Business Research Methods: Prof Dato' DR Ismail Rejab

BQM5133
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
Lecturer:
Prof Dato’ Dr Ismail Rejab
Graduate School of Business
Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak www.unirazak.edu.my

Prologue
● Course is simple if you work on it
● Designed for Academic Research (Master and Ph D)
as well as practical research
● Reading is Key: Please read text and other assigned
readings
● Actually doing research is difficult unless do it several
times
● Pay attention in class, write where appropriate
● Powerpoint slides are not in complete sentences but
can be used as notes
● Clarify with me where necessary and when in doubt
Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak
Article Critique: What to look for
● Examine the literature review. Determine if it has been
exhaustive and contributes towards identification of the research
to be conducted.
● What is the research problem? Is it well-defined and does it have
any link to the literature review? Is it significant in the chosen
field of study?
● Are research objectives in line with the research problem?
● Development of research concepts and conceptual framework,
theory or model. Is the conceptual framework, theory or model
consistent with the body of knowledge of the study area?
● Methodology: Indicate the research design. Is it a right choice of
the design? Why did the researcher choose the research design?
Is the choice right or justified? Explain your comment.

● Methodology: Selection of respondents. Explain how the
researcher selected the respondents and the type of sampling
used. Has the researcher utilized the right sampling technique to
allow generalization of findings? Can you detect any flaw in the
sampling process?
● Methodology: Examine the data collection procedure including
the method and the instrument used to collect the data. Was it
done right? Any possible flaw that could introduce bias?
● Methodology: Data Processing. How was the data processed and
what statistical package was used to extract relevant statistics.
● Analysis: are the statistics selected relevant to the research and
have they contributed towards answering the research problem
and achievement of research objectives?

● Analysis: What statistics are used to test the hypotheses? Are the
statistics correctly selected to test the hypotheses?
● Discussion of Findings: Is the discussion connected to the
objective of the study? Is it relevant to the research subject
matter?
● Has the researcher generalized the findings to the defined
population? Is the generalization within the limit of the
population been defined? Did the researcher over-generalized?
● Research Implications: Are implications drawn correctly? Do
implications have management values?
● Conclusion: Is the conclusion correctly drawn and provides the
overall syntheses of the research? Any suggestion for future
research?

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
● Assessment of relevant existing knowledge of a
phenomenon (such as Literature Review)
● Formulation of concepts and propositions
● Statement of hypothesis
● Design of research to test the hypothesis
● Acquisition of meaningful empirical data
● Analysis and evaluation of data
● Explanation of a phenomenon

What is research then?
● From Assessment of knowledge to
Explanation
● Phenomena of interest
● Important for human beings
● Contribute towards enhancement of
knowledge
● Enlarging the body of knowledge in
particular fields
Purpose of Research
● To gain and contribute to the body of
Knowledge
– New
– Existing: to expand, replicate, etc.
● To explain phenomena
● To reduce uncertainty
● To make effective decisions

RESEARCH DICHOTOMY
● Basic or Pure RESEARCH
● Attempts to expand the limit of knowledge
● Are there living things on Mars
● To evaluate concepts or theories
● Findings cannot be immediately implemented
● To verify acceptability of a given theory
● To find out more about a given concept

RESEARCH DICHOTOMY
● APPLIED RESEARCH
 About real-life problem, where decision has to
be made
 Concerning a specific problem (can we
implement a paperless office?)
● Both basic and applied, use scientific method of
inquiry

WHAT IS RESEARCH THEN?
● RESEARCH is:
 Learning (getting new information, or learning
something new)
 Different research methods means different ways
of learning
 It is an evolutionary process
 We don’t reject previous findings, but we add
values to them

WHAT IS RESEARCH THEN?
● Based on Scientific Inquiry, Research is:
 An evolutionary Process
 A transformation
 A change?
 An epitome of organizational transformation
and change
 As much as the society in which an organization
operates

RESEARCH LINK TO THE ORGANIZATION
● Need to know: which is inquisitive

● Application: which is action
● Resolving: which is decision
● First we have to know (through research)
● Second, we have to put them in action
● Third, make decisions accordingly

RESEARCH LINK TO THE ORGANIZATION
● Action Research is what we are proposing here

(nothing less)
● Uncover problems and issues in organizations, such
as:
● Job Satisfaction, Absenteeism, Organizational Loyalty,
Productivity Culture, What pushes people to work
harder, etc.

ACTION RESEARCH
● Action Research is linked to management learning,
seeking to answer:
 What is the nature of our management learning?
 How do we learn it?
 How do we use what we learned
 What are the implication for us and for the
organization?

ACTION RESEARCH
● Action Research must have relevance to the
workplace
● Research that uncovers organizational
problems
● Research that supports decision making
● It is not research for research sake

RESEARCH TYPES
●Three Major Types

●(in terms of achieving directions)
–Exploratory
–Descriptive
–Causal

RESEARCH TYPES
● EXPLORATORY
– To clarify ambiguous problem
– To gain better understanding of the existing
problem
– Not conclusive, but requires subsequent research
– To first understand “what is it?”
– What is “SARS”?

