How to Write a Business Analysis Report [Examples and Templates]

business research report assignment

Table of contents

Business analysis reports are a lot like preparing a delicious meal.

Sometimes, the recipe is simple enough that you only need to use the basic ingredients. Other times, you will have to follow specific instructions to ensure those tasty delicacies turn out just right.

Want to make sure your business report never turns out like a chewy piece of meat? You’ve come to the right place.

Stay tuned until the end of this blog post, and we promise you won’t be hungry… for business knowledge!

What Is a Business Analysis Report?

Why is analytical reporting important, what should be included in a business analysis report, how do you write a business analysis report, business data analysis report examples and templates.

  • Improve Business Reporting with Databox

marketing_overview_hubspot_ga_dashboard_databox

A business analysis report provides information about the current situation of your company. This report is usually created by the management to help in the decision-making process and is usually used by other departments within a company.

Business analysis reports can either focus your research on the effectiveness of an existing business process or a proposed new process. Besides, an effective business analysis report should also assess the results to determine if the process changes had a positive or negative effect on the company’s goals. In fact, according to Databox’s State of business reporting , an overwhelming majority of companies said that reporting improved their performance.

Analytical reports are the bridge that connects your company to an effective, data-driven business intelligence strategy . By leveraging analytical reports , you can make informed decisions about your organization’s most critical issues. You will no longer need to rely on gut instinct or anecdotal evidence when assessing risks, threats, and opportunities. Instead, you will have access to a wealth of reliable data to inform your decisions.

Here are some essential benefits of analytical reporting:

  • Improve communication and foster collaboration – The most obvious benefit of business analysis report writing is an improvement in communication between all stakeholders involved in the project. Also, analytical business reports can help you to generate more trust and foster better collaboration among your employees and colleagues. By using data analytics reporting tools , you will be able to monitor your employees’ performance on a day-to-day basis. This will allow you to hold them accountable for their actions and give them greater freedom within the business as they know that their superiors have faith in their decision-making capabilities.
  • Increase productivity – Without this level of shared insight, businesses struggle to stay on top of their most important tasks and can become less efficient. An effective analytical business report provides the information needed for more efficient internal processes and helps you find more time for strategic activities such as improving your business strategy or working on long-term goals .
  • Innovation – In today’s digital age, the pressure to innovate was never greater. When consumers basically have everything they want at their fingertips, stepping up to the plate with a new and improved product or service has never been more important. With an accessible dashboard in place, you will be able to create data-driven narratives for each of your business’ critical functions. For example, if you are a software company, you can use the insights gained from report analysis done with your dashboard software to tailor your product development efforts to the actual needs of your customers. By doing so, you will be able to develop products that are better tailored to specific customer groups. You can also use the same information for developing new marketing strategies and campaigns.
  • Continuous business evolution – When it comes to digital businesses, data is everything. No model lasts forever, so having access to a business dashboard software that allows you to constantly keep tabs on your business’ performance will help you refine it as time goes on. If there are any glitches in your business model, or if something isn’t panning out as expected, the insight offered by a business analysis report can help you improve upon what works while scrapping what doesn’t.

A business analysis report has several components that need to be included to give a thorough description of the topic at hand. The structure and length of business analysis reports can vary depending on the needs of the project or task.

They can be broken down into different sections that include an:

  • Executive summary
  • Study introduction
  • Methodology
  • Review of statistics

Reports of this nature may also include case studies or examples in their discussion section.

A report can be written in a formal or informal tone, depending on the audience and purpose of the document. While a formal tone is best for executives , an informal tone is more appropriate for technical audiences . It is also a good idea to use something like an executive summary template to report on the results repeatedly with ease.

A good business analysis report is detailed and provides recommendations in the form of actionable steps. Here we have listed some simple steps that you need to follow to write a good business analysis report. Report writing is a major part of the business analysis process. In this section, you will learn how to write a report for your company:

Preparation

Presentation.

Obtain an overview of what you want to analyze in the business report . For example, if you are writing a business analysis report on how to improve customer service at an insurance company, you will want to look through all the customer service processes to determine where the problems lie. The more prepared you are when starting a project, the easier it will be to get results. Here is what your preparation should look like:

Set your goals

The first step in writing this document is to set your goals . What do you hope to accomplish with this paper? Do you need to assess the company’s finances? Are you looking for ways to make improvements? Or do you have outside investors who want to know if they should buy into the company? Once you know what your goal is, then you can begin setting up your project.

PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?

Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.

Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:

  • Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
  • New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
  • Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
  • Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
  • Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!

marketing_overview_hubspot_ga_dashboard_preview

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics 4 accounts with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

Assess the Company’s Mission

It’s almost impossible to write a business analysis report without access to the company’s mission statement. Even if you don’t plan on using the mission statement as part of your business analysis summary, it can help you understand the company’s culture and goals. Mission statements are typically short and easy to read, but they may not include every area of focus that you want to include in your report.

Thus, it is important to use other sources when possible. For example, if you are writing a business analysis report for a small start-up company that is just beginning to market its product or service, review the company website or talk directly with management to learn what they believe will be most crucial in growing the company from the ground up.

Stakeholder Analysis

Who is your audience? Create the reader’s persona and tailor all information to their perspective. Create a stakeholder map that identifies all the groups, departments, functions, and individuals involved in this project (and any other projects related to this one). Your stakeholder map should include a description of each group’s role.

Review Financial Performance

Review the financing of the business and determine whether there are any potential threats to the company’s ability to meet its future financial obligations. This includes reviewing debt payments and ownership equity compared with other types of financing such as accounts receivable, cash reserves, and working capital. Determine whether there have been any changes in the funding over time, such as an increase in long-term debt or a decrease in owners’ equity.

Apart from reviewing your debt payments and ownership equity with other types of financing, wouldn’t it be great if you could compare your financial performance to companies that are exactly like yours? With Databox, this can be done in less than 3 minutes.

For example, by  joining this benchmark group , you can better understand your gross profit margin performance and see how metrics like income, gross profit, net income, net operating increase, etc compare against businesses like yours.

One piece of data that you would be able to discover is the average gross profit a month for B2B, B2C, SaaS and eCommerce. Knowing that you perform better than the median may help you evaluate your current business strategy and identify the neccessary steps towards improving it.

Instantly and Anonymously Benchmark Your Company’s Performance Against Others Just Like You

If you ever asked yourself:

  • How does our marketing stack up against our competitors?
  • Are our salespeople as productive as reps from similar companies?
  • Are our profit margins as high as our peers?

Databox Benchmark Groups can finally help you answer these questions and discover how your company measures up against similar companies based on your KPIs.

When you join Benchmark Groups, you will:

  • Get instant, up-to-date data on how your company stacks up against similar companies based on the metrics most important to you. Explore benchmarks for dozens of metrics, built on anonymized data from thousands of companies and get a full 360° view of your company’s KPIs across sales, marketing, finance, and more.
  • Understand where your business excels and where you may be falling behind so you can shift to what will make the biggest impact. Leverage industry insights to set more effective, competitive business strategies. Explore where exactly you have room for growth within your business based on objective market data.
  • Keep your clients happy by using data to back up your expertise. Show your clients where you’re helping them overperform against similar companies. Use the data to show prospects where they really are… and the potential of where they could be.
  • Get a valuable asset for improving yearly and quarterly planning . Get valuable insights into areas that need more work. Gain more context for strategic planning.

The best part?

  • Benchmark Groups are free to access.
  • The data is 100% anonymized. No other company will be able to see your performance, and you won’t be able to see the performance of individual companies either.

When it comes to showing you how your performance compares to others, here is what it might look like for the metric Average Session Duration:

business research report assignment

And here is an example of an open group you could join:

business research report assignment

And this is just a fraction of what you’ll get. With Databox Benchmarks, you will need only one spot to see how all of your teams stack up — marketing, sales, customer service, product development, finance, and more. 

  • Choose criteria so that the Benchmark is calculated using only companies like yours
  • Narrow the benchmark sample using criteria that describe your company
  • Display benchmarks right on your Databox dashboards

Sounds like something you want to try out? Join a Databox Benchmark Group today!

Examine the “Four P’s”

“Four P’s” — product , price , place, and promotion . Here’s how they work:

  • Product — What is the product? How does it compare with those of competitors? Is it in a position to gain market share?
  • Price — What is the price of the product? Is it what customers perceive as a good value?
  • Place — Where will the product be sold? Will existing distribution channels suffice or should new channels be considered?
  • Promotion — Are there marketing communications efforts already in place or needed to support the product launch or existing products?

Evaluate the Company Structure

A business analysis report examines the structure of a company, including its management, staff, departments, divisions, and supply chain. It also evaluates how well-managed the company is and how efficient its supply chain is. In order to develop a strong strategy, you need to be able to analyze your business structure.

When writing a business analysis report, it’s important to make sure you structure your work properly. You want to impress your readers with a clear and logical layout, so they will be able to see the strengths of your recommendations for improving certain areas of the business. A badly written report can completely ruin an impression, so follow these steps to ensure you get it right the first time.

A typical business analysis report is formatted as a cover page , an executive summary , information sections, and a summary .

  • A cover page contains the title and author of the report, the date, a contact person, and reference numbers.
  • The information section is backed up by data from the work you’ve done to support your findings, including charts and tables. Also, includes all the information that will help you make decisions about your project. Experience has shown that the use of reputable study materials, such as  StuDocu  and others, might serve you as a great assistant in your findings and project tasks.
  • A summary is a short overview of the main points that you’ve made in the report. It should be written so someone who hasn’t read your entire document can understand exactly what you’re saying. Use it to highlight your main recommendations for how to change your project or organization in order to achieve its goals.
  • The last section of a business analysis report is a short list of references that include any websites or documents that you used in your research. Be sure to note if you created or modified any of these documents — it’s important to give credit where credit is due.

The Process of Investigation

Explain the problem – Clearly identify the issue and determine who is affected by it. You should include a detailed description of the problem you are analyzing, as well as an in-depth analysis of its components and effects. If you’re analyzing a small issue on a local scale, make sure that your report reflects this scale. That way, if someone else reads your work who had no idea about its context or scope, they would still be able to understand it.

Explain research methods – There are two ways to do this. Firstly, you can list the methods you’ve used in the report to determine your actions’ success and failure. Secondly, you should add one or two new methods to try instead. Always tell readers how you came up with your answer or what data you used for your report. If you simply tell them that the company needs to improve customer service training then they won’t know what kind of data led you to that conclusion. Also, if there were several ways of addressing a problem, discuss each one and why it might not work or why it may not be appropriate for the company at this time.

Analyze data – Analyzing data is an integral part of any business decision, whether it’s related to the costs of manufacturing a product or predicting consumer behavior. Business analysis reports typically focus on one aspect of an organization and break down that aspect into several parts — all of which must be analyzed in order to come to a conclusion about the original topic.

The Outcome of Each Investigation Stage

The recommendations and actions will usually follow from the business objectives not being met. For example, if one of your goals was to decrease costs then your recommendations would include optimization strategies for cost reduction . If you have more than one suggestion you should make a list of the pros and cons of each one. You can make several recommendations in one report if they are related. In addition, make sure that every recommendation has supporting arguments to back them up.

Report Summary

Every business analysis report should start with a summary. It’s the first thing people see and it needs to capture their attention and interest. The report summary can be created in two ways, depending on the nature of the report:

  • If the report is a brief one, that simply gives a summary of the findings, then it can be created as part of the executive summary.
  • But if it’s a long report, it could be too wordy to summarise. In this case, you can create a more detailed overview that covers all the main aspects of the project from both an internal and external point of view.

Everything comes down to this section. A presentation is designed to inform, persuade and influence decision-makers to take the next action steps.

Sometimes a slide or two can make them change their mind or open new horizons. These days, digital dashboards are becoming increasingly popular when it comes to presenting data in business reports. Dashboards combine different visualizations into one place, allowing users to get an overview of the information they need at a glance rather than searching through a bunch of documents or spreadsheets trying.

Databox offers dynamic and accessible digital dashboards that will help you to convert raw data into a meaningful story. And the best part is that you can do it with a ‘blink of an eye’ even if you don’t have any coding or designs skills. There is also an option of individual report customization so that you can tailor any dashboard to your own needs.

Pre-made dashboard templates can be extremely useful when creating your own business analysis report. While examples serve as inspiration, templates allow you to create reports quickly and easily without having to spend time (and money) developing the underlying data models.

Databox dashboard templates come with some of the most common pre-built metrics and KPIs different types of businesses track across different departments. In order to create powerful business insights within minutes, all you need to do is download any of our free templates and connect your data source — the metrics will populate automatically.

Business Report Examples and Templates

Databox business dashboard examples are simple and powerful tools for tracking your business KPIs and performance. These dashboards can be used by executive teams and managers as well as by senior management, marketing, sales, customer support, IT, accounting, and other departments. If you are new to this kind of reporting, you may not know how to set up a dashboard or what metrics should be displayed on it. This is where a premade template for business dashboards comes in handy.

For example, this Google Ads Report Template is designed to give you a simple way to keep track of your campaigns’ performance over time, and it’s a great resource for anyone who uses Google’s advertising platform, regardless of whether they’re an SMB, an SME or an enterprise.

Google ads dashboard

KPI Report Examples and Templates

KPIs are the foundation of any business analysis, and they can come in a multitude of forms. While we’ve defined KPIs as metrics or measurements that allow you to assess the effectiveness of a given process, department, or team, there are a number of ways to evaluate your KPIs. Through the use of color-coding, user-friendly graphs and charts, and an intuitive layout, your KPIs should be easy for anyone to understand. A good way to do this is by having a dedicated business analyst on your team who can take on the task of gathering data, analyzing it, and presenting it in a way that will drive actionable insights. However, if you don’t have a dedicated analyst or don’t want to spend money on one, you can still create KPI reporting dashboards using free KPI Databox templates and examples .

For example, this Sales Overview template is a great resource for managers who want to get an overview of their sales team’s performance and KPIs. It’s perfect for getting started with business analysis, as it is relatively easy to understand and put together.

sales overview dashboard

Performance Report Examples and Templates

All businesses, regardless of size or industry, need to know how well they are performing in order to make the best decisions for their company and improve overall ROI. A performance dashboard is a strategic tool used to track key metrics across different departments and provide insight into the health of a business. Databox has a collection of 50+ Performance Dashboard Examples and Templates which are available for free download.

For example, if your business is investing a lot into customer support, we recommend tracking your customer service performance with this Helpscout Mailbox Dashboard which will give you insights into conversations, your team’s productivity, customer happiness score, and more.

Helpscout dashboard example

Executive Report Examples and Templates

An executive dashboard is a visual representation of the current state of a business. The main purpose of an executive dashboard is to enable business leaders to quickly identify opportunities, identify areas for improvement, pinpoint issues, and make data-informed decisions for driving sales growth, new product launches, and overall business growth. When an executive dashboard is fully developed, as one of these 50+ Databox Free Executive Examples and Templates , it offers a single view of the most important metrics for a business at a glance.

For example, you probably have more than one set of financial data tracked using an executive dashboard software : invoices, revenue reports (for accounting), income statements, to mention a few. If you want to view all this data in one convenient place, or even create a custom report that gives you a better picture of your business’s financial health, this Stripe Dashboard Template is a perfect solution for you.

Stripe dashboard

Metrics Report Examples and Templates

Choosing the right metrics for your business dashboard can be crucial to helping you meet your business objectives, evaluate your performance, and get insights into how your business is operating. Metrics dashboards are used by senior management to measure the performance of their company on a day-to-day basis. They are also used by mid-level managers to determine how their teams are performing against individual goals and objectives. Databox provides 50+ Free Metrics Dashboard Examples and Templates that you can use to create your company’s own dashboards. Each is unique and will depend on your business needs.

For example, if you are looking for ways to track the performance of your DevOps team, and get the latest updates on projects quickly – from commits, and repository status, to top contributors to your software development projects, this GitHub Overview Dashboard is for you.

GitHub overview dashboard

Small Business Report Examples and Templates

A lot of small business owners don’t realize how important it is to have a proper dashboard in place until they actually use one. A dashboard can help you track and compare different metrics, benchmark your performance against industry averages, evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing and sales strategies, track financials, and much more. So if you’re looking for a tool to help you measure and manage your small business’ performance, try some of these 50+ Free Small Business Dashboard Examples and Templates .

For example, this Quickbooks Dashboard template can help you get a clear understanding of your business’s financial performance, ultimately allowing you to make better-informed decisions that will drive growth and profitability.

Quickbooks dashboard

Agency Report Examples and Templates

Agency dashboards are not a new concept. They have been around for years and are used by companies all over the world. Agency dashboards can be powerful tools for improving your marketing performance, increasing client loyalty, and landing new clients. There is no single correct way to create an agency dashboard. Everyone has their own goals and objectives, which will ultimately determine which data points you choose to include or track using a client dashboard software , but with these Databox 100+ Free Agency Dashboard Examples and Templates you have plenty of options to start with.

For example, you can use this Harvest Clients Time Report to easily see how much time your employees spend working on projects for a particular client, including billable hours and billable amount split by projects.

Harvest Clients Time Report dashboard

Better Business Reporting with Databox

Business analysis is all about finding smart ways to evaluate your organization’s performance and future potential. And that’s where Databox comes in.

Databox can be a helpful tool for business leaders who are required to analyze data, hold frequent meetings, and generate change in their organizations. From improving the quality and accessibility of your reporting to tracking critical performance metrics in one place, and sharing performance metrics with your peers and team members in a cohesive, presentable way, allow Databox to be your personal assistant in these processes, minimize the burdens of reporting and ensure you always stay on top of your metrics game.

Sign up today for free to start streamlining your business reporting process.

