Wk8 DQ – Business Research Methodology

 In this discussion question you have the opportunity to be creative and to relate what you have learned to your professional lives. Please explore and critically think about some of the learning objectives and concepts presented in this course. Please effectively communicate how you would lead an organization (or a group of people within the organization) by applying the knowledge you have learned ethically and responsibly.  Your discussion should also include innovative thinking, and information-technology aspects (such as the Internet, social-media, computers, and so forth) that may assist you in decision-making. You may frame your discussion around any functional component of business, and in any context; problem-solving, management, leadership, organizational behavior, and so forth.

Textbook Information for the course:

  Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., Adhikari, A., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods (9th ed.). B Cengage Learning 

 

https://books.google.com/booksid=ydcKAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Note:

1. Please have at least 2 paragraphs

2. Need to have at least 1 peer-reviewed article as the reference and textbook as the reference

3. Please write about the learning outcome from the course “Business Research Methodology“, and how that could help on the future career.

4. Please find the attachments as the power points of the course for the reference.

5. Please find the Course Learning Outcome list of this course in the attachment

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS
BUS 605
DIANE L. WATKINS ED.D.

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INTRODUCTIONS
Who am I ?
Google Voice – 323-834-2634
email – dianewatkins@westcliff.edu
Office Hours: Call anytime between 8 am and 8 pm Monday through Saturday.
Short Faculty Bio: Dr. Watkins has worked in K – 12 education for over 30 years. Most of her career was with the Los Angeles Unified School District as a teacher, advisor, Instructional Technology Applications Facilitator (ITAF) and administrator. Her primary work for LAUSD has been in science and technology. I am currently the Director of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Westcliff University. She has also worked for West Los Angeles College, the University of California Los Angeles, Fremont College, and Argosy University.

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INTRODUCTIONS
Story of My Life
You have just been given a contract to write your autobiography for a major publishing company. Your agent Harry Hardnose is anxious to get to press. He has decided to help you get started with a few probing questions.
1. First, take a piece of flipchart paper and fold it in half and then in half again to form a book.
2. Choose the title of a popular song for the name of your book. Write that title on the front cover.
3. On the inside of the front cover (page two), list a table of contents.
o Name of the place where you were born
o Description of your first job
o Number of years you have been working for your company
4. On page three, draw a picture of your family.
5. On the back cover of the book, draw a picture of what you plan to do when you retire. Where will you go? Who will you go with? Etc.

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COURSE OVERVIEW
Time
Attendance
Food
Syllabus
APA Format
Class content and activities

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TIME
Class begins at 6:00pm and ends at 8 pm.
There will be a 10-minute break at 7:45 or as close to that as possible convenient.

ATTENDANCE POLICY
Attendance Impacts Grades
Students who miss more than 1 class in weekday classes will see a letter grade reduction for every additional class they miss. These absences will be factored into your final grade at the end of the session.

ATTENDANCE POLICY CONT.
3 Instances of Tardiness or Leaving Early = 1 Absence
Students who are more than 10 min late to class and/or leave class before it is dismissed are considered late. These instances will add up to an absence and count your final grade.
Returning more than 10 minutes late from a break also counts as a tardy.

ATTENDANCE POLICY CONT.
All absences count as absences, and any excusing of absences (i.e. not counting toward grade penalty) must be approved by a Program Chair or other member of academic leadership. Excusing of absences is rare and only in situations in which the student was unable to attend class due to an unforeseen emergency.

FOOD
Food in class is allowed.
Make sure that you take your trash out when you leave.

SYLLABUS

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LATE SUBMISSIONS
Submission of Assignment Criteria (applies to PAs and CLAs): Late assignments receive a 10%, 5%, and 5% deduction if they are late 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days past the due date respectively. Assignments more than 3 days late will not be accepted. In addition, assignments for the last week of class will only be accepted on-time and hence, cannot be submitted late; courses in GAP close at the end of the last day of the term.

CLA 1
CLA 1 Comprehensive Learning Assessment – CLO 1, CLO 2, CLO 3, CLO 4, CLO 5
 
Select a research topic according to your area of interest
Make a research proposal including general background, problem statement, objectives, types of research to be used, the sources of the data, and so forth.
 
*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for Comprehensive Learning Assessments (CLAs) on page 11-12 of the syllabus for specific guidelines and expectations.

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CLA 2
CLA 2 Comprehensive Learning Assessment – CLO 1, CLO 5, CLO 6, CLO 7, CLO 8
 
For the topic you have selected in CLA 1 the objectives you have mentioned
a) Make a questionnaire to meet the objectives of the research.
b) Mention the level of data (measurement) for each question that you have made in part (a).
c) Make a sampling design.
d) Describe the different statistical analysis techniques that will be used for your questionnaire prepared in part (a).
 
