Research Methodology, Question Paper of MBA 2nd Semester,Download Previous Years Question Paper 2

ROLL NO……………….                                                         Examination, May – 2014                                                                 NO. OF PAGES: 02

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

MBA-206

PAPER ID-C0251

Time: 3 Hrs.                                                                                                                                                                                                         MM: 60

SECTION – A

NOTE: All questions carry equal marks. Attempt any four questions.

Q1. Define research. What are the objectives of research? Briefly describe the different steps involved in a research process.

Q2. “Research design in exploratory studies must be flexible but in descriptive studies, it must minimize bias and maximize reliability”. Discuss.

Q3. Distinguish between:

(a)    Restricted and unrestricted sampling;                                            (b) Summative and Cumulative scales.

Q4 Explain the meaning of the following:

(a)    Confidence level and significance level;                                         (b) Type I and Type II error:

Q.5. an experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of Chloromyeetin in checking typhoid. In a certain hospital Chloromyeetin was given to 285 out of the 392 patient suffering from typhoid. The number of typhoid cases was a follows:

	Typhoid	No Typhoid	Total
Chloromycetin	35	250	285
No Chloromycetin	50	57	107
Total	85	307	392

With the help of ‘x’ best the effectiveness of Chloromyeetin in checking typhoid.

(The ‘X’ value at 6 per cent level of significance for on degree of freedom is 3,841)

Q6. What do you mean by multivariate techniques? Explain their significance in context of research studies.

SECTION – B

(8 X 4 = 32)

NOTE: All questions carry equal marks. Attempt four in total, selection one from each subsection.

Q7. (i) Write short notes on:

(a)    Design of the research project::                                                        (b) Ex post facto research

(c    Components of a research problem;                                                               (d) Rephrasing the research problem

OR

Q7. (ii) Answer the following questions:

(a)    What is research problem? Define the main issues which should receive the attention of the researcher in formulating the research problem. Give suitable examples to elucidate your points.

(b)   “Knowing what data are available often serves to arrow down the problem itself as well as the techniques that might be used.” Explain the underlying idea in this s statement in the context of defining a research problem.

OR

Q8. (a) The following are the number of departmental stores in 10 cities 35,27,24,32,42,30,34,40,29 and 38. If you want to select a sample of 15 stores using cities as clusters and selecting within cluster proportional to size, how many scores from each city should be chosen? (Use a starting point of 4)

b) What sampling design might be used to estimate the weight of a group of men and women.

                                                                                                                OR

Q8. Write a short note on the following:

a.       Cross tabulation;                                                                                      b. Discriminant analysis:

C     Coefficient of contingency;                                                                  d. Multicollinearity:

Q9. (a) What are the alternative approaches of determining a sample size? Explain.

(b  If we want to draw a simple random samples from a population of 4000 items, how large a sample do we need to draw if we desire to estimate the per cent defective within 2 % of the true value with 95.45% probability.

                                                                                                                OR

Q9. The following nine observations were drawn from a normal population:

                                                                                                27, 19, 20, 24, 23, 29, 21, 17, 27

a.       Test the null hypothesis Ho: µ = 26 against the alternative hypothesis H.: µ  ≠ 26. At what level of significance can Ho be rejected.

b.      At what level of significance can Ho: µ = 26 be rejected when tested against H_d  µ < 26?

Q10. Write short notes on :

(a)    Cluster analysis;                                                                             (b) Multidimensional scaling;

(c   Reflections in context of factor analysis;                              (d) Maximum likelihood method of factor analysis;

OR

Q10. Write short notes on the following:

a.       The techniques of writing report;                                                    (b) Characteristics of a good research report;

c     Bibliography and its importance in context of research report, d. Rewriting and polishing of report

SECTION – C (COMPULSORY)

NOTE: Attempt any one case study.

Q11.

CASE 1: Team performance in  XYZ Industries various considerably across teams and from month to month. The senior VP in Charge of team development thought that a team training progress could improve the performance of these teams. A Constant convinced him that his firm’s training program, which lasted only one week and cost RS 25,000/- per team) could raise the performance of XYZ’s teams. The VP, however, wanted to experimentally test the efficiency of this training program before he adopted it widely throughout the firm. So the consultant suggested the following experimental test:

There were 48 teams in XYZ that showed significance variation from month to month in their level of performance. The consultant chose the 24 worst performing teams based on last month’s date and assigned them to the training group. “After all,” he argued, “these were the ones who most needed it.” The result showed that the training group teams had a significantly larger rise (i.e., statistically significant) in their performance than did the control group teams (Who, as a group, did not improve at all). The consultant proudly displayed these results and argued that they convincingly demonstrated the efficacy of his program.

How would you advice the VP? Specifically, what is the validity of the consultant’s conclusions? If you think he might be mistaken, what specific threats as internal validity are particularly plausible?

OR

Q11. 

CASE 2: Assume you are an organizational research design expert assigned to the Strategic Planning Department of a large multinational manufacturing firm. The Department has developed a new, PC-based, software package called “STARTPACK”. The software(and a  one-week training course to learn how to use it_ is intended to improve the long-range planning ability of middle and upper-level managers.

Your job as research design expert is to devise research ( a design, a research strategy, a set of measures_ than will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the STARTPACK program. Describe a research deign for evaluating the program. Make sure that your research approach can be used in the future and at all sites in the company. When developing your plan, be sure to address at least the following issues:

a.       Discuss how your design and approach deals with the major forms of validity. Be sure to examine at least internal, external, and construct validity.

b.      The type of design you would select (e.g. a design where you manipulate the independent variable versus observe the independent variable.) Compare and contrast the selected design with another possible design.

c.       How your design deals with the major forms of validity. Be sure to examine at least internal, external, and construct validity.