This course is designed to familiarize students with basic research methods issues and techniques in marketing, finance, organizational behavior, strategy, human resources management, and other field of business and management. The course is concerned mostly with quantitative research methods. However, an introduction to qualitative research methods will also be presented in the course. This course is concerned with the whole of the research process except data analysis which will be covered in depth in a separate course titled Multivariate Data Analysis. This course begins with how theory gets converted into research ideas and finishing with the publication cycle. The course also highlights the alternative research paradigms (positivism and constructivism) and approaches (qualitative and quantitative), and provides the necessary guidelines for the application of these paradigms and approaches in particular circumstances.
Over time, the course will enable students to develop their own critical perspective on what constitutes high quality research that is publishable in the best journals in the organization science. The course should make participants a well-informed producer, reader, and reviewer of business and management research. By the end of the course, students should be able to plan a complete program of research as well as to critique research done by others.