RESEARCH TYPES
● DESCRIPTIVE
 To describe characteristics of a phenomena
 Seeks answers to questions “who, what, when, and
where”
 Who use what (Sea Cucumber), when and where
that they use it?

RESEARCH TYPES
● DESCRIPTIVE
 Based on some previous understanding
 Accuracy is important (or for any research for
that matter) for effective decision
 Determine the extent of differences across groups
 But never cause-and-effect relationships, unless
designed to do so

RESEARCH TYPES
● CAUSAL
 Cause-and-effect relationship
 Seek evidence to predict relationship, although
difficult to prove
 To explain the existence of certain phenomena
 Concomitant variation: occurrence of two events
that vary together

PROBLEMS ACCORDING TO TYPES OF RESEARCH
Exploratory Descriptive Causal

Absenteeism among Factory Who are the Users of SMS in Which training program is
Workers in Malaysia Malaysia more effective?
Characteristics and Researchers who are Mostly Will there by more people using
Acceptance of Telekom’s New Absent from Work the LRT if the fare is reduced?
Products
Motivation among Who are the New Designers of What are the Factors that
University’s Researchers ICT Products? create loyalty to an
organization?
SARS and its Link to China Who are the Users of Monorail? What cause the productivity to
be high?
The History of AIDS in Patrons of the Night Markets

Malaysia
FLOW CHART OF
RESEARCH PROCESS
Problem
Problem
Discovery
Discovery& & Selection
Selection of
of
Problem Discovery Definition
Definition Sample
Sample
And Definition Sampling Design
Design
Selection
Selection of
of
Exploratory
Exploratory Probability Non-Probability
Probability Non-Probability
research
research technique
technique Sampling Sampling
Sampling Sampling
Data
Data
Secondary
Secondary Pilot
Pilot Experience
Experience Case
Case Collection
Collection
(historical)
(historical)Data
Data Study
Study Survey
Survey Study
Study
Editing
Editing&&
Problem
Problemdefinition
definition Coding
Coding
(statement
(statementofofresearch
research
objectives)
objectives)
Data
Data
Planning the Processing
Processing
Drawing &
Research Design Selection
Selection of
of &Analysis
Analysis
Conclusion
basic research
basic research and
design
design Preparing
Interpretation
Interpretation
Report
of
ofFindings
Findings
Survey
Survey Experiment
Experiment Secondary
Secondary Observation
Observation Report
Report
Interview/
Interview/ Laboratory
Laboratory Data
Data
Graduate School of Business
Study
StudyTun Abdul Razak
• Universiti
Questionnaire
Questionnaire Field
Field
RESEARCH PROCESS
● Like a map, it tells you how to get there
● There are always alternatives, no one process is always
the best
● But some are better than others
● Advantageous than others
● Choice in terms of method, subject to circumstances
● Process means preceding stage influences the next,
and vice versa

CONCEPTS TO VARIABLES
● CONCEPTS (constructs)
● Generalized idea about object,
attributes, occurrences, process, etc
● Leadership, productivity, morale, GDP,
assets, etc are concepts
● Concepts are abstracts of reality

CONCEPTS TO VARIABLES
● Concepts have to be conceptualized
● Given definition that is related to reality
● To form conceptual definition of a concept
● Eg: Productivity:
● work achievement?
● the level of production?

VARIABLES
● Anything that can assume different numerical

values: gender, ethnicity, education, marital status
● Measurable or can be given numbers
● Can be operationally defined based on the
conceptual definition
● Productivity becomes a variable if and when it is
defined as:
● The ratio of output over input

Variables
● Anything that changes in value
● If we measure productivity across a number of
people, the value differs or changes
● Vary from high to low
● In statistics, variables are normally indicated as X
(independent) and Y (dependent)
● Some variables can be categorized such as Ethnicity,
Gender (Categorical Variables)
● But, sales volume may be infinite (continuous
variable)
Variables
● Independent
• A variable that is expected to influence the
dependent variable
● Dependent
• Is a criterion variable or a variable that is to be
predicted or explained

VARIABLES
● Some variables can only be categorical;
gender, ethnicity are the cases in point
● But, age, income, sales can be both categorical
and continuous
● Categorical variables become dummy
variables in a regression
● Continuous variables can be regressed directly
to see their effects on the dependent variable
RESEARCH PROBLEMS
● Identify research problem

● Before Assessment of relevant existing
knowledge of a phenomenon
● What is it that needs to be studied
● Consumer perception towards our product
● Consumer acceptance of our product
● What is (are) the problem (s)?

Research Problems
● What is (are) the problem (s)?
● Do we just want to explore if there is a positive
or negative perception?
● Or, do we want to describe the people who
perceive positively and negatively?
● Or, do we want to determine what make
people perceive our product negatively?

