Business Research: Quality, Ethics, Questions, and Review

This assignment delves into crucial aspects of research methodology and ethics. It begins by examining the importance of protecting research participants and the concept of informed consent, highlighting the evolution of ethical considerations in research. The assignment then explores the significance of research questions, providing examples for correlational, survey, and interview methods, emphasizing their role in focusing the research scope. Furthermore, it discusses the purpose and components of a literature review, illustrating its role in synthesizing existing data and informing the research process. The assignment also covers the distinction between quantitative and categorical variables, providing examples. Finally, it underscores the consequences of neglecting a literature review, emphasizing its foundational role in a research project. The assignment provides a comprehensive overview of essential research components, offering valuable insights for students.

Quality and Ethics in Research

1. Locate at least one article on protecting participants in research and summarize its
content in one page
For the successful completion of a research project it is imperative to have proper research data
and the best possible research data is received from the practical sample size that is from the
human participants thus, it becomes extremely important for a researcher to ensure the privacy or
anonymity or the other preferred aspects of the research participants are properly protected in
order to have the best possible information from them (Goodwin & Goodwin, 2016 p,89).
Protecting participants is essential in every research but going with history it could be said that
protection of the human participants was not prioritised in the yesteryear researches. For instance
the Nazi physicians used to apply experiments on the captivated Jews which are still considered
an extremely inhumane and unethical practice. Talking on this subject Grady (2015 p,76)
brought up an interesting aspect. The author said even though privacy and protection are
considered two important aspects of research ethics nowadays but consent rather informed
consent is a complex aspect that the researchers should focus on more. Informed consent is a
major aspect in protecting participants in modern day researches. The research states that in
order to receive informed consent from the participants it is essential to make them understand
the purpose of the research and communicate with them about their participation which would
largely affect the buildup of the research. In this scenario the author also emphasised on the fact
that in the age of information technology protecting privacy of the participants has become
extremely tough due to the advancement that is much more efficient in exposing the true identity
of the participants (Wallace & Sheldon, 2015 p,111-112). From the article it is clear that the
author focuses more on communicating with the participants and getting the proper ethical
documents ready which conveys all the information to the participants in relation to the research
that helps to strengthen their participation and protection in the best possible manner.

2. Why research questions are significant? Prepare research questions on three methods
(Correlational, survey research and interview).
Research questions are often considered rudimentary part of a research project. In the modern
day academics and in business research questions are found regularly. There is a significant
reason behind the increased use of research questions in researches. Research question is an
effective tool that largely helps to narrow down the scope of the research and precisely address
the key objectives. Just like research objectives the research questions increases the efficiency of
the research study to a large extent because this tool influences every move of the researcher in
the best possible manner. This means that research question helps to improve the start of the
research and gives a suitable clue about where to start. Thus, it is clear that the research
questions underpins a research study and provides a strong platform for its successful completion
(White, 2017 p, 21).
There are various methods of research study and based on the approach of the study the research
questions are made. In this scenario if the research is a correlational one the research will focus
on analysing the relationship between two different variables which might have positive or
negative impact or relationship with the other. An example of correlational or comparative
question is:
Are you influenced by online advertisements to buy branded clothes?
The question clearly takes the opportunity to analyse the relationship between two variables.
This shows it is clear and feasible with the age group given ethical as it is business research and
focuses on understanding the market trend and will solicit close ended responses which is
effective to synthesise.
In case of a survey research the questions are close ended because it takes into account questions
which would record shorter responses from the participants. Survey research is used effectively
by businesses and even by academicians (Coviello, 2015 p, 45). A simple survey question would
focus on extracting specific data on a subject for instance:
Do you surf FB and other social sites regularly?
Do online advertisements help you in making purchase decisions?

In case of Interview the questions are mostly open ended because elaborate information is
required for the research. An interview question would draw elaborate expression from the
participant for instance:
What do you think is the impact of online ads on customer purchase of a brand?
All the above questions are precise focused on addressing the research topic which makes them
clear and feasible due to the provision of the age group. Since the research questions are largely
business centric it is precise in nature and doesn’t ask any personal question which would make
it unethical.
As it is known that correlational and survey research are largely statistical because they provide
best results with quantitative data which means for these two researches statistical analysis will
take place thus quantitative data will be used for them. On the other hand interview provides
descriptive data which means they are not quantitatively analysed due to the absence of statistical
elements and hence, it could be said that interview research mainly deals with qualitative data
(Quinlan et al., 2019 p, 34).
3. Producing the literature review report plays a significant role in the research project.
What is its purpose? What are its five parts? How might a review of the literature
incorporate a past, present, and potential perspective of the subject under investigation?
Literature review is an integral part of conventional research studies. Literature review provides
the fundamental platform of data based on which every researcher builds on which means it
becomes extremely tough for the researcher to work on a research topic if a literature review is
absent. This happens because the main purpose of the literature review is to develop a strong
sense and understanding of the research topic through synthesise of the existing data and helps to
incorporate the understanding of the past results, present information and future assumptions to
improve the quality of the research. Another effective action of the literature review could be
identified during a research when the investigation is going on through the gaps revealed in the
literature review (Hart, 2018 p, 56). This provides a strong platform to analyse those areas which
are still unexplored to get a cohesive result from the study. Producing a literature review involves
significant research activities that largely increases the knowledge base of the researcher and
provides ideas to continue with the research further which is extremely important for an aspiring

