Dear MBA students,
ESLSCA 68B
As agreed please find attached the Final Term Exam, you should:
1. Answer ALL questions
2. Use your text book, extra text book, the internet, and other references.
3. DON'T discuss or share, by any means of communication, with any other class students (even for
those who are married couples, brothers, or relatives, MUST answer separately). Otherwise will be
4. It is NOT ACCEPTED to just copy and paste from any source, your interpretation and write-up is a
5. Reply with your file .xls, of your answer to ME ONLY, to ashraf.elsafty@eslsca.edu.eg
6. MUST include your first name and family name WITHIN the file name (ex.: DrAshrafElsafty-E-R
7. Use BLUE color for your text answers, or just fill in the shaded blocks.
8. Email directly to ME ONLY no later than agreed deadline day and time 21st January 2022, 10
9. Please give every single question the needed high care, as grades are NOT equally distributed
As I mentioned before for the mid-term and during our classes, we are studying to learn, and we are no
So please focus on your time and answers to learn while filling the exam.
I hope I did met your expectations, and now you as a researcher, you will be responsible for what you
have learned, to be applied on yourself and those around you, and to transfer what you already gained
for the welfare of the country and your people.
Hope you gained the ultimate scientific benefit from the course and me as well.
May Allah bless you all.
Kind Regards,
Dr. Ashraf Elsafty
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Strategist
Research Methods & Strategic Management
ESLSCA, FoE, Riti/MsM cairo outreach.
MUST to get the grade.
M-68B-FinalExam-FirstNameLastName).
:00 pm, otherwise will not be accepted.
among questions.
w leveraging our learning capacity and measuring our knowledge level.
Dr. Ashraf Elsafty
Research Methods
ESLSCA 68B
Final Exam
Q
1
When is Applied research useful, as
different from Basic research? Write
your own example (about 3 paragraphs)
2
When to use claims versus hypotheses,
with clear comparison , and use your
own example (about 3 paragraphs)
3
Critique the following research done in a
service industry as to the extent to which
it meets “the hallmarks vs characteristics
of scientific research (About 4
paragraphs)
The Friendly Telephone Company:
Customer complaints were mounting, and
letters of complaint regarding the problems
they experienced with the residential
telephone lines were constantly pouring in
at the Friendly Telephone Company. The
company wanted to pinpoint the specific
problems and take corrective action.
Researchers were called in, and they spoke
to a number of customers, noting down the
nature of the specific problems they faced.
Since the problem had to be attended to
very quickly, they developed a theoretical
base, collected relevant detailed information
from a sample of 100 customers, and
analyzed the data. The results are expected
to be fairly accurate with at least an 85%
chance of success in problem solving. The
researchers will make recommendations to
the company based on the results of data
analysis.
4
Compare between Deductive and
Inductive pocesses, using your own
examples. (about 3-5 paragraphs).
5
How would you describe the research
process based on karl popper's view?
(about 4-5 paragraphs)
6
How to conduct comprehensive problem
definition and contextual analysis of
your research problem? (about 5
paragraphs)
7
How would you go about doing a
literature review in the area of human
legacy (about 3 paragraphs)
8
What is the critical purpose of the
literature review ? (about 2-3
paragraphs)
9
Why applying APA writing style ? (about
3-5 paragraphs)
10 Compare between different kinds and
types of data ? (about 3 paragraphs)
11 Offer a clearly focused problem
statement in the broad area of global
governance (1 statement)
12 Why should a researcher conduct
stakeholders analysis, if one already
knows the broad problem area to be
studied? (about 2 paragraphs).
13 After studying and extracting
information from all the relevant work
done previously, how does the
researcher know which references,
articles, and information should be given
prominence in the literature review?
(about 2-3 paragraphss).
14 Below is the gist of an article from
Business Week. After reading it, (a)
identify the broad problem area, (b)
define the problem, and (c) explain how
you would proceed further. (about a; 2
lines, b; 1 statement, c; 3 statements)
While Chrysler’s minivans, pickups, and
sports utilities take a big share of the truck
market, its cars trail behind those of GM,
Ford, Honda, and Toyota. Quality problems
include, among other things, water leaks
and defective parts.
15 What is the problem statement in the
following situation? (1 statement)
Employee Loyalty: Companies benefit
through employee loyalty. Crude
downsizing in organizations during the
recession crushed the loyalty of millions.
The economic benefits of loyalty embrace
lower recruitment and training costs, higher
productivity of workers, customer
satisfaction, and boost the morale of fresh
recruits. In order that these benefits may
not be lost, some companies, while
downsizing, try various gimmicks. Flex
leave, for instance, is one. This helps
employees receive 20% of their salary, plus
employer-provided benefits while they take
a 6-12 month sabbatical, with a call option
on their services. Others try alternatives like
more communication, hand-holding, and the
like.
16 How would you define the problem in the
following case? (3 lines)
Accounting Gets Radical: The GAAP
(Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
do an unacceptable job of accounting for the
principal activities of the Information Age
companies. Today, investors are in the dark
because the accounting is irrelevant. The
basic purpose of accounting is to provide
useful information to help investors make
rational investment, credit, and similar
decisions, but today’s most important assets
and activities – intellectual capital and
knowledge work – are totally ignored.
