ESF:PVMV Business Research - Course Information

PVMV Business Research

Extent and Intensity

2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).

Teacher(s)

doc. PhDr. Růžena Lukášová, CSc. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

doc. PhDr. Růžena Lukášová, CSc.
Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Lenka Jílková

Timetable

Thu 12:50–14:30 S308

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 27 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/27, only registered: 0/27, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/27

Course objectives

The objective of the course is to introduce students to the basics of the business research methodology and to show them methodological procedures of applied research of socio-economic phenomena.

The course should give students the knowledge and skills which will be of practical use for them:
1. in managerial positions (when acquiring information needed for effective decision-making, when analyzing the value of the acquired information etc.);
2. in their further studies (when writing their thesis and as a source for deeper study of scientific research methodology in their postgraduate studies).

At the end of the course the students should:
- have basic knowledge of the aims and the significance of business research;
- know the benefits of acquiring research skills for management practice;
- know the major types of research design and methods of collection and analyzing research data;
- know what is necessary for research proposals and for research reports;
- be able to judge critically the planned research proposals and their outputs.

Syllabus

• 1.Introduction. Science, structure of sciences. Scientific research, features of scientific research, purpose and significance of scientific research. Ethical aspects of scientific research. Business research, the value of acquiring research skills for management practice.
• 2. Types of research. Basic and applied research, primary and secondary research. Scientific research methods. Theoretical methods, empirical methods. Theory, model, concept. Purpose of theory, theory-practice relationship.
• 3. The stages of research process. Research problem, research objectives, research questions, research hypotheses.
• 4. Study of scientific and professional literature. Theoretical critical analysis of the level of knowledge, choice and formulation of theoretical methodological background. Contemporary information sources and their use.
• 5. Types of research design. Types defined on the basis of research purpose (exploratory, descriptive, predictive, causal research), types defined on the basis of research objective and procedure (qualitative, quantitative research), and on the basis of research logics (inductive, deductive research).
• 6. Qualitative methodology. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods.
• 7. Quantitative methodology I. Conceptualization, operationalization. Variable, types of variables. Levels of measurement. Quantitative data collection methods.
• 8. Quantitative methodology II. Measurement scales, questionnaires and their construction. Validity and reliability.
• 9. Quantitative methodology III. Quantitative data analysis, documentation and presentation of quantitative research results (tables, graphs). Research results interpretation.
• 10. Research sample, research sample representativeness. Methods for research sample selection (probability sampling design, improbability sampling design). Addressing respondents, general principles of primary data collection quality.
• 11. Secondary data and their analysis. Sources of secondary data, judging the quality of secondary data, advantages and disadvantages of secondary data analysis.
• 12. Research proposal. Examples of research proposals in selected fields of application.
• 13. Presentation of research results. Research report, scientific article, poster, popularization article. Language of science.

Literature

• COOPER, Donald R. and Pamela S. SCHINDLER. Business research methods. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003, xix, 857. ISBN 0072498706. info
• Jak se vyrábí sociologická znalost :příručka pro uživatele. Edited by Miroslav Disman. 3. vyd. Praha: Karolinum, 2000, 374 s. ISBN 80-246-0139-7. info
• MERVART, Josef. Způsoby poznávání světa. 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2003, 129 s. ISBN 8021032278. info
• PAVLICA, Karel. Sociální výzkum, podnik a management : průvodce manažera v oblasti výzkumu hospodářských organizací. Vyd. 1. Praha: Ekopress, 2000, 160 s. ISBN 8086119254. info
• STRAUSS, Anselm and Juliet CORBINOVÁ. Základy kvalitativního výzkumu : postupy a techniky metody zakotvené teorie. Vyd. 1. Boskovice: Albert, 1999, 196 s. ISBN 80-85834-60-X. info

Assessment methods

90-minute lectures take place regularly in the weeks of the term. Students will elaborate a research proposal on the selected topic. At the end, there is a written examination and an oral discussion of the elaborated research proposal. The written exam has 2 parts: 1st part checks the knowledge of the theory presented in the lectures (evaluation scale 0-100%); 2nd part checks the ability to apply the theory to practical examples (evaluation scale 0-100%). The quality of the research projects will be evaluated using the 0-100% scale. The final evaluation will be the average of the above-mentioned three partial evaluations. The minimum for passing the exam is 60%.

Language of instruction

Czech

Further Comments

Study Materials
The course is taught annually.

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