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Chapter Three

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

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The Management-ResearchQuestion Hierarchy

Management Dilemma

Measurement QuestionsInvestigative Questions

Research Questions

Management Questions

Management Decision

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Working with the Hierarchy• Management Dilemma– The symptom of an actual problem–Not difficult to identify a dilemma, however

choosing one to focus on may be difficult

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Working with the Hierarchy• Management Question Categories–Choice of purposes or objective–Generation and evaluation of solutions– Troubleshooting or control situation

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Working with the Hierarchy• Fine tune the research question– Examine concepts and constructs – Break research questions into specific second-and-

third-level questions– Verify hypotheses with quality tests– Determine what evidence answers the various

questions and hypothesis– Set the scope of your study

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Working with the Hierarchy• Investigative Questions–Questions the researcher must answer to

satisfactorily arrive at a conclusion about the research question

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Working with the Hierarchy• Measurement Questions– The questions we actually ask or extract

from respondents

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Other Processes in the Hierarchy• Exploration–Recent developments–Predictions by informed figures about the

prospects of the technology– Identification of those involved in the area–Accounts of successful ventures and failures

by others in the field

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Research Process Problems• The Favored Technique Syndrome• Company Database Strip-Mining• Unresearchable Questions• Ill-Defined Management Problems• Politically Motivated Research

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Designing the Study• Select a research design from the large variety

of methods, techniques, procedures, protocols, and sampling plans

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Resource Allocation & Budgets• Guides to plan a budget– Project planning– Data gathering– Analysis, interpretation, and reporting

• Types of budgeting– Rule-of-thumb– Departmental or functional area– Task

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Evaluation Methods• Ex Post Facto Evaluation • Prior Evaluation• Option Analysis• Decision Theory

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Contents of a Research Proposal• Statement of the research question• Brief description of research methodology• Pilot Testing• Data collection• Data preparation• Data analysis and interpretation• Research reporting

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Data Collection• Characterized by– abstractness– verifiability– elusiveness– closeness to the phenomenon

• Types– Secondary data– Primary data

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Final Steps in Research• Data analysis• Reporting the results– Executive summary–Overview of the research– Implementation strategies for the

recommendations– Technical appendix