Business research methodology and applications

Business research ethics is an area that raises numerous difficulties for researchers in the field. Although it is important to protect the subjects researched by companies, whether one refers to other companies or individuals, this leaves little space for researchers to conduct their business research within ethical boundaries. Researchers must understand that even if certain practices are applied by numerous companies, it does not mean that they are ethical and can be applied on a large scale.

In this case, Jane's business research proposal breaks a series of ethical rules, some of which Jane was not even aware of. The main ethical issue that the university has identified is represented by the fact that participants in the research are deceived on various levels.

First of all, participants are deceived regarding the researcher's professional identity. This is because participants expect to discuss with a student interested in researching their companies for scholarly purposes only, and not in order to serve the interests of their competitors. If they knew the real reasons of the research, they probably would not agree with participating in the project. In other words, their participation is conditioned by the purpose of the research, and they deceived regarding this purpose.

As mentioned in the case study, the research should be based on honesty (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007). By denying participants' right to an informed decision, Jane breaks this important ethical rule. As a consequence, if the research in case would produce, it should be annulled by the university and by beneficiaries on grounds of being unethical.

2. There are several actions that Jane can take in order to avoid these ethical issues. The mystery customer method can be used by a company in order to assess the performance of their employees, or by companies trying to research competition's activity.

When it is performed by the company on its employees, it is easier to avoid ethical issues. For example, the company that intends to use this method can inform its employees that will be periodically assessed using the mystery customer method. This way, employees are informed, they are aware of what the research method assumes, and most importantly, they have the right to deny such practices by quitting their job if they consider such practices as being unacceptable.

However, in the case of companies using the mystery customer method in analyzing their competition, things are not as clear as in the situation mentioned above. It is obvious that these companies cannot be informed that they are being studied by their competition, while it is unethical to conduct this kind of research without their consent.

In order to avoid ethical issues, Jane should analyze these restaurants by taking some distance and not involving their personnel directly in this investigation. This way, there is no need to ask for their consent or to inform them, because it is not unethical to observe the behavior of competitors' employees.

The behavior of competitors' employees can be observed without breaking any ethical rules. In order to provide a product that cannot be attacked by accusations regarding ethical issues, the identity of the restaurants, employees, and clients must not be revealed.

3. Although the first part of Jane's research project can be easily done without breaking ethical rules, the second part of the project raises serious questions regarding ethical practices. The situation is so complicated, that the university has decided to take distance from this subject and not recognize the student's work in case Jane continues to use such practices.

The university has made it clear to Jane that she cannot use her student identity and connection with the university when implementing this research project, especially regarding the in-depth interview part.

However, in order to continue with this part of the project, Jane must make a series of modifications to her research proposal. For example, if she intends to continue with these in-depth interviews without the participants' knowledge on her identity, she cannot use the results within the university. If she decides to give the results to the company that is sponsoring her, it is her responsibility and she is liable of suffering the consequences.

In order to avoid ethical issues, Jane could organize these interviews as concerning consumers, as a statistical survey that she can publish in the university's newspaper, therefore becoming public knowledge. The identity of the surveyed restaurants should be concealed, otherwise it is unlikely that their staff would be willing to participate in such a study.

If Jane could introduce other factors of interest for the surveyed restaurants in this research project, they might be interested in participating. Also, Jane could reveal the results of her work after she stops being a student at this university. However, this does not eliminate the ethical issues from this situation, but it clears the university of taking part of such actions.

4. It is not surprising that Jane, same as many other people, think that the mystery customer method is an ethical one. Authors like Calvert and Erstad have addressed this issue in several articles. Given the fact that numerous companies provide and promote their services regarding mystery shopping and mystery customers surveys, one cannot help to think that such services are perfectly ethical. Even more, staff recruiting websites offer a series of mystery shopping jobs. Also, given the fact that several specialists in the field consider that these practices become ethical if customers are informed that they will be subjected of such surveys, it is not abnormal that Jane believed mystery shopping as being ethical (Douglas, 2007).

As Calvert mentions in a 2005 article that Jane has based her research proposal on, mystery shopping is by definition a form of participant observation, even if the research techniques is used without participants' knowledge. In other words, this research method is granted by Calvert, which determined Jane to consider the mystery customer method as a perfectly legitimate research method that she can use, especially for such a research project where participant agreement would deteriorate the results of the study.

Jane's considerations on the mystery customer method are also entitled by Erstad's 1998 article on the subject. The writer agrees with this method because of the advantages it presents. In the writer's opinion, the method is useful because it is able to identify employees' genuine desire towards providing high quality services to their customers. Even more, this method is recognized by Erstad as a positive, motivational tool that favors both the company and its employees. Therefore, Jane thought that by implementing the mystery customer method, this could be helpful for her research project, for the employees, and for the companies.