Business research:

Chapter 1: introduction
Business research: l fare2 ben business research w other research: there is no methodology and
interpret of result, topic research, interpretation is essential in business research and it add
value in the daily life. Improve performance, had influence in business environment The role of
financial compensation in motivating employees, effect of team work on business performance
Br is a systematic process topic.Br steps: choice of the topic, background, research question,
objectives, literature review examine the effect to determine , research approach, research
philosophies, research design, sampling, collecting data, analyzing data, conclusion and
interpretation.
Systematic process of collection of data, analyzing those data and obtaining result, this result will add
value to society and to solve problems. There is difference between research and business research.
Business research is based on knowledge. The topic must be related to the major, find previous study,
must be available in article, solve problem in the environment.

Research question and objectives/write a scientific article/purpose of the research/way of witting an

article/ take an approve/write the background/ wright research question and objective/ way of
research/result must answer the question/ save money and time/ literature review (eshya aamlina men
abl, other research m3al2a be zet l mawdu3/previous studies/valid research is a research that answers
the research question/

Topic=>background=>research question and objectives=>literature review (previous studies) =>research

philosophies and approaches=>research design=>sampling=>collection data-=>analysis=>interpretation.

Business and management research: Leadership, motivation, productivity, technological development,

sustainability, e-business, collaboration and innovation, making decision, organizational learning…

The role of business leadership in improving organizational learning, and knowledge management in
Lebanese SMEs. Impact of managers:

-power individuals

-knowledge

-can follow the same steps (educated as well as those conducting the stages).

c) Research process:
1) Formulate and clarify the title
2) Review the literature review
3) Designing the research
4) Collecting the data
5) Analyzing the data
6) Writing up
 The research is valid, or credible if the result will answer the research question. Research process
includes steps that overlap. And the researched may revisit each step many times.

As a researcher we must keep a notebook or agenda to write everything about the research.

Chapter: 2 formulating and clarifying the research topic

The research topic is the responsibility of the student, Advisor will help in refining it.
Characteristics of the topic:
1) Excite your imagination
2) Have and develop required skills
3) Have knowledge about the topics
4) Ability to find financial and time resources
5) The study will add value
6) Find previous studies, or to have knowledge about the topic

A) Attributes of a research topic: Research question, research objectives, and a good

knowledge with link the literature.
Business research process is time consuming so:
-it is very important to turn your research idea into feasible research topic.
-set the research question and objectives.
-to write the research proposal (plan).
Attributes of a good research topic: Clear, well defined, important to the society, related to the
major, clear defined research question and objectives, a good knowledge of literature review
that will help in gaining new insights in this topics, result with value, and excide our
imaginations, future career plan.

B) Generating and refining ideas:

Student generate their research ideas and advisors will help them in refining it. In business,
managers provide the research topic, and employees compete the reaming steps.
2 ways for generating research ideas can follow rational thinking and creative thinking:
 Rational thinking: Creative thinking:
*Examine your own strengths *search idea, and keep
and interests. notes of these ideas.
*looking at pas projects titles. *your past research, your
preferences.
*discussion.
*mind mapping, or
*Searching the literature.
relevance tree.
*Scanning the media.
*focus group,
brainstorming.

Source of literature review (previous research):

Article, internet, books, journals, live conferences, interviews documented, official reports,
archives, media, interviews done by previous researchers, memos, company reports,
magazines, dictionaries, newspaper, libraries, documentaries, conferences, publications…
Brainstorming:
Contain different steps: define the problem and record to choose the best alternative and the
best solution. Generating ideas (rational thinking/creative thinking)/research topic-}} phone {{)

Refining the research idea: Delphi technique:

Step 1: brief the members of the group about the research idea, and they
notes.
Step 2: encourage communication and ideas sharing.
Step 3: ask for a suggestion of 3 topics or research ideas by each one.
Step 4: collect in an unedited and non-attributable form and redistribute
to all group members.
Stage 5: comments on the research ideas and revise their own
contributions in the light of what others have said.
Step 6: discussion until a consensus is reached.
Example: How business organize their finance: income, audit, keep a separate bank account/
receiving payment.

