Assignment 01 Sadaf Iqbal BBA-17-08

Advanced Research Methodology

Assignment 01

Submitted to: Ma’am Maria Shams Khakwani

Dated: March 26, 2021

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 Assignment 01 Sadaf Iqbal BBA-17-08

Advanced Research Methodology

Assignment # 01

Scientific research focuses on solving problems and pursues a step-by-step, logical,

organized and rigorous method to identify the problems, gather data, analyze them,
and draw valid conclusions from them. The hallmarks or main distinguishing
characteristics of scientific research are purposiveness, rigor, testability,
replicability, precision and confidence, objectivity, generalizability, and parsimony

Question: Critique the following research done in a service industry as to the extent
to which it meets the hallmarks of scientific investigation discussed in this chapter.
List out the hallmarks found in this research along with reasoning

The Mobile Phone Company

The Mobile Phone Company has been named as the most complained‐about mobile phone
company, narrowly beating 3G, which has shot to the top of the table as the worst landline
provider. According to the latest figures from the regulator, Ofcom, the Mobile Phone Company
was the most complained‐about mobile provider – with 0.15 complaints per 1,000 – in the last
three months of 2014. It saw its complaint figures rise substantially in the last quarter of 2014.
The company wanted to pinpoint the specific problems and take corrective action.

Researchers were called in, and they spoke to a number of customers, noting the nature of the
specific problems they faced. Because the problem had to be attended to very quickly, they
developed a theoretical base, collected relevant detailed information from a sample of 100
customers, and analyzed the data. The results promise to be fairly accurate with at least an 85%
chance of success in problem solving. The researchers will make recommendations to the
company based on the results of data analysis.

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 Assignment 01 Sadaf Iqbal BBA-17-08

Critique:
The hallmarks of science are purposiveness, rigor, testability, replicability, precision and
confidence, objectivity, generalizability, and parsimony.

Purposiveness - The study of the mobile phone company discussed earlier clearly depicts the
criteria of purposiveness that is the research has a particular aim or purpose for which it has to
be done i.e. the company wanted to pinpoint problems that why it has been getting complaints.
Rigor - Next, this study is not rigorous because rigor is the application of scientific method for
surety of unbiased or uncontrolled methodology, analysis, experiment and interpretation where in
this case theoretical framework is generated only the base of conversation with the customers and
no scientific data seem to have been collected thereafter.
Testability – the event isn’t testable by experiments or scientific processes
Replicability - Since the research isn’t rigorous, the results will not be consistent and it cannot be
copied or reproduced exactly.
Generalizability - The criteria of generalizability isn’t met fully i.e. extension of research findings
and conclusions from a study held before.
Precision – the accuracy in measurements of the object of study cannot be checked with the
information available.
Confidence - Moreover it is said that the results promise to be fairly accurate with at least an 85%
chance of success in problem solving, but with customer complaints mounted in the information,
an 85% confidence level doesn’t suffices.
Parsimony - can be checked by the theoretical base of the study, it is yet not assured that the
criteria is met or not with the information available.
Overall the study is a good investigation but cannot be called a scientific research since all the
hallmarks aren’t found.
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