59

Concept of Research20

According to The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, research is “a

careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of

knowledge.” It can also be described as a systematic, methodical and ethical process of

enquiring and investigating research problems and increasing knowledge. Research is an

art of scientific investigation. D. Slesinger and M. Stephenson in the Encyclopedia of

Social Sciences defined research as “the manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for

the purpose of generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that

knowledge aids in construction of theory or in the practice of an art.” Redman and Mory

defined research as a “systematized effort to gain new knowledge.” According to Clifford

Woody research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or

suggesting solutions; collecting, organizing and evaluating data; making deductions and

reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether

they fit the formulated hypothesis.

3.1 Research Problem

In today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. Like blood in

human body, cellular phones have become an integral part for growth, success and

efficiency of any business. Colossal budge in both technology and consumer behavior

during the past two decades have taken a contemporary visage. The sustainable profitable

growth has lead companies into head-to-head competition. Companies are fighting for

customer satisfaction through differentiation. The imperative factors that may be

accounted towards customer satisfaction be focus on marketing mix, marketing

communication, perceived quality, and customer loyalty. This study investigates the

effect of marketing strategies espoused by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular and its upshot

20 Kothari, C.R., Research Methodology-Methods and Techniques, New Age International, 2004

60

on consumers. It also attempts to study expectations of customers and marketing

strategies that have been taken by both organizations to discharge them.

Time and again many studies have been carried out to study marketing strategies of

Bharti Airtel and analyze consumer behaviour in context of expectations and satisfaction.

Very few studies have been carried out to study the marketing strategies of Idea Cellular

for the same and none have been carried as comparative analysis of marketing strategies

for both. Employee’s discernment about products and services offered by its organization

also plays an important role in sustainability and growth and thus employee’s acumen in

this perspective is imperative. This research helps in studying the similarities and

differences in perception of marketing strategies adopted to fulfill customers’ needs

expectations and grow in business. The study highlights the factors that contribute to the

hedonistic escalation in this dynamic competitive world.

Different researchers have different opinion about the key factors that influenced growth

of the players in telecom sector. The main purpose of the study is to find out the

marketing strategies that Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have implemented in order to

give quality of service to its customers, satisfy their needs, retain them and gain loyalty in

return.

3.2 Review of Literature

Yeboah and Atakora (2013)21

reviewed that the disadvantages of traditional marketing

system could be overcome by using IMC. Tools of IMC help in informing, persuading,

and convincing customer about product or service. This new generation approach of

marketing helps company focus on customer acquisition, customer retention and

increasing life time value of customers. An optimum mix of tools creates synergy which

further helps in increasing return on investments. The purpose of IMC is to bring

customer’s expectation and experience on the same platform to bring satisfaction.

21 Yeboah, A., & Atakora, A. (2013). Integrated Marketing Communication: How Can It Influence

Customer Satisfaction? (Vol. 5). European Journal of Business and Management.

61

Mishra (2013)22

suggested that the concept of “Blue Ocean” strategy can be applied to

the Indian Telecom industry. Lear and uninterrupted network, quality of service, network

coverage in farthest of regions, value for money and economic VAS are critical factors

for the success of telecom service providers. A large portion of rural market is untapped

along with urban and semi-urban areas. This strategy can be used to enhance

competitiveness in penetrating markets both existing and new.

Kajale A. Ramesh (2012)23

focused on understanding consumer needs and wants with

the help of relationship marketing. Relationship Marketing helps in understanding

customers and thus aids in customizing products and services fro them. It helps in

handling unpredictable demands of customers. It is one of most powerful strategy to

upbeat competition.

Kotler (2010)24

defined marketing strategy as a master plan to meet organization

objectives. This is done by investigating target markets about their needs and

expectations and designing suitable marketing mix that satisfies customer and the

organization. When a product is launched, the upper management decides value of

product based on target market and lower management does the task of communicating

the same to target customers using 4 P’s i.e. Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

Types of Marketing Strategies

Michael Porter defined three types of marketing strategies: Low-Cost Strategy,

Differentiation Strategy, and Focus Strategy.