Preliminary inquiry
 Test the research idea against a checklist (ex: is the topic something with which you are
really fascinated? (Mhamas wala laa?)//is the research topic achievable within the
available time? //does the research topic contain issues related to the theory? // are
you able to state your research question (S) and objectives clearly? // does the research
topic match your career goals? Page 17(classroom) chp:2, part: 2 page:38(book)
 Integrating ideas (accounting  financials accounting  activitybased costing).
 Refine topic given by employing organizations, isolate an element of the larger
organizational project that you find interesting and treating this as the project for your
course.

Turning research topic and title into research questions:

It is important to define clear research questions at the beginning of the research process,
one of the key criteria of your research success will be whether you have a set of clear
conclusions drawn from the data you have collected.
At the conclusion of the good research project, the research question will be answered.
Do not set research question that are easy.
Set research question that prompts a descriptive answer.
Research question can be obtained directly by starting with a general focus on the research
topic. (Ex: the role of women leadership in improving business competitiveness.
Research question: what is the role of women leadership in improving business
competiveness?

Research objectives:
Example: franchising and business survival during corona health crisis// RQ: what is the
relationship between franchising business model and business survival in Lebanon?
RO: -to explain the franchising business model/- to describe the corona health crisis/-to
explain the business survival/-to identify the effect of corona health crisis on business
survival/-to compare the survival of franchising and other business model during.
Objectives are more generally acceptable to the research community as evidence of the
research’s clear sense of the purpose and direction.
Research objectives are likely to lead greater than research investigate question.
SMART objectives? Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bounded.
Writing your research proposal: very careful attention to research proposal, purpose of the
research proposal

 Organize your ideas clarify your ideas write in coherent way as needed
 Convince your audience convince of its achievement in terms of times and resources
 Contract with your clients acceptance proposalbusiness anonymity refers to aim
to satisfactory
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276077892_Relationships_Among_Customer_Sa
tisfaction_Delight_and_Loyalty_in_the_Hospitality_Industry

Content of the research proposal:

1. Title: mirror the content of your proposal it may change over time.
2. Background: 1) it should tell the reader why the researcher feels that this study is
worth of effort (ex: this research is recommended by …2010 it will solve the
problem) 2) the researcher should mention the problem to be solved/3) where it fits
into debate in literature. Create link with previous studies.
Background should be formed from 3 parts (8 lines): this study is recommend by…
/this proposal define a problem to be solved, as a text, where it fits into the debate
in the literature (according to…+summary) google scholar, scholar.dct, this project
was recommended by …

3. Research question and research objectives starting point/they reflect the aims of the
researcher/they should be smart, there is no general research aim/they should leave
in no doubt as to precisely what is that your seeks to achieve.
4. Method: *how you will achieve objectives*justify choice of method in light of
objectives chapter 4
5. Research design: inductive or deductive: where conduct the research? / choice used
and reason for that (quantitative or qualitative) chapter 5
6. Data collection: how data are collected questionnaire, interviews, survey, *issues
considered *ethical guidelines chp:6 chapter 7
7. Timescale: divide the study into many study/ clear idea in term of timescale/use
Gantt chart
8. Resources: cost of money, data analysis, distribution of questionnaire, expenses.
/convince your reader that you have access to hardware and software to analyze
 data and skills *to perform this analysis *time/help *key literature review
*resources
9. References

