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Reg. No. :

Question Paper Code : X86445

M.B.A. Degree Examinations, April/May 2021

Second Semester
BA5202 – business research methods
(Regulations 2017)

Time : Three Hours Maximum : 100 Marks

Answer all questions.

paRT – a (10×2=20 Marks)

1. Distinguish between exploratory research and conclusive research.

2. Define hypothesis. What are the types of hypothesis.

3. What is a research design and what steps would you envisage in preparing
research design ?

4. What is Likert Scale ?

5. State the strength and weakness of secondary data.

6. Write the merits of sampling.

7. Define multivariate analysis. Give any four examples.

8. What are rank correlation and auto-correlation ?

9. State the contents of a research report.

10. Describe the role of audience and readability in reports.

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paRT – B (5×13=65 Marks)

11. a) Discuss the methodology as to how a researcher narrows down from the
identification of research topic to a research problems.
(OR)

b) What do you mean by tests of significance ? Explain the principles of testing

of hypothesis.

12. a) Discuss the components of a good research design with examples.

(OR)

b) Discuss the meaning of scaling technique. Distinguish between rating

scale and attitude scale.

13. a) Discuss the merits and limitations of primary data. Describe methods of
validating primary data.

(OR)

b) Examine the factors which determine the sample size and enumerate
methods of significance testing based on sample size.

14. a) What is correlation coefficient ? Discuss the role of correlation coefficient

in management decision making with an example.

(OR)

b) How will you determine the number of dimensions of the conceptual space of
multidimensional scale ? What are the application areas of multidimensional
scale ?

15. a) Explain the standard of ethics based on rational approach. Discuss the
various ethical behaviour of researcher.

(OR)
b) Enumerate the subjectivity and objectivity in research plan development.
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paRT – C (1×15=15 Marks)

16. a) A District Industries Centre (DIC) has collected data summarizing the
number of industries in the district under each combination of R & D
expenditure (in lakhs of rupees) and annual sales (in crores of rupees), as
shown below.

Annual sales R & D Expenditure (in lakhs of Rs.)

(Crores of Rs.) 10-30 30-50 50-70
10-14 3 6 2
14-18 6 8 3
18-22 4 8 9
22-26 2 4 7
Find the correlation coefficient of this grouped data.
(OR)
b) In a survey, the monthly income (in thousands of rupees) and monthly
purchases of health care products (in hundreds of rupees) of respondents
are summarized in the following table :
Respondent Monthly income Monthly purchase
1 12 5
2 19 8
3 14 6
4 15 9
5 18 7
6 10 2

i) Cluster the employees using agglomerative hierarchical clustering

method with distance measure.

ii) Draw a dendrogram and find the clusters using distance measure.
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