Business Research
Methods
Lecture 2 – Searching for… An
idea?
Business Research Methods
Aims:
To outline how using the library and the
Internet can help you search for
literature.
To help in determining a suitable topic
Reading
Saunders chapter 3
Hart 2001 Doing a Literature Search
Gash 200 Effective Literature Searching for
Research
Why? Purpose of searching the
literature.
 2 areas of literature to be searched
(Hart 2001)
Literature relevant to topic
Literature on research methodology and data collection
 Reasons
Help identify work already done
Prevent duplication
 Help avoid errors of previous research
Help you design methodology
Help find gaps in existing research – find out what already
works
Before you start – define your
topic
Brainstorm
Look at newspaper articles
What are you interested in? Come up
with 3 ideas now?
Spider diagram
When you have a topic – relevance trees
Think about the limits of topic
Think about whether you have specific
sources to look for (fishing) or more general
(trawling)
Where to look for ideas?
What are the ‘key’ debates in an area
you are interested in?
Journalshttp://www.internationaljournal
ofadvertising.com/KeyDebates.aspx
News
papershttp://www.guardian.co.uk/busine
ss/2009/jan/20/wetherspoon-cheappints
Prior knowledge
Text books
High street names suffer in cash squeeze and smoke ban
February 05 2008 adapted from an article in The Guardian
British bar operator Regent Inns and Carpetright reported falling sales yesterday in a
continuing squeeze on high street spending.
Carpetright, the UK's biggest carpet seller, said sales in its 650 shops in the UK, Ireland
and continental Europe started strongly in the third quarter but then slumped. Like-forlike sales in the UK and Ireland fell by 4% in the three months to the end of January,
after a 3.4% drop in the previous six months. Analysts had forecast a 1% rise.
"In an increasingly challenging environment sales growth will be harder to come by, but I
am confident that our businesses are well positioned in their markets and I expect our
full-year out-turn to be in line with expectations.”
Regent Inns, which runs Walkabout bars and Jongleurs comedy clubs, said yesterday that
like-for-like sales fell nearly 4% in the first half of its year, with tough trading conditions
due to weakening consumer spending and the smoking ban. The firm, which has recently
become the object of a takeover approach, reported a 66% fall in pre-tax profits to
£1.23m in the first half.
"As soon as the weather changes and it becomes cold and wet, it becomes more difficult.
[The smoking ban] has a greater impact than people felt it would do," said Bob Ivell, chief
executive. "Consumers are also feeling the pinch in mortgages and costs going up ... We
have seen a bit of a downturn with consumers at high street retails and bars. We are all
finding it more difficult.“ Shares in the company, which have lost 80% of their value since
bad summer trading for pubs five months ago, were down 1.5p at 17.5p. The trading
statement echoed those of other pub companies, such as Greene King, which have also
blamed the smoking ban and higher interest rates for falling sales.
Longer hours =
Binge drinking
•More bouncers /
increased ID
•Training /
profitability
Smoking ban
Company
violability
•Customer focus
/ profits
Economic
issues
Staff issues
Context change
increased
investment
Take the issue of how managers might
deal with the change in regulation
(smoking and licence hours and the need
to deal with economic crisis)
 Who will it affect (staff / managers / bar
staff/ bouncers/ customers / others?)
 What might be worth researching?
Training
Economic issues
Employment issues – look to the literature to find
what has already been done for ideas
Marketing – customer focus
Strategic issues - planning
Literature sources available
Secondary
Primary
Reports
Tertiary
Indexes
Theses
Books
Emails
Abstracts
Catalogues
Conference
proceedings
Company reports
Unpublished
manuscripts
Journals
Encyclopaedias
Newspapers
Dictionaries
Some
government
pubs
Bibliographies
Some gov pubs
Increasing level of detail
Increasing time to publish
Citation indexes
Search engines
Trawl
 Encyclopaedias
 Search engines
 Abstracts
What are the keywords?
 Consider broader / narrower terms in case the first
search produces too few / too many results
 Define the topic
Bouncers and employment
Alternatives
 Economy - Pubs and clubs
 Smoking ban and licence hours
 Training
Encyclopaedias
Wikipedia
Google scholar searches – linked on
www.google.co.uk
Looks specifically for academic material
– citations to books, articles etc.
Total coverage unknown – not know how
up-to date
OK for a first ‘look’ but need to look in
databases
Databases – trawling looking for
articles by topic
 Try some databases:
Index
Index with abstract
Full Text
 Business Source Premier – over 8,000 sources
(‘hidden’ under EBSCOHost databases heading
if you login at ATHENS)
 Emerald (100+ journals all from the same
publisher)
What words do you put in the
database search box?
Think about your search words that
describe your search topic before you
search – don’t miss alternative words
 may have to split up your topic into
keywords of short phrases and link
these together with ‘operators’
Boolean search ‘operators’
‘And’ – result contain both terms – will
help you narrow a search, e.g. violence
and bouncers
‘OR’ – results contain either term – will
help you broaden a search, e.g. training
or violence
‘Not’ – results contain 1st term but not
2nd – will help you exclude unwanted
material, e.g. violence not criminal
Search tips
Think before you switch on
Read help screens
Be prepared to re-do your search
several times to get it right (quicker
than reading through hundreds of
article titles!)
WWW
Search engines
AOL Search
Fast Search
Google
Smartlogic
Tips for effective searching
Use distinctive words and phrases
Look before you leap
Don’t look beyond second screen of hits
Refine your search on one search
engine, then mop up on the others
Bookmark queries (O’Dochartaigh 2002)
On line
UK government
•Department of Work and Pensions
•National Statistics
•CEHR
Charitable Trusts
Professional Associations
CIPD

CIM
Media / Newspapers – on line
Financial Times
Guardian
Times
BBC.co.uk
Channel4.com
Fishing – when you know the title /
author
Library
Books
Fishing
Journal articles
Go to library home page
To find specific article look under:
Subject directory – then ‘business’ or HR or
Marketing - then electronic journals
E-Journals A-Z listing
Locate an Article – using a reference
Don’t believe all that you read!
Judging and scepticism
Gatekeepers
Authority
‘Respect’
Evaluation
Accuracy
Objectivity
Currency
Recording
Some use specialist computer
programmes
Some use card index
Some keep ‘lists’
Windows 2007 – referencing section
Endnotes can help when you start
writing
Summarise
Come up with an idea then search
properly – but the process can help you
decide
Thinking is important so spend some
time refining ideas
Evaluate what you find – your work is
only going to be as good as the reading
you do and the thinking that comes from
that reading