Understanding Business Research

Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts

Elishia Brown

RES/351

December 15, 2014

Dr. Annette West

Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts

Business research takes on many forms and has many facets. The focus of business research is to determine why and how things happen. This paper will delve into the two general approaches to research, qualitative and quantitative. We will identify the strengths and weaknesses of each, and determine how they can be combined and used most effectively. We will also explore which of the two is more appropriate in business management as a supervisor.

Qualitative Research

In studying two separate topics focusing on both the quantitative and qualitative approaches to business research, I began by defining them and deciding which method is best suited for what situation. Cooper and Schindler describe qualitative research as having an “array of interpretive techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate, and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain, more or less, naturally occurring phenomena” (Cooper & Schindler, page 144, 2014).Qualitative analysis is accomplished through interviews, open-ended questions or focus groups. Qualitative research is ideal for extracting feelings, emotions, and perceptions of its participants (Cooper & Schindler, page 144, 2014). This type of research requires many resources and a lot of time. However, this kind of analysis provides a catapult for larger studies and provide deeper understanding used in theory, practice, and other particular situations. The latter is evidenced by a study of family relations by Ralph LaRossa of Georgia State University.

LaRossa argues that, “any number of approaches may be used to generate theory, but family scholars tend to rely on a multivariate nonstatistical set of procedures known as grounded theory methods” (LaRossa, 2005). LaRossa uses many variables to demonstrate concepts,...