of Methodology . Categories of Session 33IBS Other Multivariate 3
Research, Research Types Report Writing Techniques
• “Every truth has four corners: as a
teacher I give you one corner, and it is
for you to find the other three.”
• …..Confucius

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 Session Plan
• Research
• Significance of Research
• Types of Research Basic & Applied
• Categories of Research –
– Exploratory
– Descriptive
– Causal
• Research Process

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 RESEARCH????
• Close your eyes and utter the word
“RESEARCH” to yourself…
• What do you visualise?

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 Research
• Process of finding solution to a problem after
thorough study and analysis of the situational
factors.
• Managers in organizations constantly are
engaged in studying and analysing issues …
• Thus involved in some form of research
activities in their workplace.
• Sometimes decisions are good and
sometimes not…
• Sometimes colossal blunders are committed.

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 Research
• Difference between making good decisions
and committing blunders lies in their decision
making process.
• Are the decision makers able to identify the
problem, relevant factors that need to be
investigated, type and manner of information
to be gathered , use of the gathered data,
draw conclusions to make right decisions and
implementing the results thereof.
• This is the essence of research .

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 P&G Luring Women with their
Feminine Toothpaste

• New Product Launch…

• P&G has came out with “Rejuvenating Effects” a gender specific toothpaste
targeting the female customers, who do 82% of the grocery shopping.
• The flavor and package of the product was decided on the basis of the results
from a customer survey filled out by women.
• Though the product is priced slightly higher than the other brands P&G hopes
to make women think about the toothpaste in the same light as skin care
lotions and shampoo.

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 Harley Davidson Exploring New Markets
• Problem: Flat domestic scales
• Solution:
– In 1999, Harley-Davidson started a rental program which provided a way to hook
customers on riding and thereby entice them into buying a motorcycle.
– 40 percent of those enrolled in the program were female and about 30 percent were under
the age of 35
• Result:
– Motorcycles rented went up from 401 days in 1999 to a total of 224,134 days worldwide
in 2004.
– 32 percent of rental customers surveyed bought a bike or placed an order after renting,
another 37 percent were planning to buy one within a year.
– Nearly half of the renters spent more than $100 on Harley-Davidson accessories, such as
T-shirts and gloves.

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 Customer Satisfaction Study
• HBO- Could deliver tangible insights with
regard to their four core service areas.
Using SPSS, satisfaction data in
programming, scheduling , prices were
analysed.
• Perceptions and opinions of existing
customers were clearer.

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 Launching of iPod
• Surveyed owners of portable players
made by Sony and Apple.
• SPSS was used to basic and
segmentation analysis.
• Findings were that predominantly Sony
players were being used but most of
them wanted to purchase iPod as their
next preferred product.
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 P &G and Social Media
• Sales of Procter & Gamble’s Pepto-Bismol had been
flat or declining for several years when in 2010, P&G
marketers noticed that social media chatter about the
pink indigestion reliever was occurring on Saturday
and Sunday mornings—presumably after users had
overindulged the night before.
• So P&G decided to try to lure potential customers
before their eating and drinking binges by touting the
product on Facebook with the upbeat slogan
“Celebrate Life.” The result was an 11 percent
market-share gain in the 12 months through fall 2011.
Source :Bloomberg Business Week March 2012

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 P & G and Facebook
• The company that for generations has
meticulously observed customers in their homes
as they mop floors, apply makeup, and diaper
babies is now listening to their conversations
online.
• And for good reason: The 25 to 54-year-old women
who buy the bulk of P&G’s products spend more time
on Facebook than typical users.
• “For us, the real aha! was an incredible ability to
listen to consumers much better, much faster, more
broadly,” says Alex Tosolini, P&G’s head of e-
business.
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 An Exercise
Survey before introducing I phone 11
Who would be your targeted customers?