Source: 22Mishra, D. (2013). Blue Ocean Strategy for Indian Telecom Industry. Retrieved from

mishradipankar.blogspot.in: http://mishradipankar.blogspot.in/2012/08/blue-ocean-strategy-for-indian-telecom.html 23 Kajale, A. R. (March ; 2012). Importance of Relationship Marketing in Competitive Marketing Strategy.

Indian Streams Research Journal.

24 Kotler, P. (2010). Principles of Marketing:A South Asian Perspective (13th Edition ed.). Pearson

Education India.

62

Low-Cost Strategy

This strategy suits large corporations where unit turnover is high. This strategy enables

business units to produce standard products in large quantities at lower price than

competitors. This strategy helps in gaining profits through economies of scale, brand

loyalty of price sensitive customers and reduction in competition.

Differentiation Strategy

This includes creating unique and distinctive attributes in product, product design and

product quality that helps organization surpasses competition. Companies can charge

premium for this differentiation. Organization gain brand loyalty and profits in return.

Focus Strategy

Under this strategy a firm focuses on target market through low-cost or differentiation25

.

Kotler asserted that loyalty to a service provider depends on certain variables. A

summary of those variables is-

Pricing

� High price

� Price increases

� Unfair pricing

� Deceptive pricing

Inconvenience

� Location/hours

� Wait for appointment

� Wait for service

Core service failure

� Service mistakes

� Billing errors

63

Service encounters failures

� Uncaring

� Impolite

� Unresponsive

� Unknowledgeable

Response to service failure

� Negative response

� No response

� Reluctant response

Involuntary switching

� Customer moved

Provider closed

� Found better service

Ethical problems

� Cheat

� Hard sell

� Unsafe

� Service catastrophe

� Conflict of interest

Schiffman and Kanuk (2009)26

affirmed that cost of acquiring new customers is higher

than retaining old customers. Customers are also delighted when company does

something special to retain them. If customer’s defection list is small, so are the

expenses. A satisfied customer becomes a loyal customer and shows significant increases

in profits. Benefits of having an array of loyal customers are-

� They are less price sensitive and buy more products.

� Competitive advertising does not tempt them to switch.

� It cost less to service existing and satisfied customers.

26 Schiffman, L. G. (2009). Consumer Behaviou (Ninth ed.). Pearson Education.

64

� Loyal customers spread positive word-of-mouth and refer other customers.

Ramaswamy et.al (2009)27

pointed that to escape price competition in service industry;

organizations need create differentiation, just like products do. Differentiation in service

industry could be created by following one or all the routes:

The offer should be made different by adding certain attributes.

1) Differentiate through the actual performance of the service on the basis of

people providing the service, physical evidence involved in the service,

and process involved in the service

2) Differentiate through the experience

3) Differentiate through image/branding

ICFAI (2009)28

suggested that a variety of factors influence customer perception. The

hybrid behaviour of customers is usually price sensitive and companies try to entice them

by price reductions. Customer is satisfied not only by basic offering but entire process of

product or service delivery is crucial to customer satisfaction.

In today’s globalized information driven economy, this can comprise issues like:

� How other customers or influencing groups perceive the product or brand

� The degree to which customer feels the actual marketing campaign addresses the

most important issues

� Responsiveness and service quality of any affiliates like distribution partners.

Customer perceptions are dynamic and with time they change. The more experience the

customer accumulates, the more his perceptions will shift from fact based judgments to a

more general understanding of the gains involved for him. Over time, he puts a stronger

focus on the consequence of the product or service consumption.

27 Ramaswamy, V. S. (2009). Marketing Management (4th ed.). Macmillan Publishers.

28 The ICFAI University, 2. (2009). Journal of Marketing Management.

65

Lovelock C (2008)29

argued that frontline staff of any service organization is very

important as he/she is the face of organization for customers. Customer’s encounter with

service staff is very critical for differentiation. To deal with this, organizations now train

their staff in ways that enable them to differentiate. Service personnel play a significant

role in differentiation due to following:

- Service employees form the most visible part of an organization and they represent

the service firm.

- They ensure that what their brand promise is delivered, productivity of operations is

enhanced and sales increases.

