Chapter 4

Research Problem, Objectives,

Significance of Study and Hypothesis
Development
Problem Formulation in Research

Alice: “WOULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHICH

WAY I OUGHT TO GO FROM HERE?”

Cheshire Cat: “THAT DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU

WANT TO GO”
Lewis Carroll

Problem statement gives you a DIRECTION

 The Problem Definition Process

 First step in ensuring research is relevant

 If not done correctly, remainder of research

process will be useless
“Garbage in, garbage out”

 Must begin with a clear understanding of the

reason for undertaking research – focus on a
decision – no decision no research
Industry issues, Problem Statement,
Significance of study, Research
Questions
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Research Background
1.3 Overview of the industry - IB1, Ent1
1.4 Problem Statement - Mktg, Fin
1.5 Significance of the study - Ent2, IB2
1.6 Research Questions/objectives - HR, Ent3
1.7 Definition of terms
1.8 Summary of Hypothesis
1.9 Conclusion
 The Problem Definition Process…

 Should not proceed with research until

problem defined

 Identification of research problem opens

up new questions and possibilities.
 It is an opportunity to test new ideas or re-
interpret old problems from a fresh
perspectives.
From Interesting Idea to Research
Questions
 Assume that you have identified a general area
of research
 resolving a problem, explaining a phenomenon, or
testing some theory in your field.
 E.g. Cultivating innovative culture

 To know whether or not the topic is important

(significant)
 you must also be familiar with the literature in the
area.
 Example 1

Management
Subject

General topic Organizational Behavior

Progressively more specific Innovative Behavior

topics

Values’ influence on innovative

behavior
 Problem Identification

“The formulation of the problem is

often more essential than its solution.”

Albert Einstein
How Do We Identify A Research
Problem?

THREE important sources:

a. Experience and observation
b. Deductions from theory
c. Literature review
a) Experience and Observations
 Abnormal conditions or behavior
 Complaints, protests, etc.
 Deviation from plans/targets
 Communication with leaders, employees,
customers, etc.
 Research findings and reports
 New trends and policies
E.g. Observations?Industry
Reports
RM500 Mil Commercialization Innovation
Fund To Assist SMEs

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) — The government will establish a

RM500 million syariah-compliant Commercialization Innovation Fund
with an attractive profit margin, to enable small and medium-scale
enterprises (SMEs) to commercialize research products.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when tabling the 2012 Budget
today, announced 2012 as National Innovation Movement Year,
whereby to realize this aspiration, the government has planned several
strategic initiatives with an allocation of RM100 million.

Among the initiatives will be programmes to instill and develop

innovation in schools and public higher learning institutions, as well
as in the rural areas. These will be carried out by government agencies in
collaboration with NGOs.
b) Deductions From Theory
 Questioning the general principles
 Questioning the assumptions
 Translating into hypotheses (declarative)
 From hypotheses to problem statements or
questions (interrogative)
 b) e.g. Deductions From Theory
There are some findings that support an extension of the similarity-attraction
hypothesis to inter-group relationships.

First, researchers found perceived out-group similarity results in a greater

willingness to associate with the out-group ........

Second, similarity-attraction formed the basis of Belief Congruence Theory

that ......

Third, national cultural distance between a home and a host culture was found to
influence attraction......

While these findings support the application of the similarity-attraction

hypothesis in a wide range of context, there is still a question as to
whether this hypothesis explains tourists’ intercultural decisions. The
present study intends to close this gap in the literature.
c) Literature Review
 The problem is perceived by the scientific
community as relevant and significant
 The need to replicate the problems and confirm
previous findings
 Questions applicable to other situations
(countries)
 Identifying important variables (dependent and
independent variables)
 Improving previous problems with greater
precision and clarity (refining)
 c) e.g. From Literature Review
Prime Minister of Malaysia recently announced 2012 as National
Innovation Movement Year (Bernama, 2011), aims to promote
innovative culture among Malaysians.

Innovation is defined as the intentional generation, application or

adoption of new ideas, processes, products or procedures to benefit an
individual or group (West and Farr, 1990).

