UNIT - I BBA -II SEM
Research Methodology Measuring Customer Satisfaction
Introduction:
Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as
any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish
novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new
ideas, or develop new theories. The primary purposes of
basic research are documentation, discovery, interpretation,
or the research and development of methods and systems
for the advancement of human knowledge. Approaches to
research depend on epistemologies, which vary considerably
both within and between humanities and sciences.
Definition-
Redman and Mory define research as ''systematized effort
to gain new knowledge''
The advance Learner's dictionary of Current English lays
down the meaning of research as -''investigation or
experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation
of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of
new facts, or practical application of such new or revised
theories or laws''
Application of Research in Various Functions of
Management-
The function of research is often to measure various
elements important for business decisions. These elements
are often call metrics and can include advertising results,
product usage and customer feedback, according to Dobney,
an international marketing research consulting firm. The
research functions will usually be contingent upon a
company's overall research objectives. For example, some
companies conduct research to determine the potential
success of a new product. Other companies need solutions
to problems.
Measuring Brand Awareness
One business research function is determining a company's
brand awareness. Brand awareness is the percentage of
consumers who are aware of a company's brand in the
marketplace. For example, 95 percent of all consumers
nationally may be aware of a large consumer products
company. However, only 10 percent of all customers in a
local market may be aware of a small cleaning company.
There are two main types of brand awareness: Aided and
unaided. Aided brand awareness is usually measured by
asking consumers, "Have you ever heard of 'Joe's Hardware'
store?" The person conducting the survey will usually
provide the company's name to measure aided brand
awareness. Contrarily, a company will not provide a
company's name to measure unaided awareness. Instead,
the company may include the survey question: "Which
hardware stores are you familiar with in the local area?"
Companies with strong unaided awareness among
consumers may be one of the preferred brands in the
market.
Prof. Amit Kumar
FIT Group of Institutions
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Business research is often used to measure satisfaction
among consumer or business customers. For example, a
company may want to determine how satisfied customers
are with its customer service department. Market
researchers may ask consumers to evaluate their
experiences with a company's phone, email and technical
support, three possible levels of customer service.
Companies may also ask customers how satisfied they are
with product features or prices. A publisher may ask
business clients how satisfied they are with the content of its
newsletter. Customer satisfaction is an important element
for companies to track in business research. Satisfied
customers are usually more likely to keep buying a
company's products.
Tracking Ad Effectiveness
Business research functions also include tracking advertising
effectiveness. Companies like to know how many people
saw their ads and who responded to an offer as a result of
an ad. Companies use business research to track ad results
from print, radio, direct, television and other types of
advertising. Sometimes, a company will even track the
number of people who recall its advertising slogan or
message. For example, a pizza restaurant company may ask
consumers what details they remember from a television ad
campaign.
Solving Problems
Companies also use business research to solve problems. For
example, a consumer products company may want to
evaluate why consumers are switching to a competitive
brand of peanut butter. In the course of surveys, the
consumer products company may find that consumers
prefer the taste and texture of competitive brands.
Consequently, the consumer products company may need to
develop a better tasting peanut butter.
Types of Research-
The basic types of research are as follows:
(i) Descriptive vs. Analytical:
Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding
enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of
descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it
exists at present. In social science and business research we
quite often use the term Ex post facto research for
descriptive research studies. The main characteristic of this
method is that the researcher has no control over the
variables; he can only report what has happened or what is
happening. Most ex post facto research projects are used for
descriptive studies in which the researcher seeks to measure
such items as, for example, frequency of shopping,
preferences of people, or similar data. Ex post facto studies
also include attempts by researchers to discover causes even
when they cannot control the variables. The methods of
research utilized in descriptive research are survey methods
of all kinds, including comparative and correlation methods.
In analytical research, on the other hand, the researcher has
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to use facts or information already available, and analyze
these to make a critical evaluation of the material.
(ii) Applied vs. Fundamental:
Research can either be applied (or action) research or
fundamental (to basic or pure) research. Applied research
aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a
society or an industrial/business organisation, whereas
fundamental research is mainly concerned with
generalisations and with the formulation of a theory.
