BRM Notes

UNIT-I-II

 Research Theories applied to the Business/Management is called Business

Research

 Hypothesis and Objectives are different.Objectives states “What

researcher want to study in detail”.While Hypothesis is a tentative
assumption,which can be tested logically.The hypothesis guides as to
“what is the research problem to be studied. Examples of Hypothesis can
be “Girls are more sincere than boys” or “People in country A are
honest than in cvountry B”Hypothesis can be proved or disapproved.

Types of hypotheses-
 1.Null Hypothesis -(Ho)-This is no difference hypothesis,i.e. There is no
diffrerence between the population and the sample.

 2.Alternate Hypothesis-(H1)-If the null hypothesis is rejected ,then we

have to accept alternative hypothesis.

 Qualities of good hypothesis-It should be clear,precise,capable of

testing,definite scope,specific,simple,consisting of exixting facts, must
require less time for testing.should display relation between two
variables.

 Hypothesis Testing
1. Since the sample is drawn from population,the sample values are different
from population values.

2. If the difference between sample values and population values. Is

small,we can ignore it and say that the difference is not significant but
if the difference is large we cannot ignaore

3. To determine if the difference is significant or not,various statistical

tools are used.

 All the items under a given problem is called Universe or Population.When

we study the entire population and collect the data from each and every
unit in the population it is called as Census Survey. Howerver it is not
 always possible to conduct a Census Survey ,in such cases , a part of the
population is studied.This part of the population is called a Sample.The
procedure/method by which the sample is selected from the population is
called sampling Design

 Two types of data can be collected

1. Primary data (First hand data)-can be collected through

survey,questionnaire,interviews,etc.

2. Secondary data(second hand data)-that is the exixting data,which can be

collected through Journals,Newspaer,Books,Internet,Etc.

 Exploratory Research-It is used for scientific studies.Its a trial and

error method.examples-First time projects,new ventures.Both Qualitative
and Quntitative techniques of research are used.Projective techniques,in
depth interviews,experience surveys focus group,observation techniques can
be used for this type of research.

 Descriptive Research-Used to describe the charateristics of

individuals/group.Examples-prediction of market,nanation of facts,
charateristics of individuals/group/Organization/situation etc. Example of
such research-case study.

 Experimental Research-Under this,the relationship between two variables is

studied .One variable is manipulated/controlled and its effect on the
other variable is studied.This has increased relaibilty.Such resarch is
majorily conducted in labs.

 Casual relationship- a cause is nothing but which produces some

effect.Examples of this can be-advertisement can be a cause and increase
in sale is the efect.

 Variable- A varibale is a property which is being studied.Like-

 events ,traits,act,attribute,charateristics,etc

 Types of variable.

 Quantity variable-it is a varible which can be measured in some

units.Examples-Height ,weight,income ,valume,price,sale,demand,number of
children in a family,etc.Quantity variable can be further divided into two
variables-Discrete variable and continuous varible.

Discrete variable-it is the one which takes specific values only.Examples-number

of members in a family,number of workers absent in a shift,etc.

Continuous varible- it the one which takes any numerical value within certain
limits.Examples-Height ,weight,deposits,etc

Dependent and independent variables.

Examples-1.Yield is a dependent variable and rainfall is independent

variable.2.Sales is a dependent variable and advertisement is independent
variable

Concomitant variable-These are variables occuring together.Example can be a

study of sleepless nights due to bosy ache.There bosy ache nad sleepless nights
are the variable occuring together.

Extraneous Variables-Independent variables that are not related to the purpose

of the study but may affect the dependent variables are termed as Extraneous
Variables.Example-In the study of the realtionship between number of hours of
study and performance in exam,the Extraneous Variables can be type of
home,locality,environment,etc.

Treatment-It is a different level of variable which can be controlled and with

theses diffrent treaments,the effect on dependent variable can be
measured.Example-To knoe the effect of the changes in price on the demand ,the
geographical area is divided into diffeerenr parts
like ,taluka,district,city,and then accordingly,the different price levels cane
be studied.
Contact Group-It is a group that may be considered as a reference for the
observations on the experimental group.No treatment is given to this group.They
act in a natural environment.

