MBA SEMESTER III MB0050 Research Methodology- 4 Credits Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries

10 Marks. Answer all the questions

1. a. Explain the General characteristics of observation. [ 5 marks] b. What is the Utility of Observation in Business Research? [ 5 marks] Ans: Observation as a method of data collection has certain characteristics. 1. It is both a physical and a mental activity: The observing eye catches many things that are present. But attention is focused on data that are pertinent to the given study. 2. Observation is selective: A researcher does not observe anything and everything, but selects the range of things to be observed on the basis of the nature, scope and objectives of his study. For example, suppose a researcher desires to study the causes of city road accidents and also formulated a tentative hypothesis that accidents are caused by violation of traffic rules and over speeding. When he observed the movements of vehicles on the road, many things are before his eyes; the type, make, size and colour of the vehicles, the persons sitting in them, their hair style, etc. All such things which are not relevant to his study are ignored and only over speeding and traffic violations are keenly observed by him. 3. Observation is purposive and not casual: It is made for the specific purpose of noting things relevant to the study. It captures the natural social context in which persons behaviour occur. It grasps the significant events and occurrences that affect social relations of the participants. 4. Observation should be exact and be based on standardized tools of research and such as observation schedule, social metric scale etc., and precision instruments, if any.

2. a. Briefly explain Interviewing techniques in Business Research? [ 5marks] b. What are the problems encountered in Interview? [ 5 marks] Ans: The interview process consists of the following stages: Preparation Introduction Developing rapport

 Carrying the interview forward Recording the interview Closing the interview

Interview Problems In personal interviewing, the researcher must deal with two major problems, inadequate response, non-response and interviewers bias. Inadequate response Kahn and Cannel distinguish five principal symptoms of inadequate response. They are: partial response, in which the respondent gives a relevant but incomplete answer non-response, when the respondent remains silent or refuses to answer the question irrelevant response, in which the respondents answer is not relevant to the question asked inaccurate response, when the reply is biased or distorted and verbalized response problem, which arises on account of respondents failure to understand a question or lack of information necessary for answering it. Interviewers Bias The interviewer is an important cause of response bias. He may resort to cheating by cooking up data without actually interviewing. The interviewers can influence the responses by inappropriate suggestions, word emphasis, tone of voice and question rephrasing. His own attitudes and expectations about what a particular category of respondents may say or think may bias the data. Another source of response of the interviewers characteristics (education, apparent social status, etc) may also bias his answers. Another source of response bias arises from interviewers perception of the situation, if he regards the assignment as impossible or sees the results of the survey as possible threats to personal interests or beliefs he is likely to introduce bias. As interviewers are human beings, such biasing factors can never be overcome completely, but their effects can be reduced by careful selection and training of interviewers, proper motivation and supervision, standardization or interview procedures (use of standard wording in survey questions, standard instructions on probing procedure and so on) and standardization of interviewer behaviour. There is need for more research on ways to minimize bias in the interview.

Non-response Non-response refers to failure to obtain responses from some sample respondents. There are many sources of non-response; non-availability, refusal, incapacity and inaccessibility. Non-availability Some respondents may not be available at home at the time of call. This depends upon the nature of the respondent and the time of calls. For example, employed persons may not be available during working hours. Farmers may not be available at home during cultivation season. Selection of appropriate timing for calls could solve this problem. Evenings and weekends may be favourable interviewing hours for such respondents. If someone is available, then, line respondents hours of availability can be ascertained and the next visit can be planned accordingly. Refusal Some persons may refuse to furnish information because they are ill-disposed, or approached at the wrong hour and so on. Although, a hardcore of refusals remains, another try or perhaps another approach may find some of them cooperative. Incapacity or inability may refer to illness which prevents a response during the entire survey period. This may also arise on account of language barrier. Inaccessibility Some respondents may be inaccessible. Some may not be found due to migration and other reasons. Non-responses reduce the effective sample size and its representativeness.

3. a. What are the various steps in processing of data? [ 5 marks] b. How is data editing is done at the Time of Recording of Data? [ 5 marks] Ans: ata is an integral part of all business processes. It is the invisible backbone that supports all the operations and activities within a business. Without access to relevant data, businesses would get completely paralyzed. This is because quality data helps formulate effective business strategies and fruitful business decisions. Therefore, the quality of data should be maintained in good condition in order to facilitate smooth business proceedings. In order to enhance business proceedings, data should be made available in all possible forms in order to increase the accessibility of the same. Data processing refers to the process of converting data from one format to another. It transforms plain data into valuable information and information into data. Clients can supply data in a variety of forms, be it .xls sheets, audio devices, or plain printed material. Data processing

services take the raw data and process it accordingly to produce sensible information. The various applications of data processing can convert raw data into useful information that can be used further for business processes.