*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for Comprehensive Learning Assessments (CLAs) on page 11-12 of the syllabus for specific guidelines and expectations.

READING
Business Research Methods
Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin
Week 1 – Chapter 1 , 2 and 3
Week 2 – Chapters 4, 5 and 6

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APA
What is APA?
Author’s Responsibilities
Correct spelling and punctuation
Accurate quotations with pages numbers
Complete and accurate references
Relevant content
Coherent organization
Proper format
Legible appearance
Concealing identities

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APA
You must:
Proofread
Make all corrections and changes before submitting your work

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APA
General Guidelines
APA approved font
Double-spacing
1-inch margins
Page numbers
Indent first line of every paragraph

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INTRODUCTION TO APA

APA REVIEW
New cover page.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page
Fonts
Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
Page breaks
How to structure your paper

They – https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they

APA CONTINUED
How to structure your paper

They – https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they

MORE BASICS
Acronyms

Reference Page

Citations

PARAPHRASING
Most of your citations should be paraphrased and not quoted directly. You still need to cite the source.
Here are some tips to help you paraphrase.

And tips on quoting properly

EXAMPLES OF SOURCES
Journal Articles
Journal Articles from Internet-only journals
Books
Web Documents on a University website (no date)
Stand alone web documents (no author, no date)
Journal Article from a database

JOURNAL ARTICLE
Mellers, B. A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure of consequences. Psychological Bulleting, 126, 910 – 924.

JOURNAL ARTICLE FROM A DATABASE
Hien, D., & Honeymann, T. (2000). A closer look at the drug abuse
maternal aggression link. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15,
503-522. Retrieved May 20, 2000, from ProQuest database.

BOOKS
Paloutzian, R. F. (1996). Invitation to the Psychology of Homicide (2nd ed.). Allyn and Bacon.

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WEB DOCUMENT ON
UNIVERSITY WEB SITE
Dudette, D., & Harris, M.L. (2005). APA style and essentials. Retrieved November 6, 2007, from Vanguard University, Department of
Psychology Web site: http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddudette

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STAND ALONE WEB DOCUMENT
(NO DATE)
Nielsen, Harry (nd). Notable people in psychology of music. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from http://www.psywww.com

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STAND ALONE WEB DOCUMENT
(NO AUTHOR, NO DATE)
Gender and Society. (n.a, n.d.) Retrieved November 3, 2007, from
http://www.trinity.edu/mkear/gender.html.

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WHAT IS BUSINESS RESEARCH

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BUSINESS RESEARCH DEFINED
Business research is the application of the scientific method in searching for the truth about business phenomena.
The process includes:
idea and theory development
problem definition
searching for and collecting information
analyzing data
communicating the findings and their implications
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BUSINESS RESEARCH DEFINED
This definition suggests that business research information is:
not intuitive or haphazardly gathered
accurate and objective
relevant to all aspects of the business
limited by one’s definition of business
Not-for-profit organizations and governmental agencies can use research in much the same was as managers in for-profit organizations.
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THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientific Method
The way researchers go about using knowledge and evidence to reach objective conclusions about the real world.
The analysis and interpretation of empirical evidence (facts from observation or experimentation) to confirm or disprove prior conceptions
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EXHIBIT 1.1 A SUMMARY OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
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MANAGERIAL VALUE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
The decision-making process associated with the development and implementation of a business strategy involves four interrelated stages:
Identifying problems and opportunities
Diagnosing and assessing problems or opportunities
Selecting and implementing a course of action
Evaluating the course of action
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ACTIVITY 1
Suppose you owned a jewelry store in Denton, Texas. You are considering opening a second store just like your current store. You are undecided on whether to locate the new store in another location in Denton, TX or in Birmingham, AL.
Why would you decide to have some research done before making this decision? Should the research be conducted? Go to http://www.census.gov. Do you think any of this information would be useful in the research?

VIDEO

VIDEO

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientific Method
A set of prescribed procedures for establishing and connecting theoretical statements about events, for analyzing empirical evidence, and for predicting events yet unknown.
Techniques or procedures used to analyze empirical evidence in an attempt to confirm or disprove prior conceptions.
Suggested steps:
Assess relevant existing knowledge of phenomenon
Formulate concepts and propositions
State hypotheses
Design research to test the hypotheses
Acquire empirical data
Analyze and evaluate data
Propose an explanation of the phenomenon and state new problems raised by the research
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ACTIVITY 2
Write down some ideas you may have for your CLA 1 research proposal.
Talk to your partner about your subject.
Explain why you think it would be a good research project.
Share with the class

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SUMMARY
What assignments are due?
When are they due?
Any final questions?