UNIT-III

Measurement of Data

In our day to day life we maesure variables like height,weight,income

etc.easily.But how do we measure liking for whatsapp,facebook,cloths,colours,etc.
Which are qualitative phenomenon.for this we do reaserch and collect data.The
data collect as be classified as Object and properties Further data and
properties are classified as followed-

'DATA

Objects
Properties
 Tangible Intangible
Physical Social,Psychological

Egs-Building Egs-Liking
Egs -Height Egs -Intelligence

Furniture - attitude
- Weight -Stress

Height
-leadership Qualities

Weight

Measurement is a complex and difficult process.

Following are the Problems of measurement in Research.

1. Clarifying the concepts in the resaerch statement

2. Acceptable definitions of the concepts and terms used.

3. Problems in defining the operational research.

4. For a concept or property one has to define a measure .This measure should
be acceptable to all and it should really measure the concept or
property.this is extremely difficult and a complex task.

Sources of errors in Measurements

1. Respondents

2. Situation

3. Measurer

4. Instrument
Measurement should be a accurate and sound one .Sound measurement should have
validity,realiablity and praticality.Further validility is divided into content
validity,criterion validity and construct validity

Sound Measurement

Validity Relaibility
Practicality

Content Criterion Construct

Content Validity-The extent to which a measuring instrument provides adequate

coverage to the topic under the study.proper defination of the resaerch problem.

Criterion validity-To be able to predict the outcome of the research,certain

criterion needs to be developed by researcher
Construct validity-It is abstrat and complex.Both theories and measuring
instruments are used.example-If we want to measure honesty and
satisfaction,these can be measured with some standised person and then be
comapred.

All the three forms of validity are interconnected.

Levels of Measurements:

The Measurement scales can be classified on the basis of mathematical

properties.

Measurement scales

Nominal Ordinal
Interval Ratio

Nominal scale-Only numbers are assigned to label certain events.No Order,no

value is assigned to it.Examples-Roll.No. Given to students,Pan.Nos.Aadhar card
no.

Ordinal Scale-it has certain order assigned.It always implies grater than or
less than.

Examples-Ranking of the students in exams.

Interval Scale-It has power of both nominal and ordinal scale.In this scale '0'
point is ordinary.
Examples-Time. i.e.the lapsed time between 1 and 2 is equal

Ratio scale-It is better than above all scales.It posses properties of all the
three scales.It also has absolute zero that is if length is zero in
centimeters,then thereis absence of length.Comparision of performance can be
done with the help of ratio scales.this is the most precise of all the scales.

Attitude scaling Techniques-

“An attitude is a learned stable predisposition to respond to oneself,other

persons,objects or issues in a consistently favourable or unfavourable ways.it
is cognitively based.

Examples-”I always like and love solar products”.this statement is attitude

based.it shows some emotions about the product.This is attitude.

Concept of scaling

Scaling is the procedure of assigning numbers to various degrees of

opinion,attitude and concepts.

Rating scales-Used in social research and business research.It involves

qualitative description.It is without reference to any other thing.It may be 2
point,3 point,4 point,5 point etc.

Example-

1.always-often-occassionally-rarely-never (5 point scale)

2.Yes-No (2 point scale)

Likert Scale-It contains number of statements which express either a favourable

or unfavourable attitude towards given object-to which the respondents
react.Each response is then converted into a numerical code.Responses are then
totalled(summated).These are called summatedscales.This was designed by Likert
and hence the name. The scale can be 3 point,5 point,7 point

Examples-

1.Strongly agree-Agree-Neutral-Disgree - Strongly disagree (5 point scale)

Semantic differential scales-Based on proposition the object can have several
dimensions of connotative meaning .These meanings are located in a multi-
dimentional space called as semantic space.It is used to measure psychological
meaning of an object.One may choose bipolar (extreme) pairs.

Example-good-bad or weak -strong

Constant sum scales-Helps to discover proportion in total.In this respondents

are asked to allocate the proportion for different factors whose total is 100
or 10

Example-

Durability 80

Price 10

Colour 10

Total 100

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