Research Problems
● Perception is a function of many factors
● People are not well aware of the product, so
instead of being positive about the product,
they act negatively
● Or, they have used our product in the past and
had a bad experience

Research Problems
● Let’s do an exercise:
● A company will implement VSS in 6 months, but the
response was not as expected.
● Awareness among managers is low.
● If you need to conduct a research what could be:
● the possible research problems?
● Research Questions?
● Research Objectives?

Research Problems Research Questions Research Objectives
Should we offer VSS? Are managers aware of VSS? To determine managers’
awareness of VSS benefits
Which of the VSS should be How concerned are managers To measure the level of
offered? about VSS? Acceptance or rejection to VSS
among managers
Last pay x years of work Which compensation package To obtain managers
New employment help mostly acceptable to managers? ranking on various
Personal counseling compensation packages
Job Contacts
Should the counseling be How much would each package To identify perceived benefits of
offered in-house or by outside cost? each compensation package
consultant?
Do employees with 10 or more Which is more preferred, in-house To identify the employee
years of experience accept counseling or outside consultant? preference for counseling
VSS better

Possible Topics for Graduate Projects
● Consumer Satisfaction of a particular product or service.
● Job Satisfaction at the shop floor using Hertzberg’s.
● Designing a Corporate Plan or Just a Business Plan for your
company.
● Work culture and change in a factory compared to a
government department.
● Planned obsolescence in selected products produced in
Malaysia: Is it an imported innovation?
● An Industrial Research on a new brand of fruit juice.
● A History of the evolution of advertising copies since the
Second World War: A Content Analysis
Possible Topics for Graduate Projects
● Sex and Advertising in Malaysia since the first advertisement: An
Historical Perspective
● The Structure of Automobile Industry: A Value Chain Analysis
● Cost-benefit Analysis of Cigarette Smoking in Malaysia.
● Trace the Value-chain of Rubber wood
● Attitude towards Works amongst Shop-floor Workers in a Factory
● Training Need Analysis for Organizations
● Utilization of Time to Complete a Task in a Government
Department
● Supply Chain Cost Analysis of Marketing a Selected Tropical
Fruit
Variable Definition and Measurement
● Variables are measured by their indicators, defined

by values
● Take ethnicity: Malays, Chinese & Indians
● Are there indicators: can you judge a person by some
indicators and then tell them whether they are
Chinese or Malays?
● Take age: can you judge them their age?

● Measurement is: deciding which value to record

● Is Ruhanie a Male or Female? Fatimah? Wong Seng
Tong? Yong Kim Seng? Chris Satheesan, Malar,
Malaya? Pat?
● Sometimes name may not tell the gender
● Must look at other indicators or evidences

● All variables are Concepts
● But Heights and Weights as variables or concepts
that are easier to measure
● Look at these concepts:
– Religious tolerance
– Political affiliation
– Service efficiency
– Work absenteeism

– Product and brand preference,
– Advertising awareness
● How do you measure the above? Awareness?
● Are there concrete indicators?
● What values do you give for one level to the other?
Really Aware, Really not Aware?
● These are issues pertinent to business research than
science or engineering research

● Advertising Awareness
● How do you measure that? First How do you
define Awareness?
● Defined as: knowledge of advertising from
hearing (Radio), seeing (TV) or being told
(words of mouth communication), measured by
the level of memory
● Awareness has two levels in Media Research:
unaided and aided
● Unaided and aided
● Which one do you measure first?
● Unaided: Are you aware of any advertisement
on Petronas? Yes or No
● If Aware, which particular Ad do you
remember (Here we ask the respondent to
describe a particular Ad he remembers)

● Ad Awareness Measurement has several

levels:
– First, develop conceptual definition
– Second, design the question (measurement) based
on the definition
– Third, record answers (assign numbers to each
category of answer)
● This is called operational definition
● Conceptual Definition
 Abstraction
 Articulated in words
 That facilitate understanding
● Can we conceptually define “Beauty”?

● Beauty
– “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or
things that give pleasure to the sense”
● What are the qualities of beauty?
● Matanya layu, alisnya tebal, leher jinjang,
pipinya bagai pauh dilayang, rambut ikal
mayang, etc.
● Softer eyes, thick eyebrows, sleek throat, soft
cheek, curly hairs, etc
● But those qualities when compared, poses

problems
● Especially if we want to select a beauty queen
● Also, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
● Beautiful to someone may be not to another
● But 20,000 Frenchmen are never wrong

● What we need is an operational definition of

beauty
● What do we have to do to measure something
that has been defined conceptually
● Measure implies the use of numbers
● Accepted by the majority or experts

● Measuring Beauty is quite straight forward:

● 1 is given for Least Beautiful, and 10 is given
for Most Beautiful
● Is this a Valid method of assigning numbers?
● What are the bases used, to come up with
those numbers