Share on Twitter

Get practical strategies that drive consistent growth

8 Best Reporting Tools in 2024

business research report assignment

7 Key Product Management Metrics and KPIs to Track in 2024

B2b marketing benchmarks to help you set goals for 2024.

business research report assignment

Build your first dashboard in 5 minutes or less

Latest from our blog

  • Outbound Marketing Strategy: 12 Tactics to Optimize Lead Generation in 2024 February 13, 2024
  • 13 Important Instagram Business Metrics for Your B2B (with Tips to Track Them in 2024) February 13, 2024
  • Metrics & KPIs
  • vs. Tableau
  • vs. Looker Studio
  • vs. Klipfolio
  • vs. Power BI
  • vs. Whatagraph
  • vs. AgencyAnalytics
  • Product & Engineering
  • Inside Databox
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • We're Hiring!
  • Help Center
  • API Documentation

Pledge 1%

  • 8.5 Writing Process: Creating an Analytical Report
  • 1 Unit Introduction

Introduction

  • 1.1 "Reading" to Understand and Respond
  • 1.2 Social Media Trailblazer: Selena Gomez
  • 1.3 Glance at Critical Response: Rhetoric and Critical Thinking
  • 1.4 Annotated Student Sample: Social Media Post and Responses on Voter Suppression
  • 1.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically About a “Text”
  • 1.6 Evaluation: Intention vs. Execution
  • 1.7 Spotlight on … Academia
  • 1.8 Portfolio: Tracing Writing Development
  • Further Reading
  • Works Cited
  • 2.1 Seeds of Self
  • 2.2 Identity Trailblazer: Cathy Park Hong
  • 2.3 Glance at the Issues: Oppression and Reclamation
  • 2.4 Annotated Sample Reading from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
  • 2.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically about How Identity Is Constructed Through Writing
  • 2.6 Evaluation: Antiracism and Inclusivity
  • 2.7 Spotlight on … Variations of English
  • 2.8 Portfolio: Decolonizing Self
  • 3.1 Identity and Expression
  • 3.2 Literacy Narrative Trailblazer: Tara Westover
  • 3.3 Glance at Genre: The Literacy Narrative
  • 3.4 Annotated Sample Reading: from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
  • 3.5 Writing Process: Tracing the Beginnings of Literacy
  • 3.6 Editing Focus: Sentence Structure
  • 3.7 Evaluation: Self-Evaluating
  • 3.8 Spotlight on … The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN)
  • 3.9 Portfolio: A Literacy Artifact
  • Works Consulted
  • 2 Unit Introduction
  • 4.1 Exploring the Past to Understand the Present
  • 4.2 Memoir Trailblazer: Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • 4.3 Glance at Genre: Conflict, Detail, and Revelation
  • 4.4 Annotated Sample Reading: from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
  • 4.5 Writing Process: Making the Personal Public
  • 4.6 Editing Focus: More on Characterization and Point of View
  • 4.7 Evaluation: Structure and Organization
  • 4.8 Spotlight on … Multilingual Writers
  • 4.9 Portfolio: Filtered Memories
  • 5.1 Profiles as Inspiration
  • 5.2 Profile Trailblazer: Veronica Chambers
  • 5.3 Glance at Genre: Subject, Angle, Background, and Description
  • 5.4 Annotated Sample Reading: “Remembering John Lewis” by Carla D. Hayden
  • 5.5 Writing Process: Focusing on the Angle of Your Subject
  • 5.6 Editing Focus: Verb Tense Consistency
  • 5.7 Evaluation: Text as Personal Introduction
  • 5.8 Spotlight on … Profiling a Cultural Artifact
  • 5.9 Portfolio: Subject as a Reflection of Self
  • 6.1 Proposing Change: Thinking Critically About Problems and Solutions
  • 6.2 Proposal Trailblazer: Atul Gawande
  • 6.3 Glance at Genre: Features of Proposals
  • 6.4 Annotated Student Sample: “Slowing Climate Change” by Shawn Krukowski
  • 6.5 Writing Process: Creating a Proposal
  • 6.6 Editing Focus: Subject-Verb Agreement
  • 6.7 Evaluation: Conventions, Clarity, and Coherence
  • 6.8 Spotlight on … Technical Writing as a Career
  • 6.9 Portfolio: Reflecting on Problems and Solutions
  • 7.1 Thumbs Up or Down?
  • 7.2 Review Trailblazer: Michiko Kakutani
  • 7.3 Glance at Genre: Criteria, Evidence, Evaluation
  • 7.4 Annotated Student Sample: "Black Representation in Film" by Caelia Marshall
  • 7.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically About Entertainment
  • 7.6 Editing Focus: Quotations
  • 7.7 Evaluation: Effect on Audience
  • 7.8 Spotlight on … Language and Culture
  • 7.9 Portfolio: What the Arts Say About You
  • 8.1 Information and Critical Thinking
  • 8.2 Analytical Report Trailblazer: Barbara Ehrenreich
  • 8.3 Glance at Genre: Informal and Formal Analytical Reports
  • 8.4 Annotated Student Sample: "U.S. Response to COVID-19" by Trevor Garcia
  • 8.6 Editing Focus: Commas with Nonessential and Essential Information
  • 8.7 Evaluation: Reviewing the Final Draft
  • 8.8 Spotlight on … Discipline-Specific and Technical Language
  • 8.9 Portfolio: Evidence and Objectivity
  • 9.1 Breaking the Whole into Its Parts
  • 9.2 Rhetorical Analysis Trailblazer: Jamil Smith
  • 9.3 Glance at Genre: Rhetorical Strategies
  • 9.4 Annotated Student Sample: “Rhetorical Analysis: Evicted by Matthew Desmond” by Eliana Evans
  • 9.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically about Rhetoric
  • 9.6 Editing Focus: Mixed Sentence Constructions
  • 9.7 Evaluation: Rhetorical Analysis
  • 9.8 Spotlight on … Business and Law
  • 9.9 Portfolio: How Thinking Critically about Rhetoric Affects Intellectual Growth
  • 10.1 Making a Case: Defining a Position Argument
  • 10.2 Position Argument Trailblazer: Charles Blow
  • 10.3 Glance at Genre: Thesis, Reasoning, and Evidence
  • 10.4 Annotated Sample Reading: "Remarks at the University of Michigan" by Lyndon B. Johnson
  • 10.5 Writing Process: Creating a Position Argument
  • 10.6 Editing Focus: Paragraphs and Transitions
  • 10.7 Evaluation: Varied Appeals
  • 10.8 Spotlight on … Citation
  • 10.9 Portfolio: Growth in the Development of Argument
  • 11.1 Developing Your Sense of Logic
  • 11.2 Reasoning Trailblazer: Paul D. N. Hebert
  • 11.3 Glance at Genre: Reasoning Strategies and Signal Words
  • 11.4 Annotated Sample Reading: from Book VII of The Republic by Plato
  • 11.5 Writing Process: Reasoning Supported by Evidence
  • 12.1 Introducing Research and Research Evidence
  • 12.2 Argumentative Research Trailblazer: Samin Nosrat
  • 12.3 Glance at Genre: Introducing Research as Evidence
  • 12.4 Annotated Student Sample: "Healthy Diets from Sustainable Sources Can Save the Earth" by Lily Tran
  • 12.5 Writing Process: Integrating Research
  • 12.6 Editing Focus: Integrating Sources and Quotations
  • 12.7 Evaluation: Effectiveness of Research Paper
  • 12.8 Spotlight on … Bias in Language and Research
  • 12.9 Portfolio: Why Facts Matter in Research Argumentation
  • 13.1 The Research Process: Where to Look for Existing Sources
  • 13.2 The Research Process: How to Create Sources
  • 13.3 Glance at the Research Process: Key Skills
  • 13.4 Annotated Student Sample: Research Log
  • 13.5 Research Process: Making Notes, Synthesizing Information, and Keeping a Research Log
  • 13.6 Spotlight on … Ethical Research
  • 14.1 Compiling Sources for an Annotated Bibliography
  • 14.2 Glance at Form: Citation Style, Purpose, and Formatting
  • 14.3 Annotated Student Sample: “Healthy Diets from Sustainable Sources Can Save the Earth” by Lily Tran
  • 14.4 Writing Process: Informing and Analyzing
  • 15.1 Tracing a Broad Issue in the Individual
  • 15.2 Case Study Trailblazer: Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
  • 15.3 Glance at Genre: Observation, Description, and Analysis
  • 15.4 Annotated Sample Reading: Case Study on Louis Victor "Tan" Leborgne
  • 15.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically About How People and Language Interact
  • 15.6 Editing Focus: Words Often Confused
  • 15.7 Evaluation: Presentation and Analysis of Case Study
  • 15.8 Spotlight on … Applied Linguistics
  • 15.9 Portfolio: Your Own Uses of Language
  • 3 Unit Introduction
  • 16.1 An Author’s Choices: What Text Says and How It Says It
  • 16.2 Textual Analysis Trailblazer: bell hooks
  • 16.3 Glance at Genre: Print or Textual Analysis
  • 16.4 Annotated Student Sample: "Artists at Work" by Gwyn Garrison
  • 16.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically About Text
  • 16.6 Editing Focus: Literary Works Live in the Present
  • 16.7 Evaluation: Self-Directed Assessment
  • 16.8 Spotlight on … Humanities
  • 16.9 Portfolio: The Academic and the Personal
  • 17.1 “Reading” Images
  • 17.2 Image Trailblazer: Sara Ludy
  • 17.3 Glance at Genre: Relationship Between Image and Rhetoric
  • 17.4 Annotated Student Sample: “Hints of the Homoerotic” by Leo Davis
  • 17.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically and Writing Persuasively About Images
  • 17.6 Editing Focus: Descriptive Diction
  • 17.7 Evaluation: Relationship Between Analysis and Image
  • 17.8 Spotlight on … Video and Film
  • 17.9 Portfolio: Interplay Between Text and Image
  • 18.1 Mixing Genres and Modes
  • 18.2 Multimodal Trailblazer: Torika Bolatagici
  • 18.3 Glance at Genre: Genre, Audience, Purpose, Organization
  • 18.4 Annotated Sample Reading: “Celebrating a Win-Win” by Alexandra Dapolito Dunn
  • 18.5 Writing Process: Create a Multimodal Advocacy Project
  • 18.6 Evaluation: Transitions
  • 18.7 Spotlight on . . . Technology
  • 18.8 Portfolio: Multimodalism
  • 19.1 Writing, Speaking, and Activism
  • 19.2 Podcast Trailblazer: Alice Wong
  • 19.3 Glance at Genre: Language Performance and Visuals
  • 19.4 Annotated Student Sample: “Are New DOT Regulations Discriminatory?” by Zain A. Kumar
  • 19.5 Writing Process: Writing to Speak
  • 19.6 Evaluation: Bridging Writing and Speaking
  • 19.7 Spotlight on … Delivery/Public Speaking
  • 19.8 Portfolio: Everyday Rhetoric, Rhetoric Every Day
  • 20.1 Thinking Critically about Your Semester
  • 20.2 Reflection Trailblazer: Sandra Cisneros
  • 20.3 Glance at Genre: Purpose and Structure
  • 20.4 Annotated Sample Reading: “Don’t Expect Congrats” by Dale Trumbore
  • 20.5 Writing Process: Looking Back, Looking Forward
  • 20.6 Editing Focus: Pronouns
  • 20.7 Evaluation: Evaluating Self-Reflection
  • 20.8 Spotlight on … Pronouns in Context

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Identify the elements of the rhetorical situation for your report.
  • Find and focus a topic to write about.
  • Gather and analyze information from appropriate sources.
  • Distinguish among different kinds of evidence.
  • Draft a thesis and create an organizational plan.
  • Compose a report that develops ideas and integrates evidence from sources.
  • Give and act on productive feedback to works in progress.

You might think that writing comes easily to experienced writers—that they draft stories and college papers all at once, sitting down at the computer and having sentences flow from their fingers like water from a faucet. In reality, most writers engage in a recursive process, pushing forward, stepping back, and repeating steps multiple times as their ideas develop and change. In broad strokes, the steps most writers go through are these:

  • Planning and Organization . You will have an easier time drafting if you devote time at the beginning to consider the rhetorical situation for your report, understand your assignment, gather ideas and information, draft a thesis statement, and create an organizational plan.
  • Drafting . When you have an idea of what you want to say and the order in which you want to say it, you’re ready to draft. As much as possible, keep going until you have a complete first draft of your report, resisting the urge to go back and rewrite. Save that for after you have completed a first draft.
  • Review . Now is the time to get feedback from others, whether from your instructor, your classmates, a tutor in the writing center, your roommate, someone in your family, or someone else you trust to read your writing critically and give you honest feedback.
  • Revising . With feedback on your draft, you are ready to revise. You may need to return to an earlier step and make large-scale revisions that involve planning, organizing, and rewriting, or you may need to work mostly on ensuring that your sentences are clear and correct.

Considering the Rhetorical Situation

Like other kinds of writing projects, a report starts with assessing the rhetorical situation —the circumstance in which a writer communicates with an audience of readers about a subject. As the writer of a report, you make choices based on the purpose of your writing, the audience who will read it, the genre of the report, and the expectations of the community and culture in which you are working. A graphic organizer like Table 8.1 can help you begin.

Summary of Assignment

Write an analytical report on a topic that interests you and that you want to know more about. The topic can be contemporary or historical, but it must be one that you can analyze and support with evidence from sources.

The following questions can help you think about a topic suitable for analysis:

  • Why or how did ________ happen?
  • What are the results or effects of ________?
  • Is ________ a problem? If so, why?
  • What are examples of ________ or reasons for ________?
  • How does ________ compare to or contrast with other issues, concerns, or things?

Consult and cite three to five reliable sources. The sources do not have to be scholarly for this assignment, but they must be credible, trustworthy, and unbiased. Possible sources include academic journals, newspapers, magazines, reputable websites, government publications or agency websites, and visual sources such as TED Talks. You may also use the results of an experiment or survey, and you may want to conduct interviews.

Consider whether visuals and media will enhance your report. Can you present data you collect visually? Would a map, photograph, chart, or other graphic provide interesting and relevant support? Would video or audio allow you to present evidence that you would otherwise need to describe in words?

Another Lens. To gain another analytic view on the topic of your report, consider different people affected by it. Say, for example, that you have decided to report on recent high school graduates and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the final months of their senior year. If you are a recent high school graduate, you might naturally gravitate toward writing about yourself and your peers. But you might also consider the adults in the lives of recent high school graduates—for example, teachers, parents, or grandparents—and how they view the same period. Or you might consider the same topic from the perspective of a college admissions department looking at their incoming freshman class.

Quick Launch: Finding and Focusing a Topic

Coming up with a topic for a report can be daunting because you can report on nearly anything. The topic can easily get too broad, trapping you in the realm of generalizations. The trick is to find a topic that interests you and focus on an angle you can analyze in order to say something significant about it. You can use a graphic organizer to generate ideas, or you can use a concept map similar to the one featured in Writing Process: Thinking Critically About a “Text.”

Asking the Journalist’s Questions

One way to generate ideas about a topic is to ask the five W (and one H) questions, also called the journalist’s questions : Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Try answering the following questions to explore a topic:

Who was or is involved in ________?

What happened/is happening with ________? What were/are the results of ________?

When did ________ happen? Is ________ happening now?

Where did ________ happen, or where is ________ happening?

Why did ________ happen, or why is ________ happening now?

How did ________ happen?

For example, imagine that you have decided to write your analytical report on the effect of the COVID-19 shutdown on high-school students by interviewing students on your college campus. Your questions and answers might look something like those in Table 8.2 :

Asking Focused Questions

Another way to find a topic is to ask focused questions about it. For example, you might ask the following questions about the effect of the 2020 pandemic shutdown on recent high school graduates:

  • How did the shutdown change students’ feelings about their senior year?
  • How did the shutdown affect their decisions about post-graduation plans, such as work or going to college?
  • How did the shutdown affect their academic performance in high school or in college?
  • How did/do they feel about continuing their education?
  • How did the shutdown affect their social relationships?

Any of these questions might be developed into a thesis for an analytical report. Table 8.3 shows more examples of broad topics and focusing questions.

Gathering Information

Because they are based on information and evidence, most analytical reports require you to do at least some research. Depending on your assignment, you may be able to find reliable information online, or you may need to do primary research by conducting an experiment, a survey, or interviews. For example, if you live among students in their late teens and early twenties, consider what they can tell you about their lives that you might be able to analyze. Returning to or graduating from high school, starting college, or returning to college in the midst of a global pandemic has provided them, for better or worse, with educational and social experiences that are shared widely by people their age and very different from the experiences older adults had at the same age.

Some report assignments will require you to do formal research, an activity that involves finding sources and evaluating them for reliability, reading them carefully, taking notes, and citing all words you quote and ideas you borrow. See Research Process: Accessing and Recording Information and Annotated Bibliography: Gathering, Evaluating, and Documenting Sources for detailed instruction on conducting research.

Whether you conduct in-depth research or not, keep track of the ideas that come to you and the information you learn. You can write or dictate notes using an app on your phone or computer, or you can jot notes in a journal if you prefer pen and paper. Then, when you are ready to begin organizing your report, you will have a record of your thoughts and information. Always track the sources of information you gather, whether from printed or digital material or from a person you interviewed, so that you can return to the sources if you need more information. And always credit the sources in your report.

Kinds of Evidence

Depending on your assignment and the topic of your report, certain kinds of evidence may be more effective than others. Other kinds of evidence may even be required. As a general rule, choose evidence that is rooted in verifiable facts and experience. In addition, select the evidence that best supports the topic and your approach to the topic, be sure the evidence meets your instructor’s requirements, and cite any evidence you use that comes from a source. The following list contains different kinds of frequently used evidence and an example of each.

Definition : An explanation of a key word, idea, or concept.

The U.S. Census Bureau refers to a “young adult” as a person between 18 and 34 years old.

Example : An illustration of an idea or concept.

The college experience in the fall of 2020 was starkly different from that of previous years. Students who lived in residence halls were assigned to small pods. On-campus dining services were limited. Classes were small and physically distanced or conducted online. Parties were banned.

Expert opinion : A statement by a professional in the field whose opinion is respected.

According to Louise Aronson, MD, geriatrician and author of Elderhood , people over the age of 65 are the happiest of any age group, reporting “less stress, depression, worry, and anger, and more enjoyment, happiness, and satisfaction” (255).

Fact : Information that can be proven correct or accurate.

According to data collected by the NCAA, the academic success of Division I college athletes between 2015 and 2019 was consistently high (Hosick).

Interview : An in-person, phone, or remote conversation that involves an interviewer posing questions to another person or people.

During our interview, I asked Betty about living without a cell phone during the pandemic. She said that before the pandemic, she hadn’t needed a cell phone in her daily activities, but she soon realized that she, and people like her, were increasingly at a disadvantage.

Quotation : The exact words of an author or a speaker.

In response to whether she thought she needed a cell phone, Betty said, “I got along just fine without a cell phone when I could go everywhere in person. The shift to needing a phone came suddenly, and I don’t have extra money in my budget to get one.”

Statistics : A numerical fact or item of data.

The Pew Research Center reported that approximately 25 percent of Hispanic Americans and 17 percent of Black Americans relied on smartphones for online access, compared with 12 percent of White people.

Survey : A structured interview in which respondents (the people who answer the survey questions) are all asked the same questions, either in person or through print or electronic means, and their answers tabulated and interpreted. Surveys discover attitudes, beliefs, or habits of the general public or segments of the population.

A survey of 3,000 mobile phone users in October 2020 showed that 54 percent of respondents used their phones for messaging, while 40 percent used their phones for calls (Steele).

  • Visuals : Graphs, figures, tables, photographs and other images, diagrams, charts, maps, videos, and audio recordings, among others.

Thesis and Organization

Drafting a thesis.

When you have a grasp of your topic, move on to the next phase: drafting a thesis. The thesis is the central idea that you will explore and support in your report; all paragraphs in your report should relate to it. In an essay-style analytical report, you will likely express this main idea in a thesis statement of one or two sentences toward the end of the introduction.

For example, if you found that the academic performance of student athletes was higher than that of non-athletes, you might write the following thesis statement:

student sample text Although a common stereotype is that college athletes barely pass their classes, an analysis of athletes’ academic performance indicates that athletes drop fewer classes, earn higher grades, and are more likely to be on track to graduate in four years when compared with their non-athlete peers. end student sample text

The thesis statement often previews the organization of your writing. For example, in his report on the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trevor Garcia wrote the following thesis statement, which detailed the central idea of his report:

student sample text An examination of the U.S. response shows that a reduction of experts in key positions and programs, inaction that led to equipment shortages, and inconsistent policies were three major causes of the spread of the virus and the resulting deaths. end student sample text

After you draft a thesis statement, ask these questions, and examine your thesis as you answer them. Revise your draft as needed.

  • Is it interesting? A thesis for a report should answer a question that is worth asking and piques curiosity.
  • Is it precise and specific? If you are interested in reducing pollution in a nearby lake, explain how to stop the zebra mussel infestation or reduce the frequent algae blooms.
  • Is it manageable? Try to split the difference between having too much information and not having enough.

Organizing Your Ideas

As a next step, organize the points you want to make in your report and the evidence to support them. Use an outline, a diagram, or another organizational tool, such as Table 8.4 .

Drafting an Analytical Report

With a tentative thesis, an organization plan, and evidence, you are ready to begin drafting. For this assignment, you will report information, analyze it, and draw conclusions about the cause of something, the effect of something, or the similarities and differences between two different things.

