Group Project

MGT 3940 Business Research Methodology (Dr. Sasithorn Phonkaew)

Assignments

Assignments for Group Research Project To complete a business research project that will be due at the end of the semester, the following four assignments are required during the semester and will be included as the parts of the final report by the end of the semester. This method should assist BR students to attend to their research project and proceed it in a systematic way from the first step to the last step of the overall research process. These assignments must be saved into a C.D. and submitted to Acharn at the Last Class. They are worth 5% of the overall evaluation.

Literature Review - Product/Brand analysis (or Industry analysis) - Main Concept and Its Determining Factors - Conceptual Framework or Model of the study State Problem Statement/Identification (Research Problem) - Research Questions - Research Objectives - Research Hypotheses Conduct Exploratory Research - Focus Group Interviews Conduct Descriptive Research - Questionnaire survey Data Processing and Data Analysis (using SPSS) Conclusion Report Assignment #1: (Ch.1)

Background or Situation Analysis Research topic for this semester is about “Behavioral Intention”. Choose (1) any brand of product or service of "your" interest (e.g. mobile phone – Nokia; coffee – Starbucks; shopping mall – Central; etc.) and (2) choose a target population or any "specific" group of people (in terms of sex, age group, career, income, life style, etc.) or target group you want to study about that topic from. (3) And write and submit the report on background information or Situation Analysis (review of the company background or industry or the product or the brand) that you choose in Step One with the “SWOT Analysis” of that brand. Finally (4), describe the reasons why you choose “that product or brand” to study the behavioral intention and why you choose that target population to study - briefly. (The topic that you choose may be changed later if you wish to) (4), write “Significance of the Study” describing why the brand of product/service you choose to study is so ‘important’ or ‘interesting’ for your group to do the research about and what are benefits of doing the research about this product/service. For example, it is the very famous brand, it is the market leader, it is making the rebranding, re-positioning, it just launches the innovative strategy, and so on. You should try to find any supporting data/evidence to your 1

MGT 3940 Business Research Methodology (Dr. Sasithorn Phonkaew)

Assignments

writing and make it linked to the Situation Analysis that you review. And list all references of secondary data sources you use or refer.

Tips: Make sure it is easy for your group to access the information sources of that topic and that population you will survey later on. You should not choose “ABAC students” as your whole target population for this project. Assignment #2: (Ch.3)

Literature Review and Proposed Conceptual Framework or Model Pool and review academic articles about “behavioral intention” (research studies or empirical studies) from all group members. Make a literature review of (1) various definitions of behavioral intention (from different authors); (2) various factors/determinants of behavioral intention; and (3) drawing various models of behavioral intention of those authors. Finally, draw your own conceptual model of Behavioral Intention consisting of one dependent variable (DV) (Behavioral Intention of “__“ your selected brand from Assign. # 1) and four independent variables (IV) with some items under each independent variable (3 variables are borrowed from past studies; and 1 variable is proposed by your group). You should explain why and how this new variable has an effect on Behavioral Intention with your good/valid reasons/evidence supported. Write a reference (in APA’s style) at the end of this assignment listing the names of those authors (who you review the work from) and the names of articles, journals, years, page no. Tips: To be more helpful for your project later, try to select the article that studies something related to your topic in Assignment # 1 or mentions about some variables/factors that you may use or study in your research. Articles from the business magazine or newspapers are NOT accepted. See ABAC on-line database (suggested) on next page.

Assignment #3: (Ch.4)

Problem Identification (Tentative: may be adjusted or changed later) Propose "research problems" that consist of at least one main research question of your project, two main research objectives and 4 other related objectives and the main hypotheses based on your conceptual model as well as 6 other related hypotheses from Assignment # 2. Submit this assignment with your Conceptual Model from Assignment # 2. (See Example from “Research Problem” handout) - main hypotheses from the model depends on the IV(s) and DV * IV 1, IV 2, IV 3, …. are related to DV. (or DV can be predicted by IV 1, IV 2, IV 3, …. ) - Six other related hypotheses should consist of:* two hypotheses about the relationship between two variables * two hypotheses about test of difference between two groups * two hypotheses about test of difference among 3 groups or more (more than 2 groups) Tips: The main purpose is to evaluate whether you know how to write research question, hypothesis, and research objective properly, feasibly, and realistically. To evaluate how you understand the conceptual model.

