About the authors.
Preface.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH.
What is research?
Business research.
Definition of business research.
Research and the manager.
Types of business research: applied and basic.
Applied research.
Basic or fundamental research.
Managers and research.
The manager and the consultant?researcher.
The manager?researcher relationship.
Internal versus external consultants/researchers.
Internal consultants/researchers.
External consultants/researchers.
Knowledge about research and managerial effectiveness.
Ethics and business research.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 2 SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION.
The hallmarks of scientific research.
Purposiveness.
Rigor.
Testability.
Replicability.
Precision and confidence.
Objectivity.
Generalizability.
Parsimony.
Some obstacles to conducting scientific research in the management area.
The hypothetico-deductive method.
The seven-step process in the hypothetico-deductive method.
Review of the hypothetico-deductive method.
Other types of research.
Case studies.
Action research.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Chapter 3 The Research Process: The Broad Problem Area and Defining the Problem Statement.
Broad problem area.
Preliminary information gathering.
Nature of information to be gathered.
Literature review.
Conducting the literature review.
Defining the problem statement.
What makes a good problem statement?
The research proposal.
Managerial implications.
Ethical issues in the preliminary stages of investigation.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Practice projects.
Appendix.
Some online resources useful for business research.
Bibliographical databases.
APA format for referencing relevant articles.
Referencing and quotation in the literature review section.
CHAPTER 4 THE RESEARCH PROCESS: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT.
The need for a theoretical framework.
Variables.
Types of variables.
Theoretical framework.
The components of the theoretical framework.
Theoretical framework for the example of air safety violations.
Hypothesis development.
Definition of a hypothesis.
Statement of hypotheses: formats.
Directional and nondirectional hypotheses.
Null and alternate hypotheses.
Hypothesis testing with qualitative research: negative case analysis.
Managerial implications.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Practice project.
CHAPTER 5 THE RESEARCH PROCESS: ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN.
The research design.
Purpose of the study: exploratory, descriptive, hypothesis testing (analytical and predictive), case study analysis.
Exploratory study.
Descriptive study.
Hypothesis testing.
Case study analysis.
Review of the purpose of the study.
Type of investigation: causal versus correlational.
Extent of researcher interference with the study.
Study setting: contrived and noncontrived.
Unit of analysis: individuals, dyads, groups, organizations, cultures.
Time horizon: cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies.
Cross-sectional studies.
Longitudinal studies.
Review of elements of research design.
Managerial implications.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 6 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES: OPERATIONAL DEFINITION.
How variables are measured.
Operationalization of variables.
Operationalization: dimensions and elements.
Operationalizing the (multidimensional) concept of achievement motivation.
What operationalization is not.
Review of operationalization.
International dimensions of operationalization.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 7 MEASUREMENT: SCALING, RELIABILITY, VALIDITY.
Scales.
Nominal scale.
Ordinal scale.
Interval scale.
Ratio scale.
Review of scales.
Rating scales.
Dichotomous scale.
Category scale.
Semantic differential scale.
Numerical scale.
Itemized rating scale.
Likert scale.
Fixed or constant sum scale.
Stapel scale.
Graphic rating scale.
Consensus scale.
Other scales.
Ranking scales.
Paired comparison.
Forced choice.
Comparative scale.
International dimensions of scaling.
Goodness of measures.
Item analysis.
Validity.
Reliability.
Reflective versus formative measurement scales.
What is a reflective scale?
What is a formative scale and why do the items of a formative scale not necessarily hang together?
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Appendix.
Examples of some measures.
CHAPTER 8 DATA COLLECTION METHODS.
Sources of data.
Primary sources of data.
Secondary sources of data.
Data collection methods.
Interviewing.
Questionnaires.
Other methods of data collection.
Multimethods of data collection.
Review of the advantages and disadvantages of different data collection methods and when to use each.
Setting from which data are gathered.
International dimensions of surveys.
Special issues in instrumentation for cross-cultural research.
Issues in data collection.
Managerial implications.
Ethics in data collection.
Ethics and the researcher.
Ethical behavior of respondents.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 9 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS.
The lab experiment.