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS
BUS 605
WEEK 2
DIANE L. WATKINS ED.D.

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READING
Business Research Methods
Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin
Week 2 – Chapters 4, 5 and 6
Week 3 – Chapter 7 and 8

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WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENTS

CLA 1
Research Proposal
Background
Problem Statement
Research questions/Objectives
Types of Research
Sources of Data

BACKGROUND
What is the context for the study?
What has already been researched?
What are the current trends?

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Step 1: Contextualize the problem
Where and when does the problem arise?
Who does the problem affect?
What attempts have been made to solve the problem?

EXAMPLE
Voter turnout in region X has been decreasing steadily over the past ten years, in contrast to other areas of the country (Smith, 2016). According to surveys conducted by organization Y, turnout is lowest among under-25s and people with low incomes (Organization Y, 2019). There have been some effective attempts at engaging these groups in other regions, and in the last two elections parties A and B increased their campaigning efforts in region X, but these interventions have yet to have any significant effect on turnout (Organization Y, 2019).

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Step 2: Show why it matters
What will happen if the problem is not solved?
Who will feel the consequences?
Does the problem have wider relevance (e.g. are similar issues found in other contexts)?

EXAMPLE
Low voter turnout has been shown to have negative associations with social cohesion, civic engagement, and is becoming an area of increasing concern in many European democracies (Smith, 2016). When specific groups of citizens lack political representation, they are likely to become more excluded over time, leading to an erosion of trust in democratic institutions (Johnson, 2015). Addressing this problem will have practical benefits for region X and contribute to an understanding of this widespread phenomenon.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Step 3: Set your aims and objectives
The aim of this study is to determine…
This project aims to explore…
I aim to investigate…

EXAMPLE
The aim of this research is to investigate effective engagement strategies to increase voter turnout in region X. It will identify the most significant factors in non-voting through surveys and interviews, and conduct experiments to measure the effectiveness of different strategies.

RESEARCH EXAMPLES

LEGO

APPLE

NEST

MCDONALDS

VERIZON

ACTIVITY 1
Suppose you owned a jewelry store in Denton, Texas. You are considering opening a second store just like your current store. You are undecided on whether to locate the new store in another location in Denton, TX or in Birmingham, AL. Work with your group to answer the following questions:
Why would you decide to have some research done before making this decision? Should the research be conducted? Go to http://www.census.gov. Do you think any of this information would be useful in the research?

ACTIVITY 2 THE BUSINESS RESEARCH PROCESS
Research Scenario
Using the assigned example. As a group create a problem statement. You may need to do some online research in addition to the background you have been given.
Create 1 – 2 PowerPoint slides to share your completed problem statement with the class.

ACTIVITY 3
Write down some ideas you may have for your CLA 1 research proposal.
Talk to your group about your subject.
Explain why you think it would be a good research project.
Share with the class

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SUMMARY
What assignments are due?
When are they due?
Any final questions?

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Document
Apple
Nest
McDonalds
Verizon

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS
BUS 605
WEEK 4
DIANE L. WATKINS ED.D.

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READING
Business Research Methods
Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin
Week 4 – Chapters 9 and 10
Week 5 – Chapters 11, 12 and 13

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ASSIGNMENTS
See Syllabus

WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW
How to write your literature review.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
What does your literature review need to do?
Tell
The story of your topic.
Why it is necessary to investigate your topic.
Where the gaps are in the current literature.
How and where your theoretical framework fits
How your methodology fits.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
In writing the literature review you will:
Discern
Synthesize
Evaluate
Narrate

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
What should a literature review look like?
Narrative, Summary, Summary, Summary
Narrative, Summary, Summary, Summary
Some Evaluation
Narrative

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Role of Summary in a literature review
Who did the study?
What was the research question/objective?
Where/When was the study conducted?
Who or what was studied?
What was the sample size?
What was the methodology?
What were the findings?

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Areas of Literature within your project
What are the areas of literature in your project?
Create questions from your areas as reading to answer questions and find data does the following:
It gives you a specific reason to read rather than just reading aimlessly.
It prompts you to write in active voice by presenting your sources as answering your questions rather than just writing a summary about them.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Identify the role that different sources play in your research
Providing definitions
Confirmation of facts, trends, or generalizations that you mention.
Perspectives, arguments, interpretations.
Previous research findings or methods.
Evidence of the importance of your research.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Example
Title: Recidivism in Juvenile Drug Users: A Drug Treatment Approach to Crime Reduction.
Subtopics
Juvenile Drug Users
Recidivism
Drug Treatment Approach
Crime Reduction

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Before you start
Define your research question.
Make sure it is researchable.
Understand your methodology and general design
Find the literature
Cover everything in the field.
Evaluate and select the literature
Decide which are key texts

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Before you start cont.:
Identify the rock stars
Who are the foundational thinkers?
Identify the primary camps or schools of thought
Different schools of though have different followers
Mark your sources to identify which group each piece belong to.
Decide on an organizing principle
Funnel vs Timeline
What are the different variables?
What are the different theories?