Chapter 3 critically reviewing the literature

A critical review of the literature is necessary to help you to develop a thorough
understanding of, and insight into, previous research that relates to your research
question(s) and objectives. Your review will set your research in context by critically
discussing and referencing work that has already been undertaken, drawing out key points
and presenting them in a logically argued way, and highlighting those areas where you will
provide fresh insights. It will lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project
report. • There is no one correct structure for a critical review, although it is helpful to
think of it as a funnel in which you start at a more general level prior to narrowing down to
your specific research question(s) and objectives. • Literature sources can be divided into
three categories: primary, secondary and tertiary. In reality, these categories often
overlap. Your use of these resources will depend on your research question(s) and
objectives. Some may use only tertiary and secondary literature. For others, you may need
to locate primary literature as well. • When planning your literature search you need to: –
have clearly defined research question(s) and objectives; – define the parameters of your
search; – generate key words and search terms; – discuss your ideas as widely as possible.
Techniques to help you in this include brainstorming and relevance trees. • Your literature
search is likely to be undertaken using a variety of approaches in tandem. These will
include: – searching using tertiary sources and the Internet; – following up references in
articles you have already read; – scanning and browsing secondary literature in your
library. Don’t forget to make precise notes of the search processes you have used and their
results. • Once obtained, the literature must be evaluated for its relevance to your
research question(s) and objectives using clearly defined criteria. This must include a
consideration of each item’s currency. Each item must be read and noted. Bibliographic
details, a brief description of the content and appropriate supplementary information
should also be recorded. • Care should be taken when writing your literature review not to
plagiarize the work of others.

Chapter 4: research onion

Research philosophy and research approach.
Philosophy: nature of data and you point of vu about it: realism, positivism, interpretivisim
Developing the knowledge, writing article/3 part: ontology, epistemology, and axiology.

Ontology: how research is objective or subjective about research object.

Like: objectivism: when personnel is changed the management still doing his job approximately
the same.
Subjectivism: when the personnel is changed it will lead to a change on management and
performance.

Epistemology: what is the acceptable knowledge? The nature of data that I need like
questionnaire or data opinion and how he will do it. Fact and statistic objective, subjective own
opinion or interview. Positivism: being objective, value free, highly structured methodology like
statistic and graphs. Realism: means human or individuals my influence on human capital on
the study. Interpretivisim it critical the positivism: subjective, value will interfirm, subjectivism,
social objects cannot be theorized.

Axiology:

Chapter 5: the research design

The purpose of your study may be: exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory.
Descriptive: used to describe/ explanatory: the relationship between variables may be termed
explanatory research u can use statistic (SPSS), and conduct interviews/ exploratory:
observation to explore the situation.
The need for a clear research strategy: each strategy can be used for 3 cases. No research
strategy is inherently superior or inferior to any other.

 Experiment: you will try to find relation between different variable and if it change
occurs time, study casual links. Dependent with independent or both independent.
 Survey: associated with the deductive approach.is the most frequently in business and
management. Used to answer who, what, where, how much of many question.
Descriptive research and exploratory. Quantitative data.
 Case study: la nusal lal triangulation mab2 fi ma3lumet zyede wslt la saturation//
qualitative and quantitative research, investigation of a particular contemporary
phenomena within its real life context
 Action research: link between theories for gaining knowledge interview, observation,
video. Then insure to theory. Is a way of collecting data using questionnaire and
interview
 Grounded theory: inductive approach, theory building combination of induction
interview and deductive questionnaire and hypotheses.
 Ethnography: pure inductive is flexible, describe and explain social world, social media
analytic
  Archival research: collect data from archival research and administrative record focus on
the past and change over time.
 Narrative inquiry: is a story that interpret an event or sequence of event

Research choice: quantitative/qualitative

Mono method or multi method  (2 options)
-mono method: qualitative (interview observation) or quantitative (Statistic, numbers)
-multi method: multi method quantitative it is all quantitative but men jib data shwa men
qualitative strategy like interview or the opposition multi method qualitative it is all qualitative
but men jib data men quantitative strategy like questionnaire.
-Mixed method: methodology and questionnaire plus interview plus analyzing data both in the
same time quantitative and qualitative.
Time horizon: Longitudinal studies means comparison/Cross sectional studies

Chapter 7: selecting samples

Introduction: sampling techniques are cases or elements. Samples are a group pf people.
Case Samples Population
The benefits of sampling: time, budget, and result quickly, survey the entire population is
impracticable.
Two types of sampling: non probability sampling and probability sampling.
Probability sampling: 4 steps:
1. Identify a suitable Sampling frame based on your research questions or objectives.
2. Decide on a suitable sample size.
3. Select the most appropriate sampling technique and select eh sample.
4. Check that the sample is representative of the population.
The sampling frame for any population is a complete list of all the cases in the population from
which you’re simple will be drawn.
Sampling size 384 elements. The importance of a high response rate/