Whirtz (2008)30

pointed that historically CRM was not practiced in organizations. There

was no centralized system that enabled smooth running of operations at different

geographical locations. With advancement in technology organizations have created

several touch-points to service millions of customers of a single firm. Today however,

CRM systems act as an enabler, capturing customer information and delivering it to the

various touch points. Today CRM systems offer a centralized friendly customer interface

that delivers customization and personalization. This has resulted in delivering quality of

service to customers. Customers are better informed about products, schemes and offers.

This enables vast improvement in image of organizations, delivering value to customers,

enhancing customer experience, satisfying them and increasing customer loyalty.

Lovelock et al (2008)31

discussed that is very difficult for a service organization to create

differentiation in market when competition is tough. Customers are widely spread into

different geographical locations and accordingly their needs, tastes and preferences are

different. In such case companies should offer specific products and services that are

meaningful to them. A service organization should utilize its efforts in pleasing

customers it can serve in a better way rather than entertaining the entire market.

29Christopher, L. (2008). Services Marketing (Asian Edition ed.). Pearson Education.

30 Christopher, L. (2008). Services Marketing (Asian Edition ed.). Pearson Education.

31 Christopher, L. (2008). Services Marketing (Asian Edition ed.). Pearson Education.

66

Venugopal et al. (2006)32

discussed that it is very important to study needs and demands

of target customers and their preference for services so that product or service could be

delivered more effectively than competitors and higher degree of satisfaction is realized

by customers. This helps organizations in achieving their goals and objectives. The

author discussed that in traditional marketing system only customer’s perception was

imperative but in relational model the focus is dual. Organizations need to focus on

customers along with its employees who are involved in the process of creation and

consumption of services.

Raghu et al. (2006)33

summarized that service firms have a wide range of alternatives

available to it when competing in a market place. They are:

• Competing for market share: the service firm may compete for market share in

one or many markets at the same time by expanding both the service offered and

the segments served. The strategies to be considered in this regard are – retention

of customers, recovery from service failure, to create highest level of service

quality and to be highly customer focused.

• Competing for reach: the competition here focuses on the size of the area from

which it can draw customers, and how far customers will travel to use the service.

If the service firm remains static, and it requires physical presence of the

customers, then the customers must come to the service. The strategy is to offer

distinct and unique service.

• Competing for geography: it is based on the assumptions that the service

formula is easy to copy and being second to enter into a market is a disadvantage.

The strategy is to sell intensively and spread out geographically.

32 Venugopal, V. (2006). Services Marketing. Himalaya Publishing House.

33The ICFAI University, 2. (2009). Journal of Marketing Management.

67

Schultz et al. (2003)34

focused on marketing communication planning that recognized

the need of using an added value of using an absolute plan to evaluate the strategic roles

of different tools of communication discipline. All the tools when combined provide

clarity and consistency and enhance communication impact (Schultz et al. 1993). Schultz

(1999) argued that IMC is the result of a natural evolution from the use of mass-market

advertising to more targeted message strategies. Proponents of IMC contend that it

represents a logical first step in the transition from out-bound product-driven

communication to the more interactive, consumer and behaviour-oriented approaches of

the twenty-first century (Kitchen & Schultz 1999). Most organizations today are

accepting the concept of IMC to create greater impact on customers.

A paradigm shift has been observed in advertising and planning of communication mix.

This change is bought by rise electronic media. While the list of new electronic media is

growing, those most often discussed include the interactive portion of the World Wide

Web, email, interactive television, handheld wireless communication devices and related

systems. While some dismiss these new media as simply more direct marketing tools,

most experts acknowledge the potential for these media to alter the way in which

advertisers view marketing and marketing communication. The challenge of the ‘new

electronic media’ is for marketers to find ways to use these new tools to become more

effective and efficient marketing communicators.

Reichheld and Sasser (1990) emphasized that it is essential for an organization to satisfy

customers else they will not be able to prevent customers from defecting. Bei and Chiao

(2001) discussed that loyalty is directly proportion to customer satisfaction. If customer is

satisfied he would not switch to competition. Fornell (1992) suggested that satisfied

customer prevents customer turnover, lowers customer price sensitivity, helps in new

34 Schultz, D. E., Peltier, J. W., & Schibrowsky, J. A. (2003). Interactive integrated marketing

communication: combining the power of IMC, the new media and database marketing, International

Journal Of Advertising. World Advertising Research Center.

