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Best article that clarifies how sustainability can be embedded in strategy. Review of "Creating Shared Value"

This article offers a complete perspective on persuasion that is not explored in other material. Review of "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion"

Many of my students specifically mentioned this article as a ‘key takeaway’ from the class. Review of "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail"

An ethical intuitionist account of transparency of algorithms and its gradations

The social and environmental drivers of corporate credit ratings: international evidence.

• Gregor Dorfleitner
• Johannes Grebler

Determinants and consequences of clawback provisions in management compensation contracts: a structured literature review on empirical evidence

• Patrick Velte

Editorial: transformation

• Thomas Gehrig

Sustaining the current or pursuing the new: incumbent digital transformation strategies in the financial service industry

• Maik Dehnert

Discriminated by an algorithm: a systematic review of discrimination and fairness by algorithmic decision-making in the context of HR recruitment and HR development

• Alina Köchling
• Marius Claus Wehner

On the current state of combining human and artificial intelligence for strategic organizational decision making

• Hendrik Birkel
• Evi Hartmann

Success factors of academic journals in the digital age

• Milan Frederik Klus
• Alexander Dilger

Betting the farm and playing it safe? Hyper-core self-evaluation in decisions when managers are winning and losing

• Andreas Hönl
• Philip Meissner
• Torsten Wulf

Strategic decision-making under ambiguity: a new problem space and a proposed optimization approach

• Richard J. Arend

A contingency lens on cloud provider management processes

• Severin Oesterle

More self-organization, more control—or even both? Inverse transparency as a digital leadership concept

• Maren Gierlich-Joas
• Thomas Hess
• Rahild Neuburger

Valuation with mixed financing strategies

• Stefan Dierkes
• Imke de Maeyer

The right digital strategy for your business: an empirical analysis of the design and implementation of digital strategies in SMEs and LSEs

• Wolfgang Becker
• Oliver Schmid

The digital transformation of the healthcare industry: exploring the rise of emerging platform ecosystems and their influence on the role of patients

• Sebastian Hermes
• Tobias Riasanow
• Helmut Krcmar

Demand response through automated air conditioning in commercial buildings—a data-driven approach

• Benedict J. Drasch
• Gilbert Fridgen
• Lukas Häfner

Editorial: The future of Business Research

Revenue management systems as symbiotic analytics systems: insights from a field study.

• Claudia Schütze
• Catherine Cleophas
• Monideepa Tarafdar

Unicorns—what drives multibillion-dollar valuations?

• Carolin Bock
• Christian Hackober

How to digitalize inseparable service processes: the enabling role of internal and external support for innovation

• Prisca Brosi
• Isabell M. Welpe

Agency in the face of path dependence: how organizations can regain scope for maneuver

• Johann Fortwengel
• Arne Keller

Building an ambidextrous organization: a maturity model for organizational ambidexterity

• Katharina Stelzl
• Maximilian Röglinger
• Katrin Wyrtki

A lab test on the decision not to decide

• Christian D. Schade
• Avichai Snir

Project leaders’ control resources and role overload as predictors of project success: developing the job demands–resources model

• Kai-Kristina Lattrich
• Marion Büttgen

“Touching” services: tangible objects create an emotional connection to services even before their first use

• Nora Nägele
• Benjamin von Walter
• Daniel Wentzel

Frontiers of business intelligence and analytics 3.0: a taxonomy-based literature review and research agenda

• Mathias Eggert
• Jens Alberts

Can ‘Civil Enterprises’ survive in the market? Some game theoretical considerations on the one-shot game

• Christian Müller
• María Guadalupe Martino

Editorial for Business Research 13(1)

Sectoral evolution and shifting service delivery models in the sharing economy.

• J. Corcoran

Corporate governance and banks’ productivity: evidence from the banking industry in Bangladesh

• Md. Harun Ur Rashid
• Shah Asadullah Mohd. Zobair
• Azharul Islam

Sustainable luxury: current status and perspectives for future research

• Jennifer Kunz
• Stephanie May
• Holger J. Schmidt

Exploring patterns of corporate social responsibility using a complementary K -means clustering criterion

• Boris Mirkin

Observational learning and willingness to pay in equity crowdfunding

• Martin Walther

Explaining the competitive advantage generated from Analytics with the knowledge-based view: the example of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

• Tino T. Herden

Evaluating investments in flexible on-demand production capacity: a real options approach

• Bettina Freitag
• Jochen Übelhör

Influence of different stakeholders on first-tier suppliers’ sustainable supplier selection: insights from a multiple case study in the automotive first-tier industry

• Sabrina Lechler
• Angelo Canzaniello

A data-driven hierarchical MILP approach for scheduling clinical pathways: a real-world case study from a German university hospital

• Karsten Schwarz
• Michael Römer
• Taïeb Mellouli

Balancing of assembly lines with collaborative robots

• Christian Weckenborg
• Karsten Kieckhäfer
• Thomas S. Spengler

The multi-vehicle stochastic-dynamic inventory routing problem for bike sharing systems

• Jan Brinkmann
• Marlin W. Ulmer
• Dirk C. Mattfeld

Escalating internationalization decisions: intendedly rational, but only limitedly so?

• Björn Röber

(Ir)Rationality of decisions in business research and practice: introduction to the special issue

• Marko Sarstedt

Partnering for good? An analysis of how to achieve sustainability-related outcomes in public–private partnerships

• Katharina Spraul
• Julia Thaler

Corporate reputation and the future cost of equity

• Benjamin Pfister
• Manfred Schwaiger
• Tobias Morath

Violations of dominance in decision-making

• Thomas Kourouxous
• Thomas Bauer

Development of an AHP hierarchy for managing omnichannel capabilities: a design science research approach

• Jochen Wulf

Making regulation fit by taking irrationality into account: the case of the whistleblower

• Sebastian Oelrich

When rational decision-making becomes irrational: a critical assessment and re-conceptualization of intuition effectiveness

• Christian Julmi

Price limits under incomplete preference information based on almost stochastic dominance

• Hermann Jahnke
• Jan Thomas Martini
• Tobias Wiens

Transactions for trading used electric vehicle batteries: theoretical underpinning and information systems design principles

• Sebastian Bräuer
• Florian Plenter
• Jörg Becker

Stabilized-cycle strategy for a multi-item, capacitated, hierarchical production planning problem in rolling schedules

• Malte Meistering
• Hartmut Stadtler

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Page 1 of 6

The impact of size on income diversification: an empirical study on commercial banks in Vietnam

Banks are the engine of the economy. Therefore, bank performance has a direct impact on the development and security of the entire economy. The main source of income for commercial banks comes from lending and...

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MicroServices-driven enterprise architecture model for infrastructure optimization

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a discipline that is becoming increasingly important for businesses that are undergoing digital transformation. EA encompasses the practice of designing and managing the entire ...

Does energy efficiency, renewable energy and effective capital promote economic growth in the emerging 7 economies? New evidence from CS-ARDL model

Gross Domestic Product is regarded as the major indicator which determines the standards of living in a country. Consequently, energy use is far regarded as one of the major determinants of economic growth in ...

