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OMBC 106:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Unit2:
Research Problem and Formulation
of the Research Hypotheses

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 Introduction

Research is not finding something in the light

which you lost in darkness

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 Introduction
• Research problem and the formulation of the research
hypothesis.
• The most important aspect of the business research
method is to identify the 'what‘
• what is the exact research question to which you are
seeking an answer.
• The second important thing is that the process of
arriving at the question should be logical and follow a
line of reasoning that can lend itself to scientific inquiry.
• This reasoning approach needs to be converted into a
possible research question.
• based on the initial study of the research topic, one
should be able to make certain assumptions which can
lend direction to the study as research hypotheses.
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 Introduction
• This reasoning approach needs to be converted into a
possible research question.
• Based on the initial study of the research topic, one
should be able to make certain assumptions which can
lend direction to the study as research hypotheses.
• Thus, in this unit, we will understand how to identify a
problem that can be subjected to research and help us
reduce decision risks

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 Defining the Research Problem
• Mere Identifying and defining a research problem will
not suffice.
• The bigger challenge is to convert the decision into a
research problem that can lead to a scientific inquiry.
• Powers et al. (1985) have put it, 'Potential research
questions may occur to us on a regular basis,but the
process of formulating them in a meaningful way is not
at all an easy task'.
• narrow down the decision problem and rephrase it into
workable research questions.
• the identification of the problem gives an indication of
the expected result.
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 Defining the Research Problem
• A research problem can be defined as a gap or
uncertainty in the decision makers' existing body of
knowledge which inhibits efficient decision making.
• As Kerlinger (1986) states, 'If one wants to solve a
problem, one must generally know what the problem is.
It can be said that a large part of the problem lies in
knowing what one is trying to do'.
• Research Problem can be simple or complex
• Simple problems are those that are easy to understand
and the components and identified relationships are
linear, e.g., the relation between cigarette smoking and
lung cancer.
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 Defining the Research Problem
• Complex problems on the other hand, talk about the
interrelationship between multiple variables, e.g., the
effect of job autonomy and organizational commitment
on work exhaustion, at the same time considering the
interacting (combined) effect of autonomy and
commitment.
• This might be further different for males and females.
• These kinds of problems require a model or framework
to be developed to define the research approach.

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 Management Problem vs. Research Problem
• The problem recognition process starts with the
decision maker and some difficulty or dilemma that
he/she might be facing.
• this might be related to actual and immediate
difficulties faced by the manager (applied research)
• gaps experienced in the existing body of knowledge
(basic research).
• The broad decision problem has to be narrowed down
to an information-oriented problem which focuses on
the data or information required to arrive at any
meaningful conclusion

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 Steps in formulating the research problems

• Develop a suitable title

• Build a conceptual model of the problem
• Define objective of the study
• Set up investigative questions
• Formulate hypothesis
• State the operational definition of concepts
• Determine the scope

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 Management Problem
• Management problem is a difficulty faced by the
decision maker and by itself cannot be tested.
• The management's problem is looking for answers to
the problem faced by the manager
• E.g. how to reduce the turnover rate in a BPO company.
• This problem has to be reduced to a simpler form of
research question. And as said earlier, there can be
more than one research problems that can help the
manager in taking a decision. It will depend on the
researcher how he looks at it.

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 Management Problem
What are the management policies in other BPO
companies?
Why do the employees of the company leave the
company? What is the problem area?
Are the shift duties creating a problem of work family
conflict which is why they leave?
How can the company work on employee engagement so
that he stays with the company?

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 Problem Identification Process
1. Management decision problem:
• the identification of the difficulty encountered by the
business manager / researcher,
• can give it to some agency,
• researcher/decision maker required to carry out a
problem appraisal,
• complete audit of the origin and symptoms of the
diagnosed business problem.

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 Problem Identification Process
2. Discussion with subject experts:
• industry experts, academicians, consultants, scientists.
• information about the current state and the future
projections can be obtained in an interview.
• purpose of the interview is simply to gain clarity on the
problem area and not to arrive at any kind of conclusion
or solutions to the problem.

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 Problem Identification Process
3. Review of existing literature
• A comprehensive collection of the information obtained
from published and unpublished sources of data.
• This may include journals, newspapers, magazines,
reports, government publications, and also
computerized databases.
• it provides different perspectives and methodologies to
be used to investigate the problem and related variables.
• Might already have been studied and might be useful in
solving a decision dilemma.
• Helps in narrowing the research scope
• Lays the foundation for the problem statement.
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 Problem Identification Process
3. Review of existing literature
• The reporting should cite the author and the year of the
study clearly. There are several internationally accepted
forms of citing references and quoting from published
sources. The Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (2001) and the Chicago Manual
of Style (1993) are academically accepted as referencing
styles in management.