Some students write the introduction first; others save it for last. Whenever you choose to write the introduction, use it to draw readers into your report. Make the topic of your report clear, and be concise and sincere. End the introduction with your thesis statement. Depending on your topic and the type of report, you can write an effective introduction in several ways. Opening a report with an overview is a tried-and-true strategy, as shown in the following example on the U.S. response to COVID-19 by Trevor Garcia. Notice how he opens the introduction with statistics and a comparison and follows it with a question that leads to the thesis statement (underlined).

student sample text With more than 83 million cases and 1.8 million deaths at the end of 2020, COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. By the end of 2020, the United States led the world in the number of cases, at more than 20 million infections and nearly 350,000 deaths. In comparison, the second-highest number of cases was in India, which at the end of 2020 had less than half the number of COVID-19 cases despite having a population four times greater than the U.S. (“COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic,” 2021). How did the United States come to have the world’s worst record in this pandemic? underline An examination of the U.S. response shows that a reduction of experts in key positions and programs, inaction that led to equipment shortages, and inconsistent policies were three major causes of the spread of the virus and the resulting deaths end underline . end student sample text

For a less formal report, you might want to open with a question, quotation, or brief story. The following example opens with an anecdote that leads to the thesis statement (underlined).

student sample text Betty stood outside the salon, wondering how to get in. It was June of 2020, and the door was locked. A sign posted on the door provided a phone number for her to call to be let in, but at 81, Betty had lived her life without a cell phone. Betty’s day-to-day life had been hard during the pandemic, but she had planned for this haircut and was looking forward to it; she had a mask on and hand sanitizer in her car. Now she couldn’t get in the door, and she was discouraged. In that moment, Betty realized how much Americans’ dependence on cell phones had grown in the months since the pandemic began. underline Betty and thousands of other senior citizens who could not afford cell phones or did not have the technological skills and support they needed were being left behind in a society that was increasingly reliant on technology end underline . end student sample text

Body Paragraphs: Point, Evidence, Analysis

Use the body paragraphs of your report to present evidence that supports your thesis. A reliable pattern to keep in mind for developing the body paragraphs of a report is point , evidence , and analysis :

  • The point is the central idea of the paragraph, usually given in a topic sentence stated in your own words at or toward the beginning of the paragraph. Each topic sentence should relate to the thesis.
  • The evidence you provide develops the paragraph and supports the point made in the topic sentence. Include details, examples, quotations, paraphrases, and summaries from sources if you conducted formal research. Synthesize the evidence you include by showing in your sentences the connections between sources.
  • The analysis comes at the end of the paragraph. In your own words, draw a conclusion about the evidence you have provided and how it relates to the topic sentence.

The paragraph below illustrates the point, evidence, and analysis pattern. Drawn from a report about concussions among football players, the paragraph opens with a topic sentence about the NCAA and NFL and their responses to studies about concussions. The paragraph is developed with evidence from three sources. It concludes with a statement about helmets and players’ safety.

student sample text The NCAA and NFL have taken steps forward and backward to respond to studies about the danger of concussions among players. Responding to the deaths of athletes, documented brain damage, lawsuits, and public outcry (Buckley et al., 2017), the NCAA instituted protocols to reduce potentially dangerous hits during football games and to diagnose traumatic head injuries more quickly and effectively. Still, it has allowed players to wear more than one style of helmet during a season, raising the risk of injury because of imperfect fit. At the professional level, the NFL developed a helmet-rating system in 2011 in an effort to reduce concussions, but it continued to allow players to wear helmets with a wide range of safety ratings. The NFL’s decision created an opportunity for researchers to look at the relationship between helmet safety ratings and concussions. Cocello et al. (2016) reported that players who wore helmets with a lower safety rating had more concussions than players who wore helmets with a higher safety rating, and they concluded that safer helmets are a key factor in reducing concussions. end student sample text

Developing Paragraph Content

In the body paragraphs of your report, you will likely use examples, draw comparisons, show contrasts, or analyze causes and effects to develop your topic.

Paragraphs developed with Example are common in reports. The paragraph below, adapted from a report by student John Zwick on the mental health of soldiers deployed during wartime, draws examples from three sources.

student sample text Throughout the Vietnam War, military leaders claimed that the mental health of soldiers was stable and that men who suffered from combat fatigue, now known as PTSD, were getting the help they needed. For example, the New York Times (1966) quoted military leaders who claimed that mental fatigue among enlisted men had “virtually ceased to be a problem,” occurring at a rate far below that of World War II. Ayres (1969) reported that Brigadier General Spurgeon Neel, chief American medical officer in Vietnam, explained that soldiers experiencing combat fatigue were admitted to the psychiatric ward, sedated for up to 36 hours, and given a counseling session with a doctor who reassured them that the rest was well deserved and that they were ready to return to their units. Although experts outside the military saw profound damage to soldiers’ psyches when they returned home (Halloran, 1970), the military stayed the course, treating acute cases expediently and showing little concern for the cumulative effect of combat stress on individual soldiers. end student sample text

When you analyze causes and effects , you explain the reasons that certain things happened and/or their results. The report by Trevor Garcia on the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is an example: his report examines the reasons the United States failed to control the coronavirus. The paragraph below, adapted from another student’s report written for an environmental policy course, explains the effect of white settlers’ views of forest management on New England.

student sample text The early colonists’ European ideas about forest management dramatically changed the New England landscape. White settlers saw the New World as virgin, unused land, even though indigenous people had been drawing on its resources for generations by using fire subtly to improve hunting, employing construction techniques that left ancient trees intact, and farming small, efficient fields that left the surrounding landscape largely unaltered. White settlers’ desire to develop wood-built and wood-burning homesteads surrounded by large farm fields led to forestry practices and techniques that resulted in the removal of old-growth trees. These practices defined the way the forests look today. end student sample text

Compare and contrast paragraphs are useful when you wish to examine similarities and differences. You can use both comparison and contrast in a single paragraph, or you can use one or the other. The paragraph below, adapted from a student report on the rise of populist politicians, compares the rhetorical styles of populist politicians Huey Long and Donald Trump.

student sample text A key similarity among populist politicians is their rejection of carefully crafted sound bites and erudite vocabulary typically associated with candidates for high office. Huey Long and Donald Trump are two examples. When he ran for president, Long captured attention through his wild gesticulations on almost every word, dramatically varying volume, and heavily accented, folksy expressions, such as “The only way to be able to feed the balance of the people is to make that man come back and bring back some of that grub that he ain’t got no business with!” In addition, Long’s down-home persona made him a credible voice to represent the common people against the country’s rich, and his buffoonish style allowed him to express his radical ideas without sounding anti-communist alarm bells. Similarly, Donald Trump chose to speak informally in his campaign appearances, but the persona he projected was that of a fast-talking, domineering salesman. His frequent use of personal anecdotes, rhetorical questions, brief asides, jokes, personal attacks, and false claims made his speeches disjointed, but they gave the feeling of a running conversation between him and his audience. For example, in a 2015 speech, Trump said, “They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don’t have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should’ve taken” (“Our Country Needs” 2020). While very different in substance, Long and Trump adopted similar styles that positioned them as the antithesis of typical politicians and their worldviews. end student sample text

The conclusion should draw the threads of your report together and make its significance clear to readers. You may wish to review the introduction, restate the thesis, recommend a course of action, point to the future, or use some combination of these. Whichever way you approach it, the conclusion should not head in a new direction. The following example is the conclusion from a student’s report on the effect of a book about environmental movements in the United States.

student sample text Since its publication in 1949, environmental activists of various movements have found wisdom and inspiration in Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac . These audiences included Leopold’s conservationist contemporaries, environmentalists of the 1960s and 1970s, and the environmental justice activists who rose in the 1980s and continue to make their voices heard today. These audiences have read the work differently: conservationists looked to the author as a leader, environmentalists applied his wisdom to their movement, and environmental justice advocates have pointed out the flaws in Leopold’s thinking. Even so, like those before them, environmental justice activists recognize the book’s value as a testament to taking the long view and eliminating biases that may cloud an objective assessment of humanity’s interdependent relationship with the environment. end student sample text

Citing Sources

You must cite the sources of information and data included in your report. Citations must appear in both the text and a bibliography at the end of the report.

The sample paragraphs in the previous section include examples of in-text citation using APA documentation style. Trevor Garcia’s report on the U.S. response to COVID-19 in 2020 also uses APA documentation style for citations in the text of the report and the list of references at the end. Your instructor may require another documentation style, such as MLA or Chicago.

Peer Review: Getting Feedback from Readers

You will likely engage in peer review with other students in your class by sharing drafts and providing feedback to help spot strengths and weaknesses in your reports. For peer review within a class, your instructor may provide assignment-specific questions or a form for you to complete as you work together.

If you have a writing center on your campus, it is well worth your time to make an online or in-person appointment with a tutor. You’ll receive valuable feedback and improve your ability to review not only your report but your overall writing.

Another way to receive feedback on your report is to ask a friend or family member to read your draft. Provide a list of questions or a form such as the one in Table 8.5 for them to complete as they read.

Revising: Using Reviewers’ Responses to Revise your Work

When you receive comments from readers, including your instructor, read each comment carefully to understand what is being asked. Try not to get defensive, even though this response is completely natural. Remember that readers are like coaches who want you to succeed. They are looking at your writing from outside your own head, and they can identify strengths and weaknesses that you may not have noticed. Keep track of the strengths and weaknesses your readers point out. Pay special attention to those that more than one reader identifies, and use this information to improve your report and later assignments.

As you analyze each response, be open to suggestions for improvement, and be willing to make significant revisions to improve your writing. Perhaps you need to revise your thesis statement to better reflect the content of your draft. Maybe you need to return to your sources to better understand a point you’re trying to make in order to develop a paragraph more fully. Perhaps you need to rethink the organization, move paragraphs around, and add transition sentences.

Below is an early draft of part of Trevor Garcia’s report with comments from a peer reviewer:

student sample text To truly understand what happened, it’s important first to look back to the years leading up to the pandemic. Epidemiologists and public health officials had long known that a global pandemic was possible. In 2016, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) published a 69-page document with the intimidating title Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents . The document’s two sections address responses to “emerging disease threats that start or are circulating in another country but not yet confirmed within U.S. territorial borders” and to “emerging disease threats within our nation’s borders.” On 13 January 2017, the joint Obama-Trump transition teams performed a pandemic preparedness exercise; however, the playbook was never adopted by the incoming administration. end student sample text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: Do the words in quotation marks need to be a direct quotation? It seems like a paraphrase would work here. end annotated text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: I’m getting lost in the details about the playbook. What’s the Obama-Trump transition team? end annotated text

student sample text In February 2018, the administration began to cut funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; cuts to other health agencies continued throughout 2018, with funds diverted to unrelated projects such as housing for detained immigrant children. end student sample text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: This paragraph has only one sentence, and it’s more like an example. It needs a topic sentence and more development. end annotated text

student sample text Three months later, Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the NSC, spoke at a symposium marking the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic. “The threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern,” she said. “Are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no.” end student sample text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: This paragraph is very short and a lot like the previous paragraph in that it’s a single example. It needs a topic sentence. Maybe you can combine them? end annotated text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: Be sure to cite the quotation. end annotated text

Reading these comments and those of others, Trevor decided to combine the three short paragraphs into one paragraph focusing on the fact that the United States knew a pandemic was possible but was unprepared for it. He developed the paragraph, using the short paragraphs as evidence and connecting the sentences and evidence with transitional words and phrases. Finally, he added in-text citations in APA documentation style to credit his sources. The revised paragraph is below:

student sample text Epidemiologists and public health officials in the United States had long known that a global pandemic was possible. In 2016, the National Security Council (NSC) published Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents , a 69-page document on responding to diseases spreading within and outside of the United States. On January 13, 2017, the joint transition teams of outgoing president Barack Obama and then president-elect Donald Trump performed a pandemic preparedness exercise based on the playbook; however, it was never adopted by the incoming administration (Goodman & Schulkin, 2020). A year later, in February 2018, the Trump administration began to cut funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving key positions unfilled. Other individuals who were fired or resigned in 2018 were the homeland security adviser, whose portfolio included global pandemics; the director for medical and biodefense preparedness; and the top official in charge of a pandemic response. None of them were replaced, leaving the White House with no senior person who had experience in public health (Goodman & Schulkin, 2020). Experts voiced concerns, among them Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the NSC, who spoke at a symposium marking the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic in May 2018: “The threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern,” she said. “Are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no” (Sun, 2018, final para.). end student sample text

A final word on working with reviewers’ comments: as you consider your readers’ suggestions, remember, too, that you remain the author. You are free to disregard suggestions that you think will not improve your writing. If you choose to disregard comments from your instructor, consider submitting a note explaining your reasons with the final draft of your report.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/writing-guide/pages/1-unit-introduction
  • Authors: Michelle Bachelor Robinson, Maria Jerskey, featuring Toby Fulwiler
  • Publisher/website: OpenStax
  • Book title: Writing Guide with Handbook
  • Publication date: Dec 21, 2021
  • Location: Houston, Texas
  • Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/writing-guide/pages/1-unit-introduction
  • Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/writing-guide/pages/8-5-writing-process-creating-an-analytical-report

© Dec 19, 2023 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

What Are Business Reports & Why They Are Important: Examples & Templates

Business reports examples and templates for managers by datapine

Table of Contents

1) What Is A Business Report?

2) Types Of Business Reports

3) Business Reports Examples & Samples

4) Why Do You Need Business Reports?

5) How To Setup A Business Report?

6) Challenges Of Business Reports

In your daily operations, you likely notice your processes and ‘activities’ constantly changing – sales trends and volume, marketing performance metrics, warehouse operational shifts, or inventory management changes, among many others.

All these little alterations in your organizational activities are impacting the global well-being of your company, your warehouse, your restaurant, or even your healthcare facility. Whether you manage a big or small company, business reports must be incorporated to establish goals, track operations, and strategy to get an in-depth view of the overall company state.

But with so much information being collected daily from every department, static business reports created manually will not give your company the fresh insights it needs to stay competitive. Businesses that want to succeed in today’s crowded market need to leverage the power of their insights in an accessible and efficient way. This is where modern business reports created with interactive data visualizations come to the rescue. 

Traditional means of reporting are tedious and time-consuming. Due to how the human brain processes information, presenting insights in charts or graphs to visualize significant amounts of complex information is more accessible and intuitive.  Thanks to modern, user-friendly online data analysis tools armed with powerful visualizations, companies can benefit from interactive reports that are accessible and understandable for everyone without needing prior technical skills.

Here, we take the time to define a business report, explore visual report examples, and look at how to create them for various needs, goals, and objectives. In the process, we will use online data visualization software to interact with and drill deeper into bits and pieces of relevant data. Let's get started.

What Is A Business Report?

A business report is a tool that helps collect and analyze historical and current data from a company’s operations, production, and more. Through various types of business reports, organizations make critical decisions to ensure growth and operational efficiency.

To understand the best uses for these reports, it’s essential to properly define them. According to authors Lesikar and Pettit, “A corporate-style report is an orderly, objective communication of factual information that serves some organizational purpose”. It organizes information for a specific business purpose. While some reports will go into a more detailed approach to analyzing the functionality and strategies of a department, other examples of business reports will be more concentrated on the bigger picture of organizational management, for example, investor relations. That’s where the magic of these kinds of reports truly shines: no matter for which company goal you need, their usage can be various and, at the same time, practical.

Traditional business reports are often static and text reach (bullet points, headings, subheadings, etc.). Classically formatted in sections such as the summary, table of contents, introduction, body, and conclusion, this report format is no longer the most efficient when it comes to extracting the needed insights to succeed in this fast-paced world. On one hand, by the time these reports have been finished, the insights included within them might not be useful anymore. On the other hand, the fact that it is mostly text and numbers makes them hard to understand, making the analysis strategy segregated and inefficient.  

The visual nature of modern business dashboards leaves all the aforementioned issues in the past. Thanks to interactive data visualizations and modern business intelligence solutions , the analysis sequence can be done fast and efficiently while empowering non-technical users to rely on digital insights for their decision-making process. 

Your Chance: Want to test professional business reporting software? Explore our 14-day free trial. Benefit from great business reports today!

Types Of Business Reports?

Before creating your business outcome reports, it is important to consider your core goals and objectives. This way, you can pick the correct type of report for each situation. Here, we present you with five common types of visual reports that you can use for different analytical purposes. 

1. Analytical reports

Analytical reports are reporting tools that use qualitative and quantitative data to analyze the performance of a business strategy or as support when a company needs to make important decisions. A modern analytical dashboard created with top reporting software can include statistics, historical data, as well as forecasts, and real-time information. Let’s look into it with a sales example. 

This dashboard is an example of one of the most common types of business reports: analytical reports

**click to enlarge**

This visually appealing business analysis report contains relevant sales KPIs to measure performance, such as the average revenue per unit, the customer lifetime value, acquisition costs, and some sales targets to be met. The value of this analytical report lies in the fact that you get a lot of relevant metrics in a single dashboard. The data can be filtered and explored on different time frames such as daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the discussion that it needs to support.   

With this kind of sample in hand, managers can quickly understand if they are meeting their targets, find improvement opportunities, get a bigger picture of their sales, and find efficient ways to proceed with new strategies.  

2. Research reports

Next in our types of business reports that we will discuss is a research report. Companies often use these kinds of reports to test the viability of a new product, study a new geographical area to sell, or understand their customer’s perception of their brand image. To generate this type of report, managers often contact market research agencies to gather all the relevant information related to the studied topic. This brand analysis dashboard is a great example.

A brand analytics dashboard as an example of research business reports

The image above is a business report template of a brand analysis. Here, we can see the results of a survey that was conducted to understand the brand’s public perception on different topics. The value of this market research dashboard lies in its interactivity. Often, research reports are depicted in long and static PowerPoint presentations. With a modern market research dashboard like this one, all the info can be filtered upon need, and the whole presentation of results can be done on one screen. For example, if you want to know the brand awareness of a particular region or age group, you just have to click on the graphs, and the entire dashboard will be filtered based on this information. Like this, the analysis sequence is fast, interactive, and efficient. 

3. Industry reports

Following on from the research topic, our next type is an industry report. Benchmarks and targets are excellent ways to measure a company’s performance and success. But, these targets need to be based on realistic values, especially considering how crowded and competitive today’s markets are. For this purpose, companies perform industry reports. By getting a clear picture of the average industry numbers, such as the competitive landscape, industry size, economic indicators, and trends, they can plan smart strategies and create realistic targets for performance. 

Technavio Global Ice Cream Market 2020-2024

Let's take this industry report by Technavio about the Global Ice Cream Market as an example. Here, we can see relevant numbers concerning the ice cream market, how COVID-19 impacted it, and what is expected to happen between the years 2020-2024. For example, the business report sample shows that the pandemic has positively impacted the ice cream market and that it grew 4.33% during 2020. The report also shows that there is increasing popularity of plant-based ice cream and that this trend is driving market growth. This is invaluable information for an ice cream company as they can invest in new products with almost certain success.

4. Progress reports

Next, we have progress reports. Unlike our other examples, this type of business report is not necessarily based on deep research or advanced analytics but rather on delivering a clear picture of the performance of a particular area or business goal. Their visual nature makes them the perfect tool to support meetings or business discussions as they provide a glance into the status of different metrics. A common use of progress reports is with KPI scorecards . Let’s look at an example. 

A balanced scorecard showing financial and customer objectives, learning and growth, and internal objectives.

The image above is a business report example of a balanced scorecard. The goal here is to quickly understand the development of metrics related to 4 key business areas: financial, customers, learning and growth, and internal objectives. Each of these metrics is displayed in a current value and compared to a set target. Paired with this, the template has five colors for the performance status. This allows anyone who uses this report to quickly understand just by looking at the colors if the target is being met.

5. By business function

Getting a bigger picture of a company’s performance is a great benefit of the best business reports. But, apart from helping the company as a whole, the real value of these reports lies in the fact that they empower departments to leverage the power of data analysis for their decision-making process. Instead of the sales department, human resources, or logistics, your entire organization will be data-driven. Let’s look at it with a business report example by function on marketing.  

