"COMPREHENSIVE ASSIGNMENTS MODULE 7.1: RESEARCH METHODSQuestion one Using appropriate examples, explain FOUR features of a researchable problem. 1. The problem is real. This means that it comes from real life situations rather thanthe researcher’s imagination. A specific statement of the problem makes it possible tocarry out the study. On the other hand, a broad statement tends to be vague therebymaking the study impossible to carry out. Efforts to make the statement of the problemspecific are also reflected in specific objectives or questions. For example, the statement,“Factorsaffecting growth of businesses” is vague. What type of businesses? Where arethe businesses located? It will become more specific if stated as “Factors affectinggrowth of businesses owned by women entrepreneurs in Nairobi”. 2. The concepts can be clearly defined. The concepts i.e. characteristics in the problemare so clear that one can specify in words what the questions are. For example, in theproblem “to determine factors affecting growth of transport businesses owned by womenmembers of credit groups in urban centers in central Kenya”, the concepts “growth”,“transport’’, “business”, “urban centre’s”, and “Central Kenya’’ should be clearlydefined. Where concepts are clearly defined, it becomes easier to perceive clearly thequestions in the problem.3. Measurable;this could be represented by some evidence, which can be obtainedfrom direct observation or other activities. Do general education teachers evaluatestudent homework differently than special education teachers, based on five criteria? 4. The research activity is feasible. This refers to the ease and convenience of carryingout the research.Question twoUsing relevant examples, explain FOUR purposes for which business researchers conductresearch. 1. To discover new knowledge.When you conduct a business research, you will be gathering relevant information thatyou can use to make your business better. For instance, in a marketing search, you will beidentifying your target market and the needs. You have to offer something that the marketneeds or you will not be able sell anything! Never enter into a business unless you haveeverything planned out.2.To predict the future Evaluating the market trend is an essential task organizations undertake during the initialstages. The market trend analysis is also conducted during the product / project planning phases. Unless the management understands how the market works and how the trendflows for a particular product or service, managing a project will be tiresome. Simplyhaving an enthusiastic feeling and motivational thoughts cannot help conducting abusiness in this ever-changing competitive world. The business research methods such asquestionnaires, surveys and focus groups are widely used by businesses to gain insightson evaluating the market trends. Through business research models, you can check if themarket is huge enough to earn revenue by selling your company’s product or by offeringits services3. Determine PriceIs your product or service valued and priced appropriately? Do your customers achieve areturn on investment by purchasing your product or service? If you price it very low, justto be competitive on the market, customers may think that the quality of your product ison the lower end.At the same time, if your product is labeled too high, you will seedrastic customer attrition. Business research methodologies help to decide the right pricefor your product or service. Through these methodologies you can find out the price of asimilar product offered by your competitions. Remember, even if the pricing of aparticular product from yours and the competitors are the same, you need to checkwhether your competitor is offering any additional services or special discounts alongwith the product. Determining the right price for your product is very important.4. Helps in Decision Making The management makes hundreds of decisions in order to achieve business success. Theemployee attrition is also an important factor which affects decision-making inbusinesses. Using questionnaires to learn what motivates employees is critical indecision-making when acquiring new businesses or expanding the existing business.Business research methods help in analyzing key business parameters and in turn,managers become successful in decision making. Let's look at the key parameters whichcan be analyzed and used in decision-making.Question three A final year undergraduate student in the process of developing his research proposalhas approached you for assistance. Explain FOUR points that you would use to explain tohim why literature review is important.For any study to contribute to research knowledge, it should clearly build on the work of othersin the area of inquiry. Literature review is particularly useful to this end as it helps one todevelop a deeper understanding of the problem that he/she intends to investigate.1. Delimiting the research problem Selecting a limited problem and investigating it in depth is better than the superficialstudy of a broad problem. The literature will also show how other researchers haveformulated useful lines of inquiry within a broad field. 2. Seeking new lines of inquiryDuring the review of literature, one is able to determine what research has alreadybeen done in the area of interest. One should at the same time be on the lookout forresearch possibilities that might have been overlooked. Identification of new andunexplored areas is good knowledge in itself. 