Welcome to the Business Research Methods course. This course is available to students on the evening and weekend MBA programmes. It is taught in semesters one and two, and is worth 3 credits when successfully completed. This course is taught under five major topical areas covering all essential elements for undertaking valid empirical research involving use of primary qualitative and quantitative data. The course is assessed by means of group project (for continuous assessment). Please see section B for submission dates and other details.

There are no prerequisites for this course nor is the passing of this course a prerequisite for any other course. However, performance standard in this course could have a significant influence on such courses as your Masters Dissertation/Project.

The course aims to provide a theoretical and practical assessment of advanced marketing research methods. Thus, on completion of this course you should be able to:

• understand the different philosophical underpinnings of business research

• understand the research process and problem formulation

• determine appropriate research designs to meet the needs of specific projects

• design appropriate data collection instruments, including questionnaire and interview and focus group schedules

• undertake a piece of business research on a company or brand of your choice using methodologies taught on the course

• analyse the data using IBM SPSS software or qualitative data analysis software, incorporating a variety of analytical methods

• Write a business research project report and professionally report the findings for your client.