3.20801 BUSINESS RESEARCH

This course introduces students to business research both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It helps students to understand research as a process of enquiry and investigation, considers the qualities of a good researcher and ensures students are cognizant of ethical issues involved. The course then lays out the conceptual issues underpinning research paradigms, particularly the positivistic and phenomenological paradigms. The ontological, epistemological, axiological, rhetorical and methodological assumptions of the two main paradigms are considered. The subsequent methodologies of these paradigms are evaluated as well as the issue of mixing methods for the purposes of triangulation. Particular attention is paid to the tasks of literature search, research design, data collection, data analysis, project write up and trouble shooting.

Contact hours: Four hours per week.

Text:

Hussey, J. & Hussey, R., 1997, Business research, a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students, Macmillan Business, London