Data Editing at the Time of Recording of Data Document editing and testing of the data at the time of data recording is done considering thefollowing questions in mind.Do the filters agree or are the data inconsistent?Have missing values been set to values, which are the same for all research questions?Have variable descriptions been specified?Have labels for variable names and value labels been defined and written?All editing and cleaning steps are documented, so that, the redefinition of variables or later analyticalmodification requirements could be easily incorporated into the data sets.

4. a. What are the fundamental of frequency Distribution? [ 5 marks] b. What are the types and general rules for graphical representation of data? [ 5 marks]

Ans: When you collect behavioral measurements, data is initially unorganized and raw. One of the many uses of statistics is to make sense out of the senseless and randomness of data; that is, organize raw data. This chapter is still dealing with raw data; we are not converting raw data into any type of statistic; we are simply taking the raw data and consolidating it so that it is easier to understand. 3.2 Simple Frequency Distributions For this and the following section consider the following example: I ask n = 50 students the following question and ask them to rate their response to the question on a scale from 1 to 11: Overall, what is your general political attitude?

5 6 9 1 2 3 4 7 8 10 11 slight totall moderatel extreme very moderate somewh slightly somewhat very extremely ly y y ly liber ly at conservati conservati conservati conservati libera neutr conservati liberal al liberal liberal ve ve ve ve l al ve I obtain the following scores: 5 5 4 6 4 6 8 5 8 9 5 11 6 6 6 5 7 7 7 6 5 6 8 3 5 2 2 6 3 6

6 6

8 7

7 9

9 5

5 6

6 7

11 8

3 9

2 8

5 3

Assume the data are presented in the order in which the ratings were obtained, starting with the upper-left value. In its present form, these data are unorganized. Is there anything wrong with the data being unorganized? No, the data are fine. But reading this data and trying to understand what is going on is tough in the current unorganized, form. We need to organize the data! The easiest method for organizing raw data is to create a frequency distribution. In a frequency distribution each possible value in the range between the high score and the low score in the data set is listed with its frequency of occurrence. That is, each value in the data set is listed with the number of times it was recorded across all of the subjects. 5. Strictly speaking, would case studies be considered as scientific research? Why or why not? [10 marks] Ans: Earlier (in the early to mid 20th century) research"with an n of one" (meaning one subject in the test) was common. Then social science got into numbers and percentages and such, and the case study fell away as not useful enough to learn from. However, especially in the "soft" sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethology, etc.) that have to do with people rather than formulas or numbers or the like, case studies can be helpful and important, especially if they are well-constructed, or longitudinal, or are in depth on their topic. 6. a. Analyse the case study and descriptive approach to research. [5 marks]. b. Distinguish between research methods & research Methodology. [5 Marks] Ans: Research Methods and Research Methodology are two terms that are often confused as one and the same. Strictly speaking they are not so and they show differences between them. One of the primary differences between them is that research methods are the methods by which you conduct research into a subject or a topic. On the other hand research methodology explains the methods by which you may proceed with your research. Research methods involve conduct of experiments, tests, surveys and the like. On the other hand research methodology involves the learning of the various techniques that can be used in the conduct of research and in the conduct of tests, experiments, surveys and critical studies. This is the technical difference between the two terms, namely, research methods and research methodology. In short it can be said that research methods aim at finding solutions to research problems. On the other hand research methodology aims at the employment of the correct procedures to find out solutions.

It is thus interesting to note that research methodology paves the way for research methods to be conducted properly. Research methodology is the beginning whereas research methods are the end of any scientific or non-scientific research. Let us take for example a subject or a topic, namely, employment of figures of speech in English literature. In this topic if we are to conduct research, then the research methods that are involved are study of various works of the different poets and the understanding of the employment of figures of speech in their works. On the other hand research methodology pertaining to the topic mentioned above involves the study about the tools of research, collation of various manuscripts related to the topic, techniques involved in the critical edition of these manuscripts and the like. If the subject into which you conduct a research is a scientific subject or topic then the research methods include experiments, tests, study of various other results of different experiments performed earlier in relation to the topic or the subject and the like. On the other hand research methodology pertaining to the scientific topic involves the techniques regarding how to go about conducting the research, the tools of research, advanced techniques that can be used in the conduct of the experiments and the like. Any student or research candidate is supposed to be good at both research methods and research methodology if he or she is to succeed in his or her attempt at conducting research into a subject.