1. BUS 305
Week 4

2. Agenda
• Research
• Secondary
• Primary
• Documenting research

3. Reasons for research
• Understanding and knowing as opposed to
assuming and guessing
• Market environment, competitive environment,
financial and economic environment, regulatory and
compliance etc. all require understanding and
knowing
• What other examples can you think if where some
form of research is required?
• How does research improve chances of success in
business? Individual or organizational?

4. Two types of research
• Primary
• Secondary
• How do businesses use each?
• How important is research in a business
environment?

5. Secondary Research
• Determine the goals of research and available
tools/resources
• Databases
• Internet
• Kinds of information:
• Peer reviewed
• Reports (topical, industry, company)
• Trade publications
• Magazines
• Newspapers

6. Evaluating information
• Credibility
• Authority
• Recent/current/up-to-date
• Accurate
• Reliable
• Relevant

7. Search engine literacy
• What is being searched? How?
• Statistical
• Inputs: natural language
• Keyword
• Inputs: terms and connector
• How does each work? When is one better than the
other? Is easy always „easy‟? Why or why not?

8. Primary research
• Understanding and knowing compared to assuming
and guessing applies to primary research as well
• Original research
• Examples: Surveys, questionnaires, focus groups,
interviews, observations
• First steps: Determine what you are trying to
achieve
• Avoid biases!

9. Primary research
purposes
• To understand the problem (background)
• To test viability of recommendations or new ideas
(feasibility)

10. Testing ideas or
recommendations
• Feasibility studies
• Will the idea or recommendation or suggestion „fly‟
• Test products, concepts, etc. for viability
• How will you test your recommendations in your
analytical report for viability/utility?
• Brainstorm what you will „test‟ or try to better
understand with primary research. What questions
will you ask?

11. Surveys
• Surveymonkey is easy to use in order to create free
surveys
• What types of questions can you use?
• Open-ended (qualitative/ethnographic research)
• Informational (ask background about subjects that
might correlate to recommendations or choices)
• Reichert scale (Agree strongly to disagree strongly
scale)

12. Drawing conclusions
from surveys
• Confidence intervals
• Population size
• Statistical relevance—what is statistically relevant?
Depends…

13. Documenting Research
• Plagiarism isn‟t just an academic problem
• Have to give credit in real world too
• Citation establishes credibility as well authority in
addition to being the correct choice ethically. What
does this mean?

14. Two parts to
documentation
• Citation
• References
• What‟s the difference?

15. Citations
• Placed in text to indicate the exact moment you are
using someone else‟s work
• Using means
• Quoting
• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing

16. References
• Placed at the end of a document to provide further
information so that cited sources can be found in
order to review for more information

17. Format
• APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian and more
• Over 60 different commonly used citation methods
and styles
• In the real world what does this look like?

18. Refworks
• Easily allows you to automate the citation process
• Takes drudgery out or citation the same way
spreadsheets take drudgery out of calculation

19. Annotated
bibliography
• Reference list that also includes basic information
about the source and why you are using it
• No more than three-fours sentences
• Entries look like this:
Germano, M. (2011). The library value deficit. The Bottom Line, 24(2), 100-106. doi:http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/08880451111169124
Scholarly article that examines the role of user perception in value creation. Argues that
libraries have not done enough to convey their actual usefulness as opposed to assumed
usefulness. Recommends marketing strategies based upon meeting needs. Will use this
article to convey the importance and benefits of “needs based” marketing.

20. Begin secondary research on
your analytical report project
• Today: Think about the „background‟ of your
problem (How big is it? Why is it important? Who is
affected? What are the implications of it?) Also, think
about recommendations regarding „fixing‟ the
problem or issue; Find secondary materials that
guide you here
• Start to develop an outline/overview of what your
report will cover
• Wednesday you will learn more about citation and
should be able to produce a preliminary bibliography
of resources you will use with annotations regarding
why each source is important to your research