Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts

Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts

Introduction

In order to conduct business research, it is imperative that the researcher is clear on the terms that are used and is comfortable in using them. In very broad terms, business research may be defined as any research that relates to business. The methods that are applied to conduct the research vary with the topic and also depend on the nature and size of the business. Many researchers end up using the wrong research methodology, when it comes to business research because they do not understand the different between methodologies such as descriptive research, exploratory research and causal research.

The paper discusses some of the important and most basic terms that are used in business research and gives them examples.

Definition of Terms

A variable is anything that a company is trying to measure. These can be feelings, emotions, business profitability, an object or anything that can be measured in quantitative or qualitative terms. The variables in business research are divided into two categories. These are independent variables and dependent variables (Taylor, 2010).

Independent variable may be defined as something that stands alone and is not affected by other variables being studied. For instance, the age of a person is an independent variable. In a study that is trying to measure the eating habits of individuals in a given study, no matter what is the eating habit of the person, his age will remain the same.

Dependent variable may be defined as the variable that depends on the independent variable (Taylor, 2010). For instance, the academic performance of a child at school reflected in his score is a dependent variable and is dependent on many variables.

A moderating variable is another type of variable that serves to moderate the relationship any two ...