UNIT 1 Lesson 2

FORMULATION OF RESEARCH PROBLEM AND

DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
•The crux of the scientific approach to identifying and pursuing a research path is to
identify the ‘what’, i.e., 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 enquiry.
THE SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT
One needs to reason logically and effectively to cover all the probable alternatives
that need to be addressed in order to arrive at any concrete basis for decision
making. This reasoning approach could be deductive or inductive or a combination of
both.

Scientific
thought

Inductive Deductive
 INDUCTIVE THOUGHT
Inductive thought does not involve any
absolute cause and effect relationship
between a set of reasons and inferences.

DEDUCTIVE THOUGHT
Deductive thought can be
defined as a logic which
includes drawing
culmination/conclusion/inferenc
e from a given list of certain
facts
DEFINING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
A gap or uncertainty which hampers the process of efficient decision making in a given body
of knowledge is called a research problem
The starting point of any research is to formulate the problem and mention the objectives
before specifying any variables or measures. This involved defining the problem in clear terms.
Problem definition involves stating the general problem and identifying the specific
components of the research problem. Components of the research problem include
(1) the decision maker and the objectives
(2) the environment of the problem
(3) alternative courses of action
(4) a set of consequences that relate to courses of action and the occurrence of events not
under the control of the decision maker and
(5) a state of doubt as to which course of action is best. Here, the first two components of the
research problem are discussed whereas others are not well within the scope, though, not
beyond.
Problem formulation is perceived as most important of all the other steps, because of
the fact that a clearly and accurately identified problem would lead to effective
conduct of the other steps involved in the research process. Moreover, this is the most
challenging task as the result yields information that directly addresses the
management issue, though, the end result is for the management to understand the
information fully and take action based on it. From this we understand, that the
correctness of the result depends on how well the research takes on, at the starting
point.
Problem formulation refers to translating the management problem into a research
problem. It involves stating the general problem and identifying the specific
components of research problem. This step and the findings that emerge would help
define the management decision problem and research problem.
Research problem cannot exist in isolation as it is an outcome of management decision
problem. The management decision problem may be, for example, to know whether
keeping Saturday a working day would increase productivity. The associated
research problem for the above example may be the impact of keeping Saturday a
working day on employee morale. The task of the researcher is to investigate on
employee morale. Hence, it is understood that the researcher is perhaps, a scientific
means, to solve the management problem the decision maker faces.
ROLE OF INFORMATION IN PROBLEM
FORMULATION
Problem formulation starts with a sound information seeking process by the researcher. The
decision maker is the provider of information pertaining to the problem at the beginning of
the research process (problem formulation) as well as the user of the information that
germinates at the end of the research process. Given the importance of accurate problem
formulation, the research should take enough care to ensure that information seeking process
should be well within the ethical boundaries of a true research. The researcher may use
different types of information at the problem formulation stage. They are:
1. Subjective information termed as those based on the decision maker‟s past experiences,
expertise, assumptions, feelings or judgments without any systematic gathering of facts. Such
information is usually readily available.
2. Secondary information are those collected and interpreted at least once for some specific
situation other than the current one. Availability of this type of information is normally high.
3. Primary information refers to first hand information derived through a formalised research
process for a specific, current problem situation.
In order to have better understanding on problem formulation, the researcher may
tend to categorise the information collected into four types. The categorisation of the
information is done based on the quality and complexity of the information collected.
They are:
1. Facts are some piece of information with very high quality information and a
higher degree of accuracy and reliability. They could be absolutely observable and
verifiable. They are not complicated and are easy to understand and use.
2. Estimates are information whose degree of quality is based on the
representativeness of the fact sources and the statistical procedures used to create
them. They are more complex than facts due to the statistical procedures involved in
deriving them and the likelihood of errors.
3. Predictions are lower quality information due to perceived risk and uncertainty of
future conditions. They have greater complexity and are difficult to understand and
use for decision-making as they are forecasted estimates or projections into the
future.
4. Relationships are information whose quality is dependent on the precision of the
researcher‟s statements of the interrelationship between sets of variables. They have
the highest degree of complexity as they involve any number of relationships paths
with several variables being analysed simultaneously.
PROCESS OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
management decision
problem

