GM07Research Methodology

Assignment No.I

Assignment Code: 2011GM07A1 Last Date of Submission: 31st March 2011Maximum Marks:100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section-A

Ques.1 Discuss the interaction problem between management and marketing research.

Ques.2 Write short notes on any two of the followingi)Dependent, Independent & Extraneous variablesii)Errors in marketing Researchiii)Qualitative Researchiv)Questionnaire construction

Ques.3 A medium-sized manufacturer of high-speed copiers and duplicators was introducing a new desktop model. The vice president of communications had to decide between two advertising programs for this product. He preferred advertising program A over program B and was sure A would generate more sales than its counterpart. The next day he was to meet with the senior vice president of marketing and planning to decide on an appropriate research design for a study that would aid in the final decision as to which, advertising program to implement. What research design would you recommend? Justify your choice.

Ques.4 What is the role of the researcher in the problem definition process? Explain the difference between a symptom and a problem. As a researcher how do you differentiate between the two and identify a true problem?

Section-BCase Study:

Leed Markets was a chain of supermarkets in Mumbai. For six years it had provided its customers with

unit pricing of grocery products. The unit prices were provided in the form of shelf tags that showed the

price of the item and the unit price (the price per ounce, for example). The program was costly. The

tags had to be prepared and updated. Further, because they tended to become dislodged or moved,

considerable effort was required to make sure that they were current and in place.

A study was proposed to evaluate unit pricing. Among the research questions in the study were the

following:

* What percentage of shoppers was aware of unit pricing?

* What percentage of shoppers used unit pricing?

* With what frequency was unit pricing in use?

* What types of shoppers used unit pricing?

* For what product classes was it used most frequently?

* Was it used to compare package sizes and brands or to evaluate store-controlled labels?

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It was determined that a five-page questionnaire completed by around 1000 shoppers would be needed. The

questionnaire could be completed in the store in about 15 minutes, or the respondent could be asked to complete

it at home and mail it in.

The following are the questions:

1. Specify how the respondents should be approached in the store.

2. Write out the exact introductory remarks that you would use. Should the interview be in the store, or

should the questionnaire be self-administered at home and mailed in, or should some other strategy

be employed?

3. If a self-administered questionnaire is used, write an introduction to it. What could be done to

encourage a high response rate?

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GM07Research Methodology

Assignment No.II

Assignment Code: 2011GM07A2 Last Date of Submission: 15th May 2011Maximum Marks:100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section-A

Ques.1 Are an equal number of home-based businesses owned by men & women? A recent study of 899 home-based businesses reported that 369 were owned by women. Is there evidence that there are an equal number of home-based businesses owned by men & women? Use a 0.05 level of significance.

Ques.2 A Company manufactures steel bars. If the production process is working properly, it turns out steel bars with an average length of at least 2.8 meters with a standard deviation of 0.20 meter (as determined from the engineering specifications of the production equipment involved). Longer steel bars can be used or altered, but shorter bars must be scrapped. A sample of 25 bars is selected from the production line. The sample indicates an average length of 2.73 meter. The company wishes to determine whether the production equipment needs an alignment. If the company wishes to test the hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance, what decision would it make using the critical value approach to hypothesis testing?

Ques.3 What is the basic idea underlying the analysis-of-variance procedure? In general, how are these sources of variation computed? What is the basic statistic used to test for the differences among means in analysis of variance?

Ques.4 Write short notes on:a)Methods of data collection in survey research.b)Secondary data analysis

Section-B

Based on the following case answer the questions given at the end:

In a management institute there are four sections consisting of 40 students each in PGDBM first year. In the previous semester all students have been taught Quantitative Techniques. Marks secured by each student in QT paper are available. In this semester Research Methodology is to be taught to all four sections. There are two members of the core faculty team who can be assigned two sections. Due to restriction of the work load for a teacher, the institute is forced to hire the services of visiting faculties for remaining two sections. As there will be four teachers teaching the same course, the institute is interested in finding out is there any difference in effectiveness of teachers (or do visiting faculty conducts the course as effectively as a core faculty).

It is also felt that performances of students from Commerce, Engineering and Science/Arts backgrounds vary significantly in the Research Methodology paper. Is it true?

There is another thought that students with better understanding of Quantitative Technique perform significantly better in Research Methodology. Use 0.05 as significance level for all these tests.

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i) Formulate needed hypotheses.ii) Considering the cost of experimentation and data collection, develop a cost effective research design

explaining as to how randomization, replication and local control have been exercised in the suggested research design.

iii) List all the local control measures that need to be applied.

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