Final Exam Review for Research Methodology (RES301):

1. Define the term “Review of Literature”, and what is objectives and significance of review of
literature?
 A literature review is an evaluative report of information found in the literature related to
your selected area of study. The review should describe, summaries, evaluate and clarify
this literature. It should give a theoretical base for the research and help you (the author)
determine the nature of your research. Works which are irrelevant should be discarded and
those which are peripheral should be looked at critically. The objectives of literature review:
o Expand understanding of the management dilemma.
o Look for ways others have addressed and/or solved problems similar to the
management dilemma.
o Gather background information on the topic to refine the research questions.
o Identify sources for and actual sample frames that might be used in sample design.
 The significance of literature review:
o Facilitates in selecting a research problem - most simple method of formulating
precisely the research problem.
o Helps in two ways: surfaces researches already done in the same field and makes
aware of the current research.
o Facilitates in formulating relevant hypotheses.
o Demarcates the boundaries of the research presently undertaken.
o Establishes the size and extent of the research to be undertaken.
o Examines the procedures and instruments for employing in research.
o Assesses the theme in better perspective in the light of several theories and models.
o Justifies the contribution of the theme to the existing body of knowledge.
o Avoids unnecessary repetition of research already undertaken.
o Helps in building the quality of research material.
o Develops the ability of the researcher to recognize and select the relevant materials
used for research.
o Facilitates in critical understanding towards others’ research.
o Discovers inconsistencies, wrong designs and incorrect statistical conclusions.
2. Explain the need of review of the literature and enumerate the sources of review of literature.
 The needs:
o Define the problem or questions.
o Consult encyclopedia, dictionaries, hand books, text books to identify key terms or
events relevant to the problem or questions.
o Apply these key terms or events in searching indexes, bibliographies and the web to
identify specific secondary sources.
o Locate and review specific secondary sources for relevance.
o Evaluate the value of each source and its contents.
o Summarize the writers thought in your own words.
o Helps in eliminating the danger of plagiarism, also force the researcher to
understand the information.
 o In case of writing quotation, rewrite it absolutely correctly. Be careful to spell
correctly.
o Distinguish a direct quotation and a summary made by you.
o Long quotations should be Photostatted and kept for final entry into thesis.
o Helps in saving time and eliminating unnecessary rewriting errors.
 The sources:
o Five factors of evaluating the quality of information sources are:
 Purpose
 Scope
 Authority
 Audience
 Format
3. Describe the principles and procedures of review of literature.
 Start with the most recent works and work back to earlier works. Recent works lead to older
works by referring to them and not the opposite.
 Helps in removing earlier misunderstandings and chances of accepting outdated theories.
 Start with the works of recognized writers dealing with the specific theme.
 Start with articles, dissertations as they are well documented and show other relevant
sources.
 Start with the reading of an abstract or summary of a book or article to know its relevance
to the present theme (First do not read a source in its entirely).
 Helps in saving time and identifying relevant literature without much frustration.
 Go through the whole chapter or section before starting of any notes.
 Helps in linking the present theme with it and determines the kinds of notes to be made.
 Source and relevant page number should be clearly entered.
 Helps in avoiding confusion at a later stage.
 Summarize the writers thought in your own words.
 Helps in eliminating the danger of plagiarism, also force the researcher to understand the
information.
 In case of writing quotation, rewrite it absolutely correctly. Be careful to spell correctly.
 Distinguish a direct quotation and a summary made by you.
 Long quotations should be Photostatted and kept for final entry into thesis.
 Helps in saving time and eliminating unnecessary rewriting errors.
 Ensure that each source should be dealt with as accurately as possible.
4. Define the term “Hypothesis” and Enumerate and characteristics of Hypothesis.

 Hypothesis refers to a mere assumption to be proved or disproved. In research, it is a formal

question that the researcher intends to resolve.

