Question

1. Explain the role of research in enterprise development
2. Briefly describe the key steps in undertaking market research.
3. Outline four types of information that a business could gain from conducting market research.
4. Outline five methods for conducting market research.
5. Outline four ways of processing market research data.
6. Explain the purpose of quantitative research and identify at least three ways of sourcing quantitative data.

Answer 1

In enterprise development, research is very important as it gives an idea to the entrepreneur regarding multiple factors such as how to attract investment capital, from where to attract investment capital, with which businesses there is need of linkage to get benefits, who are the existing competitors in the market, what would be the scope of the enterprise in the market, what are the spending habits of the the customers etc.

The key steps in undertaking the market research are:

Step 1: Identify the opportunity: The first step is to identify the opportunity or the problem which prevails in the market as this will help in clarifying that how the enterprise can cover the problem and take it as an opportunity and how the enterprise can launch the new product in the area with the opportunity. After identifying the opportunity, then the researcher can define the objectives or goals for the market research.

Step 2:Develop Market Research Design: It is the detailed time-to-time plan of the research. This will help in answering questions like what would be the method of the market research, who would be the target respondents, which research instruments to be used, what would be the type of data analysis etc. After developing a research design, researcher wold be able to design and prepare the research instrument.

Step 3: Collect the data: Then there is need to collect the relevant data and information using research instrument such as survey. The data can be quantitative or qualitative. This data will provide more insights about the market.

Step 4: Analyze the data: The collected data is now need to be analyzed by using different analysis tools. Once the data is collected, the researcher need to gather the data and update it in spreadsheet form so that it can be summarized and various outcomes can be acheived. There are various software packages which can be used to analyze the data such as Excel, SPSS, R, STATA etc.

Step 5: Visualize research into Action : This is the last step where research is completed. From the several outcomes, insights and findings, action can be taken to develop the enterprise.

The information that a business could gain from conducting market research include pricing strategy,market share and penetration, best placement and location for the enterprise and demographic features of the targeted market.

The five methods for conducting market research are surveys, personel interviews, field trials, observations and focus groups. These are the basic five methods which are generally used for conducting market research.

The four ways of processing market research data are diagramming, tabulating, coding and editing the research data. These ways help in refining the raw data to get valuable outcomes.

The purpose of quantitative reseach is to receive statistical, logical and unbiased results on the basis of which the goals of our research design of the market research can be acheived. The ways of sourcing quantitative data includes probability sampling, questtionaire obeservation, interviews, census, etc. This quantitative research can be experimental research,quasi-experimental research, descriptive research etc.