MS 95 Research Methodology for Management Decisions Previous Exam Paper

MBA - Master of Business Administration

Note: Answer all questions.

1. Explain the difference between primary and secondary data

i) What are the advantages of secondary data over primary data? Explain three different methods for primary data collection.

ii) What would be the best source for the following data:

a) Weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers for the range 1995-2000 in an estanlished software firm.
b) Annual sales of the top ten fast food companies.

2. i) A manager notices the number of grievances in the organization is increasing. The manager wishes to investigate this occurence. What research design seems appropriate for the study? Give appropriate explanation.

ii) Give research process to be followed for conducting this study.

3. The arrival pattern of customers at a supermarket occurs sequentially. The manager noted down the arrival sequence of customers sex-wise (M and W denote man and woman).

WWW MM WW MMM WWW M W MMM WWW MM WWW MMM W MM WW MM W MM

Test the hypothesis that the arrivalpattern of the customers is random. The critical value of Z at a (alpha) = 0.05 is 1.96

4. How would you use Likert scale to ascertain the brand preferences of washing machine among the various customers? Develop five questions for brand preferences using Likert scale. How would you make use of these information for decision making?

5. Under what circumstances would you recommend:

a) Convenient sampling
b) Mutlistage sampling
c) Quota sampling

Give an example of each one.

b) Differentiate between stratified sampling and cluster sampling, giving examples of each.