Importance of basic research applied research

Basic Research

Basic research is a type of research that only attempts to expand the limits of knowledge. It is not directly involved in the solution to a pragmatic or real time problem. The all researches done in the past are became basic researches.

Basic Research Example

• Is business ethics is related to the success of the business?
  
• Role of business ethics in success of an organization.
  

Applied Research

Applied research is another type of business research and it is conducted when a decision must be made about a specific real-life problem. The researcher extracts results by his own experiments and efforts.

Applied Research Example

• Should PEPSI
  add Diet
  PEPSI in its product-line?
  
• Will the Mountain Dew create a demand in consumer market?
  

Applied research is most important in the business perspective to take real time decisions. But the basic research is also important because it expands the knowledge and become useful to provide a theoretical base for the applied researches.

Characteristics of business research

1 – Purposiveness

    Each research should have an objective or purpose to be conducted. The purpose might be:

• To expand product line of a company.
  
• To adopt office automation technology in a business.
  
• To emerge in international competition.
  

2 – Rigor

Researcher should have a good theoretical base (secondary data) and sound methodologies (way of conducting research) from past researches or basic researches. The sample taken for the research should be large enough that represents the whole population.

• For example to launch a new product the researcher should know about the past researches of the same nature products and should know the target consumers and should have a complete survey to the related potential users of the product.
  

3 – Testability

Gather all the secondary data needed and develop the hypothesis according to the sample taken. Hypothesis will yield a value which will be measurable or provable.

• For example if an automobile company claims that their new car does 50 miles per liter then it can be provable.
  

4 – Replicability

The end results observed from the research should be same again and again in the similar circumstances.

• For example if a research concludes that turbo-chip will boast the engine speed to double then in everywhere in the world it can be proven each time.
  

5 – Precision & Confidence

Results should be accurate and correct and should not mislead the decision maker.

• For example a business research results that typewriters should be replaced by computers to work fast and efficiently.
  

 

6 – Objectivity

The research should be factual rather than emotional. The results of research should be neutral and true and should not be flavorful to anyone.

• Suppose a researcher is willing to promote domestic industry and about to research on the tariff on imported goods. Ultimately he will suggest that tariff rates must be higher.
  

7 – Generalizability

Actually, generalizability is a kind of research which gives same results in differing or dissimilar situations. Not all the researches are generalizable.

• Suppose if a research is conducted to be concluding the major issues of the quality education. It results that the faculty members made most impact in quality of education. Then anywhere in the world it can be said faculty of the institutes is the major countable aspect in quality of education.
  

8 – Parsimony

Research results must be easy to understand, easy to formulate, easy to implement and evaluate strategies.

• For example it must make clear that there are four major causes of low literacy rate in Pakistan---first, second, third and fourth.
  

  A situation where business research can help in taking a managerial decision
  

•     Suppose a company is operating nationwide and wants to expand its operations by emerging in e-commerce. It is trying to know that, would it be beneficial for the company or not? Would it beneficial for the company and how much? Then the company can held a research to take decision about launching a website. The research will be conducted by a researcher. He will go through the all steps of research, will find information from different sources and concludes them in a report to the CEO and give a presentation about "How much cost this would take?", "What will be the payback?", and other related aspects. Then the CEO will take decision about the emergence.