Text 1. Business research

During the last two decades, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the business environment. Emerging from a historically economic role, the business organisation has evolved in response to the social and political mandates of national public policy, explosive technology growth and continuing innovations in global communica­tions. These changes have created new knowledge needs for the manager and publics to consider when evaluating any decision. Other knowledge demands have arisen from problems with mergers, trade policies, protected markets, technology transfers and macroeconomic savings-investment issues.

The study of research methods provides you with the knowledge and skills you need to solve the problems and meet the challenges of a fast-paced decision-making environment. The problem or opportunity that requires a management decision is called a management dilemma. Three factors stimulate an interest in a scientific approach to decision making:

· Managers increased need for more and better information.

· Availability of improved techniques and tools to meet this need.

· Resulting information overload if discipline is not employed in the process.

Research is any organised inquiry carried out to provide information for solving problems. Business research is a systematic inquiry that provides information to guide business decisions. This includes reporting, descriptive, explanatory and predictive studies.

At the most elementary level, a reporting study may be made only to provide an account or summation of some data or to generate some statistics. At other times, when the information may be difficult to find, a reporting study calls for knowledge and skills with information sources and gatekeepers of information sources. Such a study usually requires little inference or conclusion drawing.

The second study, a descriptive one, tries to discover the answers to the questions who, what, when, where and sometimes, how. Researchers attempt to describe or define a subject often by creating a profile of a group of problems, people or events. Such study may involve collection of data and creation of distribution of quantity of a single event or characteristic observation made by a researcher (known as research variable) or they may involve relating the interaction of two or more variables.

The other two types are grounded in theory and theory is created to answer why and how questions. An explanatory study goes beyond description and attempts to explain the reasons for the phenomenon that the descriptive study only observed. The researcher uses theories or at least hypotheses to account for the forces that caused a certain phenomenon to occur. In business research, prediction is found in studies conducted to evaluate specific courses of action or to forecast current and future values.

What characterises good research? Generally, one expects good research to be purposeful, with a clearly defined focus and plausible goals, with defensible, ethical and repeatable procedures and with evidence of objectivity. The reporting of the procedures – their strengths and weaknesses – should be complete and honest. Appropriate analytical techniques should be used; conclusions drawn should be limited to those clearly justified by the findings; and reports of findings and conclusions should be clearly presented and profes­sional in tone, language and appearance. Manager should always choose an investigator who has an established reputation for a quality work. The research objective and its benefits should be weighed against potentially adverse effects. These criteria provide an excellent summary of what is desirable in decision oriented research.

As it has already been stressed, research originates in the decision process. The sequence of the research process is dominated by dilemma-centred emphasis namely, the problem’s origin, selection, statement, exploration and refinement. To be researchable, a problem should be a subject to observation or other forms of empirical data collection.

The way the research question is structured sets the direction for the project. A management problem or opportunity can be formulated as a hierarchical sequence of questions. The management dilemma is at the most general level. This is translated into a research question which is the major objective of the study. In turn, the research question is further expanded into investigative question. These questions present the various facets of the problem to be solved and they influence research design, including design strategy, data collection planning and sampling. At the most specific level measurement questions are answered by respondents in a survey or answered about each subject in an observational study.

Exploration of the problem is accomplished through familiarisation with the available literature, interviews with experts, focus groups or some combination of these. Revision of the management or research questions is a desirable outcome of exploration and enhances the researcher’s under­standing of the options available for developing a successful design. Decisions concerning the type of study, the means of data collection, measurement and sampling plans must be made when planning the design.

Pilot tests are conducted to detect weaknesses in the study’s design, data collection instruments and procedures. Once the researcher is sure that the plan is sound, data collection begins. Data are collected, edited, coded and prepared for analysis. Thus, data analysis involves reduction, summarisation, pattern examination and the statistical evaluation of hypotheses. A written report describing the study’s findings is used to transmit the results and recommendations to the intended decision maker.

At the minimum, a research report should contain the following:

· An executive summary consisting of a synopsis of the problem, findings and recommendations.

· An overview of the research: the problem’s background, literature summary, methods and procedures and conclusions.

· A section on implementation strategies for the recommendations.

· A technical appendix with all the materials necessary to replicate the project.

The above mentioned sequence of the research process may or may not be followed, but the most essential thing in order to succeed in the research enterprise is a thorough understanding of the management question.

Task 25. Translate the sentences into English:

1. Дослідження – це будь-який організований запит, спрямований на отримання інформації, необхідної для вирішення проблеми. 2. Рес­понденти відповідають на запитання під час опитування. 3. Опи­сання етапів дослідження, їхніх переваг та недоліків, повинно бути повним та чесним. 4. Опитування – це збирання первинних даних. 5. Найважливішою запорукою успішного дос­лідження є чітке розу­міння проблем управління. 6. Аналіз даних охоплює скорочення, підсумовування, дослідження прикладів та статистичну оцінку гіпотез. 7. Дослідження проблеми розпочинається з ознайомлення із наявними даними. 8. Під час вирішення дилеми особлива увага при­діляється послідовності виконання дослідження. 9. Доступність новітніх технологій та інструментів сприяє застосуванню наукового підходу до вирішення проблеми. 10. Кожне дослідження передбачає визначення мети, завдань, інструментарію для їхнього виконання та очікуваних результатів. 11. Фінансовий аналіз сприяє удосконаленню роботи компанії, оскільки дає можливість проаналізувати позитивне та негативне в діяльності фірми. 12. Для здійснення дослі­дження необхідно зібрати дані та проаналізувати їх. 13. Опитування споживачів допомагає визначити їхні уподобання та смаки. 14. Кожен вид дослідження має певні переваги та недоліки. 15. Для здійснення дослідження необхідно використовувати кілька незалеж­них джерел інформації.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13