Learn to design research that produces the valuable insights for business decision-makers.

A research design is a well-defined plan for evaluating the external environment in which an organization operates. This course explains how to build that plan.

Snapshot

Format: Online

Hours: 9

Credit: .9 CEUs

When: Start anytime

Cost: $329 -$359

 

After completing this course you should be able to:

  1. Lead a discussion with clients to define major business problems they are facing, and probe to discover obstacles, challenges, opportunities, and threats.
  2. Determine what the clients already know and what they must know in order to take the most informed actions.
  3. Identify appropriate secondary research and apply data analysis in defining the business problems and research objectives.
  4. Translate essential business problems into cogent research objectives that are tied to specific business actions and success criteria.
  5. Determine the appropriate level and depth of information required for decision-making, differentiating “nice-to-know” information from “need-to-know” information. Determine what is practical within the time and budgetary constraints
  6. Understand what business problems are “researchable” and which are not.
  7. Describe the processes and approaches to research design and methodology and how these may differ by region in global projects.
  8. Describe the role of primary and secondary data, the differences between them, and how they can be applied in a synergistic manner to address the business issues.
  9. Explain the differences between qualitative and quantitative methods, the types of business problems addressed with each, and how the boundaries between the types of methods are blurring.
  10. Identify and distinguish between the three basic research designs: exploratory, descriptive and causal.
  11. Create proposals that clearly articulate the business need/context for the research, research design and methodology, analytical processes, project milestones, costs, and timelines. Explain the relationship between cost and time variables and the research process.
  12. Discuss the ethical issues researchers face when developing a research proposal.