The Research Process - Overview of the Research Process
The Research Process - Overview of the Research Process
Research studies evolve through a series of steps, each representing the answer to a key question:
1. Why should we do research? This establishes the research purpose, as seen by the management team that will be using the results. This step requires understanding the decisions to be made and the problems or opportunities to be diagnosed.
2. What research should be done? Here the management purpose is translated into objectives that tell the researchers exactly what questions need to be answered by the research study or project.
3. Is it worth doing the research? The decision has to be made here on whether the value of the information that will likely be obtained is going to be greater than the cost of collecting it.
4. How should the research be designed to achieve the research objectives? Design issues include the choice of research approach—reliance on secondary data versus conducting a survey or experiment—and the specifics of how to collect the data.
ter 3 deals with how to approach these issues.
5. What will we do with the research? Once the data have been
collected, how will it be analyzed, interpreted, and used to make
recommendations for action?
The development of a research purpose that links the research to decision making and the formulation of research objectives that serve to guide the research are unquestionably the most important steps in the research process. If they are right, then the research stands a good chance of being both useful and appropriate. If they are bypassed or wrong, the research almost surely will be wasteful and irrelevant. These aspects of research, too often neglected by researchers, will be discussed in detail in this chapter.
The necessary steps are linked in a sequential process shown in Figure 2-1. While the steps usually occur in this general order we must emphasize that "early" decisions are always made by looking ahead to "later" decisions. The early decisions are constantly being modified to account for new insights and possibilities presented by later decisions. Also, the steps don't function in isolation. Rather, they are embedded in the ongoing planning process of the business that culminates in the development of strategies, programs, and action. This planning process provides the purposes of the research. In turn, planning is supported by the information system, which (1) anticipates the type of information required by decision makers, and (2) organizes data that have been collected to ensure its availability when needed.
Research studies evolve through a series of steps, each representing the answer to a key question:
1. Why should we do research? This establishes the research purpose, as seen by the management team that will be using the results. This step requires understanding the decisions to be made and the problems or opportunities to be diagnosed.
2. What research should be done? Here the management purpose is translated into objectives that tell the researchers exactly what questions need to be answered by the research study or project.
3. Is it worth doing the research? The decision has to be made here on whether the value of the information that will likely be obtained is going to be greater than the cost of collecting it.
4. How should the research be designed to achieve the research objectives? Design issues include the choice of research approach—reliance on secondary data versus conducting a survey or experiment—and the specifics of how to collect the data.
ter 3 deals with how to approach these issues.
5. What will we do with the research? Once the data have been
collected, how will it be analyzed, interpreted, and used to make
recommendations for action?
The development of a research purpose that links the research to decision making and the formulation of research objectives that serve to guide the research are unquestionably the most important steps in the research process. If they are right, then the research stands a good chance of being both useful and appropriate. If they are bypassed or wrong, the research almost surely will be wasteful and irrelevant. These aspects of research, too often neglected by researchers, will be discussed in detail in this chapter.
The necessary steps are linked in a sequential process shown in Figure 2-1. While the steps usually occur in this general order we must emphasize that "early" decisions are always made by looking ahead to "later" decisions. The early decisions are constantly being modified to account for new insights and possibilities presented by later decisions. Also, the steps don't function in isolation. Rather, they are embedded in the ongoing planning process of the business that culminates in the development of strategies, programs, and action. This planning process provides the purposes of the research. In turn, planning is supported by the information system, which (1) anticipates the type of information required by decision makers, and (2) organizes data that have been collected to ensure its availability when needed.
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