FUNDAMENTAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS [4 QUESTIONS SOLUTIONS]

FUNDAMENTAL OF BUSINESS METHODS

1. Explain scientific research and its nature. (10)

-Science is defined as a specific method or logic of inquiry. This definition suggests that the method of science is somehow unique and different than other method of inquiry; it has specific rules or characteristic that have to be followed. Science has two purposes. The first purpose of science is to improve the quality of life. Its secondary purpose is to develop explanatory relationships, which are generally called theories. Hence, any systematic and organized pursuit of investigation is known as Scientific research.

Science can be grouped into two broad categories: Natural science and Social science. Natural science is the science of naturally occurring objects or phenomena, such as light, objects, matter, earth, celestial bodies, or the human body. Natural science is further divided into physical science, earth science, life science, and others. In contrast, Social science is the science of people or collective behaviours. Social science can be divided or classified into disciplines such as psychology, sociology and business and economics.

Scientific research has the focused goal of problem solving. It pursues a step-by-step, logical, organized and rigorous method to identify problems, gather data, analyze the data, and draw the valid conclusion therefrom. Thus, scientific research is not based on hunches, experience, and intuition alone, but is purposive and rigorous. It ia a procedure, a general strategy that indicates an ordered sequence of moves or steps which the researcher has to make or go through in order to reach the goal of his or her research. scientific research is often associated predominantly with the natural sciences such as biology, chemistry or physics, and seen as an enterprise that generates objectives knowledge about the world. However, this terminology is not only used for research in natural sciences. All scientists, whether in natural or social sciences, use the scientific method of investigation.

Scientific research is the systematic investigation ofscientific theories and hypotheses. A hypothesis is a single assertion, a proposed explanation of something based on available knowledge, for something yet to be explained. One that is subject to further experimentation.

Some of the definitions of Scientific research as given below:

- Systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among natural phenomenon.” –Fred Kerlinger (1986)

-“Organized, systematic, data-based, critical, scientific enquiry or investigation into a specific problem, undertaken with the objective of finding answer or solutions to it”.- Uma Sekaran (2007)

The Nature Of Scientific Reseacrh Proposal:

In the Nature of Science and the Scientific Method by McLelland, 2006, the scientific method, it could be said is a way of learning or a process of using comparative critical thinking. Things that are not testable or falsifiable in some scientific or mathematical way, now or in the future, are not considered science. Falsifiability is the principle that a preposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. Science takes the whole universe and any and all phenomena in the natural world under its purview, limited only by what is feasible to study given our current physical and fiscal limitations. Any thing that cannot be observed or measured or shown to be false is not amenable to scientific investigation. Explanations that cannot be based on empirical evidence are not a part of science (National Academy of sciences, 1998). According to Nickels, 1998, scientific knowledge is based on the following assumptions which are; • The world is REAL; it exists apart from our sensory perception of it. • Humans can accurately perceive and attempt to understand the physical universe. • Natural processes are sufficient to explain or account for natural phenomena or events. In other words, scientists must explain the natural in terms of the natural (and not the supernatural, which, lacking any independent evidence, is not falsifiable and therefore not science), although humans may not currently recognize what those processes are. • By the nature of human mental processing, rooted in previous experiences, our perceptions may be inaccurate or biased. • Scientific explanations are limited. Scientific knowledge is necessarily contingent knowledge rather than absolute, and therefore must be evaluated and assessed, and is subject to modification in light of new evidence. It is impossible to know if we have thought of every possible alternative explanation or every variable, and technology may be limited. • Scientific explanations are probabilistic. The statistical view of nature is evident implicitly or explicitly when stating scientific predictions of phenomena or explaining the likelihood of events in actual situations. As stated in the National Science Education Standards for the Nature of Science: Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations. (NSES, 1996, p. 171) Understanding of the nature of science – the goals, values and assumptions inherent in the development and interpretation of scientific knowledge (Lederman, 1992) - has been an objective of science instruction since at least the turn of the last century. It is regarded in contemporary documents as a fundamental attribute of science literacy and a defense against unquestioning acceptance of pseudoscience and of reported research. Knowledge of the nature of science can enable individuals to make more informed decisions with respect to scientifically based issues; promote student in-depth understanding of “traditional” science subject matter, and help them distinguish science from other ways of knowing. Rene Descartes established the framework of the scientific method in 1619, and his first step is seen as a guiding principle for many in the field of science today; …..never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to compromise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of methodic doubt. (Discours de la method 1637, section 1, 120). ( McLelland, 2006) McLelland, 2006 went further to state that by stocking to certain accepted “rules of reasoning” scientific method helps to minimize influence on result by personal, social;, or unreasonable influences. Thus, science is seen as a pathway to study phenomena in the world, based upon reproducibly testable and verifiable evidence. This pathway may take different forms; in fact, creative flexibility is essential to scientific thinking, so there is no single method that all scientist use, but each must ultimately have a conclusion that is testable and falsifiable, otherwise, it is not science (Christine, 2012). The scientific method in actuality isn‟t a set sequence of procedures that must happen, although it is sometimes presented as such. Some descriptions actually list and number three to fourteen procedural steps. No matter how many steps it has or what they cover, the scientific method does contain elements that are applicable to most experimental sciences. Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. (McLelland, 2006) Research simply implies an examination, inquiry, investigation or an experiment which is aimed at discovering facts (Egbule et al 1998). Research is the discovering and interpretation of facts that is known to exist. It is the revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new forms or developments. Nwankwo (1984) defined research as “a available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, giving them the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established. The main characteristic which differentiates a scientific methods of investigation from other methods of acquiring knowledge of the world is that scientists seek to let reality speak for itself, supporting a theory when a theory‟s predictions are confirmed and challenging a theory when its predictions prove false. Procedure may vary from one field of investigation to another, identifiable feature distinguish scientific investigation from other methods of acquiring knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them. These steps must be repeatable, to guard against mistake or confusion in any particular experimenter. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently derived hypotheses together in a coherent supportive structure. Theories in turn, may help form new hypothesis or place groups of hypotheses into context. Scientific methodology has been practiced in some form for at least one thousand years, and is the process by which science is carried out. Because science builds on previous knowledge, it consistently improves its understanding of the world; scientific method improves itself in the same way, meaning that it gradually become more effective at generating new knowledge. For example, the concept of falsification (first proposed in 1934) reduces confirmation bias by formalizing the attempt to disprove hypotheses rather then prove them (Karl R.P 1963). The overall process involves making conjectures (hypothesis) deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on these prediction to determine whether the original conjectures was correct through the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps. They are better considered as general principles (Gauch 11 2003). Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry (or to the same degree), and not always in the same order. As noted by William Whewell (1794-1866), “invention, sagacity, (and) genius are required at every step. The important goal of scientific investigation is to obtain knowledge in the form of testable and verifiable explanations that can predict the results of future explanations. It enables scientists to gain an understanding of reality, and later use that knowledge to intervenes in its causal mechanisms. The better an explanation is at making predictions, the more useful it is, and the more likely it is to be correct. The most successful explanations, which explain and make accurate predictions in a wide range of circumstances, are called scientific theories (Wikipedia. Org, 2012). Most experimental results do not result in large change in human understanding. Improvements in theoretical scientific understanding; is usually the result of a gradual synthesis of the results of different experiments by various researchers, across different domains of science. (Stanovich, 2007). Scientific models vary in the extent to which they have been experimentally tested and how long, and in their acceptance in the scientific community. In general, explanations become accepted by a scientific community as evidence in favor is presented and as presumptions that are inconsistent with the evidence are falsified. New Scientific ideas are subject to skepticisms, especially if they challenge well- established scientific ideas. One generally accepted by the scientific community, scientific knowledge is durable. Therefore, it is reasonable to have confidence in scientific knowledge while still recognizing that new evidence may result in changes in the future. Related to the tentative nature of science is the idea that regardless of the