Business report example by function: a marketing performance dashboard

Created with modern marketing dashboard software , this example entirely focuses on the development of marketing campaigns.  With metrics such as the total number of impressions, clicks, acquisitions, and cost per acquisition being depicted on intuitive gauge charts, you quickly get a clear understanding of the performance of your campaigns. Through this, you can spot any inefficiencies before they become bigger issues and find improvement opportunities to ensure your marketing efforts are paying off. If you want to dig even deeper, this interactive business report can be filtered for specific campaigns so you only see related insights, making this dashboard the perfect tool to support team meetings. 

Business Report Examples And Templates

We’ve answered the question, ‘What is a business report?’ and now, it’s time to look at some real-world examples.

The examples of business reports that we included in this article can be utilized in many different industries; the data can be customized based on the factual information of the specific department, organization, company, or enterprise. Interdepartmental communication can then effectively utilize findings, and the content can be shared with key stakeholders.

Now that we know what they are, let's go over some concrete, real-world instances of visuals you will need to include in your reports.

1. Visual financial business report example

This first example focuses on one of the most vital and data-driven departments of any company: finance. It gathers the most essential financial KPIs a manager needs to have at his fingertips to make an informed decision: gross profit margin, operational expenses ratio (OPEX), both earning before interests (EBIT) and net profit margins, and the income statement. Next to these are the revenue evolution over a year compared to its target predefined, the annual evolution of operational expenses for various internal departments as well as the evolution of the EBIT compared to its target.

Visual of a financial business report example for top-management

The different sets of visual representations of data can clearly point out particular trends or actions that need to be taken to stay on the financial track of a company. All your financial analysis can be integrated into a single visual. When the presentation becomes interactive, clicks will provide even deeper insights into your financial KPIs and the desired outcomes to make a company healthy in its financial operations. The importance of this finance dashboard lies in the fact that every finance manager can easily track and measure the whole financial overview of a specific company while gaining insights into the most valuable KPIs and metrics. Empowering a steadfast and operation-sensitive plan is among the most important goals a company can have, and finance is right in the middle of this process.

Thanks to all this information displayed on a single dashboard, your report is greatly enhanced and backed with accurate information for you to make sound decisions. It becomes easier to implement a solid and operation-sensitive management plan.

2. Visual investor's business report layout

As mentioned earlier, holding an account of your activity, performance, and organization’s assets is important for people outside of the company to understand how it works. When these people are investors, it is all the more critical to have a clean and up-to-date report for them to know how successful is the company they invest in and for you to increase your chances of having more funds. This example provides just that: an exact overview of the most important insights and specific values in a particular time frame.

Visual of a finance KPIs business executive dashboard example for investors

Calculating and communicating KPIs about the overall company situation is what this investors’ relationship dashboard tries to focus on. You learn about the return on equity and return on asset, the debt-equity ratio, and the working capital ratio, but also see the evolution of a share price over time. Each of these metrics is crucial for a potential shareholder, and if they are not monitored regularly and kept under control, it is easy to lose investors’ interest. Tracking them and visualizing them through a modern dashboard is a competitive advantage for your investors’ reports. You can even see on this visual a clear set of data, so you don’t have to dig through numerous amounts of spreadsheets, but clearly see the specific development over time, the percentage gained or lost, ratios, and returns on investments. Not to be limited just to these data, you can always customize and make sample business reports for your specific needs.

3. Visual management report example

The management KPIs presented below focus on the revenue and customer overview seen through a specified quarter of a year. With just a click, you can easily change your specific date range and make an overview of different months or years.

Management business report showing the important KPIs to C-level executives

When analyzing insights on a more specific level, you can easily spot if the revenue is approaching your target value, compare it to the previous year, and see how much of the target you still need to work on. The average number of your revenue per customer compared to your targets can also identify on a more specific level how much you need to adjust your strategy based on your customers’ value. If you see your values have exceeded your goals, you can concentrate on KPIs that haven’t yet reached your target achievement. In this specific example, we have gained insights into how to present your management data, compare them, and evaluate your findings to make better decisions.

This clear overview of data can set apart the success of your management strategy since it is impossible to omit vital information. By gathering all your findings into a single CEO dashboard , the information presented is clear and specific to the management’s needs. The best part of this example report is seen through its interactivity: the more you click, the more data you can present, and the more specific conclusions you can look for.

These report templates that we have analyzed and presented in this article can be a roadmap to effectively create your own report or customize your data to tailor your needs and findings.

4. SaaS management dashboard

The next in our rundown of dynamic business report examples comes from our specialized SaaS metrics dashboard .

A business report example visualizing the number of paying customers, ARPU, CAC, CLTV, and MRR over the course of a month

A SaaS company report example that packs a real informational punch, this particular report format offers a panoramic snapshot of the insights and information every ambitious software-as-a-service business needs to succeed.

With visual KPIs that include customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, MMR, and APRU, here, you will find everything you need to streamline your company’s initiatives at a glance. This is an essential tool for both short- and long-term evolution.

5. Sales KPI dashboard

Niche or sector aside, this most powerful of online business reports samples will empower your sales team to improve productivity while increasing revenue on a sustainable basis.

A monthly sales report template focused on high-level metrics such as revenue, profits, costs, incremental sales, accumulated revenue, up/cross-sell rates, etc.

A powerful daily business activity report as well as a tool for long-term growth, our sales dashboard boasts a cohesive mix of visualizations built to boost your business's bottom line.

With centralized access to sales graphs and charts based on churn rates, revenue per sales rep, upselling & cross-selling, and more, this is a company report format that will help you push yourself ahead of the pack (and stay there). It’s a must-have tool for any modern sales team.

6. Retail store dashboard company report example

Retail is another sector that pays to utilize your data to its full advantage. Whatever branch of retail you work in, knowing how to generate a report is crucial, as is knowing which types of reports to work with.

Example of a business report for an online retail store that displays return reasons, total orders, top sellers, average order per customer, etc.

Our interactive retail dashboard is one of our finest visual report examples, as it offers a digestible window of insight into the retail-centric unit as well as transaction-based information that can help you reduce costs while boosting your sales figures over time.

Ideal for target setting and benchmarking as well as strategy formulation, this is an unrivaled tool for any retailer navigating their activities in our fast-paced digital age. If you’re a retailer looking for steady, positive growth, squeezing every last drop of value from your retail metrics is essential—and this dashboard will get you there.

7. Customer service team dashboard

As a key aspect of any successful organizational strategy, optimizing your customer service communications across channels is essential. That’s where our customer service analytics report comes into play.  

Business reporting example for customer service team performance

Making your customer service efforts more efficient, effective, and responsive will not only drastically improve your consumer loyalty rates but also set you apart from your competitors.

One of the best ways to achieve a mean, lean, well-oiled consumer-facing machine is by giving your customer service representatives the tools to perform to the best of their abilities at all times. Armed with a balanced mix of KPIs to track and enhance service performance, this most powerful of business report samples will help you drive down response times while improving your first call resolution rates. It’s a combination that will result in ongoing growth and success.

8. Employee performance dashboard

In addition to your customers, your employees are the beating heart of your organization. Our employee dashboard will give you the power to track the ongoing value and productivity of your internal talent.

Employee performance depicted with business reporting processes.

An ideal formal business report example for any modern HR department, this telling dashboard will give you deep insight into how your employees perform and behave over specific timeframes.

Here, you can examine trends in absenteeism rates, track overtime hours by age group, monitor your training costs, and explore peaks and troughs in productivity across the entire workforce. This melting pot of at-a-glance information will empower you to provide training exactly where it’s needed and get to the heart of any issue that’s affecting productivity or engagement levels. 

Working with this business report format example consistently will ultimately ensure you get the very best return on investment (ROI) from your internal talent.

9. Marketing KPI dashboard

Without a solid multichannel marketing strategy, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever see a consistently healthy ROI from your promotional efforts. Shooting in the dark regarding marketing will also see you fall behind the competition. Enter our marketing dashboard .

Marketing business report for management, with main KPIs about costs and revenue

This business report format template brimming with insight, lets you set accurate performance benchmarks while uncovering a wealth of insight from one intuitive dashboard.

To optimize your promotional campaigns and activities, talking to specific audience segments and using the right touchpoints at precisely the right time is essential. Without a targeted approach, all you’re doing is throwing your time and money away.

This effective company report example offers a balanced overview of your campaigns’ performance by offering the tools to dig deep into vital metrics like cost per acquisition (CPA), customer lifetime value (CLTV), and ROI.

This perfect storm of metrics will show you where your communications or campaigns are failing to drive engagement and where they’re yielding positive results. Armed with this critical information, you can optimize all of your efforts to make the biggest possible impact across channels. An essential report design for any modern organization looking to scale swiftly and consistently.

10. Warehouse KPI dashboard

Being a warehouse manager or decision-maker is a high-pressure job where every decision counts. To keep your fulfillment activities and initiatives fluid, functional, and primed for organizational growth, sweating your data correctly is a must.

A business report example focused on the warehouse performance in the logistics industry

Our warehouse KPI dashboard is a business report sample that aids both real-time decision-making and longer-term strategic planning.

With a powerful selection of logistics-based KPIs, this highly visual business report structure features metrics based on on-time shipment rates, a breakdown of warehouse costs, the number of shipments made over a specified timeframe, and a perfect order rate.

By making this kind of business reports formats a core part of your daily operations, you can eliminate unnecessary costs or activities while boosting overall productivity and significantly improving the success, as well as accuracy, of your warehouse operations. It is an invaluable tool that will help consistently deliver on your fulfillment promises, improving your brand reputation in the process.

11. Cybersecurity dashboard

In our hyper-connected digital age, failing to invest in adequate cybersecurity solutions is the same as leaving your front door wide open when you’re on holiday.

Business report template tracking relevant IT metrics for cybersecurity

To avoid the devastating impact of organizational cyber attacks or informational breaches,  our cyber security IT dashboard will ensure your company is fortified from every angle. This most vital of business report examples will help you fend off any prospective acts of cybercrime while monitoring for any attacks or abnormalities in real-time.

Here, you can keep on top of your cybersecurity rating, track your phishing test success rates, understand how long it takes you to identify an attack (and improve your responsivity), look at how often you backup your company's sensitive information, and discover the most common intrusion rates related to your company from a cohesive space. It’s an essential analysis tool designed to keep your company safe, secure, and happy.

12. CEO dashboard

The CEO is the highest leadership position in an organization. As such, they need to get a complete overview of the entire operations and performance to ensure everything is running smoothly and on track to meet expected goals. Our next example is a scorecard report tracking relevant metrics related to finances, marketing, customer service, and human resources. 

Business report template tracking metrics for the CEO

What makes this template so valuable for the CEO is the fact that it offers a long-term view with benchmarks for quarterly and annual performance. This way, leadership can evaluate the development of the different strategies and spot any inefficiencies at a glance by looking at the green or red colors depicted on each KPI. Plus, each section of the scorecard offers a detailed breakdown of additional information to help dive deeper into the reasons behind a specific result. 

For instance, we can see that there is an increase in the total expenses in the current quarter. However, when taking a deeper look at the yearly breakdown, we can see that the operating expenses ratio has been decreasing for the past three months. Therefore, the quarterly increase is nothing to worry about.

13. Manufacturing production dashboard 

As a production company, you must ensure every aspect of the process is efficiently carried out at its maximum capacity. This means, ensuring machines are working properly, the right amounts of products are being produced, and the least amount are being returned by customers. Our next template aims to help with that task by offering a 360-degree view into a company’s production processes.

Manufacturing business report template displaying main manufacturing KPIs to keep the pulse of your factory

With insights into production volume vs. quantity ordered, top 5 machines by production volume, and return items by reason, the manufacturing manager can spot inefficiencies and identify trends to optimize production and ensure the highest possible ROI. 

For example, looking at the top machines by production can help you spot the ones that might need some maintenance and plan that maintenance time without affecting production. On the other hand, analyzing the returned items by reason can also help improve customer experience and satisfaction. If you see a large amount of returns due to a broken product, it means you need to improve the quality of your materials or the packaging when they are sent to the customer to keep it safer. 

14. IT project management dashboard

Completing a project successfully relies heavily on the team being connected to keep tasks moving at the expected speed. The issue is that it often involves multiple meetings that end up taking a lot of time that could be implemented actually completing the tasks. Our next sample aims to tackle that issue by providing a real-time overview of project development metrics.

IT business reports: project management overview

At the top of the report, we see a breakdown of the different stages of the project with a development percentage and a projected launch date. This is great information to have as it can inform the team about the status of the entire project and any external stakeholders as well.

We then get insights into the project budget, overdue tasks, upcoming deadlines, and employee workload. This is invaluable information that can help optimize any bottlenecks and increase overall efficiency. For instance, we can see that Georg and Nancy are 10+ days overdue with their tasks which is not good for the project. However, a deeper look shows us that these two employees are the ones with the biggest workload, which means they might need some help from other team members to speed up their tasks.

15. HR diversity dashboard 

Diversity in the workplace has become a big priority for organizations and prospective talents. Each year, more and more businesses realize the value of having employees from different backgrounds and cultures as a way to boost their strategies and overall growth. That being said, to be considered a diverse company, you need to ensure your workforce feels comfortable and that the same opportunities are being given to all. Enters our last business report template.

business research report assignment

The template above offers a view into different diversity management metrics from recruitment to talent management. Through this insightful report, HR managers can test the success of their diversity strategies and spot any areas of improvement to ensure the highest level of employee satisfaction. The template is highly interactive and offers insights into diversity by gender, ethnicity, and disabilities.

Analyzing the content of the report, we can see that black employees are the ones with the highest voluntary turnover rate. This is something that needs to be looked into to find the reasons why these employees are not feeling comfortable at the company. On the other hand, we can see that the organization is 1% above the 2% industry standard for hiring employees with disabilities. This is a great indicator, and it can translate into a low 7% of voluntary leaves by these workers.

Now that we’ve looked at report samples, let’s consider the clear-cut business-boosting benefits of these essential analytical tools. These perks will make your company stronger, more fluent, and more efficient on a sustainable basis.

Why Do You Need Business Reports?

Why do you need business reports? 1. Risk assessment & opportunity, 2. Trends & connections, 3. Business Intelligence, 4. Buy-in, 5. Operational efficiency,6. Specificity, 7. Accuracy & consistency, 8. Engagement, 9. Benchmarking, 10. Communication

These reports also enable data collection by documenting the progress you make. Through them, you have the means to compare different periods and activity, growth, etc. You can better see which products or services are more successful than others, which marketing campaign outperforms which other, and which markets or segments require more attention. Collecting all this data is indispensable – and by doing so, you build a paper trail of your past (or, namely, a data trail). They let people outside the company (like banks or investors) know about your activity and performance and enable stakeholders to understand your organization’s tangible and intangible assets.

  • Risk assessment & opportunity: With a business report, you can increase the understanding of risks and opportunities within your company . Sample reports accentuate the link between financial and non-financial performance: they streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve overall cohesion in an informed, commercially ‘safe’ way.
  • Trends & connections: Business report samples can help you compare your performance to other internal units or companies in the same sector. On a more specific level, a report template can help you dig thoroughly into operational metrics and details and discover correlations that would be otherwise overlooked. In today’s hyper-connected digital age, gaining a deeper insight into your data will empower you to formulate strategies that will accelerate key areas of your business growth through trend identification. This fact alone highlights the importance of a business analysis report.
  • Business intelligence (BI): If used correctly, the best BI tools will answer a vital question: ‘Will I survive on the market?’ By creating a business report of a company built to improve your BI activities and answer essential organizational questions, you will gain the ability to tackle deeper specific insights that can bring operational value and control the overall expenditures. By knowing how to set up such a report with specific samples and templates, you can provide building blocks to establish a successful business intelligence strategy.
  • Buy-in: While there are many different types of business reports for a company, they all have one common trait: gathering data and tracking the business activities related to something specific. By working with the right reports, users can perform in-depth visual analyses of many key areas or functions and provide informed recommendations that will ultimately improve efficiency and encourage innovation. Regardless of how good or beneficial an idea might be , getting buy-in from senior executives or external partners is often a major roadblock to progress. However, a good report template presents a level of depth and presentation that is both factual and convincing and will encourage buy-in from the people with the power to sign off on new strategies, initiatives, or ideas.
  • Operational efficiency: The more factual the report is, the clearer the data. When your data is well organized and crystal clear, it’s possible to interpret your business activities cost-effectively, reducing the time required to analyze findings while saving countless working hours sifting through metrics for actionable insights. A good template presents an in-depth analysis where the writers show how they have interpreted their findings. For example, a marketing report can reduce the time needed to analyze a specific campaign, while an HR report can provide insights into the recruiting process and evaluate, for example, why the cost per hire increased?
  • Specificity: When you create a business information report, you are giving yourself a key opportunity to address specific issues that are often used when decisions need to be made. As author Alan Thomson says, “A company report conveys information to assist in business decision-making. [It] is the medium in which to present this information.” They have several purposes: some record information to plan for the future, some record past information to understand a situation, and others present a solution to a pressing problem. Some executive dashboards are for daily usage, while a monthly business report template will help you pinpoint your activities on a more gradual, incremental basis.  They are all essential to commercial success, as they bring clarity to complex analysis. As mentioned earlier, the clearer the data, the more cost-effective results will be, so keeping in mind the exact data to incorporate into this kind of report should be essential in deciding what kind of report to generate. You can find multiple key performance indicator examples in different industries, which should be considered when creating that kind of report. You can also generate an interdepartmental report or between businesses to compare industry values and see how your company stands in the market.
  • Accuracy & consistency: In The Age of Information, data is a vast landscape, and if you want to use it to your advantage, aiming for consistency and accuracy is key. If your data is off or presents hit-and-miss findings, it could cost your company in the long run.  Working with an online dashboard tool to produce your reports is an incredible advantage for the ease of use, the time saved, and, most importantly, the accuracy of the information you will use. As you work with real-time data, everything on your report will be up-to-date, and the decisions you will take will be backed with the latest info. Business report examples are significantly helpful when you need to explore your data and perform data analyses to extract actionable insights. They will deliver an important added value to your report thanks to the visualization of your findings, bringing more clarity and comprehension to the analyses, which is their primary purpose.
  • Engagement: As intuitive, digestible, and visual tools, business-centric reporting tools are easier to understand and tell a story that is far more likely to resonate with your audience.  While exploring your data, with deeper insights generated with just a few clicks, the report doesn’t have to be dull, boring, and lost in hundreds of pages or spreadsheets of data. If you create a report that is clean and customized, you will bring more value than by printing or searching through a spreadsheet. Achieving a design like this is simple with the right KPI dashboard software . Imagine yourself in a meeting with 200 pages of analysis from the last 5 years of business management. One participant asks you a specific question regarding your operational costs dating 3 years back. And you’re sitting there, trying to find that specific piece of information that can make or break your business meeting. With business dashboards , you cannot go wrong. All the information you need is generated with a click, within a click.
  • Benchmarking: If you know how to set up a business-centric report with efficiency, you will gain the ability to set defined, accurate benchmarks. By frequently setting targets based on your most important organizational goals and working with visual reporting tools, you will keep your organization flowing while catalyzing your overall growth and productivity levels.
  • Communication: One of the best uses of these tools is improving internal collaboration and communication. By gaining 24/7 access to your most essential business data while enhancing the way you analyze and present it, you will empower everyone in the business with better access to information, which, in turn, will enhance internal communication and collaboration.
  • Innovation: The intuitive nature of these reports makes them the most efficient way to steer a progressive analytical strategy. As such, it’s easier (and quicker) to uncover hidden insights, spot trends, and hone in on critical information. It’s this speed, ease, and accuracy that frees creativity and improves innovation across the organization, accelerating growth as a result.

These reports can also be of many different types, but they all have one common trait: gathering data and tracking the organizational activities related to something specific. From there, their author(s) will often perform an analysis and provide recommendations to the organizations.

