Reliability and Validity in Business Research

Concepts of Reliability and Validity in Business Research
Introduction
In business research, how evidence is obtained and how well the process can be duplicated to verify results are two important features that help scholars, professionals and stakeholders make progress in the field. Building on ideas and processes that can help business leaders, managers, owners, administrators and investors is part of what makes research so vital and important. However, not all research is equal—and sometimes research is conducted that is filled with bias or that has a faulty method because the study fails to control for other variables or does not observe what it intends to observe. Sometimes the study is so poorly explained that other researchers have no way to verify the reports. In such cases, these studies could cause more harm than good were their recommendations to be implemented in an organization or place of business. Research is meant to shed light on new ways to improve the field, but unless the research can be verified by others via the peer-review process, there is no way of knowing whether the study has merit or whether it is actually something that leaders should strive to promote in their work (Nicholas et al., 2015). This paper will discuss what it means for a study to have validity and reliability in business research, why these concepts are important for business research, and how academics and scholars can ensure that both concepts can exist in business research.
Validity and Reliability
Validity in research refers to the study’s ability to measure the outcomes that it purports to measure. A valid study will be one that accurately assesses what it says it is assessing: the evidence it obtains and the conclusions that stem from the interpretation of the findings will be valid if there is no other explanation for the findings—i.e., no other variables or factors that might have possibly impacted the outcome.
A reliable study is that can be repeated again and again by other researchers based on the method described in your study and the same outcome will be achieved every single time. In other words, a reliable study is one that has been clearly explained, with all the parts regarding how data was obtained, how an intervention was implemented or how a hypothesis was tested accurately described so that the same exact study or experiment could be replicated by other researchers and the same exact outcome obtained.
Why Validity and Reliability are Essential in Business Research
In business research validity and reliability are very important. A study that is neither reliable nor valid will likely not be of any use to anyone while a study that is both will have very definite ramifications on the field. Business research is like any other type of research in any other type of discipline. In nursing, for instance, health care providers depend on research so that they can implement evidence-based practice—that is, practice in providing quality care to patients that is based on empirical evidence obtained over the course of research. Evidence paves the way to better practice in nursing (Melnyk, Gallagher-Ford, Long & Fineout-Overholt, 2014).
The same idea applies to business: the more evidence obtained from research regarding specific issues in business, the more likely practices in business are to be refined by those who seek to implement the evidence into their business practices. A business study that is both valid and reliable is one that could potentially make a big impact on the way organizations go about conducting their business.
How to Ensure Both Concepts Exist in Business Research
In business research, scholars can ensure that both reliability and validity exist in their research by testing and re-testing their methods and findings to ensure consistency in results. It is also helpful to have an IRB present to oversee the research. This is an internal review board that can help guide the process and identify errors in the research process before you begin a study. Pilot testing is also a good method for identifying whether your data collection instrument—such as a survey or interview questionnaire will actually help you to obtain the data you want to collect in order to answer your research question (Dikko, 2016).
The way that would work is this: before beginning a study, you lay out exactly all the parts that you intend to research. First, you identify a problem in business that you want to study. This problem should be something that others have not yet studied or some issue that requires more study. Usually this is presented as a gap in research and it can be a gap that you intend to fill with your study.
Once the problem is identified, ask a research question that will allow you to address the problem. The question can be one that may require different types of data, depending on the approach that you choose to adopt for the study. A qualitative or quantitative method can be used or a mixed-methods approach, which combines these two methods. The method chosen will help to determine the design of the research, which will also depend on the research question and whether you intend to test a hypothesis or simply gather information that will allow you to better understand a phenomenon in business.
Each of these points is an important step in laying the groundwork for ensuring that both validity and reliability exist in your research. Once the problem, research question, hypothesis (if applicable), and design have been determined, the method for collecting data can be settled upon—and this is where reliability and validity are each concerned primarily. Data collection is the process by which the factors or variables that the researcher aims to examine are identified and the relevant information regarding those variables obtained from the sample—the participants in the field that are examined, interviewed, surveyed, tested, and so on.
If the participants are to be surveyed or interviewed, the questions that will be asked have to be certain of being able to elicit the type of response that will allow the research to get the relevant data to make a proper analysis to answer the research question. The best way to ensure that reliability and validity both exist in this case is to conduct a pilot study with the questions that are to be asked to make sure they actually work—i.e., that the responses the participants give let the researcher in turn give an answer to the research question. If the survey/interview questions do not provide the right material for analysis, they have to be retooled so that they will work.
Writing out this process and going over it again and again to make sure every step in the research makes sense and that the proper end is being achieved by each step is crucial to ensuring that the study will be both reliable and valid. It does not pay to skip steps or to rush through the thinking of how the research will be conducted. How the research is set up is the most important part of the whole study. Framing it out is just like framing a room in a house; if not done correctly, the walls could fall down and the ceiling cave in. A study has to be set up right in order to have validity and reliability and that means the researcher has to carefully outline every step in the research process before actually engaging in the research. A blueprint is required just like one is needed when building a house. A research study in business is like building a house, essentially: one needs a map of where things will go and what it is supposed to look like in the end.
Once the data is obtained and analyzed and a conclusion reached, all of it has to be written up and explained for the reader so that if other researchers wanted to verify the results, they could test the hypothesis or use the same method as described in the study to collect data on their own. The better these methods are explained and described, the more likely the study is to have validity and reliability.
Conclusion
Business research is like any other type of research: it depends upon a solid design in order to be of use to others in the field. The method for collecting information to address a particular problem must be defined and the factors that are examined should yield the type of data that is helpful in solving the problem or answering the question identified at the beginning of the research. Business studies require validity and reliability because they are being written for others—not just for oneself or so that one can express ideas to the world. The study has to be constructed properly in order to be effective. It has to be written like a plan, so that others can follow it if they choose so to do. This is the essence of all good research and it is particularly important in business research because so much can be riding on the results of a study: entire organizations, industries and sectors could be impacted by a study—which means it is absolutely necessary that the research study be verifiable. If no one can verify it, then one has to ask what good it is in the first place.
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