Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
For example: An organic farmer and trader in Uttarakhand , Nirmal farms wants to sell
his organic food products in the domestic Indian market. However, he is not aware if
this is a viable business opportunity and since he does not have expertise or time to
undertake any research to aid in the formulation of marketing strategy , he decides to
outsource the study.
3. Discussion with subject experts: The next step involves getting the problem in right
perspective through discussions with industry and subject experts. These individuals
are knowledgeable about the industry as well as the organization. They could be found
both within and outside the company. The information on the current and probable
scenario required is obtained with the assistance of a semi structured interview. Thus
researcher must have a predetermined set of questions related to the doubts
experienced in problem formulation.
DECISION PROBLEM RESEARCH PROBLEM
What should be done to increase the What is the awareness and purchase
customer base of organic products in intention of health –conscious consumers to
the domestic market? organic products?
How to reduce the turnover rates in What is the impact of shift duties on work
the BPO sector? exhaustion and turnover intentions of the
of the BPO employees?
How to improve the delivery process of How does widex/ Industry leader manage
its hearing aids in India? its supply chain in India/ Asia?
Should the company continue with its What is the satisfaction level of the company
existing security services vendor or look with the existing vendor ? Are there any
at an alternative? gaps? Can they be effectively handled by
the vendor?
Can the housing and real estate growth What is the current investment in
be accelerated real estate and housing? Can the
demand in the sector be forecasted
for the next six months?’
Whom should ICICI choose as its next What has been the leadership
Managing director- Mr. ABC or Mrs. XYZ? Initiatives and performance record
of ABC vs XYZ?
Can a leading aggressive private
sector bank accept a women as its
leader?
Review of existing literature: A literature review is a compilation of the information
obtained from published and unpublished sources of data in the specific area of
interest to the researcher. This may include journals, newspapers, magazines , reports,
government publications and also computerized data bases.
Once the data has been collected from different sources, the researcher must collate
all information together in a cogent and logical manner instead of just listing the
previous findings. The document must avoid plagiarism and ensure that the list of
earlier studies is presented in his own words.
To illustrate the significance of a literature review, given below is a small part of
literature review done on organic purchase.
Research indicates organic is better quality food. The pesticide residue in commercial food is almost
three times the amount found in organic food. Baker et al.(2002) found that on an average, conventional
food is more than five times likely to have chemical residue than organic samples, pesticides toxicity has
been found to have detrimental effects on infants, pregnant women and general public (National
research council, 1993; Ma et al , 2002; Guillete et al, 1998). Major factors that promote growth in
organic market are consumer awareness of health , environmental issues and food scandals ( Youssefi
and Willer,2002).
Organizational Analysis : An organizational analysis is based on data regarding the
origin and history of the firm including its size, assets, nature of business, location and
resources. It assists in arriving at the research problem. Another significant source for
deriving the research problem is the industry and organizational data. In case the
researcher / investigator is the manager himself/herself, the data might be easily
available.
Qualitative Survey Sometimes the expert interview, secondary data and organizational
information might not be enough to define the research problem . In such a case, an
exploratory qualitative survey might be required to get an insight into the behavioural
or perceptual aspects of the problem. These might be based on small samples and
might make use of focus group discussions or pilot surveys with the respondent
population to help uncover relevant and topical issues which might have significant
bearing on the population definition.
Management Research Problem Once the audit process of secondary review and
interviews and survey is over, the researcher is ready to focus and define the issues of
concern, that need to be investigated further, in the form of an unambiguous and
clearly –defined research investigated further, in the form of an unambiguous and
clearly defined research problem.
To address the problems of clarity and focus, we need to understand the components
of well defined problem these are:
1. The unit of Analysis
2. Research Variables
a. Dependent Variable
b. Independent Variable
c. Moderating Variables
d. Extraneous Variables
A Variable , in general, is a symbol to which we can assign numerals or values. It can be
dichotomous, discrete or indefinite.
The unit of Analysis is that particular source from which the required information is obtained.
