Archive | Research Methods in Business

Meaning Of Hypothesis Ordinarily, when one talks about hypothesis, one simply means a mere assumption or some supposition to be proved or disproved. But for a researcher hypothesis is a formal question that he intends to resolve. Thus a hypothesis may be defined as “a proposition or a set of propositions set forth as an [...]

Characteristics Of Hypothesis A hypothesis must possess the follow­ing characteristics: (i)           Hypothesis should be clear and precise. If the hypothesis is not clear and precise, the inferences drawn on its basis cannot be taken as reliable. (ii)         Hypothesis should be capable of being tested. In a swamp of un-testable hypotheses, many a time the research [...]

Procedure For Hypothesis Testing To test a hypothesis means to tell (on the basis of the data the researcher has collected) whether or not the hypothesis seems to be valid. In hypothesis testing the main question is: whether to accept the null hypothesis or not to accept the null hypothesis? Procedure for hypothesis testing refers [...]

Tests of Hypotheses Hypothesis testing helps to decide on the basis of a sample data, whether a hypothesis about the population is likely to be true or false. Statisticians have developed several tests of hypotheses (also known as the tests of significance) for the purpose of testing of hypotheses which can be classified as: (a)    [...]

Z-test Z-test is based on the normal probability distribution and is used for judging the significance of several statistical measures, particular­ly the mean. The relevant test statistic, z, is worked out and com­pared with its probable value (to be read from table showing area under normal curve) at a specified level of significance for judging [...]

T-test T-test is based on t-distribution and is considered an appropriate test for judging the significance of a sample mean or for judging the significance of difference between the means of two samples in case of small sample(s) when population variance is not known (in which case we use variance of the sample as an [...]

F-test is based on F-distribution and is used to compare the variance of the two independent samples. This test is also used in the context of analysis of variance (ANOVA) for judging the signi­ficance of more than two sample means at one and the same time. It is also used for judging the significance of [...]

It focuses on the decision that are commonly made when designing a promotion strategy. The decision for the promotion part of a marketing strategy can be divided in to (1) Advertising and (2) Sales promotion. Sales promotion affects the company in the short term, whereas advertising decisions have long-term effects. Companies spend more time and [...]

1. Competitive Advantage. The notion that achieving superior performance requires a business to gain and hold an advantage over competitors is central to contemporary strategic thinking. Businesses seeking advantage are exhorted to develop distinctive competencies at the lowest delivered cost or to achieve differentiation through superior value. The assessing competitive advantage can be done in [...]

Database marketing A database is a customer list to which has been added information about the characteristics and the transactions of these customers. Businesses use it to cultivate customers – as they seek new customers. Need A database provides the means for research to support decisions. It enables profiling of customers by searching for prospects [...]