individual. The literature review places each work relevant under investigation and helps to
analyse the relationship between each work. It helps in developing new ways to improve
research process (Boell & Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2015 p, 77).
The five key parts of the literature review are:
 Problem formulation
 Thorough search of the relevant literature
 Data filtration
 Analysis and interpretation
 Gaps found
Since the literature focuses on dealing with the research topic when all the relevant information
comes together helps the researcher to make decisions since the project is on the buildup the data
gathered from the literature review helps in understanding the past, present and future
perspective of the research subject and helps to move ahead accordingly. The primary role of the
literature review is to narrow down the subject which then helps to gather data in the best
possible way and this provides significant insight to the researcher on the research topic
(Quinlan et al., 2019 p, 90).
4. Describe a class of objects in which there exists a quantitative variable or a categorical
variable. Identify which variable exists.
Variables and hypothesis are considered effective for a research because based on them the
mechanism of the research is decided. If a study is working with variables then it is mostly a
comparative study which means it is important to analyse and interpret the relationship between
the two variables present in the research. In the modern day research studies two different types
of variables can be identified namely quantitative or categorical (Bryman, 2016 p, 65). The
quantitative variable is a kind of variable that has a true count or measurement for instance the
BP measurement of patients has true count with proper units and numbers. On the other hand
categorical variable even when represented by numbers might not proper and true counts for
instance a rating scale of 1 to 5 is not authenticated which means the measurements are largely
categorical. Hence, from the present discussion it is clear that there are different class of objects
which either have quantitative variable or categorical variable and understanding both the

concepts are extremely important for the researcher because it not only helps to do a research but
it also helps to frame the research topic and implement the right analytical tool for the research
(Ary et al., 2018 p, 12). Using “gender” as the class of object it could be said that gender can
only be categorical in nature because clearly one can assign male and female into two different
categories but cannot clearly rate or order the variables which is an element of quantitative
variable.
5. What are the problems related with not doing a literature review?
The decision of not doing a literature review can be stated as “blunder” because a literature
review is an indispensable part of a project. It might consume time but it provides with a lot of
opportunities for the researcher. Missing out on doing a literature review will first affect the
foundation of the research because the researcher won’t have any idea about the past information
and the future assumptions made on the project which would definitely affect the project.
Without a literature review students would be derailed from the project because they wouldn’t be
able to keep a track of the information gathered (Walliman, 2017 p, 89). The literature review
acts as the initial database for the researcher and missing out on that is likely affect the success of
the project. A research is all about getting outcomes and create an informative database for the
future which would help other researchers in this scenario not having literature review would
mean that the researcher is depriving all the other future researchers from huge chunk of
information on the topic as well as from the future scope of research (Patten & Newhart, 2017 p,
25). Thus, I’d suggest Mr. Smith to advise all his students to take their time and do proper
literature reviews before going ahead with data collection so that they know what they are going
to investigate on.

References
Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Irvine, C. K. S., & Walker, D. (2018). Introduction to research in
education. Cengage Learning.
Boell, S. K., & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2015). On being ‘systematic’in literature reviews.
In Formulating Research Methods for Information Systems (pp. 48-78). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Coviello, N. (2015). Re-thinking research on born globals. Journal of International Business
Studies, 46(1), 17-26.
Goodwin, C. J., & Goodwin, K. A. (2016). Research in psychology methods and design. John
Wiley & Sons.
Grady, C. (2015). Enduring and emerging challenges of informed consent. New England Journal
of Medicine, 372(9), 855-862.
Hart, C. (2018). Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Patten, M. L., & Newhart, M. (2017). Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. Routledge.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2019). Business research methods. South Western
Cengage.
Wallace, M., & Sheldon, N. (2015). Business research ethics: Participant observer
perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), 267-277.
Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.
White, P. (2017). Developing research questions. Macmillan International Higher Education.