MGMT.
197:
LESSON 1.1: DEFINITION
AND IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
1. What are the objectives of the study?
Kripa and Ajasllari (2016) studied the factors that affect the profitability of insurance
companies in Alhania on a sample of 7 insurance firms using descriptive and correlation analysis,
where they choose six independent variables namely; fixed assets, liability, liquidity, growth
rate, size, and capital to investigate their effect on the return on assets.
2. What are the findings of the study?
The study found shows that the growth rate is positively associated with profitability
while liabilities and fixed assets are negatively related to profitability.
3. Does the study contribute to the advancement of knowledge to practice?
Yes, it really does. I will study Basic research first then Applied Research to slowly
understand the method of research.
Assessment:
THE PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF CONDUCTING A RESEARCH
Research has a vital role in business. Many successful companies, such as these that produce
consumer goods or mas-market items, invest in research and development or R & D. Different business
industries with science and engineering processes like agriculture, food and beverage, manufacturing,
healthcare and pharmaceuticals, computer software, semiconductor, information technology,
construction, robotics, aero scope, aviation, and energy have high R & D expenditure because it is critical
to product innovation and to improve services. So, above are the reasons which say why one should do
research or what is the importance of research. It is for the whole mankind, which involves individuals
from every group and age. Whatever individual needs it somewhere and at some time surely helps as it
gets accumulated in the knowledge bank of an individual.
LESSON 1.2: QUALITATIVE VS. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Learning Task / Activities
Qualitative research is empirical research where the data are not in the form of numbers also
multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter while in
Quantitative research, data are gathered in a numerical form which can be put into categories, or in
rank order, or measured in units of measurement. This type of data can be used to construct graphs and
tables of raw data.
Assessment:
1. Is the study qualitative or quantitative? Discuss.
The study is a Quantitative research. It aimed to examine the predictions of a purchase
decision in the retail industry. Therefore, the data was collected using a survey method from 278
customers of several department stores in East Coast Malaysia. The selection of a quantitative
approach to conduct this study was considered inappropriate to involve as many participants as
possible and obtain larger number of responses.
2. What are the significant findings of the study?
The findings of the study showed that corporate social responsibility has significant
positive effects on a purchase decision, whereas sales promotion has a negative effect on
purchase decisions. The outcomes of this study also indicated that the store environment has a
significant positive effect on consumers purchase decisions. The finding reveals that the effect of
social media marketing on purchase decisions is insignificant. Finally, the results showed the
perceived value has a significant positive effect on a purchase decision.
LESSON 1.3: THE NATURE OF VARIABLES
Learning Task / Activities
Give at least 5 examples for each of the following.
a.) Nominal variable
1. Country
2. Nationality
3. Race
4. Hair color
5. Name
b.) Ordinal variable
1. Socio-economic status
2. Size
3. Income level
4. Satisfaction level
5. Employee’s performance evaluation
c.) Interval variable
1. FES score
2. Credit score
3. IQ test
4. Height measurement
5. Weight measurement
d.) Ratio variable
1. Doze amount
2. Reaction rate
3. Flow rate
4. Concentration
5. Pulse
Assessment
Quiz
I. Specify the independent and dependent variables.
1. Product quality and speed of delivery are significant predictors of consumers purchase
decisions.
Independent variable/s: product quality and speed of delivery
Dependent variable: consumers purchase decisions
2. Financial reward was found to influence members’ commitment in multi-purpose
cooperatives.
Independent variable/s: financial reward
Dependent variable: member’s commitment
3. Employee performance is believed to be affected by work environment, benefits and
compensation and management support.
Independent variable/s: work environment, benefits, and compensation &
management support
Dependent variable: Employee performance
4. An investigation conducted in Region-8 revealed that governance and members’
participation affect the financial performance of cooperatives.
Independent variable/s: governance & members’ participation
Dependent variable: financial performance of cooperatives
5. Research findings show that age and educational background of the owner influences
profitability of small businesses.
Independent variable/s: age and educational background of the owner
Dependent variable: profitability of small businesses
II. Qualitative vs. quantitative data. Write QN for the quantitative data and QL for qualitative data.
QL 1. Telephone area code
QN 2. Grade point average (GPA)
QN 3. Monthly income
QN 4. Yearly sales
QL 5. Profitability (profitable or not profitable)
QL 6. Business size (micro, small, medium, large)
QN 7. Number of company employees
QL 8. Respondents’ birthdate
QL 9. Employee’s view on how the management runs the business
QN 10. Payback period
