Business Research Methods

Don Cooper is the writer of the text. He is on leave from Florida Atlantic University and currently does extensive consulting work for companies such as IBM in the domestic and global areas.

Part I: Introduction to Business Research; 1. Research in Business; 2. Ethics in Business Research; 3. Thinking Like a Researcher; 4. The Research Process: An Overview; 5. Clarifying the Research Question through Secondary Data and Exploration; Appendix 5A: Bibliographic Database Searches; Appendix 5B: Advanced Searches; Part II: The Design of Business Research; 6. Research Design: An Overview; 7. Qualitative Research; 8. Observation Studies; 9. Surveys; 10. Experiments; Appendix 10A: Complex Experimental Designs; Appendix 10B: Test Markets; Part III: The Sources and Collection of Data; 11. Measurement; 12. Measurement Scales; 13. Questionnaires and Instruments; Appendix 13A: Crafting Effective Measurement Questions; Appendix 13B: Pretesting Options and Discoveries; 14. Sampling; Appendix 14A: Determining Sample Size; Part IV: Insights from Findings: Analysis and Presentation of Data; 15. Data Preparation and Description; Appendix 15A: Describing Data Statistically; 16. Exploring, Displaying, and Examining Data; 17. Hypothesis Testing; 18. Measures of Association; 19. Multivariate Analysis: An Overview; 20. Presenting Results: Oral and Written Reports Case Abstracts; Appendices: A. Business Research Requests and Proposals (with Sample RFP); B. Focus Group Discussion Guide; C. Nonparametric Significance Tests; D. Selected Statistical Tables; References and Readings; Glossary of Key Terms