68

customer acquisition, reduces operating costs thus improving image of organization and

supports advertisements.35

Zeithaml and Berry (1988)36

developed SERVQUAL model for measuring customer

satisfaction which deals with various aspects of service quality. In this, comparison of

customer’s perception with their expectation is vital assumption of measurement. The

SERVQUAL scale includes five dimensions. They are tangibles, reliability,

responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Each dimension can have several items

measured on a seven point scale varying from “strongly agree” to strongly disagree”.

Oliver (1980)37

argued that customers usually compare their pre-purchase perception of

product or service with actual feelings which they get when they experience or use

offering. When confronted with positive outcome, customers feel satisfied. Churchill

and Surprenant (1982) proposed that when output of customers expected performance

exceeds his pre-purchase expectation, customer satisfaction is generated. Customer is an

output, resulting from the customer’s pre-purchase comparison of expected performance

with actual performance and incurred cost. Parasuraman et al (1994) suggested that

satisfaction is a function of transactions. Customer is influenced by service quality,

product quality and price. A customer does a cost benefit analysis of what he pays and

what he gets. Youjae Yi (1990) reviewed that satisfaction is subjective to customers.

Every customer makes a judgment in his mind before buying the product. He has set

certain service standards in his mind and compares those with actual performance. He

then forms satisfaction opinions based on judgment.38

3.3 Research Gap

35Lowenstein, M. W. (1997). Customer Retention. OXFORD University Press.

36 Parasuraman, Berry, & Zeithaml. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring customer

perceptions of service quality – Journal of Retailing.

37 Robert, E., Malcom, W., & Marc, V. (2008). Consumer Behaviour: Applications in Marketing. SAGE.

38 Singh, M. (2012). Building Customer Loyalty through Value Added Services: A Case of Telecom Sector.

GRIN Verlag.

69

After reviewing literature on marketing strategy in telecom industry, researcher found

that no proper work has been done on comparative analysis of marketing strategies of two

private Telecom operators of Indian origin. Secondly, no research work has been done in

the region taken for study i.e. Eastern Rajasthan (cities considered for study were: Jaipur,

Alwar, Bharatpur and Dausa) which comprises of varied topography. Socio-economic

status of people differs to a great extent and so the needs of people. Telecom companies

are putting efforts to create a win-win situation for both, service user and service provider

by implementing various strategies. Thirdly, no comparative study has been done on

perception of employees regarding services of their own organization.

The research is a comparative analysis of two private players in telecom sector i.e. Bharti

Airtel and Idea Cellular. This research will help both companies identify customer’s

preference and perception of services; harvest opportunities identified and prevent

customers from defecting. It will also assist future researcher in carrying his/her research.

3.4 Research Justification

Liberalization of telecom sector in the Indian economy aims at improving accessibility,

availability, reliability and connectivity through private sector participation and to bring

about the needed improvement in the quality of service. Through increased competition

the service providers are expected to become more sensitive and responsive to the

customers needs and choices in order to give him greater satisfaction

There are many innovations that have helped reduced the cost of ownership of mobile

phones. The increased subscriber base was the result of reduced tariffs bought by

innovations and government interventions. India is now the second largest market in

terms of mobile subscriber base after China but still it is at 66% teledensity and adding

15-17 million new subscribers every month. However, the rural subscriber penetration is

less than 50% so there is a lot of room for growth.

Also the impact of tariff wars has been immense. It was estimated that only 50% of new

subscriber addition were actually new subscribers. Rest all were either churning from one

network to another or were adding to multiple SIM phenomenon. With the advancement

70

in the technology lot of different services came in Telephony. Airtel has been market

leader with the strongest network in India. Because of this it has been preferred. With the

late entry into the market it was difficult for Idea to beat Airtel. Idea fought back with

different strategies to gain market share and increase revenues. The motive of the study

was to find out what were the factors and strategies that were common to both

competitors in sustaining business and what different factors and strategies they focused

on to create differentiation to be the consumers choice.

