COURSE OUTLINE – MG 5011 Advanced Research Methods
FAST School of Management
Fall 2021
Type:
Class:
Core Course
MSBA/MBA
Course Instructor:
Sessions:
Dr. Zia Khan
18 00-2100 hrs (Mondays, Wednesday s, Thursdays)
Advisory Hours:
Office:
Email:
Phone:
8 30-11 30 hrs (Fridays)
Ground Fl, Civil Block
zia.khan@nu.edu.pk
(042) 111 128 128 Ext. 409
COURSE INTRODUCTION
The course of Advanced Research Methods is considered as one of the most important and technical
courses at the graduate level. This course contributes in the development of scientific thinking as well as its
relationships with business research problems and solutions. Blended with qualitative and quantitative data
analysis tools/techniques and packages, the theoretical and hands-on knowledge that will be attained in
this course will lead business students to exercise different research projects later in their respective
professional careers.
LEARNING MATERIAL
1. Business Research Methods: Alan Bryman and Emma Bell, 4th edition, Publisher Oxford
2. Case Studies/ Research Articles handed out during course
LEARNING METHODOLOGY
These learning tools shall be used to explain the concepts:
 Class lectures
 Interactive case study/research articles sessions
 A comprehensive group project based on a business research problem
Students are expected to actively participate in all activities to ensure they keep learning.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After this course, students should be able to:
1. Critically understand research and its process in the business field
2. Understand how to prepare a comprehensive research proposal by evaluating a business research
problem
3. Understand various types of research designs
4. Understand the significance and formation of a conceptual model in a research project
5. Understand types of data and its various collection methods
6.
Understand in getting basic knowledge of qualitative and quantitative based data analysis techniques
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MG 5011 Advanced Research Methods | Fall 2021
Understand the applications of qualitative and quantitative based data analysis techniques through
statistical softwares like SPSS, AMOS, SmartPLS etc.
8. To exercise a complete research project based on collected data, project writing and its oral
presentation
9. Understand the key management issues/ethics in exercising a research project
7.
COURSE CONTENTS
Following shall be key contents of course. Students are expected to self-read contents of the book and be
prepared to discuss them with practical examples in class
Sections
Core Contents
1. Research in
Business
1.Introduction to Business
Research
2. Applying Scientific
Thinking to
Management
Problems
3. The Research
Process
4. The Research
Proposal
5. Ethics in Business
Research
6. Research Design
Strategies
7. Sampling Design
2. The Design of Research
8. Measurement
9. Measurement
Scales
10. Exploring
Secondary Data
3. The Sources and
Collection of Data
11. Survey Methods:
Biases
12. Instruments for
Participant
Communication
13. Experimentation
4. Analysis and Presentation
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14. Data Preparation
Topics to be covered in the respective
chapters
What is research and why business research,
Essentials of a good research, managerresearcher relationship
Styles of thinking and sources of knowledge,
understanding theory, hypotheses, concepts,
constructs, variables etc.
Understanding research process, problems and
questions, both, at basic and advanced levels
Understating what is research proposal, types and
its contents, process of research proposal
evaluation
Ethics, issues and dilemmas for researchers,
participants and sponsor, the role of ethical code
of conduct
Stages of research design, major types of
research studies
Nature of sampling, Major types of sampling in a
business research project
Nature of measurement, data types, sources of
measurement differences, construct reliability,
validity, consistency etc
Nature of measurement scales and various
response methods
The exploratory phase research strategy, type of
information sources, how to search literature,
mining internal sources, data mining process
Common Methods Bias, social desirability bias
and other biases in survey approach
Various structures of the questions in
communication methods. Constructing and
refining the instrument, pretesting options
Experimental studies, its designs, weaknesses
and strengths
Editing and coding, basic Content Analysis, data
MG 5011 Advanced Research Methods | Fall 2021
of Data
and Description
15. Exploring,
Displaying and
Examining Data
16. Hypothesis
Testing
17. Measures of
Association
18. Multivariate
Analysis
entry, different data distributions, SPSS
introduction and its user-interface regarding data
entry
Exploratory data analysis including frequency
tables, histograms, stem and leaf, boxplots, data
transformation
Hypothesis testing and its logic, null and
alternative hypotheses, type I and type II errors,
standard hypothesis testing procedure using
SPSS, familiarity with parametric and nonparametric resting in SPSS
Correlations using SPSS, bivariate linear
regression, goodness of fit, how to run regression
in SPSS?
Cluster Analysis, Multiple regression, path
analysis, structural equation modeling, principal
component analysis using SPSS, interpreting the
results and technical report writng
Discussions of some topics/chapters will be augmented by different handouts related to these topics. These
handouts will be part of course and may be referred to during evaluations.
DIVISION OF MARKS
Quizzes
5%
3 Quizzes throughout the semester (quizzes will be taken on random basis). Best 2 to be selected
Group Project (includes business research proposal)
20%+10%+15%=45%
Students will exercise a comprehensive research project based on a real/hypothetical business research problem that will
submitted in written form and presented in front of course instructor and their class mates.
Group based research proposals should be presented before second sessional exam.
To exercise this project, students are expected to closely coordinate with course instructor in a professional manner.
Sessional Exam
10%
Paper shall consist of scenario and Case Study based questions
Final Exam
40%
Complete course shall be covered in the final exam. At least 80% attendance is a MUST for Final Exam
Please note that slides (ppts) will not be provided to the students. Reading is a must
to prepare for examinations.
A NOTE ON STUDENTS’ CONDUCT IN CLASS
This is graduate level core course which would require serious efforts on part of students. While, it is highly encouraged that you
should participate freely in the class, you are required to maintain professional decorum of the class. Any disciplinary or
attendance related matters shall be dealt as per university’s policies.
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MG 5011 Advanced Research Methods | Fall 2021