Institute : (0211) Symbiosis Institute of Business Management - Hyderabad

Program : (021141) Master of Business Administration

Batch : 2021-23 Semester : I
Course Name : Research Methodology (0211410110)
Date : 24.11.2021 Max Marks : 60
Day : Wednesday Time : 10.00 am - 12.30 pm

Instructions : 1. All Questions are compulsory

2. Calculators are allowed
Section – A (5 x 8 = 40 Marks)
1. Faced with increasing absenteeism and low productivity, your HR manager proposes
that a job satisfaction study across levels is required in the company. (CO2)
a. What do you think of building this as research question based on previous
literature? (4 Marks)
b. Do you think such a study would help the manager in resolving his dilemma?
Explain. (4 Marks)
2. The Indian Army wants to ascertain why young students do not select the armed
forces as a career option in their graduation. (CO4)
a. How would you formulate a research problem to resolve the dilemma?
(2 Marks)
b. What would be the variables under study? (3 Marks)
c. How would you generate descriptive and relational hypotheses for your study?
(3 Marks)
3. Butamal Kirorimal is a small jeweller from Jodhpur with limited resources. He is into
the business of designing and selling traditional Rajasthani jewellery. He believes that
having an exquisite and a mystically arranged display on the Palace on Wheels will
suitably boost his sales. He also feels that foreigners rather than Indians would be
influenced more. It is the month of September 2021 and by the end of the year, he
wants to decide whether to go in for the display or not. (CO1)
a. What is the recommended research design? Justify your selection. (4 Marks)
b. What would be the variables, hypotheses and the population under study?
(4 Marks)
4. Suppose Jet Airways wants to ascertain the image it has in the minds of its patrons.
Construct a seven-item Likert and semantic differential scale to measure the
perceived image of the airlines. Make sure that the seven items under each format
correspond to the same seven dimensions. (CO3)

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5. A study was taken to estimate a linear demand function. The data on the quantity
demanded and the price of a commodity was collected for 8 periods. The data is
given below: (CO4)
Demand (Y) Price (X)
S. No.
(in kg) (in 00 `)
1 16 10
2 20 8
3 18 12
4 21 6
5 13 13
6 15 9
7 17 11
8 22 7
a. Estimate the linear demand function Y = a + bX. Also interpret the estimated
regression. (4 Marks)
b. Find at exact 95 per cent prediction interval for demand when price is equal to
`800. (2 Marks)
c. Compute r2 and interpret it for reporting (2 Marks)
NOTE: You may use MS-Excel to do the data analysis and report the output.

Section – B (1 x 20 = 20 Marks)
6. Study the case given below and answer the questions given at the end.
Case: ONLINE BOOKING—HAS THE TIME COME?
The day is not very far when the Indian travellers can criss-cross the globe with just a
few clicks. Taking e-commerce and information technology services a step further,
the Indian travel industry is composing itself to usher in the era of e-ticketing. On-
line booking involves pursuing of available information on travel websites and then
making a reservation. However, if you are not the kind who prefers a particular
airline, then you can check out travel sites, which collate flights details of all airlines,
and are the apt place to book or bid for air tickets. Travel portals, such as,
travelguru.com, arzoo.com, yatra.com, indiatimes.com, rediff.com, makemytrip.com,
and cleartrip.com, would provide you all details of flights along with their fares in an
ascending order, i.e., the lowest priced, ticket is featured first, on its web page. The
number of consumers who book travel tickets online is growing. But a switch from
offline environment to online environment creates certain doubts in the minds of
consumers. Such doubts have been termed as perceived risks in literature. Also, the
Internet revolution has brought about significant changes in market transparency,
defined as the availability and accessibility of information to market participants. For
example, air travellers can use online travel agencies to browse through hundreds of
travel offers to their destination, compared to typically few offers from a traditional
travel agent or airline prior to the Internet era.
Generally, market transparency seems to benefit consumers because they are able to
better discern the product that best fits their needs at a better price. However, there

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still is a large percentage of population who get their tickets booked through the
traditional queuing system. The advent of e-ticket booking over the past couple of
years has led to the mushrooming of online travel agencies. These online service
providers have in fact come up with a wide variety of services for faster and more
convenient mode of ticket booking. They offer a host of services starting from
booking something as mundane as a train or flight ticket to something as exotic as a
holiday. They offer various packages which have the entire itinerary for the proposed
holiday. They even offer a convenient pick-up and drop service. With such a range of
services being offered at your fingertips, expectations are that more and more number
of travellers would start using such easy, fast and convenient services as compared to
the conventional booking process across a reservation counter. Yet, we still observe
long queues at the various reservation counters. And, we also know that there are a
number of people who use the online services available to book their travel than
through traditional travel booking counters. Sriharsha Rao, CEO of Ghoom.com, a
travel portal that has been in existence for the past three years wondered whether he
can look at a bigger customer base for his travel booking business or look at an
alternative e-business.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the kind of research study that you can undertake for Mr. Rao? (CO1)
(6 Marks)
2. Formulate the research problem and the objectives of your study. Can you
suggest an alternative research approach that you can take and present in a
report? (CO5) (10 Marks)
3. Develop a working hypothesis for your study. (CO4) (4 Marks)

All The Best

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