3.5 Objectives of the Research

• Broad Objectives

o To study employee’s and customer’s perception of marketing strategies of

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular in Eastern Rajasthan.

o To study customer’s preference of product and services while selecting mobile

service provider.

The broad objectives have been further divided into sub objectives as following:

o To determine the role of price mix while selecting telecom service provider.

o To determine the non-pricing factors those were important to customers.

o To study the effect of price reduction on consumers and organizations.

o To determine preference and perception of telecom products and services

offered by both companies.

o To determine promotional tools that effected customer’s purchase decision.

o To determine preference and perception of quality of service that is provided

by Airtel and Idea.

o To determine the distribution strategy used by Airtel and Idea

o To determine the strategy used by Airtel and Idea in managing relationship

with their respective customers.

71

3.6 Hypothesis of the Research

A hypothesis is a tentative explanation for certain behaviors, phenomena, or events that

have occurred or will occur. The hypothesis states the researcher's expectations

concerning the relationship between the variables in the research problem. For the present

research following null and alternate hypothesis have been formulated.

• Ho: There is no significant difference between marketing strategies adopted by

Bharti Airtel vis-à-vis Idea Cellular.

• Hа: There is significant difference between marketing strategies adopted by Bharti

Airtel vis-à-vis Idea Cellular.

The null hypothesis has been divided into various hypotheses subject to various aspects

of study. They are:

• Ho1: There is no significant difference between preference for price based factors

of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular at the time of selecting telecom service

• Ho2: There is no significant difference between non-pricing factors of Bharti

Airtel and Idea Cellular at the Time of Selecting Telecom Service

• Ho3: There is no significant effect on usage of telecom services when price of

products and service were reduced at both Airtel and Idea.

• Ho4: There is no significant difference in preference of services for Bharti Airtel

and Idea Cellular.

• Ho5: There is no significant difference between switching factors of Bharti Airtel

and Idea Cellular.

• Ho6: There is no significant difference between factors of satisfaction and brand

loyalty of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

72

• Ho7: There are no significant variables of Marketing Mix that are critical to

customers when they plan to buy telecom services.

• Ho8: There is no significant difference in perception for factors of Marketing Mix

that Airtel and Idea focus on.

• Ho9: There is no significant difference between marketing communication tools

adopted by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular that affected customers purchase

decision.

• Ho10: There is no significant difference between sources of information used to

educate customers about various products and services of Bharti Airtel and Idea

Cellular

• Ho11: There is no significant difference between factors that motivate retailers/

distributors of Airtel and Idea to carry business.

• Ho12: There is no significant difference between factors of CRM strategy that

Airtel and Idea practice to sustain business.

• Ho13: There is no significant difference between product distribution strategy of

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular employ to expand business and grow.

• Ho14: There is no significant difference in employee’s sensitivity for services of

Airtel and Idea as a Consumer.

Assumptions

Following assumptions have been taken by the researcher for the purpose of study:

• Assumption 1: Airtel and Idea are two leading telecom service providers in India.

• Assumption 2: Airtel and Idea have equal market share.

73

• Assumption 3: Airtel and Idea are passing through the same stage of PLC.

• Assumption 4: Customers have same perception about telecom products and

services offered by Airtel and Idea.

• Assumption 5: Customers are highly loyal to the brand they use.

• Assumption 6: Similar strategies are adopted by Airtel and Idea to retain

customers.

3.7 Scope of Study

Indian telecommunication sector is experiencing revolution. Liberalization and

privatization increased the number of players in the market. Technological advancement

is changing taste and preferences of customers’ everyday. Organizations are giving all

efforts for revenue generation, increasing subscriber base and increasing market share.

The study is done on two Indian telecom giants, Airtel and Idea. This study helps in

identifying attributes of product and service that customers prefer and what is their

perception about products and services offered by their TSP. The study is carried in four

cities of Eastern Rajasthan with varied demographics over a period of 3 years, 2010-

1013. The factors of customer satisfaction, customer defection, and quality of service,

relationship management, and marketing mix can be figured those are essential for

growth.