How To Generate A Business Report

Top 10 steps on how to do a business report

The primary importance of a corporate-centric report lies in gaining confidence and clarity. Before starting to create it, it’s vital to establish the goals and the audience. Knowing who you want to direct it to is key in its elaboration, from the tone, vocabulary/jargon you choose to the data you will focus on. A report to external stakeholders, to the CEOs, or to the technical engineers’ team will be drastically different from one another.

Likewise, the scope varies according to the objective of the report. State beforehand the needs and goals to direct you on the right path. It should be impartial and objective, with a planned presentation or dashboard reporting tool , which enables an interactive flow of data and immediate access to every piece of information needed to generate clear findings.

To help you write your daily, weekly, or monthly business-centric report template with confidence, let’s go over some essential steps and tips you should focus on:

1. Consider your audience

First of all, if you want to understand how to do a business report the right way, you have to think of your audience from the outset. Your reporting efforts must make sense and offer direct value to the end viewer or user - otherwise, they’ll be meaningless. That said, it’s critical that you take the time to consider who will use the reporting tool most and which information or features will add the most value, helping improve the organization in the process. Take the time to understand your audience, and your reporting tools will not only meet expectations but exceed them - one well-placed visualization at a time.

2. Determine and state the purpose

As we stated in the previous paragraph, defining the needs of your audience is vital to reporting success. As we said, a report usually assists in decision-making and addresses certain issues. You can state them at the beginning of the report. The more clear and specific the goal, the better the content will be. You won’t lose time adjusting information when you present your purpose in a clear and well-defined manner.

3. Use a mix of real-time and historical data

Another key component of this report is making sure you’re free of any informational blind spots. So many companies work with one form of metric, stunting their organizational progress in the process. To drill down deep into detailed pockets of information and gain a panoramic view of specific trends or patterns, working with a balanced mix of historical and real-time data is key. Doing so will empower you to capitalize on potential strengths while learning from historical weaknesses. This balanced approach will also give you the tools to develop strategies that return the best possible ROI while making powerful decisions under pressure.

4. Set actionable targets and goals

Once you’ve curated your informational sources and defined your audience, you should set actionable goals. Setting the right benchmarks will help you track your ongoing success with pinpoint accuracy while defining goals or targets will give you the insight you need to work with the right KPIs while ensuring your company is moving in the right direction. Taking the time to set actionable goals and targets that align with your organizational strategy will ensure your reports offer a consistently healthy ROI.

5. Define your reporting frequency

Another key component of successful organizational reporting is deciding how often you will analyze your metrics and information. Depending on the function or the goals you’re looking to achieve, you should decide whether your dashboard will serve as a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly reporting tool. Setting the right frequency will ensure your analytical strategy is fully streamlined while connecting you with the insights that count most at exactly the right time. The best modern reporting tools also offer automated functionality, helping to monitor insights and offer alerts without human intervention - the best way to save time while ensuring you never miss a critical piece of information again.

6. Gather and organize the information

Now that the purpose and scope are clearly defined, you can start gathering the data in any form that can address the issue. Thanks to that information, you will carry out data analysis to understand what lies beneath and to extract valuable insights. These findings need to be balanced and justifiable – what significance they have to the report's purpose. Identifying key performance indicators for a specific company, organizing, comparing, and evaluating them on the needed level, can be one of the most important parts of creating this kind of report. An example of a business report that shows how to extract and define your analysis can be found above in the article, where we presented our visuals.

7. Present your findings

Explain how you uncovered them and how you interpreted them that way. Answer the original issue by detailing the action to take to overcome it and provide recommendations leading to a better decision-making process. A best practice to present the insights you have drawn out is using dashboards that communicate data visually in a very efficient way. A dashboard software like datapine can precisely answer that need while helping you with data exploration at the same time, which is a crucial part. When you click on a specific part of the dashboard, you can easily access your data in a more in-depth approach.

Comparing your findings is also one of the features you can use if you are asking yourself what has changed in relation to a specific period. When you assess these datasets in just a few clicks on your monitor, the whole reporting process and measurement of your strategy can be done in minutes, not days. Evaluating findings in today’s digital world has become one of the main focuses of businesses wanting to stay competitive in the market. The faster you can do that, the more information you gain, and the more successful your actions will become.

8. Align your visualizations

Expanding on presenting your findings, it’s also important to get your design elements right when considering how to write a business report. As a rule of thumb, your most essential at-a-glance insights should be at the top of your dashboard, and you should aim to be as clean, concise, and minimal as possible with your presentation to avoid cluttering or confusion. To improve your visual storytelling and bring every key element of your report together cohesively, getting your dashboard design just right is vital. Our essential guide to data visualization methods will help to steer your efforts in the right direction.

9. Proofread your reports

When you’re looking at a polished example of a business report, you’ll notice that every element of design and content is immaculate and makes complete logical sense. That said, to get the best returns for your analytical efforts, proofreading your reports is vital. Work through your report with a fine-toothed comb and ask trusted colleagues in your organization to do the same. Once you’ve carefully proofread your entire report, you can collectively tighten up any sloppy design elements, typos, misleading copy, and bad visual placements. Doing so is vital because it will make your examples of business reports slick, actionable, accurate, and built for success.

10. Be responsive

While modern reporting dashboards are dynamic and interactive in equal measure, it’s important that you also remain robust and responsive when writing a business-based report. What does this mean, exactly? It means that in the digital age, the landscape is always changing. As such, if you want to get the most from your reports or dashboards, you must commit to editing and updating them according to the changes around you. In an informational context, what is relevant today may be redundant tomorrow, so to remain powerful and relevant, your reports must always be optimized for success. When you write a business-style report, you should understand that, to some extent, you will need to rewrite it repeatedly. Remember, commit to regularly assessing your reports, and success will be yours for the taking.

You can easily find a sample of a business report on the Internet, but not all of them fit your needs. Make sure, at any moment, that the report you want to create is accurate, objective, and complete. It should be well-written, in a way that holds the reader’s attention and meets their expectations, with a clear structure.

Common Challenges Of Business Reports

Common challenges of generating business reports

As we just learned from the previous section, generating a successful report requires carefully following some steps and considerations. This often comes with challenges and limitations that users face during the generation and analysis process. To help you be aware of those challenges and how to overcome them efficiently, we will list some of the most common ones below. 

  • Data quality 

All the time and effort dedicated to the reporting process will be for nothing if you are not working with high-quality information. Believe it or not, according to recent reports , 41% of companies cite inconsistent data across technologies as their biggest challenge. With only 16% labeling the data they are using as “very good”. 

This presents a huge challenge as the consequences of poor data quality can be quite expensive since organizations are basing their most important strategic decisions on unreliable insights.  

To prevent this issue from affecting you, it is essential to invest time and money in implementing a thoughtful data quality management plan to ensure your information is constantly checked under specified guidelines. Putting extra attention to the cleaning and constant manipulation of the information is also a huge aspect of the process. 

  • Lack of data literacy 

Another big challenge that businesses face when implementing reporting practices is the level of literacy of their employees. As mentioned earlier in the post, the success of the entire process relies heavily on the entire workforce being involved in it and collaborating with each other. The issue is that generating a report and analyzing the data can be very intimidating for non-technical employees who often don’t have the necessary skills or confidence to integrate data-driven activities into their daily work. 

That is why carrying out a careful analysis of the literacy level across your workforce can help you understand the actual situation and offer training instances to anyone who needs it. Paired with that, investing in self-service BI tools that allow any user, regardless of their technical knowledge, to generate a business report with just a few clicks is a great way to approach this challenge. 

  • Long generation processes 

It is not a secret that manually generating a business report can take a lot of time and effort. In fact, in some cases, when a report is finally completed, the information in it might not be entirely valuable anymore. Luckily, this challenge has been tackled a long time ago thanks to the power of automation. 

Modern online reporting tools offer users the possibility to automatically generate a report in a matter of seconds, eliminating any form of manual work. All they need to do is connect their data sources, select the KPIs they want to display, and enjoy a visually appealing and fully functional report in just a few clicks. This enables organizations to focus on the important part, which is extracting powerful insights to inform their strategies. 

  • Static vs. interactive business reports 

Traditionally, these reports generated with tools such as Excel or PowerPoint have been static and full of text and complex numbers. Making it impossible to extract deeper conclusions from them or act on fresh insights. This is not to say that they are completely unuseful, but their historical and static perspective makes them less effective, especially considering how agile decision-making can represent a huge competitive advantage for organizations today.  

To help you make the most out of your data-driven efforts and tackle this common limitation,  we recommend you invest in tools that offer dynamic reports. BI reporting tools , such as datapine, give you the ability to generate interactive real-time reports, like the ones we saw earlier, which can be easily filtered to explore different periods or lower levels of data. This will give you the power to extract deeper and fresh insights to boost your strategies and growth. 

  • Ensuring data security and privacy 

In the digital age we live in, we need to be fully aware of the risks of using online tools to manage our business’s operations. Studies have shown an increasing trend in cyberattacks and data breaches that has left decision-makers concerned about how they manage their sensitive data. One of these attacks can significantly impact an organization’s reputation but also incur considerable costs that can be hard to come back from. According to recent research, these types of breaches cost businesses an average of $4.35 million in 2022. 

All of this makes security and privacy a big challenge for businesses of all sizes. Especially regarding their report-related activities, as they contain sensitive information about the company and its clients. Luckily, modern SaaS BI tools offer high levels of security to help you keep your data secure at all times, from the moment it is generated to the time it is shared with different stakeholders. Therefore, it is important to consider this topic before investing in such a tool. 

Key Takeaways Professional Business Reports  

"Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it." - Chip & Dan Heath , Authors of Made to Stick, Switch.

We live in a data-driven world, and as a business, it’s up to you to move with the times. If you ignore the power of smart data analytics, you are only stunting your own commercial progress.

We’ve explored many shining business reports examples, and one thing is abundantly clear: if you embrace the power of digital reporting, your company will be bigger, better, and exponentially more informed. The more confident and informed you are as a business, the better you will be able to respond to constant change. In today’s digital world, it doesn’t matter what sector you work in. If you’re rigid in your approach to data, you will get left behind. Digital reporting dashboards are the only way forward.

So, you now know what business reports are, how to structure and write them , and how they can benefit your business. Committing to the right reporting and information delivery can have a significant impact on your organization and orientate its strategy better. For more ideas about business reporting in a more specific, function-related way, you can dig deeper into some of our popular articles on sales reports and marketing reports !

Don’t miss out on that opportunity and start now with datapine’s online reporting software , and benefit from a free 14-day trial ! You won’t regret it.

  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • QuestionPro

survey software icon

  • Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case NPS+ Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
  • Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

business research report assignment

Home Market Research

Business Research: Methods, Types & Examples

Business Research

Content Index

Business research: Definition

Quantitative research methods, qualitative research methods, advantages of business research, disadvantages of business research, importance of business research.

Business research is a process of acquiring detailed information on all the areas of business and using such information to maximize the sales and profit of the business. Such a study helps companies determine which product/service is most profitable or in demand. In simple words, it can be stated as the acquisition of information or knowledge for professional or commercial purposes to determine opportunities and goals for a business.

Business research can be done for anything and everything. In general, when people speak about business research design , it means asking research questions to know where the money can be spent to increase sales, profits, or market share. Such research is critical to make wise and informed decisions.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

For example: A mobile company wants to launch a new model in the market. But they are not aware of what are the dimensions of a mobile that are in most demand. Hence, the company conducts business research using various methods to gather information, and the same is then evaluated, and conclusions are drawn as to what dimensions are most in demand.

This will enable the researcher to make wise decisions to position his phone at the right price in the market and hence acquire a larger market share.

LEARN ABOUT:  Test Market Demand

Business research: Types and methodologies

Business research is a part of the business intelligence process. It is usually conducted to determine whether a company can succeed in a new region, to understand its competitors, or simply select a marketing approach for a product. This research can be carried out using steps in qualitative research methods or quantitative research methods.

Quantitative research methods are research methods that deal with numbers. It is a systematic empirical investigation using statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques . Such methods usually start with data collection and then proceed to statistical analysis using various methods. The following are some of the research methods used to carry out business research.

LEARN ABOUT: Data Management Framework

Survey research

Survey research is one of the most widely used methods to gather data, especially for conducting business research. Surveys involve asking various survey questions to a set of audiences through various types like online polls, online surveys, questionnaires, etc. Nowadays, most of the major corporations use this method to gather data and use it to understand the market and make appropriate business decisions.

Various types of surveys, like cross-sectional studies , which need to collect data from a set of audiences at a given point of time, or longitudinal surveys which are needed to collect data from a set of audiences across various time durations in order to understand changes in the respondents’ behavior are used to conduct survey research. With the advancement in technology, surveys can now be sent online through email or social media .

For example: A company wants to know the NPS score for their website i.e. how satisfied are people who are visiting their website. An increase in traffic to their website or the audience spending more time on a website can result in higher rankings on search engines which will enable the company to get more leads as well as increase its visibility.

Hence, the company can ask people who visit their website a few questions through an online survey to understand their opinions or gain feedback and hence make appropriate changes to the website to increase satisfaction.

Learn More:  Business Survey Template

Correlational research

Correlational research is conducted to understand the relationship between two entities and what impact each one of them has on the other. Using mathematical analysis methods, correlational research enables the researcher to correlate two or more variables .

Such research can help understand patterns, relationships, trends, etc. Manipulation of one variable is possible to get the desired results as well. Generally, a conclusion cannot be drawn only on the basis of correlational research.

For example: Research can be conducted to understand the relationship between colors and gender-based audiences. Using such research and identifying the target audience, a company can choose the production of particular color products to be released in the market. This can enable the company to understand the supply and demand requirements of its products.

Causal-Comparative research

Causal-comparative research is a method based on the comparison. It is used to deduce the cause-effect relationship between variables. Sometimes also known as quasi-experimental research, it involves establishing an independent variable and analyzing the effects on the dependent variable.

In such research, data manipulation is not done; however, changes are observed in the variables or groups under the influence of the same changes. Drawing conclusions through such research is a little tricky as independent and dependent variables will always exist in a group. Hence all other parameters have to be taken into consideration before drawing any inferences from the research.

LEARN ABOUT: Causal Research

For example: Research can be conducted to analyze the effect of good educational facilities in rural areas. Such a study can be done to analyze the changes in the group of people from rural areas when they are provided with good educational facilities and before that.

Another example can be to analyze the effect of having dams and how it will affect the farmers or the production of crops in that area.

LEARN ABOUT: Market research trends

Experimental research

Experimental research is based on trying to prove a theory. Such research may be useful in business research as it can let the product company know some behavioral traits of its consumers, which can lead to more revenue. In this method, an experiment is carried out on a set of audiences to observe and later analyze their behavior when impacted by certain parameters.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Targeting

For example: Experimental research was conducted recently to understand if particular colors have an effect on consumers’ hunger. A set of the audience was then exposed to those particular colors while they were eating, and the subjects were observed. It was seen that certain colors like red or yellow increase hunger.

Hence, such research was a boon to the hospitality industry. You can see many food chains like Mcdonalds, KFC, etc., using such colors in their interiors, brands, as well as packaging.

Another example of inferences drawn from experimental research, which is used widely by most bars/pubs across the world, is that loud music in the workplace or anywhere makes a person drink more in less time. This was proven through experimental research and was a key finding for many business owners across the globe.

Online research / Literature research

Literature research is one of the oldest methods available. It is very economical, and a lot of information can be gathered using such research. Online research or literature research involves gathering information from existing documents and studies, which can be available at Libraries, annual reports, etc.

Nowadays, with the advancement in technology, such research has become even more simple and accessible to everyone. An individual can directly research online for any information that is needed, which will give him in-depth information about the topic or the organization.

Such research is used mostly by marketing and salespeople in the business sector to understand the market or their customers. Such research is carried out using existing information that is available from various sources. However, care has to be taken to validate the sources from where the information is going to be collected.

For example , a salesperson has heard a particular firm is looking for some solution that their company provides. Hence, the salesperson will first search for a decision maker from the company, investigate what department he is from, and understand what the target company is looking for and what they are into.

Using this research, he can cater his solution to be spot on when he pitches it to this client. He can also reach out to the customer directly by finding a means to communicate with him by researching online.’

LEARN ABOUT: 12 Best Tools for Researchers

Qualitative research is a method that has a high importance in business research. Qualitative research involves obtaining data through open-ended conversational means of communication. Such research enables the researcher to not only understand what the audience thinks but also why he thinks it.

In such research, in-depth information can be gathered from the subjects depending on their responses. There are various types of qualitative research methods, such as interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, content analysis, and case study research, that are widely used.

Such methods are of very high importance in business research as they enable the researcher to understand the consumer. What motivates the consumer to buy and what does not is what will lead to higher sales, and that is the prime objective for any business.

Following are a few methods that are widely used in today’s world by most businesses.

Interviews are somewhat similar to surveys, like sometimes they may have the same types of questions used. The difference is that the respondent can answer these open-ended questions at length, and the direction of the conversation or the questions being asked can be changed depending on the response of the subject.

Such a method usually gives the researcher detailed information about the perspective or opinions of its subject. Carrying out interviews with subject matter experts can also give important information critical to some businesses.

For example: An interview was conducted by a telecom manufacturer with a group of women to understand why they have less number of female customers. After interviewing them, the researcher understood that there were fewer feminine colors in some of the models, and females preferred not to purchase them.

Such information can be critical to a business such as a  telecom manufacturer and hence it can be used to increase its market share by targeting women customers by launching some feminine colors in the market.

Another example would be to interview a subject matter expert in social media marketing. Such an interview can enable a researcher to understand why certain types of social media advertising strategies work for a company and why some of them don’t.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Interview

Focus groups

Focus groups are a set of individuals selected specifically to understand their opinions and behaviors. It is usually a small set of a group that is selected keeping in mind the parameters for their target market audience to discuss a particular product or service. Such a method enables a researcher with a larger sample than the interview or a case study while taking advantage of conversational communication.

Focus group is also one of the best examples of qualitative data in education . Nowadays, focus groups can be sent online surveys as well to collect data and answer why, what, and how questions. Such a method is very crucial to test new concepts or products before they are launched in the market.

For example: Research is conducted with a focus group to understand what dimension of screen size is preferred most by the current target market. Such a method can enable a researcher to dig deeper if the target market focuses more on the screen size, features, or colors of the phone. Using this data, a company can make wise decisions about its product line and secure a higher market share.

Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research is one of the most challenging research but can give extremely precise results. Such research is used quite rarely, as it is time-consuming and can be expensive as well. It involves the researcher adapting to the natural environment and observing its target audience to collect data. Such a method is generally used to understand cultures, challenges, or other things that can occur in that particular setting.

For example: The world-renowned show “Undercover Boss” would be an apt example of how ethnographic research can be used in businesses. In this show, the senior management of a large organization works in his own company as a regular employee to understand what improvements can be made, what is the culture in the organization, and to identify hard-working employees and reward them.

It can be seen that the researcher had to spend a good amount of time in the natural setting of the employees and adapt to their ways and processes. While observing in this setting, the researcher could find out the information he needed firsthand without losing any information or any bias and improve certain things that would impact his business.

LEARN ABOUT:   Workforce Planning Model

Case study research

Case study research is one of the most important in business research. It is also used as marketing collateral by most businesses to land up more clients. Case study research is conducted to assess customer satisfaction and document the challenges that were faced and the solutions that the firm gave them.

These inferences are made to point out the benefits that the customer enjoyed for choosing their specific firm. Such research is widely used in other fields like education, social sciences, and similar. Case studies are provided by businesses to new clients to showcase their capabilities, and hence such research plays a crucial role in the business sector.

For example: A services company has provided a testing solution to one of its clients. A case study research is conducted to find out what were the challenges faced during the project, what was the scope of their work, what objective was to be achieved, and what solutions were given to tackle the challenges.

