• Essential introduction to the basic conceptual building blocks of research strategy and research design
• Excellent breadth of coverage of both qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Provides full guidance to students doing their own research projects
• Wealth of learning features including real-life student experiences, end-of-chapter checklists and examples of real research
• Online resource centre providing web links, self-marking multiple choice questions, data sets and a research project guide

New to this edition

• Brand new chapter on reviewing the literature that introduces the steps involved in undertaking a critical review, to help students get the most out of their reading and build a strong platform for further research
• Brand new 'student experience' boxes that relate the research activities of real student researchers back to the research process, to help newcomers avoid common pitfalls, try new approaches, and become critical problem-solvers
• Themed boxes that focus on examples of real, published research, key concepts and practical tips and skills to help students grasp core principles sooner and apply their learning to new research situations
• Expanded online Research Guide that takes students step-by-step through their research project and provides essential research advice, checklists, templates and case exercises to help students become more engaged and organised researchers

Readership: Undergraduate and postgraduate students on business and management courses.

Alan Bryman, School of Management, University of Leicester, and Emma Bell, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour, School of Management, University of Bath

Part 1
1: Business research strategies
2: Research designs
3: Planning a research project and formulating research questions
4: Getting Started: reviewing the literature
5: Ethics in business research
Part 2
6: The nature of quantitative research
7: Sampling
8: Structured interviewing
9: Self-completion questionnaires
10: Asking questions
11: Structured observation
12: Content analysis
13: Secondary analysis and official statistics
14: Quantitative data analysis
15: Using SPSS for Windows
Part 3
16: The nature of qualitative research
17: Ethnography and participant observation
18: Interviewing in qualitative research
19: Focus groups
20: Language in qualitative research
21: Documents as sources of data
22: Qualitative data analysis
23: Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis: Using NVivo
Part 4
24: Breaking down the quantitative/qualitative divide
25: Combining quantitative and qualitative research
26: Internet research methods
27: Writing up business research