Empirical Methods: Business Analytics I
| Code | CC 503 |
| Semester | Fall 2026 |
| Type | Asynchronous |
| ECTS Credits | 6 |
| Assessment | Written exam (90 min) |
| Language | English |
| Format | Lecture and exercise videos will be posted on ILIAS. Three doubt sessions will take place throughout the course (live, on campus). Students can ask their queries via discussion board or email throughout the course. |
| Timetable | Doubt Sessions will take place Oct 30, Nov 27, Dec 04 (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM) at SO 108. |
| Lecturer | Smriti Kumar, Ph.D. |
| Exam Date | TBD |
| Contents | Theoretical foundations of empirical research. Statistical foundations of empirical research (key summary statistics, important theoretical probability distributions, hypothesis testing methodology, and key test statistics). Introduction to qualitative empirical research. Introduction to experimental empirical research. Introduction to survey-based empirical research. Introduction to empirical research based on secondary data. |
| Learning Outcomes | Participants understand the epistemological possibilities and limitations of empirical research in the domain of business administration. Participants are capable of describing a dataset using appropriate summary statistics and test simple hypotheses about the structure of the data. Participants know the general approach to conducting qualitative studies, experimental studies, survey-based studies, and studies based on secondary data. Participants understand fundamental methods for analyzing causal relationships (particularly ANOVA and analysis of regression). They can correctly interpret results from these methods. |
| Necessary prerequisites | Not taken CC 502 |
| Course Outline |
1. Introduction: Fundamentals of scientific theory 2. Statistics: Basics and hypothesis testing 3. Fundamentals of experimental research – Fundamentals – Collection of experimental data – Analysis of experimental data (analysis of variance) 4. Fundamentals of survey research – Fundamentals – Questionnaire design – Data collection – Measurement – Bivariate regression analysis – Multivariate regression analysis 5. Fundamentals of secondary data research 6. Fundamentals of qualitative research |
| Literature |
Homburg, Ch., Klarmann, M., Vomberg, A. (2021), Handbook of Market Research, https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007%2F978-3-319-05542-8 (online resource) Iacobucci, D., Churchill, G.A. (2010), Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations, 10th edition, Mason, Ohio. Taylor, S. (2007), Business Statistics for Non-Mathematicians, 2nd edition, Houndmills. Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., Griffin, M. (2010), Business Research Methods, 8th edition, Mason. |