amount of empirical evidence supporting a scientific idea (even a law), it is impossible to prove that the idea holds for every instance and under every condition. Einstein‟s modifications to the well -established Newtonian laws are a classic case in point. Thus, “Truth” in the absolute sense, lies outside the scope of science (Popper 1988). Scientific laws do not provide absolutely true generalization, rather, they hold under very specific conditions (Cartwright, 1883, 1988). Scientific laws are our best attempts to describe patterns and principals observed in the natural world. As human constructs, these laws should not be viewed as infallible. Rather, they provide useful generalization for describing and predicting behavior under specific circumstances. According to Best (1989), research is a systematic activity that is directed towards discovery and the development of an organized body of knowledge. While Whawo (1992) described research as a process of searching for a solution to an identified problem. In his opinion such a problem necessitates the researcher‟s desire to formulate hypothesis, generate data, and employ critical analysis of data before reaching conclusion. In effect, whatever conclusion is reached becomes a contribution to knowledge. Basically, research is a systematic procedure of problem solving through the application of the scientific method of inquiry (Oganwu pg1-2 2004). Scientific method according to Kerlinger (1973) is “Systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about presumed relations among natural phenomena”. This definition is inclined towards the deductive mode. In another development Scientific method is a non-authoritarian democratic, self-correcting, intellectual and moral authority by which man may give his actionsdiligent and systematic investigation intended to provide acceptable answers to questions by following logically designed procedure”. According to Whawo (1992) research may be explained as a process of searching for a solution to an identified problem. Such problems generate the desire to critically examine it so that solution can be synthesized. Therefore, research could be said to be a systematic process of problem analysis in an effort to find solution to such problems. All researches are characterized with a central problem that requires scientific solution through empirical investigation research undertaking calls for objectivity through the application of standardized, valid and reliable measurement device which helps to guide against personal subjectivity (Egbule et al 1998). The Oxford English Dictionary says that scientific method “ is” a method or procedure that has itemized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment , and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypothesis. Science inquiry is generally intended to be as objective as possible, to reduce biased interpretations of results. Another basic expectation is to document, archive and share all data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, giving them the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established. The main characteristic which differentiates a scientific methods of investigation from other methods of acquiring knowledge of the world is that scientists seek to let reality speak for itself, supporting a theory when a theory‟s predictions are confirmed and challenging a theory when its predictions prove false. Procedure may vary from one field of investigation to another, identifiable feature distinguish scientific investigation from other methods of acquiring knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them. These steps must be repeatable, to guard against mistake or confusion in any particular experimenter. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently derived hypotheses together in a coherent supportive structure. Theories in turn, may help form new hypothesis or place groups of hypotheses into context. Scientific methodology has been practiced in some form for at least one thousand years, and is the process by which science is carried out. Because science builds on previous knowledge, it consistently improves its understanding of the world; scientific method improves itself in the same way, meaning that it gradually become more effective at generating new knowledge. For example, the concept of falsification (first proposed in 1934) reduces confirmation bias by formalizing the attempt to disprove hypotheses rather then prove them (Karl R.P 1963). The overall process involves making conjectures (hypothesis) deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on these prediction to determine whether the original conjectures was correct through the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps. They are better considered as general principles (Gauch 11 2003). Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry (or to the same degree), and not always in the same order. As noted by William Whewell (1794-1866), “invention, sagacity, (and) genius are required at every step. The important goal of scientific investigation is to obtain knowledge in the form of testable and verifiable explanations that can predict the results of future explanations. It enables scientists to gain an understanding of reality, and later use that knowledge to intervenes in its causal mechanisms. The better an explanation is at making predictions, the more useful it is, and the more likely it is to be correct. The most successful explanations, which explain and make accurate predictions in a wide range of circumstances, are called scientific theories (Wikipedia. Org, 2012). Most experimental results do not result in large change in human understanding. Improvements in theoretical scientific understanding; is usually the result of a gradual synthesis of the results of different experiments by various researchers, across different domains of science. (Stanovich, 2007). Scientific models vary in the extent to which they have been experimentally tested and how long, and in their acceptance in the scientific community. In general, explanations become accepted by a scientific community as evidence in favor is presented and as presumptions that are inconsistent with the evidence are falsified. New Scientific ideas are subject to skepticisms, especially if they challenge well- established scientific ideas. One generally accepted by the scientific community, scientific knowledge is durable. Therefore, it is reasonable to have confidence in scientific knowledge while still recognizing that new evidence may result in changes in the future. Related to the tentative nature of science is the idea that regardless of the amount of empirical evidence supporting a scientific idea (even a law), it is impossible to prove that the idea holds for every instance and under every condition. Einstein‟s modifications to the well -established Newtonian laws are a classic case in point. Thus, “Truth” in the absolute sense, lies outside the scope of science (Popper 1988). Scientific laws do not provide absolutely true generalization, rather, they hold under very specific conditions (Cartwright, 1883, 1988). Scientific laws are our best attempts to describe patterns and principals observed in the natural world. As human constructs, these laws should not be viewed as infallible. Rather, they provide useful generalization for describing and predicting behavior under specific circumstances. According to Best (1989), research is a systematic activity that is directed towards discovery and the development of an organized body of knowledge. While Whawo (1992) described research as a process of searching for a solution to an identified problem. In his opinion such a problem necessitates the researcher‟s desire to formulate hypothesis, generate data, and employ critical analysis of data before reaching conclusion. In effect, whatever conclusion is reached becomes a contribution to knowledge. Basically, research is a systematic procedure of problem solving through the application of the scientific method of inquiry (Oganwu pg1-2 2004). Scientific method according to Kerlinger (1973) is “Systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about presumed relations among natural phenomena”. This definition is inclined towards the deductive mode. In another development Scientific method is a non-authoritarian democratic, self-correcting, intellectual and moral authority by which man may give his actions.