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 Problem Identification Process
4. Organizational analysis
• Another significant source for deriving the research
problem is the industry and organizational data.
• For managers, the data might be easily available.
organizational demographics—origin and history of the
firm; size, assets, nature of business, location and
resources; management philosophy and policies as well
as the detailed organizational structure, with the job
descriptions.
• organizational data might not be always essential, for
example in case of basic research, where the nature of
study is not company specific but general.
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 Problem Identification Process
5. Qualitative survey
• Sometimes, the expert interview, secondary data and
organizational information might not be enough to
define the problem.
• a small exploratory qualitative survey can be done to
understand the reason for the same.
• These surveys are done on small samples
• make use of focus group discussions or interviews with
the respondent population
• to help uncover relevant and current issues which might
have a significant bearing on the problem definition.

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 Problem Identification Process
6. Management research problem:
Once the audit process of secondary review and interviews
and survey is over, the researcher is ready to focus and
define the issues of concern that need to be investigated
further, in the form of an unambiguous and clearly defined
research problem.
Here, it is important to remember that simply using the
word 'problem' does not mean that there is something
wrong that has to be corrected, it simply indicates the gaps
in information or knowledge base available to the
researcher.
Second, identifying all possible dimensions of the problem
might be a monumental and impossible task for the
researcher.
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 Problem Identification Process
6. Management research problem:
For example, the lack of sales of a newly launched product
could be due to consumer perceptions about the product,
ineffective supply chain, gaps in the distribution network,
competitor offerings or advertising ineffectiveness. It is the
researcher who has to identify and then refine the most
probable cause of the problem and formalize it as the
research problem. This would be achieved through the five
preliminary investigative steps indicated above. Once done,
the research problem has to be clearly defined in terms of
certain components.

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 Problem Identification Process
7. Theoretical foundation and model
• Identifying the problem and related variables is not
enough, schema or network of the probable relationship
between the identified variables is also important
• expected direction of the relationships between the
concepts.
• an indication of whether the relationship would be
positive or negative.
• This step is not mandatory for example in exploratory
research

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 Problem Identification Process
8. Statement of research objectives:
• Next, the research question(s) that were formulated
need to be broken down into tasks or objectives that
need to be met in order to answer the research
question.
• This section makes active use of verbs such as 'to find
out', 'to determine', 'to establish', and 'to measure' so as
to spell out the objectives of the study.
• In certain cases, the main objectives of the study might
need to be broken down into sub-objectives which
clearly state the tasks to be accomplished.

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 Components of the Research Problem
The unit of analysis:
• The researcher must specify in the problem statement
• the individual(s) from whom the research information is
to be collected and
• on whom the research results are applicable.

This could be the entire organization, departments, groups

or individuals.

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 Components of the Research Problem
Research variables: The research problem also requires
identification of the key variables under study.
A variable is any concept that varies and we can assign to it
numerals or values.
A variable may be dichotomous in nature, that is, it can
possess two values such as male-female or customer-non-
customer.
Values that can only fit into prescribed number of
categories are discrete variables, for example, Strongly
Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). There are still others that
possess an indefinite set, e.g., age, income and production
data. These are called continuous variables.
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 Components of the Research Problem
• Dependent variable (DV) : The most important variable
to be studied and analysed in research study is the
effect-dependent variable.
• The entire research process is involved in either
describing this variable or investigating the probable
causes of the observed effect.
• Thus, this must be a measurable variable.
• For example, in the organic food study, the consumer's
purchase intentions as well as sales of organic food
products in the domestic market, could serve as the
dependent variable.

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 Components of the Research Problem
• Independent variable (IV): Any variable that can be
stated as influencing or impacting the dependent
variable is referred to as an independent variable.
• to establish the relationship between the independent
and dependent variable(s).
• In the organic food study, the consumers' attitude
towards healthy lifestyle could impact their organic
purchase intention.
• Thus, attitude becomes the independent and intention
the dependent variable. Another researcher might want
to assess the impact of job autonomy and role of stress
on the organizational commitment of the employees;
here job autonomy and role stress are independent
variables.
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 Components of the Research Problem
• Moderating variables (MV): Moderating variables are
the ones that have a strong effect on the relationship
between the independent and dependent variables.
• These variables must be considered in the expected
pattern of relationship as they modify the direction as
well as the magnitude of the independent-dependent
association.
• In the organic food study, the strength of the relation
between attitude and intention might be modified by the
education and the income level of the buyer. Here,
education and income are the moderating variables.