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Before you begin cont.:
Write a chronological history of the evolution of idea in your field.
You need to give a big picture image of trends and changes in the literature.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Example
Title: Recidivism in juvenile drug users: A drug treatment approach to crime reduction.
Articulating the “gap” in the literature.
While the literature covers the larger issue of recidivism among the adult population, there is relatively little research on the issue of recidivism among juvenile offenders. This study looks specifically at ________.
There is relatively little data on the relationship between drug treatment and recidivism. This study will add quantitative data to the existing research by ___________.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Example
Title: Recidivism in juvenile drug users: A drug treatment approach to crime reduction.
Current scholarly consensus is the incarceration is the most effective response to juvenile offenders. This case study challenges this theory by presenting data on drug treatment in a large metropolitan area.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
When the literature is not a perfect fit with your research.
What we know from the larger body of literature is that ___________. Although the literature deals only with the adult population, it is safe or not safe to assume that ______ would be applicable to the juvenile population.
The literature on ______ has limited applicability to my study because _______.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature on _____ is useful to my study even though _____ because _____.
We can apply current research on _____to _____ by accounting for _____.

WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Juvenile Drug Users
How is drug use defined in your offenders?
What percentage of juvenile offenders are drug users?
What percentage of drug-using juvenile offenders have access to treatment?
What approaches have been tried with drug-using youth offenders? What is their efficacy?

ACTIVITY 1

ACTIVITY 1
The Great Debate!

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INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS
BUS 605
WEEK 7
DIANE L. WATKINS ED.D.

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READING
Business Research Methods
Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin
Week 7 – Chapters 16 – 19
Week 8 – Chapters 1 – 19

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ASSIGNMENTS
New Week 7 DQ
Discuss why the sampling method and sample size can make research results questionable, even though the numbers may be reported as if they are precise? Highlight one survey research study and critically evaluate the study.

APA REVIEW
New cover page.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page
Fonts
Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
Page breaks
Writing sequence
They – https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they

MORE BASICS
Acronyms

Reference Page

citations

POWERPOINT TIPS
Remember you only have 10 minutes.
Don’t crowd your slides with information. Talk about it don’t read it.
Put script in the notes area
Don’t have a lot of graphics and transitions.

WHAT TEST TO USE
Chi Square
Compare observed frequencies to expected frequencies
Is the distribution of sex and voting behavior due to chance or is there a difference between the sexes on voting behavior?
Expected is 50% and comparing it to chance.

WHAT TEST TO USE
t-Test
Looks at the differences between two groups on some variable of interest. The IV must have two groups. (ex. male/female)
Do males and females differ in the amount of hours they spend shopping in a given month?

WHAT TEST TO USE
ANOVA
Tests the significance of group differences between two or more groups.
The IV has two or more categories
Only determines that there is a difference between groups but doesn’t tell which group is different.
Do SAT scores differ for low-, middle-, and high-income students?

WHAT TEST TO USE
Correlation
Used with two variables to determine a relationship or association
Does not distinguish between independent and dependent variables
Is there a relationship between the amount of damage to a house on fire and the number of firefighters at the fire.

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INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS
BUS 605
WEEK 6
DIANE L. WATKINS ED.D.

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READING
Business Research Methods
Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin
Week 6 – Chapters 14 and 15
Week 7 – Chapter 16 – 19

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ASSIGNMENTS
See Syllabus

MULTIPLE CHOICE SINGLE RESPONSE
What color is your vehicle?
A. Red
B. Green
C. White
D. Black
E. Blue

MULTIPLE CHOICE MULTIPLE RESPONSE
What features does your car have? Check all that apply.
A. Air conditioning
B. Anti-lock breaks
C. Navigation
D. Rear View Camera
E. Lane Assist

RANKING
On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being best, how satisfied are you with the performance of your new vehicle?

LIKERT
How happy are you with the service you received from our company?
A. Very happy
B. Happy
C. Neutral
D. Not very happy
E. Not happy at all

CODING
Read Conceptualization to Qualitative Design
Read Data Analysis
Code Letters from Montana.

CODING