Experimental Methods and Business Management - Case Study Example

Introduction Business management is one of the richest areas where a research method usually finds its way for potential applications. In marketing for instance, marketers are always looking forward to identify customers’ attitudes or behaviors towards certain product or service offerings. Prior to understanding better information in these areas of concern, marketers are also finding potential methods on how to identify, evaluate, or measure customers’ behaviors. For instance, to conduct a study is necessary, but in doing it there is a need to use a research method. Some marketers employ different methods to identify information necessary to help them in the decision-making process. A marketer for instance may employ actual observation of customers’ behaviors in order to test the hypothesis. For this reason, it might be essential to make use of a field experiment in order to uncover data, investigate information and to finally test the actual hypothesis. In this field experiment, the proponent of the study might try to initiate actual experimental design in connection to obtaining answer to specific hypothesis. A researcher might try to initiate the study with or without the actual know-how of the respondents. This kind of field experiment may be employed in areas where customers are exercising their usual behaviors that at some point they might be oblivious about the point that they are actually being part of a certain study. There are many kinds of potential research methods and among them are experimental methods. Among the experimental methods, a field experiment could be used in finding potential information about the target customers when applied in the business and economic context. In this paper, the proponent expounds field experiment as a research method applied in the business and economic context. Literature review Field experiments engaged actual real-life setting of experimental manipulations within a natural environment in which business and management research usually has considerable engagement because of its external validity (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p.45; Zikmund, Babin, Carr & Griffin, 2012, p.258; Zikmund & Babin, 2006, p.281). For instance, field experiment usually is used in test marketing of new products or evaluating alternative promotional programs (Capon, 2009, p.88; Reid & Bojanic, 2009). In the actual context, field experiment is becoming popular. This research method has remarkable contribution in order to ensure achievement of good business management. To make it more productive, it is commonly used in studies that are business related. There are various studies that are conducted using field experiment as important component of their actual research methodologies. For instance, a field experiment was conducted in order to find out the significance of social ranking other than money as a prime incentive (Tran & Zeckhauser, 2012, p.645). In this study, students from Vietnam taking up English classes performed better when they were informed their rankings on practice test than when they were not. For this reason, a field experiment was a primary significant component for the success of obtaining this information that does not only have future economic implication, but including other business-related concerns. Field experiment could also be employed especially in performance measurement. This is the case of a study, employing balanced scorecard with a field experiment applied in an Australian telecommunications organization (Andon, Baxter & Chua, 2007, p.273). From this study, relevant information concerning the implication of accounting in an organization was determined, creating significant information needed for the actual business management context. Also, the field of experimental methods, as shown in the study, has potential implication for future application especially with private entities, as one could potentially integrate it with socio-economic understanding (Levitt & List, 2009, p.1). Considering the point that socio-economic concerns are what we usually encounter in the actual scenario, the field experiments, in this study have significant contribution in finding the appropriate information as they deal with actual manipulation of information from the actual external environment. Another study was initiated in order to find the price differences on eBay and through a field experiment; it was found same-race sellers receive higher prices (Nunley, Owens & Howard, 2011, p.670). Platforms like eBay have continuously received constant exposure, making them a remarkable environment for any marketing-related activities. For this reason, there were various studies initiated regarding marketing concern, most importantly in line with business management, including but not limited to obtaining competitive advantage. In this study, prior to obtaining information about competitive advantage, there is a remarkable consideration on understanding the actual pricing strategies prevailing on eBay, by taking actual field experiment on the said marketing platform. The result was promising, and this also has made possible because of the effective use of a field research. There is also a certain study that through the use of experiments was able to successfully come up with a business process model (Gonzalez, Garcia, Ruiz & Mendling, 2012, p.1159). This study was initiated in the information and software industry particularly discussing about quality and model measurement. When it comes to finding quality and investigating its potential impact, this research primary employs field experiment, and after gathering