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 Components of the Research Problem
• Proposition 1: Turnover intention (DV) is an inverse
function of organizational commitment (IV), especially
for workers who have a higher job satisfaction level
(MV).
• While another study might have the following
proposition to test: Proposition 2: Turnover intention
(DV) is an inverse function of job satisfaction (IV),
especially for workers who have a higher organizational
commitment (MV).

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 Components of the Research Problem
• Extraneous variables are outside the domain of the study
and responsible for chance variations, but in some
instances, their effect might need to be controlled.
• Exogenous variables are independent, and endogenous
variables are dependent. Therefore, if the variable does
not depend on variables within the model, it's an
exogenous variable. However, if the variable depends on
variables within the model, it's an endogenous variable.

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 Formulating the Research Hypotheses
• The problem identification process ends in the
hypotheses formulation stage.
• Any assumption that the researcher makes on the
probable direction of the results that might be obtained
on completion of the research process is termed as a
hypothesis.
• The statements thus made can then be empirically
tested.
• Kerlinger (1986) defines a hypothesis as '…a conjectural
statement of the relationship between two or more
variables'. According to Grinnell (1993), 'A hypotheses is
written in such a way that it can be proved or disproved
by valid and reliable data— it is in order to obtain these
data that we perform our study'.
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 Formulating the Research Hypotheses
• A hypothesis must be formulated in simple, clear, and
declarative form.
• A broad hypothesis might not be empirically testable.
Thus, it might be advisable to make the hypothesis uni-
dimensional, and to test only one relationship between
only two variables at a time.

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 Formulating the Research Hypotheses
• Consumer liking for the electronic advertisement for the
new diet drink will have positive impact on brand
awareness of the drink
• High organizational commitment will lead to lower
turnover intention
• A hypothesis must be measurable and quantifiable
• A hypothesis is a conjectural statement based on the
existing literature and theories about the topic and not
based on the gut feel of the researcher
• The validation of the hypothesis would necessarily
involve testing the statistical significance of the
hypothesized relation
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 Types of Research Hypotheses
• Null Hypothesis
• a statement that says there is no relationship between
two groups that the researcher compares on a certain
variable.
• Two groups can be two samples, population and sample
etc.
• may state that there is no significant difference when
different groups are compared with respect to a variable.
• For example, “There is no difference in the academic
performance of high school students who participate in
extracurricular activities and those who do not
participate in such activities”
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 Types of Research Hypotheses
• Non-directional Hypothesis:
• Certain hypothesis statements convey a relationship
between the variables that the researcher compares, but
do not specify the exact nature of this relationship.
• This form of hypothesis is used in studies where there is
no enough past research on which to base a prediction.
Continuing with the same example, a non-directional
hypothesis would read, “The academic performance of
high school students is related to their participation in
extracurricular activities.”

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 Types of Research Hypotheses
• Directional Hypothesis: This type of hypothesis suggests
the outcome the investigator expects at the end of the
study.
• Scientific journal articles generally use this form of
hypothesis.
• The investigator bases this hypothesis on the trends
apparent from previous research on this topic.
Considering the previous example, a researcher may
state the hypothesis as, “High school students who
participate in extracurricular activities have a lower GPA
than those who do not participate in such activities.”
Such hypotheses provide a definite direction to the
prediction.
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 Types of Research Hypotheses
• Causal Hypothesis: Some studies involve a measurement
of the degree of influence of one variable on another. In
such cases, the researcher states the hypothesis in terms
of the effect of variations in a factor on another factor.
This causal hypothesis is said to be bivariate because it
specifies two aspects -- the cause and the effect.

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 Types of Research Hypotheses
• Causal Hypothesis: For the example mentioned, the
causal hypothesis will state, “High school students who
participate in extracurricular activities spend less time
studying which leads to a lower GPA.” When verifying
such hypotheses, the researcher needs to use statistical
techniques to demonstrate the presence of a
relationship between the cause and effect. Such
hypotheses also need the researcher to rule out the
possibility that the effect is a result of a cause other than
what the study has examined.

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 Research Proposal
• Executive summary
• Background of the problem
• Problem statement and research objectives
• Research design
• Scheduling the research
• Results and outcomes of the research
• Costing and budgeting the research

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 Research Proposal
Academic research proposals
Internal organizational proposals
External organizational proposals

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THANK YOU
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