Research Methods for Business Students, 9th edition

Support your students' research project with the definitive textbook.

Research Methods for Business Students offers robust and pragmatic guidance to Business, Marketing, and Management students conducting a research-led project or dissertation.

Written by experts, it includes a range of features such as boxed examples demonstrating students' experiences, news articles and contemporary case studies. The self-study prompts help your students apply learnt material to their own research projects.

For more information and useful tips by Mark Saunders on how you can help your students use this new edition, check our YouTube channel.

Also available in Revel^®, with a Companion Website.

Pearson's webinar series "Changing Perspectives": a conversation about the book's commitment to DE&I.

Read our blog post Diversity, equity and Inclusion in Research Methods for Business Students and watch the full webinar video, where Mark Saunders talks about how he incorporates those fundamental themes into this latest edition.

Hallmark Features of this title

Clear explanation of theory and concepts that enables students to see their practical application.

• Clear and concise text with a glossary of clear definitions for over 750 research-related terms explains concepts and their use in practice.
• Checklists provide further guidance.
• Case studies written by academics include a range of organisations, from public finance to manufacturing to services, across the world from Tehran to Tanzania.

Encourages students to self-reflect apply their learning to their research project.

• Boxed examples of news articles, student research experiences, and published management research encourage students to apply learning to their project.
• Progressing your research offers your students practical guidance, planning, and opportunities to check their own learning and progress with their research accordingly.
• Online datasets offer students opportunities to manipulate and analyse data.

Ranked as the most highly cited text in Business, Marketing, Accounting & Economics!

According to the Financial Times' Teaching Power Rankings (research by Open Syllabus)

With over 500,000 copies sold, this is the definitive textbook for the students conducting a research-led project or dissertation, and an essential resource to guide them through the entire process - now in a new, fully revised edition.

Find out how your students can get the most out of their study of the book here, and hear the author's top study tips.

New and updated features of this title

Listen to the author discuss the new features of this edition here.

Updated and revised content according to recent developments in the field reinforces student learning and practical application.

• Chapters fully updated, incorporating visual methods throughout the text, along with detailed insights on the drafting of a critical literature review.
• Updated content, incorporating sustainability throughout, Internet-mediated access, and associated ethical issues using purchased data lists.
• New section evaluates interview practices, use of visual methods and offers more insights into transcription and qualitative data analysis
• New cases use up-to-date scenarios at the end of each chapter.
• Worldwide coverage of processes and issues raised through new end of chapter case studies from Australia, Iran, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK and the USA, on a wide range of organisations, from public finance to manufacturing to services to finance and film.
• An updated glossary of clear definitions now includes over 750 research-related terms.

New and updated content reflects the impact of COVID-19 on the research methods, further supporting your students' research process.

• Research methods adapted according to challenging recent changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, such as gaining access and recruiting participants.
• Impact of the pandemic including the shift from face-to-face interviews to online and telephone interviews.