The study can end with the benefits that the company provided through its solutions, like reduced time to test batches, easy implementation or integration of the system, or even cost reduction. Such a study showcases the capability of the company, and hence it can be stated as empirical evidence of the new prospect.

Website visitor profiling/research

Website intercept surveys or website visitor profiling/research is something new that has come up and is quite helpful in the business sector. It is an innovative approach to collect direct feedback from your website visitors using surveys. In recent times a lot of business generation happens online, and hence it is important to understand the visitors of your website as they are your potential customers.

Collecting feedback is critical to any business, as without understanding a customer, no business can be successful. A company has to keep its customers satisfied and try to make them loyal customers in order to stay on top.

A website intercept survey is an online survey that allows you to target visitors to understand their intent and collect feedback to evaluate the customers’ online experience. Information like visitor intention, behavior path, and satisfaction with the overall website can be collected using this.

Depending on what information a company is looking for, multiple forms of website intercept surveys can be used to gather responses. Some of the popular ones are Pop-ups, also called Modal boxes, and on-page surveys.

For example: A prospective customer is looking for a particular product that a company is selling. Once he is directed to the website, an intercept survey will start noting his intent and path. Once the transaction has been made, a pop-up or an on-page survey is provided to the customer to rate the website.

Such research enables the researcher to put this data to good use and hence understand the customers’ intent and path and improve any parts of the website depending on the responses, which in turn would lead to satisfied customers and hence, higher revenues and market share.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Research Questions and Questionnaires

  • Business research helps to identify opportunities and threats.
  • It helps identify research problems , and using this information, wise decisions can be made to tackle the issue appropriately.
  • It helps to understand customers better and hence can be useful to communicate better with the customers or stakeholders.
  • Risks and uncertainties can be minimized by conducting business research in advance.
  • Financial outcomes and investments that will be needed can be planned effectively using business research.
  • Such research can help track competition in the business sector.
  • Business research can enable a company to make wise decisions as to where to spend and how much.
  • Business research can enable a company to stay up-to-date with the market and its trends, and appropriate innovations can be made to stay ahead in the game.
  • Business research helps to measure reputation management
  • Business research can be a high-cost affair
  • Most of the time, business research is based on assumptions
  • Business research can be time-consuming
  • Business research can sometimes give you inaccurate information because of a biased population or a small focus group.
  • Business research results can quickly become obsolete because of the fast-changing markets

Business research is one of the most effective ways to understand customers, the market, and competitors. Such research helps companies to understand the demand and supply of the market. Using such research will help businesses reduce costs and create solutions or products that are targeted to the demand in the market and the correct audience.

In-house business research can enable senior management to build an effective team or train or mentor when needed. Business research enables the company to track its competitors and hence can give you the upper hand to stay ahead of them.

Failures can be avoided by conducting such research as it can give the researcher an idea if the time is right to launch its product/solution and also if the audience is right. It will help understand the brand value and measure customer satisfaction which is essential to continuously innovate and meet customer demands.

This will help the company grow its revenue and market share. Business research also helps recruit ideal candidates for various roles in the company. By conducting such research, a company can carry out a SWOT analysis , i.e. understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. With the help of this information, wise decisions can be made to ensure business success.

LEARN ABOUT:  Market research industry

Business research is the first step that any business owner needs to set up his business to survive or to excel in the market. The main reason why such research is of utmost importance is that it helps businesses to grow in terms of revenue, market share, and brand value.

MORE LIKE THIS

360 review questions

360 Review Questions: Best Practices & Tips

Feb 16, 2024

survey analysis software

Exploring 8 Best Survey Analysis Software for Your Research

Feb 15, 2024

Apple NPS

Apple NPS 2024: Understanding the Success and Implementation

opinion mining

Opinion Mining: What it is, Types & Techniques to Follow

Feb 14, 2024

Other categories

  • Academic Research
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Assessments
  • Brand Awareness
  • Case Studies
  • Communities
  • Consumer Insights
  • Customer effort score
  • Customer Engagement
  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Customer Research
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Employee Benefits
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Retention
  • Friday Five
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Insights Hub
  • Life@QuestionPro
  • Market Research
  • Mobile diaries
  • Mobile Surveys
  • New Features
  • Online Communities
  • Question Types
  • Questionnaire
  • QuestionPro Products
  • Release Notes
  • Research Tools and Apps
  • Revenue at Risk
  • Survey Templates
  • Training Tips
  • Uncategorized
  • Video Learning Series
  • What’s Coming Up
  • Workforce Intelligence
  • Link to facebook
  • Link to linkedin
  • Link to twitter
  • Link to youtube
  • Writing Tips

How to Structure a Business Report

How to Structure a Business Report

  • 5-minute read
  • 14th March 2019

The content of a business report will depend on what you are writing about. Even the writing style may depend on who you are writing for (although clear, concise and formal is usually best). However, there is a general structure that most business reports follow. In this post, then, we’ll look at how to structure a business report for maximum clarity and professionalism.

1. Title Page

Every business report should feature a title page . The title itself should clearly set out what the report is about. Typically, you should also include your name and the date of the report.

Most business reports begin with a summary of its key points. Try to include:

  • A brief description of what the report is about
  • How the report was completed (e.g., data collection methods)
  • The main findings from the research
  • Key conclusions and recommendations

A paragraph or two should suffice for this in shorter business reports. However, for longer or more complex reports, you may want to include a full executive summary .

3. Table of Contents

Short business reports may not need a table of contents, especially if they include a summary. But longer reports should set out the title of each section and the structure of the report. Make sure the headings here match those used in the main text. You may also want to number the sections.

4. Introduction

The introduction is the first part of the report proper. Use it to set out the brief you received when you were asked to compile the report. This will frame the rest of the report by providing:

  • Background information (e.g., business history or market information)
  • The purpose of the report (i.e., what you set out to achieve)
  • Its scope (i.e., what the report will cover and what it will ignore)

These are known as the “terms of reference” for the business report.

5. Methods and Findings

If you are conducting original research, include a section about your methods. This may be as simple as setting out the sources you are using and why you chose them. But it could also include how you have collected and analyzed the data used to draw your conclusions.

After this, you will need to explain your findings. This section will present the results of your research clearly and concisely, making sure to cover all the main points set out in the brief.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

One tip here is to break the findings down into subsections, using headings to guide the reader through your data. Using charts and illustrations , meanwhile, can help get information across visually, but make sure to label them clearly so the reader knows how they relate to the text.

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

The last main section of your report will cover conclusions and recommendations. The conclusion section should summarize what you have learned from the report. If you have been asked to do so, you should also recommend potential courses of action based on your conclusions.

If you are not sure what to suggest here, think back to the objectives set out in your brief.

7. References

If you have used any third-party sources while writing your report, list them in a bibliography after the main report. This could include other business documents, academic articles, or even news reports. The key is to show what you have based your findings and conclusions upon.

8. Appendices (If Applicable)

Finally, you may have gathered extra documentation during your research, such as interview transcripts, marketing material, or financial data. Including this in the main report would make it too long and unfocused, but you can add it to an appendix (or multiple appendices) at the end of the document. It will then be available should your reader need it.

Summary: How to Structure a Business Report

If you are writing a business report, aim to structure it as follows:

  • Title Page – Include a clear, informative title, your name, and the date.
  • Summary – A brief summary of what the report is about, the data collection methods used, the findings of the report, and any recommendations you want to make.
  • Table of Contents – For longer reports, include a table of contents.
  • Introduction –Set out the brief you were given for the report.
  • Methods and Findings – A description of any methods of data collection and analysis used while composing the report, as well as your findings.
  • Conclusions and Recommendations – Any conclusions reached while writing the report, plus recommendations for what to do next (if required).
  • References – Sources used in your report listed in a bibliography.
  • Appendices – If you have supporting material (e.g., interview transcripts, raw data), add it to an appendix at the end of the document.

Don’t forget, too, that a business report should be clear, concise, and formal. And if you would like help making sure that your business writing is easy to read and error free, just let us know .

Share this article:

' src=

Post A New Comment

Got content that needs a quick turnaround? Let us polish your work. Explore our editorial business services.

3-minute read

How to Embed a Video in PowerPoint

Including a video in your PowerPoint presentation can make it more exciting and engaging. And...

What Is a Patent?

A patent is a form of intellectual property that restricts who can copy your invention....

4-minute read

How to Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint

Adding speaker notes to your PowerPoint allows you to present with confidence while avoiding information...

How to Download a PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint is Microsoft’s presentation software. It’s frequently used by families, students, and businesses to create...

6-minute read

How to Conduct a Meta-Analysis for Research

Are you considering conducting a meta-analysis for your research paper? When applied to the right...

How to Add a Hanging Indent in Google Slides

A hanging indent adds an indent to the first line of each paragraph and is...

Logo Harvard University

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.

Business Study Notes

B.Com, M.Com. BBA & MBA Exam Study Online

How to Write a Business Research Report?

A business research report is the same as an academic report. What it aims is to research a topic of specific areas to collect more and more information. The topics may be product development research, marketing, budget research, etc. The purpose of the research report is to provide information or data on any specific area or subject. This business research can either be external or internal.

For example, if a research report is on customer services the researchers will fill the questionnaires from customers on their consent and it is known as an external business research report. A business research report that completed its research process within the organization is called an internal business research report.

Business research provides an opportunity to demonstrate one’s research skills in business. The members work together in an organization to research a specific topic regarding the organization to improve the business operation and management . The main purpose of the research report is to

  • Search for data and then understand it
  • Add the conversation of other authors
  • To learn how others utilize primary and secondary sources in your field

While writing a report following guidelines should be considered. Read carefully the instructions for the Title Page, Format for the Written Research Report, Evaluation of the Written Research Report, Checklist Standards, and Written Entry Checklist are really important to consider.

The first page of the business research report is the title page with the following list:

  • Name of Institute
  • Name of Advisory
  • Advisory’s Address
  • City, State/Province, ZIP or Postal Code
  • Participant(s) Name(s) and Address

There should be no page number on the title page. But the title page should be included in the number of 15 pages of the report. The page after the title page should be numbered 2 and it should be added for advisory or supervisor signatures.

For a Business research report, it is really important to follow the organizational pattern. This pattern might include the following sections:

  • Introduction
  • Method section
  • Results section
  • Conclusions and Recommendations
  • Reference list

The research report follows the way from general to specific. The introduction section is general to specific in its approach while the method section is more specific that supports the generalizations of the introduction section. The discussion section is general, leading to the conclusion, which is again general.

Let’s have a look at every section in detail.

1. Introduction

Usually, students consider that they will start their research report by creating a structured introduction. Not every student starts with the introduction, because to write a structured introduction one needs to have enough information, but no one can get such enough information at the start which is why the introduction section is written at the end.

The introduction is mainly divided into three parts.

  • How to present the problem?
  • What is the purpose of the research report?
  • Summary of researcher opinions

As it is a fact that a concerned introduction is the layout of the whole business research report. In the first part of the introduction section, the problem statement is written which helps to assume the research question. Draw a background of your problem and write a literature review regarding your problem to mention to the readers how your research fits into the conversation about the ongoing topic.

You have to mention how previous studies were unable to solve the problem along with mentioning the benefits of solving the problem.

At the end of the introduction, you have to provide, the studies to help your readers to forecast the results and discussion of your report.

2. Method Section

In the method section, you have to describe what methods you are going to use in your business research report. Also here you have to mention the materials you have generated such as interviews and questionnaires to collect the data. If you have experimented with data collection, you have to mention that one too.

Take help from your seniors or research supervisors and always remember that the method section is written in the past tense.

3. Result Section

The result section depends on the type of research being conducted. If your research was qualitative, then you will have to present your results in the form of graphs and charts. Quantitative research includes the representation of quantities.

If you are unfamiliar with the quantitative arrangements, it will be difficult to represent your results. You should add an alternative way to make it easy for your readers to understand your results. There is no such difference between the results and the discussion section.

Sometimes you have to just present your results in a simple, way, but most of the time you have to evaluate and analyze your results. Brief instructions or explanations can be mentioned in a form of a table in qualitative research. Such type of explanatory information is present in Essay type of Reports.

There are some rules to be followed while creating charts and graphs for the arrangement of information. You have to present these results only when you are sure that your reader will easily understand them, and never show confused results. Also, explain your graphic representation by numbers with a descriptive caption.

Here’s the thing that is also important to know the result section is also written in the past tense.

4. Discussion

Your discussion should generalize what you have presented in your whole report. To generalize your findings explain the meanings of your results. Also, give your feedback and then refer to the statements made in the introduction. Avoid discussing new ideas and giving extra details. This section and the introduction section, both are written in the present tense.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

At the end of every business research report, there is a part of conclusions and recommendations. The conclusion should be about one paragraph as it unites the discussion and the result of a whole business research report, whereas a recommendation shows in a separate section. Conclusions and recommendations both are written in the present tense.

6. References List

The business research report is of course incomplete without references. References are always presented at the end of the research report. It is necessary to mention the sources you have used in your report in the form of a list called a reference list.

Author at Business Study Notes

Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes . Love my efforts? Don't forget to share this blog.

Related Posts:

Process of Motivation

Privacy Overview

  • Privacy Policy
  • SignUp/Login

Research Method

Home » 500+ Business Research Topics

500+ Business Research Topics

Business Research Topics

Business research is an essential component of any successful organization, as it allows companies to make informed decisions based on data-driven insights. Whether it’s market research to identify new opportunities, or analyzing internal processes to improve efficiency, there are a vast array of business research topics that companies can explore. With the constantly evolving business landscape, it’s critical for organizations to stay up-to-date with the latest research trends and best practices to remain competitive. In this post, we’ll explore some of the most compelling business research topics that are currently being studied, providing insights and actionable recommendations for businesses of all sizes.

Business Research Topics

Business Research Topics are as follows:

  • The impact of social media on consumer behavior
  • Strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction in the service industry
  • The effectiveness of mobile marketing campaigns
  • Exploring the factors influencing employee turnover
  • The role of leadership in organizational culture
  • Investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance
  • Assessing the impact of employee engagement on organizational performance
  • The challenges and opportunities of global supply chain management
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of e-commerce platforms
  • Investigating the impact of organizational culture on employee motivation
  • The role of corporate governance in ensuring ethical business practices
  • Examining the impact of digital marketing on brand equity
  • Strategies for managing diversity and inclusion in the workplace
  • Exploring the effects of employee empowerment on job satisfaction
  • The role of innovation in business growth
  • Analyzing the impact of mergers and acquisitions on company performance
  • Investigating the impact of workplace design on employee productivity
  • The challenges and opportunities of international business expansion
  • Strategies for managing talent in the knowledge economy
  • The role of artificial intelligence in transforming business operations
  • Examining the impact of customer loyalty programs on retention and revenue
  • Investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility and brand reputation
  • The role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership
  • The impact of digital transformation on small and medium-sized enterprises
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of green marketing strategies
  • The role of entrepreneurship in economic development
  • Investigating the impact of employee training and development on organizational performance
  • The challenges and opportunities of omnichannel retailing
  • Examining the impact of organizational change on employee morale and productivity
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in attracting and retaining millennial talent
  • Analyzing the impact of employee motivation on organizational culture
  • Investigating the impact of workplace diversity on team performance
  • The challenges and opportunities of blockchain technology in business operations
  • Strategies for managing cross-functional teams
  • The role of big data analytics in business decision-making
  • Examining the impact of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty
  • Investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee engagement
  • The impact of social media marketing on customer engagement and brand loyalty.
  • The effectiveness of AI in improving customer service and satisfaction.
  • The role of entrepreneurship in economic development and job creation.
  • The impact of the gig economy on the labor market.
  • The effects of corporate social responsibility on company profitability.
  • The role of data analytics in predicting consumer behavior and market trends.
  • The effects of globalization on the competitiveness of small businesses.
  • The impact of e-commerce on traditional brick-and-mortar retail.
  • The role of emotional intelligence in leadership and team management.
  • The effects of workplace diversity on employee productivity and satisfaction.
  • The role of corporate culture in employee retention and satisfaction.
  • The impact of employee training and development on company performance.
  • The effectiveness of performance-based pay structures on employee motivation.
  • The impact of sustainability practices on company reputation and profitability.
  • The effects of artificial intelligence on job displacement and the future of work.
  • The role of innovation in the growth and success of small businesses.
  • The impact of government regulations on business operations and profitability.
  • The effects of organizational structure on company performance and efficiency.
  • The role of emotional labor in service industries.
  • The impact of employee empowerment on job satisfaction and retention.
  • The effects of workplace flexibility on employee productivity and well-being.
  • The role of emotional intelligence in negotiation and conflict resolution.
  • The impact of branding on consumer behavior and purchase decisions.
  • The effects of customer experience on brand loyalty and advocacy.
  • The role of storytelling in marketing and advertising.
  • The impact of consumer psychology on pricing strategies and sales.
  • The effects of influencer marketing on consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
  • The role of trust in online transactions and e-commerce.
  • The impact of product design on consumer perception and purchasing decisions.
  • The effects of customer satisfaction on company profitability and growth.
  • The role of social entrepreneurship in addressing societal problems and creating value.
  • The impact of corporate governance on company performance and stakeholder relations.
  • The effects of workplace harassment on employee well-being and company culture.
  • The role of strategic planning in the success of small businesses.
  • The impact of technology on supply chain management and logistics.
  • The effects of customer segmentation on marketing strategies and sales.
  • The role of corporate philanthropy in building brand reputation and loyalty.
  • The impact of intellectual property protection on innovation and creativity.
  • The effects of trade policies on international business operations and profitability.
  • The role of strategic partnerships in business growth and expansion.
  • The impact of digital transformation on organizational structure and operations.
  • The effects of leadership styles on employee motivation and performance.
  • The role of corporate social activism in shaping public opinion and brand reputation.
  • The impact of mergers and acquisitions on company performance and stakeholder value.
  • The effects of workplace automation on job displacement and re-skilling.
  • The role of cross-cultural communication in international business operations.
  • The impact of workplace stress on employee health and productivity.
  • The effects of customer reviews and ratings on online sales and reputation.
  • The role of competitive intelligence in market research and strategy development.
  • The impact of brand identity on consumer trust and loyalty.
  • The impact of organizational structure on innovation and creativity
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of virtual teams in global organizations
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in crisis management
  • The challenges and opportunities of online marketplaces
  • Strategies for managing cultural diversity in multinational corporations
  • The impact of employer branding on employee retention
  • Investigating the impact of corporate social responsibility on investor behavior
  • The role of technology in enhancing customer experience
  • Analyzing the impact of social responsibility initiatives on customer satisfaction
  • Investigating the impact of supply chain disruptions on business performance
  • The role of business ethics in organizational decision-making
  • The challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence in customer service
  • Strategies for managing employee burnout and stress in the workplace.
  • Impact of social media on consumer behavior and its implications for businesses.
  • The impact of corporate social responsibility on company performance.
  • An analysis of the relationship between employee satisfaction and customer loyalty.
  • The effect of advertising on consumer behavior.
  • A study on the effectiveness of social media marketing in building brand image.
  • The impact of technological innovations on business strategy and operations.
  • The relationship between leadership style and employee motivation.
  • A study of the effects of corporate culture on employee engagement.
  • An analysis of the factors influencing consumer buying behavior.
  • The effectiveness of training and development programs in enhancing employee performance.
  • The impact of global economic factors on business decision-making.
  • The role of organizational communication in achieving business goals.
  • The relationship between customer satisfaction and business success.
  • A study of the challenges and opportunities in international business.
  • The effectiveness of supply chain management in improving business performance.
  • An analysis of the factors influencing customer loyalty in the hospitality industry.
  • The impact of employee turnover on organizational performance.
  • A study of the impact of corporate governance on company performance.
  • The role of innovation in business growth and success.
  • An analysis of the relationship between marketing and sales performance.
  • The effect of organizational structure on employee behavior.
  • A study of the impact of cultural differences on business negotiations.
  • The effectiveness of pricing strategies in increasing sales revenue.
  • The impact of customer service on customer loyalty.
  • A study of the role of human resource management in business success.
  • The impact of e-commerce on traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.
  • An analysis of the relationship between employee empowerment and job satisfaction.
  • The effectiveness of customer relationship management in building brand loyalty.
  • The role of business ethics in corporate decision-making.
  • A study of the impact of digital marketing on consumer behavior.
  • The effect of organizational culture on employee turnover.
  • An analysis of the factors influencing employee engagement in the workplace.
  • The impact of social media on business communication and marketing.
  • A study of the relationship between customer service and customer loyalty in the airline industry.
  • The role of diversity and inclusion in business success.
  • The effectiveness of performance management systems in improving employee performance.
  • The impact of corporate social responsibility on employee engagement.
  • A study of the factors influencing business expansion into new markets.
  • The role of brand identity in customer loyalty and retention.
  • The effectiveness of change management strategies in organizational change.
  • The impact of organizational structure on organizational performance.
  • A study of the impact of technology on the future of work.
  • The relationship between innovation and competitive advantage in the marketplace.
  • The effect of employee training on organizational performance.
  • An analysis of the impact of online reviews on consumer behavior.
  • The role of leadership in shaping organizational culture.
  • The effectiveness of talent management strategies in retaining top talent.
  • The impact of globalization on small and medium-sized enterprises.
  • A study of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and brand reputation.
  • The effectiveness of employee retention strategies in reducing turnover rates.
  • The role of emotional intelligence in leadership and employee engagement.
  • The impact of digital marketing on customer behavior
  • The role of organizational culture in employee engagement and retention
  • The effects of employee training and development on organizational performance
  • The relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance
  • The impact of globalization on business strategy
  • The importance of supply chain management in achieving competitive advantage
  • The role of innovation in business growth and sustainability
  • The impact of e-commerce on traditional retail businesses
  • The role of leadership in managing change in organizations
  • The effects of workplace diversity on organizational performance
  • The impact of social media on brand image and reputation
  • The relationship between employee motivation and productivity
  • The role of organizational structure in promoting innovation
  • The effects of customer service on customer loyalty
  • The impact of globalization on small businesses
  • The role of corporate governance in preventing unethical behavior
  • The effects of technology on job design and work organization
  • The relationship between employee satisfaction and turnover
  • The impact of mergers and acquisitions on organizational culture
  • The effects of employee benefits on job satisfaction
  • The impact of cultural differences on international business negotiations
  • The role of strategic planning in organizational success
  • The effects of organizational change on employee stress and burnout
  • The impact of business ethics on customer trust and loyalty
  • The role of human resource management in achieving competitive advantage
  • The effects of outsourcing on organizational performance
  • The impact of diversity and inclusion on team performance
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in brand differentiation
  • The effects of leadership style on organizational culture
  • The Impact of Digital Marketing on Brand Equity: A Study of E-commerce Businesses
  • Investigating the Relationship between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance
  • Analyzing the Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Loyalty and Firm Performance
  • An Empirical Study of the Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Success in the Technology Sector
  • The Influence of Organizational Culture on Employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction: A Case Study of a Service Industry
  • Investigating the Impact of Organizational Change on Employee Resistance: A Comparative Study of Two Organizations
  • An Exploration of the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Supply Chain Management
  • Examining the Relationship between Leadership Styles and Employee Creativity in Innovative Organizations
  • Investigating the Effectiveness of Performance Appraisal Systems in Improving Employee Performance
  • Analyzing the Role of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Effectiveness: A Study of Senior Managers
  • The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction in the Healthcare Sector
  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Talent Management Strategies in Enhancing Organizational Performance
  • A Study of the Effects of Customer Relationship Management on Customer Retention and Loyalty
  • Investigating the Impact of Corporate Governance on Firm Performance: Evidence from Emerging Markets
  • The Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance: A Case Study of Technology Firms
  • Analyzing the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in Improving Organizational Performance
  • The Impact of Internationalization on the Performance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: A Comparative Study of Developed and Developing Countries
  • Examining the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: A Study of Listed Firms
  • Investigating the Influence of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Firm Performance in Emerging Markets
  • Analyzing the Impact of E-commerce on Traditional Retail Business Models: A Study of Brick-and-Mortar Stores
  • The Effect of Corporate Reputation on Customer Loyalty and Firm Performance: A Study of the Banking Sector
  • Investigating the Factors Affecting Consumer Adoption of Mobile Payment Systems
  • The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Attracting and Retaining Millennial Employees
  • Analyzing the Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Awareness and Consumer Purchase Intentions
  • A Study of the Effects of Employee Training and Development on Job Performance
  • Investigating the Relationship between Corporate Culture and Employee Turnover: A Study of Multinational Companies
  • The Impact of Business Process Reengineering on Organizational Performance: A Study of Service Industries
  • An Empirical Study of the Factors Affecting Internationalization Strategies of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
  • The Effect of Strategic Human Resource Management on Firm Performance: A Study of Manufacturing Firms
  • Investigating the Influence of Leadership on Organizational Culture: A Comparative Study of Two Organizations
  • The Impact of Technology Adoption on Organizational Productivity: A Study of the Healthcare Sector
  • Analyzing the Effects of Brand Personality on Consumer Purchase Intentions: A Study of Luxury Brands
  • The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Customer Perceptions of Product Quality: A Study of the Food and Beverage Industry
  • Investigating the Effectiveness of Performance Management Systems in Improving Employee Performance: A Study of a Public Sector Organization
  • The Impact of Business Ethics on Firm Performance: A Study of the Banking Industry
  • Examining the Relationship between Employee Engagement and Customer Satisfaction in the Service Industry
  • Investigating the Influence of Entrepreneurial Networking on Firm Performance: A Study of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
  • The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Retention: A Study of High-tech Firms
  • The impact of workplace communication on employee engagement
  • The role of customer feedback in improving service quality
  • The effects of employee empowerment on job satisfaction
  • The impact of innovation on customer satisfaction
  • The role of knowledge management in organizational learning
  • The effects of product innovation on market share
  • The impact of business location on customer behavior
  • The role of financial management in business success
  • The effects of corporate social responsibility on employee engagement
  • The impact of cultural intelligence on cross-cultural communication
  • The role of social media in crisis management
  • The effects of corporate branding on customer loyalty
  • The impact of globalization on consumer behavior
  • The role of emotional intelligence in leadership effectiveness
  • The effects of employee involvement in decision-making on job satisfaction
  • The impact of business strategy on market share
  • The role of corporate culture in promoting ethical behavior
  • The effects of corporate social responsibility on investor behavior
  • The impact of sustainability on brand image and reputation
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in reducing carbon emissions.
  • The effectiveness of loyalty programs on customer retention
  • The benefits of remote work for employee productivity
  • The impact of environmental sustainability on consumer purchasing decisions
  • The role of brand identity in consumer loyalty
  • The relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction
  • The impact of e-commerce on traditional brick-and-mortar stores
  • The effectiveness of online advertising on consumer behavior
  • The impact of leadership styles on employee motivation
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in brand perception
  • The impact of workplace diversity on organizational performance
  • The effectiveness of gamification in employee training programs
  • The impact of pricing strategies on consumer behavior
  • The effectiveness of mobile marketing on consumer engagement
  • The impact of emotional intelligence on leadership effectiveness
  • The role of customer service in consumer loyalty
  • The impact of technology on supply chain management
  • The effectiveness of employee training programs on job performance
  • The impact of culture on consumer behavior
  • The effectiveness of performance appraisal systems on employee motivation
  • The impact of social responsibility on organizational performance
  • The role of innovation in business success
  • The impact of ethical leadership on organizational culture
  • The effectiveness of cross-functional teams in project management
  • The impact of government regulations on business operations
  • The role of strategic planning in business growth
  • The impact of emotional intelligence on team dynamics
  • The effectiveness of supply chain management on customer satisfaction
  • The impact of workplace culture on employee satisfaction
  • The role of employee engagement in organizational success
  • The impact of globalization on organizational culture
  • The effectiveness of virtual teams in project management
  • The impact of employee turnover on organizational performance
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in talent acquisition
  • The impact of technology on employee training and development
  • The effectiveness of knowledge management on organizational learning
  • The impact of organizational structure on employee motivation
  • The role of innovation in organizational change
  • The impact of cultural intelligence on global business operations
  • The effectiveness of marketing strategies on brand perception
  • The impact of change management on organizational culture
  • The role of leadership in organizational transformation
  • The impact of employee empowerment on job satisfaction
  • The effectiveness of project management methodologies on project success
  • The impact of workplace communication on team performance
  • The role of emotional intelligence in conflict resolution
  • The impact of employee motivation on job performance
  • The effectiveness of diversity and inclusion initiatives on organizational performance.
  • The impact of social media on consumer behavior and buying decisions
  • The role of diversity and inclusion in corporate culture and its effects on employee retention and productivity
  • The effectiveness of remote work policies on job satisfaction and work-life balance
  • The impact of customer experience on brand loyalty and revenue growth
  • The effects of environmental sustainability practices on corporate reputation and financial performance
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in consumer purchasing decisions
  • The effectiveness of leadership styles on team performance and productivity
  • The effects of employee motivation on job performance and turnover
  • The impact of technology on supply chain management and logistics efficiency
  • The role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership and team dynamics
  • The impact of artificial intelligence and automation on job displacement and workforce trends
  • The effects of brand image on consumer perception and purchasing decisions
  • The role of corporate culture in promoting innovation and creativity
  • The impact of e-commerce on traditional brick-and-mortar retail businesses
  • The effects of corporate governance on financial reporting and transparency
  • The effectiveness of performance-based compensation on employee motivation and productivity
  • The impact of online reviews and ratings on consumer trust and brand reputation
  • The effects of workplace diversity on innovation and creativity
  • The impact of mobile technology on marketing strategies and consumer behavior
  • The role of emotional intelligence in customer service and satisfaction
  • The effects of corporate reputation on financial performance and stakeholder trust
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on customer service and support
  • The role of organizational culture in promoting ethical behavior and decision-making
  • The effects of corporate social responsibility on employee engagement and satisfaction
  • The impact of employee turnover on organizational performance and profitability
  • The role of customer satisfaction in promoting brand loyalty and advocacy
  • The effects of workplace flexibility on employee morale and productivity
  • The impact of employee wellness programs on absenteeism and healthcare costs
  • The role of data analytics in business decision-making and strategy formulation
  • The effects of brand personality on consumer behavior and perception
  • The impact of social media marketing on brand awareness and customer engagement
  • The role of organizational justice in promoting employee satisfaction and retention
  • The effects of corporate branding on employee motivation and loyalty
  • The impact of online advertising on consumer behavior and purchasing decisions
  • The role of corporate entrepreneurship in promoting innovation and growth
  • The effects of cultural intelligence on cross-cultural communication and business success
  • The impact of workplace diversity on customer satisfaction and loyalty
  • The role of ethical leadership in promoting employee trust and commitment
  • The effects of job stress on employee health and well-being
  • The impact of supply chain disruptions on business operations and financial performance
  • The role of organizational learning in promoting continuous improvement and innovation
  • The effects of employee engagement on customer satisfaction and loyalty
  • The impact of brand extensions on brand equity and consumer behavior
  • The role of strategic alliances in promoting business growth and competitiveness
  • The effects of corporate transparency on stakeholder trust and loyalty
  • The impact of digital transformation on business models and competitiveness
  • The role of business ethics in promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainability
  • The effects of employee empowerment on job satisfaction and organizational performance.
  • The role of corporate governance in mitigating unethical behavior in multinational corporations.
  • The effects of cultural diversity on team performance in multinational corporations.
  • The impact of corporate social responsibility on consumer loyalty and brand reputation.
  • The relationship between organizational culture and employee engagement in service industries.
  • The impact of globalization on the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
  • The effectiveness of performance-based pay systems on employee motivation and productivity.
  • The relationship between innovation and corporate performance in the pharmaceutical industry.
  • The impact of digital marketing on the traditional marketing mix.
  • The role of emotional intelligence in leadership effectiveness in cross-cultural teams.
  • The relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance in the banking sector.
  • The impact of diversity management on employee satisfaction and retention in multinational corporations.
  • The relationship between leadership style and organizational culture in family-owned businesses.
  • The impact of e-commerce on supply chain management.
  • The effectiveness of training and development programs on employee performance in the retail sector.
  • The impact of global economic trends on strategic decision-making in multinational corporations.
  • The relationship between ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction in the healthcare industry.
  • The impact of employee empowerment on organizational performance in the manufacturing sector.
  • The relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee well-being in the hospitality industry.
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on customer service in the banking industry.
  • The relationship between emotional intelligence and employee creativity in the technology industry.
  • The impact of big data analytics on customer relationship management in the telecommunications industry.
  • The relationship between organizational culture and innovation in the automotive industry.
  • The impact of internationalization on the performance of SMEs in emerging markets.
  • The effectiveness of performance appraisal systems on employee motivation and retention in the public sector.
  • The relationship between diversity management and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.
  • The impact of social entrepreneurship on economic development in developing countries.
  • The relationship between transformational leadership and organizational change in the energy sector.
  • The impact of online customer reviews on brand reputation in the hospitality industry.
  • The effectiveness of leadership development programs on employee engagement in the finance industry.
  • The relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee turnover in the retail sector.
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on the recruitment and selection process in the technology industry.
  • The relationship between organizational culture and employee creativity in the fashion industry.
  • The impact of digital transformation on business models in the insurance industry.
  • The relationship between employee engagement and customer satisfaction in the service industry.
  • The impact of mergers and acquisitions on organizational culture and employee morale.
  • The effectiveness of knowledge management systems on organizational performance in the consulting industry.
  • The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty in the food and beverage industry.
  • The relationship between emotional intelligence and customer satisfaction in the airline industry.
  • The impact of blockchain technology on supply chain management in the logistics industry.
  • The relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee engagement in the technology industry.
  • The impact of digitalization on talent management practices in the hospitality industry.
  • The effectiveness of reward and recognition programs on employee motivation in the manufacturing industry.
  • The impact of industry 4.0 on organizational structure and culture in the aerospace industry.
  • The relationship between leadership style and team performance in the construction industry.
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on financial forecasting and decision-making in the banking sector.
  • The relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty in the automotive industry.
  • The impact of virtual teams on employee communication and collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry.
  • The impact of remote work on employee productivity and job satisfaction
  • The effects of social media marketing on customer engagement and brand loyalty
  • The role of artificial intelligence in streamlining supply chain management
  • The effectiveness of employee training and development programs on organizational performance
  • The impact of diversity and inclusion initiatives on organizational culture and employee satisfaction
  • The role of corporate social responsibility in enhancing brand reputation and customer loyalty
  • The effects of e-commerce on small businesses and local economies
  • The impact of big data analytics on marketing strategies and customer insights
  • The effects of employee empowerment on organizational innovation and performance
  • The impact of globalization on the hospitality industry
  • The effects of corporate governance on organizational performance and financial outcomes
  • The role of customer satisfaction in driving business growth and profitability
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on financial forecasting and risk management
  • The effects of corporate culture on employee engagement and retention
  • The role of green marketing in promoting environmental sustainability and brand reputation
  • The impact of digital transformation on the retail industry
  • The effects of employee motivation on job performance and organizational productivity
  • The role of customer experience in enhancing brand loyalty and advocacy
  • The impact of international trade agreements on global business practices
  • The effects of artificial intelligence on customer service and support
  • The role of organizational communication in facilitating teamwork and collaboration
  • The impact of corporate social responsibility on employee motivation and retention
  • The effects of global economic instability on business decision-making
  • The role of leadership styles in organizational change management
  • The impact of social media influencers on consumer behavior and purchasing decisions
  • The effects of employee well-being on organizational productivity and profitability
  • The role of innovation in driving business growth and competitive advantage
  • The impact of digital marketing on consumer behavior and brand perception
  • The role of strategic planning in organizational success and sustainability
  • The impact of e-commerce on consumer privacy and data security
  • The effects of corporate reputation on customer acquisition and retention
  • The role of diversity and inclusion in organizational creativity and innovation
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on customer relationship management
  • The effects of customer feedback on product development and innovation
  • The role of employee job satisfaction in reducing turnover and absenteeism
  • The impact of global competition on business strategy and innovation
  • The effects of corporate branding on customer loyalty and advocacy
  • The role of digital transformation in enhancing organizational agility and responsiveness
  • The effects of employee empowerment on customer satisfaction and loyalty
  • The role of entrepreneurial leadership in driving business innovation and growth
  • The impact of digital disruption on traditional business models
  • The effects of organizational culture on innovation and creativity
  • The role of marketing research in developing effective marketing strategies
  • The impact of social media on customer relationship management
  • The effects of employee engagement on organizational innovation and competitiveness
  • The role of strategic partnerships in promoting business growth and expansion
  • The impact of global trends on business innovation and entrepreneurship

About the author

' src=

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

Quantitative Research Topics

500+ Quantitative Research Titles and Topics

Qualitative_Research_Topics

500+ Qualitative Research Titles and Topics

Biology Research Topics

350+ Biology Research Topics

Criminal Justice Research Topics

500+ Criminal Justice Research Topics

Google Scholar Research Topics

500+ Google Scholar Research Topics

AP Research Topic Ideas

300+ AP Research Topic Ideas

Thesis Helpers

business research report assignment

Find the best tips and advice to improve your writing. Or, have a top expert write your paper.

Business Research Topics | Best Ideas For Your Papers

business research topics

What is a business research? Business research is the method of obtaining factual information in all areas of business and the use of such information to maximize sales and profit. You can do business-related research for almost anything. It is, however, vital that you aim the research at helping people or organizations make wise and informed decisions.

This article focuses on the various aspects of business research, such as business law, business ethics, business proposal, international business, business management, business speech, business debate, and controversial business topics.

Why This List of Business Research Topics?

Writing a successful business research paper starts with getting the basics right. While many think they are ready for a business research project, they somehow always get stuck at the very first step: choosing business topics. Even after trying the conventional techniques of preliminary research and brainstorming, many are still unable to come up with great business research topics. This article aims to help you find exciting business topics. The exciting thing is that we don’t just give you a small range of business-related topics to choose from – we have 100!

Here is a list of some hot business essay topics to set the ball rolling. Our list of interesting business topics makes this not just a typical list, but one to give you an outstanding business research paper. This list contains 100 examples of business research topics and will be of great help!

So if you need some business topics for a research paper or presentation, be assured that you’re in the right place!

Controversial Business Topics

  • Free Market Capitalism
  • Lower minimum wage and job creation.
  • Would a minimum wage trap people in poverty?
  • Is outsourcing an Ethical Practice?
  • Outsourcing: Theories versus findings.

International Business Topics

Students offering business courses should endeavour to do some international business research that addresses critical issues affecting international trade. Here are some international business research topics which will come in handy.

  • Surviving International Competition: A Critical Analysis of the Strategic Measures Employed by Local Companies.
  • International Investment: The Importance of Educating the Public on the benefits of international investment.
  • Business at Sea: The Importance of Instituting and Implementing Environmentally-friendly Approaches.
  • Transforming Small Local Businesses into widely Recognized International Brands.
  • Human Resources: Effective Strategies for Maintaining Largely Diversified Organizations.
  • Branding: Effective Strategies to Provide a Competitive Advantage for International Businesses.

Business Proposal Topics

The business culture is taking over the world today, and with it comes quite a lot of issues and concerns in how we go about our daily activity. Whether you are a business tycoon or a customer at a grocery shop, everyone is involved in some form of business. Below are some business proposal topics to help you pitch that business idea.