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 What is research?
• Research means search for knowledge
– seeking through methodical processes to add to
one‘s own body of knowledge and, hopefully, to
that of others, by the discovery of nontrivial facts
and insights. The word research can be bifurcated
into two re & search. That is it can be said that it is
repetition of search, helps in harnessing of
curiosity.
– Research is finding out from the existing set of
data, something unique and converting the same
into theory or a postulate. Thus it is not simply an
increase in the individual‘s knowledge for the time
period, it is a continual process.
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 What is business research?
• Business Research is a systematic and
objective process of gathering,
recording and analysing data that
provides information to guide business
decisions.
• For students of management the study
of business research shall prove a
useful guidance to decisions which are
to be taken by them in their tenure of
work.
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 Why study Business
Research?
• Every organisation faces various operational
and planning problems .
• Research is useful to accelerate the decision
making power and alone it can make possible
the identification of determinants.
• The tools are applied effectively for studies
involving sales analysis, demand forecasting ,
product positioning, new product potential,
performance evaluation etc.
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 Why study Business
Research?
Your job as a treasurer, controller, brand
manager, product manager, marketing or
sales officer, project manager, business
analyst or consultant would involve decision
making , choosing right course of action from
many alternatives.
Systematic process of identifying problem to
implementing the right course of action is the
Research process .
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 An ART or Science?
• Business Research is an ART using
scientific and statistical tools.
• ART stands for Accurate, Relevant and
Timely information.
• Thus using data analytical tools and
software corporates have been able to
successfully tap the information into
ART.
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 Research –Significant in the
Field of Management
• Managers and Researchers should
work towards a goal- immediate or
futuristic …….

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 The Four Perspectives …..

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 Seven I’s of Research
• Identification of problem/opportunity/new
product……………..Reason for research
• Information…………..cornucopia of data…big
data… ART
• Inquisitiveness…………can we….. How why .
thinking out of the box
• Insights………….from qualitative data
• Inferences………..from quantitative data
• Interpretation……..of results thereof
• Implementation ……Result of research..
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 Three Idiots…Iconic scene
• Inquisitiveness….. And out of the box
thinking …………

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 Airtel Ad
• Insights from exploratory research

• Youth study....and the ad....

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 HDFC Standard Life
• Insights and inferences from
descriptive research
• To counter ICICI “Hum hain na”

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 Kit_Kat
• Inferences from Causal research….

• Was losing on market share ....

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 Categories of Business
Research
Basic

Applied

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 Basic Research
• Basic Research- Also called fundamental research.
• Aimed at gaining knowledge than solving a realistic problem.
• First, assumptions are made and tools are used to test the
hypotheses. Then interpretations are drawn.
• Then the general laws are made about the phenomenon.
Gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake is pure or basic
research. (Study about human behaviour or natural
mathematical related phenomenon )
• Generally used to verify already established facts and theories.
• Eg. Courses offered by B Schools that help fit gap between the
knowledge and applications at corporate world.
• Time involved is flexible
• Applied to entire business community/universally
• ABC /JIT technique of inventory management

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 Applied Research- Aid Decision Making

• Applied Research-Aimed at discovering applications

to put them in use in practice, and help in solving
problems. Choosing best amongst various
alternatives is its strategy.(Marketing research,
evaluation research)
• Specific and not general as in basic research
• Implications for immediate action
• Action oriented
• Conducted when a real life problem is to be solved
and decisions are to be taken
• Both the approaches use scientific methods in
various stages of the research process.

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 Business Research Design
• Business Design is an arrangement of conditions for
collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims
to be relevant to the research purpose with economy
in procedure.
• Broadly speaking, we can classify research designs
into the following three kinds -
• .Exploratory Research
• .Descriptive Research
• .Causal Research Conclusive
Research

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 Types of Business Research

• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Causal

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 Exploratory Research
• A chocolate manufacturer wants to
identify the ten most important variables
his consumers use to decide on
whether to buy a chocolate brand.
• A company wants to launch a new
convenience food in India. To have an
idea about the consumer preferences it
arranged a Focus Group
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 Exploratory study…The first
step
Exploratory Study –conducted to resolve
ambiguity
- Provides direction to subsequent
structured and rigorous research
-Better understanding of concept
-Researcher’s skill tested

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 Exploratory Research contd…

• Initial research conducted to clarify and define the

nature of a problem.