Innovativeness has been found to relate positively to personal values

that emphasize self-direction (i.e., independent thought, creativity and
personally chosen goals) and stimulation (i.e., novelty, excitement and
challenge) basing on Western country data (Schwartz, 2014),
suggesting personal values as important determinants of a person’s
engagement in innovative behavior.

However, no known similar research has been conducted in Malaysia

to identify value types related to innovative behaviors among
Malaysians.
 c) e.g. From Literature Review

For many years customer satisfaction has been a major goal of

business organizations, since it has been proven to affect customer
retention and companies’ market share (Hansemark and Albinsson,
2004), especially in markets that are highly competitive and saturated,
like financial services (Rust and Zahorik, 1993 and Trubik and Smith,
2000).

However, no known research has been done in Malaysia to explore

the relationship between customer satisfaction and revisit intention in
banking industry.

Thus, this study attempts to close the gap in the literature to assess
applicability of such relationships in Malaysia banking industry
context.
1. Developing an effective research
question
 Three questions must be answered
1. What is the research topic
 General area (innovative behavior)
2. What is the research question
 Specific focus of the research
 One-sentence question (how do personal value types
affect unemployment rates?)
3. What is the research hypothesis
 Proposed answer to your question (Individuals
emphasizing stimulation and self-direction value types
are more likely to engage in innovative behavior )
1. Developing an effective research question –
How to begin
 Choose a general topic

 Start reading the literature

 What has been done
 What questions remain
 Are there contradictions in the literature

 Problem statement: gaps in the literature your study intends to address

(e.g. However, no known similar research has been conducted in Malaysia
to identify value types related to innovative behaviors among Malaysians .

 Research Question: problem statement in Question form

(e.g. What are the personal value types that motivate innovative behaviors
among Malaysians?)
1. Developing an effective research question -
How to find the gaps in the literature

 Introduction to articles
Every article will identify the research
question and how it differs from other
research in the introduction section

 Conclusion of articles
Every article will list its weaknesses and
areas for further study in the conclusion
section
 Problem Statement
• Adds clarity to the problem & also focuses on
what issues that have to be resolved

• An internally consistent logical argument having

structure, sequence and rationale

• A problem statement necessarily leads into at

least one central research question or objective
from which numerous research questions and/or
hypotheses could be generated.
Characteristics of A Good Problem
Statement
 Clarify exactly what is to be solved
 Limit the scope of the study to a specific
question
 One that is researchable
 Problem Statement
 You need to be able to clearly answer the
question:
 What is the problem”?
 Why is this problem worth my attention

 The problem statement limits scope by focusing

on some variables and not others.

 It provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate

why these variables are important
 Example 1
Topic: Predictors of Salesperson’s Trust

General Research Questions

What are the predictors of salesperson’s trust in
Malaysia Insurance context?

Specific Research Questions

 Is empathy a predictor of trust?
 Is listening ability a predictor of trust?
 Is transformational leadership quality a predictor
of trust?
 Example 2
Topic: Customer satisfaction dimensions of a bank in
Malaysia

General Research Questions

Are there differences in various aspects of customer
satisfaction dimension across groups?

Specific Research Questions

 Is there a satisfaction difference between male and female
customers?
 Is there a satisfaction difference across ethnic groups?
 Are more educated customers experiencing lesser level of
satisfaction?
 Research Objectives

• Precise statements of what the research project

will attempt to achieve

• Specific statements of information required to

address/answer research problem

• Should be limited to a manageable number (2-3)

 If too many, the study is too large to complete
within a given time
Writing a research objective
 The general objective of this study is to
examine …..
 More specific, this study tends to
 identify / determine / verify /…….
 define / construct / develop / compose……
 investigate / analyze / examine / test ……
 estimate / regress / derive / formulate / model……
 measure / compare / rank……
Keywords for
objective
 Research Hypothesis
• A suggested solution to a problem, an intellectual
guess
• Unproven statement of a research problem in a
testable format
• More specific, & declarative and closer to the
ground than problem statements
• A research tool to relate theory to observation
and observation to theory
• It states relationships among variables which are
operationally defined and observable
 A Testable Hypothesis
• Thereexists an acceptable technique and
necessary instruments to conduct the test
 require quantitative data
 test statistically based on empirical data
collected through the research process
• The explanation is plausible given the
existing body of knowledge
 Usefulness of Hypotheses
• Provide direction, propose explanations and
extend knowledge
• Allow relational statements to be tested
• Guide collection and interpretation of data
• Provide framework for organizing and
reporting the conclusions of the study
What a good hypothesis means
• Must have explanatory power, an ability to explain
relationships
• Must state expected relationships between variables
• Must be testable, relating variables that are measurable
• Consistent with the existing body of knowledge, not
contradicting established theories and laws of nature
• Must be concise and clear
• Probabilistic in nature, accept or reject, but never to prove
to be true
 Hypothesis development
Research Question 1
Is there a satisfaction difference between male and female customers?

