This chapter explains the use of secondary data sources to develop and formulate research questions. After studying this chapter you will be able to understand: The purpose and process of exploratory research, the two types and three levels of management decision-related secondary sources, the five types of external information and the factors for evaluating the value of a source and its content, | Chapter 5 Clarifying the Research Question through Secondary Data and Exploration McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This chapter explains the use of secondary data sources to develop and formulate research questions. Learning Objectives Understand. The purpose and process of exploratory research. The two types and three levels of management decision-related secondary sources. The five types of external information and the factors for evaluating the value of a source and its content. 5- Learning Objectives Understand . . . The process of using exploratory research to understand the management dilemma and work through the stages of analysis necessary to formulate the research question (and, ultimately, investigative questions and measurement questions). What is involved in internal data mining and how internal data-mining techniques differ from literature searches. 5- Clarifying the Research Question Reduces | Chapter 5 Clarifying the Research Question through Secondary Data and Exploration McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This chapter explains the use of secondary data sources to develop and formulate research questions. Learning Objectives Understand. The purpose and process of exploratory research. The two types and three levels of management decision-related secondary sources. The five types of external information and the factors for evaluating the value of a source and its content. 5- Learning Objectives Understand . . . The process of using exploratory research to understand the management dilemma and work through the stages of analysis necessary to formulate the research question (and, ultimately, investigative questions and measurement questions). What is involved in internal data mining and how internal data-mining techniques differ from literature searches. 5- Clarifying the Research Question Reduces Information Overload “Companies are certainly aware of data mining, but most companies are not making effective use of the data collected. They are not so good at analyzing it or applying these insights to the business.” Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro president Kdnuggets 5- PulsePoint: Research Revelation 33 The percent of financial executives who have full confidence in their current risk strategies. 5- See the text Instructors Manual (downloadable from the text website) for ideas for using this research-generated statistic. Exploratory Phase Search Strategy Search Strategy Discovery/ Analysis Secondary Sources Individual Depth Interviews Expert Interview Group Discussions 5- Exploration is particularly useful when researchers lack a clear idea of the problems they will meet during the study. Through exploration researchers develop concepts more clearly, establish priorities, develop operational definitions, and improve the final research design. The exploratory .
