Chapter 1 - The nature of business and management research and structure of this

book
1.1 Introduction
This book teaches the different steps one should take when conducting business
and management research. It will help you to undertake a research project by
providing a range of approaches, strategies, techniques, and procedures.
Throughout this book the term methods and methodology will be used. However,
some may think these terms refer to the same thing, they actually have different
meanings. The term ‘methods’ refers to techniques and procedures used to obtain
and analyse data, while ‘methodology’ refers to the theory of how research should
be undertaken.
Induction: specific to general

Deduction: General to specific

1.2 What is research?

People conduct research to systematically investigate things in order to enhance
their knowledge, but research is not merely collecting data. Research is conducted
when:

Data are collected systematically

Data are interpreted systematically
There is a clear goal: to discover new findings
In order to systematically conduct research based on logical relationships, a
researcher must provide an explanation of the methods used to collect data, prove
why the results are meaningful and outline any limitations to the research. The goal
of research is not only to explain, describe, criticize, understand or analyse
something, but also to simply find a clear answer to a specific problem.
1.3 The nature of business and management research
Management research is different from other kinds of research because it is
transdisciplinary (multiple studies are involved with it) and it is a design science.
Moreover, it has to be theoretically and methodologically accurate, while at the
same time being of practical relevance in the business world. The researcher
Michael Gibbons has introduced 3 modes of knowledge creation:

Mode 1 – creating fundamental knowledge

Mode 2 – creating practical relevant knowledge, with emphasis on collaboration
Mode 3 – creating knowledge that is mainly relevant to the human condition
Research that only emphasises Mode 1 ways of creating knowledge which only
focuses on understanding business and management processes and their
outcomes is called basic, fundamental or pure research. Another type of research
is called applied research where the emphasis is more on Mode 2. In this case
research is only being conducted direct relevance to managers and is presented in
ways these managers can understand and act upon. Pure and applied research are
two extremes, in order to successfully conduct business and management research
there has to be a balance between the theoretical (Mode 1) and practical (Mode 2)
part of research. The characteristics of pure/basic and applied science are
summarised in figure 1.1 on page 11.
1.4 The research process
When doing research on needs to go through several stages, usually involving:
formulating and clarifying the research topic, reviewing the literature, designing
the research, collecting the data, analysing the data and finally the writing.
However, it is not always necessary to pass through these stages one at a time.
More frequently the stages in a research process will cross-refer to other stages,
meaning that there is no linear line in the research process. Therefore it’s important
to have a strong research topic and to revise ideas many times. See figure 1.2 in the
book on page 14.