Master of Business Administration (Semester 3) MB-0050 Research Methodology ASSIGNMENT- Set 1 (Marks 60) Note: Each Question carries

10 marks. Answer all the questions. Q1. How is a Research Problem formulated? Ans:- Research is crucial to discovering new information. Perhaps the most important part of research is formulating a research problem. Formulating a research problem shows a researcher where previous researchers have been deficient and identifies avenues of study that have not yet been pursued. Researchers must be careful to formulate their research problems properly in order to make sure that their research intent is not ambiguous, and to make sure that the information obtained through the research is of significance. Following are the process to formulate a Research Problem:Identification of a general area of study is very important. At this point, just narrowing down what research problems are available to examine. Narrow the general areas of interest into smaller subcategories. For example, if anyone wants to study African tribes, he/she might look only at tribes in Nigeria. She has to pick one of these subcategories on which to focus. Its necessary to look at websites, journals and other print publications in order to learn about the subcategory of interest, and identification of assumptions experts in the field have made, as well as any key terms or theories that appear to be present, as well. Identify gaps in the research knowledge base. For example, if one is studying Nigerian tribes, perhaps previous researchers looked at tribal behavior but not tribal economies. Develop a set of questions based on these knowledge gaps. Look at the objectives for each of the research questions in order to determine whether any feasible answer may be found or not. Self-questioning is must, such as what value the research answer will have, whether there are any ethical issues involved in the research and how much it will cost to find out what I want to know. Pick the research question that seems most likely to get an accurate answer. Restate the research question as a statement that identifies the problem in terms of who, what, why, when or where. For example, one could write, "This research study examined what factors influenced the economic status of members of Nigerian tribe A." Write out several sentences that very briefly explain the knowledge gap identified and then place the research statement at the end. Together, these sentences form the entire research problem. If written correctly, the research problem easily may be extracted from the paper as part of the abstract.

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2. What are the characteristics of good research design?

Ans:- Generally a good research design minimizes bias and maximizes the reliability of the data collected and analyzed. The design which gives the smallest experimental error is reported to be the best design in scientific investigation. Similarly, a design which yields maximum information and provides a opportunity for considering different aspects of a problem is considered to be the most appropriate efficient design. Thus the question of a good design is related to the purpose or objective of the research problem and also with the nature of the problem to be studied. A good research design should satisfy the following four conditions namely objectivity, reliability, validity and generalization of the findings. 1. Objectivity: It refers to the findings related to the method of data collection and scoring of the responses. The research design should permit the measuring instrument which is fairly objective in which every observer or judge scoring the performance must precisely give the same report. In other words, the objectivity of the procedure may be judged by the degree of agreement between the final scores assigned to different individuals by more than one independent observer. This ensures the objectivity of the collected data which shall be capable of analysis and drawing generalizations. 2. Reliability: Reliability refers to consistency throughout a series of measurements. For e.g.: if a respondent gives out a response to a particular item, he is expected to give the same response to that item even if he is asked repeatedly. If he is changing his response to the same item, the consistency will be lost. So the researcher should frame the items in a questionnaire in such a way that it provides consistency or reliability. 3. Validity: Any measuring device or instrument is said to be valid when it measures what it is expected to measure. For e.g.: an intelligence test conducted for measuring the I.Q should measure only the intelligence and nothing else, and the questionnaire shall be framed accordingly. 4. Generalizability: It means how best the data collected from the samples can be utilized for drawing certain generalizations applicable to a large group from which sample is drawn. Thus a research design helps an investigator to generalize his findings provided he has taken due care in defining the population, selecting the sample, deriving appropriate statistical analysis etc. while preparing the research design. Thus a good research design is one which is methodologically prepared and should ensure that: a) The measuring instrument can yield objective, reliable and valid data. b) The population is clearly defined. c) Most appropriate techniques of sample selection is used to form an appropriate sample. d) Appropriate statically analysis has been carried out, and e) The finding of the study is capable of generalizations.

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Q3. How Case Study Method is useful in Business Research?

Ans:- Nowadays research methodologies have been intensively changed and adapted. Case study is a method used by researchers to excel at bringing an understanding of the complex issue and can extend experience or add strength to what already known through previous research. Case studies typically examine the interplay among variables to provide comprehensive understanding through a thick description process which in-depth describes the entity, circumstances and characteristics being evaluated. Business researcher prefers case study when how and why questions are asked and may choose to collect data from one or multi-modal approach. New key factors may emerge or unexpected patterns are found and these may become the basis for new questions which link to the further business research. To make sense of the qualitative data from case study, holistic and coding analyses are employed to draw conclusion from text as a whole. Despite the difficulty test for validity of case study statistical analysis result, case study approach allows flexibility for researchers to compare their firsthand observations with the quantitative results obtained from other research methods and establish a bridge for the gap between abstract research and concrete practice research. Certain ethical issues should be considered for case study, for example, the bias of the result induced through the power of the financed persons, and this may conflict the credibility of the research study. Case study can be applied either in marketing and any other business arena. In Thailand, case study has been used within the limitation of the scarce availability of case study. Questionnaires concerning about the use of case study as a business research method had been sent out to a group of Thai researchers during the mentioned time interval and the significant results from the statistical analysis found that less than fifty percent of these samples had used case study as the research method with the reason of the unavailability of proper case studies. However more than half of the samples said they expect to use case study more and more in their future research. The results of the survey bring the awareness of the business case writing and the expansion of utilizing of the case study as a tool of business research in Thailand and thus enhance the using of case study as a research tool which will result the academic progress in case study as a business research method afterwards.

