Doing Research in Business and Management

Book excerpt: Doing Research in Business and Management has been written to help students obtain a thorough understanding of the main methodological issues and options that are available to them as business and management researchers undertaking a masters or doctoral degree. Doing Research in Business and Management takes the reader through all of the important issues that need to be understood if a competent piece of research is to be produced at the masters or doctoral level in the business and management studies. The authors explain the interrelationship between the theoretical and empirical research as well as the differences between positivism and phenomenology. Not only do they put these concepts in context for the business and management student, but they go on to discuss how these different approaches are used in practice. Furthermore, the authors discuss the implications of quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. The book offers high-level advice on different numerical techniques available to researchers as well as different software packages that may be used for analyzing qualitative data. The book also discusses the use of the Internet to support research in masters and doctoral programs.