Business Research Techniques

Introduction

Business research techniques are severally used by the top management whenever they want to implement a new product or make a decision which needs statistical data. It is also needed for competitive business environment and application of strategic decision in an organization. The use of a reliable research is now crying needs in various levels and fields like business, academic and medicines. It is useful to the organization to make a better, reliable and qualified decision. Research includes various activities which start with the problem identification, then information collection regarding this problem and make an effective decision using the collected information through a experienced person or group of a person. There also have discussions on research methodology, research proposal, research problems, data analysis, data sources, referencing, role of ethics, preparation of research for a seminar and some constructive feedback. The following tasks are designed by the use of these elements to analyses the online shopping in the UK.

Task 2

2.1 Justify the use of research sources

Research is based on the collection of data and systematical arrangement of them to get the user beneficial by knowing the information. There are two major sources of research. They are primary and the secondary and both of them are used here.

Primary sources of research data can be the firsthand data of actual events used in a research work. They includes firsthand data, raw data and data collected from verified and non-verified sources. The primary sources of research may also include letters, original documents, surveys results, official records, and unanalyzed statistical data. The data primary data are also known as raw data because they are used to make a final information. Generally primary data are collected through the field worker of the company. Sometime the collected primary data may be incorrect so they needs to verify before they are used.

On the other hand secondary data are discussion, evaluation and analyses of primary and secondary data. Secondary data are also known as second hand data. They can be collected from online, journal, literature review and various types of magazine. They can be used in experimental sources for the purpose of justification. Someone can use both of them basis on his/her career. If he use primary data he should first set his desired destination and expected outcomes from it. If he use both of them he should remind the combination of them. If a worker is unclear about which one should best for him then he should ask his instructor to get help.

2.2 Evaluate the importance of using primary information sources

It needs carefully evaluate each research to produce an effective decision. Whether the source is online articles, journals, newspaper article and a tweet it needs always assess the source to determine it currency, relevancy, accuracy, and purpose. Primary source is one of the important source of research data. Primary information sources use data provided by the access into the past of an identified individual. It provide the data which is collected from the people during the time of their study.

Engaging Students

Primary data use the experience of a first person to make the research work. The experience of a first person make a research vivid and attractive. Primary sources also helps the student to engage in their personal events to provide deep understanding of the problem.

Developing critical thinking skills

For higher level management it is necessary to be critical thinker and developer of various conceptual analyzes. Primary sources helps the student to be practical and by this they can be critical and analytical. Primary sources are sometimes incomplete and they needs to be complete to make the research more effective.

Constructing knowledge

Researcher generally make a research based on their bookish knowledge. But sometime they needs to work out of their bookish knowledge because all the problems they face does not exist in the book. So they need to be practical and critical to solve these types of problems. They solve this kind of problem by combining their bookish and practical knowledge. Bookish knowledge plus practical knowledge give them a better outcomes.

2.3 Describe a recognised system for referencing

Referencing is, showing from where you collected the information. Researcher are usually use referencing to make the research more valid. Referencing makes a research more valid because a researchers thought and own created information cannot accepted by the authority and the people. So it needs to show from where they collected the information. So, no research can achieve reliability unless there are appropriate citations for the reference. Referencing gives the credit to actual author of the information. Even the researcher use a information of other author in his own words he should also put referencing.

There are a number of recognized systems for referencing is available. They are;

ü  APA

ü  Norma’s APA

ü  Norma’s ABNT

ü  Harvard Referencing

ü  MLA

ü  Chicago etc.

APA referencing is used the authors name or date of publication. It’s generally uses the last name of the author and the date of the publication.

Harvard Referencing system is the most used referencing system in the present world. Harvard referencing is the use of actual authors name and date of publication.

With the Harvard system its needs to include authors last name and the date of publication in the bracket when someone set referencing to a work. The way of use of the Harvard system is as follows:

ü  It is primarily discloses the name of the author and the date.

ü  In paragraph referencing it is known as ‘in text citation’

ü  Citation must be followed in the case of paragraphing.

ü  APA system and the Harvard system quite alike because APA is used in U.S.A on the other hand Harvard is used in UK and Australia.

Task 3

3.1 Present a research proposal to a defined audience utilising appropriate survey techniques

Research proposal on: a study to investigate the factors which determines the preferred stores and buying patterns of individuals and families in online shopping, in UK.

Title of the study

A study to investigate the factors which determines the preferred stores and buying patterns of individuals and families in online shopping, in UK

Background

Like other modern countries people of UK also like online shopping, people of UK do their shopping from different online shopping individually and with families to meet their fashion needs. Customer select their preferred store depending on various issues such as their past experience about the store.