Assignment #4: (Ch.13,14,15)

Questionnaire Design and Scale Application Propose a tentative Questionnaire based on research problems in Assignment #3. All concepts/variables mentioned in your conceptual model, research objectives, questions, hypotheses (in Assignment #3 revised) must be measured in your questionnaire. The questionnaire should consist of at least 2 parts: Question and Personal Data. You must apply “choice, ranking, and rating” techniques in your questionnaire. You must submit Questionnaire together with Assignment #3 (revised copy) and Table of Scale and Measurement used There should be at least 15 Questions in the main part and at least 5 2

MGT 3940 Business Research Methodology (Dr. Sasithorn Phonkaew)

Assignments

questions in Personal Data Part. Determine level of scale, and type of scale of each question of the questionnaire and put it in the Table. "Level of scale" is nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio (Ch.13); and "type of scale or Question" - is ranking question, simple dichotomy question, checklist q., filter q., semantic differential scale, so on from Ch. 14 + 15). You must use these four attitude ratings scales, namely semantic differential scale, numerical scale, stapel scale, and Likert scale; and at least one ranking question. After completing Assignment #4 : Checklist of what to do next (Keep all 4 assignments and save them in the C.D. and submit the C.D. to Acharn at the Last Class) Pretest Questionnaire to some sample, maybe 10-15 sets Ask them if they can understand all questions and get their suggestions (Did they understand every question and scale on your questionnaire? Did they follow the scale instruction correctly? Did they do the part that belongs to them?) See feedback from the Pretest. Make necessary corrections Data Collection: Actual distribution of the questionnaire to the sample (100-200 sets) Data Processing: Editing and Coding answers from all questionnaires. Prepare the coding sheet, variable view and data view in SPSS. Data Analysis: SPSS (Frequency and Cross tabulation, Descriptive Statistics, Chi-square Test , Compare Means, Correlation and Regression) Data Interpretation: Make conclusion based on data analysis, and make suggestions Plan for a project presentation (Oral Report) Prepare a final written report: Strictly follow the guideline provided near the end of semester and submit the final report in both “written” and “data storage” (CD, floppy disk) forms. Important Notes for Assignments:Each group should select a group leader who will coordinate all group tasks and divide the tasks among group members. Create the group email address for all members to visit for updating the assignments, sharing work or ideas on the project, and so on. Each group should schedule a BR meeting time in a week when most of everyone is free to work on each BR assignment together. (Two heads are better than one!) There should be a group editor to edit the last copy that will be submitted to Acharn to make sure that every page is correct and consistent. All assignments must be properly typed and clipped. They should also be well saved in the floppy disks or any data storages (more than one data storages are safer) and kept for your own group record (for the future combining of all files into a final project report). State your group number and section number on every assignment submitted. All assignments must be submitted in class on the due date (any late means "-1 ") or email to me before the due date at [email protected] All assignments must fulfill the minimum or “at least” requirements specified in this sheet. Follow every instruction carefully. “+1” will be given to any effort that exceeds the minimum level as well as to the submission before the due date. If there are some corrections needed, the correction or revised work could be submitted or emailed later. Make sure all correction work must be made before the final exam starts. Lastly, at the last class before the final exam starts, each group must submit all five assignments (that are already revised and corrected) in the C.D. to Acharn.

Some suggested academic Journals 

Journal of marketing studies I Journal of management studies

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Journal of marketing I Journal of marketing management

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International journal of research in marketing / Journal of small business management

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Asian advertising and marketing / Journal of advertising research

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Psychology and marketing / The American journal of psychology

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Journal of applied psychology / Journal of consumer research, ABAC journal, and etc. 3

MGT 3940 Business Research Methodology (Dr. Sasithorn Phonkaew)

Assignments

ABAC On-line Database  suggested, at www.library.au.edu/public.html - Emerald Management Xtra: business fields, management fields (most are European and Asian journals)*** - EBSCO Host: business fields, management fields (most are American journals) - Wilson: business fields, management fields, education, social sciences Note: You need to use ABAC phone line/number to connect Internet and your AU net account in order to log in into these online databases otherwise the Database will ask you to enter or type “log in” and “pass word” first. Search data or articles via Lan system around AU campus is easier and faster. Do NOT do it from Internet Café or Computer Game Shop. Do not use www.google.co.th because it is not a good research source for empirical studies and articles. Here are some steps to do: For Emerald Management Xtra database, type key-word or the topic word you want to search (such as “behavioral intention model”), Display – change to 50 results/page, choose any interesting topic or title then  click at “View PDF”  read the abstract/summary  look through all pages to find any “Conceptual Model or Framework” explaining relationships among several factors with your key word  save the article  print it for reading later.  For EBSCO Host, click at Business Source Complete, click “Continue”, type key-word or the topic word you want to search (such as “behavioral intention”), At Limit your results: click “full text”, click “Search”  choose an article from the list (sort by “relevance”)  read the abstract of each article  if you want the full text of any article, choose the PDF full text  save and print out the whole article (all pages until the references)  For H. W. Wilson database, selecting Business Full text and OmniFile Full text Mega, type the key word, limit only

“Page Image (PDF)”, and start.

items/page and Sort by Relevance.

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