SOLUTION MANUAL
Research Methods For Business Students
8th Edition Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis
Chapters 1 - 14, Complete
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, Contents
Chapters Pages
Introduction 5
1 Business and management research, reflective diaries and the purpose
of this book 15
2 Choosing a research topic and developing your research proposal 19
3 Critically reviewing the literature 23
4 Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development 27
5 Formulating the research design 32
6 Negotiating access and research ethics 36
7 Selecting samples 40
8 Utilising secondary data 44
9 Collecting data through observation 48
10 Collecting primary data using research interviews and research diaries 54
11 Collecting primary data using questionnaires 59
12 Analysing data quantitatively 63
13 Analysing data qualitatively 68
14 Writing and presenting your project report 72
Appendix 75
1 Research project assignment 75
2 Group poster research project assignment 80
3 Research proposal assignment 84
4 Additional cases on the companion website 89
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© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, INTRODUCTION
An overview of the instructors’ manual
This instructors’ manual provides commentary for the eighth edition of the textbook Research
Methods for Business Students. The commentary is on a chapter by chapter basis and includes:
chapter learning outcomes;
summary of the content;
comments on likely student reactions and possible use of materials;
ideas for students’ preparatory work;
suggestions for delivery in the classroom;
ideas for students’ follow-up work.
In addition, we have included a copy of a research project assignment, a group research project
poster assignment and a copy of a dissertation proposal assignment as appendices.
Research Methods for Business – an overview of the eighth edition
Pedagogic features
The over-riding purpose of Research Methods for Business Students is to help undergraduate and
postgraduate students and students on professional courses to undertake research. Each chapter
deals with a part of the research process and discusses the ideas, techniques and methods using as
little jargon as is possible. Tables, checklists and diagrams are used to aid this discussion. Where new
terms are introduced for the first time, they are shown in bold, and a definition or explanation follows
shortly afterwards. They are also listed with a brief definition in the glossary. The application of
appropriate information technology is considered, in most instances as an integral part of the text.
Chapters have been cross-referenced as appropriate, and an index is provided to help students find
their way around the book.
Focus on student research boxes are included within the text of each chapter. These are based
on actual research projects, undertaken by students, in which points made in the text are
illustrated. In many instances, these worked examples illustrate possible pitfalls students may come
across while undertaking their research. Where a pitfall has been illustrated, it will, it is hoped, help
your students avoid making the same mistake. Further illustrations are provided by focus on
management research and research in the news boxes.
Focus on management research boxes discuss recent research in business and management.
These are normally derived from refereed academic journal articles, and students are likely to be able
to download the actual articles from online databases at their university.
Focus on research in the news boxes provide topical news articles that illustrate pertinent
research-related issues. All these will help students to understand the technique or idea and to
assess its suitability or appropriateness to their research. Boxed checklists provide students with
further focussed guidance for their own research.
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, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
A summary of key points at the end of each chapter can be used by students before and after
reading the chapter to ensure that they have digested the main points.
Self-check questions enable students to check they have understood the chapter. These can all be
answered without recourse to other (external) resources. Answers are provided to all the self-
check questions at the end of each chapter.
Review and discuss questions follow the self-check questions. These suggest a variety of
activities students can undertake to help them further develop their knowledge and understanding of
the material in the chapter, often involving discussion with a friend.
Self-test multiple choice questions and true/false questions for each chapter are available on this
book’s companion website.
All chapters include a section towards the end titled “Progressing your research project” that can be
undertaken as part of the student’s research project. These are presented in sufficient detail to
enable them to focus on the techniques that are most appropriate to his or her research. By
completing all these sections, the student will have also completed his or her project report.
Each chapter is also accompanied by references, further reading and a case study.
Further reading is included for two distinct reasons:
to direct students to other work on the ideas contained within the chapter;
to direct students to further examples of research where the ideas contained in the chapter
have been used.