● Bases are the qualities that we have
conceptually defined earlier
● Softer eyes, thick eyebrows, sleek throat, soft
cheek, curly hairs, etc
● Try to determine bi-polar adjectives: alis
tebal---alis nipis
● Then, assign numbers (Thick = 5, Thin = 1,
and some numbers in between)
● “Accurately Representing Real Life”
● Accepted by all or the Majority
● Has Scientific Justification
● Small Value vs Big Value in “unimportant to
important continuum”
● But there are exceptions (as in measuring Price
from Expensive to Cheap or Value for Money)

● Implications:
 Concepts are multi-dimensional
 Aggregate measures consisting of several
attributes
 Agreed by experts (beauty queen judges)
 Beauty also includes qualities such as:
“intelligence”, “skills”, “eloquence”,
“photogenic”, “academic qualification”

● LET US DO AN EXERCISE
● Define: People’s Lifestyles
● Then, measure Lifestyles

Lifestyles Concept (AIO Inventory)
People Lifestyle is defined through their Activities, Interests and Opinions
Activities Interests Opinions Demographics and
Media Habits
Work Family Themselves Age
Hobbies Home Social Issues Education
Social Events Job Politics Income

Vacations Community Business Occupation
Entertainment Recreation Economics Family Size
Club Membership Fashion Education Residence: Urban-rural
Community Food Products Geography
Shopping Media Future City Size
Sports Achievement Culture Stage in the life Cycle
Recreation & Health Politics Morality Media: what they read,
watch & listen, eg: TV,
Radio, newspapers.
Source: Joseph T. Plummer, Journal of Marketing, January 1974, p.34.

Levels of Measurement
● NOMINAL
● ORDINAL
● INTERVAL
● RATIO

NOMINAL MEASUREMENT
● NOMINAL: values of a nominal variable
consists of a list of names:
– Malay, Chinese, Indians, Others
– Policeman, Fireman, Postman, Superman
– Baby, Toddler, Young, Teenager, Youth, Men,
Elderly
– Male, Female
– Yes, No, Neutral
NOMINAL MEASUREMENT
● NOMINAL means:
● Categorical: placed in several categories
● Answers tell nothing about degree or amount
● Exhaustive (Gender), sometimes we add
“others” to make it exhaustive
● Mutually Exclusive, there is no more than one
answer (instruct to check only one answer)

NOMINAL MEASUREMENT
● Giving numbers to nominal variable does not
make it quantitative
● 1 for Male and 2 for Female does not mean
anything quantitative
● No qualities of numbers: 2 is not bigger than 1
● It is just a manner to classify people into Male
or Female (Male is Group 1, Female is Group 2)

NOMINAL MEASUREMENT
● No mathematical properties
● Cannot add or multiply
● Cannot add and then take average
● Except for some nominal variables which have
Absolute Values:
 Age, Income, …?
 Should use absolute value so that we can regress

NOMINAL MEASUREMENT
● Absolute values allow determining averages
(average age, average income, etc)
● Can regress to see effects on the dependent
variable
● Otherwise be happy with Dummy Variables
● Present (Yes) Not Present (No), and the effects
● Rather incomplete explanation

NOMINAL MEASUREMENT
● Assigning numbers to nominal variables allow us to do
certain statistical analyses
● Are comparable: significant differences across
categories of nominal variables
● Are the differences in incomes between males and
females for the same job?
● Do the Malays or the Non-Malays save more?
● Are urban Malays more Politically conscious than rural
Malays?

ORDINAL Measurement
● Mutually Exclusive and Generally Exhaustive
● Values can be rank ordered
● Like high, medium and Low in Socio-economic
Status
● Higher economic status is “higher” than low
economic status
● But does not tell “How much difference” or how
much higher it is
ORDINAL Measurement
● Likert Scale measuring agreement is also

ORDINAL scale
● Ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
Agree
● Measures only the Agreement or Disagreement
but not how much people agree or disagree
i.e: Agreement in terms of less or more

ORDINAL Measurement
● Example of Ordinal measures: the Likert Scale

● The food at Restaurant Sri Melaka is delicious:
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Strongly Agree
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
● Points are not absolute, but continuous
● Delicious is here in a continuum

INTERVAL & RATIO Measurement
● Have all Properties of Ordinal and Interval

● Mutually Exclusive, Generally Exhaustive and
can be rank-ordered
● Additional property is that the difference is
meaningful
● One is much bigger than the other by a value
● True quantitative measurement

● Quantitative Measurement like in measures of

temperature
● The difference between 30 degrees and 40
degrees is 10
● The same as between 10 degrees and 20 degrees

● Ratio Measurement has Zero Properties

● 0 means non-existence
● 0 age? 0 Ringgit? 0 years married? 0
population size?
● Can a person be 0 years old?