Formulation of Management research

research hypotheses problem

Statement of research Research

objectives framework/analytical
model
 Management decision
problem

Discussion with subject Literature review Organizational/qualitative

experts analysis
To address the problems of clarity and focus, we need to understand the components
of a well defined problem. These are:
THE UNIT OF ANALYSIS: the unit of analysis is that particular source from which the
required information is obtained. It can individual(s), department, organization or an
industry.
For example, the retailer who has to be targeted for stocking the product as well as
the end consumer could be the unit of analysis.
Thus, the information required for decision might sometimes require investigation at
multiple levels.
RESEARCH VARIABLES: the research problem also requires identification of key
variables under the particular study. To carry out an investigation it becomes
imperative to convert the concepts and constructs to be studies into empirically
testable and observable variables. A variable is generally a symbol to which we
assign numerals or values. A variable may be dichotomous in nature, that it, it can
possess only two values such as male-female or customer-non-customer. Values that
can only fit into prescribed number of categories are continuous variables, for
example, very important (1) to very unimportant (5). There are still others that
possess an indefinite set, e.g., age, income and production data.
CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES

Independent variables Dependent variables

variables

Mediating variables Moderating variables

Independent variable
Any variable that can be stated as
influencing or impacting the dependent
variable is referred to as an
independent variable (IV). More often
than not, the task of the research study is
to establish the causality of the
relationship between then IV and DVs.
For example: 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.
Another research might want to assess
the impact of job autonomy and role
stress on the organizational commitment
of the employees; here job autonomy
and role stress are Ivs.
Dependent variable
A dependent variable (DV) is
measurable and quantifiable variable in
nature. It is the most crucial variable to
be analysed in a given research study.
The entire research process is involved in
either describing this variable, or
investigating the probable causes of the
observed effect.
For example, in the organic food study,
the consumers’ purchase intentions and
the retailers’ stocking intentions as well
as sales of organic food products in the
domestic markets, could all serve as the
DVs.
Moderating variables Mediating/Intervening variable
Moderating variables (MVs) are the An intervening variable is a temporal
ones that have a strong contingent effect occurrence which follows the
on the relationship between the IV and independent variable and precedes the
DV. They have the potential to modify DV.
the direction and magnitude of the
above stated association.
For example: 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.
education/income

Attitude Intention
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND MODEL
BUILDING
Having identified and defined the variables under study, the next step requires
operationalizing the stated relationship in the form of a theoretical framework.
A theoretical framework is a schema or network of the probable relationship
between the identified variables. It is a powerful driving force behind the research
process.
 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Research objectives are to be formulated according to the basic, thrust areas of the research which
are crucial to the study being conducted.
HYPOTHESES
A hypotheses can be descriptive or relational, while the former is a statement about the
magnitude, trend or behavior of a population under study, the latter typically states the
expected relationship between two variables
PREREQUISITES OF HYPOTHESIS
1. A hypothesis must be formulated in simple, clear and declarative form.
2. A hypothesis must be measurable and quantifiable so that the statistical aunthenticity of
the relationship can be explained.
3. A hypothesis is a conjectural statement based on the existing literature and theories about
the topic and not based on the gut feel or subjective judgement of the researcher.
4. The validation of the hypothesis would necessarily involve testing the statistical significance
of the hypothesized relation.
TYPES OF HYPOTHESIS

• This is simply a statement about the

magnitude, trend or behavior of a
Descriptive population under study.
hypothesis
• Example: the attrition rate in the BPO is
33%; the literacy rate in Kerala is 100%

Relational • These are typical kind of hypothesis

hypothesis which state the expected relationship
between two variables.
While stating the relation if the researcher makes use of words such as increase,
decrease, less than or more than, the hypothesis is stated to be directional or one
tailed.
For example:
Decrease in occupational
stress

Increase in employee
productivty
However, sometimes researcher might not have reasonable supportive data to
hypothesize the expected direction of the relationship. It is then called, non-
directional or two tailed.
Salary
For example:
Job
satisfaction

Facilities