Saturday, May 22, 2021, the “M&M Ivanaj Foundation Institut” held the online webinar entitled “Research in a Changing World.” This topic attracted many young people to participate, making it one of our most successful online events. Our speakers brought their international expertise in the sector and raised many interesting issues, which greatly attracted the participants. Throughout the presentation and after, participants had the chance to interact with our speakers. However, the time was not enough to answer the multitude of questions raised. Nevertheless, we have not missed any of them. We are sharing with you some of the questions from the audience and respective answers from experts.

What is a business situation where market research can influence decision-making?

[Great question: Just a few examples for your consideration:

  • launching a new product,
  • enhancing an existing product,
  • pricing products new or existing
  • cancelling a product or offering
  • understanding client needs etc.
  • I would say in most business situations market research can potentially influence decision-making. Please feel free to send a follow-up question if there is a more specific scenario that you are interested in.

What are some of data analysis methods we can use to analyze quantitative and quantitative data?

Excellent question

  • Decision Tree
  • SWOT analysis
  • Venn Diagram
  • Analytics:
    • estimation and forecasting
      • Centralness (mean-average)
      • Median
    • Variation:
      • Standard Deviation
      • Variance
      • Range
    • Distribution
      • Histogram
      • Probability
    • Sequence
      • Trend
      • Seasonalities

Regarding research methodologies, how can a young researcher best find the research methodology that fits to problem he is trying to answer?

  • Thank you for your question and for asking for clarifications.
  • When you start a research project, you are engaged to solve a problem. This is based on preliminary understanding of a problem (business issue).
  • As you frame and baseline the research project you give yourself a framework to work within (boundaries that allow you flexibility)
  • As you advance with your research project you will realize that perhaps the problem you started the solve is not the root cause. This should not discourage you – should motivate you to do more “digging” to find the root cause and the real problem. This means you are on the right track.
  • In terms of methodology follow the 5 steps outlined in the presentation shared last Saturday May 22.

    • How can R&D influence business strategy and product development?

  • Great Question.
  • Research and development is one of the most important dept in any company that strives to innovate and be ahead of the competition
  • a great pillar allowing companies to renovate, innovate and stay in business.
  • R&D is set up to challenge the status quo and existing business strategy and absolutely it is there to create new products and/or enhance existing products in line with overall corporate or business strategy
  • Example: nowdays most of the companies have R&D focused on AI, Machine Learning etc. Skills as data scientists, or math scientists are scarce and are very much in need.

    • How to understand the plagiarism? What tools/methods can be used to understand it?

    • Plagiarism is not tolerated in academic circles
    • Plagiarism does not add value on the opposite it exposes the individual doing it to liabilities that are uneccessary. Students that get caught presenting work and found guilty of plagiarism in North America are expelled from University.
    • An easy way to find out is to take paragraphs or sentences and do a search via google.
    • Another way the idea presented by someone claiming to be their own may resonate with individuals that have done research in the field.
    • There are many tools to find plagiarism: mentioning a few just as a reference:
      • Grammarly.com is a good web site – this is a free tool
      • Copyleaks (education)
      • PaperRater
      • Plagiarisma etc

    Why is it so important to do research before making a decision in business?

  • As mentioned above this is a good question.
  • Nowdays competition is very stiff and there are always new competitors in the market place as a result to survive: Research and analysis are key for any business to prosper
  • Understanding the market, client needs (which change dynamically), competitors, pricing, f/x rates (for import/export companies), etc all these are good examples of quantitative analysis which help with decision making.
  • If you do not know what your competitors charge how will you price the product?
  • If you do not know who are the potential clients that can purchase your offer (your product) how do you know you will be successful in selling it in the free market?

    • Is there any correlation between research methodologies and research topics?

    • Great question however very difficult to explain in a few sentences.
    • The easiest way to do research is to follow the 5 steps shared in the workshop on May 22.
    • Research Methods vary and absolutely there is a correlation with topics being researched and/or analyzed:
      • Experiments - can be used for many type of research projects/analysis – for example research projects where experiments are leveraged are very frequently done in pharmaceutic industry, in food industry, in chemical etc.
      • Surveys, Interviews, Questionnaires are good for many types and can be agnostic of topic always provide in good output from a qualitative perspective
      • Etc other…
        • Case Studies
        • Obsevational Trials

    What do you think about the influence of COVID-19 in the gathering of data process in Medical and SME?

  • Good Question. COVID 19 is an evolving pandemic. Like no other time in human history the infection and spread is of proportions never experienced before.
  • As a result of the above the data from the medical labs from around the world is being collected and will take time to process. The abundance of data collected and available (some true some not so much) and not just on infection rates but also on mental health, side effects, and many other aspects correlated to the pandemic such as impact to vision in kids and youth, diabetes, weight, etc… are still being collected.
  • I am confident that very soon we will see science prevailing and providing solution to many problems we are currently faced today.
  • Data is “gold”. Knowing how to process large amounts of data and making sense of it is what AI, Machine learning are handy and will allow humanity to survive this pandemic. I am confident in better times coming. We will experience innovation, business model changes, etc because innovation will be at a faster speed because of the pandemic.  Example is digitization of services … what has been done in the past 15 months would have taken decades to be done in “normal circumstances”

    • Additionally, the “M&M Ivanaj Foundation Institut” will soon start a pilot project. If you want to join our efforts and be part of a volunteer research team, sign up here.