What is Research?
"Research is creating new knowledge." - Neil Armstrong
What does research mean to you?
Research starts with curiosity about the events taking place around us.
Research plays a key role when an individual or an organisation wants to improve or innovate. It involves finding answers or better ways to solve problems.
Had people not been interested in research, businesses and economies could not have progressed. For example, if Henry Ford did not have the curiosity to improve his cars’ assembly process and had not been inspired by practices in another industry, we would probably not have had the assembly line technology to manufacture modern cars.
Research does not mean simply searching for information; it means much more than that. In the next video, our faculty member will explain the concept of research.
As you learnt in the video, research starts with being curious about an area and having the interest to learn more about, and gain deeper knowledge in, that area.
Research is not simply about collecting information but about understanding problems, understanding information, using the information to answer questions and derive valuable insights, finding solutions to problems, and drawing conclusions backed by information and data.
Although research can be conducted in a broad set of areas, the scope of this course is business research.
Research in the business domain is important, as it helps organisations in being competitive and innovative and helps individuals in gaining expertise in a business domain. It also helps them make potentially better decisions by discovering insights and making inferences.
Business research can be conducted in many forms; some of those take the form of market research or competitor research. Inferences from research can be of the following two types:
Descriptive inference: Discovering unexplored information and insights
Causal inference: Finding cause-effect relationship-based inferences
A researcher has a huge responsibility because research results have a significant impact on decisions and connected stakeholders; hence, research needs to be carried out meticulously.
In the next segment, you will learn more about the importance of adhering to the correct research methodology.
Note: The usage of the word 'research' in this course refers to 'business research'.
Additional Learning
Read this article to understand how three companies used research to pivot their business.