Q.1Which of the following organizations are likely to use business research? Why? How?

a. Manufacturer of breakfast cereals

b. Manufacturer of nuts, bolts, and other fasteners
c. The Federal Trade Commission
d. A hospital
e. A company that publishes business textbooks

Q.2 An automobile manufacturer is conducting research in an attempt to predict the type of car
design consumers will desire in the year 2025. Is this basic or applied research? Explain with
reasons

Q.3 One hears the word research being mentioned by several groups such as research
organizations, college and university professors, doctoral students, graduate assistants working
for faculty, graduate and undergraduate students doing their term papers, research departments in
industries, newspaper reporters, journalists, lawyers, doctors, and many other professionals and
nonprofessionals. In the light of what you have learned in this chapter, which among the
aforementioned groups of people do you think may be doing “scientific” investigations in the
areas of basic or applied research? Why?

Scenario 1 To acquire or not to acquire: that is the question

Companies are very interested in acquiring other firms, even when the latter operate in totally unrelated
realms of business. For example, Coca-Cola has announced that it wants to buy China Huiyuan Juice
Group in an effort to expand its activities in one of the world's fastest-growing beverage markets. Such
acquisitions are claimed to “work miracles.” However, given the volatility of the stock market and the
slowing down of business, many companies are not sure whether such acquisitions involve too much
risk. At the same time, they also wonder if they are missing out on a great business opportunity if they
fail to take such risk. Some research is needed here!

Scenario 2 Reasons for absenteeism

A university professor wanted to analyze in depth the reasons for absenteeism of employees in
organizations. Fortunately, a company within 20 miles of the campus employed her as a consultant to
study that very issue.

Scenario 3 Effects of service recovery on customer satisfaction

A research scientist wants to investigate the question: What is the most effective way for an
organization to recover from a service failure? Her objective is to provide guidelines for establishing the
proper “fit” between service failure and service recovery that will generalize across a variety of service
industries.