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| About the authors | |
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| Preface | |
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| Introduction to Research | |
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| What is research? | |
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| Business research | |
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| Definition of business research | |
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| Research and the manager | |
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| Types of business research: applied and basic | |
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| Applied research | |
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| Basic or fundamental research | |
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| Managers and research | |
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| The manager and the consultant-researcher | |
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| The manager-researcher relationship | |
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| Internal versus external consultants/researchers | |
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| Internal consultants/researchers | |
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| External consultants/researchers | |
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| Knowledge about research and managerial effectiveness | |
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| Ethics and business research | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Scientific Investigation | |
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| The hallmarks of scientific research | |
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| Purposiveness | |
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| Rigor | |
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| Testability | |
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| Replicability | |
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| Precision and confidence | |
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| Objectivity | |
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| Generalizability | |
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| Parsimony | |
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| Some obstacles to conducting scientific research in the management area | |
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| The hypothetico-deductive method | |
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| The seven-step process in the hypothetico-deductive method | |
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| Review of the hypothetico-deductive method | |
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| Other types of research | |
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| Case studies | |
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| Action research | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| The Research Process: The Broad Problem Area and Defining the Problem Statement | |
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| Broad problem area | |
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| Preliminary information gathering | |
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| Nature of information to be gathered | |
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| Literature review | |
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| Conducting the literature review | |
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| Defining the problem statement | |
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| What makes a good problem statement? | |
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| The research proposal | |
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| Managerial implications | |
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| Ethical issues in the preliminary stages of investigation | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Practice projects | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Some online resources useful for business research | |
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| Bibliographical databases | |
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| APA format for referencing relevant articles | |
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| Referencing and quotation in the literature review section | |
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| The Research Process: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development | |
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| The need for a theoretical framework | |
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| Variables | |
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| Types of variables | |
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| Theoretical framework | |
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| The components of the theoretical framework | |
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| Theoretical framework for the example of air safety violations | |
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| Hypothesis development | |
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| Definition of a hypothesis | |
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| Statement of hypotheses: formats | |
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| Directional and nondirectional hypotheses | |
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| Null and alternate hypotheses | |
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| Hypothesis testing with qualitative research: negative case analysis | |
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| Managerial implications | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Practice project | |
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| The Research Process: Elements of Research Design | |
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| The research design | |
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| Purpose of the study: exploratory, descriptive, hypothesis testing (analytical and predictive), case study analysis | |
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| Exploratory study | |
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| Descriptive study | |
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| Hypothesis testing | |
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| Case study analysis | |
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| Review of the purpose of the study | |
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| Type of investigation: causal versus correlational | |
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| Extent of researcher interference with the study | |
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| Study setting: contrived and noncontrived | |
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| Unit of analysis: individuals, dyads, groups, organizations, cultures | |
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| Time horizon: cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies | |
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| Cross-sectional studies | |
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| Longitudinal studies | |
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| Review of elements of research design | |
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| Managerial implications | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Measurement of Variables: Operational Definition | |
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| How variables are measured | |
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| Operationalization of variables | |
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| Operationalization: dimensions and elements | |
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| Operationalizing the (multidimensional) concept of achievement motivation | |
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| What operationalization is not | |
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| Review of operationalization | |
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| International dimensions of operationalization | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Measurement: Scaling, Reliability, Validity | |
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| Scales | |
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| Nominal scale | |
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| Ordinal scale | |
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| Interval scale | |
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| Ratio scale | |
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| Review of scales | |
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| Rating scales | |
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| Dichotomous scale | |
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| Category scale | |
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| Semantic differential scale | |
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| Numerical scale | |
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| Itemized rating scale | |
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| Likert scale | |
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| Fixed or constant sum scale | |
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| Stapel scale | |
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| Graphic rating scale | |
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| Consensus scale | |
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| Other scales | |
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| Ranking scales | |
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| Paired comparison | |
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| Forced choice | |
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| Comparative scale | |
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| International dimensions of scaling | |
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| Goodness of measures | |
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| Item analysis | |
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| Validity | |
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| Reliability | |
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| Reflective versus formative measurement scales | |
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| What is a reflective scale? | |
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| What is a formative scale and why do the items of a formative scale not necessarily hang together? | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Examples of some measures | |
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| Data Collection Methods | |
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| Sources of data | |
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| Primary sources of data | |
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| Secondary sources of data | |
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| Data collection methods | |
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| Interviewing | |
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| Questionnaires | |
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| Other methods of data collection | |
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| Multimethods of data collection | |
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| Review of the advantages and disadvantages of different data collection methods and when to use each | |
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| Setting from which data are gathered | |
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| International dimensions of surveys | |
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| Special issues in instrumentation for cross-cultural research | |
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| Issues in data collection | |
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| Managerial implications | |
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| Ethics in data collection | |
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| Ethics and the researcher | |
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| Ethical behavior of respondents | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Experimental Designs | |
