1.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RESEARCH
THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Joseph Owusu, PhD

2.
Objectives
 To understand how research problem is
formulated
 To explain the purpose of literature review
 To understand the concept of research framework
( theoretical and conceptual)
 To discuss the various variables used in research

3.
Introduction
 Research work requires a sequence of activities to
be carried out from the beginning until the final
report is compiled. Listed below are the processes
required when a researcher is carrying a research.

4.
The Process
 To identify research Problem
 To identify research objectives and questions
 Review literature related to the problem
 Develop theoretical framework for the study
 Develop research hypotheses
 Develop appropriate research design
 Data collection
 Data analysis
 Prepare the final report

5.
Problem statement (1 of 3)
 A statement of problem is the centre of attention
in the research. Is just one main sentence and
supported by a few paragraphs of elaboration. In
your sentence, you should take an opportunity to:
 Highlight an existing problem affecting the future
survival of the organisation.
 Highlight the present policy or methods that no
longer seems to be working.

6.
Problem statement (2 of 3)
 Highlight something that needs close attention
such as increase in customer complaints,
declining in sales volumes.
 Highlight the changes in socio-economic variables
such as consumer income that might affect the
long –term survival of your organisation.

7.
Problem statement (3 of3)
 Highlight the literature gap.
 The gap can either be specific research has not
been carried out previously or
 Certain important variables were not studied in
previous researches.
 It could also be a mixed previous empirical
findings
 Population of the study has changed significantly
in terms of their socio-economic status which
requires a new research etc.

8.
Research phenomenon and research gap
 Research phenomenon = is the whole picture of
the problem under the study. E.g. organisational
performance.
 Research gap= These are gaps found within the
research phenomenon that need to be filled. They
are specific problems within the research
phenomenon. E.g. lack of finance

9.
Example of Problem Statement
In the past thirty years, much interest has been focused on the
identification of factors affecting the growth of conventional SMEs. A
number of studies, which examine the determinants of, and
constraints on, the growth of SMEs have been conducted (for
example: Bosworth and Jacob, 1987; Barber et al., 1989; Advisory
Council on Science and Technology (ACOST), 1990; Birley and
Westhead, 1990; Aston Business School, 1991; Barkham, 1992;
University of Cambridge Small Business Research Centre, 1992;
Reynolds, 1993; Storey, 1994b; Barkham et al., 1996b). There
is,therefore a well-documented body of knowledge that should guide
policy makers in the effective development and implementation of
support programmes to SMEs. However, to date, little empirical
work has been conducted to explore the growth Determinants and
constraints affecting HTSMEs. Many of the studies on the growth of
HTSMEs have been conducted by just a few researchers including
Oakey (1984;1991b; 1993b),R oberts( 1991), Slatter( 1992) and
Westheade t al. (1995).

10.
Example of Problem Statement
 Despite the fact that prior literatures regard SMEs as conduit for socio-
economic growth among developed and developing economies
(Banerjee, 2014; Habib & Yazdanfer, 2016; Joseph & Wilson, 2017).
However, not much has been accomplished particularly, on their growth.
Their growth prospects have been unsuccessful and daunting which has
raised serious concern globally (Banerjee, 2014). Supported by the
review of related literatures, number of studies have examined
financing SMEs growth with reference to access to finance, financial
structures, and financial factors. For instance (Ayyagari et al. 2010;
Bouazzaet et al., 2015; Habib and Yazdanfar, 2016; Neneh, 2016; Kent-
Baker et al., 2017). However, to date, limited empirical studies have
been conducted to explore financial resource building effort on SMEs
growth. Contrastingly, this study attempts to address this gap by
examining how attention (effort and time) allocate to building financial
resource base contributes to SMEs growth.

11.
Example of Problem statement
For the success of modern day complex societies entrepreneurship has
become of vital importance not just for their survival but also for their
sustainability (Audretch, 2007). Entrepreneurship comes with many
promises and is viewed differently by different stakeholders. Policy makers
focus it from view point of economic competitiveness in global markets and
employment creation opportunities. Entrepreneur focuses it from
opportunity exploitation perspective that would yield high gains and a
meaningful career (Kuckertz & Wagner, 2010). Promoting entrepreneurship
in the society which is riddled with enormous economic and social
challenges is essential and that this should start at early age and policies
designed to incorporate this promotion in the educational institutions for
fostering entrepreneurial skills in the youth of society (World Economic
Forum, 2009). Lenan and Chen (2009) are of the opinion that promoting
strong and friendly entrepreneurial culture through policy reforms like legal
frameworks that facilitate firm creation are important for transmitting
message of value entrepreneurship can add to the people.

12.
Research objective
 The research objective is what you intend to accomplish in
the study. You need to tell your audience what you plan to
achieve in solving the problem. If you have more than one
objective, you can specifically list them
 Example, the study aims to achieve the following objectives
 To examine the effect of culture on international business
management practice
 To determine the effect of product image on customer
repurchase
 To measure the relationship between quality and customer
acceptance

13.
Research Objective
Quantitative research
• To determine
• To examine
• To measure
• To identify
• To evaluate
• To investigate
Qualitative research
• To explain
• To highlight
• To explore
• To negotiate

14.
Research questions
 Is the ambiguities that the researcher would like
to address in his research.
 Research questions always come to the researcher
mind after he has set the research objectives.
 A good researcher is able to predict the questions
that will come from the audience and will include
these questions as his research questions when
preparing his research.

