K. J.

SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES AND RESEARCH,

Vidyavihar, Mumbai- 400077

Subject: Business Research Methods-(MMS-III Trim-A Division)

Maximum Marks: 50

Duration: 3hours Date: 5/04/17

Instructions

1. Attempt any 5 questions. (10 marks each)

2. Take assumptions where ever necessary and make a note of it.

3. Data is in excel file MMS-BRM-III-2017-1 (all questions in separate worksheet)

4. Write all answers in the Hard copy. Draw only the relevant table in the hard copy.

5. Save all statistical tables in a single word document (Question wise) and save it on desktop as: A-Roll
no-BRM-MMS-1

Q1. Malhotra Spice Company has its operations in all parts of the country. It is business of selling and
manufacturing spices suitable for Indian kitchen. They ventured into export market in 1980’s as there was a
huge demand for the spices in North America, Europe Australia and Middle East. This is because the no. of
Indians residing in these countries had been increasing at an exponential rate. The spices were packed in tetra
pack containing spices in different quantities like 100, 150, 200, 250 and 500 grams and mostly were used by
hoteliers.
Mr. K.P. Malhotra, Chairman of Malhotra spices, was wondering whether he should change the packaging
from tetra pack to glass or plastic bottles. Before taking a final decision as an experiment, in addition to tetra
Pack Company introduced plastic and glass bottles as a trial pack in Delhi region. Since it’s a huge investment
and the results if the results were not different for two type of packaging, they would drop the idea of change
in packaging.
The company on an experimental basis came up with three type of packaging –plastic, glass bottles and tetra
packs- for the Delhi market. Use data of 30 months to check whether type of packaging has an effect on the
average sales volume and answer the following questions:

1. Apply suitable statistical technique

2. Frame Null and alterative hypothesis
3. What is the measurement scale of the variables used?
4. Use results to comment on whether type of packaging has an effect on the sales volume and interpret
the results.

Q2.1. The Ever Healthy hospital has evolved special cholesterol – free diet for reducing the cholesterol level.
It wishes to find out if changes in diet alone can reduce the level of cholesterol without the aid of medicines.
A random sample of 10 persons in the age group 50 to 60 years is selected, and their cholesterol level in mgs.

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/ 100ml. is measured. Then they are put on the special diet for 10 weeks and their cholesterol level is
measured again.

a) Suggest an appropriate analysis to test if diet has being effective.

b) What are the assumptions of t test?

Q2.2 A courier service advertises that its average delivery time is less than 5 hours for local deliveries. A
random sample of 10 for the amount of time this courier takes to deliver packages to an addressee across the
town produced the following times (rounded to the nearest hour):8, 3, 4, 6, 10, 5, 6, 4, 3, 8
Is this evidence sufficient to support the courier claim at 1% level of significance?

Q3. On visiting a bank branch, there are certain factors that you have in your mind which you expect the
bank to meet. Please fill in the appropriate space as per the importance that you give to that factor. (Use tick
mark)

Very Somewhat Not at all

Branch Banking Factor Important
Important Important Important

Vicinity of the branch

Cleanliness in the branch

Appearance and layout of the branch

Ambience

Hospitable and friendly employees

Timely resolution of you query

Waiting time

Simplified processes

Knowledge level of employee

Equal facility to all customers

Facility for Senior Citizens

Adequate signage and brochures

Single counter resolution

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The above question was used as one of the questions in a questionnaire by a MMS student to study Customer
relationship management of HSBC bank as summer project. The main objective of his study was to
understand reasons that lead to customer satisfaction. Apply factor analysis and use rotation and answer the
following question:

 Explain communality ,role of factor analysis.(2 marks)

 Explain if the sample size is sufficient to run a factor analysis .(1 marks)
 Is the scale appropriate to run a factor analysis? (1 marks)
 Interpret if the factor analysis should be done looking at the total variance explained by the factors. If
yes then, (2 marks)
 Discuss the which matrix will use ( matrix vs. rotated component matrix) (2 marks)
 Interpret the factors obtained and summarize the results. (2 marks)

Q4.1 A study investigated the perception of corporate ethical values among individuals specializing in
marketing. Use the data given in excel sheet (higher ethical score indicate higher ethical value) to test for
significant difference in perception among three groups namely marketing managers, marketing research and
advertising. On the basis of the output generated, comment on the ethical value of the three groups.

a) What is the use of Descriptive Statistics table in ANOVA results? Explain using this example.

Q4.2 Management of the premium B school is contemplating with the idea of keeping educational back
ground as one of the criteria for admission process. It was assumed that the performance of a student during
the MBA program depends on their educational background (graduation). A random sample of 152 II year
students was taken (refer excel sheet) to test the above mentioned hypothesis.

a. Formulate null and alternate hypothesis and analyze in order to help the management in deciding
whether educational background could be included in the admission process or not and justify.

b. What is the type of measurement scale used in chi-square test

c. Is Chi- square a non-parametric test?

Q5. Is the educational achievement level of students related to how much the state in which they reside spends
on education? In many communities tax payers are asking this important question as school districts request
the tax revenue increase for education. Analyze the data on spending and achievement scores in order to
determine whether there is any relationship between both in case of public schools.

The federal government’s national assessment of national progress (NAEP) program is frequently used to
measure the educational achievement of students. Table 1.1 shows the total current spending per pupil per
year, and the total NAEP score for 35 states that participated in NAEP program. The composite test score is
the sum of Math, Science, and reading scores achieved last year. Pupils tested are in grade 8 and the
maximum possible score is 1300.

Table 1.2 shows the spending per pupil for 13 states that did not participate in relevant NAEP surveys. These
data were reported in the article on spending and achievement level appearing in Forbes (Nov 3, 2013).

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Managerial Report:

1. Use regression analysis to investigate the relationship between amounts spent per pupil and the
composite score on NAEP test. Discuss your findings.
2. Do you think that this estimated regression model developed for these data could be used to estimate
the test score for the states that did not participate in the NAEP program?
3. Develop regression analysis of composite test scores for the states that did not participate in NAEP
program.
4. Based on your analysis, do you think that the educational achievement level of student is related to
how much the state spends on education?

Q6.1 What are sampling and non-sampling errors with examples of each? Explain the effect of sample size on
sampling error.

Q6.2 Mr. Mehta has chain of restaurants in many of the cities of Northern India and was interested in
diversifying his business. His only son, Kamal never wanted to be in hospitality line. To settle him into a line
which he wants to venture in, Mr. Mehta decided to venture into garment manufacturing. He gave his idea to
his son and he also liked it very much. Kamal has already done a course in fashion designing and wants to do
something different for consumers of this industry. An idea stuck him that he should design for people who
are bulky but want a lean look after wearing readymade garment. The first thing that came into his mind was
to have an estimate of people who wore large size shirts (size 40 and above) and large sized trousers (size 38
and above).

A meeting of experts from garment industry was called and there were many fashion designers to discuss as to
how to proceed. A common concern for many of them was how to know size of that market. Another issue
that was bothering them was how to know approach the respondents. It was believed that asking people about
size of their shirt or trouser might piss them off and there may not be any worthwhile response. A suggestion
that came up was that they should employ some observers at the entrance of various malls and their job would
be to look at the sizes of the people who wear big size shirt or trouser. This would be a better way of
approaching the respondents. This procedure would help them to estimate in a very simple way the portion of
people who wear big size garments. On the basis of the above case let answer the following questions:

1. Name the sampling design that is used in this study

2. What are the limitations of the design chosen
3. Can you suggest a better design?
4. What is the data collection method employed in the case?

Q7. Explain Research process in detail.

******************************All the best******************************