Diamantopoulos, A. and Schlegelmilch, B. (1997) Taking the Fear Out of Data Analysis. London: Dryden Press. Republished by Cengage Learning, 2000.

In Chapter 6 the authors emphasize the connection between research objectives and what they call analysis objectives. Beware, however, that the latter, apparently, amount to a choice between description, estimation and hypothesis testing. As is argued in Chapter 1 of Kent (2015), any research is likely to involve all these elements – and much more.

Kent, R. (2007) Marketing Research: Approaches, Methods and Applications in Europe. London: Thomson Learning.

Very few texts discuss the nature of data analysis in general. However, have a look at pages 296–9, which include some of my earlier thoughts on this topic, but these comments are largely within the context of deciding on appropriate variable-based techniques of analysis.