T9 research overview

Research Overview

By Rama Krishna Kompella

Clarity in Research Questions and Hypotheses

• Research questions make it easier to understand what is perplexing managers and to indicate what issues have to be resolved.

• A research question is the researcher’s translation of the marketing problem into a specific inquiry

Taken from Zikmund, William G. and Barry J. Babin, Exploring Marketing Research, (Eagan, MN: Cengage Learning, 2010).





Relationships Between Variables

• The relationship between variables can be explained in various ways such as:– Presence /absence of a relationship– Directionality of the relationship– Strength of association– Type of relationship


• Presence / absence of a relationship– E.g., if we are interested to study the customer

satisfaction levels of a fast-food restaurant, then we need to know if the quality of food and customer satisfaction have any relationship or not


• Direction of the relationship– The direction of a relationship can be either

positive or negative– Food quality perceptions are related positively to

customer commitment toward a restaurant.


• Strength of association– They are generally categorized as nonexistent, weak,

moderate, or strong.– Quality of food is strongly associated with customer

satisfaction in a fast-food restaurant


• Type of association– How can the link between Y and X best be

described? – There are different ways in which two variables

can share a relationship• Linear relationship• Curvilinear relationship

Q & As

Business

T9 research overview