In an ever-changing economy, an organization’s success depends on what they company knows about the market conditions, the preferences of the customers and the initiatives of the competitors. Business decisions are based on good information, which is that result of research. Staying up-to-date with an organization’s position in the changing market, the new trends that are constantly coming up and the competitor’s strategies are essential in this faced paced world.
Business research is defined as a systematic inquiry that helps to provide information to the managerial staff to help guide decisions (Cooper, Donald R., Schindler, Pamela S.). Research by an organization is a process of planning, acquiring, analyzing, and dissecting relevant data or information for insights to making decisions that will help to maximize the organization’s performance. Business research as based upon this interpretation then plays an important role in the organization’s decisions.
In organizations such as Wal-Mart, research is formulated so that the management in the company is able to complete the research by using people, time, and technology efficiently. The purpose of the corporation’s research then is either to create a theory or product idea or to test a theory. The current research conducted by Wal-Mart helps to improve on areas such as marketing, employee satisfaction and customer service as well as helps the organization find areas where more research is needed. This research is done in order for the organization to continue their business efforts as the largest retail business in the nation. As the company is well known, many other businesses are still competing with them on how they conduct their research as well as how the company works. There are many types of research methods including both qualitative and quantitative research.
Qualitative research is non-numerical