Page 72 - [Uma_Sekaran]_Research_methods_for_business__a_sk(BookZZ.org)

56 THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Figure 4.1
The research process for basic and applied research.

1
OBSERVATION
Broad area
of research
interest
identified
4
3 THEORETICAL 5 6 7
FRAMEWORK
PROBLEM GENERATION
DEFINITION OF SCIENTIFIC DATA COLLECTION,
Research HYPOTHESES RESEARCH ANALYSIS, AND
problem Variables clearly DESIGN INTERPRETATION
delineated identified and
labeled

2
8
PRELIMINARY
DATA GATHERING DEDUCTION
Interviewing Hypotheses
Literature survey substantiated?
Research question
answered?

No Yes

9 10 11
Report Report Managerial
Writing Presentation Decision
Making

Box 8 denotes the final deduction from the hypotheses testing. When all or most
of the hypotheses are substantiated and the research question is fully answered,
the researcher writes up the report and makes a presentation, and the manager
is able to examine different ways of solving the problem and making a final deci-
sion, as represented in boxes 9, 10, and 11. If, however, several of the hypothe-
ses are not substantiated, or are only partially supported, one may go back to
examine the reasons for this. Note the broken lines and the arrow headed to sev-
eral other boxes in Figure 4.1, indicating that the process may have to be
restarted at the point where the researcher feels the need for reexamination. But
managerial decisions may have to be made on the basis of current findings,
either for lack of time or other reasons, in which case the researcher tries to
make educated conjectures as to why certain hypotheses were not supported,