Case studies at the end of each chapter are all new to the eighth edition. They have been drawn from a
variety of business and management research scenarios and have been based on the case study’s
authors’ students’ experiences when undertaking a research project. They have been written to
highlight real issues that occur when undertaking business and management research. To help focus
students’ thoughts or discussion on some of the pertinent issues, each case is followed by evaluative
questions, answers to which are provided on the Instructors’ Companion Web Site. A case study
follows every chapter. A further 75 case studies from earlier editions of the book are available on the
Students’ Companion Web Site; answers to these cases are provided on the Instructors’
Companion Web Site. A complete list of these cases is provided in Appendix 4.
Contents
Chapter 1 outlines the nature of research and, more specifically, of business and management
research. The basic versus applied research and relevance debates are considered and advice
offered regarding keeping a reflective diary or notebook. The chapter concludes with an overview of
the purpose and structure of the book.
Chapter 2 is written to assist students in the generation of ideas, which will help them to choose a
suitable research topic, and offers advice on what makes a good research topic. If your students have
already been given a research topic, perhaps by an organisation or tutor, they will need to refine it
into one that is feasible and should still therefore read this chapter. After their idea has been
generated and refined, the chapter discusses how to turn this idea into clear research question(s)
and objectives. (Research questions and objectives are referred to throughout the book.) Finally,
the chapter provides advice on how to write a research proposal.
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, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
The importance of the critical literature review to students’ research is discussed in Chapter 3.
This chapter outlines what a critical review needs to include and the range of secondary and
primary literature sources available. The chapter explains the purpose of reviewing the literature,
discusses a range of search strategies and contains advice on how to plan and undertake a search and
to write the review. The processes of identifying key words and searching using online databases
and the Internet are outlined. It also offers advice on how to record items and to evaluate their
relevance as well as discussing plagiarism.
Chapter 4 addresses the issue of understanding different research philosophies including
positivism, critical realism, interpretivism, post modernism and pragmatism. Within this, the
functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralist paradigms are discussed.
Deductive, inductive, abductive and retroductive approaches to theory development are also
considered. In this chapter, students are challenged to think about their own values and how they
view the world and the impact this will have on the way they undertake their research.
These ideas are developed further in Chapter 5, which explores the process of research design. As part
of this, the methodological choice of quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods is considered. A
variety of research strategies are explored and longitudinal and cross-sectional time horizons
discussed. Consideration is given to the implications of design choice for the credibility of
students’ research findings and conclusions.
Chapter 6 explores issues related to gaining access and to research ethics. It offers advice on how to
gain physical and cognitive access both to organisations and to individuals using both traditional
and Internet-mediated strategies. Potential ethical issues are discussed in relation to each stage of
the research process and different data collection methods. Issues of data protection and data
management are also introduced.
A range of the probability and non-probability sampling techniques available for use by students in
their research is explained in Chapter 7. The chapter considers why sampling is necessary and looks
at issues of sample size and likely response rates for both probability and non-probability samples.
Advice on how to relate the choice of sampling techniques to the research topic is given, and the
techniques for assessing the representativeness of those who respond are discussed.
Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 are concerned with different methods of obtaining data. The use of
secondary data is discussed in Chapter 8, which introduces the variety of data that are likely to be
available and suggests ways in which they can be used. The advantages and disadvantages of
secondary data are discussed, and a range of techniques for locating these data is suggested.
Chapter 8 provides an indication of the myriad of sources available via the Internet and also offers
advice to students on how to evaluate the suitability of secondary data for their research.
Chapter 9 is concerned with collecting data through observation. Three observation methods are
presented and discussed in this chapter: participant observation, structured observation and
Internet-mediated observation. This chapter also discusses the use of videography, audio-
recording and static visual images in the collection of observational data. These approaches are
considered in turn to allow practical advice on each to be offered and their respective data quality
issues to be discussed.
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, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
Chapter 10 is concerned with collecting primary data using research interviews and research
diaries. Types of research interview are outlined and their appropriateness discussed. Advice on
how to conduct in-depth and semi-structured research interviews is offered, including group
interviews and focus groups, telephone interviews, Internet-mediated interviews and visual
interviews. Attention is given to the respective advantages and disadvantages of these types of
research interview. This chapter also introduces research diaries and discusses advantages and
issues associated with their use.
