Business Research Methods

OBJECTIVES:

• To make the students of tourism understand the principles of scientific methodology in business enquiry, develop analytical skills of business research and to prepare scientific business reports.

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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 – Types of Validity – Sampling plan – Sample size – determinants optimal sample size – sampling techniques – Sampling methods.

UNIT IV - DATA PREPARATION AND ANALYSIS

‍Data Preparation – editing – Coding –Data entry – Validity of data – Qualitative Vs Quantitative data analyses – Applications of Bivariate and Multivariate statistical techniques, Factor analysis, Discriminant analysis, Cluster analysis, Multiple regression and Correlation, Multidimensional scaling – Conjoint Analysis – Application of statistical software for data analysis.

UNIT V - REPORT DESIGN, WRITING AND ETHICS IN BUSINESS RESEARCH

‍Research report –Types – Contents of report – need for 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 – Ethics in research – Subjectivity and Objectivity in research.

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