Questions and Answers of Research Methods Business

You are in charge of a financial institution offering credit. Naturally, you are interested in limiting losses for your institution. Develop a model that can guide your decisions as to whether or not
You are employed by a firm selling your product directly to private households. It is costly to visit private homes. You have also observed that some households buy at the first visit, some at the
What is a hypothesis?
What does a correlation coefficient tell?
What is regression analysis? In which research situation is it useful?4 . In a multiple regression analysis, while using income, product experience and family size as dependent variables, the
What is factor analysis? In which situation is it useful?
You have the following data:Hp: m= 200, S$ = 30, n= 64, and x=
Conduct a test at the 0.05 significance level.
Assume you have the following data:Ho: m= 2.450, $ = 400, n= 100, and x— = 2.300. Conduct a test at the 0.01 significance level.
What is the difference between regression analysis and correlation analysis?
What is a ‘dummy’ variable? When is it used and how is it interpreted?
What are the differences in writing a company report and a thesis?
What are the most important issues to be considered while writing the final report for a research project?
Is writing for publication different from writing up the thesis? How?
Pick up a Master’s thesis from the library and prepare a 15-minute presentation.
Pick up a Master’s/PhD dissertation and write a two-page executive summary.
Working in groups of two, read each other a report and give critical comments regarding the structure of the report and the language flow.
Describe the key elements of the classical experimental design.
What do you consider to be the basic uses of exploratory research?
Explain what is meant by: (1) dependent and (2) independent variables.
What is meant by: (1) validity and (2) validity threat?
How would you decide whether a factor can be considered to be a ‘cause’ of something?
An advertising agency has developed two advertisements to be used in a magazine.72 It wants to select the most effective before the ad is printed. Design a study allowing the agency to select the
An Internet bank is concerned with improving its services. In particular the bank wants to know if its customers are dissatisfied with current services and the nature of this dissatisfaction. How
A researcher has observed that some firms in the furniture industry outsource activities such as transportation services while others do not. S/he wants to study: (1) why firms outsource/do not
Why are valid measures important in empirical research?
What is the difference between a conceptual and an operational definition?
Why might a researcher wish to utilize more than one question to measure satisfaction with a job?
How can you improve measurements in your research? Give examples.
Determine whether each of the following measures is a nominal, ordinal, internal or ratio scale:(a) prices on the stock market(b) marital status, classified as married, never married(c) whether or
Define each of the following concepts, and develop operational definitions (measures)for the defined concepts:(a) a ‘workaholic’(b) costs(c) power(d) market share.
Explain the difference between secondary and primary data.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data?
Is all secondary data on a particular topic suitable for a research project on that topic?
‘First explore secondary data, only when secondary data sources are exhausted, then you can plan to collect primary data.’ Comment.
Select a product category. Estimate the total demand of that product in your home country. Also calculate the market share for the largest producer.
A company in the... industry (select industry) wants to learn about the market opportunities in... (select country). Visit websites listed in Table 7.1 to provide this information.
When are: (1) quantitative and (2) qualitative research approaches most appropriate?
What do you consider to be the major reasons for doing historical reviews?
For what research purposes do you consider focus group interviewing appropriate?4 . What is (are) the difference(s) between single case and multiple case study designs?When do you consider: (1)
‘Develop a relationship with the interviewee.’ Comment
You want to understand consumer behaviour towards usage of mobile telephones.You have decided to do that through focus group interviewing. Prepare a focus group interview plan to gain insights into
Draft a letter that you want to send to companies you want to interview/study using the case study method for your research. Formulate a research problem and try to explain that to companies, also
Referring to exercise (1) above: supposing you are trying to understand consumer behaviour for mobile phones through a survey. Formulate a precise research problem and develop a questionnaire that
Visit a store or a marketplace. Observe how people behave and shop.
What distinguishes probability and non-probability sampling?
Explain what is meant by a: (1) convenience and (2) quota sample.
What is a stratified sample?
Sampling is often associated with quantitative and survey research. Is it important in qualitative research based on in-depth interviews? If yes, give examples; if not, why not?
A grocery store wants to know where it attracts customers from. It has no register of its customers. Suggest a sampling procedure allowing insight into this question.