Research objectives

ü  To find the factors of which affect UK online shopping.

ü  To determine the UK customers online shopping experience.

ü  To determine the factors that select preferred stores for consumers.

ü  To determine the factors that shapes buying pattern of the consumers.

ü  To determine the relationship of buying pattern with past shopping experience.

ü  To arrange recommendations.

Research philosophy

Constructivist research philosophy has been selected.

Research approaches

In this research Quantitative research approach has been used.

Research investigation

The descriptive research investigation technique has been used.

Research strategy

To conduct the study survey methodology has been used here.

Data collection

Primary data have been collected from the online articles, and secondary data have been collected from various literatures.

Sampling

Stratified sampling technique has been used, with a sample size of 100.

Data analysis

Collected data will be analyzed by using SPSS statistical tool

3.2 Discuss the role of ethics in research.

Ethics are the standard of behavior and determine an action is right or wrong. Ethics are also known as code of conduct by which a man can understand which one behavior should accept and which one should not. In research, ethics is refers to the method and procedure to determine the way to act and way to analyses complex problems and issues.

There are several reasons why it needs to maintain ethical issues in research. From them first one is promote the aim of research. Its indicate knowledge, truth and avoidance of error. For example taking a step to prohibit falsifying and misrepresenting.

Second, research is the cooperation and coordination of different types of people of different levels and different institution so ethical issues are essential for the values that are essential for collaborate work. These includes trust, mutual respect, accountability and fairness. There are many ethical issues in research such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies.

Third, many of the ethical issues represent that author should accountable to the public. For example federal policies of research, conflicts of interest etc. 

Fourth, ethical issues in research helps research to get the public support. If the people have trust about the research then they more likely to fund a research fund.

Finally, research can promote a variety of other important moral and social values as like public health and safety, social responsibility, animal right and human welfare. A decline in ethical norms can harm animal, people and social subjects.

Task 4

4.1 Prepare an extract from the research proposal appropriate to a seminar environment.

A seminar is the combination of learner and teacher to discuss what should do for a specific subject. A seminar paper is the record which consist topic of the discussion and what will said in the seminar. Seminar environment is formality maintained in a seminar.

Title

Online Shopping in the United Kingdom

Author’s Name

Name:

ID:

Department:

Date:

Abstract:

Identification of the factors which determined the preferred stores and buying patterns of individual and families in online shopping in UK.

Text

In UK, a large number of individuals and families do online shopping from various stores to meet their fashion needs. Consumer prefer these shop by the use of their past experience. They generally go to those kinds of shop from where they got better service and the quality of the product of which is better than others.

The interview method has been used for conducting this study, with a questionnaire directed to 100 samples. These samples are including consumers and online marketers.

The following result have been found after the depth analysis of the problem:

ü  There are a lot of online shop available and most them are providing quality product.

ü  There have differentiation in product in different online shops.

ü  Fashion product are now hot cake product for the online market in UK.

ü  The after buying customer service shapes the preferred stores.

ü  Previous buying experience matters a lot in shaping online shopping.

ü  Different shop follows different pricing strategy which made the shops competitive

Finally, it can be said that online shopping is being popular in UK because the sellers use a different ion on the price of the product and their feature and their post purchase service is satisfied the customer.

4.2 Provide constructive feedback on proposals presented within the seminar environment

A research proposal is a concise and summery based paper of a proposed research. It should follow the standard guidelines and procedures in order to meet up with the expected quality level. The idea for research should be more relevant because of the applicability of its to the wider audience. However, it should provide to set up a feedback of the work and all of the research work should be under control of the experience person who is a peer or from the seminar proposal committee. It is advised to the use of cloud computing service like Drop box, Google Drive and so on can be used during the presentation, which will make an effect to build a constructive feedback. The proposal presented should be clarify in a more detail manner by giving pressure on the research background rather than research significance. It is necessary to use the bibliography in a prescribe format, for example Harvard referencing style or others like APA, Norma’s APA and so on. Citations and quotations in text must need to be developed. If the presentation room is larger or not dark the presenter advised to use brighter color so that all of his audience can see the slide. He can attract his audience by providing appropriate use of gesture and posture and delivering speech in a confident way.

Conclusion

To make a research more effective and get the required information easily it requires successful use of methodologies and techniques. To make a research more successful it needs to use several types of information sources as used here internal and external sources. This study contains a number of important facts about a practical case that is online shopping in UK. In online shopping customers are mostly justify the post purchase service from the seller, so it is advised to the sellers to make sure about their service provider and their conduct with the buyers and provide the customer a better post purchase service.