All businesses engage in some form of research activities to help improve its business processes and or to expand its current operations; therefore developing an understanding of the relationship between research and business decisions helps to ensure that the business is a success. Business research fulfils the manager’s need for knowledge of the organization, the market, the economy and many other areas of uncertainty experienced when making business decisions. Business research can also help to predict how individuals, markets, organizational units or other entities will respond to the decisions made by the business.
Business research is thought to be the systematic and objective process of gathering, recording, and analysing data for aid in business decision making. The main emphasis of business research is to provide scientific, impersonal and objective information in order to shift decision makers from risky intuitive decisions to decisions based on systematic and objective investigations. There are two types of business research methods that can be used in business, the pure or basic research and the applied research.
Basic research attempts to expand the limits of knowledge and is used by decision makers who just need to gain an idea of a particular situation or area of interest. This type of research has little direct impact on job performance or the decisions taken within the business. On the other hand, applied research is conducted when the decision involves a specific real life problem; it is used to answer specific problems or to make a decision about a particular course of action. They manager may need to decide if the time is right to expand it operations to another area of the country.
Business research is a management tool that exerts a major influence on the decision making process. The process of decision making involves developing and deciding among