Business Research Methods 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Research Methods 2 - Essay Example Like any other business, it is crucial for American Express Travel Agency to find out two things: 1) whether or not the customers are satisfied with the services, and 2) the nature and/or level of the dissatisfaction. Business research brings up a number of challenges for managers in a global economy. Research is a process through which information is turned into knowledge. This knowledge is vital because it is essential to the decision-making process. The amount of information available to managers to make decisions has exploded in the recent years. Business research is made up of a number of inter-dependant components. The core of the business involves serving the consumers through participating in a value-addition process with give-and-take as its essence. Therefore, business research is a function that is concerned with gathering, analysing, interpreting and reporting information so that the corporate decision makers can perform their tasks more effectively. The scope of the busi ness research is far-reaching, and the areas of phenomena that the researchers study are increasing quickly (Hair, Celsi, Samouel, Page, 2011). The main purpose of the market research is to identify the needs and wants of the customers, find out how these needs and wants can be met, and how we can distinguish ourselves from the competition (Authenticity Consulting, 2011). Often, it is seen that corporations want to know everything about their programs, services and products. The research plan that is adopted often depends on the information that needs to be collected in order to make vital decisions about the product portfolio. The more focused a company is on what it wishes to find out through the market research process, the better the results are. Also, the time taken to collect the relevant information will be shorter, as the time taken to collect irrelevant information is eliminated. There is an opportunity cost regarding the breadth and depth of the information that one wants to collect. Generally, it is seen that the more breadth the information has, the less depth one will get. On the other hand, if a company wants to research on a specific aspect of a product or service, vital information about the other aspects might be lost in the process (Authenticity Consulting, 2011). The two types of marketing research available to any business include primary research and secondary research. Secondary research focuses on gathering information or data that is already available, mostly by studies performed previously by government agencies etc. This kind of information is already available in the libraries as well as on the Web. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages of using secondary research. It might not always be relevant as it was collected for another purpose. Moreover, it might be out-dated or inaccurate if it is very old or wasn’t collected by a relevant source. However, on the upside it is not as expensive as the primary research and it provides guidelines for a customized primary research to be carried out later. Hence, it is a basis for the design of primary research. Secondary research is essential for travelling agencies such as American Express travelling agency because it can provide them with the necessary statistics that are essential for decision-making. The statistics could include the number of people who go on a holiday, their preferred destination, as well as the amount they are