Research Methods

You should choose one (1) of two benchmarking projects (note that both projects are hypothetical - we are not doing actual projects for these firms):

1. Front office staffing and the Syracuse Crunch. The research question: "Should the Syracuse Crunch consider changing the numbers or types of front office staff?"

2. Employee recruitment and Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The research question: "Is CAA is competitive (i.e., on par with) its industry peers in terms of its jobs/careers website content for recruiting new employees?"

A) Write a description of the organization you chose (e.g., characteristics, history, management structure), in your own words (1/2 page).

B) Identify six (6) comparators, or the firms about which you will collect data, for your benchmarking research. For one (1) of these, select a firm that are not exactly or directly comparable to your firm but which might yield useful information. Present this information in table format with a brief description of each.

C) Justify this group of comparators, as a whole, as being the best group on which to conduct benchmarking.

D) Find two (2) peer-reviewed research articles that will inform your benchmarking research (be sure to look for similar benchmarking data that already exists). For each, provide a full citation in APA format, the article abstract, and an explanation of how the article relates to your benchmarking project.

E) Identify 3 - 6 dimensions (e.g., number of front office staff; existence of a job/careers website link) on which you will collect data from comparators, for purposes of answering your research question. Collect the data and report it in a professional, stand-alone table (i.e., adequate title, clarifying notes, etc.). In the table, the rows contain the comparators and the columns should be the dimensions on which you collect the data.

F) Develop an Executive Summary of your findings, including one (1) recommendation for the firm you chose.