Employee perception of electronic human resource management and COVID-19 restrictions in public organizations: the experience of Ghana Revenue Authority, Bono Region

The purpose of this study was to find out what measures were taken to manage human resources during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Ghana Revenue Authority in Ghana. This was necessary because, even though electr...

Does financial repression inhibit or facilitate private investment? The case of Ethiopia

This study examines the impact of financial repression (FR) on private investment in Ethiopia over the period 1980 to 2020. Investigating the consequences of FR policies makes use of the cointegration techniqu...

Do financing institutions consider operating performance in estimating cost of debt?

This paper examines the relationship between firm performance and cost of debt. More specifically this paper empirically shows that fund providers charge lower cost on debt for highly performing companies comp...

Factors affecting job satisfaction among nurses working in Ondo state

The level of satisfaction received on the job is highly essential in the discharge of duty. Nurses' respected level of job satisfaction improves turnover, commitment, and patient satisfaction. This study asses...

Addressing shortage of skilled technical workers in the USA: A glimpse for training service providers

Skilled technical workers are needed to make any country highly competitive and more productive globally. However, there are reports that the supply of skilled technical workers does not adequately meet the cu...

Monetary policy transmission channels and the performance of the real sectors in selected sub-Saharan African countries: a system-GMM approach

This study investigated the impact of monetary policy channels on the real sector performance in selected sub-Saharan African countries. This study covers the period 1990 to 2020. The broad objective of the st...

Development of a comprehensive stress assessment tool for Indian public sector employees

The study aims to develop a comprehensive stress assessment tool for Indian public sector employees, considering unique stressors, cultural factors, and organizational characteristics. The study employed a ded...

Influence of board mechanisms on sustainability performance for listed firms in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study aims to examine the effects of board mechanisms (board size, board independence, board gender, board educational background, board tenure, foreign directors on board, board leadership–CEO duality, b...

Connectedness and spillover between African equity, commodity, foreign exchange and cryptocurrency markets during the COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine conflict

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial and commodity markets have exhibited significant volatility and displayed fat tail properties, deviating from the normal probability curve. The recent Russia...

Frontline resilience in the retail realm: the role of moral disengagement in understanding employee behavior in the post-pandemic uncertainties

In the wake of the pandemic, retail services—especially vulnerable to ethical dilemmas due to heightened market instability—demand a deeper understanding of service employees’ behaviors. This research investig...

Hail to thee, my sports team brand: investigating the drivers of eFANgelism among fans of selected sports teams in the English Premier League (EPL)

Sports fans participate in supporting sports teams by demonstrating various attitudinal behaviors such as loyalty, purchase intention, and stadium attendance. However, although the literature indicates that sp...

Factors influencing consumers purchase intention during Covid-19 pandemic in the case of Dessie Town, Ethiopia

The health emergency undertaken by the Ethiopian government to counter the impact of the Covid-19 virus has been reflected in consumer behavior. The study aims to identify changes in consumer buying behavior a...

Board characteristics and the likelihood of financial statements fraud: empirical evidence from an emerging market

This study examines the relationship between board characteristics and the likelihood of fraud in financial statements in the Saudi stock exchange as one of the emerging markets. Financial statements of 67 com...

Adapting to uncertainty: navigating the pandemic with green and traditional HR practices

This research explores the relationship between green human resource management (HR) practices and organizational agility in the context of international organizations based in Karachi, Pakistan, during the CO...

The impact of macroeconomic and institutional environment on NPL of developing and developed countries

The study investigates what causes non-performing loans (NPLs) in developed and developing countries. To identify the relationship between bank-specific, macroeconomic determinants, and institutional environme...

Moderating impact of non-performing loans on the relationship between sustainable development goals and the financial performance of banks

Sustainability is a vital perspective for banks to keep their survival in the long run. While nonperforming loans (NPLs) also impact sustainability, this study aims to examine the moderating impact of NPLs on ...

Correction: Moderating effect of vertical integration on the relationship between sustainability and performance: evidence from oil and gas energy sector

The original article was published in Future Business Journal 2023 9 :53

Work burnout and organisational commitment of medical professionals

While psychological, emotional, and physical exhaustion has contributed to unproductivity across various dimensions of work life, how work burnout has shaped the organisational commitment of medical profession...

The role of fiscal policy on poverty reduction in South Africa

This paper presents the results of ridge regression analysis of the relationship between government spending in emancipation programmes and multidimensional poverty, focusing on South Africa. Through the Princ...

India’s trade with South and Central Asia: an application of institution-based augmented gravity model

The present study investigates the effect of regional and bilateral trade agreements supported by institutional framework on bilateral trade between India and selected South and Central Asian countries. The au...

The impact of change consultants’ dialogic mindset: towards a game-theoretic explanation

This study aims to provide a theoretical argument and examples supporting the author’s proposition that change consultants’ mindsets significantly impact resulting performances. While some scholars assert diag...

Using social media marketing to pro-tourism behaviours: the mediating role of destination attractiveness and attitude towards the positive impacts of tourism

Social media has recently played a highly impactful role in communication. Specifically, these channels are vital and have a substantial influence on the attitudes, behavioural intentions, and actual behaviour...

Do corporate values have value? The impact of corporate values on financial performance

Do corporate values affect financial performance? The observed corporate values of the Fortune Global 500 companies were inductively clustered under key attributes, and then, the attributes were grouped under ...

Predicting volatility of bitcoin returns with ARCH, GARCH and EGARCH models

The ınvestment decisions of institutional and individual investors in financial markets are largely influenced by market uncertainty and volatility of the investment instruments. Thus, the prediction of the un...

Capital structure and financial sustainability: stakes of microfinance institutions in Bamenda, Cameroon

This research assesses the effect of capital structure on the sustainability of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Bamenda, Cameroon. We use panel data obtained from audited annual financial statements of fif...

Factors determining internal auditors’ behavioral intention to use computer-assisted auditing techniques: an extension of the UTAUT model and an empirical study

Computer-assisted audit techniques (CAATs) are used by auditors to automate some of their tasks. Since most transactions in accounting are computerized, auditing of accounting data follows this process as well...

Big data in relation with business intelligence capabilities and e-commerce during COVID-19 pandemic in accountant’s perspective

This research aims at producing a thorough and accurate analysis on how big data as a service and business intelligence capabilities provide a series of opportunities for small and medium enterprises to succee...

Effects of behavioural intention on usage behaviour of digital wallet: the mediating role of perceived risk and moderating role of perceived service quality and perceived trust

In today's digital economy, digital wallets are becoming increasingly significant. Various factors influence digital wallet’s usage behaviour, e.g. consumer attitudes and views of digital wallets, the perceive...

Modeling inflation rate factors on present consumption price index in Ethiopia: threshold autoregressive models approach

Inflation is the industrious and non-stop ascent in the overall prices of any given commodity in an economy. During the global food crisis, Ethiopia experienced an unprecedented increase in inflation ranked th...

Challenges and motivations for women entrepreneurs in the service sector of Pakistan

This study investigates the challenges and motivations for women entrepreneurs in the service sector of Pakistan. Women’s business ownership is widely recognized as a critical component of a healthy economy be...

