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Essentials of Business Research
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Essentials of Business Research
A Guide to Doing Your Research Project

Second Edition
  • Jonathan Wilson - Associate Professor in Marketing and Business Research, Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia
Additional resources:


January 2014 | 376 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

Written specifically for business students, this best-selling, jargon-free textbook highlights each stage of the research process, guiding the reader through actionable steps and explicitly setting out how best to meet a supervisor's expectations.

Easy to navigate and full of practical advice, it shows you how to choose a topic and write a proposal, with easy to follow tips and detailed screenshots and diagrams.

Key student features include:

  • 'You're the Supervisor' sections - helps students to meet learning objectives
  • 'Common questions and answers' - real-world advice on how to tackle common challenges
  • Examples from different types of international businesses
  • Detailed guidance on software packages such as SPSS
  • Student case studies
  • Annotated further reading

Accompanied by a fully integrated companion website designed to support learning. Free to access, it includes author podcasts, guides to online tools, links to downloadable journal articles, examples of completed projects, PowerPoint slides and students' multiple choice questions to test progress.

A must-have title for all business and management students; this is the ideal companion for achieving success in your research project.

 
1. An Introduction to Business Research
 
2. Developing a Research Topic
 
3. Conducting a Literature Review
 
4. Addressing Ethical Issues
 
5. Establishing a Research Design
 
6. Primary Data Collection
 
7. Using Secondary Data
 
8. Sampling
 
9. Analyzing Quantitative Data
 
10. Analyzing Qualitative Data
 
11. Writing up and Presenting Your Research

Supplements

Click for online resources

For Instructors:

PowerPoint Slides

For Students:

Author Videos
Journal Articles
Multiple Choice Questions
Example Dissertations

This is a well written and presented book in which the author draws upon substantial experience and knowledge to assist students. Many books in the subject area do little to engage or motivate the student and very few mention the supervision process, in contrast this book successfully manages to provide a practical guide for both students and academic staff alike.

Professor Simon A. Burtonshaw-Gunn, Head of Division: Business, Leadership and Finance
Northampton Business School

I provide every student with a copy of Jonathan Wilson’s Essentials of Business Research. His interactive approach includes step-by-step processes, thorough explanations, and engaging content; contemporary case studies illustrate each topical chapter within this useful and understandable introductory guide. Once again, Jonathan Wilson has produced a research guide that business students will appreciate and use extensively as they begin or continue their adventures in research.

Bonnie J Bachman, Professor of Economics
Missouri University of Science and Technology

This book complements greatly the Saunders et al textbook for UG as well as PG students to help them write their methodology chapter and conduct qual research.

Dr Bjoern Asmussen
Business School, Oxford Brookes University
May 30, 2017

An excellent book. Difficult research concepts are made accessible to students. The Q&A feature at the end of each chapter allows students to get to grips with the practicalities of undertaking a research project.

Mr Ross Hayes
Winchester Business School, Winchester University
October 26, 2015

This does exactly what it says on the tin - it covers all the basics but covers them very well!

Ms Rita Walsh
School of Business, Royal Agricultural College
June 26, 2015

Well written for students who have to get their head around the methodological requirements of a dissertation project.
This is an interesting alternative to Saunders et al.

Bjoern Asmussen
Business School, Oxford Brookes University
June 4, 2015

Additional reading material for students

Dr Joseph Vella
Marketing , University of Malta
September 4, 2015

The received book has valuable help for students who are currently writing their major project. This corrected second edition with new case studies provides useful guidance on how to write a business research project.

Ms Eva Keresztes
Mathematics, Statistics and Informatics, Coll of Management & Business Studies
February 28, 2015

Jonathan Wilson's excellent book is now a permanent fixture on my level 6 and postgraduate research methods programmes. It contains just the right amount of detail, based upon solid principles, to be instructive without being overly technical. This allows students to develop their research skills effectively and at a pace that suits them.

Mr Martin McAreavey
UCBC, Blackburn College
February 3, 2015

The book is a nice summary of many research method issues and can be a good option for an introductory course that aims to give an initial idea of these aspects to undergraduate students. However, for my course that is dedicated to qualitative research method for post-graduate students, I would like to have a book with more focus on qualitative methods with more in depth content on various qualitative methods.

Dr MOHAMMAD HOSEIN REZAZADE MEHRIZI
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Free Univ., Amsterdam
January 16, 2015