 2.4 The Association between Gender and Customer Satisfaction

 Spathis, Petridou and Glaveli (2005) suggested that gender is a significant factor in
perceptions of service quality. They revealed that “male clients of Greek banks have
a more positive perception of the quality of service than women clients” (Spathis et al,
2005, p. 99). On top of that, gender also shown quality ranking perception differences
where men ranked effectiveness and reliability highest while women ranked price
highest (Spathis et al, 2005). In a different study investigating potential gender’s
effect on perceptions of satisfaction in a public service environment, men were
reported to enjoy higher level of service satisfaction compared to women (Dimitriades
and Maroudas, 2007). On top of that, they reported almost all service satisfaction
items related significantly to gender (Dimitriades and Maroudas, 2007). Based on
these, it is likely that gender too will show different satisfaction level in this study.
Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed:

 H1: There are significant mean differences in various aspect of satisfaction

between female and male customers.
 Hypothesis development
Research Question 2
Is there a satisfaction difference across ethnic groups?

2.5 The Association between Ethnic group and Customer Satisfaction

 Empirical research found that there were differences in the service

expectations for retail banks among ethnic groups (Snow, Bartel and Cullen,
1996). For instance, Lopez, Hart and Rampersed (2007) examined the
association between ethnicity and customer satisfaction level in the financial
service sector and revealed that respondents from the three largest regional
ethnic groups (African-American, Latinos and Non-Latino Caucasians)
weighted the importance of several of the ten service quality dimensions
quite differently. Thus, it is likely that ethnic groups in Malaysia would also
perceive various aspects of satisfaction differently. Hence, H2 was proposed
as below.

 H2: There are significant mean differences in various aspect of

satisfaction across ethnic groups.
 Hypothesis development
Research Question 2
Is there a satisfaction difference across ethnic groups?

2.6 The Relationship between academic qualification and Customer

Satisfaction

 Mittal and Kamakura (2001) investigated the moderating effect of customer

characteristics between customer satisfactions, repurchase intent and
repurchase behavior. They found consumers with some college or higher
educational level recorded lower satisfaction level than those with only a high
school education or less (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001). The finding was further
validated by Cloud (2004) who also found a negative relationship between
education level and customer satisfaction in a community health centers.
Hence, the following hypothesis is developed:

 H3: There is a negative relationship between academic qualification and

satisfaction level.
Significance of Study
 Justification & Importance of your Study
 Identification of perceived needs and constraints
 Set the scene by explaining the current situation & the
importance of your study in the context of the target
areas / groups
 List of target groups / beneficiaries
• eg: parents and teachers in education economics, central
bankers in monetary policy, and residents and businesses
affected by pollution

 What is NEW in your study?

 How can you close the gap of any lacking in the
current literatures?
 Who will be benefited and How?
 E.g. Significance of Study
Practical Significance
 Knowing who are less satisfied (male/female; high/low education;
Malay/Chinese/India), help bank designs extended research in understanding
areas weakly performed by the bank and improve accordingly.

Theoretical Significance
 This study adds value to the literature in two ways. First, it extends customer
satisfaction work conducted by Hallowell (1996) to Malaysia context to assess if
the scale is relevant in explaining customer satisfaction phenomenon in
Malaysia. In addition, this study added revisit intention as the outcome of
customer satisfaction to assess if the satisfaction-revisit relationship suggested
by Boshoff and Gray (2004) is applicable in Malaysia banking context.

 Finally, it brings attention to Training managers types of trainings to

provide to banking staff. Consistent training is….