MARKING SCHEME

ATP 201BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

Part 1 Objective Answers

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Question 2
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Descriptive study the researcher wants to know the outside work activities like
hobby and leisure activities.
Ex-post facto, the researcher cannot control any variable as the activities are one
outside office hours.
Field Study as it is done in the normal setting without manipulation.
Cross sectional as data is collected only once.
Individual, production operators.
Marks for each section
Mark for the bold answer
1 Mark for the explanation

Question3
Based on the explanation given above, answer the following questions.
(a)

What is the research problem?

What factors contribute to increased smoking intentions?
[ 2 markah ]

(a)

Bentuk satu kerangka teori yang bersesuaian.

[ 4 markah ]
Attitude
towards
smoking

Exposure to
Smoking in
movies
Identification
with a film
character

Smoking
Intentions
Location

(c)
Develop 4 hypotheses to be tested.
H1
H2
H3
H4

[ 4 marks ]
Exposure to smoking in movies has a positive impact on attitude towards
smoking.
Attitude towards smoking has a positive impact on smoking intentions.
The positive relationship between exposure to smoking in movies and attitude
towards smoking will be stronger when identification with the film character is
high.
The positive relationship between attitude towards smoking and smoking intentions will
be stronger for those from urban areas.

Question 4

Please use your judgement

(a)

Explain the concept of control variables by giving suitable examples.

[ 4 markah/marks ]
Control variables are variables we want to control in our research which is not
part of the research. For example we want to control gender in our research, we
can do sampling control or statistical control depending on type of research.

(b)

Differentiate basic and applied research by giving suitable examples?

[ 4 markah/marks ]
Applied Research solving short term problems
Evaluate opportunities
Improve a current situation
Basic Research solving long term problems or theoretical problems
Solving theoretical problems
No direct impact to actions, performance or policy decisions

(c)

What are the 4 sources of information that an individual can use?

Discuss.
[ 4 markah/marks ]
1.
2.
3.
4.

(d)

Respondent
Instrument
Measurer
Situation

What is a focus group study and when are they suitable to be used?
[ 4 markah/marks ]
Focus groups are conducted by a trained moderator and typically include 6-10
participants. The facilitator uses group dynamics principles to focus or guide the
group in an exchange of ideas, feelings, and experiences on a specific topic. Most
suitable in exploratory researches.

(e)

Explain the typical ethical violations that happen in business research.

[ 4 markah/marks ]
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Violating disclosure agreements

Breaking confidentiality
Padded invoices
Misrepresenting results
Deceiving participants
Avoiding legal liability

Question 5
Based on the output given, answer the following questions.
(a)

Can we develop a regression equation based on the results of the analysis?

[ 2 marks ]
Yes, the F = 26.427 and Signif of F = 0.000 < 0.01 so we can conclude that
all the 3 variables together can significantly explain the variation in
REVENUE.

(b)

Determine the best fitting regression equation.

[ 2 marks ]
REVENUE = 8463.490
0.573(EMPLOYEES)

(c)

227.813

(STORE)

705.653(SIZE)

Develop and test these 3 hypotheses at the 5% level.

There is negative relationship between SIZE and REVENUE
There is negative relationship between EMPLOYEE and REVENUE
There is positive relationship between STORE and REVENUE

Variable

t-value

p value

STORE

5.494

0.001

p < 0.05

Reject H0

H0
b2 = 0
H1
b2 < 0
SIZE

-2.148

0.031

p < 0.05

Reject H0

H0
b3 = 0
H1
b3 < 0
EMPLOYEE

-6.665

0.000

p < 0.05

Reject H0

H0

b1 = 0

H1

b1 > 0

Decision

[ 6 marks ]
(d)

Interpret the coefficient of determination.

[ 2 marks ]
R2 = 80082458/87153177 = 0.918. We can conclude that 91.8% variation in
Intention can be explained by all the 3 variables; about 8.2% variation
cannot be explained.

(e)

What is the REVENUE if SIZE was 85,000 m2, STORES was 55 and the EMPLOYEE
was 25,500
[ 3 marks ]
REVENUE = 8463.490 + 227.813 (55) 705.653 (85) 0.573 (25,500)
= - RM 53,600 million

(f)

Has all the assumptions of the analysis been met?

[ 2 marks ]

(g)

There is multicollinearity as VIF>10 and Tolerance < 0.1 also

Conditional index is more than 30
The histogram indicates normal distribution with mean = 0 and SD
=1
P-P plot shows the errors are normally distributed
Partial plots indicates the variables are linearly related to Y
There are no outliers
Constant variance can also be ascertained as the plot of
studentized residual and predicted Y is given

Write a short report on how PESCO can interpret the results.

[ 3 marks ]
Based on the results all 3 variables are significant, STORE, SIZE and
EMPLOYEES. Based on the Standardized Beta values, STORE has the
most influence ( = 6.663) followed by EMPLOYEES ( = - 4.006) and
SIZE ( = - 2.148) indicating that STORE size and EMPLOYEES number
are the most crucial factors in predicting revenue. To increase
REVENUE PESCO need to increase the number of stores that they own
and reduce the number of employees. One way is to acquire more
stores and introduce self service check outs.