Abstract Research as applied to business problems may take on one of two fundamentally different aspects. It may be conducted with the view of extending the limits of knowledge of business phenomena in general. In that case, the research leads to the establishment of new generalizations or to the measurement of phenomena for which previously only qualitative facts were known. This is the truly purely scientific aspect of business research. The other type of business research is that which concerns itself primarily with the providing of data or generalizations on which are to be based the solutions of specific business problems. Such research may be truly scientific in its method in the sense that it involves the statement of the problem, the collection of facts, their analysis and final presentation in conclusive form. Such research is usually narrower in its scope than is the first type; its conclusions may not be of a general nature nor may they be of general interest. In fact, the conclusions may have no social or economic significance whatever. Some of these studies are made with the specific objective of aiding management rather than that of increasing the store of human knowledge, they are likely to result incidentally in such increase. Facts are revealed and relationships are discovered that may be new to the accounting profession in general or which may point out the need for a revaluation of principles already held.
H. J. Ostlund (Tue,) studied this question.