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| The lab experiment | |
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| Control | |
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| Manipulation of the independent variable | |
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| Controlling the contaminating exogenous or "nuisance" variables | |
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| Internal validity of lab experiments | |
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| External validity or generalizability of lab experiments | |
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| The field experiment | |
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| External validity | |
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| Trade-off between internal and external validity | |
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| Factors affecting the validity of experiments | |
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| History effects | |
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| Maturation effects | |
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| Testing effects | |
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| Selection bias effects | |
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| Mortality effects | |
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| Statistical regression effects | |
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| Instrumentation effects | |
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| Identifying threats to validity | |
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| Internal validity in case studies | |
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| Review of factors affecting internal and external validity | |
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| Types of experimental design and validity | |
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| Quasi-experimental designs | |
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| True experimental designs | |
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| Simulation | |
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| Ethical issues in experimental design research | |
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| Managerial implications | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Further experimental designs | |
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| Sampling | |
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| Population, element, sample, sampling unit, and subject | |
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| Population | |
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| Element | |
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| Sample | |
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| Sampling unit | |
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| Subject | |
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| Parameters | |
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| Reasons for sampling | |
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| Representativeness of samples | |
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| Normality of distributions | |
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| The sampling process | |
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| Defining the population | |
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| Determining the sample frame | |
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| Determining the sampling design | |
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| Determining the sample size | |
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| Executing the sampling process | |
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| Probability sampling | |
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| Unrestricted or simple random sampling | |
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| Restricted or complex probability sampling | |
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| Review of probability sampling designs | |
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| Nonprobability sampling | |
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| Convenience sampling | |
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| Purposive sampling | |
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| Review of nonprobability sampling designs | |
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| Examples of when certain sampling designs would be appropriate | |
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| Simple random sampling | |
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| Stratified random sampling | |
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| Systematic sampling | |
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| Cluster sampling | |
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| Area sampling | |
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| Double sampling | |
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| Convenience sampling | |
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| Judgment sampling: one type of purposive sampling | |
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| Quota sampling: a second type of purposive sampling | |
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| Sampling in cross-cultural research | |
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| Issues of precision and confidence in determining sample size | |
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| Precision | |
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| Confidence | |
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| Sample data, precision, and confidence in estimation | |
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| Trade-off between confidence and precision | |
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| Sample data and hypothesis testing | |
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| Determining the sample size | |
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| Importance of sampling design and sample size | |
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| Efficiency in sampling | |
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| Sampling as related to qualitative studies | |
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| Managerial implications | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Quantitative Data Analysis | |
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| Getting the data ready for analysis | |
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| Coding and data entry | |
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| Editing data | |
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| Data transformation | |
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| Getting a feel for the data | |
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| Frequencies | |
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| Measures of central tendency and dispersion | |
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| Relationships between variables | |
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| Excelsior Enterprises - descriptive statistics part 1 | |
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| Testing goodness of data | |
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| Reliability | |
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| Validity | |
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| Excelsior Enterprises - descriptive statistics part 2 | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Quantitative Data Analysis Part 2: Hypothesis Testing | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Type I errors, type II errors, and statistical power | |
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| Choosing the appropriate statistical technique | |
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| Testing a hypothesis about a single mean | |
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| Testing hypotheses about two related means | |
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| Testing hypotheses about two unrelated means | |
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| Testing hypotheses about several means | |
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| Regression analysis | |
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| Standardized regression coefficients | |
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| Regression with dummy variables | |
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| Multicollinearity | |
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| Testing moderation using regression analysis: interaction effects | |
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| Other multivariate tests and analyses | |
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| Discriminant analysis | |
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| Logistic regression | |
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| Conjoint analysis | |
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| Two-way ANOVA | |
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| MANOVA | |
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| Canonical correlation | |
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| Excelsior Enterprises - hypothesis testing | |
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| Data warehousing, data mining, and operations research | |
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| Some software packages useful for data analysis | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Qualitative Data Analysis | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Data reduction | |
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| Data display | |
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| Drawing conclusions | |
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| Reliability and validity in qualitative research | |
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| Some other methods of gathering and analyzing qualitative data | |
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| Content analysis | |
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| Narrative analysis | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| The Research Report | |
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| The report | |
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| The written report | |
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| The purpose of the written report | |
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| The audience for the written report | |
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| Characteristics of a well-written report | |
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| Contents of the research report | |
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| Integral parts of the report | |
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| Oral presentation | |
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| Deciding on the content | |
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| Visual aids | |
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| The presenter | |
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| The presentation | |
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| Handling questions | |
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| Summary | |
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| Discussion questions | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Report 1: Sample of a report involving a descriptive study | |
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| Report 2: Sample of a report where an idea has to be "sold" | |
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| Report 3: Sample of a report offering alternative solutions and explaining the pros and cons of each alternative | |
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| Report 4: Example of an abridged basic research report | |
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| A final note to students | |
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| Statistical tables | |
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| Glossary of terms | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |