What do you mean by Research? Explain its significance in modern times.
What do you mean by Research? Explain its significance in modern times.
Ans.
Definition of Research
Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. According to, Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, “Research is a careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge”.
According to, Redman and Mory, “Research is a systematized effort to gain new knowledge”. According to, Fred kerlinger, “Research is an organized enquiry designed and carried out to provide information for solving a problem”. According to, Robert Ross, “Research is essentially an investigation, a recording and analysis of evidence for the purpose of gaining knowledge”.
Concept of Research of Management
“All progress is born of inquiry. Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention”> is a famous Hudson Maxim in context of which the significance of research can well be understood. Increased amounts of research make progress possible. Research inculcates scientific and inductive thinking and it promotes the development of logical habits of thinking and organisation.
The role of research in several fields of applied economics, whether related to business or to the economy as a whole, has greatly increased in modern times. The increasingly complex nature of business and government has focused attention on the use of research in solving operational problems. Research, as an aid to economic policy, has gained added importance, both for government and business.
Research provides the basis for nearly all government policies in our economic system. For instance, government’s budgets rest in part on an analysis of the needs and desires of the people and on the availability of revenues to meet these needs. The cost of needs has to be equated to probable revenues and this is a field where research is most needed. Through research we can devise alternative policies and can as well examine the consequences of each of these alternatives.
Significance of Research in Modern Time
Research has its special significance in solving various operational and planning problems of business and industry. Operations research and market research, along with motivational research, are considered crucial and their results assist, in more than one way, in taking business decisions. Market research is the investigation of the structure and development of a market for the purpose of formulating efficient policies for purchasing, production and sales. Operations research refers to the application of mathematical, logical and analytical techniques to the solution of business problems of cost minimisation or of profit maximisation or what can be termed as optimisation problems. Motivational research of determining why people behave as they do is mainly concerned with market characteristics. In other words, it is concerned with the determination of motivations underlying the consumer (market) behaviour. All these are of great help to people in business and industry who are responsible for taking business decisions. Research with regard to demand and market factors has great utility in business. Given knowledge of future demand, it is generally not difficult for a firm, or for an industry to adjust its supply schedule within the limits of its projected capacity. Market analysis has become an integral tool of business policy these days. Business budgeting, which ultimately results in a projected profit and loss account, is based mainly on sales estimates which in turn depends on business research. Once sales forecasting is done, efficient production and investment programmes can be setup around which are grouped the purchasing and financing plans. Research, thus, replaces intuitive business decisions by more logical and scientific decisions.
Various Types of Business Problems
Business executives in each of the functional areas of management, are confronted with several interacting decision-making problems in their day-to-day operations. Many of these problems demand a systematic research which will aid the executives to take optimal and effective decisions. The various functional areas of management in which research can be applied are discussed below:
(1) Production: Different research topics studied under production are:
(a) Forecasting,
(b) Capacity planning,
(c) Plant location,
(d) Plant layout,
(e) Line balancing,
(f) Line of balance,
(g) Inventory control,
(h) Aggregate planning,
(i) Master production scheduling,
(j) Materials requirements planning,
(k) Single-machine scheduling,
(l) Flow-shop scheduling,
(m) Job-shop scheduling,
(n) Project management,
(o) Maintenance management,
(p) Quality control,
(q) Work design,
(r) Modern production system design, like JIT, computer integrated manufacturing, flexible manufacturing, agile manufacturing, logistics management, total quality management, etc.
(2) Finance: Different research topics studied under financial management are:
(a) Models for break-even analysis of multi-product,
(b) Economic evaluation of alternatives,
(c) Study of financial parameters of organizations,
(d) Capital budgeting,
(e) Ratio analysis,
(f) Portfolio management,
(g) Primary market study,
(h) Secondary market study, payment,
(i) Balance of
(j) Inflation,
(k) Deflation,
(l) Economic growth models.
(3) Personnel: Different research topics studied under personnel (human resource) management are:
(a) Manpower planning,
(b) Performance appraisal systems,
(c) Conflict management,
(d) Study of organizational climate,
(e) Design of incentive plans,
(f) Leadership styles,
(g) Training methods,
(h) Change management,
(i) Negotiation and wage settlement,
(j) Labour welfare study.
(4) Marketing: Different research topics studied under marketing management are:
(a) Product identification,
(b) Demand estimation,
(c) Demand-supply analysis,
(d) Product development,
(e) Market segmentation,
(f) Media mix,
(g) Sales promotion programme,
(h) Product launching,
(i) Design of distribution channel,
(j) Pricing,
(k) Marketing strategy formulation,
(l) Product differentiation and product positioning.
(m) Packaging,
(n) Design of advertisements,
(o) Planning salesforce,
(p) Buying behaviour.
Thus, research is the fountain of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and an important source of providing guidelines for solving different business, governmental and social problems. It is a sort of formal training which enables one to understand the new developments in one’s field in a better way.