• Management may have discovered general problems,

but research is needed to gain better understanding of
the dimensions of the problems

• Subsequent research is expected.

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Exploratory Research Contd…
• Mostly involves qualitative investigation
• Sample not strictly representative
• Flexible

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 Expert Opinion
Focus
Comprehensive
Secondary
Case Study Survey Group
(historical) Discussions
Data

Exploratory
Research

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 Exploratory Research Techniques:
• Secondary data (historical data)
– Previously collected
– Census of population
– Literature survey
– Fast & inexpensive
– Readily available data base

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 Exploratory Research
Techniques contd…
Comprehensive Case Study :
• Focussed on single unit of analysis
• Post-hoc study
• Complete presentation of facts as they occur
• Chance of bias and subjectivity
• Eg.. Performance Appraisal System to be adopted by
a firm Take an idea from case studies of companies
adopting different appraisal systems

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 Exploratory Research
Techniques contd…
Expert Opinion Survey
• No previous information
• Valuable information from erudites
• For launching an organic product, doctors and
dieticians’ opinion could be of help
• Different experts’ opinion could be taken
– A note of caution
• Loosely structured and skewed

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IBS
 Exploratory Research Techniques
contd…
Focus Group Discussions:
• Widely used for consumer and motivational studies
• Discussions with significant individuals associated
with problem under study
• Small set ( 6 – 10)representative of larger
respondent population
• Focus Group discuss the concerned topic for around
90 minutes (may be more )
• Trained observer to manage informal non structured
discussion
• Eg : Organic product survey FGD carried out in
metros revealed awareness of organic products to
be quite low
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IBS
 Crest Ad FGD
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoZ5irNl7D4

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 BBQ Flip top Sauce
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_cUnlQ
l29Q&feature=player_detailpage

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 Exploratory Research
Techniques contd…
Tips for conducting successful FGDs
• Planning ,Recruitment – similarity and contrast; but
avoid dominants
• Moderating
Some uses:
• Insights into products and services usage
• Responses to new product and service features
• Responses to new packaging, graphics and other
elements in final delivery package
• Responses to new communication or benefit ideas
• Probing what new things the customers expect or
dream of
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IBS
 Conclusive Research
• Quantitative in nature
• Consequence of exploratory study
• More Structured
• Hypothesis Formulation

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 Conclusive Research

Descriptive

Causal

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 Descriptive Research
• Research designed to describe
characteristics of a population or a
phenomenon;

• Descriptive research seeks to determine

the answers to who, what, when, where,
and how questions.

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 Descriptive Research
• Descriptive Research : Data description
• ---Planning a promotional campaign
for high end watches
• Descriptive study generates data on
who, what, when, where and how of
luxury accessory brand purchase

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 I keep six honest serving men, (they
taught me all I knew), their names are
what, and why, and when, and how,
and where and who.”
--Rudyard Kipling

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 Descriptive Research-
Categories

Cross – sectional studies

• Specific chunk of population

Longitudinal studies
• Single sample study stretched
over a period of time
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 Descriptive Research – Cross
Sectional Studies
• Carried out on a single moment in time
• Carried out on a section of respondents from
population under study
• Relevant over the time coordinate of the
study
• Extremely useful to study current patterns of
behaviour or opinion

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 Descriptive Research –
Longitudinal Studies
• Carried out over a period of time
• Single sample of identified population
• Eg . A panel of consumers to study the
grocery purchase ( Every month/week)

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 Conclusive Research –
Causal
• Cause and Effect Relationship
• Highly structured
• Sequential Approach
• Lurking/Extraneous variables
• Quantitative in nature

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 Causal Research
• Research conducted to identify cause-and-effect
relationships among variables where the research
problem has already been narrowly defined.

• The main goal of causal research is identification of

cause-and-effect relationships between variables;

• In causal studies it is typical to have an expectation of

the relationship to be explained, such as predicting the
influence the price, packaging, advertising, and the like,
on sales.