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Q4. Distinguish between Schedules and questionnaires.

Ans:- Both questionnaire and schedule are popularly used methods of collecting data in research surveys. There is much resemblance in the nature of these two methods and this fact has made many people to remark that from a practical point of view, the two methods can be taken to be the same. But from the technical point of view there is difference between the two.

1.Questionnaire is generally sent through mail to informants to be answered 2. Data collection is cheap 3. Non response is usually many people do not respond 4. It is not clear that who replies high

1. Schedules is generally filled by the research worker or enumerator, who can interpret the questions when necessary 2. Data collection is more expensive as money is spent on enumerators

as 3. Non response is very low because this is filled by enumerators 4. Identity of respondent is known

5. The questionnaire method is likely to be 5. Information is collected well in time very slow since many respondents do not return the questionnaire 6. No personal contact is possible in case of 6. Direct personal contact is established questionnaire

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Q5. What are the contents of research reports?

Ans: - The researcher must keep in mind that his research report must contain following aspects: 1. Purpose of study 2. Significance of his study or statement of the problem 3. Review of literature 4. Methodology 5. Interpretation of data 6. Conclusions and suggestions 7. Bibliography 8. Appendices These can be discussed in detail as under: (1) Purpose of study: Research is one direction oriented study. He should discuss the problem of his study. He must give background of the problem. He must lay down his hypothesis of the study. Hypothesis is the statement indicating the nature of the problem. He should be able to collect data, analyze it and prove the hypothesis. The importance of the problem for the advancement of knowledge or removed of some evil may also be explained. He must use review of literature or the data from secondary source for explaining the statement of the problems. (2) Significance of study: Research is re-searching and hence the researcher may highlight the earlier research in new manner or establish new theory. He must refer earlier research work and distinguish his own research from earlier work. He must explain how his research is different and how his research topic is different and how his research topic is important. In a statement of his problem, he must be able to explain in brief the historical account of the topic and way in which he can make and attempt. In his study to conduct the research on his topic. (3) Review of Literature: Research is a continuous process. He cannot avoid earlier research work. He must start with earlier work. He should note down all such research work, published in books, journals or unpublished thesis. He will get guidelines for his research from taking a review of literature. He should collect information in respect of earlier research work. He should enlist them in the given below: Author/researcher Title of research /Name of book Publisher Year of publication Objectives of his study Conclusion/suggestions
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Then he can compare this information with his study to show separate identity of his study. He must be honest to point out similarities and differences of his study from earlier research work. (4) Methodology: It is related to collection of data. There are two sources for collecting data; primary and secondary. Primary data is original and collected in field work, either through questionnaire interviews. The secondary data relied on library work. Such primary data are collected by sampling method. The procedure for selecting the sample must be mentioned. The methodology must give various aspects of the problem that are studied for valid generalization about the phenomena. The scales of measurement must be explained along with different concepts used in the study. While conducting a research based on field work, the procedural things like definition of universe, preparation of source list must be given. We use case study method, historical research etc. He must make it clear as to which method is used in his research work. When questionnaire is prepared, a copy of it must be given in appendix. (5) Interpretation of data: Mainly the data collected from primary source need to be interpreted in systematic manner. The tabulation must be completed to draw conclusions. All the questions are not useful for report writing. One has to select them or club them according to hypothesis or objectives of study. (6) Conclusions/suggestions: Data analysis forms the crux of the problem. The information collected in field work is useful to draw conclusions of study. In relation with the objectives of study the analysis of data may lead the researcher to pin point his suggestions. This is the most important part of study. The conclusions must be based on logical and statistical reasoning. The report should contain not only the generalization of inference but also the basis on which the inferences are drawn. All sorts of proofs, numerical and logical, must be given in support of any theory that has been advanced. He should point out the limitations of his study. (7) Bibliography: The list of references must be arranged in alphabetical order and be presented in appendix. The books should be given in first section and articles are in second section and research projects in the third. The pattern of bibliography is considered convenient and satisfactory from the point of view of reader. (8) Appendices: The general information in tabular form which is not directly used in the analysis of data but which is useful to understand the background of study can be given in appendix.

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Q6. Write short notes on the following: a. Median b. Standard Deviation Ans:-. a) Median Median is the middlemost item of a given series. In individual series, we arrange the given data according to ascending or descending order and take the middlemost item as the median. When two values occur in the middle, we take the average of these two values as median. Since median is the central value of an ordered distribution, there occur equal number of values to the left and right of the median. Individual series Median = (N+ 1 / 2) th item Illustration To find the median of the following scores: 97 50 95 51 90 60 85 64 81 65 80 70 75

First we arrange the series according to ascending order. 50 51 60 64 65 70 75 80 81 85 90 95 97

Median = (N+ 1) / 2th item = (13+ 1) / 2th item = (14 / 2)th item = (7)th item = 75 b) Standard Deviation:Standard deviation is the most important measure of dispersion. It satisfies most of the properties of a good measure of dispersion. It was introduced by Karl Pearson in 1893. Standard deviation is defined as the mean of the squared deviations from the arithmetic mean. Standard deviation is denoted by the Greek letter. Mean deviation and standard deviation are calculated from deviation of each and every item. Standard deviation is different from mean deviation in two respects. First of all, algebraic signs are ignored in calculating mean deviation. Secondly, signs are taken into account in calculating standard deviation whereas, mean deviation can be found from mean, median or mode. Whereas, standard deviation is found only from mean. Standard deviation can be computed in two methods 1. Taking deviation from actual mean 2. Taking deviation from assumed mean. Formula for finding standard deviation is (x-x)2 / N

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