The word hypothesis consists of two words:

Hypo + thesis = Hypothesis

Hypo’ means tentative or subject to the verification and ‘Thesis’ means statement about solution of a
problem.
  Should be clear and precise otherwise inferences drawn on its basis cannot be taken as
reliable.
 Should be capable of being tested.
 Should state relationship between variables, if it happens to be a relational hypothesis.
 Should be limited in scope and must be specific (A narrower hypothesis is more testable).
 Should be stated as far as possible in most simple terms for easy understanding by all.
 Should be consistent with most known facts (must be consistent with a substantial body of
established facts).
 Should be possible to testing within a reasonable time.
5. Explain the nature and functions of a hypothesis in a research process.
 Nature
o 1. It is conceptual in nature. Some kind of conceptual elements in the framework
are involved in a hypothesis.
o 2. It is a verbal statement in a declarative form. It is a verbal expression of ideas and
concepts, it is not merely idea but in the verbal form, the idea is ready enough for
empirical verification.
o 3. It has a forward or future reference. A hypothesis is future oriented. It relates to
the future verification not the past facts and in formations.
o 4. It is the pivot of a scientific research. All the research activities are designed for its
verification. The nature of hypothesis can be well understood by differentiating it
with other terms like assumption and postulate
o 5. It has the empirical referent. A hypothesis contains some empirical referent. It
indicates the tentative relationship between two or more variables.
 Functions
o
6. Enumerate the approachable hypothesis.
 There are two approaches: Null Hypothesis and Alternative Hypothesis.
o Null Hypothesis: The null hypothesis is generally assumed to be true until
evidence indicates otherwise. a null hypothesis is rejected if the observed data is
significantly unlikely if the null hypothesis were true. In this case the null
hypothesis is rejected and an alternative hypothesis is accepted in its place. If
the data are consistent with the null hypothesis, then the null hypothesis is not
rejected (i.e., accepted). In neither case is the null hypothesis or its alternative
proven; the null hypothesis is tested with data and a decision is made based on
how likely or unlikely the data is. This is analogous to a criminal trial, in which the
defendant is assumed to be innocent (null is not rejected) until proven guilty (null
is rejected) beyond a reasonable doubt (to a statistically significant degree).

 Alternative Hypothesis: is the hypothesis that sample observations are influenced by

some non-random cause. For example, suppose we wanted to determine whether a coin
was fair and balanced. A null hypothesis might be that half the flips would result in Heads
and half, in Tails. The alternative hypothesis might be that the number of Heads and
Tails would be very different. Symbolically, these hypotheses would be expressed as
 H0: p = 0.5 
Ha: p <> 0.5

Suppose we flipped the coin 50 times, resulting in 40 Heads and 10 Tails. Given this result, we
would be inclined to reject the null hypothesis. That is, we would conclude that the coin was probably
not fair and balanced.

o
7. What is research problem? And, explain the classification of research.
 A research problem is the demarcation of a problem area within a certain context involving
the WHO or WHAT, the WHERE, the WHEN and the WHY of the problem situation.
o 1. What is your research (What)? 2. Why do you want to do this research (Why)? 3.
Who will be your participate (Who)? 4. When are you going to research (When)? 5.
Where are you going to conduct research(Where)
 There are 8 types of research:
o 1. Collecting primary data, which might be obtained firsthand from non-published
information sources – Primary research. Primary information comes from –
observations, surveys, interviews and experiments.
o 2. Searching through publications (books, journals, magazines, reports, newspapers,
government documents, etc.) and looking for answers to questions – secondary
research. It allows researchers to save their time and resource.
o 3. Basic research seeks to further human knowledge. Does not necessarily solve a
specific problem. Known as “Pure” or “Fundamental” research.
o 4. Applied research is problem oriented. Seeks to solve specific problems by
providing information that will facilitate an appropriate decision. Applied research is
what business people carry out to get information for decisions.
o 5. A reporting study provides summation of data or to generate some statistics. It
calls for knowledge and skill with information sources. Usually requires little
inference or conclusion drawing.
o 6. Descriptive Research: Attempts to find answers to questions – who, what, when,
where and how. Does not explain why an event has occurred or why the variables
interact the way they do. Involves collection of data and observation of a single
characteristic or event (research variable). May involved the interaction of two or
more variables (correlation studies). Is quite popular in business research.
o 7. Explanatory Research: Goes beyond description. Attempts to explain the reasons
for the phenomenon (not in descriptive studies as it only observed). Uses
hypotheses to find out the causes for a certain phenomenon.
o 8. Predictive Research: Tries to find out when and in what situation the event will
occur? Calls for a high order of inference making. In business research, predictive
research helps to evaluate specific courses of action or to forecast current and
future values.
8. Explain the induction and deduction in research reason.
 Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific. Sometimes this is
informally called a "top-down" approach. We might begin with thinking up a theory about
our topic of interest. We then narrow that down into more specific hypotheses that we can
test. We narrow down even further when we collect observations to address the
hypotheses. This ultimately leads us to be able to test the hypotheses with specific data -- a
confirmation (or not) of our original theories.
