Key TermsBusiness intelligence systemBusiness
researchControlCustom ResearcherData miningData warehouse Decision
support systemExtranetFull-service researcher
IntranetManagement dilemma Omnibus researcher Omnibus
StudyProprietary MethodologyReturn on Investment (ROI)Scientific
methodStrategySyndicated data providerTactics
Business research plays an important role in an environment that
emphasizes measurement. Return on investment (ROI) is the
calculation of the financial return for all business expenditures
and it is emphasized more now than ever before. Business research
expenditures are increasingly scrutinized for their contribution to
ROMI. Business research is a systematic inquiry that provides
information to guide business decisions. The definition, as
expanded by that used by the American Marketing Association, is
provided in the slide.
Ask students to offer examples of types of decision-making
situations that could be addressed using business research.
Several factors increase the relevance for studying business
research. The growth of company Web sites and e-commerce presents
new challenges.Stakeholders now have more information at their
disposal and are more resistant to business stimuli.Competition is
growing and coming from unexpected sources.There is more government
intervention geared toward protecting its various publics through
restrictions on business tools.Business managers have more
variables to consider in every decision.The quality of theories and
models in business is improving.Greater computing power provides
the potential to get more data faster, integrate that data using
warehousing, understand it using data mining, and analyze it using
statistical tools.Research methods are gaining wider acceptance in
dealing with a wide range of business problems.This slide
differentiates data warehousing from data mining. Data warehouses
store data electronically while data mining is used to extract
meaningful data from the electronic warehouse.An organizations
mission drives its business goals, strategies, and tactics and,
consequently, its need for business decision support systems and
business intelligence. When elements of data are organized for
retrieval, they collectively constitute a business decision support
system (DSS). This data is often shared over an intranet or an
extranet. An intranet is a private network that is contained within
an enterprise and is not available to the public at large. It may
consist of many interlinked local area networks. It typically
includes connections through one or more computers to the Internet.
The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and
computing resources among internal audiences.An extranet is a
private network that uses the Internet protocols and the public
telecommunication system to share an organizations information,
data, or operations with external suppliers, vendors, or customers.
An extranet can be viewed as the external portion of a companys
intranet.A business intelligence system (BIS) is designed to
provide ongoing information about events and trends in the
technological, economic, political and legal, demographic,
cultural, social, and competitive areas.Exhibit 1-1 shows some
sources of business intelligence.Sources of government information
include speeches by elected officials, recordings of public
proceedings, press releases, and agency websites. Sources of
competitive information include presentations at conferences,
literature searches, press releases, syndicated industry studies,
web sites, clipping services, and business research.Sources of
economic information include literature searches and government
reports.Sources of cultural and social information include
syndicated studies, public opinion organizations, business
research, and government reports.Sources of technological
information include patent filings, web sites, syndicated industry
studies, presentations at conferences, literature searches, and
clipping services.Sources of demographic information include
syndicated studies, government reports, and business research.
Remind your students that they have an extensive list of
business sources on the CD that accompanied their textbook. Its a
valued resource that will be useful if you assign projects within
your course structure.A business strategy is defined as the general
approach an organization will follow to achieve its business goals.
A strategy might describe how an organization can best position
itself to fulfill customer needs or establish a general approach to
gaining brand equity. Haagen-Daz positioned itself with its
super-premium ice-cream strategy.Business tactics are specific,
timed activities that execute a business strategy. Haagen-Daz
designed its ice-cream to be rich and creamy with flavors like
Peanut Butter Fudge Chunk. It packaged the ice cream in pint size
containers with signature gold and burgandy colors. It distributes
the ice cream in grocery stores and franchised stores. Exhibit 1-2
illustrates In the middle tier, some decisions are based on
business research. In the bottom tier, most decisions are based on
past experience or instinct. Decisions are also supported with
secondary data searches.