the actual data, simulations have become possible, creating actual working model. This has been made possible because of the actual potential and usage of field experiment that based on this study, has remarkably generated actual data to cover the validity of the model. Another field study, initiating experiment is able to find out actor network pictures and networking activities in business networks, as in line with managerial cognition activity (Corsaro, Ramos, Henneberg & Naurke, 2011, p.919). This study requires an actual field experiment, as it deals with business networks that at some point complex in the actual setting. To magnify a certain issue, the proponents of this study believed that it is quite reasonable to use a field experiment in order to answer hypothesis based on what can be visibly observed in the actual external environment. A field study was conducted in order to find a potential relationship between business process modeling choices and redesign success (Kock, Verville, Pajou & DeLuca, 2009, p.562). This is another modeling related study that employs field research investigation. It is crucial to generate results from field experiment because this is a modeling activity requiring actual raw data that is based on the actual context within the external environment. A field experiment pertaining to supply chain management was conducted in order to find out effective monitoring systems about sourcing and product reliability, by testing Benford’s law of improving supply chain decision-making (Hales, Chakravorty & Sridharan, 2009). For entrepreneurship research, internet freelancing has been considered as a natural environment where future field research and experiment could be conducted for business opportunities and address traditional pervasive methodological challenges (Aguinis & Lawal, 2012, p.493). The internet or various web sites are now considered a great field for promotion purposes. A particular study conducted a large-scale field experiment in order to evaluate the interruption effect of pop-up promotions (Moe, 2006, p.34). These are just some of the actual business-related studies that employed field experiment as important component of their research methodology. This research method strongly highlights the important emphasis of experiments in the actual context while integrating them within business applications. Analysis In most cases, when applied in the business context, the field experiment tries to consider the achievement of the associated information for business management. Essentially, as shown, field experiment has remarkable applications to almost all related aspects in business that have corresponding implications on the actual management setting. This also means that field experiment is not hopelessly outmoded as based on varying literature; there are considerable numbers of studies employing experimental methods in the actual environmental setting. Based on the above findings, the chosen studies all employed field experiment as part of the research methodology not only to gather data, but to help substantiate actual information that is based on what must be taking place in the actual external environment. In addition, based on the actual gathered literature on where to use field experiments it is clear that they have found their ways on the actual business management process and managerial decision making. As it might be clear, field experiment provides actual data that could provide remarkable information reflecting what really happens in the external environment. This also ensures achievement of appropriate information prior to actual decision-making process, for instance. In addition, this also would result to achievement of valid conclusion, making field experiment, for a long period of time seems to be one effective approach in conducting investigation and research particularly in the business environment. Conclusion In this paper, the proponent was able to gather substantial number of academic studies showing the remarkable usage and advantage of a field experiment as important part of the experimental methods used in the business environment. This reveals that field experiment is used primarily in the business management and decision-making as it is considered for its ability to provide valid results, and potential contributions to formulating models for future prediction of valuable business-related information. Thus, field experiments are important components of experimental methods particularly in the business field. References Aguinis, H., & Lawal, S. O. (2012). Conducting field experiments using eLancing’s natural environment. Journal of Business Venturing, 27, 493-505. Andon, P. Baxter, J., & Chua, W. F. (2007). Accounting change as relational drifting: A field study of experiments with performance measurement. Management Accounting Research, 18, 273-308. Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2007). Business Research Methods (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Capon, N. (2009). Capon’s Marketing Framework. Bronxville, NY: Wessex Publishing. Corsaro, D., Ramos, C., Henneberg, S. C., & Naude, P. (2011). Actor network pictures and networking activities in business networks: An experimental study. Industrial Marketing Management, 40, 919-932. Gonzalez, L. S., Garcia, F., Ruiz, F., & Mendling, J. (2012). Quality indicators for business process models from a gateway complexity perspective. Information and Software Technology, 54, 1159-1174. Hales, D. N., Chakravorty, S. S., & Sridharan, V. (2009). Testing Benford’s Law for improving supply chain decision-making: A field experiment. 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