Rules of Measurement
● Always measure at the highest measure
possible
● Measure interval or ratio if you can instead
of ordinal or nominal
● i.e: better to measure income in Ringgit
instead of categories of income
● Years of education is better than
qualification

● Knowing RM value of income can turn into

categories (nominal)
● High, medium, low
● But we cannot turn categories into actual value
of income (interval or ratio)

● Numbering follows mathematical properties

and rules of nature
● “Good” or positive values carries higher value
than “Bad” or Negative values
● As shown earlier, “Food is delicious”
● Strongly Agree means 5 compared to Strongly
Disagree which carries 1

● What happens if you accidentally coded the

opposite?
● Delicious as 1, Not delicious as 5
● Reverse Score when input the data
● Otherwise your mean values are going to be
funny
● You go against nature

Points to Ponder
● Why is the best student in class rated as 1, while

the least best, rated as 50 or more?

MATHEMATICAL PROPERTIES OF MEASURING
SCALES: SUMMARY
Type Numerical Operations

Nominal Counting: frequency and percentages, mode or
determine the number of observations in each
category cannot add or minus. 20 Males minus
10 Females is meaningless.
Ordinal Rank-ordered from lowest to highest. Position

may be in a percentile rank such as the median,
range, percentile ranking. Can assume nominal
scale operations.

MATHEMATICAL PROPERTIES OF
MEASURING SCALES: SUMMARY
Type Numerical Operations
Interval Equal interval property allows comparison of
differences between scale values (1,2,3…5).
Permit arithmetic operations such as addition
and subtraction, means and standard deviation.
Ratio Has all the properties of nominal, ordinal, and

interval scales. Have absolute magnitude as the
scale has absolute zero point. Arithmetic
operations permissible.

ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

ATTITUDE
● Defined:
• An enduring disposition to respond consistently
in a given manner to various aspects of the
world
● Consider this statement:
• Fatimah loves working in Petronas. She
believes it is clean, easily accessible, and pays
the best salary amongst GLC. She intends to
work there until she retires

● Three components in the above statement:

– Affective: feelings of like, love, etc
– Cognitive: belief or cognition, that it is
good.
– Also indicates evaluative element
– Behavioral: containing behavioral
intention, like I will work there until I
retire. Intention is an estimate of behavior

● Three-faceted dimensions of attitude

● To be considered in all attitude
measurement
● Using several scale to measure the
dimensions of attitude
● Commonly does in business and
organizational study

● Attitude is an hypothetical construct

● To measure attitude, we must infer from an
individual’s response
● Not directly observable
● But measured through indirect indicators
such as verbal expressions and overt behavior
● Ultimately, we are taking inferences from the
behavior with a certain level of uncertainty
(error)
ATTITUDE as an hypothetical construct
Love is a 4-letter word? It is also an hypothetical

construct--that is a term that psychologists use to describe
or explain consistent patterns of human behavior. Love,
hate, thirst, intelligence--all of these are hypothetical
constructs. They are hypothetical in that they do not exist
as physical entities: therefore they cannot be seen, held
felt or measured directly. There is no love center in the
brain that, if removed, would leave a person incapable of
responding, positively and affectionately, towards other
people and things.

ATTITUDE as an hypothetical construct
Continue (love)
Love and hate are constructs in that we invent this terms
to explain why, for instance, a young man spends all his
time with one young woman while completely avoiding
others. From a scientific point of view, we might be better
off, if we said that this young man’s behavior suggested
that he had a relatively enduring, positive-approach
attitude towards the first woman and a negative-approach
attitude towards other women.
Zikmund, Business Research Methods, Thompson-South Western, Ohio,
2003
● Techniques for Measuring Attitude

– Ranking: rank order a small number of items based on
overall preference
– Rating: estimate the magnitude of a characteristic or
quality that an object has
– Sorting Technique: arrange in order of several
product concepts (for example presented in cards, sorting
of cigarette packs based on certain concepts of quality)
– Choice Technique: choosing one or two more
alternatives

ATTITUDE RATING SCALE
● Several rating scales used in business research

● Simple Attitude Scale involving Self-rating on
“Agree-Disagree” continuum
● On a statement specifically designed regarding a
particular object, thing or people
● Eg: “UNIRAZAK is a good university to study MBA”
SD D N A SA
1 2 3 4 5

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SCALES: 1=Strongly Disagree; 2=Disagree; 3=Neutral; 4=Agree; 5=Strongly Agree
Courses 1 2 3 4 5 Comments
Useful for my work
Syllabus is up-to-date
Lectures are interesting
Classes scheduled at appropriate time
Grades reflect my actual ability
Lecturers
Knowledgeable
Always prepared for the class
Supporting Staff
Helpful
Professional (please elaborate)
Job Description Index
● Also a simplified scale

● Measures Job Satisfaction
● On elements like pay, promotion, co-workers,
supervision, and quality of work
● Eg: Think of your present work. What is it like
most of the time? (Circle either one)
– Fascinating Yes No ?
– Routine Yes No ?
– Satisfying Yes No ?

