Skills required by Good Researcher

1. He is Open-minded and must also adopt a critical way of thinking.

2. He should be hard working, diligent, focused and devoted to his/her specific field of interest.
3. Updating his/her knowledge such as following the current literature, attending conferences or exchanging ideas with colleagues working in a relevant
field.
4. The researcher should be capable of gathering accurate and in-depth information from the respondents.
5. The researcher should be a keen observer of the phenomena and should not be complacent with approximates.
6. He should always maintain precision and must try to avoid unnecessary details.
7. He must analyze and interpret the collected information with a positive spirit and in the proper sense, notwithstanding his personal requirement or
benefit.
8. As a scientific genius, the research investigator must be adequately sensitive to difficulties “Where less gifted people pass by untroubled by doubt.”
9. He should be in possession of sufficient moral courage to face the difficult situation and should not be discouraged due to non-cooperation of the
respondents or nature of the research problem under investigation.
10. The researcher should be able to utilize his time properly in a balanced manner.
11. While making generalizations, the researcher must cautiously bear in mind that there is no short cut to truth. Therefore he must wait to obtain
complete data and always eschew hasty statement. As a scientific man, says Karl Pearson, he should strive at self elimination in his judgment to
provide an argument which is true for each individual mind as for his own.
12. A good researcher is always apathetic to the approval or disapproval of society. Rather, he should be bold enough to present his findings of research
to the society, notwithstanding its disapproval.
13. The researcher should be conceptually clear. He should use the terms uniformly and appropriately. Otherwise, his whole exercise will be defective.
14. The researcher should not only be careful in selecting the research tools but also properly trained so as to use these tools to procure reliable and valid
data.
15. The researcher should also develop proper communicative skill and the ability to establish rapport with the respondents so as to elicit proper
response.
16. Knowledge in the language of the respondents will be of immense help for the researcher. This will enable him not only to communicate the
questions properly but also to cognize the responses properly.
17. Awareness of the possible drawbacks and shortcomings of research is very essential on the part of a good researcher. By knowing it before, the
researcher may try to minimize such problems, although it is well high impossible to claim complete perfection of a research work.
18. A good researcher will always be well behaved and well clad. These qualities will attract the respondents towards him; sufficiently motivate them to
produce necessary information required for the purpose of research.
The Business
Research Process
 What is Research?
Ansystematic investigative approach
concerned with a problem or
intending to prove or disprove an
hypothesis

A systematic investigation towards

increasing the sum of knowledge
 Types of Research – According to Intent
 Pure Research – Research for the sake of knowledge e.g. Einstein‘s theory
of relativity, Newton’sLaws
 Applied Research – Putting theory totest
 ExploratoryResearch–Generatingnewideas,discoveringvariables,and
then, seeking relationships between these variables.
 Descriptive Study – Fact finding andinterpretation
 Diagnostic Study – Finding what is happening, why it is happening and
what can be done aboutit
 Evaluation Studies – Assess or appraise the quality and quantity of
anactivity and find attributes forsuccess
 Action Research – In depth study as the activity occurs and the post-
experimental evaluation.

6
 The Research Process

(7)
Preparing and (2)
Presenting the Determine the
Report Research
Design

(6)
Analyzing the (1)
Identifying the
Data Research (3)
Problem/Opportunity Determine Data
Collection
Method

(5)
Design Sample (4)
and Collect Design Data
Data CollectionForms
 Defining Problem Results in
Clear Cut Research Objectives
Symptom Detection

Analysis of
the Situation
Exploratory
Research
(Optional)
Problem Definition

Statement of Research
Objectives
 The Iceberg Principle
• The principle indicating that the dangerous
part of many business problems is neither
visible to norunderstoodby managers.
 Multiple Roles of Research
• Disciplines, professions andteaching
• Applications andimpact
• 'Pushing back thefrontiers'
• Reputations andfunding
 Literature Review
• The literature review is a critical look at the
existing research that is significant to the work
that you are carryingout.
• Overview identifies prominent research trends
in addition to assessing the overall strengths
and weaknesses of the existingresearch.
 Purpose of Literature Review
• To define and limit the problem you are
workingon
• To place your study in an historicalperspective
• To avoid unnecessaryduplication
• To evaluate promising researchmethods
• To relate your findings to previous knowledge
and suggest furtherresearch
 Characteristics of an effective
Literature review
It provides a critical overview of existing
research by
• Outlining important researchtrends
• Assessing strengths and weaknesses (of
individual studies as well the existing research
as awhole)
• Identifying potential gaps inknowledge
• Establishing a need for current and/or future
researchprojects.
 Steps for Writing a Lit Review

