Business Research Methods - Penang 2010

Oops, we have just done with two days about Business Research. It's a tough subject with wider range of theories and...hypothesis! Why and how people do research are two questions I am still wondering and thinking. Before the class started, I had some assumptions about the subject and topic objectives. I did think after the 2-day module, I can understand what a research is and how to do a research including preparation, draft of a research plan, shape of research tools, and some tips in analysis of research outcomes. My assumptions were not tested so it is called "hypothesis" (in term of business research theory). Now when the class is up and my assumptions have been tested. It turns out to be "fact". It becomes "opportunity". In business research in particular and research study in general, people talk about "assumption", "hypothesis", "opportunities"... I happen to remember a funny story that I read when I was very young. A man was walking in the street and stopped, looked up to the sky and remained standing there for a while, under the heat of the sun. Some people passed by and saw him looking up to the sky. They stopped by the street, got out of their cars, got off their bikes, came closer to the man, and all looked up to the sky. First, only the man did. Several seconds later, more people did. After a while, there was a crowd of people looking up to the sky. That's a phenomena! There is an assumption that the man was looking something over the sky, something like UFO or a piece of shaped cloud. At first this assumption was not tested, so it was hypothesis. Continuing with the man, he suddenly snoze and was so surprised to see so so many people standing around him looking up to the sky! He had a flu and he felt uncomfortable. A normal thing under a hypothesis may become a phenomena. Business people may see opportunities from the phenomena. A pharmatist might think there are opportunities to sell "panadol". An insurance agent might see lots of potential customers there... With these things, business people should conduct a research to see what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad, what to do and how to do next for the business, and to foresee the trend and to come up with a certain action plan for business growth or sustainability.

There are two kinds of research: basic and applied. Basic research is more related to a mechanism. It aims to expand the limits of knowledge, did not directly involve in any solution to a pragmatic problem. From the other side, applied research is conducted to come up with a decision about a specific real-life problem...(con't)