It can be individual(s) department, organization or an industry.
A dependent Variable is measurable and quanfiable variable in nature. It is the most crucial
variable to be analysed in a given research study.
Moderating Variables (MVs) are the ones that have a strong contingent effect on the
relationship between the independent and dependent variable. They have the potential to
modify the direction and magnitude of the above stated association.
There might be instances when confusion might arise between a moderating variable and
independent variable. Consider the following situation-
Proposition 1: Turnover intention (DV) is an inverse function of organizational commitment
(IV), especially for workers who have a higher job satisfaction level(MV).
While another study might have the following proposition test.
Proposition 2: Turnover intention (DV) is an inverse function of job satisfaction.
Thus, the two propositions are studying the relation between the same three moderating
depends on the research interest of the decision marker.
Intervening Variable : An intervening variable (IVV) is a temporal occurrence which
follows the independent variable and precedes the dependent variable.
Graphical representation of moderating variable . Proposition 2
Job Satisfaction
(Independent Variable- I.V.) a
Organizational Commitment b Turnover Intention
(Moderator Variable-M.V.) (Dependent Variable)
Job Satisfaction X c
Organizational Commitment
Here a represents the effect of independent variable (Job Satisfaction); b represents the effect of the second
variable moderator variable (Organizational Commitment) and C represents the moderating effect, which is
combined effect of the moderating variable and independent on the dependent variable. Thus the effect of C
has to be large enough and significant enough (Statistically) to prove the moderation hypothesis.
Graphical representation of mediating variable
a
Flexi-time Work Schedule Productivity (Outcome-D.V.)
(Independent Variable –I.V.)
c b
Job Satisfaction
(Mediating Variable)
In research methodology the intervening variable is also known as mediating variable, as it mediates the
strength and direction of the relationship between the independent and dependent variable. For example
in the above case , the direct effect of the predictor or the independent variable is measured by a; and the
mediating impact of the mediating variable is represented by b. But the independent variable acts on the
mediating variable as represented by C.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND MODEL BUILDING
Turnover
Intentions
Statement of Research Objectives
Research objectives are to be formulated according to the basic, thrust areas of the research
which are crucial to the study being conducted.
The research question(s) that were formulated have to be broken into pieces as task or
objectives.
The researcher has to numerically list the thrust areas of research. For this some active verbs
are used such as “ to find out”, “to determine”, “to establish” and “to measure” so as to spell
out the objectives of the study.
In the case of Organic food research, the objectives and sub objectives of the study were-
1. To study the existing organic market:
To Categorize the organic products available in Delhi into grain, snacks, herbs, pickles,
squashes fruits and vegetables.
To estimate the demand pattern of various products for each of the above categories.
To understand the marketing strategies adopted by different players for promoting and
propagating organic products.
2. Consumer Diagnostic Research: This would entail
To study the existing consumer profile, i.e.. Perception and attitudes towards the
organic products and purchase and consumption pattern.
To study the potential customers in terms of consumer segments, level of
awareness, perception and attitude towards health and organic products.
3. Opinion Survey: To access the awareness and opinions of experts such as doctors,
dieticians and chefs in order to understand organic consumption and propagation.
4. Retail Market: This would involve:
To find the gap between demand and supply of existing retailers;
To forecast demand estimates by considering the existing as well as potential
retailers.
Formulation of The Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis means mere assumptions or suppositions which are to be proved or
disproved.
2. Based on direction
• Directional and Non-directional Hypothesis
• For example ,
Higher the likeability of the advertisement, the higher the recall rate.
Sometimes the researcher might not have reasonable supportive data to hypothesize
the expected direction of the relationship. In this case he or she would leave the
hypothesis as non-directional or two-tailed test.
For example,
There is a relationship between quality of working life and job satisfaction
experienced by employees.
Ban on smoking has an impact on cigarette smoking.
Formulation of Hypothesis
Test statistic(
Setting up the Selecting a
mean/proportion/var
hypotheses significance level
iance)
Critical values/level of
decision significance/type of
test