15.
Examples of RO and RQ
RO
 To examine the effect of
culture on international
business management
practice
 To determine the effect of
product image on
customer repurchase
 To measure the
relationship between
quality and customer
acceptance
RQ
 What is the effect of
culture on international
business management
practice?
 What is the effect of
product image on
customer repurchase?
 What is the relationship
between quality and
customer acceptance?

16.
What is Literature Review (LR)? (1 of 3)
 LR is a combination of two words
 Literature and Review
 Literature means other people academic works
 Review means to view again those literature to
achieve your research objectives at hand

17.
What is Literature Review (LR)? ( 2 of 3)
 The terms literature search, literature review and
literature survey are one and the same and these are used
interchangeably.
 Literature review is “the selection of available documents
(both published and unpublished) on the topic, which contain
information, ideas, data, and evidence written from a
particular standpoint to fulfill certain aim, or express certain
views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be
investigated, and the effective evaluation of these
documents in relations to the research being proposed”.
(Hart,1998, p.13)

18.
What is Literature Review (LR)? (3 of 3)
 It is a comprehensive review of both published and
unpublished work from previous researchers in the
areas related to the problem at hand.

19.
Purpose of Literature Review
The overall purpose of literature review is to
discover knowledge.
 To ensure that all important findings in the
previous studies are included as a basis to support
the development of the current research
To enable the researcher to understand and define
the underlying problem precisely so that his
research would obtain maximum benefit
To guide the researcher in selecting the variables
for the study and provide the rationale for selecting
those variables.

20.
Purpose of Literature Review
 To help the researcher to in developing a
theoretical framework for the study, and to
formulate research questions and the
corresponding hypothesis
 To avoid the researcher from “reinventing the
wheel”. The researcher might be researching
exactly what has been researched if he does not
review the literature prior to doing his research

21.
Purpose of Literature Review
 To share with the reader the findings of previous
study that relate closely to the current study. Thus
the replicability of the findings of the current
research is enhanced.
 To provide the framework for establishing the
importance of the current study as well as a
benchmark for comparing the findings to the
previous study. The researcher can debate as to
how his findings is consistent or not consistent with
the results obtained by previous researchers

22.
Data Sources
 Textbooks
 Academic and professional Journals
 Conference Proceedings
 Unpublished manuscript
 Reports of Government departments, agencies and
corporations
 Newspapers
 The internet

23.
Data Sources
Most university libraries have the following:
 Electronic Journals
 Full-text database
 Bibliographic database
 Abstract database

24.
Theoretical Framework
 A theoretical framework represents your beliefs on
how certain variables are related to each other (a
model) and an explanation on why you believe
that these variables are associated to each other.

25.
Theoretical Framework
 Basic steps:
 Identify and label the variables correctly
 State the relationships among the variables:
formulate hypotheses
 Explain how or why you expect these
relationships

26.
Hypothesis
 Is a declarative statement made by the
researcher regarding the relationship between
variables involved in the study. It shows that the
researcher has a thorough knowledge regarding
the phenomena that he can predict the outcome
of the study especially how independent variable
affects dependent variable. A hypothesis normally
flows from the research questions.

27.
Examples of Hypothesis
H1-Organisational culture negatively affects
international business management practice
H2- Product image positively affects customer
repurchase
H3- There is positive relationship between quality
and customer acceptance

28.
Types of Hypothesis
 Directional hypothesis: is clear statement of
direction of the relationship between two variables
using positive, negative, more than, less than and
the like. Example
Product image positively affects customer repurchase
 Non- directional hypothesis: is a relationship or
differences but offer no indication of the direction of
these relationships/ differences.
 Example: There is a relationship between age and
job satisfaction

29.
Variables
 Any concept or construct that varies or changes in
value, magnitude or strength.
 The researcher problem is normally associated
with many factors and those factors are basically
represented by variables. In other words the
variable is generally anything that may assume
different numerical values.

30.
Classification of Variables
The main type of variables are
 Dependent Variable
 Independent Variable
 Moderating Variable
 Mediating Variable

31.
Dependent Variable (DV)/ Independent Variable (IV)
The dependent variable (DV) is the main interest of
any study. The goal of the research project is to
understand, predict or explain the variability of this
variable. It is sometimes refers to as
 Response Variable
 Criterion/outcome variable
Independent Variable (IV)- Is the variable that causes
the dependent variable to change in values. Also called
 Predictor

32.
Example
IV DV
Service
Quality
Customer
Loyalty

33.
Mediating Variable
 Is the variable that mediates the relationship
between the independent and the dependent
variables. For example the service quality –
customer loyalty relationship, customer
satisfaction is the one which stands between
service quality and customer loyalty relationship.
 In this case, the service provided by the company
should be able to satisfy its customers, and these
satisfied customers would, in turn, become loyal
customers to the company. (Also called
intervening variable)

34.
Mediating Variable
IV MV DV
Service quality
Customer
loyalty
Customer
satisfaction

35.
Moderating Variable/ MV
 MV – is the variable that has the strong contingent
effect on the dependent variable (DV) and independent
variable (IV) relationship. The presence of the third
variable modifies the original relationship of IV- DV.
 Example using socio-economic status as moderator, the
study is trying to ascertain whether the respondent from
different socio- economic status perceived differently
concerning their satisfaction towards the service quality
provided by the same organisation

36.
Moderating variable
Service quality
Socio-economic
status
Customer
Satisfaction

37.
Example of theoretical framework
Corporate
Image
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Loyalty
Service
quality

38.
Assignment
 Read the article entitled “Institutional environments for
entrepreneurship: Evidence from emerging economies in
eastern Europe”. Use the paper to answer the following
questions.
 Identify the research gap in the paper
 What are the research objectives?
 What are the research questions?
 10 marks.