Selected Category Scales
Quality
Excellent Good Fair Poor
Very Good Fairly Good Neither Not Very Good Not Good at All
Well Above Average Above Average Average Below Average Well Below Average
Importance
Very Important Fairly Important Neutral Not So Important Not at all Important
Interest
Very Interested Somewhat Interested Not Very Interested
Satisfaction
Very Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied Neither Somewhat Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied
Very Satisfied Quite Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied Not at All Satisfied
Frequency
All of the Time Very Often Often Sometimes Hardly Ever
Very Often Often Sometimes Rarely Never
All of the Time Most of the Time Some of the Time Just Now and Then
Truth
Very True Somewhat True Net Very True Not At All True
Definitely True More True than False More False than True
Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak Definitely Not True
Summated Ratings: Likert Scales
● From 3 points to 5 to 7 points

● Agreement-disagreement, approve-disapprove,
excellent-bad, etc
● Measuring attitudes, emotions, orientations
● But of multi-dimensional nature
● Each statement must be in positive form to
score in escalating order (1-5)
● Negative statement in descending order (5-1)

Example of Likert Scales
SD D N A SA
Measuring Items 1 2 3 4 5
I always read fashion magazine 1 2 3 4 5

I like to buy clothes of the latest fashion 1 2 3 4 5
I always wear jeans when I go outing 1 2 3 4 5
My hobby is to sew children’s clothes 1 2 3 4 5
A mother should take leave when her child is sick 1 2 3 4 5
I like to put clothes of the latest fashion on my girls 1 2 3 4 5
A housewife should be able to cook well 1 2 3 4 5
I like driving cars 1 2 3 4 5
Washing family clothes becomes my task as a mother 1 2 3 4 5
I like to bake cakes and traditional “kueh” 1 2 3 4 5
Decorating house should be the responsibility of a woman 1 2 3 4 5

Summated Ratings
● Semantic Differentials (Osgood’s)
● Usually a 7-point scale, bi-polar adjectives
● Negative-positive continuum like bad-good
● Eg: Parking at Maybank HQ
Insufficient ---:---:---:---:---:---:---: Sufficient
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Parking at Public Bank HQ
Insufficient ---:---:---:---:---:---:---: Sufficient
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
● Scores can also be +3, +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, -3

Summated Ratings: Constant-Sum Scales
● Assumes Semantic Differentials provides interval

data
● But Semantic Differentials has only ordinal
properties
● Bi-polar adjectives can be replaced with phrases
Savings Account at Maybank gives:
Low interest on savings ---:---:---:---:---:---:---: High interest on saving
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Summated Ratings: Constant-Sum Scales
● Allocate scores or points among several attributes
to ADD to 100
● Respondents may be asked to divide the points to
indicate the relative importance of each attribute:
eg: rating different courier companies:
DHL UPS TNT POSLAJU

Delivered as
Promised
Accurate Invoicing
Lower Price
100 100 100 100

Summated Ratings: Stapel Scales
● Measure the direction and attitude

simultaneously
● Use a single adjective instead of bi-polar
● Modified version place adjective to be
measured in terms of distance or closeness

Stapel Scales
Supervisor’s name
+3
+2
+1
Supportive
-1
-2
-3

Summated Ratings: Graphic Rating Scales
● Graphic continuum, respondent required to choose
a point on the continuum
● Score determined by the length or the distance from
the point (measured in millimeters)
Please evaluate each attribute in terms of how important it is
to you by placing an “X” at the position on the horizontal line
that most reflects your feelings:
Seating Comfort Not important ----------- Very important

In-flight Meals Not important ----------- Very important
Air Fare Not important ----------- Very important

Attitude Scales Measuring Behavioral Intentions
● Behavioral Intentions as an estimate of

behavior
● The propensity or likelihood to behave,
judged from the expression of intention
● Using such terms as “likely”, “probably”,
“certain” etc.
● Within the context of attitude study

Behavioral Intentions
● First make up sentences using phrases

like “I would or will…”
● To indicate action tendencies having
probabilities
● From 5- to 7- point scale but still ordinal,
assumed interval
● Three different ways of doing it

● How likely is that you will change jobs in the
next six months?
I definitely will change
I probably will change
I might change
I probably will not change
I definitely will not change

● I would write a letter to my member of parliament in

support of this company if it were in a dispute with
the government?
Extremely Likely
Very Likely
Somewhat Likely
Likely, about 50-50
Somewhat Unlikely
Very Unlikely
Extremely Unlikely
● Still behavioral intention measurement

● Subject and intention or likelihood
● Quite similar in form to Semantic Differentials
● Eg: A teenage school girl
Would ---:---:---:---:---:---:---: Would not
hesitate to smoke in public
Can be a 5-, 7- or 9- point scale

