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Summer 2014
MBA Semester 3

MB0050: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Q1. How would you distinguish between a management decision problem and a
management research problem? Do all decision problems require research? Explain
and illustrate with examples.

The problem recognition process starts when the decision maker faces some difficulty or
decision dilemma.. Sometimes, this might be related to actual and immediate difficulties
faced by the manager (applied research) or gaps experienced in the existing body of
knowledge (basic research). The broad decision problem has to be narrowed down to
information-oriented problem, which focuses on the data or information required to arrive at
any meaningful conclusion. Given in table is a set of decision problems and the subsequent
research problems that might address them. Please remember these are only indicative
questions and there could be many more ways of arriving at an answer to the decision
problem. Secondly, it is not essential that the decision maker will always go in for research
as he may arrive at a decision without research also. Sometimes, the company might have
so much experience in the business that they feel no additional information can be obtained
through research. Research is conducted when the decision maker wants to reduce some
risk and uncertainty while taking a decision.

DECISION PROBLEM RESEARCH PROBLEM
1. What should be done to increase the
consumers of organic food products in the
domestic market.

2. How to reduce turnover rates in the BPO
sector.

3. Can the housing and real estate growth be
accelerated.
1. What is the awareness and purchase
intention of health conscious consumers for
organic food products.

2. What is the impact of shift duties on work
exhaustion and turnover intentions of the
BPO employees.

3. What is the current investment in real
estate and housing? Can the demand in the
sector be forecasted for the next six months.

Thus, what we clearly see is that the management problem is a difficulty faced by the
decision maker and by itself cannot be tested. To do this it must be stated in a form that can
lend itself to a scientific enquiry. In case the decision maker is a business manager, the
management research problem requires that we look for an answer to to the problem faced
by the manager, as in the above example of how to reduce the turnover rate in a BPO
company. This problem has to be translated to a simpler form of research question. And as

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said earlier, there can be more than one research problem that can help the manager in
taking a decision. It depends on the researcher how he looks at it.


Q2. How are research designs classified? What are the distinguishing features of
each? Differentiate by giving appropriate examples.

Once you have established the research problem, the next step is method of achieving the
research objectives. this is called the research design. This is the working section of the
proposal as it needs to indicate the logical and systematic approach intended to be followed
in order to achieve the listed objectives. This would include specifying the population to be
studied, the sampling process and plan, sample size and selection. It also details the
information areas of the study and the probable sources of data, i.e., the data collection
methods.

The classification that is universally followed is the one based upon the objective or the
purpose of the study. A simple classification that is based upon the research needs ranging
from simple and loosely structured to the specific and more formally structured. The best
way is to view the designs on a continuum as shown in Figure 3.1. Hence, in case the
research objective is diffused and requires a refinement, one uses the exploratory design,
and this might lead to the slightly more concrete descriptive designhere one describes all
the aspects of the construct and concepts under study. This leads to a more structured and
controlled experimental research design.




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Exploratory designs: They are the simplest and most loosely structured designs. As the
name suggests, the basic objective of the study is to explore and obtain clarity about the
problem situation. For example, a university professor might decide to do an exploratory
analysis of the new channels of distribution that are being used by the marketers to promote
and sell products and services.

Descriptive Research Designs: As the name implies, the objective of descriptive research
studies is to provide a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the phenomena under
study. For example, to design an advertising and sales promotion campaign for high-end
watches, a marketer would require a holistic profile of the population that buys such luxury
products.

Experimental Designs: Experimental designs are conducted to infer causality. In an
experiment, a researcher actively manipulates one or more causal variables and measures
their effects on the dependent variables of interest.

There are four types of experimental designs. These are explained below:

1. Pre-experimental designs
2. Quasi-experimental designs
3. True experimental designs
4. Statistical designs:


Q3. Discuss with the help of examples the four key levels of measurement. What
mathematical operations/statistical techniques are and are not permissible on data
from each type of scale?

Q4. Processing of data involves editing, coding, classifying and tabulating. Explain
each of these steps by taking an appropriate example.

Q5. Distinguish between the following:
a. Null hypothesis and Alternative hypothesis
b. One tailed and two tailed tests
c. Type I and Type II error
d. One way and two way analysis of variance
e. Descriptive and inferential analysis of data

Q6. a. What is Chi-square test of goodness of fit? What precautions are necessary
while applying this test? Point out its role in business decision making.
b. Two research workers classified some people in income groups on the basis of
sampling studies. Their results are as follow:

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Investigators
Income groups
Total
Poor Middle Rich
A 160 30 10 200
B 140 120 40 300
Total 300 150 50 500

Show that the sampling technique of at least one research worker is defective.





Remaining answers are available in the full assignments.


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