Business Research Paper

Business Research Paper

What makes a business successful? This is a question that all organizations must answer in order to achieve its objectives and goals. To achieve organizational goals cooperation must come from all employees including management. In order to identify a business opportunity or a business problem research must be conducted. The purpose of this paper is to define the business research and its purpose, explain the business problem under investigation, and identify the parties involved in conducting the research along with the methods used to conduct the research project.

Business Research and Purpose

Business research can be defined as an organized analysis that provides information to guide business decisions (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). In simpler terms, business research is the implementation of planned, controlled, merited and experienced based controls. Business research, based upon this interpretation, plays various roles in a company's decision-making process. In business research, a plan is formulated. It is the job of management in a company to get things done by the most efficient use of people, time, technology, etc. The purpose of research is to either create or test a theory (Cano, nd). Research is the apparatus used to test whether a theory is good or not. It is the process by which data is gathered to generate a theory or used to test a theory. Business research and its purpose will be defined in this paper along with business problem that Wal-mart was faced with which includes the parties conducting the research and methods used in the research.

Wal-mart Overview

Wal-mart discount store was established in 1962 in Bentonville, Arkansas, by Sam Walton. In 1998 Wal-mart introduced the concept of one-stop shopping by opening Wal-mart super centers which combined full grocery line, general merchandise, vision centers and etc under one roof. Today Wal-mart employs 1.8 million associates worldwide, including 1.3 million in the United States. Wal-mart is the nation's largest employer and the world's biggest retailer (Walmart, 2003).

Business Problem

The article styled, Wal-mart Tries to Buff Its Image, states that Wal-mart was faced with the problem of how to create and portray a better image of the company to the public. Hoping to revive its deteriorating image, Wal-Mart not only spent big bucks on the image research but is now rolling out an elaborate and costly series of television ads showing smiling women employees achieving their career goals in an atmosphere of diversity and innovation.

The research by Fleishman-Hillard finds that employees, particularly women, often see working at Wal-Mart as a dead-end job. Suppliers see the company as constantly pushing for lower prices that sometimes make it hard to stay in business and pay workers a living wage. Small towns see it