Ranking: paired comparison
● Rank order in terms of preferences

● From most preferred to least preferred
● A set of objects or attributes
● Comparing two different products or brands
based on selected attributes
● To know the preference for a particular
product or brand

Ranking: paired comparison
● Example of Ranking
– Please rank according to you preference the
following two brands of toilet soap: LUX and
PALMOLIVE
Lux is better ------
Palmolive is better ------
They are the same ------

SORTING
● Used in a variety of product and brand research, to
indicate consumer attitude and beliefs: using cards
– Thoroughly shuffle deck of cards
– Hand respondent the deck
– Ask respondents to sort cards into two piles:
• Definitely Not Seen or Heard
• Definitely Seen or Heard
– Set Aside Definitely Not Seen or Heard pile
– Hand respondent the Definitely or Possible Seen or Heard
– Have respondent identify the item on each card in the
Definitely or Possible Seen or Heard pile
– Record on questionnaire

SORTING
● In cigarette brands study, smokers are asked to sort

boxes of different brands of cigarettes into different
piles
● After sorting into piles, ask them what are the criteria
of them sorting the cigarette boxes
● Criteria can be: price, quality, image, taste, etc
● Determine where do they place their own brand
● In this way, manufacturers can determined attitude of
smokers towards different brand

Choice of Measurement Scales
● There is no single best answer but depending
on:
– Objective of the study
– What to achieve from the study
– Who are the respondents? Their educational level?
– How to administer the questionnaire? Face-face-face?
Mail? Telephone? Web?
– How long is the interview?
– Estimate of the analysis techniques. Statistics to be used
will depend on scale: Nominal? Ordinal? Interval?

Index
● Behavior is multidimensional, and not
sufficient just by one measure
● A concept needs more than one measure to be
adequate, to cover many attributes
● Index is a measure of several attributes
● Also known as composite measures
● Index of Social Class: place of residence,
occupation, wealth and education

Units of Analysis
● Must decide who or what is the unit of
analysis
● Units or targets that you want to measure
● If you study the household income who do
you talk to?
● If you study personal income, who do you talk
to?

Units of Analysis
● Why bother the difference between personal
and household income?
● Who do you target in marketing?
● Consumer and Buyer
● Who do you talk to for cereals, the mother
or the kid? Dog food, to the dog?
● Why differentiate between them?

Units of Analysis
● When studying the organization always talk to
the relevant people
● Unit of Analysis for organization like a library
is not the library but the librarian
● Always decide who is the most relevant to talk
to as your target respondent
● To decide, always look back at your study
objectives
Units of Analysis
● Always decide on the lowest level of the unit of

analysis than the highest
● Measuring the lowest level allows you to
aggregate, but not vice versa
● If you measure personal income you can
aggregate to become household income
● If you measure household income, you have
problem of accuracy to disaggregate to personal
income

Validity and Reliability
● Measurement, like pounds, grams in
engineering is universally accepted
● Valid and Reliable measure of weights
● Not so in Social Science, especially in
measuring behavior
● Measuring something intangible
● Validity and Reliability will always
remain an issue but must exist in any
research
Validity
● Defined as:
● accuracy and trustworthiness of instruments,
data and findings:
● Is CGPA a valid measure of intelligence?
● If CGPA is strongly linked to intelligence, then
CGPA is a valid measure
● Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not

Validity
● An instrument is valid if the answer is valid
● If you ask “How old are you”?
● The answer is always in so many years, and that
prove validity
● But if the answer is pounds or liter, than the
question is not valid
● That is one way to determine the validity of a
measuring instrument

Validity
● Validity exists when an instrument measures
what it supposes to measure
● Like in the case of the question, How old are
you?
● And if everyone agrees that on the face of it, the
question measures age
● Then, the question has face validity

Validity
● There is also Content Validity

● Defined as “An instrument that has appropriate
content for measuring a complex concept”
● Complex Concepts such as political affiliation,
unprotesting tolerance, work alienation
● There are meanings to these concepts and
usually as a start are determined through
definition (dictionary)

Content Validity
● How do we assign values (numbers) to measurement
(operationalize)
● Politically Active Person by different levels:
– Vote at General Election
– Attend Political Rally
– Contribute to a Political Party
– Become a member of a Political Party
– Assume position in Party Structure
● How do you assign scores for these?

