Business Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Research Methods - Essay Example Today, highly advanced technologies are available and that can be used for various purposes of an organization. Information technology, mainly use of computer and software-assisted tools can be used for research and various other organizational functions. In research, different types of software can be used to ensure greater accuracy and dependability of the data or information being collected and studied. Purposes of Organizational Research Business organizations require useful, valid and accurate data in order to run the business effectively. When data are made available in the form of raw and they are converted to more useful, analyzed, synthesized and evaluated form, known as information, they are more helpful to managers to make appropriate decisions (Sekaran, 2003, p. 42). Basically, the research is conducted for two different purposes, one is to find a solution to a current problem faced by managers in specific work setting and it requires timely solution. This is known as app lied research. The second is to generate a body of knowledge in order to solve certain problems that are likely to occur within the organization. it is known as basic research (Sekaran, 2003, p. 7). For a business organization, financial and various other functional data play vital roles in decision making and many other managerial functions. For example, sales figures, gross and net profit, sales returns, reasons for sales return, commission or interest received, percentage increase in interest and profit and many other financial data are of greater use to the business. Both financial and management accounting departments can make use of these information for various decision making and strategic thinking processes. As Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, p. 5) noted, business organizations are attempting to develop strategic monitoring programs in order to help them identify and recognize competitors’ strengths, weaknesses and overall business strategies. Business firms can establish computer-based analysis so that they can provide better information-management system to help them develop effective strategies and thus to sustain business success. As it is clear with any case, none can take decisions on any important issue unless a more deep investigation about that specific issue can be conducted. This investigation is more likely to help analyze all these information to make a judgment about the right solution to the specific problem being identified. Business Research with presently available software Generally, in recent years computer has become an integral part of business and it plays extremely significant roles in research as well. In simple terms, computer software like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and any other spreadsheet or document software that are currently available are widely used for various research purposes. All these sorts of software are used for recording, listing, analyzing, interpreting, calculating, controlling, evaluating and synthe sizing different types of data. For instance, Microsoft Excel can be used for calculations and data presentation in a large numbers of different formats. Apart from these very basic software tools that are widely used for organizational research, following are some of other software that have recently gained significant importance in research. 1- Groupware- Groupware is a software, linked to networking to help research team work on