• Identify a research question
• Define the required theoretical framework and critically review the existing literature
• Develop hypotheses or research questions that reflect the theoretical setting
• Construct empirical measures of theoretical concepts and identify and collect the right type of data
• Understand and apply the use of appropriate empirical quantitative techniques such as descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression analyses.
• Understand and apply the use of appropriate empirical qualitative ethnographic tools including interviews, qualitative surveys and observation.
• Make qualitative and quantitative data analysis
• Present and interpret the results of the analysis, assess the relevance of theories and make recommendations

The purpose of the course is to provide students with the required research skills that will allow them to combine the needed theoretical background with the proper research techniques in addressing substantial and viable research proposals that integrate different aspects of business. The structure of the course is based on the analysis of both theory and empirical techniques. The analysis of selected material will allow the students to understand how the methodological tools blend together in order to result in competent research projects.

Theory is the cornerstone of any seriously conducted research project either in sciences and/or social sciences for both academic and business purposes. It allows researchers to synthesizes their questions into sound and testable hypotheses – the deductive approach. And it enables them to work exploratively in the field and build theory to explain a phenomenon – the inductive approach. It also sets the research proposal against similar type of work that might have already been conducted in the field and thus determines its degree of originality. In turn, when the project involves empirical testing, researchers are in a strong position to determine the nature and type of data that will permit them to validate their hypotheses or to explore their research questions and furthermore to help them in the choice of the proper empirical method they will have to apply in order to analyse their data.

The course exposes students to two main theoretical approaches in modern interdisciplinary business research namely interpretivism and positivism. The course thus consists of two building blocks: the first covering qualitative research and the second quantitative research. The qualitative block will focus on building students' methodological and reflexive skills. It will do so by introducing ethnographic tools including interviews, qualitative surveys and observation. It will also touch upon the issues of writing up a case. This includes formulating a research question, making a research design, getting access to companies and people, analyzing qualitative data and writing up the stories. The quantitative block of the course introduces students to basic statistical skills in business analysis. The purpose is to make students educated users of statistical methods as well as giving them an overall understanding of the underlying statistical theory. The course includes discussion of the type of data used in business research, methods of data collection, summary measures of location and spread, estimation and inference from population samples, hypothesis testing, correlation, single and multivariate regression analysis and residual analysis.

Required Course Materials:

1. Compendium of texts on qualitative research.
2. Saunders, Mark, Lewis, Philip & Thornhill, Adrian. (2007). Fourth Edition. Research Methods for Business students. (selected chapters)
3. Lind, Douglas, Marchal, William and Wathen, Samuel Adam. (2007). 13th Edition. Statistical Techniques in Business and Economics. (selected chapters)