Suggest, step by step, how you would select:(a) a sample of 150 students at your college and university;(b) a sample of male and female workers to compare hourly wages in (select job/work).
What do you consider to be the key challenges in coding data from an open-ended interview?
Explain the concepts of mean, median, mode and standard deviation.
Why do questions permitting several responses require special attention during coding?
A study was designed to estimate the use of a service among a sample of users. The following was found:Length of use Assigned value Frequency Less than 1 year 1 36 1 to less than 2 years 2 16 2 to
In a study the following open-ended question was asked among a sample of customers:‘Have you tasted the new cereal brand “X”?’Yes ONo ~— Stop‘What do you like about the new
What do you consider to be key characteristics of qualitative research?
Explain what is meant by coding. Also explain the role of coding in analysing qualitative data.
What is meant by suggesting that qualitative data are an ‘attractive nuisance’?
What do you think are the main advantages and disadvantages in departing from theory in qualitative research?
How can triangulation make our research more reliable?
You wonder whether young women and young men differ in their evaluations and behaviours in their purchase of a new car. Suggest how you would design a study to explore your research problem. Also
Assume you decide to gather information through un(modestly)-structured interviews.Prepare, conduct and tape-record one such interview. Transcribe the interview, read it, code and analyse it.
Given the situations below, (a) discuss with reasons, whether they will fall into the category of Applied or Basic research, and (b) for scenario 1 explain with reasons, who will conduct the research.
A researcher wants to provide an overview of the gender of the respondents in his sample. The gender is measured like this: What is your gender? 0 Male 0 FemaleWhat is the best way to
Design a study to examine the following situation. An organization would like to introduce one of two types of new manufacturing processes to increase the productivity of workers, and both
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of personally administered, questionnaires, mail questionnaires, and electronic questionnaires.
Discuss how ethnography and participant observation are related.
Read all relevant information regarding Thomas Perks’ study. From this information, develop a coding scheme to test the effect of GDA labels on the consumption of candy bars (chocolate bars). Do
Seek permission from a professor to sit in two sessions of his or her class, and do an unstructured, nonparticipant-observer study. Give your conclusions on the data, and include in the short report
Discuss four dimensions that distinguish various approaches to observation.
You are investigating the service quality of restaurants. You are collecting primary data through interviews and observation. Your task is to go to a restaurant and collect descriptive observational
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of personal and telephone interviews.
Product placement is a form of advertising in which a company’s products and name are intentionally positioned in motion pictures, television programs, radio broadcasts, and the like. Product
Find two or more sources with contrasting viewpoints on the same issue. Discuss the main differences between these sources.
Provide at least two distinctive definitions of two of the following terms:- Leadership- Job satisfaction- Organizational effectiveness- Service quality- Auditor liability- Cash flow
Use the Internet to find more information about the ‘five times why’ approach. Discuss this approach using an example provided on the Internet.
Is there a specific perspective on research that appeals to you? Why?
Describe a situation where research will help you as a manager to make a good decision.
When is applied research, as distinct from basic research, useful?
For what specific purpose is Basic Research important?
Why is analytic induction inductive (rather than deductive) in nature?
What is qualitative data? How do qualitative data differ from quantitative data?
When we collect data on the effects of treatment in experimental designs, which statistical test would be most appropriate to test the treatment effects?
What does coding the data involve?
“Since we cannot directly observe achievement motivation, job satisfaction, and service quality, these are not appropriate topics for a scientific study.” Discuss this statement.
Is it useful to draw on existing measures to measure abstract and subjective constructs such as for instance customer loyalty? Why (not)?
Explain why it is impossible to measure an object.
Define measurement.
What is reactivity?
How does a simple checklist differ from a sequence record on time-scale?
Is it possible to test hypotheses with structured observation? Why (not)?
How does moderate participation differ from complete participation?
How does participant observation differ from structured observation?
Describe the key purpose of observation.
Discuss the interrelationships among the research questions of a study (exploratory, descriptive, causal), study setting (noncontrived or contrived), researcher interference, research strategy, and
“A field study is often more useful than a lab experiment.” Discuss this statement.
How would you go about doing literature survey in the area of corporate social responsibility?
The exact purpose of a critical literature review depends on the research approach that is taken. Discuss this statement.
What is the purpose of the literature survey?

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