3.8 Sample Design

Pilot Survey

A pilot survey was conducted on a sample of 50 respondents to ensure the feasibility,

time, cost, difficulties, effective sample size, and make improvements in the research

74

design prior to running a full scale project. Respondents were drawn from Jaipur city on

convenience basis. An online sample size calculator provided by Raosoft.com was used

to calculate sample size. A minimum of 385 respondents were recommended by the

software for the survey. The final sample size taken for the study was 550. Following is

the sample design taken for the study:

Sampling Method – Multistage sampling was used to draw customer respondents and

purposive sampling was used to draw employee respondents.

Sample size – The sample size was distributed as following-

• Employees: Total of 50 Employees from sales and marketing department were

chosen as respondents from Rajasthan Circle office based in Jaipur City.

• No. of Employees of Idea Cellular (Rajasthan circle office) - 25

• No. of Employees of Bharti Airtel (Rajasthan circle office) - 25

• Customers: Total 500 customers from Jaipur, Bharatpur, Alwar and Dausa were

chosen as respondents.

• No. of Customers of Idea Cellular – 250

• No. of customers of Bharti Airtel – 250

The research was limited to four districts with 100 respondents from Jaipur and 50 each

from Bharatpur, Alwar and Dausa for each Airtel and Idea.

Table 3.1 shows district-wise number of respondents.

Table 3.1

District-wise Number of Respondents

Category of

Respondents Name of Unit No. of

Respondents

No. of

Respondents

75

Descriptive Profile of Customers

� Airtel

A brief description of the profile of customers is as follows: 95.2% of the respondents

belonged to the age group of 15-40 years while rest 4.8% population was in the age

group of 40-60 years. The majority of the respondents were students accounting to

56.4 % followed by people who were into service (18%), and were self-employed

(25.6%). For the educational qualification, respondents belonged to 5 different

categories as Under Graduates (48.4%), Graduates (30%), Post Graduates (10.8%),

Professional (3.2%) and others (7.6%). In the type of connection that the respondents’

owned, majority of the connections were pre-paid with 91.6% and only 8.4%

connections were post-paid. The duration of usage of Airtel services measured to be

as Less than 1 month (2.8%), 2-6 months (20.8%), 6-12 months (10.4%) and highest

being more than a year (66%).

(Bharti Airtel) (Idea Cellular)

Employees

Jaipur

(Rajasthan

Circle office)

25 25

Jaipur 100 100

Dausa 50 50

Alwar 50 50

Bharatpur 50 50

Customers

Total 275 275

76

� Idea

A brief description of the profile of customers is as follows: 92% of the respondents

belonged to the age group of 15-40 years while rest 8% population was in the age

group of 40-60 years. The majority of the respondents were students accounting to

41.2 % followed by people who were into service (30%), were self-employed

(25.6%) and were housewives (3.2%). For the educational qualification, respondents

belonged to 5 different categories as Under Graduates (41.2%), Graduates (29.2%),

Post Graduates (11.2%), Professional (3.2%) and others (15.2%). In the type of

connection that the respondents’ owned, majority of the connections were pre-paid

with 98% and only 2% connections were post-paid. The duration of usage of Idea

Cellular services measured to be as Less than 1 month (2.4%), 2-6 months (9.6%), 6-

12 months (7.2%) and highest being more than a year (80.8%).

3.9 Source of Data

• Sample Frame – Rajasthan

• Sample Unit - Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur and Dausa

• Collection of Data –

o Primary Data – through structured questionnaire of 12 questions for

customers and 12 questions for employees has been used to collect

primary data.

o Secondary data - has been collected from books, internet, magazines,

journals and annual reports of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

3.10 Tools used for Data Analysis

77

For analyzing the data and resolving it into its constituent components, software SPSS

21, TRIAL VERSION, IBM INC. has been used. The results of analysis have been

reported using P (significance) value of relevant tests.

The important steps of the process were:

Editing

Editing is the process of reviewing the data to ensure maximum accuracy and clarity.

Editing was conducted as the data was being collected. The editing was applied during

the collection of forms for the full scale project. Careful editing in the early stage helped

in catching misunderstandings and misinterpretation of the variables. Editing ensured that

the data was legible, complete, consistent and accurate.

Coding

Coding is the process of assigning responses to data categories, and numbers were

assigned to identify them with those categories.

