Research Methods for Business

If I am honest I began reading this new text on research methods with a doubt in my mind as to whether the world really needed another text on this topic area. On balance I think the authors do do enough to warrant their place on the library shelf.

The text is firmly grounded in the world of business, and this is maintained consistently and coherently throughout, in terms of how the key steps, processes, questions, problems and issues are addressed. Thus, everything from the need to ensure there is a research question worth addressing to writing and presentation is appropriately applied. The book is an excellent champion of the notion that managers, all managers, need business research skills. There is a similar credibility and accessibility to how the authors tackle methodology. Although there is no real discussion of methodology as such nevertheless their broad distinction between qualitative and quantitative approaches is integrated intelligently into the unfolding research process.

For my money, though, it is the questions, exercises, cases, and dilemmas that the authors use to bring the process to life that is the real strength of the book. For example, the authors focus on a single case throughout the book – a Greek restaurant in London. Interestingly, it would appear that one of the book's authors is (was) also the proprietor of this establishment. If true, what better way to ensure real problems and issues are applied to the research process? A second example is that the book makes available additional and complimentary resources for both the lecturer and the student. This is in the form of a website accompanying the book. It includes Powerpoint slides, guides to using Excel and SPSS, SPSS data sets, sample questionnaires and self‐test quizzes.

This said the book is not without weaknesses and problems. I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked by students “how big should my sample be?”. The authors do address this question but I'm not sure I'll be referring my students to this section over any others in alternative texts. The authors, in their preface, claim the book's coverage of quantitative analysis is more extensive and much easier to understand than other texts. This is somewhat presumptuous. I did not find the discussion of a range of statistical tests any less perplexing than elsewhere. Furthermore, in the context of qualitative data analysis the discussion was skipped over far too quickly. One of the “Research in Action” illustrations is headed “Qualitative data analysis: software to the rescue”. This refers to the use that can now be made of software such as NVIVO. Such software can be useful but it offers no easy short‐cuts. A much fuller discussion of how software might be applied to the complexity and difficulties inherent within qualitative data analysis was warranted.

Overall, the book deserves recommendation to business studies students. In particular, the features that are utilised to assist the reader make effective decisions about research activity are such that this recommendation can be made with some confidence. The associated website offers further value. I shall certainly be availing myself of some of these resources for my own teaching purposes.