1.1 What is research?
Research is boring. Research is something that somebody else undertakes – other students and other managers. Research is that subject area that you have to study at university, but you have never really understood why you are made to study it. Research has no place in your day-to-day life; after all, you are not a technician; you are studying towards a tourism, hospitality or events management degree. So, why do you need to know what research is? These are just some of the comments and questions which are raised when asking students about research. Well, listen up – research is of great value to your area of expertise.
Research is what we do when we have a question or a problem that needs to be answered or solved. Research helps you to answer questions, specific questions you may have about your subject area. Research enables you to complete their honours project or dissertation. Research helps managers to make decisions about their business. Research helps individuals harness their curiosity. Research helps you to understand your marketplace, your target audience and your future goals and aspirations. Research helps you to discover something new about your consumers, your product and your marketplace. Research can help you to make well-informed decisions and to successfully develop your career. Research is, after all, knowledge – knowledge of people and knowledge of place. Is that not what you came to university for? To learn about, research and manage a business within your chosen subject area?
For example, in studying tourism, you may be curious about why people move to destinations away from home and why people undertake the activities that they do whilst on vacation. Hospitality students may also be interested in the movement of people, but they may be focused on consumer behaviour and researching the expectations and satisfaction levels of each consumer. Then, events students may consider motivation – the motivation to attend a concert or a community festival – or even develop their ability to think to the future, to create new events and opportunities for people. Either way, what you are is a researcher who has principles founded within the social sciences. These are situated within the social sciences because we are talking about people – the study of human society and the manner in which people behave. Those people can be booking a holiday, choosing a hotel or determining which event they wish to attend, but they, the people, are the common connecting factor. Therefore, we should all be interested in finding out information about people and their behaviour, their decision-making process and their level of expectation/satisfaction with experiences and products.
The point being, whatever knowledge you may need to acquire, you can do so by undertaking research. You can acquire knowledge and/or advance knowledge (Brunt, 1997; Veal, 2011). Therefore, regardless of your preconceptions about research, your subject stream, or the necessity to actually undertake research, you need it. You need to undertake research and you need to understand it; research is of importance to you.
Undertaking research is not simple; it can be challenging and confusing at times. However, it can also be fun and exciting. To actually find out the truth, to apply general principles to practice and to know why something happens the way it does, is very rewarding. However, it can only be rewarding if you undertake research in an appropriate manner and if you can understand the reason for carrying out specific forms of research to answer explicit questions. Therefore, it is important that you understand the logic and rationale behind adopting the different research strategies and ensure you pick the right, most effective method for your research question. For example, as a manager, you may wish to gain knowledge solely about the consumer or you may choose to gain a broad understanding of the organisation (e.g. its various products and the consumer). If that is the case, then you need to be specific about the type of research you are undertaking. After all, ‘research methods’ is a standalone academic discipline that warrants careful consideration.
To provide you with an insight at this stage, research should be:
- Reliable – research should be accurate and credible.
- Ethical – research should be fitting and principled.
- Stimulating – research should be thought-provoking.
- Evidential – research should be based on evidence; be undertaken and then substantiated.
- Arduous – undertaking research is not simple; it can be challenging at times.
- Rewarding – to actually find out the truth, to apply general principles to practice and to know why something happens the way it does, is very gratifying.
- Conscientious – it is a researcher’s duty to be diligent and thorough when undertaking research.
- Handled – research should be controlled and managed effectively and ethically.
Consequently, an understanding about the various guises of research is needed, and clarification of the chosen focus and process of research is required to ensure valuable research is undertaken. It is not sufficient to just ‘do’ research. What you need to develop is a clear understanding of the different approaches that are available to you as a researcher, and to make well-informed and logical decisions, based on your current circumstances and constraints. Then you should be able to effectively discover answers, solve problems and make decisions about research and ensure it is reliable, ethical, stimulating, evidential, arduous, rewarding, conscientious and handled.
1.1.1 Research as an academic discipline
Research is viewed as a subject area in its own right. Research is an academic discipline that requires a systematic approach and is about undertaking an investigation: thinking carefully about a topic area, discovering the principles of it and exploring the topic area. Undertaking research should therefore help you to understand, explain and predict things that are of interest to you and/or your organisation.
Research can be descriptive, helping us to describe/list/report a phenomenon by finding things out. Research can be explanatory, helping us to explain phenomena. Research can also be evaluative, combining both descriptive and explanatory research to suggest a course of action and make a judgement. Within the literature or company reports and the like, it is very rare that the terms ‘descriptive’, ‘explanatory’ or ‘evaluative’ will be used to title a piece of research or a report. Nevertheless, all research is concerned with one or more of these categories.
There is unfortunately not just one type of research that can be undertaken. Instead, there are many different types of research to consider. It is therefore important to stop and think about exactly what form of research you are planning to undertake, why you are undertaking it and who you are conducting the research for. By reviewing the various types of research outlined below, the logic for doing this should become clear.
Scientific research
Scientific research is research that is conducted according to strict rules of logic and observation. A scientific approach is one where research is conducted in a systematic fashion. Normally, this is associated with conducting experiments where, if researchers follow the same methods and techniques, they will gain the same results in their experiments. This aspect, often termed replication, is particularly important in scientific research. Although the conditions of experiments may not always be replicated, scientists strive to achieve them to give weight to their conclusions.
Social science research
Social science relates to the scientific study of society and social relationships. Social science research is therefore much more about people and how they live. As people are often subjective and irrational, it is more difficult to carry out experiments in social science that are capable of being replicated. Social science research therefore focuses on people and their behaviour.
Applied research
Applied research uses the same methods and techniques of science or social science research but the research itself is undertaken for a specific purpose that goes beyond solely advancing the body of human knowledge in the area. Therefore, applied research is designed to be put to a particular use and to solving practical problems. For example, an organisation may need to solve a specific problem and to solve that problem they need to undertake some research, the outcomes of which they will apply to the original problem. Applied research therefore focuses on the application of the research findings.
Pure research
Pure research is mainly for academic interest alone. This is because, typically, the researcher chooses the topic of research with the aim of publication in academic journals and books. Alternatively, pure research is sometimes undertaken for higher degrees, such as doctorates. Whatever the circumstances, the aim of pure research is the advancement of knowledge in the area rather than an attempt to find an industry application. For instance, a PhD candidate needs to offer an original contribution to the subject area for the title to be awarded; this is a clear example of pure research.
Illustration 1.1 Pure research in the events sector
Donald Getz is an acclaimed international academic and leading scholar within the fields of tourism and events management. On numerous occasions, Getz has developed theoretical knowledge about the events industry, which at the time of undertaking had no practical purpose in mind. This can be viewed and categorised as pure research. For example, Getz (2008) reviewed ‘event tourism’ as a field of academic study. Within this article, there is a clear focus placed on the theory of events, and the paper produces a conceptual model (a framework) for future research – advancing and encouraging the development of theory in the subject area of events management. In later publications, this theory is tested and applied, but the original article had no practical purpose in mind. Following on from this publication, as the knowledge of events management has progressed significantly, Getz and Andersson (2016: 1) have more recently published a conceptual paper that ‘draw[s] upon organizational ecology theory’ to develop knowledge about festivals and events. The article offers an alternative perspective on how groups of festivals and events within a single location can be viewed (the event portfolio as such). The paper does discuss policy implications, nevertheless the theoretical (not practical) focus of it means it is still a good example of pure research.
Action research
Action research is about combining academic understanding with industry application. Often, the researcher undertakes work with a client or sponsoring establishment and both have agreed goals as to the outcomes of the research. ...