Chapter 11 is the final chapter concerned with collecting data. It introduces students to the use of
both self-completed and interviewer-completed questionnaires and explores their advantages and
disadvantages. Practical advice is offered on the process of designing, piloting and delivering
Internet; SMS, postal, delivery and collection and telephone and face-to-face questionnaires to
enhance their response rates. Particular attention is again given to ensuring that the data collected are
both reliable and valid.
Analysis of data is covered in Chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 12 outlines and illustrates the main
issues that students need to consider when preparing data for quantitative analysis and when
analysing these data by computer. Different types of data are defined, and advice is given on how to
categorise and code text and visual data and create a data matrix and to code data. Practical advice
is also offered on the analysis of these data using computerised analysis software. The most
appropriate diagrams to explore and illustrate data are discussed, and suggestions are made about
the most appropriate statistics to use, to describe data, to explore relationships and to examine
trends.
Chapter 13 outlines and discusses the main approaches available to students to analyse data
qualitatively both manually and using Computer-Aided Qualitative Analysis Software (CAQDAS).
The nature of qualitative data and analysis, and issues associated with transcription, are discussed. A
number of aids that will help students to analyse these data and record their ideas about progressing
their research are also discussed. The chapter then outlines and briefly evaluates a number of
techniques to analyse data qualitatively.
Chapter 14 helps students with the structure, content and style of their final project report
(dissertation) and any associated oral and poster presentations. Differences between consultancy
(management) reports and project reports (dissertations) are outlined. Above all, the chapter
encourages students to see writing as an intrinsic part of the research process that should not be
left until everything else is completed. This chapter also includes sections on writing a reflective
essay and making presentations.
In addition, there are four appendices including guidance on author-date (Harvard, American
Psychological Association) and numeric (Vancouver) styles of referencing and guidelines for non-
discriminatory language. The eighth edition also includes an extensive glossary of over 700 research
methods terms.
Using Research Methods for Business Students
This book is written with a progressive logic, which means that the terms and concepts are defined
when they are first introduced. One implication of this is that it is sensible for students to start atthe
beginning and to work their way through the text and focus on student research boxes, focus on
management research boxes, focus on research in the news boxes, self-check questions, review and
discuss questions, case studies and case study questions. They can do this in a variety of ways
depending on the reasons for using this book. However, this approach may not necessarily be
suitable, and you may wish to use the chapters in a different order or just dip into particular
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, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
sections of the book. If this is true, then the students will probably need to use the glossary to
check that they understand some of the terms and concepts used in the chapters they read.
Suggestions for three of the more common ways in which the book might be used are given below.
As part of a research methods course or for self-study for a student’sresearch
project
For students taking an undergraduate degree in Business or Management, the research methods
course and associated project or dissertation usually comes either in the second or final year of
study. In such situations, we suggest that the chapter order is followed quite closely (see fig. P.1).
Groups of chapters within which we believe students can switch the order without affecting the
logic of the flow too much are shown on the same level in this diagram and are:
those chapters associated with data collection (Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11);
those associated with data analysis (Chapters 12 and 13).
In addition, the sections in Chapter 14 on writing can be read prior to the students starting to draft
their critical reviews of the literature (Chapter 3).
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, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
Fig P.1 Using this book in the second or final year of study
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© Pearson Education Limited 2019
, Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students, 8e, Instructor’s Manual
Alternatively, students may be returning to academic study after a gap of some years, to take a full-
or part-time course such as a Masters of Business Administration. Many students in such
situations need to refresh their study skills early in their programme, particularly those associated with
critical reading of academic literature and academic writing. If this is necessary, students can start with
those chapters which support these skills (Chapters 3 and 14) followed by Chapter 8, which
introduces them to the range of secondary data sources available that might be of use for other
assignments (fig P.2). Once again, groups of chapters within which we believe students can switch
the order without affecting the logic of the flow too much are shown on the same level in the
diagram and are:
those chapters associated with primary data collection (Chapters 9, 10 and 11);
those associated with data analysis (Chapters 12 and 13).
In addition, we would recommend the students re-read Chapter 14 prior to starting to write their
project report or dissertation.
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Fig P.2 Using this book as a new returner to academic study
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