  • Economic Problems: Possible initiatives to protect small businesses.
  • American Business Sector: Possible solutions to the decline of trust.
  • Local Businesses: Providing necessary support to avoid suffocation by huge chains.
  • Global Unemployment: Strategies and solutions to the problem of unemployment.
  • Stakeholders: Their impact on the success of a business.
  • Employee motivation and its effect on employee performance.

Business Speech Topics

Do you have a business speech to deliver and still not sure of the topic to focus on? Here is are some general business speech topics for you!

  • How to think and plan strategically.
  • Interpersonal and Family Relations.
  • How to make a sales pitch.
  • How to Move Your Business A Generation Ahead.
  • Reducing and resolving conflicts in family businesses.
  • Leadership Development and its importance.

Business Law Topics

Business law is a thriving area of business which grabs the interest of many people. Business law helps to govern the dealings in the commercial world. We thought you might need some business law paper topics ; hence this list of current juicy research topics on business law.

  • Bankruptcy Fraud: Legal identification methods.
  • Sexual Harassment Lawsuits: Its Avoidance within the company.
  • Trade secrets: When does it become “too secretive”?
  • UK Business Laws: A Review of the Legal Standing and Protection of Creditors.
  • Foreign Entity Registration: A comparative review of legal guidelines and implications for foreign businesses in the UK and Europe.
  • Trademark infringement: Possible defences to this offence.
  • E-commerce Practices: US legal implications on the workforce.
  • Data Privacy Laws: Their impact on business operations.

Business Ethics Topics

Another exciting area of business research is business ethics. With some excellent business ethics research paper topics, you’re well on your way to writing a unique paper. Here are some juicy business ethics paper topics/business research topic examples to get the ball rolling!

  • Gender Discrimination: A close investigation of its impact on employee performance in an organization.
  • Organizational Environmental Pollution: A critical look at its effects on consumer trust levels.
  • Labourer Abuse: Analyzing its repercussions in the construction sector.
  • Profit Seeking: A critical evaluation of its impact on product quality.
  • Advertisements: An Expository Study of the effects of misleading advertisements on consumer trust.
  • Gift-giving by Pharmaceutical Representatives: Any strings attached?
  • Business ethics: A Philosophical approach.
  • Ethical issues in governing a corporation.
  • Ethical conflicts: Avoiding religious, political, and cultural arguments at work.

Business Communication Topics

To be successful in business, one must be able to communicate effectively in areas such as selling ideas, persuading potential customers, communicating with employees, etc. In business, communication may as well be everything! Here are ten fantastic topics for your business communication research paper!

  • The effect of internal business communication on the external image of a business.
  • The Impact of Interactive online communication on public relations outcomes.
  • Interpersonal Communication: The Influence of Culture on interpersonal dialogue.
  • The impact of Computer-mediated Interaction.
  • Business Communication: Exploring different mediums and channels for effective communication in business.
  • The effect of intercultural information exchange on closing business deals.
  • Business Negotiation: A language-centred activity.
  • Symmetrical Dialogue: A critical look at the processes involved.
  • Business Negotiation: Styles in intercultural dialogue.
  • Exploring the differences between business communication and general communication.

Business Research Topics for MBA Students

Are you an MBA student in need of business research paper topics? Here are some hot ones just for you!

  • Organizational Culture and its influence on innovation management.
  • Environmental issues and their effect on business management in the world today.
  • Leadership Skills and its impact on organizational control.
  • An analytical overview of investment strategies.
  • The influence of online marketing on start-ups.
  • Direct Marketing versus Creative Marketing.
  • The power of advertising on consumer behaviour.
  • The impact of employee turnover on Organizational profit.
  • Globalization and its impact on small scale industries.
  • The e-commerce industry and its effect on the world today.

Business Management Research Topics

With the many facets of business management, finding a hot topic could be very challenging. Here are ten great ideas for research topics in business management.

  • Employee benefits and its effect on employee productivity.
  • The intricacies of managing conflict in the work team.
  • Start-ups: A look into the issues that occur during business start-ups.
  • Excessive work: Business consequences.
  • The evolving nature of work teams in meeting the requirements of the future.
  • Leadership strategies and Inter-organizational networks.
  • Product and service improvement in a strategic partnership.
  • How to manage crises in an organization.
  • Impact of total quality management practices on customer retention and satisfaction.
  • Effective time management as a tool for organizational survival.

Business Informative Speech Topics

Are you in particular need of business informative speech topics? Then you’re in the right place! Here are ten business topics which are full of juice!

  • Ergonomics in the workspace: How desks, chairs, and tables affect physical poses for sedentary workers.
  • Why there are corporate loans and special grants for women start-ups.
  • Standards in Creative and Financial Accounting: What is right or wrong?
  • Copyright protection: The what, the why and the when.
  • Outsourcing to third parties: When, why and how.
  • Why you have to back up trade secrets with a signed confidentiality agreement.
  • What are the types of insurance?
  • The 24-hour economy: How to manage risk under pressure.
  • Benefits of human resources and how to develop social skills.
  • How safety programs and working conditions relate to productivity.

Business Persuasive Speech Topics

A persuasive speech is a speech delivered with the intent of bringing about a change in the ideas or viewpoints of others. Here are ten business compelling speech topics to wow your audience.

  • Your business will fail if you lack social intelligence.
  • Why you need both short and long-term goals in business.
  • Why Introverts could make better entrepreneurs.
  • Why you must have a business plan.
  • Business Mentors: why every business person needs one.
  • The secret in sending past clients thoughtful gifts.
  • Social Media: Why you should take full advantage of it for your business.
  • Placing higher values on experience than qualifications.
  • Parenting: why new fathers should also get paid time off to help with the baby.
  • Why gut instinct is still essential in hiring.

Business Debate Topics

It is usually challenging to choose business debate topics because you must select a business debate topic which you find interesting. We have prepared some hot business debate topics to help you in your essay.

  • Multinationals: Doing more harm than good?
  • Corporate jobs: A new form of slavery.
  • Stock market: is it related to gambling?
  • An MBA will not make you a good business leader.
  • An MBA is worth the cost.
  • Business and Politics: Should they be mixed?
  • Should the world run on a cashless economy?
  • Cryptocurrencies: Are they reliable in business?
  • Advertisements: Profitable to business?
  • Women: Better business managers than men?

So here we are! One hundred business topics which cover different areas in business. Are you ready to take your writing to a whole new level? These topics will set you on the right path faster. Don’t forget to proofread and edit your paper thoroughly before turning it in. Good luck!

marketing research topics

Make PhD experience your own

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ask a question from expert

Business Research Reports Assignment

Developing coding method and analyzing interview data using thematic analysis method.

Added on   2022-09-09

   Added on  2022-09-09

Business Research Reports Assignment_1

End of preview

Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.

Impact of Social Media Marketing on Business Performance during Covid-19 in UK Fashion Industry: A Study on Burberry lg ...

Impact of social media marketing on customer buying behavior in uk fashion sector: a study on m&s lg ..., impact of smm on consumer decision behaviour in hospitality sector: a study on marriott lg ..., social influences on the consumer behaviour lg ..., impact of social media marketing on customer decision-making in uk retail fashion sector: a study on next plc lg ..., answer:. digital media has become a handy tool in the h lg ....

  • Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

$7 Million for 30 Seconds? To Advertisers, the Super Bowl Is Worth It.

In a time of fragmentation, advertising during the game’s broadcast is still a reliable way to boost company revenue and familiarize viewers with a brand.

A cat wearing a bow tie.

By Santul Nerkar

A cat meowing for Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Peyton Manning chucking Bud Light beers to patrons in a bar and Kris Jenner stacking Oreo cookies. They all have one thing in common: Those companies paid seven figures to get their products in front of viewers during this year’s Super Bowl.

For the second consecutive year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl was $7 million. Even as many businesses are being more disciplined with the money they have for marketing, and with spending on advertising slowing in recent years, the cost of a Super Bowl ad continues to go up.

The reason is simple: There is no opportunity guaranteed to reach more people than the Super Bowl, and the slice of every other pie keeps shrinking.

“It’s a throwback in terms of reaching everyone all at once,” said Charles Taylor, a professor of marketing at the Villanova School of Business.

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the number of opportunities for companies to reach a mass audience through advertising on network television has dwindled. Popular shows have increasingly moved to streaming platforms, along with audiences. More and more, networks find themselves relying on live events, like award shows and sports, to draw viewers.

“Live events are still huge for advertisers, and those are the ones that draw the highest attention,” said Frank Maguire, a vice president at Sharethrough, an advertising integration platform.

Not all live events are created equal, though. A record-low audience watched the Emmy Awards in January . Leagues like the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have struggled to retain and increase viewership, and ratings for the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball final have fallen in recent years.

But the National Football League has continued its strong upward march , both in terms of viewership and media deals. In 2021, television networks committed $110 billion for the rights to broadcast the league for a decade, and the N.F.L. has continued to set record viewership numbers. More than 115 million people watched last year’s championship game.

The Super Bowl stands alone as a mass-marketing opportunity on television. A decade ago, the average cost of a 30-second spot was $4 million; a decade before that, it was $2.4 million. Analysts say the rise is a result of supply and demand: With a fixed amount of time and advertising spots for each Super Bowl broadcast, the competition is fierce. CBS, which will broadcast Sunday’s game, sold out its ad spots in a matter of weeks in November. Paramount, which owns CBS, will reportedly run nearly a dozen spots to promote its films.

“In this era of fragmentation, the Super Bowl is what television used to be,” said Brad Adgate, a veteran media analyst.

For many years, Super Bowl ads were kept closely guarded until the day of the game. Now, companies employ marketing campaigns that often start in mid-January.

“It’s about building a long-running narrative,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, the chief marketing officer at DoorDash, whose Super Bowl ad this year is pushing a promotional deal.

Many viewers now turn on the Super Bowl broadcast with an idea of what to expect for the ads. A January preview of a Pringles ad, for instance, featured the mustache of an unknown man, prompting many fans to guess it belonged to the Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. (In fact, it belonged to the actor Chris Pratt.)

“You’re not just paying for that 30-second spot; it is a four- to six-week buzz that you’re creating,” said Mary Scott, a professor of strategic communications at Montclair State University and a former president at United Entertainment Group, a sports and entertainment marketing agency.

The rise in female viewership for N.F.L. games this season, made even more prominent by Taylor Swift’s relationship with Mr. Kelce, is another potential marketing opportunity for companies.

The news that Kansas City made the Super Bowl was welcomed by health-and-beauty companies, which disproportionately target young women. That demographic has tuned into more football games this season, thanks in large part to Ms. Swift’s appearances at Kansas City games.

NYX Makeup, a subsidiary of L’Oreal, has bought its first Super Bowl ad spot, while Dove is returning with an ad spot for the first time since 2015. E.L.F. cosmetics is advertising for the second straight year.

Kory Marchisotto, E.L.F.’s chief marketing officer, acknowledged that Kansas City’s playing in the Super Bowl was good for business. Ms. Marchisotto said her company kept different versions of ads in the days leading up to the game, a departure from how Super Bowl ads used to be prepared. Companies want to stay as nimble as possible, staying responsive to the specific interests of the audience watching the game.

“It was way easier when you would create a spot, spend a year on it, put it in market, and sit back and let it fly,” she said.

At the same time, companies are investing more heavily into making sure they’re getting the most for their $7 million. More ads this year are expected to feature interactive components like QR codes, which help companies track engagement with their brands in real time.

The technology debuted at the Super Bowl in 2022 with a floating code for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company. The concept was used in more ads in last year’s Super Bowl — including one for avocados from Mexico and one for a public service announcement from a religious organization. The strategy also featured prominently during the N.F.L.’s first Black Friday broadcast in November.

Together, the Super Bowl’s ads are an annual snapshot of the economic and social moment in the country, said Ethan Heftman, a vice president of agency sales at Ampersand, an ad consortium owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox.

“As long as you have new industries — auto, cellular, tech companies,” Mr. Heftman said, “there’ll always be brands seeking that broad awareness.”

Santul Nerkar is a reporter covering business and sports. More about Santul Nerkar

Inside the World of Sports

Dive deeper into the people, issues and trends shaping professional, collegiate and amateur athletics..

Stadiums in Africa: This year’s Africa Cup of Nations, like several previous editions, played out in Chinese-built arenas. It will end with familiar questions about their legacy .

Discovered at a Pickup Game: Arthur Dukes Jr. had made three false starts at college before becoming the star player  for LaGuardia Community College’s scrappy new team.

Embracing Politics: Come for the draft analysis, stay for the anti-Biden rant. A growing class of commentators is blending sports and conservative politics .

Caitlin Clark Is Different: Her fiery competitiveness, no-look passes and 3-point bombs have made her the biggest star in college basketball. What happens when she leaves Iowa ?

Soccer in $1.50 Sandals: In Ivory Coast, lêkê are the preferred footwear for amateur games and almost everything else. Even Gucci wants to copy them .

Mixed Signals: The   N.F.L. is pushing to popularize and benefit from sports betting  while still trying to guard against the potential pitfalls for its players, employees and fans.

IMAGES

  1. what is a report format in business

    business research report assignment

  2. Research (Assignment/Report) Template

    business research report assignment

  3. English Essays: Sidney to Macaulay. 1909-14. Vol. 27. The Harvard

    business research report assignment

  4. FREE 11+ Business Research Report Samples & Templates in MS Word

    business research report assignment

  5. Law student essay competition 2013

    business research report assignment

  6. Research (Assignment/Report) Template

    business research report assignment

VIDEO

  1. 2024 Reflective Report Assignment

  2. CBC lab report analysis assignment #dpharma #cbcreport#dpharmassighment

  3. News Report Assignment Video (MPU 2222)

  4. Business review assignment (6 Ways that AI Could Disrupt Your Business)

  5. Lecture#7| Broad Problem Area |Observation

  6. INSUFFICIENT FOOD AT THE KPMSI CAFETERIA

COMMENTS

  1. How to Write a Business Analysis Report [Examples and Templates]

    Business analysis reports can either focus your research on the effectiveness of an existing business process or a proposed new process. Besides, an effective business analysis report should also assess the results to determine if the process changes had a positive or negative effect on the company's goals.

  2. PDF Writing a Business Report

    1. Start your report with the main point. Why is this report important? Why was it requested? What has it found? 2. Organise your content. Divide your information to blocks of topics. 3. Give each block a title/heading. 4. Begin each block with the main point. If your heading is a question, your first sentence should be the answer. 5.

  3. 8.5 Writing Process: Creating an Analytical Report

    Draft a thesis and create an organizational plan. Compose a report that develops ideas and integrates evidence from sources. Give and act on productive feedback to works in progress.

  4. Business Report Examples & Samples For Your Company

    2. Research reports. Next in our types of business reports that we will discuss is a research report. Companies often use these kinds of reports to test the viability of a new product, study a new geographical area to sell, or understand their customer's perception of their brand image.

  5. Business Research and Data Analysis (BUS8375)

    Individual reflection Business Research assignment. 3 pages 2021/2022 None. 2021/2022 None. Save. Mandatory assignments. Date Rating. year. Ratings. 8375 - Lec. 4 - ICA4 Q W20 - Assignment. 2 pages 2020/2021 96% (24) ... preparing a report that summarizes their key takeaways, insights, and achievements, and reflects on the application ...

  6. How to write a persuasive business report

    HR practitioners are likely to write business reports to summarise their investigations into a particular situation (for example, to explain a difficulty in attracting particular talents during the recruitment process) or to support a proposal to introduce a new initiative (for example when introducing a new learning and development programme).

  7. Business Research: Methods, Types & Examples

    Business research: Definition. Business research is a process of acquiring detailed information on all the areas of business and using such information to maximize the sales and profit of the business. Such a study helps companies determine which product/service is most profitable or in demand. In simple words, it can be stated as the acquisition of information or knowledge for professional or ...

  8. Writing a business research report

    57 Share 4.5K views 2 years ago Writing This tutorial explains how to write a business report for post-graduate level students. It covers the introduction, report structure and organisation,...

  9. How to Structure a Business Report

    Typically, you should also include your name and the date of the report. 2. Summary. Most business reports begin with a summary of its key points. Try to include: A brief description of what the report is about; How the report was completed (e.g., data collection methods) The main findings from the research; Key conclusions and recommendations

  10. Writing the business report

    When planning your report, you may find it helpful to follow these steps: Analyse the problem and identify the purpose of the report. Analyse the audience and the issue. Prepare a work plan and a draft outline. Collect and sort the information you require. Evaluate and organise the information.

  11. BRM

    assignment on Business Research Method electronic cover sheet please complete and insert this form as the first page of your electronic submission. submit the. Skip to document. ... According to a report published by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Centre for Communication Policy [CITATION UCL01 \n \l 1033 ], online shopping has ...

  12. Research Report

    January 6, 2024 by Muhammad Hassan Table of Contents Research Report Definition: Research Report is a written document that presents the results of a research project or study, including the research question, methodology, results, and conclusions, in a clear and objective manner.

  13. How to Write a Business Research Report?

    Updated February 1, 2023 A business research report is the same as an academic report. What it aims is to research a topic of specific areas to collect more and more information. The topics may be product development research, marketing, budget research, etc.

  14. How to write a business report (With types and an example)

    Updated 19 March 2023 A business report can help executives and managers make decisions in business. There are a variety of different reports, each with different functions depending on the industry and its needs. It can be beneficial to learn how to write business reports, as they can help you secure deals and make progress in your career.

  15. BAM101 Assignment 1

    Assignment 1: Business Research Report BAM101 - Introduction to Business Administration. By: Prof. Peter Forint. Revised: 2023-02-Note: This document is an enhanced version of the Seneca Libraries' BAM101 Business Research Assignment. Seneca College Faculty of Business Newnham Campus, C- 1750 Finch Ave E, Toronto, ON M2J 2X T: 416.

  16. 500+ Business Research Topics

    Business Research Topics are as follows: The impact of social media on consumer behavior. Strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction in the service industry. The effectiveness of mobile marketing campaigns. Exploring the factors influencing employee turnover. The role of leadership in organizational culture.

  17. 100 Business Research Topics

    This article focuses on the various aspects of business research, such as business law, business ethics, business proposal, international business, business management, business speech, business debate, and controversial business topics. Tired of writing thesis on your own? Great news!

  18. Solved Business Research Report AnalysisThis assignment

    Business Research Report AnalysisThis assignment builds upon your work in all previous units.Chapter 14 of the textbook provides an overview of the business research reporting (oral and written).When researching, the final step is to answer a business question or resolve a business problem and to report findings, conclusions drawn, and recommend...

  19. Business Research Report (Assignment 1) (docx)

    Seneca Assignment 1 BUSINESS RESEARCH REPORT Priyanka 129596227 BAM101-ZAA PROF. Peter Forint Due date: - 17 October 2022 Seneca

  20. BAM101 Assignment 1

    Assignment 1: Business Research Report BAM101 - Introducti on to Business A dm inistration. By: Prof. Peter Forint. Revised: 2022-05-Note: This document is an enhanced version of the Seneca Libraries' BAM101 Business Research Assignment.

  21. Business Research Reports Assignment

    BUSINESS RESEARCH REPORT 4 1. Introduction: introduce the research problematization that underlies your choice of topic and its background or connection to the relevant literature/evidence The fashion wear sector is the world's competitive and dynamic market. In the UK, the retail market is progressively transforming into the industry.

  22. Assignment 1 Business Research Report (docx)

    The author mentions that many small businesses fail in the first five years, and those that survive often face economic insecurity and high-stress levels. However, small businesses are crucial to the Canadian economy, employing a significant portion of the labor force. Franchising, which contributes $100 billion to the economy and creates jobs ...

  23. $7 Million for 30 Seconds? To Advertisers, the Super Bowl Is Worth It

    The Super Bowl stands alone as a mass-marketing opportunity on television. A decade ago, the average cost of a 30-second spot was $4 million; a decade before that, it was $2.4 million.