Competitive Analysis: Are you Gathering Information or Intelligence?

Finding online information about your competitors is easy--The difficult part is finding meaning. When researching the competition, you can avoid pitfalls by seeking 'intelligence' instead of 'information.'

Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2004). Articles>Research>Business Communication

Inspiring Change Through Research

Organizational communication is centered on inspiring and managing change, so it makes sense that communication professionals are seeing a more critical role for research in understanding and reaching their most important stakeholder relationships (employees, customers, suppliers, dealers, etc.). When a company is undergoing significant changes (i.e., a merger, acquisition, slumping sales, a product launch), research can pinpoint exactly where the issues and communication needs are. Oftentimes, such information is considered and then only used in limited ways. So how does a company proceed in bringing research results to life? It’s important to review how the research and tactical elements of communication vehicles are matched up.

Powell, Nancy. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Organizational Communication>Research

Is Professional Writing Relevant? A Model for Action Research    

This article argues that engaged 'action research' can help professional writing researchers both develop new and interesting collaborative models and help our profession develop a greater relevance to those not reading our journals and attending our conferences. I outline one particular, localized approach in the hope that our troubles, struggles, and failures at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee can help others to develop their own programs and can further our discussion of community engagement.

Clark, Dave. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Writing>Business Communication

Making Research Actionable: An Introduction to Design Criteria

What happens when people want a company’s product, but are frustrated by the process of trying to get it? Obviously it should be reworked — but doing so can be easier said than done. When we’re asked to redesign a process, we often start by exploring the problem space with in-context research, which generates a large amount of data. That data tends to point teams in the direction of a number of possible solutions. But how should the team decide which direction is the right one? In such cases, I’ve found that Design Criteria — a set of rules a design team can follow — can be a key tool so when a design team creates or reworks a service or product, everything it does supports the user.

Nelson, Sarah B. Adaptive Path (2008). Articles>Research>Design>Business Communication

The Rising Power of Research in the Boardroom

Reputation risk has become an increasingly important item on the boardroom agenda. Conscientious and/or beleaguered company directors are turning to research for a sense of the health of their world and, in turn, the measure of the responsibilities they must assume. Like a ‘wellperson clinic,’ objective and independent research is increasingly being used to test perceptions and expectations and monitor the weak signals or murmurs that may either support them or destroy them in the years, if not months, ahead. For the reluctant directors out there, new-style regulation is ensuring that being pessimistic is no way to run a company. Beyond tarnished personal reputations, the penalties for poor risk management and oversight can range from unlimited fines and censure to imprisonment.

Macleod, Sandra. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Research

Study Shows How to Get Bottom-Line Results from Internal Communication

Over the years, numerous studies have boasted the connection between internal communication and bottom-line results. These studies, though valuable for establishing a connection, do not delve into the important question of how. How does communication impact the bottom line? Which communication practices add the greatest value? Can communicators do to make their internal communication programs contribute to organizational success?

Vogt, Peter. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Research

Ethnographic Research in Business and Technical Writing    

Two widely disseminated approaches impose reductive boundaries on ethnographic research by privileging one context of meaning over other essential contexts. The first, emphasizing statistical validity, privileges the research community by recommending that the ethnographer's data analysis via coding agree with that of other raters from the research community. The second asserts that the ethnographer who comes closest to validity comes closest to presenting only the subject's point of view. Ethnography, however, comprises four essential, overlapping contexts: the phenomenal context (that which is observed/recorded), the site's cultural context (the subjects' outlook), the research community context, and the researcher's interior context, shaped by experience and education. Each of the four vantages has dominating tendencies, but if one does dominate to the exclusion of others, the reductive result is data-centered, thin description; subjects-centered groupthink; research community-centered groupthink; or researcher-centered solipsism. Although all contexts of meaning are important, none should fully eclipse the others.

Cross, Geoffrey A. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1994). Articles>Business Communication>Research>Ethnographies

Talking 'Bout My Generation: The Evolution of Online Marketing Research

Utilizing reliable market research on an ongoing basis is the most effective way to ensure a successful marketing campaign. Nevertheless, for many companies, the benefits of conducting marketing research and the costs of conducting marketing research always seem to be at odds. Marketing research can be expensive. Not knowing your customer's needs can be costly.

Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Research

Composition Studies, Professional Writing and Empirical Research: A Skeptical View    

This article builds upon the work of Richard Haswell's "NCTE/CCCC's Recent War on Scholarship" by providing an alternative framework for empirical inquiry based on principles of skepticism. It examines the literature relating to empirical research and argues that one of the issues at hand is the perceived link of empirical research to positivism, which clashes with the dominant social constructivist paradigm. It draws upon classical rhetoric and the work of radial empiricist William James to formulate an alternative framework for empirical research based on skeptical principles.

Driscoll, Dana Lynn. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Education>Research>Business Communication

The Changing Nature of Commercial Research    

In this article, Nigel Spencer compares and contrasts his experience of delivering fee-based business information research from 1987 to 2008. Although the article is written from the perspective of the British Library priced research services, many points made could also apply to the changing role of the business information professional.

Spencer, Nigel. Business Information Review (2008). Articles>Research>Business Communication>United Kingdom

Using Research: Supporting Organizational Change and Improvement    

Explores the importance of organizational research as a tool to support business change and improvement. Describes a tried and tested research methodology that has been used within public and private sector organizations and can be easily adapted by in-house research and information services. Demonstrates how research can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of learning and development products and services. Includes a case study from a central government department that investigates the role of the line manager in learning.

Wheeler, Stephanie. Business Information Review (2009). Articles>Research>Business Communication>Case Studies