The impact of ontology-based knowledge management on improving tax accounting procedures and reducing tax risks

This paper aims to investigate the impact of ontology-based knowledge management on improving tax accounting procedures and reducing tax risks, specifically focusing on the income tax system in a developing co...

Using social presence theory to predict online consumer engagement in the emerging markets

The purpose of this paper was to contribute to the dimension of online consumer engagement in the emerging markets. The study is based on the social presence theory factors. The study evaluated 443 data sets o...

Correction: Corporate reputation and shareholder investment: a study of Egypt’s tourism listed companies

The original article was published in Future Business Journal 2023 9 :56

Impact of financial inclusion on household welfare in Ethiopia

Despite the overwhelming consensus on the positive effect of financial inclusion on economic outcomes, there is limited rigorous micro-econometric evidence on the causal impact of financial inclusion on househ...

Factors influencing commercial bank profitability in Bangladesh: a panel data approach

This research is one of the few studies that examine the association of bank-specific determinants and macroeconomic factors with profitability in the banking industry of a developing country. This paper evalu...

Myth or coverage: experience and expectation of policyholders from health insurance during COVID-19 in the NCR region of India

This study intends to determine whether and to what extent policyholders admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 treatment receive financial support from their health insurance. The researcher interviewed 67 hea...

How does the mediating role of the use of social media platforms foster the relationship between employer attractiveness and generation Z intentions to apply for a job?

The way Jobseekers apply for jobs has drastically changed due to the rise of digital technology. With the rise of social media Jobseekers nowadays typically utilize social networking sites or other online plat...

Measuring situational factors in theory of attribution to consumer attitudes towards unlawful disposal of solid waste products in Ghana with special reference to Sunyani: a mediation and moderation analysis

Consumer attitudes towards the unlawful disposal of solid waste products in Ghana, particularly Sunyani, continue to be a challenge. The study is based on the attribution theory. A sample size of seven hundred...

The impact of social media branding and technology adoption on green tourism: the role of tourist behavior as a mediator in developing countries post-COVID-19—context of Zimbabwe

Green tourism, social media branding and technology adoption have recently become the most powerful elements in the tourism world during and post-COVID19 pandemic. This paper aims to investigate the effects of...

Repercussion of financial distress and corporate disclosure on the valuation of non-financial firms in India

Distressed companies create panic among the investors, and the overall effect comes on the economy and leads to a degraded image and value of the companies. Transparency and disclosure involve disclosing the o...

Optimal bankruptcy regime: a literature review

An optimal bankruptcy regime is one which avoids taking/giving loans during financial crisis, provides a provision for entrepreneurship, and further provides for achieving a maximum total value for the distres...

The influence of economic development, capital formation, and internet use on environmental degradation in Saudi Arabia

Sustainable economic growth and environmental degradation are two concerns confronting humanity. Saudi Arabia has seen a dramatic rise in its atmospheric carbon emissions during the last three decades. From 19...

Doing good for organization but feeling bad: when and how narcissistic employees get prone to shame and guilt

As competition for gaining high-profit margins and survival among organizations (in the situation caused by COVID-19) grows, the number of business scandals or unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPOB) incr...

Exploring the determinants of destination satisfaction: a multidimensional approach

Tourism, as one of the major contributors to the world GDP, offers a wide range of economic and non-economic benefits to global society. The exchange of culture and values through travel and tourism improves h...

Influencing factors of e-learning adoption amongst students in a developing country: the post-pandemic scenario in Bangladesh

E-learning is the consequence of the merging of technology and education, and it is now a highly efficient educational medium. Therefore, this study aims to explore the notion of continuous usage of online lea...

Understanding post-pandemic travel intention toward rural destinations by expanding the theory of planned behavior (TPB)

This research intends to understand post-pandemic travel intention toward rural areas by extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Social media use (SMU) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have been inc...

Industrial output growth and foreign direct investment in Nigeria

This research study investigated the nexus between industrial output growth and foreign direct investment in Nigeria. It is a common belief that no nation is an island on its own; hence countries around the gl...

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Business research: definition, types & methods.

10 min read What is business research and why does it matter? Here are some of the ways business research can be helpful to your company, whichever method you choose to carry it out.

What is business research?

Business research helps companies make better business decisions by gathering information. The scope of the term business research is quite broad – it acts as an umbrella that covers every aspect of business, from finances to advertising creative. It can include research methods which help a company better understand its target market. It could focus on customer experience and assess customer satisfaction levels. Or it could involve sizing up the competition through competitor research.

Often when carrying out business research, companies are looking at their own data, sourced from their employees, their customers and their business records. However, business researchers can go beyond their own company in order to collect relevant information and understand patterns that may help leaders make informed decisions. For example, a business may carry out ethnographic research where the participants are studied in the context of their everyday lives, rather than just in their role as consumer, or look at secondary data sources such as open access public records and empirical research carried out in academic studies.

There is also a body of knowledge about business in general that can be mined for business research purposes. For example organizational theory and general studies on consumer behavior.

Free eBook: 2024 global market research trends report

Why is business research important?

We live in a time of high speed technological progress and hyper-connectedness. Customers have an entire market at their fingertips and can easily switch brands if a competitor is offering something better than you are. At the same time, the world of business has evolved to the point of near-saturation. It’s hard to think of a need that hasn’t been addressed by someone’s innovative product or service.

The combination of ease of switching, high consumer awareness and a super-evolved marketplace crowded with companies and their offerings means that businesses must do whatever they can to find and maintain an edge. Business research is one of the most useful weapons in the fight against business obscurity, since it allows companies to gain a deep understanding of buyer behavior and stay up to date at all times with detailed information on their market.

Thanks to the standard of modern business research tools and methods, it’s now possible for business analysts to track the intricate relationships between competitors, financial markets, social trends, geopolitical changes, world events, and more.

Find out how to conduct your own market research and make use of existing market research data with our Ultimate guide to market research

Types of business research

Business research methods vary widely, but they can be grouped into two broad categories – qualitative research and quantitative research .

Qualitative research methods

Qualitative business research deals with non-numerical data such as people’s thoughts, feelings and opinions. It relies heavily on the observations of researchers, who collect data from a relatively small number of participants – often through direct interactions.

Qualitative research interviews take place one-on-one between a researcher and participant. In a business context, the participant might be a customer, a supplier, an employee or other stakeholder. Using open-ended questions , the researcher conducts the interview in either a structured or unstructured format. Structured interviews stick closely to a question list and scripted phrases, while unstructured interviews are more conversational and exploratory. As well as listening to the participant’s responses, the interviewer will observe non-verbal information such as posture, tone of voice and facial expression.

Focus groups

Like the qualitative interview, a focus group is a form of business research that uses direct interaction between the researcher and participants to collect data. In focus groups , a small number of participants (usually around 10) take part in a group discussion led by a researcher who acts as moderator. The researcher asks questions and takes note of the responses, as in a qualitative research interview. Sampling for focus groups is usually purposive rather than random, so that the group members represent varied points of view.