In the middle tier, some decisions are based on business
research. Exhibit 1-2 illustrates the hierarchy of business
decision makers. In the bottom tier, most decisions are based on
past experience or instinct. Decisions are also supported with
secondary data searches.In the middle tier, some decisions are
based on business research. In the top tier, every decision is
guided by business research. Firms develop proprietary
methodologies and are innovative in their combination of
methodologies. There is access to research data and findings
throughout the organization.Minute Maid is an example of a top-tier
research organization. Business research is only valuable when it
helps management make better decisions. A study may be interesting,
but if it does not help improve decision-making, its use should be
questioned. Research could be appropriate for some problems, but
insufficient resources may limit usefulness.Computers and
telecommunications lowered the costs of data collection.Data
management is now possible and necessary given the quantity of raw
data.Models reflect the behavior of individuals, households, and
industries.A DSS integrates data management techniques, models, and
analytical tools to support decision making.Data must be more than
timely and standardized; it must be meaningful.These are all
characteristics of the information value chain.Exhibit 1-8 presents
the characteristics of good business research and also explains
what managers should look for in research done by others.
You might wish to discuss the concepts here, before you discuss
who actually conducts researchor you might want to discuss who
conducts research first, followed by this slide to
summarize.Exhibit 1-4 illustrates who conducts business research.
First, researchers may be internal or external. Internal
researchers are in-house. External research suppliers are those
available outside of an organization to conduct research.Eastman
Kodak has an internal research department.External research
suppliers can be further classified into business research firms,
communication agencies, consultants, and trade associations. Each
of these will be further developed in the following slides.Business
research firms may be full-service or specialty-based. Full-service
firms conduct all phases of research from planning to insight
development. They may offer custom projects tailored to a clients
needs and/or proprietary work. Proprietary methodologies are
programs or techniques that are owned by a single firm. Exhibit 1-5
lists some of the worlds largest business research firms.Specialty
firms establish expertise in one or a few research methodologies.
They represent the largest number of research firms and tend to
dominate the small research firms operated by a single research
firm or a very small staff. Syndicated data providers track the
change of one or more measures over time, usually in a given
industry. Some research firms offer omnibus studies that combine
one or a few questions from several business decision makers who
need information from the same population. Many research companies
offer proprietary services for different types of research.
Conceptor uses a representative sample of 150 consumers to view new
product concepts.Syndicated Data Providers provide comparable
performance and opinion data. When firms want to evaluate
themselves against others in their industry, they turn to
syndicated data providers. Exhibit 1-6 provides some examples of
Syndicated Data Providers.Exhibit 1-6 lists some syndicated data
providers, their service, and what their service measures.Firms
specializing in methodology conduct only one type of research such
as survey research, customer satisfaction research or ad copy
testing.Firms specializing in process contribute to only one
portion of the research process such as sample recruitment,
telephone interviewing, or fielding Web surveys.Firms specializing
by industry become experts in one or a few industries such as
pharmaceutical research or telecommunications research.Firms
specializing by participant group become experts in a particular
participant group such as Latino-Americans.Firms specializing by
geographic region operate in only one region of a
country.Communication agencies are heavy users of syndicated
research data, especially from media industry suppliers. Some
agencies do extensive basic research. For direct business agencies,
every single project is actually an experiment. All consultants are
involved in extensive secondary data research for their clients and
may also be major influencers in research design. Trade
associations generally do not conduct or supply research services,
but rather commission research that supports their missions.This is
a list of some major trade associations relevant to business
research. A more comprehensive list in on the text CD.
For a searchable website try:
www.businessfinance.com/trade-associations.htm
National Human Resources AssociationAmerican Association of
Public Opinion Research Council of American Survey Research
OrganizationsBusiness Research AssociationAmerican Marketing
AssociationWorld Association of Opinion and Business Research
ProfessionalsAdvertising Research FoundationAssociation of National
AdvertisersSales Research Trust Magazine Publishers of
AmericaNational Association of BroadcastersThis exhibit can be used
to summarize what was just discussed in more detail.
