The previous three European editions of this book have been well received by both lecturers and students alike; this new edition takes the successes of the preceding editions and continues to build on them. The new edition has focused on developing the book further in a number of core areas:

Balanced Approach – One of the strengths of the text has been its aim to provide a balanced approach to both qualitative and quantitative methods. This has been advanced further in the fourth edition by expanding the qualitative coverage: case study research has its own chapter; and the coverage of qualitative methods, such as content analysis, action research, ethnographic research, narrative analysis and grounded theory has been expanded. The fourth edition also contains a chapter on the primary collection of qualitative data, which covers qualitative interviews, focus groups and participant observation. Finally a new chapter on qualitative analysis methods has been added to part IV covering the statistical background, which is available in the student centre section of the Online Learning Centre for the book.

Theory Vs Practice – The text has always offered students an insight into all aspects of research methods, providing them with the theoretical understanding they need, as well as the practical guidance required to effectively apply this. This continues in the new edition, through a combination of core textual content and pedagogic features.

Streamlined Pedagogy – The new edition offers a revised plethora of pedagogy for students and to aid teaching. Practical boxes focusing on real life research methods help students to understand the application of research within a day to day context. Deeper Insights boxes provide in-depth information on more challenging topics, for those students who want it. Student Research boxes help students to understand their own research and how they can get the most out of it. Research Methods in Real Life boxes help students to see how research methods can be applied to real life situations. Finally, the Running Case Study boxes at the end of each chapter show how two student projects developed – one using qualitative methods, and one using quantitative methods - helping students to understand how to apply the content of each individual chapter to a real life project.

The new edition is more wholly focused on helping the student with whatever their task may be: learning business research methods; or completing an independent research project. Simultaneously the content provides a sound and balanced introduction to business research methods to teach from.

Covering Recent Trends in Methodology – Developments in information technology and the World Wide Web offer many new opportunities. The new edition picks up those recent developments and discusses software to analyse qualitative data as well as the opportunities and problems regarding collecting data on the web.

As a lecturer I understand the increasing importance of additional supplementary material to help aid teaching and learning. In conjunction with re-developing the book content, the supplements package has also undergone further development to ensure that it is tailored to lecturer and student needs. The Online Learning Centre (OLC) for this fourth edition retains the core content from the previous edition, including all the fundamental resources like PowerPoints and an EZTest question bank. In addition to this, the new edition also includes:

• An expanded Research Skills Centre for students which includes links to study skills material from our successful Open University Press list, examples of good and bad proposals, template documents for research, and primers for Excel and SPSS. This should help students get the most out of research.
• The statistical chapters available on the website now have explicit linkages to the SPSS Survival Manual by Pallant and questions where students need to run SPSS to answer them have been added.

The reviews of the previous edition have enabled this new edition to be updated in a way that benefits both students and lecturers. The continued feedback received from users is invaluable. Thank you for all who have provided it over the preceding editions.

Boris F. Blumberg