Good Example Of Proposed Research Question And Hypotheses Essay

Discussion 1 - Week 6 Variable Relationships

Central Research Question
The following is the central research question for this study:
What strategies do small business owners need to succeed in business beyond 5 years?
Study Constructs
The study constructs in this research are more relational than causal (Sharma, 2012). The study constructs explored in the study include knowledge. This construct is highly linked to the failure of small businesses. The review of literature has highlighted the importance of experience and knowledge, and the effect that a lack of knowledge and experience has on small businesses. According to Ucbasaran et al., (2010), comparative optimism is a factor influencing the failure of small business. Ucbasaran et al., (2010) argue that comparative optimism is correlated to inexperience in business operations. Experienced business owners have the practical knowledge about running a business, and as such lean more towards reality. This vindicates the argument that the constructs in this study have Correlational rather than causal relationships with the outcomes being studies (small business failure) (Jackson, 2014).

Bivariate Correlations

Bivariate correlations entail the measurement of the correlation or association between one variable and another (Field, 2006). Bivariate correlations are appropriate for answering the research question in this doctoral business administration study. Through bivariate correlations, the researcher can measure the strength of association between the various strategies and business failure before the first five years. The bivariate correlation also helps the researcher make recommendations on the best strategies to ensure small business succeed past the first five years of operations (Randolph & Myers, 2013). For instance, a strategy that is strongly correlated to small business failure within the first five years cannot be recommended to entrepreneurs starting up small businesses.

References

Field, A. (2006). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS: Second Edition. London. Thousand Oaks. New Delhi. Sage Publications.
Jackson, S. (2014). Research methods: A modular Approach. Boston. Cengage Learning
Randolph, K. A., & Myers, L. L. (2013). Basic statistics in multivariate analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sharma, J. K. (2012). Business statistics. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley.
Ucbasaran, D., WEsthead, P., Wright, M. and Flores, M. (2010). The nature of entrepreneurial experience, business failure and comparative optimism. Journal of Business Venturing, 25: 541-555.