 Planning

 Reading andResearchh

 Analyzing

 Drafting

 Revising
The Steps - Literature Review Process
• Planning: Identify the focus, type, scope and disciplineof
the review you intend towrite.
• Reading and Research: Collect and read current research
on your topic. Select only those sources that are most
relevant to yourproject.
• Analyzing: Summarize, synthesize, critique, andcompare
your sources in order to assess the field of research as a
whole.
• Drafting: Develop a thesis or claim to make about the
existing research and decide how to organize your
material.
• Revising: Revise and finalize the structural,
stylistic,and grammatical issues of yourpaper.
 Reading and Researching
 Collect and readmaterial.
 Summarizesources.
 Who is theauthor?
 What is the author's mainpurpose?
 What is the author’s theoretical perspective?Research
methodology?
 Who is the intendedaudience?
 What is the principal point, conclusion, thesis, contention,or
question?
 How is the author’s positionsupported?
 How does this study relate to other studies of the problemor
topic?
 What does this study add to yourproject?
 Select only relevant books andarticles.
 Hypothesis
• An unprovenproposition
• A possible solution to a problem
• Guess
 RESEARCH DESIGN

Broad research Statementofbusiness Exploratory

objectives problem research
(optional)

Specific Specific Specific

Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3

Research Design
Results
Questionnaire Design Process
Specify the Information Needed

Specify the Type of Interviewing Method

Determine the Content of Individual Questions

Design the Question to Overcome the Respondent’s Inability and

Unwillingness to Answer

Decide the Question Structure

Determine the Question Wording

Arrange the Questions in Proper Order

Identify the Form and Layout

Reproduce the Questionnaire

Eliminate Bugs byPre-testing

Statistical Tests
TakeIt“BirdbyBird”
AnneLamott
 Let’s take it Step by Step...
• Identifytopic
• Literaturereview
• Variables ofinterest
• Researchhypothesis
• Designstudy
• Poweranalysis
• Writeproposal
• Design datatools
• Committees
E
• Collectdata
• Set upspreadsheet
• Enterdata
• Statisticalanalysis
• Graphs
• Slides /poster
• Write paper /
manuscript
  Categoricaldata

Flow chart of commonly used  Frequency

descriptive statistics and  Percentage (Row, Column orTotal)

graphical illustrations  Continuous data: Measure oflocation

 Mean
 Descriptivestatistics  Median

 Continuous data: Measure ofvariation

 Standarddeviation
 Range (Min, Max)
 Inter-quartile range (LQ,UQ)
Exploring data
 Categoricaldata
 Barchart
 Clustered bar charts (two categoricalvariables)
 Bar charts with errorbars

 Continuousdata
 Graphicalillustrations
 Histogram (can be plotted against a
categoricalvariable)
 Box & Whisker plot (can be plotted against a
categoricalvariable)
 Dot plot (can be plotted against a
categoricalvariable)

E
Flow chart of Exposure
commonly used variable Normal Skew

statistical 1 group One-sam

mple t test Sign test / Signed rank test
tests Two-sam
2 groups mple t test Mann-Whitney U test

Continuous Paired Paired t test Wilcoxon signed rank test

>2groups One-wayA NOVA test Kruskal Wallistest

Continuous Pearson Corr / Linear Reg Spearman Corr / Linear Reg

1group Chi-square test / Exacttest

2 groups Chi-square test / Fisher’s exact test / Logistic regression

Outcome
Categorical Paired McNemar’s test / Kappa statistic
variable
>2 groups Chi-square test / Fisher’s exact test / Logistic regression

Continuous Logistic regression / Sensitivity & specificity /ROC

2groups KM plot with Log-ranktest

Survival >2 groups KM plot with Log-rank test

E
ContinuousPuousiC
oxregression

E
 Research Hypothesis
• Topic researchquestion
• Researchquestion hypothesis
– Null hypothesis(H0)
• Predicts no effect ordifference

– Alternative hypothesis(H1)
• Predicts an effect ordifference
Don’t Lie With Statistics!
Data Analysis
ANY QUESTION…….