Control.
Manipulation of the independent variable.
Controlling the contaminating exogenous or "nuisance" variables.
Internal validity of lab experiments.
External validity or generalizability of lab experiments.
The field experiment.
External validity.
Trade-off between internal and external validity.
Factors affecting the validity of experiments.
History effects.
Maturation effects.
Testing effects.
Selection bias effects.
Mortality effects.
Statistical regression effects.
Instrumentation effects.
Identifying threats to validity.
Internal validity in case studies.
Review of factors affecting internal and external validity.
Types of experimental design and validity.
Quasi-experimental designs.
True experimental designs.
Simulation.
Ethical issues in experimental design research.
Managerial implications.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Appendix.
Further experimental designs.
CHAPTER 10 SAMPLING.
Population, element, sample, sampling unit, and subject.
Population.
Element.
Sample.
Sampling unit.
Subject.
Parameters.
Reasons for sampling.
Representativeness of samples.
Normality of distributions.
The sampling process.
Defining the population.
Determining the sample frame.
Determining the sampling design.
Determining the sample size.
Executing the sampling process.
Probability sampling.
Unrestricted or simple random sampling.
Restricted or complex probability sampling.
Review of probability sampling designs.
Nonprobability sampling.
Convenience sampling.
Purposive sampling.
Review of nonprobability sampling designs.
Examples of when certain sampling designs would be appropriate.
Simple random sampling.
Stratified random sampling.
Systematic sampling.
Cluster sampling.
Area sampling.
Double sampling.
Convenience sampling.
Judgment sampling: one type of purposive sampling.
Quota sampling: a second type of purposive sampling.
Sampling in cross-cultural research.
Issues of precision and confidence in determining sample size.
Precision.
Confidence.
Sample data, precision, and confidence in estimation.
Trade-off between confidence and precision.
Sample data and hypothesis testing.
Determining the sample size.
Importance of sampling design and sample size.
Efficiency in sampling.
Sampling as related to qualitative studies.
Managerial implications.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 11 QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS.
Getting the data ready for analysis.
Coding and data entry.
Editing data.
Data transformation.
Getting a feel for the data.
Frequencies.
Measures of central tendency and dispersion.
Relationships between variables.
Excelsior Enterprises ? descriptive statistics part 1.
Testing goodness of data.
Reliability.
Validity.
Excelsior Enterprises ? descriptive statistics part 2.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 12 QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS PART 2: HYPOTHESIS TESTING.
Introduction.
Type I errors, type II errors, and statistical power.
Choosing the appropriate statistical technique.
Testing a hypothesis about a single mean.
Testing hypotheses about two related means.
Testing hypotheses about two unrelated means.
Testing hypotheses about several means.
Regression analysis.
Standardized regression coefficients.
Regression with dummy variables.
Multicollinearity.
Testing moderation using regression analysis: interaction effects.
Other multivariate tests and analyses.
Discriminant analysis.
Logistic regression.
Conjoint analysis.
Two-way ANOVA.
MANOVA.
Canonical correlation.
Excelsior Enterprises ? hypothesis testing.
Data warehousing, data mining, and operations research.
Some software packages useful for data analysis.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Chapter 13 Qualitative Data Analysis.
Introduction.
Data reduction.
Data display.
Drawing conclusions.
Reliability and validity in qualitative research.
Some other methods of gathering and analyzing qualitative data.
Content analysis.
Narrative analysis.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
CHAPTER 14 THE RESEARCH REPORT.
The report.
The written report.
The purpose of the written report.
The audience for the written report.
Characteristics of a well-written report.
Contents of the research report.
Integral parts of the report.
Oral presentation.
Deciding on the content.
Visual aids.
The presenter.
The presentation.
Handling questions.
Summary.
Discussion questions.
Appendix.
Report 1: Sample of a report involving a descriptive study.
Report 2: Sample of a report where an idea has to be "sold".
Report 3: Sample of a report offering alternative solutions and explaining the pros and cons of each alternative.
Report 4: Example of an abridged basic research report.
A final note to students.
Statistical tables.
Glossary of terms.
Bibliography.
Index.
