Title: Essentials of Business Research: A Guide to Doing Your Research Project
Abstract: of Business Research: A Guide to Doing your Research Project By Jonathan Wilson Sage Publications India, New Delhi, 2010, Pages: 316, Price: 495 ISBN: 978-81-321-0567-1 (PB)Amongst a number of texts written under the title of business research, the Essentials of Business Research: A guide to doing your research project authored by Jonathan Wilson becomes a distinguishable work addressing particularly the student researchers in business, management, and organization studies. It presents a guide for doing research, thus attempting to capture the critical issues a student researcher may possibly encompass from the beginning to end of the research process. The book stands out in its estimable feature of expounding the value of consulting a research supervisor at different stages in the process. The book is presented with eleven chapters which are specifically featured with learning objectives at the beginning and a case study, case questions, supervisor questions, common questions and answers, and references provided at the end of the text.Chapter one of the book imparts the important introductory knowledge for a business student researcher on the meaning, importance, key concepts, skills, and the typical process of business research. Distinctly, the section on 'key concepts of research' attempts to educate the students with distinction between deductive and inductive approaches, while explaining the research philosophies, i.e., epistemology, ontology, positivism, interpretivism, and axiology in simple terms. Quantitative and qualitative research has been introduced as two main strategies to business research. One remarkable addition to the chapter is its elucidation of the role of the supervisor in a student research project.The author has performed an excellent job in chapter two in his rich and resourceful discussion on 'developing a research topic' which seems to be the most crucial part of a student's research project. Starting from the nature of research topic he unveils the ways for generating research ideas for business students. As truly needed by students, a considerable extent of discussion is apportioned to explain how to develop research questions, aims and objectives. The necessary link between the research problem, questions, and objectives and the need of theory too has been highlighted throughout. Remarkably, it is being enriched with appropriate examples as well.Chapter three has been devoted to the discussion on how to conduct a literature review in a research study. While describing the nature and importance of a literature review, the author explains the practical aspect of it, that is, the stages in the review process, and the structuration and presentation of the review. He simply answers the question why a researcher should undertake a literature review, by highlighting more purposes served by it. The author outlines the literature review process in a few simple and understandable steps. Advisably, researchers should start this process with the research questions and objectives in mind and thus defining the scope and parameters by establishing the key words. Conducting search is asserted to be the key part in this process. As needed by most of the research students, different sources of literature have been discussed while highlighting their specific advantages and disadvantages. In order to guide research students in a critical review of literature, most importantly, the author outlines the appropriate questions to be answered in a critical review of a material.Chapter four discusses about the ethical concerns in a research, which demands paying attention by all researchers, including business students. Author simply defines ethics at the outset by highlighting respecting privacy and confidentiality, trust, honesty, being accurate in conducting research and maintaining transparency as the important aspects. He highlights diverse types of stakeholders while describing the ethical responsibilities to each type. …
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 109
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot