Research Methodology II

Module 1
 Revision
• 4 scales of measurement – Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio

• Questionnaire formation for Project Work

 Statistics in Business

• Statistics plays a crucial role in various aspects of business decision-making,

providing valuable insights and supporting evidence-based strategies.
 Common applications of statistics in business

• Market Research: Statistics helps in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data

from market surveys and studies. It enables businesses to understand
customer preferences, behavior, and trends, aiding in market segmentation,
target audience identification, and product development.

• Forecasting and Demand Planning: Statistical models, such as time series analysis
and regression analysis, are used to predict future demand for products or
services. By analyzing historical data and identifying
• Financial Analysis: Statistical techniques, including ratio analysis, trend analysis, and
regression analysis, are used to evaluate financial performance, assess risk, and make
investment decisions. These methods help businesses understand profitability,
liquidity, and solvency, as well as identify potential financial anomalies.

• Quality Control: Statistical process control techniques are employed to monitor and
maintain product quality in manufacturing and service industries. Statistical methods
help in identifying variations, defects, and process inefficiencies, allowing businesses
to implement improvements and ensure consistent quality.
 Process
• The data, after collection, has to be processed and analysed in accordance
with the outline laid down for the purpose at the time of developing the
research plan.

• This is essential for a scientific study and for ensuring that we have all
relevant data for making contemplated comparisons and analysis.
 Data Analysis
• The term analysis refers to the computation of certain measures along with
searching for patterns of relationship that exist among data-groups.

• Thus, “in the process of analysis, relationships or differences supporting or

conflicting with original or new hypotheses should be subjected to statistical
tests of significance to determine with what validity data can be said to
indicate any conclusions”.
 Descriptive Statistics
• Measures of Central Tendency

• Measures of Dispersion

• Measures of Skewness

• Measures of Relationships
 Measures of Central Tendency

• Mean

• Median

• Mode
 Measures of Dispersion

• An averages can represent a series only as best as a single figure can, but it
certainly cannot reveal the entire story of any phenomenon under study.

• Specially it fails to give any idea about the scatter of the values of items of a
variable in the series around the true value of average.
In order to measure this scatter, statistical devices called measures of dispersion are
calculated. Important measures of dispersion are

(a) Range,

(b) Mean deviation, and

(c) Standard deviation.

 Basic data analysis: Descriptive Statistics
• Descriptive analysis is the elementary transformation of data in a way that
describes the basic characteristics such as central tendency, distribution, and
variability.

• Means, medians, modes, variance, range, and standard deviation typify widely
applied descriptive statistics.
 Data Tabulation
• Tabulation refers to the orderly arrangement of data in a table or other
summary format.

• When this tabulation process is done by hand, the term tallying is used.
Counting the different ways respondents answered a question and arranging
them in a simple tabular form yields a frequency table.
 Cross-tabulation
• It is the appropriate technique for addressing research questions involving
relationships among multiple less-than interval variables.

• Cross-tabulation is a combined frequency table. Cross-tabs allow the

inspection and comparison of differences among groups based on nominal
or ordinal categories.
• Elaboration analysis involves the basic cross-tabulation within various
subgroups of the sample. The researcher breaks down the analysis for each
level of another variable.
Example
 Data Transformation
• Data transformation (also called data conversion) is the process of changing the
data from their original form to a format suitable for performing a data
analysis that will achieve research objectives.

• Eg – Income from yearly to monthly

• For example, many researchers believe that less response bias will result if
interviewers ask respondents for their year of birth rather than their age.

• This presents no problem for the research analyst, because a simple data
transformation is possible. The raw data coded as birth year can easily be
transformed to age by subtracting the birth year from the current year.
 Field Work
 Fieldwork is a challenging job and these challenges are glaringly
apparent when fieldwork scope crosses the national boundaries.

 Fieldwork is a part of the research, which is not directly

controlled by the researcher. Many aspects such as behaviour of
a fieldworker, behaviour and cooperation of a respondent, and
so on may not be under direct control of the researcher.
 The importance of field interviews in conducting scientific research cannot
be undermined.

 Field interviews are excellent in providing detailed explanations of best

practices and deep understanding of the theory developed.
 Data Preparation
 There exist two stages between data collection and
interpretation: data preparation and data analysis.

 Data preparation secures the first place in these two stages. Data
collected by the researchers from the field happens to be in raw
format. Before going for analysis, the researcher has to convert
raw data into the data format that is ready for data analysis.
 Questionnaire Screening
 Although preliminary questionnaire screening takes place during
the fieldwork, it is important to re-check the questionnaire.

 There is a possibility that few pages of the questionnaire may be

missing.
 Another possibility occurs in terms of irrational consistency in filling the
answer on a rating scale.

 If there is a continuous skipping of some questions or if there is un-

rationale selection of rating point as the answer to some questions, this is
an indication of lack of understanding of the respondent.
 Editing
 Editing is actually checking of the questionnaire for suspicious,
inconsistent, illegible, and incomplete answers visible from
careful study of the questionnaire.

 This type of incompleteness in the answer can be logically

detected and settled down.
 Coding
 Before performing statistical analysis, a researcher has to prepare data
for analysis. This preparation is done by data coding. Coding of data
is probably the most crucial step in the analytical process.

 Codes or categories are tags or labels for allocating units of meaning

to the descriptive or inferential information compiled during a study.
 In coding, each answer is identified and classified with a numerical
score or other symbolic characteristics for processing the data in
computers.

 A codebook contains instructions for coding and information of the

variables taken for the study. It also contains variable location in the
data set. Even if the questionnaire is precoded, coding helps
researchers in identifying and locating the variables easily.
 Data Entry
 At this stage, the data are entered in the spreadsheet. This is a crucial
stage and is usually done by the computer typist. A careful
supervision of the data entry is essentially required by the researcher.

 Data-cleaning exercise is undertaken by any researcher to deal with

the problem of missing data and illogical or inconsistent entries.
 Data Cleaning
 Data cleaning involves two stages: handling missing data and checking data for illogical or
inconsistent entries.

 Following are some of the guidelines to deal with such kind of missing data.
 Leaving the missing data and performing the analysis
 Substituting a mean value
 Case-wise deletion

 Principally, no missing is an ideal situation, but practically it is rare in a research.

 Data Analysis
 Data analysis exercise cannot be launched independently
ignoring the previous steps of the research to deal with the
problem.

 Another important factor in data analysis is the type of data

gathered through questionnaire.
 By and large statistical techniques for analysis can be placed in two
categories: univariate and multivariate.

 When the data are nominal or ordinal, non-parametric statistical tests are
used for data analyses, whereas when they are interval or ratio, parametric
statistical tests are used.
Figure 9.5: Classification of univariate statistical techniques
Figure 9.6: Classification of multivariate statistical techniques
 Introduction to SPSS

•Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)

•Widely used for data analysis in research
•Offers tools for descriptive statistics, regression, and hypothesis testing

• Key Features - User-friendly interface and handles large datasets

 Defining Variables in SPSS

Steps to Define Variables: Go to "Variable View"

•Define the Name, Type, Width, Decimals, Label, and Values

Key Attributes:
•Name: Unique identifier for the variable
•Type: Numeric, String, Date, etc.
•Label: Describes the variable in detail
•Values: Assign codes to categorical data (e.g., 1 = Male, 2 = Female)
•Example: Defining Gender, Age, Income as variables
 Feeding Data into SPSS

• Switch to Data View

• After defining variables, switch to "Data View"
• Entering Data Manually
• Enter data row by row corresponding to each defined variable
• Or you can Import Data
• Importing from Excel or CSV files (File > Open > Data)
• Example: Manually entering responses for a survey
 Dealing with Missing Values

• Types of Missing Data:

• System-Missing: Data not entered or incomplete
• User-Missing: Data deliberately marked as missing
• Options to Handle Missing Data:
• Exclude cases listwise or pairwise
• Impute missing values (e.g., with mean, median)
 Practical Tips for SPSS

• Tips for Efficient Data Handling

• Double-check variable definitions before entering data
• Use consistent codes for categorical data
• Document your data and analysis steps
• Regularly save your work
• Common Mistakes to Avoid
• Inconsistent coding of variables
• Failing to check for missing values before analysis
 Frequency Distribution in SPSS
What is Frequency Distribution?
• Shows how often each value of a variable occurs
• Useful for understanding the distribution of categorical and ordinal data
 Steps to Create a Frequency Table

•Go to "Analyze" > "Descriptive Statistics" > "Frequencies“

•Select the variable(s) to analyze (Further you can click on Statistics

tabs and select factors, click on Central Tendency), then click on OK
tab

•Then, option to display frequency table and graphs (histogram or pie

chart)

•Example: Factors of choosing an organization

 Cross Tabulation in SPSS
What is Cross Tabulation?
• A method for analyzing the relationship between two categorical variables
• Displays the joint distribution of two variables in a matrix format
 Steps for Cross Tabulation

• Go to "Analyze" > "Descriptive Statistics" > "Crosstabs"

• Select the row and column variables
• Choose statistics
• Example: Cross-tabulating gender and preference of employment
 Descriptive Statistics in SPSS

• What are Descriptive Statistics?

• Summarize data to give an overview (e.g., mean, median, mode, standard
deviation)
• Useful for understanding the central tendency, dispersion, and shape of
the distribution
 Practical Applications of Descriptive Statistics

• Why Use Descriptive Statistics?

• Provide a snapshot of the data
• Identify trends and outliers before conducting deeper analysis
• Application in Research:
• Summarizing survey data for participant demographics
• Describing the variability of experimental results
• Steps to Generate Descriptive Statistics:
• Go to "Analyze" > "Descriptive Statistics" > "Descriptives" or "Frequencies"
• Choose statistics to display: mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, etc.

• Example: Descriptive statistics for participants' ages and income levels

 Creating Graphs in SPSS
Types of Graphs in SPSS
• Bar charts, pie charts, histograms, boxplots, scatterplots, etc.
 Steps to Create Graphs

•Go to "Graphs" > "Chart Builder”

•Choose the graph type and drag variables to the X and Y axes

•Customize chart elements (labels, titles, colors)

Example: Creating a bar chart for gender distribution or a scatterplot

for age vs. income
 Basic Charting Techniques
• Bar Chart

• Histogram

• Line Chart

• Pie Chart

• Scatter Plot
Tabular Presentation of Data
 Graphical Presentation of Data

 Graphical presentation of data seems to be more appealing when

we simply want to convey the trend of data.
 Some of the basic and most commonly used methods of presenting
data in graphs and charts are as follows:
 Bar chart
 Pie chart
 Histogram
 Scatter plot
 Bar Chart

Table 19.3 shows the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the
food processing sector in India from 2000–2001 to 2006– 2007. With
the help of this data, prepare a bar chart.
Minitab output (bar chart) for inflow of FDI in the food processing industries
sector in India from 2000–2001 to 2006–2007
 Pie Chart

A travel and tourism company opened a new office in Singapore

based on the tourist arrival data from Singapore to India in 2006.
Table 19.4 exhibits data related to the number of tourists who arrived
from Singapore to India in 2006 (from April 2006 to December 2006).
Construct a pie chart for this data.
Excel output (pie chart) for number of tourists who arrived from
Singapore to India in a particular year
 Histogram
The demand for tractors in India is zooming up. Many new multinational
companies are joining the race. Table 19.5 shows the production of tractors
in India from 1998–1999 to 2006–2007. With the help of the data given in
the table, prepare a histogram.
MS Excel output (Histogram) for production of tractors
in India from 1998–1999 to 2006–2007
 Scatter Plot

HDFC Bank was incorporated in 1994 and operates in three core areas: retail
banking, wholesale banking, and treasury. By 2007, the bank increased its
business in all functional areas especially in the home loans segment. Table
19.9 gives the net income and advertising expenses of the HDFC Bank from
2000 to 2007. Construct a scatter plot with the data given in the table.
Figure 19.9: Minitab output (scatter plot) for net income and advertising expenses