Mayur, a hypermarket chain located across India, which attracted customers in the initial stages of its establishment, started losing its customers to its competitors. The management introduced many schemes to attract customers, but without any gain. The top management did not pay heed to the store managers' suggestion of taking up research to find the actual problem. However, when the problem persisted, the management reluctantly agreed to research and hired a consultancy firm 'TS & Associates. The consultants worked on Mayur's problem and gave them a solution, which when implemented showed an improvement in Mayur's performance. The case study tries to highlight the importance of research in business. 

1. Explain the factors that lead to business research. 

2. Discuss in detail the positive and negative trends in research.