Observational studies

In an observational study, the researcher may not directly interact with participants at all, but will pay attention to practical situations, such as a busy sales floor full of potential customers, or a conference for some relevant business activity. They will hear people speak and watch their interactions , then record relevant data such as behavior patterns that relate to the subject they are interested in. Observational studies can be classified as a type of ethnographic research. They can be used to gain insight about a company’s target audience in their everyday lives, or study employee behaviors in actual business situations.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnographic research is an immersive design of research where one observes peoples’ behavior in their natural environment. Ethnography was most commonly found in the anthropology field and is now practices across a wide range of social sciences.

Ehnography is used to support a designer’s deeper understanding of the design problem – including the relevant domain, audience(s), processes, goals and context(s) of use.

The ethnographic research process is a popular methodology used in the software development lifecycle. It helps create better UI/UX flow based on the real needs of the end-users.

If you truly want to understand your customers’ needs, wants, desires, pain-points “walking a mile” in their shoes enables this. Ethnographic research is this deeply rooted part of research where you truly learn your targe audiences’ problem to craft the perfect solution.

Case study research

A case study is a detailed piece of research that provides in depth knowledge about a specific person, place or organization. In the context of business research, case study research might focus on organizational dynamics or company culture in an actual business setting, and case studies have been used to develop new theories about how businesses operate. Proponents of case study research feel that it adds significant value in making theoretical and empirical advances. However its detractors point out that it can be time consuming and expensive, requiring highly skilled researchers to carry it out.

Quantitative research methods

Quantitative research focuses on countable data that is objective in nature. It relies on finding the patterns and relationships that emerge from mass data – for example by analyzing the material posted on social media platforms, or via surveys of the target audience. Data collected through quantitative methods is empirical in nature and can be analyzed using statistical techniques. Unlike qualitative approaches, a quantitative research method is usually reliant on finding the right sample size, as this will determine whether the results are representative. These are just a few methods – there are many more.

Surveys are one of the most effective ways to conduct business research. They use a highly structured questionnaire which is distributed to participants, typically online (although in the past, face to face and telephone surveys were widely used). The questions are predominantly closed-ended, limiting the range of responses so that they can be grouped and analyzed at scale using statistical tools. However surveys can also be used to get a better understanding of the pain points customers face by providing open field responses where they can express themselves in their own words. Both types of data can be captured on the same questionnaire, which offers efficiency of time and cost to the researcher.

Correlational research

Correlational research looks at the relationship between two entities, neither of which are manipulated by the researcher. For example, this might be the in-store sales of a certain product line and the proportion of female customers subscribed to a mailing list. Using statistical analysis methods, researchers can determine the strength of the correlation and even discover intricate relationships between the two variables. Compared with simple observation and intuition, correlation may identify further information about business activity and its impact, pointing the way towards potential improvements and more revenue.

Experimental research

It may sound like something that is strictly for scientists, but experimental research is used by both businesses and scholars alike. When conducted as part of the business intelligence process, experimental research is used to test different tactics to see which ones are most successful – for example one marketing approach versus another. In the simplest form of experimental research, the researcher identifies a dependent variable and an independent variable. The hypothesis is that the independent variable has no effect on the dependent variable, and the researcher will change the independent one to test this assumption. In a business context, the hypothesis might be that price has no relationship to customer satisfaction. The researcher manipulates the price and observes the C-Sat scores to see if there’s an effect.

The best tools for business research

You can make the business research process much quicker and more efficient by selecting the right tools. Business research methods like surveys and interviews demand tools and technologies that can store vast quantities of data while making them easy to access and navigate. If your system can also carry out statistical analysis, and provide predictive recommendations to help you with your business decisions, so much the better.

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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US jobs data may be miscounting millions of 'gig' workers, research suggests

[1/2] A driver helps a passenger into an Uber car on 6th Avenue in New York City, New York, U.S., July 27, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

BOSTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Millions of "gig" workers may get missed every month in the U.S. government's employment report, a discrepancy with implications for how Federal Reserve officials size up the job market and any associated inflation risks.

Research prepared for a Boston Federal Reserve labor market conference found that whether driving for Uber to make ends meet or taking piecework jobs in retirement, casual contract workers sometimes don't consider themselves "employed" or even a part of the labor force.

As a result, they answer government survey questions in a way that may produce a significant undercount of those working, economists Anat Bracha, an associate professor at the Hebrew University Business School in Jerusalem, and senior Boston Fed economist Mary A. Burke concluded in a research paper to be presented at the conference on Friday.

The number could be just a few hundred thousand under the most constrained estimates or as many as 13 million, involving a swing of perhaps 5 percentage points in the share of the adult population that is working at least part-time, a figure the U.S. central bank watches closely.

Though that indicates the labor market at any time may be "tighter" than thought, the researchers said they felt it means the economy actually has more room to increase work and production without generating inflation - a case for the Fed to give the job market more room to run.

Particularly in the years before the coronavirus pandemic "inflation was not accelerating ... despite the substantial amount of hidden informal work that we document," Bracha and Burke wrote. As a result, "the benchmark for full employment could simply be adjusted upward."

The research involved reexamining the detailed responses to a New York Fed survey of "informal work" from 2015 through 2022.

In comparing parts of that questionnaire covering work obtained via online platforms or contract jobs with another section structured more like the Labor Department's monthly survey of employment status, they found the responses often didn't track. That left potentially millions slipping through a statistical crack.

It is a significant data gap for economists who, over the last decade, have debated, rehashed, challenged and revised the longstanding idea that inflation is often driven by low unemployment and the rising wages and spending that follow from it.

The jobless rate, as Bracha and Burke noted, continued falling throughout the 2010s without higher inflation, a fact that prompted the Fed to rethink its approach to monetary policy and not assume that inflation would rise once the unemployment rate got too low. Lately, inflation has been declining without a dramatic rise in the unemployment rate.

GREATER POTENTIAL

U.S. central bank officials, significantly including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, still see a connection between the jobless rate and inflation and feel there will need to be increased labor market "slack" for inflation to remain under control.

But how much slack?

As of early 2013, the bulk of Fed officials thought the "longer-run" unemployment rate, a proxy for the level of joblessness consistent with the central bank's 2% inflation target, was between 5.0% and 6.0%. In projections issued in September, Fed officials saw it between 3.5% and 4.3%, a dramatic shift.

The pandemic has kept that issue alive as the Fed tries to assess whether the U.S. is likely to remain in a perpetual labor shortage, absent some dramatic change in immigration policy, or enter an era where work from home, new automation techniques and other job market changes lead to more, and more productive, workers than anticipated.

After concern that the pandemic might permanently constrain women from working, for example, the overall number of women working surpassed the pre-pandemic peak of 74.9 million in January, and has grown another 1 million since. The participation rate for 25-to-54-year-old women hit a record 77% this year.

Researchers at the Boston conference say women might contribute even more to the nation's labor supply with stronger family and childcare policies.

Other research looked at how job training and policies towards employing those with a criminal record might help.

Bracha and Burke said gig workers might also have more to offer. Their research found many gig workers want additional hours of formal employment, suggesting more untapped labor supply.

"Our results indicate that potential hours - as well as potential GDP - were probably higher in recent years compared with official employment estimates," they wrote.

