{"id":193,"date":"2023-09-19T17:36:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T17:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/chapter\/introduction-to-conducting-research\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T20:37:26","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T20:37:26","slug":"introduction-to-conducting-research","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/chapter\/introduction-to-conducting-research\/","title":{"raw":"Learn It 4.1.3 The Power of Information","rendered":"Learn It 4.1.3 The Power of Information"},"content":{"raw":"<h2>Types of Research<\/h2>\r\n<section class=\"textbox keyTakeaway\">\r\n<h3>primary research<\/h3>\r\n<p>Primary research involves gathering new data firsthand for a specific purpose.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<p>This type of research is done to fill in gaps found during the secondary research review. That is, you would not conduct primary research if you could find data relevant to your research question with already existing secondary sources.<\/p>\r\n<p>The following are common methods of conducting primary research:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Interviews:<\/strong> Interviews are conversations, typically in small groups, where one party asks questions of another. Interviews are usually conducted in person, between two people (the person asking questions and the person answering them); however, these can also take place over the phone and may involve multiple parties.<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Surveys:<\/strong> Surveys are typically written documents that are sent out to individuals to fill out. Surveys are more rigid than interviews, as an interviewer can change their planned questions based on the subject's responses. Surveys, however, are pre-written and can only respond in limited anticipated ways.<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Observations:<\/strong> Observations are just what they sound like\u2014the researcher watches something and records what they see. It is important to avoid influencing whatever you're watching. However, if it's impossible to not influence your subject, make sure to include the fact that your presence may have influenced your observations.<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Analysis:<\/strong> In analysis, gathered data is examined and organized so those who are less familiar with technical details can be guided through the data. Analysis can also help uncover patterns and trends in data.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<section class=\"textbox keyTakeaway\">\r\n<h3>secondary research<\/h3>\r\n<p>Secondary research involves analyzing existing information that has already been collected by others.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<p>Secondary research is gathering information from other people\u2019s primary research.\u00a0Common forms are books, journals, newspaper articles, media reports, and other polished accounts of data. Most report writers will use secondary sources for their business reports in order to gather, curate, and present the material in a new, updated, and helpful manner.<\/p>\r\n<section class=\"textbox proTip\">Compared to primary research, conducting secondary research is far less costly, more efficient, and requires less time to gather data from already developed sources.<\/section>\r\n<p>In business, where everything has a cost, we may argue for maximizing secondary sources alone because primary research is expensive and time-consuming. That said, primary and secondary data should interact, and as discussed, we gather primary data when we find gaps in the already available secondary sources.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Secondary sources<\/b> analyze, review, or summarize information in primary resources or other secondary resources. Even sources presenting facts or descriptions about events are secondary unless they are based on direct participation or observation.<\/p>\r\n<section class=\"textbox linkToLearning\">One example of secondary research is this\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/featured-insights\/future-of-work\/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McKinsey and Company report on the Future of Work After Covid 19<\/a>. Note how they have summarized other sources in a manageable report. Scroll through the entire article to see how they have summarized data from the US Department of Labor and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics alongside advice for the future of their company.<\/section>\r\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\">[ohm2_question height=\"500\"]14712[\/ohm2_question]<br \/>\r\n[ohm2_question height=\"500\"]14713[\/ohm2_question]<\/section>","rendered":"<h2>Types of Research<\/h2>\n<section class=\"textbox keyTakeaway\">\n<h3>primary research<\/h3>\n<p>Primary research involves gathering new data firsthand for a specific purpose.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>This type of research is done to fill in gaps found during the secondary research review. That is, you would not conduct primary research if you could find data relevant to your research question with already existing secondary sources.<\/p>\n<p>The following are common methods of conducting primary research:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Interviews:<\/strong> Interviews are conversations, typically in small groups, where one party asks questions of another. Interviews are usually conducted in person, between two people (the person asking questions and the person answering them); however, these can also take place over the phone and may involve multiple parties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Surveys:<\/strong> Surveys are typically written documents that are sent out to individuals to fill out. Surveys are more rigid than interviews, as an interviewer can change their planned questions based on the subject&#8217;s responses. Surveys, however, are pre-written and can only respond in limited anticipated ways.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Observations:<\/strong> Observations are just what they sound like\u2014the researcher watches something and records what they see. It is important to avoid influencing whatever you&#8217;re watching. However, if it&#8217;s impossible to not influence your subject, make sure to include the fact that your presence may have influenced your observations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analysis:<\/strong> In analysis, gathered data is examined and organized so those who are less familiar with technical details can be guided through the data. Analysis can also help uncover patterns and trends in data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<section class=\"textbox keyTakeaway\">\n<h3>secondary research<\/h3>\n<p>Secondary research involves analyzing existing information that has already been collected by others.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Secondary research is gathering information from other people\u2019s primary research.\u00a0Common forms are books, journals, newspaper articles, media reports, and other polished accounts of data. Most report writers will use secondary sources for their business reports in order to gather, curate, and present the material in a new, updated, and helpful manner.<\/p>\n<section class=\"textbox proTip\">Compared to primary research, conducting secondary research is far less costly, more efficient, and requires less time to gather data from already developed sources.<\/section>\n<p>In business, where everything has a cost, we may argue for maximizing secondary sources alone because primary research is expensive and time-consuming. That said, primary and secondary data should interact, and as discussed, we gather primary data when we find gaps in the already available secondary sources.<\/p>\n<p><b>Secondary sources<\/b> analyze, review, or summarize information in primary resources or other secondary resources. Even sources presenting facts or descriptions about events are secondary unless they are based on direct participation or observation.<\/p>\n<section class=\"textbox linkToLearning\">One example of secondary research is this\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/featured-insights\/future-of-work\/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McKinsey and Company report on the Future of Work After Covid 19<\/a>. Note how they have summarized other sources in a manageable report. Scroll through the entire article to see how they have summarized data from the US Department of Labor and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics alongside advice for the future of their company.<\/section>\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ohm14712\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/ohm.one.lumenlearning.com\/multiembedq.php?id=14712&theme=lumen&iframe_resize_id=ohm14712&source=tnh&show_question_numbers\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ohm14713\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/ohm.one.lumenlearning.com\/multiembedq.php?id=14713&theme=lumen&iframe_resize_id=ohm14713&source=tnh&show_question_numbers\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/section>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Types of Data Sources\",\"author\":\"Freedom Learning Group\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom image\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":191,"module-header":"learn_it","content_attributions":[{"type":"original","description":"Types of Data Sources","author":"Freedom Learning Group","organization":"Lumen Learning","url":"","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":""},{"type":"original","description":"Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom image","author":"","organization":"Lumen Learning","url":"","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":""}],"internal_book_links":[],"video_content":null,"cc_video_embed_content":{"cc_scripts":"","media_targets":[]},"try_it_collection":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4140,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/193\/revisions\/4140"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/191"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/193\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}