Chapter 03

The Research Process: An Overview

About the chapter:
Over view of the entire research process is given in this chapter but more emphasis is put on the Management Research Questions Hierarchy which helps us to decide all the subsequent steps of the research process. Clear understanding of this hierarchy helps a lot to formulate entire research plan.

Type of Questions:
Theoretical questions on management research question hierarchy may be asked. Sometime practical situation is given as a question and students are suppose to write management question hierarchy.

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1. What is Management-Research Question Hierarchy? Explain in detail all the steps of research question hierarchy by giving suitable example.
[In this entire question we will consider a common example where situation will be as follows. In exam students can write same situation to explain each steps of the management research questions hierarchy. Here Mr. C is a company owner. His company is manufacturing R O Systems of local brand and their target market is Vadodara city. Brand name of that product is ABC. Over a period of time it has been observe that sales of R O systems has decline (management dilemma). To find out solution for this dilemma Mr. C consult a researcher whose name is Mr. R. Mr. R is very popular researcher having long experience in marketing research area. Mr. R is first of all trying to prepare Management-Research Question Hierarchy which we will discuss further at different stages of hierarchy.] A useful way to carryout research process is to state basic dilemma and then divide it into more specific questions like management question, research questions, investigative questions and then measurement questions respectively. Following is the theoretical framework of management research questions hierarchy.

1. Management Dilemma: The process begins at the most general level with the management dilemma. Management dilemma is of two types either it can be Opportunity or it can be Threat. Sometimes researcher may have only symptoms at this stage. As mentioned in the above box management dilemma is symptoms which cause management concern. If selected management dilemma is not proper then we are wasting all the resources like time, manpower, money and equipments as entire research will go in the wrong direction. For eg.( Management dilemma) I. Production cost has increased (threat) II. Some costly chemical is found which can increase efficiency of the medicine (opportunity) III. New product design may increase profitability (opportunity) IV. Number of complaints letters have increased (threat) V. Sales of number of units is declining (threat) Prepared by: Devang Kale 2

VI. Quality of the product is deteriorating day by day (threat) VII. Employees turnover has drastically increase in last six months (threat) In the above given example Management Dilemma is, Sales of R O System has decline from last six months. How to move from Management Dilemma to Management Questions: As researcher is not having knowledge about the entire field first he/she has to gather detail knowledge about the particular topic and then he/she will be in a position to convert management dilemma into management question. For this researcher may use secondary sources of data like company reports, industry outlook, articles published in newspapers or magazines, information available on various websites of the competitors. In addition to this one may refer various reports published in various journals. This process is called Exploration. 2. Management Question: Using above mentioned sources researcher can convert management dilemma into management question. Management question restate management dilemma in the form of question. It is a second step of hierarchy. For eg. (Management Questions) I. What should be done to reduce production cost? II. Is it feasible to adopt costly chemical? III. Is it feasible to introduce new product design? IV. What should be done to reduce number of complaints? V. What should be done to increase sales of product? VI. What should be done to improve quality of the product? VII. What should be done to reduce employees turnover ratio? Management questions are sometimes of the nature troubleshooting and sometimes they are goal oriented. How to move from Management Questions to Research Questions: For moving management question to research questions researcher make use of exploration. Researcher can evaluate secondary data which is published in various sources. This process is called literature review. For crystallizing available information and to know some internal part of the information researcher can conduct interview of managerial level people who can give important views which can be helpful to frame research questions. For eg. 1. Management Dilemma: Sales of R O System has reduce in last six months. 2. Management Questions: How to improve sales of R O System? 3. Research Question: This is the third step of hierarchy. Once researcher has a clear statement of the management question, researcher and manager must translate it into a research question. At this point expertise of manager is required. One can have long list of research questions but it is very necessary to focus on only those research questions which are most significantly affecting to the phenomenon. A Research Questions are nothing but hypothesis which we are suppose to check using systematic process. So we can say all the research questions are possible solution to the research problem. 1. Management Dilemma: Sales of R O System has reduce in last six months. Prepared by: Devang Kale 3

2. Management Questions: How to improve sales of R O System? 3. 1. 2. 3. Research Questions: Should company spend more amounts on advertisement? Should management change incentive structure for sales person? Should management change design of the product?

4. Investigative Questions: Once research questions have been selected, researcher moves to the more specific questions which are called investigative questions. These questions bring information which is necessary to answer research questions. Investigative questions are questions the researcher must answer to satisfactory arrive at a conclusion about the research question. For creating investigative questions researcher breaks research questions into small parts. Investigative questions are the foundation for creating data collection instrument. i.e. measurement questions. 1. Management Dilemma: Sales of R O System has reduce in last six months. 2. Management Questions: How to improve sales of R O System? 3. Research Questions: Should company spend more amounts on advertisement? Should management change incentive structure for sales person? Should management change design of the product? 4. Investigative Questions: Will we loose efficient sales persons after implementing new incentive structure? Will we be able to retain old customers after changing product design? Will more advertisement create negative impact on the potential customers mind? 5. Measurement Questions: Measurement questions are the fifth step of hierarchy. Measurement questions are the questions which appear actually in the questionnaire and asked to the respondent. In case of observation study measurement questions are nothing but observations researcher must record about the participant. There are two types of measurement questions: 1. Predesigned and Pretested, 2. Custom Design questions. Predesigned and pretested are the questions which are designed and tested by the previous researcher and we are using it directly in our research. One advantage of these questions is, reliability and validity is already checked by the previous researcher and that is why we can save time and money. For the example which we have considered in the beginning research question hierarchy is as follows: 1. Management Dilemma: Sales of R O System has reduce in last six months. 2. Management Questions: How to improve sales of R O System? 3. Research Questions: Should company spend more amounts on advertisement? Should management change incentive structure for sales person? Should management change design of the product? 4. Investigative Questions: Will we loose efficient sales persons after implementing new incentive structure? Prepared by: Devang Kale 4

