Research Methods in Business

This assignment explores various research methods employed in business settings. It delves into the distinction between quantitative and qualitative research, highlighting their applications and benefits. The focus then shifts to interview techniques, analyzing both face-to-face and telephone interviews, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the assignment emphasizes ethical considerations in data collection and storage, stressing the importance of privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, and voluntariness.

Research methods
In this decade, businesses have become customer oriented and a company
which fails to invest enough customer satisfaction may not grow and gets edged by
its competitors. The company therefore has to invest adequately in research .Two
main research methods are available;
i) Quantitative research. This involves data collection and manipulation in to
numerical form and analyzed in order to infer conclusions which are used in
decision making. Relationships between various variables can then be established.
ii) Qualitative research involves subjective assessment of views and attitudes
inform of text which are then analyzed to generate deeper insights. Data obtained
in this form of research is in non- quantitative state and are not subjected to
rigorous analysis like in quantitative research technique.
Qualitative technique will be appropriate in the case of Gulf integration since they
aim to help clients transform their businesses so as to respond quickly to ever-
changing competition levels, customer expectation and market flux across the
world .This role that can be achieved through assessing attitudes and opinions from
company customers and prospective customers since it does not base its research
on pre-determined hypothesis.

Two commonly used interview techniques in business research are face to face
interviews and telephone interviews.
Face to face interviews is whereby the interviewer and the interviewee meet
physically in some location for the interview. Advantages of Face to face
interviews are;
 The interviewer can create a good rapport with the respondents and also
capture the social cues such as tonal variation and facial expressions of the
respondent.
 Another advantage is that with the knowledge of the interviewee , the
conversation can be tape recorded for later retrieval which maintains the
accuracy of the interview.
 The answer becomes more spontaneous and both parties can seek
clarifications.
The demerits associated with face to face interviews include
 Time consuming since in involves a lot of travel especially when the area to
be covered is large , interviews can be prolonged too.
 It’s costly since the interviewer incurs costs of travel and other logistics
costs.

 Weather phenomena such as rains can interfere with the interview
 Interviewee may not be open enough to reveal sensitive in formation of
interest.
Telephone interviews are where the interviewee and interviewer communicate
converse over a telephone. The advantages of telephone interviews are as follows:
 Wide access to various people in the society for example you are able to
reach physically disabled person who is no able to get out of the house.
 You can access a large geographical area, .through telephone interviews you
can interview anybody across the globe .
 Through telephone interview you can get more sensitive information unlike
face to face interviews where the interviewee might shy off from give that
kind of information.
 Cost effective and time saving; since neither the interviewee nor the
interviewer needs to travel everything can be done over the phone.
 Access to limited and restricted places for example through telephone
interviews the interviewer can access someone inside a military area which
is restricted and also the interviewer can get information from a person in a
war thorn areas.
Disadvantages of telephone interviews

 The interviewer will not be able to record social cues (tonal variations, body
language)
 Since the interview in done over the phone the interviewer will have no
chance to create a good environment for the interviewee to respond well.
The interviewee might be in an insecure area hence he or she will not be able
to respond well.
 Technological itches might occur during the telephone interview for
example network coverage problem.
Ethical responsibilities associated with collecting and storage of data.
The fundamental and most integral point in collecting and storing of data is
protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your sources and data. Privacy of
interviewees should be always be upheld by the interviewer. Confidentiality of the
information should be protected so that the privacy of the interviewee will not be
infringed and compromised.
Respect the source of your data during data collection. The interviewer should
always respect the opinion of the interviewee.
Informed consent; Interviewee should always have informed consent about what
the interview is about its objectives and how the information he or she gives out
will be used.

The interviewee should always do the interview at his or her own will. The
interview should be based on voluntariliness no one should be forced to do the
interview, by forcing the interviewee his or her privacy is being provoked and may
give false and wrong information.
References
Rowley, J., 2012. Conducting research interviews. Management Research
Review, 35(3/4), pp.260-271.

Opdenakker, R., 2006, September. Advantages and Disadvantages of Four
Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research. In Forum: Qualitative Social
Research (Vol. 7, No. 4).
Lee, T.W., 1999. Using qualitative methods in organizational research.
Sage.
Culnan, M.J. and Williams, C.C., 2009. How ethics can enhance
organizational privacy: lessons from the choicepoint and TJX data
breaches. Mis Quarterly, pp.673-687.