Content Validity
● How do we measure “Socio-economic Status”?
● Not sufficient with just one variable
● A proxy of a few variables
● Income, education, occupation, status within
the society and wealth
● All these criteria agreed by a panel of experts

Construct Validity
● There is a close fit between the construct we

supposedly measures and actual observation
made with the instrument
● If you measure satisfaction, it should be the same
in actual life
● Measures actually measure the component if the
construct is valid

Construct Validity
● Construct have to be well defined

● Have most if not all the contents
● That is:
– The construct itself has all the properties that it is
supposed to measure
● Construct itself must be thoroughly investigated

Validity Test: Factor Analysis
● Items measuring same concept should be the

same or grouped together
● Factor Analysis groups same items together
● This is concept validity or construct validity test

Example of Factor Analysis: Women’s Lifestyles
Factor Loadings
Measuring Items I II III IV V
I always read fashion magazine .80 .23 .12 .75 .01

Buying new fashion clothes is my hobby .75 .05 .21 .11 .31
I always wear jeans when I go out for recreation .68 .00 .02 .98 .11
My hobby is to sew by children’s clothes .02 .78 .01 .10 .10
A mother should take leave from work when her child is sick .03 .82 .03 .09 .01
I like to dress up my daughter with clothes of the latest fashion .90 .43 .03 .07 .04
A housewife should know how to cook well .12 .82 .11 .11 .07
I love to drive .90 -.1 .10 .88 .17
Washing my family clothes is the responsibility of a mother .17 .78 .01 .07 .03
I like to bake cake than make traditional kueh .12 .65 .78 .05 .01
House cleaning should be the responsibility of a woman .14 .75 .80 .05 .02
Criterion-related Validity
● When one type of instrument is identical in

measurement to another valid instrument
● Take two following measures of age:
– When (what year) did you start schooling?
(work forward to determine the age, assuming that
children start schooling at the age of 7)
– How old are you?

Criterion-related Validity
– When (what year) did you start schooling?
(work back to determine the age, assuming that
children start schooling at the age of 7)
– How old are you?
● If they produce identical answers, then the first
measure has the criterion validity.
● How old are you? Is a valid measure of age. Both
Measures should correlate well?
● Why?

Reliability of Measures
● Do you get the same answer by using an

instrument to measure something more than
once?
● If yes, the instrument is reliable
● If you dip a thermometer in a pot of boiling
water, it should read 212 degrees Fahrenheit
● Even if you repeat, provided it is at sea level

Reliability of Measures
● Has something to do with repeated measures
● An instrument is reliable, if measured
something over and over again, produces
identical results
● Questions are reliable of they produce
identical answers
● How old are you? Will produce the same
answer every time

Reliability Test
● RELIABLE means:
● Measures correctly every time and repeatedly
● Repeated measure is one test of reliability
● Similar results are obtained every time and
across different times
● Defined as: the degree to which measures are
free of error and therefore yield consistent results

Reliability Test
● RELIABILITY
● Affected when measuring is not stable,
assigning numbers inconsistently
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
● If numbers are reversed, inconsistency

leads to unreliable measures

Reliability Test
● Two components form RELIABILITY namely;
– Repeatability
– Internal Consistency
● TEST OF RELIABILITY will be:
● Repeating the measures several times
● Test-retest method

● TEST OF RELIABILITY
● Test-retest method
● Administering the same measures twice to the
same respondents at different times
● Check for stability: Does the response differ?
● Unpredictable results every time denotes
unreliability due error in measurement

Reliability Test
● Test-retest method reliability may have
problems especially in longitudinal studies
● First measures may sensitize respondents,
subsequently influence the second result
● But Attitude change may occur when the time
in between measurements is too long
● This is attitude change, and caution it may not
be unreliability
Reliability Test
● Internal Consistency denotes homogeneity
● Measuring a concept (attitude) requires more
than ONE questions
● Do all questions measure the same thing?
● Measuring the same thing denotes internal
consistency
● If they are the same (consistency), the
measures are reliable
Reliability Test
● Test of Internal Consistency
● Split-half method, breaking the questionnaire
into two: odd items together and even items
together
● Administer both to the same group, then
correlate and run ANOVA
● The results (correlation, ANOVA), to determine
reliability
● High correlation or insignificant group mean
differences denote reliability
● TEST OF RELIABILITY
● Equivalent-form Method
● Two alternative instruments (questionnaires)
designed as equivalent
● Administer to same group of respondents
● Correlation between the two instruments
denote reliability

Reliability Test
● Cronbach’s α
● Cronbach’s α can be defined as a function of the
number or test items AND the average inter-
correlation among the items
● Available through SPSS

Reliability Test
● CRONBACH’S α
α = N.r
l + (N – l).r
Where: N=Number of items

r=average inter-item correlation

Business Research Methods: Prof Dato' DR Ismail Rejab

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BQM5133

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak www.unirazak.edu.my

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Need to know: which is inquisitive

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Action Research is what we are proposing here

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

●Three Major Types

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Exploratory Descriptive Causal

The History of AIDS in Patrons of the Night Markets

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Anything that can assume different numerical

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Identify research problem

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Variables are measured by their indicators, defined

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Measurement is: deciding which value to record

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Ad Awareness Measurement has several

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● But those qualities when compared, poses

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● What we need is an operational definition of

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

● Measuring Beauty is quite straight forward:

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Social Events Job Politics Income

Source: Joseph T. Plummer, Journal of Marketing, January 1974, p.34.

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak

Graduate School of Business • Universiti Tun Abdul Razak