Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

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School of Business
EXAMINATION
Semester One Final Examinations, 2016

RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

This paper is for all students.

Examination Duration: 120 minutes

For Examiner Use Only
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Question Mark
Exam Conditions:

This is a Central Examination

This is a Closed Book Examination - specified materials permitted

During reading time - write only on the rough paper provided

This examination paper will NOT be released to the Library

Materials Permitted In The Exam Venue:

(No electronic aids are permitted e.g. laptops, phones)

An unmarked Bilingual dictionary is permitted

Calculators - Casio FX82 series or UQ approved (labelled)

Materials To Be Supplied To Students:

1 x 14 Page Answer Booklet

Instructions To Students:

Additional exam materials (eg. answer booklets, rough paper) will be

provided upon request.

PART A: FOUR questions. Answer ALL questions. Each question is worth 15

marks for a total of 60 out of 100.

PART B: ONE question. Worth 40 out of 100.

Please answer ALL questions in the writing booklet provided. The examination is
for a total of 100 marks and is worth 40% of the course grade.

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Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

PART A

Question 1.
This question has four parts. Answer all parts (3+3+5+4 = 15 marks).

(a) Briefly explain the notion of the question hierarchy. Which is the most
important level of question in the hierarchy? (3 marks)

(b) What is theory and what is a hypothesis, and what role do they play in
business research? (3 marks)

(c) Compare and contrast internal validity and external validity in experimentation.
Name and discuss TWO possible threats to internal validity in
experimentation. (5 marks)

(d) For the scenario below: (1) determine and explain the type of experimental
design used, and (2) diagrammatically represent the design. (4 marks)

A researcher wanted to test the impact of the government's "obesity control"

advertisements on people's perceptions of a healthy weight. Two random
samples of respondents were selected for the experiment. First a survey was
conducted with each of the samples to measure their initial perceptions. Then
one of the samples was shown the advertisement, and following this the
surveys were conducted again with both samples to capture any change in
perceptions.

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Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

Question 2.
This question has two parts. Answer all parts (5 + 10 = 15 marks).

(a) Briefly explain the concepts of validity and reliability in measurement. Explain
what is meant by the terms convergent validity and discriminant validity. (5
marks)

(b) Identify the type of scale (nominal /ordinal /interval /ratio) in each of the
following FOUR questions. Justify your choice of scale in each answer. (10
marks)

i. Please indicate how much you agree/disagree with the following

statement.
David Jones offers excellent customer service

ii. What is your age in number of years? __________

iii. What is your preference for the following electronic brands? Rank them
on a scale of 1 to 6, where 1 means most preferred and 6 means the
least preferred.
Sony Panasonic
Samsung Toshiba
LG Teac

iv. How often do you use excel?

Daily 2-3 times a week
Once a week 2-3 times a month
2-3 times a year Only for university subjects

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Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

Question 3.
This question has two parts. Answer all parts (5 + 10 = 15 marks).

(a) For the situation described below: (1) identify the population and
sampling frame, and (2) identify and explain the most appropriate
sampling method. Justify your answer. (5 marks)

A private health insurer wants to conduct research on their customers

price sensitivity. Their customer base can be split into three different
groups: singles, couples and families with children. The health insurer
suspects that these groups have varying levels of price sensitivity.

(b) For the situation described below: (1) what would be the sample size
required? (2) what would be the sample size required if the precision
were changed to 7 hours? Show full working for both answers. (10
marks)

Channel 9 wants to estimate the average number of hours of television

viewing per week per family in Queensland. You are asked to generate
an estimate within 5 hours of the actual value. Further, there should be
95% confidence that the estimate is correct. From previous studies
their marketing manager knows the standard deviation of television
viewing to be 10 hours per week.

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Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

Question 4.
This question has three parts. Answer all parts (5+10 = 15 marks).

For the situation described below interpret the regression output shown in table 4.
(a) Explain why multiple regression is a relevant statistical data analysis
technique to test the hypothesis. (5 marks)
(b) Interpret the results (shown on the next page) and discuss the managerial
implications. (10 marks)

The president of a Broadway theatre company is concerned about what factors

impact peoples future intentions of attending a Broadway show. A researcher
hired to examine the issue conducted exploratory research which indicated the
relationship between the customer and the company was paramount. Specifically,
it appeared that trust, commitment, satisfaction and reputation could be key
variables in determining the strength of the consumer-company relationship.
The researcher then conducted a survey of the employees which resulted in 241
usable responses. All the variables were measured on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 =
strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. The researcher used multiple regression
analysis to examine the relationships between the consumers feelings of Trust
(TRUST), Commitment (COMMIT), Satisfaction (SAT) and Reputation (REP) and
their future Purchase Intention (INT). The researcher generated the following
regression output (Table 4.1 on the next page).

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Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

Table 4.1 Multiple Regression Analysis Output

Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.3776
R Square 0.1426
Adjusted R Square 0.1281
Standard Error 1.9099
Observations 241

ANOVA
Significance
df SS MS F F
Regression 4 143.167 35.792 9.813 0.000
Residual 236 860.824 3.648
Total 240 1003.992

Standardised Standard
Coefficients Coefficients Error t Stat P-value
Intercept 1.0416 0.5224 1.9937 0.0473
TRUST 0.2243 0.932 0.0608 3.6872 0.0003
COMMIT 0.1369 0.868 0.0650 2.1062 0.0362
SAT 0.1209 0.655 0.0645 1.8730 0.0623
REP 0.2210 0.843 0.0666 3.3196 0.0010

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Semester One Final Examinations, 2016 RBUS2900 Business Research Methods

PART B

Question 5.
This question is worth a total of 40 marks.

The following papers have been made available to you during the semester.
Gauri, D. K., Harmon-Kizer, T. R., & Talukdar, D. (2016). Antecedents and
outcomes of market mavenism: Insights based on survey and purchase data.
Journal of Business Research, 69(3), 1053-1060.

Hill, K. M., Fombelle, P. W., & Sirianni, N. J. (2016). Shopping under the
influence of curiosity: How retailers use mystery to drive purchase motivation.
Journal of Business Research, 69(3), 1028-1034.

Demonstrating your understanding of business research methods:

i. Compare and contrast the research design used in each of the papers.
ii. What advantages and disadvantages do the designs have?
iii. Which approach do you believe is the strongest and why?
iv. Are there ways to strengthen your favoured design?

END OF EXAMINATION

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