3. Question: Read the scenario and answer the questions.
While Chrysler’s minivans, pickups, and sports utilities take a
big share of the truck market, its cars trail behind those of
GM, Ford, Honda, and Toyota. Quality problems include,
among other things, water leaks and defective parts.
• After reading it, (a) identify the broad problem area, (b)
define the problem, and (c) explain how you would proceed
further.
4. Theoretical framework
• Basic steps:
• Identify and label the variables correctly
• State the relationships among the variables: formulate
hypotheses
• Explain how or why you expect these relationships
5. Variables
• Any concept or construct that varies or changes in value
• Main types of variables:
• Dependent variable
• Independent variable
• Moderating variable
• Mediating variable
6. Dependent variable (DV)
• Is of primary interest to the researcher. The goal of the research
project is to understand, predict or explain the variability of this
variable.
• Ex: Research in behavioral finance has shown that overconfidence
can cause investors to underreact to new information.
• Dependent Variable?
7. Independent variable (IV)
• Influences the DV in either positive or negative way. The variance in
the DV is accounted for / explained by the IV.
• Ex: A marketing manager believes that selecting physically attractive
spokespersons and models to endorse their products increases the
persuasiveness of a message.
• Independent Variable?
9. Moderators
• Moderating variable
• Moderator is qualitative (e.g., gender, race, class) or
quantitative (e.g., level of reward) variable that
affects the direction and/or strength of relation
between independent and dependent variable.
Job Satisfaction
Employee
performance
Job Skill
10. Examples
• A manager of an insurance company finds that fear appeals in
commercials are positively associated with consumers’ behavioral
intentions to insure their house. This effect is particularly strong for
people with a high inherent level of anxiety.
10
11. Hypothesis Development
• A Proposition that is empirically testable. It is an
empirical statement concerned with the relationship
among variables.
• Is a logical relationship between two or more variables
expressed in the form of a testable statement.
12. Hypothesis
• A hypothesis helps to translate the research problem and
objective into a clear explanation or prediction of the expected
results or outcomes of the study.
• Hypothesis is derived from the research problems, literature
review and conceptual framework.
• Hypothesis in a research project logically follow literature review
and conceptual framework.
13. Hypothesis Development
• Good hypothesis:
• Must be adequate for its purpose
• Must be testable
• Can be:
• Directional
• Non-directional
14. Purpose of hypothesis
• To explain the relationship
• If advertising is increased, then sales will also go up.
• To establish the differences among groups
• More men than women are whistleblowers,
• To find the interdependence of two or more factors
• Working the night shift (as opposed to the day shift) is related to
whether or not one is married.
15. Directional and Nondirectional Hypotheses
• Directional hypotheses: the direction of the relationship between
the variables (positive/negative) is indicated.
• The greater the stress experienced in the job, the lower the job
satisfaction of employees. Or
• Women are more motivated than men are.
• Nondirectional hypotheses: there are no indication of the direction
of the relationships between variables.
• There is a relationship between age and Job satisfaction.
16. Null and Alternate Hypotheses
• The null hypothesis is a proposition that states a definitive, exact
relationship between two variables.
• That is, it states that the population correlation between two
variables is equal to zero or that the difference in the means of two
groups in the population is equal to zero (or some definite number).
• In general, the null statement is expressed as no (significant)
relationship between two variables or no (significant) difference
between two groups.
17. Null and Alternate Hypotheses
• The alternate hypotheses is the opposite of the null hypotheses,
is a statement expressing a relationship between two variables or
indicating differences between groups.
• The alternative statement is expressed as a (significant)
relationship between two variables or a (significant) difference
between two groups.
18. Difference between groups or means
• Independent sample T test
• Paired sample T test
• One way ANOVA
• Two way ANOVA