Boston Fed President Susan Collins, in opening remarks to the two-day conference, said getting estimates of employment right were central to the Fed's ability to meet its dual mandate of stable inflation while maximizing employment.

If labor supply is higher than thought or likely to expand as the job market tightens, "then higher levels of economic activity in such times may not generate additional price pressures requiring tighter monetary policy," Collins said. "And the higher levels of activity and participation can benefit those brought into the labor market, contributing to a vibrant economy that works for all."

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Paul Simao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Covers the U.S. Federal Reserve, monetary policy and the economy, a graduate of the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University with previous experience as a foreign correspondent, economics reporter and on the local staff of the Washington Post.

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Top US economists are often wrong – should we trust their predictions?

They write books, review papers and oversee research, and they oftentimes get things wrong – very wrong

T hey’re Ivy-League educated, brilliant academic minds and experienced in the ways of markets, governments, data and statistics. Many have access to information not readily available to the general public. They attend meetings, forums and conferences with each other. They write books, review papers and oversee research. They are our nation’s top economists. And they oftentimes get it wrong. Very wrong.

Both the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen , and Fed chairman, Jerome Powell , were wrong about inflation, having first called rising prices “transitory” after Covid disrupted the entire world’s supply chain. Nobel winner Paul Krugman publicly admitted his mistakes. They were not alone.

In 2021, 16 of the 36 living American Nobel economists declared, incorrectly, that “whatever upward pressure on prices all this new money (ie government stimulus) might bring there was no threat of inflation”. According to a recent report , 70% of economists polled by Bloomberg expected a US recession in 2023 and at the same time another poll from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), found that 58% of economists believed there was a more than 50% chance of the US entering a recession this year. Never happened. GDP growth rate in the third quarter (4.9%) rivaled some of the strongest post-war periods in American history.

Could any of these people have told us 18 months ago that interest rates above prime charged to many of my clients would be in the double-digits today? Could they have had an inkling that, despite wars, volatile prices, historically low housing affordability, uncertain markets and wages that have been trailing sticky inflation levels that American consumers would still continue to spend at historically high amounts? Our great economists missed all of that too.

Now, many of them are making their economic predictions for 2024. Which begs the question: should we even be paying attention? This data is critical. Business leaders are making budgets, deciding on hiring plans, targeting their investments, and understanding the economy plays a huge role in those decisions. Base your strategies off bad data and you could find yourself losing money next year. That impacts not only your cash, but your ability to employ people and grow your business. It’s a big deal.

There are sites like Trading Economics and Fred that can bury you in all sorts of arcane economic data from worldwide steel production to plant capacity utilization to the price activity of corrugated shipping containers . Some of this stuff gets reported in the media. But after almost 30 years of looking at this information I’ve come to the realization that most of this data isn’t very useful. Why? Because most of it ignores the core driver of the economy: the consumer.

So if you want to know how 2024 is going to be, pay attention to these consumer metrics:

Paychex and ADP employment indexes

These are the two largest payroll service providers in the country and every month they release data about employment and wages. Their data is based on actual payroll from actual companies. When wages are growing that’s a sign of strength in the job market as employers are willing to pay more for talent. Spoiler alert: wage growth is still pretty strong and unemployment remains low, both good signs.

Consumer delinquencies

Consumer loan delinquencies are gathered monthly and directly from banks across the country by the Federal Reserve as well as auto loan delinquencies. Mortgage delinquencies comes from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These are backward-looking, but all of these numbers are rising, which is not a good sign.

Consumer and small business confidence

I’m not a fan of surveys because they oftentimes come with an agenda. But both the University of Michigan and the National Federation of Independent Businesses have been doing their consumer and small business confidence surveys for decades. The numbers are consistently analyzed and have enough of a history to rely on trends. Both levels of confidence are very low and trending down.

Every quarter our nation’s largest banks release their earnings and their CEOs tell it like it is. So how is it as of 30 September? Charles Scharf the CEO of Wells Fargo says “while the economy has continued to be resilient, we are seeing the impact of the slowing economy with loan balances declining and charge-offs continuing to deteriorate modestly.” Jamie Dimon who runs JP Morgan Chase warned “currently, US consumers and businesses generally remain healthy, although, consumers are spending down their excess cash buffers” and that “this may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.” Jane Fraser , CEO of Citi also warns that “we are seeing some cracks in the lower [credit score] consumer.”

Retail CEOs

They’re far from perfect, but if there’s anyone who’s got a pulse on the consumer it’s the big companies selling directly to them. What are they seeing? Brian Olsavsky , Amazon’s CFO, says “consumers are still spending, though are “deal driven” and focusing on lower cost items”. Jeff Gennette , the CEO of Macy’s says that “we continue to see uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment.” While the National Retail Federation is predicting strong holiday sales, not one big-box CEO that I’ve followed has expressed lots of cheer for 2024.

These are not government surveys and they’re not from an economist sitting in Cambridge or New Haven.

This information is from real-life companies based on their real-life data and it’s all about the consumer. It’s about what people are getting paid and how they’re spending their money. And when the consumer stops spending, that’s when the economy slows. You don’t need an economist to tell you that.

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Start-Ups With Laser Beams: The Companies Trying to Ignite Fusion Energy

Companies are looking to commercialize advances made by federally supported research labs in the quest for boundless energy.

By Kenneth Chang

Take a smidgen of hydrogen, then blast it with lasers to set off a small thermonuclear explosion. Do it right, and maybe you can solve the world’s energy needs.

A small group of start-ups has embarked on this quest, pursuing their own variations on this theme — different lasers, different techniques to set off the fusion reactions, different elements to fuse together.

“There has been rapid growth,” said Andrew Holland, chief executive of the Fusion Industry Association, a trade group lobbying for policies to speed the development of fusion.

Private enterprise promises quick innovation, but it was a breakthrough achieved by a big, costly and ponderous government-run project that spurred this wave of attention to laser fusion.

In December last year, after years of trying, the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported that it had finally lived up to its middle name: ignition. For the first time anywhere, a laser-induced burst of fusion produced more energy than that supplied by the incoming lasers.

“We’re really excited by the NIF results,” said Kramer Akli, who manages the inertial fusion energy sciences program at the United States Department of Energy.

A decade ago, a report by the National Academy of Sciences found much to like in the energy potential of laser fusion but recommended that the United States hold off major investments until ignition was achieved.

That time is now.

The dream of fusion is easy to explain.

The sun generates heat and light by jamming — fusing — hydrogen atoms together into helium. Harnessing that phenomenon on Earth could lead to a bountiful energy source that does not generate planet-warming carbon dioxide or long-lived radioactive waste.

For more than 70 years, fusion research has largely focused on mimicking the inside of the sun in reactors known as tokamaks, which trap superhot hydrogen gas within strong magnetic fields so that atoms will collide and fuse.

NIF offered another possibility. It was designed primarily to help verify computer simulations of nuclear explosions after a treaty banned tests of actual exploding nuclear weapons. But a secondary aim of NIF was to explore the possibility that technology could be adapted to provide a bountiful, clean source of energy.

Until two years ago, NIF sputtered well short of its goals. But in December 2022, a burst finally crossed the threshold of ignition.

“Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,” Jennifer M. Granholm, the U.S. secretary of energy, said during a celebratory news conference announcing the success.

In July this year, Livermore repeated the feat , generating even more energy.

The researchers at Livermore are joined by scientists at other institutions, like the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester in New York. While the lasers at those institutions are not powerful enough to create fusion, they allow scientists to investigate some of the basic science and tweak their concepts on a smaller scale.

“There’s still a lot of foundational science and technology to be done,” said Dr. Akli of the Energy Department, but he added that he currently did not see any showstopping obstacles.

“We are not predicting the timeline, but I’m really very optimistic,” he said.

Private enterprise is jumping in too, and scientists are following.

Debra Callahan worked on NIF at Livermore for more than 20 years. An experiment she contributed to in August 2021 represented a major advance. Although it still fell short of ignition, the amount of fusion energy released leaped upward , and it was clear that the explosion had generated torrents of particles that heated the surrounding hydrogen, setting off cascades of additional fusion reactions.

To celebrate, Dr. Callahan got a tattoo inked on her left forearm: a drawing of the sun with an infinity sign inside.

She also left Livermore. Today, Dr. Callahan is a senior scientist at Focused Energy Inc., one of the start-up laser fusion companies.

“For me, that’s the next grand challenge — to try to make fusion energy,” she said. “I’d like to see more clean energy for my daughter and her future children.”

Since the beginning of the year, the Energy Department has gathered views across academia and industry about the technological challenges that stand between the basic science result of NIF and commercial laser fusion power plants hooked onto the electrical grid.

The agency has bestowed modest awards to a couple of the start-ups to begin designing what such a power plant would look like, and it is looking to finance consortiums of institutions to tackle pieces of laser fusion research, including high-power lasers that are able to fire at high rates, and fuel targets that can be manufactured in quantity at low cost.

Longview Fusion Energy Systems of Orinda, Calif., has the simplest strategy: Directly replicate NIF’s approach, but use more modern components.

“What we’re really happy with is that the basis of what we’re doing has been proven to be sound,” said Edward Moses, the company’s chief executive. Dr. Moses led the building and early operations of NIF, which began firing its lasers in 2009. During that time, Livermore spent $100 million on developing a design for a commercial power plant based on NIF, Dr. Moses said.

“It was vetted by eight of the major utilities,” Dr. Moses said. “So we have that as an asset.”

The key upgrade in Longview’s design will be the lasers. NIF’s lasers are powerful but woefully inefficient. Of the energy NIF pulls from the electrical grid for each firing, about 1 percent is converted into laser light. The lasers are also only able to fire about 10 times a week.

Longview intends to use lasers powered by diodes from the semiconductor industry, a technology that can be 20 percent efficient and fire several times a second.

Dr. Moses, however, has his critics, who remember his time as the head of NIF and say he overpromised and overhyped the energy potential. Some also doubt that NIF’s method of ignition is the future.

In NIF’s approach, known as indirect drive, the laser beams do not directly hit the hydrogen fuel. Instead, they annihilate a surrounding gold cylinder that is about the size and shape of a pencil eraser. That generates a bath of inward-rushing X-rays that compresses a round pellet that contains a layer of deuterium and tritium, the heavier forms of hydrogen.

The problem is that the extra step of generating X-rays throws away much of the laser energy.

“Indirect drive is not going to be the basis of an inertial fusion energy facility,” said David A. Hammer, a professor of nuclear engineering at Cornell University who has served on a NIF advisory panel.

In its place, some, including some at the Naval Research Laboratory, want to attempt direct drive, where lasers directly implode hydrogen pellets, a more energy-efficient approach that would generate more power and potentially more economically viable.

Stephen Obenschain, who led the Naval Research Laboratory laser fusion program for more than two decades, left last year to start a direct-drive fusion company, LaserFusionX. The naval research laboratory researchers have been pushing to use a type of laser that uses argon and fluoride gases to produce ultraviolet laser light.

Computer simulations, they say, indicate that argon-fluoride lasers of modest power could generate energy gains — the ratio of fusion energy output divided by the energy of the incoming lasers — of 100 or more. (The NIF burst in July produced a gain of 1.8.)

Energy gains that high could enable power plants that are smaller and less expensive than what others envision.

Lasers gain their power by lining up light waves in synchrony. But that also makes it difficult for the lasers to provide uniform illumination, leading to unequal squeezing. “We went the opposite extreme and tried to turn it into partially incoherent light,” Dr. Obenschain said.

The argon-fluoride laser can shine more evenly, and that mitigates the instabilities as the hydrogen implodes, Dr. Obenschain said. A laser system at the naval lab has already demonstrated that it can fire five times a second, and doubling that would be “a minor change,” he said.

Dr. Obenschain said he had started thinking about creating a company a couple of years ago after seeing billions of dollars from venture capitalists pouring into companies using the traditional tokamak fusion approach. “So all of a sudden, there appeared to be opportunity,” he said.

And the Livermore success helps convince investors that laser fusion is more than a fantasy. “Certainly the NIF shot helps in selling,” Dr. Obenschain said. “I think we could get from a standing start to a reactor in about 16 years.”

Another start-up, Xcimer Energy of Redwood City, Calif., is planning to use krypton-fluoride gas lasers, but at much higher energies — eventually, a system that puts out about twice as much energy as NIF’s lasers — and employ a hybrid indirect-direct drive approach. Xcimer proposes using an indirect pulse of X-rays to initially warm the pellet but then hitting it directly with lasers to initiate fusion.

“It leverages what was demonstrated on NIF,” said Conner Galloway, chief executive and co-founder of Xcimer. “Similar compression of fuel, similar convergence of the fuel hot spot ignition.”

Focused Energy — the company where Dr. Callahan now works — also plans to use multiple pulses. But it will, like Longview, use diode-powered solid-state lasers. The first pulse compresses the fuel pellet but not as strongly as in NIF. A second laser pulse creates a beam of protons that slams into the collapsing pellet and ignites the fusion.

The Focused Energy approach is more complex than direct drive, but with a gentler compression of the fuel, instabilities are easier to avoid. “It’s a trade-off,” Dr. Callahan said.

There is also more than one way to smash atoms into a heavy element. HB11 Energy of Sydney, Australia, plans to use the fusion of the element boron and hydrogen.

This hydrogen-boron fusion reaction offers key advantages. Boron is plentiful and easy to obtain. By contrast, tritium, the heavy form of hydrogen needed for most other laser fusion concepts, has a half-life of only 12 years. Thus, those reactors will have to generate the tritium they use. Also, most of the energy from deuterium-tritium fusion comes out as fast-moving neutrons, which slam into the reactor, weakening the structure and turning it mildly radioactive.

The lack of radioactivity for hydrogen-boron fusion means “all the downside that we know about nuclear goes away,” said Warren McKenzie, the managing director of HB11.

The downside is that it is harder to get hydrogen and boron to fuse together.

“The simple way of looking at that is we’ve still got some science to do,” Dr. McKenzie said. “But if we can make the science work, our engineering bar is much, much lower.”

Marvel Fusion of Munich is also using hydrogen and boron but in a different way. It will mix the elements with deuterium and tritium, forming chemical bonds that allow the fuel to be a solid at room temperature. That eliminates the need to freeze the deuterium and tritium at ultralow temperatures.