3.Avoiding fruitless approaches Review of literature sometimes identifies several similar studies over a period in thepast, employing approximately the same research methodology and all of whichfailed to produce a significant result. If several studies under the same circumstanceshave been done with the results confirming the initial findings, it would not beprudent to do yet another similar study. Such a study would serve no purpose andwould only show that the researcher had not done adequate literature review.4. Gaining methodological insights A good review of literature helps the researcher in identifying possible practicalresearch methods that he could use. It is therefore necessary to research beyond theresults reported. The methodological insights gained might be useful to otherresearchers. 5.Identifying recommendations for further research Every study usually concludes with a discussion of its findings andrecommendations for further research. A researcher should consider these recommendations carefully because these could provide you with a researchproblem as well as the justification for studying it. 6.Seeking support for grounded theory Many research studies are designed to test a theory that has already been developed.According to Barney Glaser though, studies can also be designed in a way that dataare collected first, and then a theory is derived from those data5. This results in a“grounded theory” i.e. “grounded” in a set of real world data. When literaturereview is conducted in this way, it might generate support for the theory. It mightalso open matters that make the researcher to question or refine his or her owntheory. Ultimately the researcher might even end up developing ideas for furtherstudy.Question fourUsing appropriate examples to illustrate your answer, describe any FOUR methods thatyou would use to objectively select the sample for a study that you intend to undertake. Random sampling is the purest form of probability sampling. Each member of the populationhas an equal and known chance of being selected. When there are very large populations, it isoften difficult or impossible to identify every member of the population, so the pool of availablesubjects becomes biased. Systematic sampling is often used instead of random sampling. It is also called an Nth nameselection technique. After the required sample size has been calculated, every Nth record isselected from a list of population members. As long as the list does not contain any hidden order,this sampling method is as good as the random sampling method. Its only advantage over therandom sampling technique is simplicity. Systematic sampling is frequently used to select aspecified number of records from a computer file.Stratified sampling is commonly used probability method that is superior to random samplingbecause it reduces sampling error. A stratum is a subset of the population that share at least onecommon characteristic. Examples of stratums might be males and females, or managers and non- managers. The researcher first identifies the relevant stratums and their actual representation inthe population. Random sampling is then used to select a sufficient number of subjects from eachstratum. "Sufficient" refers to a sample size large enough for us to be reasonably confident thatthe stratum represents the population. Stratified sampling is often used when one or more of thestratums in the population have a low incidence relative to the other stratums.Convenience sampling is used in exploratory research where the researcher is interested ingetting an inexpensive approximation of the truth. As the name implies, the sample is selectedbecause they are convenient. This nonprobability method is often used during preliminaryresearch efforts to get a gross estimate of the results, without incurring the cost or time requiredto select a random sample.Judgment sampling is a common nonprobability method. The researcher selects the samplebased on judgment. This is usually and extension of convenience sampling. For example, aresearcher may decide to draw the entire sample from one "representative" city, even though the population includes all cities. When using this method, the researcher must be confident that thechosen sample is truly representative of the entire population.Quota sampling is the nonprobability equivalent of stratified sampling. Like stratified sampling,the researcher first identifies the stratums and their proportions as they are represented in thepopulation. Then convenience or judgment sampling is used to select the required number ofsubjects from each stratum. This differs from stratified sampling, where the stratums are filled byrandom sampling.Snowball sampling is a special nonprobability method used when the desired samplecharacteristic is rare. It may be extremely difficult or cost prohibitive to locate respondents inthese situations. Snowball sampling relies on referrals from initial subjects to generate additionalsubjects. While this technique can dramatically lower search costs, it comes at the expense ofintroducing bias because the technique itself reduces the likelihood that the sample will representa good cross section from the population. "