DBA 7207 Business research methods
UNIT I INTRODUCTION - Business Research – Definition and Significance – the research
process – Types of Research – Exploratory and causal Research – Theoretical and
empirical Research – Cross –Sectional and time – series Research – Research questions /
Problems – Research objectives – Research hypotheses – characteristics – Research in
an evolutionary perspective – the role of theory in research.
UNIT II RESEARCH DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT - Research design – Definition –
types of research design – exploratory and causal research design – Descriptive and
experimental design – different types of experimental design – Validity of findings –
internal and external validity – Variables in Research – Measurement and scaling –
Different scales – Construction of instrument – Validity and Reliability of instrument.
UNIT III DATA COLLECTION - Types of data – Primary Vs Secondary data – Methods of
primary data collection – Survey Vs Observation – Experiments – Construction of
questionnaire and instrument – Validation of questionnaire – Sampling plan – Sample
size – determinants optimal sample size – sampling techniques – Probability Vs Non–
probability sampling methods.
UNIT IV DATA PREPARATION AND ANALYSIS - Data Preparation – editing – Coding –
Data entry – Validity of data – Qualitative Vs Quantitative data analyses – Bivariate and
Multivariate statistical techniques – Factor analysis – Discriminant analysis – cluster
analysis – multiple regression and correlation – multidimensional scaling – Application
of statistical software for data analysis.
UNIT V REPORT DESIGN, WRITING AND ETHICS IN BUSINESS RESEARCH -Research report – Different types – Contents of report – need of executive summary –
chapterization – contents of chapter – report writing – the role of audience – readability
– comprehension – tone – final proof – report format – title of the report – ethics in
research – ethical behaviour of research – subjectivity and objectivity in research.
