Week 1 Homework for Business Research Methods

1. Ch.1 - 8 -- As area sales manager for a company manufacturing and marketing outboard engines, you have been assigned the responsibility of conducting a research study to estimate the sales potential of your products in the domestic (U.S. or Canadian) market. Discuss key issues and concerns arising from the fact that you, the manager, are also the researcher.

- Research is one of the important aspects of a business if a company wants to achieve a sustained growth. Research and implementing the research results helps a company manage its costs and match current market trend. As a manager who is also a researcher “may have insufficient resources time, money, or skill” Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 15). Besides manager may not have access to other information resources to compile and synthesize all the data. “Corporate researchers must become consultants and storytellers who provoke action and are fuelled by synthesizing knowledge from the information river” (Lewis, 2013). Manager who acts a researcher may not be able to see the company dilemma from an outside researcher’s perspective.

2. Ch.1 - 10 -- Apply the principles in Exhibit 1-4 to the research scenario in question 8.

- As a manager and researcher, I would start with progressively break down the dilemma into a management question. Using exploration techniques and the management question, I would define research question until I have a refined research question. I will then generate a research proposal to collect data, sampling design and pilot test. Once the required data are collected, data is analyzed and interpreted; the report is submitted to the management to make a final management decision.

3. Ch. 3 - 6 -- You observe the following condition: “Our female sales representatives have lower customer defections than do our male sales representatives.”

a. Propose the concepts and constructs you might use to study this phenomenon.

Concept is sales representative, be it male or female....