Tabulating

Tabulating is the process of arranging data in the form of rows and columns. The

variables or data fields were entered in the columns while each row had the data for a

respondent’s records. A rectangular array of entries was formed containing data on which

statistical tools were applied, converted into information and summarized for decision

making.

While tabulating, approximately 100 forms with ambiguous and missing information

were eliminated and was ensured that data from rightly filled 550 forms is entered.

However, respondents who missed to fill response of an item in the group were assigned

the mean of group.

3.11 Tools used for Hypothesis Testing

78

SPSS 21 Trial version has been used to test the hypotheses of the research. It offered

flexible data handling facility and easily computable statistical and mathematical

functions. Reliability Analysis has been done to measure internal consistency of

variables. Following functionalities of SPSS have been used for the purpose of testing

hypotheses:

• Independent t-Test for comparing the means between two unrelated groups of

variables.

• Chi-square test for association of variables.

Reliability Analysis

Reliability analysis allowed studying the properties of measurement scales and the items

that made them. The analysis calculated measure of scale reliability and also provided

information about the relationships between individual items in the scale. Cronbach's

alpha has been used to measure internal consistency ("reliability"). It has been used as the

questionnaire had multiple Likert questions that form a scale.

Following is the formula for Cronbach's alpha to check the reliability of questionnaires:

α = (n / (n-1)) × (1- (Σsi2

/ sT2))

Where n is the number of items, Si 2 is the variance of the ith item, and ST

2 is the total

score variance (Cronbach, 1951).

In the present study the internal consistency of two questionnaires was found to be strong

and reliable as the Cronbach’s alpha score was closer to 01. Table 3.2 shows reliability

score of 0.852 for questionnaire related to customers and Table 3.3 shows the reliability

score of 0.897 for questionnaire related to employees.

Table 3.2

79

Reliability Analysis of Questionnaire for Customers

Table 3.3

Reliability Analysis of Questionnaire for Employees

Hypotheses of the research has been tested using the following tests-

Independent t-Test

The Independent t-Test compared the means between two unrelated groups Airtel and

Idea on the same continuous, dependent variables. The SPSS t-Test method allowed the

testing of equality of variances (Levene's test) and the t-value for both equal- and

unequal-variance. It also provided the relevant descriptive statistics. The meaning of

terms and concepts used in independent t-Test is given below-

• Group Statistics Box – The group statistic box in the study has six columns. The

first column has the name of the variable; second column, grouping variable i.e.

two conditions being studied; third, the no. of cases that have been administered;

fourth, and the mean of values; fifth and sixth, the standard deviation and standard

error mean respectively for the group of variables being considered for evaluation.

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

0.852 72

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

0.897 76

80

• Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances – This test determined if the two

conditions had about the same or different amounts of variability between scores.

The significance column had one value that helped in determining which row to

read from.

• Sig. Value > .05 – When the significance value was greater than .05, values from

top row was considered for interpretation. A value greater than .05 meant that the

variability in two conditions was about the same. That the scores in one condition

did not vary too much more than the scores in second condition. In scientific

terms the variability in the two conditions was not significantly different.

• Sig. Value <= .05 – When the significance value was less than or equal to .05, the

bottom row was considered. A value less than .05 meant that the variability in the

two conditions was not the same. That the scores in one condition varied much

more than the scores in the second condition. In scientific terms the variability in

the two conditions was significantly different.

• Sig (2-Tailed) > .05 – this indicated that there was no statistically significant

difference between two conditions. It has been concluded that the differences

between condition Means were likely due to chance and not likely due to the

factor / variable manipulation.

• Sig (2-Tailed) <= .05 – This indicated that there was statistically significant

difference between two conditions. This assisted in concluding that the

differences between condition Means were not likely due to change and were

probably due to the factor / variable manipulation.

Chi square Test

The Chi-square statistic has been used to arbitrate whether the degree of association

observed between the two variables was greater than what was expected on the basis of

chance alone, i.e., whether the association was statistically significant or not. Null

hypotheses were tested using chi-square test, which stated that there was no significant

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difference between the expected and observed results. The value of the chi-square has

been assumed from zero to infinity and no negative value has been taken.

Standard tables have been used to represent the analysis.