Gathering knowledge for knowledges sake is termed pure
or basic research. Research concerning some natural
phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics are examples
of fundamental research. Similarly, research studies,
concerning human behaviour carried on with view to make
generalizations about human behaviour, are also examples
of fundamental research, but research aimed at certain
conclusions facing a concrete social or business problem is
an example of applied research. Research to identify social,
economic or political trends that may effect a particular
institution or copy research or the marketing research are
examples of applied research. Thus, the central aim of
applied research is to discover a solution for some pressing
practical problems. Whereas basic research is directed
towards finding information that has a broad base of
applications and thus, adds to the already existing organized
body of scientific knowledge.
(iii) Quantitative vs. Qualitative:
Quantitative research is based on the measurement of
quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can
be expressed in terms of quantity. Qualitative research, on
the other hand, is concerned with qualitative phenomenon,
i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind. For
instance, when we are interested in investigating the
reasons for human behavior, we quite often talk of
Motivation Research, an important type of qualitative
research. This type of research aims at discovering the
underlying motives and desires, using in depth interviews for
the purpose. Other techniques of such research are word
association tests, sentence completion tests, story
completion tests and similar other projective techniques.
Attitude or opinion research, i.e., research designed to find
out how people feel or what they think about a particular
subject or institution is also qualitative research. Qualitative
research is specially important in the behavioural sciences
where the aim is to discover the underlying motives of
human behaviour. Through such research we can analyse
the various factors which motivate people to behave in a
particular manner or which make people like or dislike a
particular thing. It may be stated, however, that to apply
qualitative research in practice is relatively a difficult job and
therefore, while doing such research, one should seek
guidance from experimental psychologists.
(iv) Conceptual vs. Empirical:
Conceptual research is that related to some abstract idea(s)
or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers
to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones. On
the other hand, empirical research relies an experience or
Prof. Amit Kumar
FIT Group of Institutions
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
observation alone, often without due regard for system and
theory. It is data based research, coming up with conclusions
which arc capable of being verified by observation or
experiment. We can also call it as experimental type of
research, in such a research it is necessary to get at facts
firsthand, at their source, and actively to go about doing
certain things to stimulate the production of desired
information. In such I research, die researcher must first
provide himself with a working hypothesis or guess as to the
probable results. He then works to get enough facts (data)
to prove or disprove his hypothesis. He then sets up
experimental designs which he thinks will manipulate the
persons or the materials concerned so as to bring forth the
desired information. Such research is thus characterised by
the experimenters control over the variables under study
and his deliberate manipulation of one of them to study its
effects. Empirical research is appropriate when proof is
sought that certain variables affect other variables in some
way. Evidence gathered through experiments or empirical
studies is today considered to be the most powerful support
possible for a given hypothesis.
(v) Some Other Types of Research:
All other types of research are variations of one or more of
the above stated approaches, based on either the purpose
of research, or the time required to accomplish research, on
the environment in which research is done, or on the basis
of some other similar factor. Form the point of view of time,
we can think of research either as one-time research or
longitudinal research. In the former case the research is
confined to a single time-period, whereas in the latter case
the research is carried on over several time-periods.
Research can be field-setting research or laboratory research
or simulation research, depending upon the environment in
which it is to be carried out. Research can as well be
understood as clinical or diagnostic research. Such research
follow case-study methods or indepth approaches to reach
the basic causal relations. Such studies usually go deep into
the causes of things or events that interest us, using very
small samples and very deep probing data gathering devices.
The research may be exploratory or it may be formalized.
The objective of exploratory research is the development of
hypotheses rather than their testing, whereas formalized
research studies are those with substantial structure and
with specific hypotheses to be tested. Historical research is
that which utilizes historical sources like documents,
remains, etc. to study events or ideas of the past, including
the philosophy of persons and groups at any remote point of
time. Research can also be classified as conclusion-oriented
and decision oriented. While doing conclusion oriented
research, a researcher is free to pick up a problem, redesign
the enquiry as he proceeds and is prepared to conceptualize
as he wishes. Decision-oriented research is always for the
need of a decision maker and the researcher in this case is
not free to embark upon research according to his own
inclination. Operations research is an example of decision
oriented research since it is a scientific method of providing
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executive departments with a quantitative basis for
decisions regarding operations under their control.
