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RCH 353

Business Research Methods

TU BITM · Semester 6 · BITM curriculum and programme regulation

Requirement
required
Credits
3
Study Guide
6 units available

Chapter notes

Authoritative study guide across 6 syllabus units

Open a unit to read its study notes.

Unit 1: Introduction· 8 LHs· ~10 marks

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Part 1: Core Concepts (2 Marks)

Academic Definition of Business Research

According to William G. Zikmund, “Business research is defined as the systematic and objective process of gathering, recording, and analyzing data for decision making across business disciplines.”

According to Uma Sekaran and Roger Bougie, “Business research is an organized, systematic, data-based, critical, objective, scientific inquiry or investigation into a specific problem, undertaken with the purpose of finding answers or solutions to it.”

The Eight Hallmarks of Scientific Research

  1. Purposiveness: The inquiry begins with a clear, unambiguous, focused objective and practical target.
  2. Rigor: Adherence to a scrupulous, methodologically sound theoretical and empirical design.
  3. Testability: Developing empirical hypotheses that can be statistically tested and confirmed or disproved.
  4. Replicability: Research procedures and instruments are documented such that another researcher replicating the study yields concordant results.
  5. Precision and Confidence: Precision reflects closeness of findings to physical reality based on sample errors; confidence reflects the probability that estimations are correct (95%95\% or 99%99\% confidence level).
  6. Objectivity: Conclusions are drawn strictly from hard empirical data interpretation rather than personal, emotional, or ideological bias.
  7. Generalizability: The extent to which empirical findings from a sample are applicable across the broader population, setting, or industry.
  8. Parsimony: Explaining complex organizational phenomena with the simplest, most elegant theoretical model containing the fewest necessary variables (Occam’s Razor).

Part 2: Structural Frameworks (10 Marks)

1. The Eight-Stage Scientific Research Lifecycle

THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH LIFECYCLE

  1. BROAD PROBLEM ORIENTATION: Observing symptoms & gaps
  2. PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW: Theoretical background
  3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK & HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION
  4. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH DESIGN: Strategy, sample, timing
  5. MEASUREMENT & SCALING: Operationalizing variables
  6. EMPIRICAL DATA COLLECTION: Surveys, interviews, panels
  7. STATISTICAL DATA ANALYSIS: Testing H0H_0, regressions
  8. REPORT DRAFTING & EXECUTIVE PRESENTATION: Actionable

2. Paradigmatic Epistemological Foundations

POSITIVIST PARADIGM INTERPRETIVIST PARADIGM
• Reality is objective, • Reality is socially
external, and singular constructed, multiple, and
• Researcher is detached, context-dependent
independent, and neutral • Researcher interacts with
• Employs deductive logic participants (empathy)
testing prior hypotheses • Employs inductive logic to
• Relies on quantitative, generate emergent theory
measurable, numeric data • Relies on qualitative text,
• Seeks universal laws and meanings, narratives, and
causal generalizations in-depth case studies

Part 3: Distinction Tables

Basis of Comparison Basic / Pure / Fundamental Research Applied Research
Primary Motivation Expanding the boundaries of human knowledge and theoretical insight Solving an immediate, pressing, real-world operational problem
Context Academic institutions, specialized scientific laboratories Corporate enterprises, government agencies, factory floors
Temporal Horizon Long-term payoff; direct commercial utility may take decades Immediate short-term actionable execution
Hypothesis Testing Focuses on testing, refining, or establishing universal laws Focuses on contextual problem resolution within a specific firm
Classic Example Developing an abstract mathematical theory of organizational equilibrium Investigating why employee turnover at Pokhara branch spiked 35% in Q3
Commercial Value Indirect; serves as foundational scientific bedrock Direct, measurable financial ROI through cost reduction or sales

Part 4: Worked Problems & Exam Traps

Methodological Epistemology Archetype: Resolving Research Paradigm Mismatch

Scenario: A retail conglomerate in Kathmandu wants to understand why its luxury lifestyle brand is rejected by rural Gen-Z consumers. The research manager intends to distribute a structured 5-point Likert scale postal questionnaire to 1,000 rural youth who have never seen the brand. Critique this approach and propose a methodologically sound paradigm.

Critical Methodological Analysis:

  1. The Flaw: The manager applies a rigid Positivist / Quantitative instrument to a deeply contextual, exploratory socio-cultural phenomenon where the underlying cultural perceptions and subconscious meanings are completely unknown.
  2. Methodological Failure: Standardized closed-ended questionnaires force respondents into artificial categories, yielding invalid, shallow data.
  3. Recommended Paradigm Shift: Shift to an Interpretivist / Qualitative Exploratory Design:
    • Conduct In-Depth Phenomenological Interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with rural youth to understand their cultural identity, social status markers, and perceived brand barriers.
    • Use the qualitative findings to construct grounded insights before deploying any quantitative confirmation surveys.

Exam Trap: Do not confuse Replicability with Generalizability. Replicability means another researcher repeating your exact study steps with identical methods will find identical results. Generalizability means the findings from your study apply validly to other organizations, industries, or populations outside your immediate sample.