Reliability and Validity in Business Research

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Reliability in Business Research
Validity in Business Research
Generalizability in Business Research
Logic Leaps and False Assumptions in Business Research
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Business scholars prescribe certain characteristics that researches must meet for results and recommendations to arrive at effective resolution of the stated problem. For this reason, the methodology deployed in a research needs to have some specific characteristics, which include credibility, reliability, use of rigorous methods and verification, validity and clarity, coherence in reporting, generalizability, and logic leaps and false assumptions. This paper defines four of these terms in two different ways.

Reliability in Business Research

Business research aims at resolving certain problems by providing short-term and long-term strategic plans that guarantee business success. Therefore, it is necessary for a research to be reliable. Firstly, reliability refers to the capacity of research to yield consistent findings (DJS Research Ltd par.2). Secondly, reliability may also be used as a business research aspect whereby interviewees are expected to respond to the interviewer’s questions in a similar manner, irrespective of where they are located around the globe. Thus, a research is reliable if two researchers can administer the same questionnaire to the same sample and obtain similar responses.

Validity in Business Research

Validity in business research can be both internal and external. Validity refers to the degree of truthiness or disloyalty of research propositions (Rolfe 307). From another perspective, Barbour (1028) defines validity as the degree to which tests measure what they are intended to assess, namely, the capacity of research propositions to measure up to the problems under investigation. External validity implies the degree of certainty of various claims raised in the research and the existing variables. External validity implies the degree to which findings of a research can be extended to apply to a bigger sample or even the population (Cohen and Crabtree 333).

The method utilized in business research needs to aid the researchers to attain optimal levels of validity of their research for their work to add significant knowledge to the body of knowledge they seek to amplify.

Generalizability in Business Research

In situations that involve large population sizes, it is impractical to apply research techniques and instruments to the entire population because of the large amount of time and high monetary requirements that are encountered when dealing with large population sizes. Therefore, business research involves sampling, which underlines the importance of generalizing the research findings. Firstly, generalizability means the applicability of the results of any business research beyond the limits of situations of a study (Collis and Hussey 56). Generalizability may also denote the ability of research findings to be true not only for the sample in a specific context but also the population.

Logic Leaps and False Assumptions in Business Research

A research that has high reliability and validity should not suffer from inconsistency in its flow of logic. Hence, any research design in business research should be developed such that there is smooth flow of logic where the assumptions made are valid and within the limits and contexts under which the research is conducted. Logic leaps and false assumptions denote the moments in research when there occurs significant gaps in arguments that different researchers raise concerning a particular subject (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill 98).

A false assumption is a wrong conclusion and hence a pre-judgment about the behavior of research instruments, variables, or even a population before the actual research or testing. Logic leaps and false assumptions may also refer to elements that are given critical consideration in business research when identifying the population, data collection process, interpretation of the data, and conclusion development.

Conclusion

Business research needs to follow certain rules. It needs to be dependable and compelling. A researcher needs to determine whether his or her research findings are generalizable. More importantly, business research should not suffer from logic leaps and false assumptions.

Works Cited

Barbour, Stephen. “The new found credibility of qualitative research? Tales of technical essentialism and co-option.” Quality Health Research 13.7(2003): 1019-1027. Print.

Cohen, Douglas, and Bernard Crabtree. “Evaluative Criteria for Qualitative Research in Health Care: Controversies and Recommendations.” Criteria for Qualitative Research 6.4(2008): 331-339. Print.

Collis, Jill, and Rogger Hussey. Business Research: A practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students, London: Macmillan Business, 2003. Print.

DJS Research Ltd. What is Validity and Reliability?, 2015. Web.

Rolfe, George. “Validity, trustworthiness and rigor: quality and the idea of qualitative research.” Journal of Advanced Marketing Research 53.3(2006): 304-310. Print.

Saunders, Mark, Philip Lewis, and Adrian Thornhill. Research Methods for Business Students, New Jersey, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

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