Problems Encountered By Researchers-
There are several problems encountered by novice
researchers. Some of them are:
1.Lack of scientific training in the methodology of
research-
There is a paucity of competent researchers. The scenario in
most cases is like a blind leading the blind. Most of the
people who hold the position of research guides are
themselves not thorough with the various methodologies.
They lead the researcher/students to copy methodology of
similar studies.
2.Copying of data (Plagiarism)-
Some researchers merely copy other international studies
or studies which have been done by researchers/students of
other universities. This is crime and should not be
promoted. A Researchers can re-evaluate others
study by considering and overcoming the limitations of
previous study, but at no cost should be copied or repeated.
One should learn to respect others hard work. The act itself
leads to lack of awareness in research methodology.
3.Manipulation of data-
Every researcher tries or does one or the other kinds of
manipulation of data. May be multiplying the sample
size or to make the result in the way they want.
The lack of confidence over the result they may get after
the completion of study is the reason for manipulation of
result. This never reveals the reality, as the intuition of the
researcher is guided by mere theoretical knowledge.
In reality sometimes theory and practice may be
contradictory. Some researchers just finish off their study by
simply sitting in their home; they dont even interact with
their subject or have any one.
4.Lack of availability or access to literature
needed-
This is a major problem faced during the literature review.
The lack of availability of access to Internet, ignorance
of the way to search needed articles from journals
another databases are other problems. Searching
books and newspaper articles from conventional libraries
consumes a lot of time and effort. These kind of libraries,
especially which are situated away from the capital cities
lack copies of new acts/rules published by the government.
There is also timely unavailability of published
Prof. Amit Kumar
FIT Group of Institutions
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Process-Research process consist of series of
activities or steps necessary to effectively carry out research
and the desired sequences of these steps.
these steps are-formulate hypothesis
Research Design-
Design research investigates the process of designing in all
its many fields. It is thus related to Design methods in
general or for particular disciplines. A primary interpretation
of design research is that it is concerned with undertaking
research into the design process. Secondary interpretations
would refer to undertaking research within the process of
design. The overall intention is to better understand and to
improve the design process.
RESEARCH DESIGN:
DEFINITION
A research design is a framework or blueprint for
conducting the marketing research project. It details the
procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed
to structure and/or solve marketing research problems.
COMPONENTS OF RESEARCHDESIGN
Define the information needed Design the exploratory,
descriptive, and/or causal phases of the research Specify
the measurement and scaling procedures Construct and
pretest a questionnaire(interviewing form) or an appropriate
form for data collection Specify the sampling process and
sample size Develop a plan of data analysis
RESEARCH DESIGN:
CLASSIFICATION
Research Design
1.ExploratoryResearchDesign
2.ConclusiveResearchDesign
3.DescriptiveResearch
4.CasualResearch
5.Cross-SectionalDesign
6.LongitudinalDesign
7.SingleCross-SectionalDesign
8.MultipleCross-SectionalDesign
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 UNIT - I BBA -II SEM RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH-
The exploratory research design, as the name suggests,
involves getting a feel of the situation and emphasises a
discovery of ideas and possible insights that may help in
identifying areas of further rigorous study. For example a
food product manufacturer, wanting in introduce a
breakfast cereal may be in knowing the desirable attributes
of such a product before really defining the product concept.
The main objective of the exploratory research is to fine
tune the broad problem into specific problem statement and
generate possible hypotheses. It therefore, gives useful
direction for further research. The exploratory studies are
mainly used for:
1) Providing information to enable a more precise problem
definition or hypothesis formulation.
2) Establishing research priorities.
3) Giving the researcher a feel of the problem situation and
familiarising him with the problem.
4) Collecting information about possible problems in carrying out
research, using specific collection tools and specific
techniques for analysis.

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
Descriptive Research is to describe market characteristics
or functions Descriptive research is conducted for the
following reasons:
Describing the characteristics of relevant groups, such as
consumers, salespeople, organizations, or market areas.
Estimating the percentage of units in a specified population
exhibiting a certain behaviour. Determining the
perceptions of product characteristics. Determining the
degree to which marketing variables area associated.
Making specific predictions.

Prof. Amit Kumar

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