2. Differentiate positivism and interpretivism. (5) 

- Positivism and Interpretivism are two very important, and very different approaches to sociological research and study. Here are some key features of these two positions, which highlight the fundamental differences between them.

Positivism

1) Associated with ‘scientific method’

- Positivists believe the social sciences can be as rigorously scientific as the natural sciences

- Theories and ‘hypotheses’ can be generated and then tested using direct observation or ‘empirical’ research

- Positivists are most likely to use ‘quantitative’ analysis using statistical methods etc

Believe in value-free, objective research 

Using interpretivist research methods make it impossible to see beyond our own personal baises and experiences. 

A scientific methodology allows us to gain objective, trustworthy and generalisable data, more beneficial to sociological theory. 

Interpretivism 

Our knowledge of the world is ‘socially constructed’ 

Knowledge is not ‘objective’ and ‘value-free', but is transmitted to us through ideas, discourses and experiences. 

There are no simple 'facts', only interpretations of the world. 

The type of ‘objective’ and scientific social science which positivists attempt is simply not possible. 

Attempting to discover 'facts' wastes time that could be spent attempting to udnerstand the ways in which different people interpret the world. 

It is not possible to make valid causal statements or predictions about the social world. 

3. Critically evaluate the distinctions between ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’ research with suitable examples. (5)

- In a qualitative research, there are only a few non-representative cases are used as a sample to develop an initial understanding. Unlike, quantitative research in which a sufficient number of representative cases are taken to consideration to recommend a final course of action.

Meaning 

Key Differences Between Qualitative And Quantitative Research

The differences between qualitative and quantitative research are provided can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry that develops understanding on human and social sciences, to find the way people think and feel. A scientific and empirical research method that is used to generate numerical data, by employing statistical, logical and mathematical technique is called quantitative research.

Qualitative research is holistic in nature while quantitative research is particularistic.

The qualitative research follows a subjective approach as the researcher is intimately involved, whereas the approach of quantitative research is objective, as the researcher is uninvolved and attempts to precise the observations and analysis on the topic to answer the inquiry.

Qualitative research is exploratory. As opposed to quantitative research which is conclusive.

The reasoning used to synthesise data in qualitative research is inductive whereas in the case of quantitative research the reasoning is deductive.

Qualitative research is based on purposive sampling, where a small sample size is selected with a view to get a thorough understanding of the target concept. On the other hand, quantitative research relies on random sampling; wherein a large representative sample is chosen in order to extrapolate the results to the whole population.

Verbal data are collected in qualitative research. Conversely, in quantitative research measurable data is gathered.

Inquiry in qualitative research is a process-oriented, which is not in the case of quantitative research.

Elements used in the analysis of qualitative research are words, pictures, and objects while that of quantitative research is numerical data.

Qualitative Research is conducted with the aim of exploring and discovering ideas used in the ongoing processes. As opposed to quantitative research the purpose is to examine cause and effect relationship between variables.

Lastly, the methods used in qualitative research are in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc. In contrast, the methods of conducting quantitative research are structured interviews and observations.

Qualitative Research develops the initial understanding whereas quantitative research recommends a final course of action.