Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad

PGDM FT

Term- IV: End-Term Exam

Business Research Methods

Time: 90 Minutes

Maximum Marks: 40

Note:

1. Please write in clear handwriting.

2. Closed book examination.
3. Bullet points with minimal but crisp explanation would be rewarded over general description.
Therefore, think before you write!
4. In case of doubts take realistic assumptions and proceed.

NOTE: ATTEMPT ANY THREE QUESTIONS FROM SECTION A. SECTION B IS

COMPULSORY.
SECTION A

1. What statistical technique would you suggest if research is conducted to address the
following hypotheses? Explain your answer. (3+3+4 = 10 Marks)
a. There is a strong relationship between service quality dimensions and customer
satisfaction in banking services.
b. Service quality has a significant influence on the customer satisfaction.
c. A company has 24 salespersons. The test must evaluate whether their sales performance
is unchanged or has improved after a training program.
2. Outline the step by step procedure you would use to select the following: (3+3+4 = 10
Marks)
d. A simple random sample of 150 students at IMT Ghaziabad.
e. A quota sample of 50 light users and 50 heavy users of beer in a shopping mall intercept
sample.
f. A stratified sample of 50 mechanical engineers, 40 electrical engineers, and 40 civil
engineers from the subscriber list of an engineering journal.
3. Describe the four different levels of scale measurement with examples of each. Also,
please indicate the kinds of statistical analyses that each type of scale is amenable
to. (5 Marks + 5 Marks)
4. A research study was commissioned to understand the competitiveness of retail
bookstore business. The study was aimed to gauge the level of customer satisfaction
with current operations. Rating scales were used to measure customer satisfaction and
 some performance parameters. The performance parameters were: overall perceived
value (VALUE), convenient store hours performance (CSHPER), Low price
performance (LOPRIPER), Visually appealing performance (VAPER) and Availability
of books on discount performance (ABDPER). A regression analysis was conducted
with Overall customer satisfaction (OSAT) as the dependent variable and the above
mentioned performance parameters as independent variables. The following results were
obtained: (5 Marks + 5 Marks)
Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the

square estimate

1 .809 .655 .642 .343

a. predictors: (Constant), VALUE, VAPER, CSHPER, LOPRIPER, ABDPER

ANOVAb

Model R df Mean Square F Sig.

Regression 30.376 5 6.075 51.672 .000

Residual 15.990 136 .118

Total 46.366 141

a. predictors: (Constant), VALUE, VAPER, CSHPER, LOPRIPER, ABDPER

b. Dependent Variable: OSAT

Coefficientsa

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients

B Beta
t Sig.
Std.Error

(Constant) -.886 .436 -2.030 .044

VAPER 6.502E- 0.43 .085 1.511 .133

02
 ABDPER .031 .314 5.040 .000

.155

CSHPER .099 .405 5.949 .000

.590

LOPRIPER .041 .201 3.241 .001

.133

VALUE .038 .341 5.244 .000

.201

a. Dependent Variable: OSAT

a. Assess the effects of each independent variable in terms of its significance, overall relative
size of the effect, and the direction of the effect.

b. Interpret the regression analysis in terms of the overall significance of the model and the
percent of variance explained.
SECTION B

1. A bank wanted to examine the effect of direct mail offers and in-branch promotions upon
the level of sales of personal loans. In-branch promotion was varied at three levels: high
(1), medium (2) and low (3). Direct mail efforts were manipulated at two levels. Either a
travel alarm clock was offered to customers who took out a loan (denoted by 1) or it was
not (denoted by 2). (5 Marks + 5 Marks)

i. How many hypothesis can be framed out of the above problem? State the hypotheses.
ii. What data analysis technique can be the best fit for the given problem? Why?