A room-temperature fuel will allow the embedding of structures in the target that will act as tiny particle accelerators. When the laser hits, the structures explode.

That is a better way to initiate fusion, said Hartmut Ruhl, a physics professor at Ludwig Maximilian University who is Marvel’s chief scientist.

“It is very easy to reach extremely high temperatures in the fuel,” he said. “It’s also very easy to quickly compress the fuel.”

Two companies — First Light Fusion, a spinoff from the University of Oxford in England, and NearStar Fusion of Chantilly, Va. — do not plan to use lasers at all. Instead, they will smash projectiles into fuel pellets, using the force of impact to fuse the hydrogen atoms. NearStar adds a crushingly strong magnetic field to help retain the heat within each implosion.

The Department of Energy will provide multimillion-dollar awards to Focused Energy and Xcimer Energy to come up with concepts for a pilot power plant, and the companies will need to meet various milestones in order to be paid. The approach is similar to how NASA set up its contracts with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon capsule.

Marvel Fusion has announced a public-private partnership with Colorado State University that will serve as a test bed for the company’s fusion development.

Marvel will provide two lasers, which will cost $50 million; the university will build surrounding infrastructure for $100 million.

“We’re building exactly those lasers for the Colorado facility — ultrashort pulse, ultrahigh intensity — that can drive this particular concept,” said Moritz von der Linden, the chief executive of Marvel.

The facility, added to the university’s laser center, will be available for other researchers as well.

For now, the competitors are largely rooting for each other.

“I don’t think these fusion approaches are competition,” said Todd Ditmire, a physics professor at the University of Texas at Austin who co-founded Focused Energy. “I hope we all get it to work. There’s enough energy demand to go around.”

Kenneth Chang has been at The Times since 2000, writing about physics, geology, chemistry, and the planets. Before becoming a science writer, he was a graduate student whose research involved the control of chaos. More about Kenneth Chang

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100+ Business Research Topics And Ideas in 2022

Business research is a technique for gathering factual data in all sectors of business and using that data to increase profits and sales. For nearly anything, you can conduct business-related research. However, you must focus the research on assisting individuals or organizations in making educated decisions.

The different facets of business research are majorly the emphasis of this blog, including business law, business ethics, business proposals, international business, business management, business speeches , business debates, and contentious business themes.

Why This List of Business Topics for Research?

Getting the fundamentals right is the first step in writing an effective business research paper . Even though many people believe they are prepared for a business research assignment, they always seem to get stopped at the very beginning when it comes to selecting business themes. Even after using the tried-and-true techniques of fundamental research and brainstorming, many people still have trouble coming up with outstanding business research topic ideas. Finding interesting business themes is the goal of this piece.

Entrepreneurs or people who desire to enter the business world would be interested and require business research papers. They can help you better grasp, among other things, basic economic ideas, a range of markets, financial management, operational logistics, and the effects of international events on the global economy .

However, creating a business research paper might be challenging because there are so many different business disciplines and themes. It may seem difficult to choose just one issue because there are so many diverse business operations in numerous fields, including finance, communications, administration, and IT. 

What Are Some Strong Subjects for Business Research?

Everything about business holds a certain amount of significance. Every subject and field of study has a substantial bearing on how to operate a business effectively. Other topics might, however, be more interesting to read about and learn about, which is one of the essential requirements for getting a decent grade. You want to demonstrate your in-depth understanding of the subject to your lecturer in order to make a nice impression.  

What subjects are up for discussion then? The following ideas have the greatest potential for business study, while the decision is ultimately up to your expertise, interests, and preferences.

The global economy and anything related to it are perennially popular topics for business research. You can address a wide range of organizations, from start-ups and small and medium-sized firms to major corporations and conglomerates, and you can incorporate worldwide research.

How should Business Research Topics be written?

Research topics, be it of any genre or kind of personal choice purely depends on the student's interest. In this kind of situation, it is advised to go after your interests rather than trying to impress others. Make sure that your topic is relevant to your field of study and seems interesting. Also, choose a topic that is neither too wide nor too limited because you might want to research it.

Identifying data to back up your research and taking into account online sample content is something you might wish to do concurrently. The ideal business study subjects for a research paper then pique the reader's interest. When given the task of choosing business research subjects, students frequently feel anxious because they worry that they won't engage the reader. Students do, however, incorporate a variety of subjects and topics within their studies. Make your topic choices inspired by the concepts you learned in class.

Following is a detailed list of topics to get you started. This list of 100 business research subject examples will be very useful - 

Topics for Strategic Business Research

• Public sector strategic management.
• societal effects of social media .
• Financial management as opposed to strategic management.
• Control and scheduling of the project.
• Global command.
• Project management risk
• Factors that led to the financial catastrophe.
• Security concerns with online banking and transactions.
• Influence of culture on advertising
• Loyalty program for customers.
• Leading languages for business.
• Management style's effect on decision-making
• Modern management economy theories.
• Management of time .
• Occupational case studies.
• Societal responsibilities of corporations.
• Examining employee performance.
• Regulating the conduct of organizations.
• Creating a very effective organizational structure.
• Management of employee grievances.
• Globalization's effects on corporate culture
• Case studies in leadership.
• Organization systems with hierarchies.
• Motivation theories.
• Management of change
• Gender influences on business tactics that result in exceptional performance
• Benefits of nondisclosure agreements
• Ethics in business and its development
• Theories of leadership and their applications
• Recent developments in global commerce

Some Fundamental Business Research Topics

• Business development in the Digital Age
• Remote workers and difficulties.
• Advertising on websites and how common it is.
• International business tongues.
• Recent changes in Leadership
• War and the pursuit of profits.
• Countries to invest in economically.
• Law and Business Ethics differ.
• Franchises are a wise business decision.
• Family-run businesses.
• Monopolies in the market
• Risk assessment for the company .
• Shopper behaviour during tough times.
• The benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing labour.
• The variations in copyright laws around the world.
• Comparison of online and offline advertisements .
• Perspectives on management at various cultural heritage.
• How does a new business affect local markets? 
• Negotiation and Diplomacy.
• Increased brand recognition and Its Advantages.
• Social media and Newmarket.
• The American trend in international business.
• A diverse workforce and positive Workplace Culture.
• Corporate tradition and Corporate culture .
• Effective marketing.
• Innovation Administration.
• Real estate economics.
• Business expansion on a Global Scale
• Copyright of Intellectual property, trademark, patent, etc. 
• Worldwide trade and commerce evolution
• Methods of entering Foreign Markets

Engaging Topics for Business Research

• Demand versus production.
• Maximization of profit guiding principles.
• Analysis of comparative property rights.
• Trade restrictions and sanctions.
• A comparison between fixed tax rates and tax bracket rates.
• Economic theories and their development .
• Law changes relating to unions.
• Investigating shopper behaviour.
• International restrictions and sanctions.
• How tourism development affects the regional economy.
• How does immigration affect the unemployment rate?
• Ethnicity, Economic status, and Race.
• Opportunities in the energy sector.
• Growth of the international economy.
• Youth unemployment
• The level of national savings and inflation.
• Conflict resolution.
• Women business leaders and entrepreneurs
• Social Business Enterprise.
• Tactics for developing a team.
• How do employee productivity and pay compare?
• Managing crises in companies.
• Networking for companies and businesses.
• Strategic planning for the retail sector
• Issues with strategic management.
• Cooperatives for agricultural marketing and their advantages