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 Uncertainty Influences
The Type Of Research

CAUSAL OR COMPLETELY ABSOLUTE EXPLORATORY

DESCRIPTIVE CERTAIN AMBIGUITY

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 Degree of Problem Definition
Exploratory Research
(Unaware of Problem)
“Our sales are declining and
we don’t know why.”
“Would people be interested
in our new product idea?”
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Descriptive Research Causal Research
(Aware of Problem) (Problem Clearly Defined)
“What kind of people are buying “Will buyers purchase more of
our product? Who buys our our products in a new package?
competitor’s product?”
“Which of two advertising
“What features do buyers prefer campaigns is more effective?”
in our product?”
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 Decision Making
• Decision making is the process of resolving a
problem or choosing among alternative
opportunities;
• The key to decision making is to recognize the
nature of the problem/opportunity, to identify how
much information is available, and to recognize
what information is needed.
• Then develop alternative course of action and
choose the best among them.
• Finally , ensure that the action is appropriately
implemented.

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 Research type with a
• In a
difference
study for a new English daily newspaper
launched in Bangalore in the eighties, it was found
that the sales were much below expectations. A
survey was proposed. But as a complement to the
survey, the author's team at a research agency
proposed a Content Analysis of all the major dailies
in Bangalore.
• This method analysed the coverage of various
categories of news such as politics, sports, regional,
national, city-based news etc. by the client's
newspaper and the competitors.
• This gave vital insights to the publishers of the paper,
and over a period, it became successful. This is just
an example to show that sometimes unusual
research designs do pay off
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 Video …Finding Chatur
• Three Idiots…..

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 Kit Kat Diwali Marketing …

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2JusX
KwYfY&feature=player_detailpage

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 North Face Floor Disappears
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl
ayer_detailpage&v=g7CRMrR24Mo

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 Research Stages
• Cyclical process - conclusions generate
new ideas
• Stages can overlap chronologically
• Stages are functionally interrelated
– Forward linkages
– Backward linkages

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 Stages In The Research
Process
Manager’s dilemma
• Defining the research problem
• Formulating the research hypothesis
• Developing the research proposal
• Research Design Formulation
• Sampling Design
• Planning & collecting data for research
• Data refining and preparation for analysis
• Data analysis and interpretation of findings
• The research report and implications for the
manager’s dilemma
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 The Management Dilemma
• Basic V Applied
• An HR consultant wish to study work life
balance phenomenon –
• A Soft drinks manufacturer wanting to launch
fruit-based juices -

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 Problem Discovery And
Definition
First step
• Problem, opportunity, or monitor
operations
• Discovery before definition
• Problem means management problem

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 “The formulation of the problem is
often more essential than its solution”

Albert Einstein
 Hypothesis
A statement
that can be refuted
by empirical data

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 If you do not know where you are going,
you might assume that any road will take
you there

Before After

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 Research Proposal
• A written statement of the research
design that includes a statement
explaining the purpose of the study.
• Detailed outline of procedures
associated with a particular
methodology.

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 Research Design
• Master plan
• Framework for action
• Specifies methods and procedures

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 Basic Data Collection
Methods
• Surveys
• Experiments
• Secondary data
• Observation

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 Selecting a Sample

Sample: subset SAMPLE

of a larger population.

POPULATION

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 Sampling
• Who is to be sampled?
• How large a sample?
• How will sample units be selected?

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 Data Gathering Stage

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Data Processing and Analysis

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 Conclusions and Report
Writing
• Effective communication of the research
findings

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 Stages of the Research Process
Management
Dilemma

Defining Research
Problem
Research
Formulating Report
Research
Hypothesis

Data analysis
Developing Research & interpretation
Proposal

Research Data Refining

framework -Design And Preparation

Data Collection
 Recap…
• Research
• Significance of Research
• Types of Research Basic & Applied
• Categories of Research –
– Exploratory
– Descriptive
– Causal
• Research Process

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• “ By words mind gets winged”
• “By research the thoughts get
winged”

79
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 Insights?????

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 References
• 1. Business Research Methods :
Zikmund
• 2. Business Research Methods :
Cooper & Schindler
• 3.Research Methodology : Sondhi &
Chawla
• 4.Research Methods for Business :
Uma Sekharan
• 5.Research Methodology: C R Kothari
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