Will we be able to retain old customers after changing product design? Will more advertisement create negative impact on the potential customers mind? 5. Measurement Questions: To the employees: 1. Are you ready to work with the same organization if salary structure is revised? 2. What kind of incentive structure do you prefer more from the below mentioned incentive structure? To the customers: 1. How much preference you give to the local brand of R O System? 2. How do you rate new design of R O System as compare to the old product? 3. Will you refer R O System to your friends or relatives? 6. Management Decision: On the basis of analysis of collected data using various measurement questions, researcher can recommend course of action to the management which is called management decision. Management decision comes from the solution of the research questions. Management decision is the area where researcher takes concern of the management.

2. Write Management Research Questions Hierarchy for the following situation:

In a small town there are three banks. Bank XY is the oldest bank among the three. From last one year it has been observed that profitability of the bank has reduced significantly and this situation is of great concern to the management of the bank. Bank manager Mr. Z wants to find out solution to this problem and for that he consults you as you have good research experience. So help Mr. Z to overcome this problem and for that write management research questions hierarchy. 1. Management Dilemma: Profitability of XY Bank has reduce from last one year. 2. Management Questions: How can we increase profitability of the Bank XY? This question can be break further into small part for the convenience. I. How can we increase deposits with bank? II. How can we reduce cost? 3. Research Questions: I. Should Bank XY position it self as a modern, technologically advance institute? Or II. Should Bank XY retain its image of the oldest and most reliable bank in the town? 4. Investigative questions: There are two main investigative questions for two research questions. These questions are further divided in to sub questions so that good quality measurement questions can be framed using it. I. What is the perception of public about bank services? a) What specific financial services customer used most? b) Which services of the bank are very attractive? II. What is the status of the bank among its competitors? a) What words customers attached with Bank XY and with competitors of Bank XY? b) How customers compare various services of Bank XY with its competitors? c) What are the demographic differences between customers of Bank XY and its competitors?

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5. Measurement Questions: These are the questions which are asked to the respondent using questionnaire. I. Which financial service of Bank XY you use most? E banking_____ Phone Banking_______ ATM________ Personal Banker_________ II. What words you attach to the service of Bank XY________________________________ III. How much you are satisfied with the quality of service of Bank XY? Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very Satisfied 1 2 3 4 5

3. How budget is decided and allocated to the research? And how valuation of the research information is done?
For conducting research budget is very important resource to be allocated. Budget is required for (1) Project planning, (2) Data gathering and (3) data analysis. Most costly activity is data gathering. Following are the methods which are widely used for allocating budget: 1. Rule of thumb budgeting: Here specific proportion of the sales revenue is pre decided and accordingly amount is spend on research activity. For eg. If it is decide to spend 5% of the sales revenue then every time 5% of the sales revenue is spend on research activity. 2. Departmental or Functional area budgeting: Here amount to be spend on research activities is decided using the proportion of total expenditures in the unit. This practice is generally followed by Government organization, Not for profit organizations and private sector units. 3. Task budgeting: It is useful for ad hoc projects. This method is least proactive but permits definitive cost-benefit analysis. Following are the methods which are widely used for the valuation of research: 1. Ex Post Facto Evaluation: Here research is evaluated when research is complete and its results are implemented. After implementation process its effect is measured and decided that whether research is useful or not. Sometimes this approach does not give proper answer as effect of the research comes late. 2. Prior or Interim Evaluation: In this approach research is evaluated either before starting research process or after completing half part of the research. Here cost benefit analysis is done at every stage of the research. 3. Option Analysis: When many options are available to the management, management selects only that option which can give maximum benefit to the organization. Here comparative analysis is done among the available options.

4. What is Pilot Testing?

The data gathering phase of the research typically begins with pilot testing. Pilot study is conducted using 25-100 respondent. There are mainly two uses of pilot testing. 1. A Pilot test is conducted to detect weakness in design and data collection instrument. If any jargons are used in the questionnaire or if some questions are not understood by the respondents then this can be identified and can be removed or changed before going for actual survey. This way researcher can reduce wastage of valuable resources like money, time etc. 2. To decide proper sample size in probability sampling we require estimated values of population mean and variance which can be obtained through pilot study and can be substituted in the formulas to find out sample size.

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[Questions for practice: 1. In some service provider company numbers of complaints have drastically increased and management wants to find out solution for this. Write management research question hierarchy for the same situation. 2. Quality of the product of some company is deteriorating day by day and this is a serious concern for the management of a company. Write research questions hierarchy for the given situation. 3. How Exploration is useful for moving one step to another step in research question hierarchy? ]

Prepared by: Devang Kale