Miscellaneous Research Topics 

• The acceptance of mutual funds
• Creating jobs and lowering the minimum wage.
• How can you endure global competition? Talk about the strategic steps taken by regional businesses.
• Utilizing human resources and a strategic plan to manage diverse organizations
• How to grow a local small firm into a recognized international brand.
• Environmentally sustainable management of the maritime industry.
• Stakeholders' effects on the success of a firm.
• Ties with family and friends.
• Strategic thinking and planning.
• Potentially, trademark infringement could quell this resentment.
• Financial expansion in Asian nations.
• How can a sales pitch be made?
• US legal issues and the workers in e-commerce.
• Maltreatment of workers in the construction industry.
• Effect of discrimination based on gender on employee performance .
• Assessing organizational environmental pollution critically.
• Agreements in business and their effects

Provocative Business Research Subjects

• Cases of business corruption .
• Honesty and corporate policy.
• How can you stop your staff from working for competitors?
• Current managerial economics theories.
• Practical business solutions versus theoretical managerial economy.
• Business authorities' active participation in business.
• Employee morality versus managerial morality.
• Effects of copyright laws on corporate entities.
• Tax laws and offshore businesses.
• Entrepreneurs with no formal education and management economics.
• Adverse business environments.
• Sexual harassment at work.
• A code of ethics for effective groups.
• Business failure and unethical actions.
• Effect of moral behaviour on business judgment.
• Small businesses and appeal on a global scale.
• The global market's failure
• Review of Black Friday.
• The success rate for telemarketing.
• Promoting environmental awareness
• Differences between gender and consumer behaviour.
• Pharmaceutical industry ethics and marketing.

Final Thoughts - 

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We have put together a comprehensive list of the best business research ideas for your upcoming writing project below, so put your anxieties to rest. You can utilize several of these as your main headline, but they're also likely to provide you inspiration for coming up with a distinct and intriguing topic. Even while some of them might appear a little too broad, you can go more specific with them.

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Global Specialty Crops Market to Reach $2.2 Trillion by 2030

The global market for Specialty Crops estimated at US$1.6 Trillion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$2.2 Trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 4.2% over the analysis period 2022-2030.

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of the global specialty crops market. It includes an evaluation of conventional, organic, vegetables, fruits, herbs & spices, tree nuts, and other types of specialty crops.

Conventional, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 3.9% CAGR and reach US$1.5 Trillion by the end of the analysis period. Growth in the Organic segment is estimated at 4.7% CAGR for the next 8-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $323.1 Billion, While China is Forecast to Grow at 5.6% CAGR

The Specialty Crops market in the U.S. is estimated at US$323.1 Billion in the year 2022. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$384.7 Billion by the year 2030 trailing a CAGR of 5.6% over the analysis period 2022 to 2030.

The analysis covers annual sales figures in US$ Million for the years 2014 through 2030, with a focus on geographic regions such as the USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa.

Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 3.2% and 3.6% respectively over the 2022-2030 period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 3.3% CAGR.

The report provides insights into recent past, current, and future sales trends, accompanied by percentage Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGR) where applicable. Additionally, it offers a 16-year perspective, presenting the percentage breakdown of value sales for select years within this period.

What`s New?

• Special discussions on the global economic climate and market sentiment
• Coverage on global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares
• Market presence analysis across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial
• Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates
• Access to digital archives and trademarked research platform
• Complimentary updates for one year
• Access to curated YouTube video transcripts of market sentiments shared by CEOs, domain experts and market influencers via interviews, podcasts, press statements and event keynotes

Key Attributes:

MARKET OVERVIEW

• Impact of COVID-19 and a Looming Global Recession
• COVID-19 Leaves the World in Shambles & Industries and Markets Upended: World Economic Growth Projections (Real GDP, Annual % Change) for 2019, 2020 & 2021
• Impact of COVID-19 on the Specialty Crops Market
• An Introduction to Specialty Crops
• Types of Specialty Crops
• World Specialty Crops Market by Type (2020 & 2027): Percentage Breakdown of Revenues for Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs & Spices, Tree Nuts, and Other Types
• Specialty Crops: Global Market Prospects & Outlook
• Key Factors Favoring the Specialty Crops Market
• New Retail Formats to Increase Demand for Specialty Crops
• Free Trade to Boost Market Growth
• Crop Adulteration to Restrain the Market Growth
• Geographic Analysis: Developed Regions Lead Medical Membranes Market, Developing Nations Promise Future Growth
• World Specialty Crops Market by Region (2020 & 2027): Percentage Breakdown of Revenues for Developed and Developing Regions
• World Specialty Crops Market - Geographic Regions Ranked by CAGR (Revenues) for 2020-2027: China, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Canada, USA, Japan, and Europe
• Competitive Scenario
• Recent Market Activity
• Specialty Crops - Global Key Competitors Percentage Market Share in 2022 (E)
• Competitive Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial for Players Worldwide in 2022 (E)

MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS

• Megatrends Wielding Influence on Specialty Crops Market
• World Population (in Thousands) by Geographic Region for the Years 2019, 2030, 2050, 2100
• World Urban Population in Thousands: 1950-2050P
• Degree of Urbanization Worldwide: Urban Population as a % of Total Population by Geographic Region for the Years 1950, 1970, 1990, 2018, 2030 and 2050
• Global Middle Class Population (In Million) by Region for the Years 2020, 2025 and 2030
• Food Sector Dominates the Specialty Crops Market
• Surging Demand for Natural, Clean Label, & Less Processed Foods Augurs Well
• Robust Opportunities in the Beverages Vertical
• Focus on Healthy Living Amidst Pandemic Fuels Demand for Natural Beverages
• Fruit Juices Gain Wider Traction
• Vegetable Juices Seek Opportunities
• Dynamics of Foodservice Industry Augment Business Prospects
• Opportunities in Quick Service Restaurants Vertical
• Global Fast Food & Quick Service Restaurant Market Size (in US$ Billion) for 2019, 2022 & 2025
• Growing Demand for Specialty Crops in Retail Segment
• e-Commerce Widens Retail Opportunities for Specialty Crops
• Smartphone Penetration & Better Internet Connectivity Fuel Online Retail Sales
• Global Market for Smartphones in Billions (2016-2021)
• Mounting Food Security Concerns Improve Market Prospects
• Food Demand Growth Worldwide: Demand Growth in Million Tonnes for Select Foods for the Period 2008-2017 and 2018-2027
• Small Producers Improve Profitability with Specialty Crops

FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS (Total 25 Featured)

• Olam International Ltd.
• Plant Health Care, Inc.
• AGT Food and Ingredients
• Oregon Spice Company
• Technology Crops International (TCI)
• Simped Foods Pty Ltd.
• Main Street Data

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xhkp2o

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