Professor Robert A. Howell wants to reform
the accounting system with the goal of
making clear the measurement of how
companies produce cash and create value.
17 Because literature review is a timeconsuming exercise, a good, in-depth
meetings should suffice to develop a
theoretical framework. Discuss this
statement. (about 4 paragraphs).
18 Good models are complex. What’s more,
a good model should include both
moderating and mediating variables.
Discuss this statement. (about 2-3
paragraphs).
19 University researchers usually develop
more complex and elaborate models
than Business researchers. Discuss this
statement. (yes or no, with clear
reasoning).
20 In an applied research context you do
not need to explain the relationships
between the variables in your conceptual
model. Discuss this statement. (2-3
paragraphs).
21 For the following case titled Sleepless
Nights at Holiday Inn (published in
Business Week and adapted here):
a. Identify the problem with conceptual
model, b. Develop a theoretical
framework, c. Develop at least four
hypotheses. All with needed figuers.
Sleepless Nights at Holiday Inn: Just a few
years ago, Tom Oliver, the Chief Executive of
Holiday Hospitality Corp., was struggling to
differentiate among the variety of facilities
offered to clients under the Holiday flagship
– the Holiday Inn Select designed for
business travelers, the Holiday Inn Express
used by penny pinchers, and the Crowne
Plaza Hotels, the luxurious hotels meant for
the big spenders. Oliver felt that revenues
could be quadrupled if only clients could
differentiate among these. Keen on
developing a viable strategy for Holiday
Hospitality which suffered from brand
confusion, Tom Oliver conducted a customer
survey of those who had used each type of
facility, and found the following. The
consumers didn’t have a clue as to the
differences among the three different types.
Many complained that the buildings were
old and not properly maintained, and the
quality ratings of service and other factors
were also poor. Furthermore, when word
spread that one of the contemplated
strategies of Oliver was a name change to
differentiate the three facilities, irate
22
Develop a conceptual model for the
scenario below, with needed discussion
and graph:
In recent decades, many service markets
have been liberalized. For this reason,
incumbent service firms are facing new
competitors and must address customer
switching. You are discussing the
determinants of customer switching with a
service firm manager. She believes that
product quality, relationship quality, and
switching costs are important determinants
of customer switching. You agree with the
contention that product quality and
relationship quality are important
determinants of switching. However, you
believe that switching costs moderate the
relationships between product quality,
relationship quality, and customer
switching. Provide arguments for this
contention.
23
A lab experiment would be more useful
than a field experiment. Discuss this
statement. , using your own example. (45 paragraphs)
24
Compare between exploratory and
descriptive research design purpose,
using your own example.(3-5
Paragraphs)
25
Discuss the inter-relationships among:
non-contrived setting, purpose of the
study, type of investigation, researcher
interference, and time horizon of the
study, using your own example.
26
Why is the unit of analysis an important
element of the research design? Use your
own example (1-2 paragraphs)
27
Discuss major criteria assessing quality
of a literature source, (3-4 paragraphs)
28
Below are three scenarios. For each,
indicate how the researcher should
proceed with the following, giving
reasons covering:
The purpose of the study
The type of investigation
The extent of researcher interference
The study setting
The time horizon for the study
The unit of analysis.
Scenario A: Ms. Joyce Lynn, the owner of a
small business (a woman’s dress boutique),
has invited a consultant to tell her how she is
different from similar small businesses
within a 60-mile radius, in regard to her
usage of the most modern computer
technology, sales volume, profit margin, and
staff training.
Scenario B: Mr. Paul Hodge, the owner of
several restaurants is concerned about the
wide differences in the profit margins of the
various restaurants. He would like to try
some incentive plans for increasing the
efficiency levels of those restaurants that are
lagging behind. But, before he introduces
this, he would like to be sure that the idea
will work. He asks a researcher to help him
on this issue.
Scenario C: A manager is intrigued why
some people seem to derive joy from work
and get energized by it, while others find it
troublesome and frustrating.
29
List and label the different types of
variables at following case: explain and
illustrate by diagrams the relationships
among the variables :
A manager finds that off‐the‐job
classroom training has a great impact on
the productivity of the employees in her
department. However, she also observes
that employees over 60 years of age do
not seem to derive much benefit and do
not improve with such training.
30
List and label the different types of
variables at following case: explain and
illustrate by diagrams the relationships
among the variables :
A manager of an insurance company
finds that “fear arousal” in commercials
are positively associated with
consumers’ behavioral intentions to
insure their house.
31
Make up three different situations in
which technical experience would be an
independent variable, a mediating
variable, and a moderating variable
32
Operationalize the subjective concept
'Buying addiction' and use the needed
measurement scales.
33
You want to find out whether customers
between 21 and 40 years of age tend to
buy electronics and whether customers
between 41 and 70 tend to buy
electronics. Which type of sample to be
used? with clear justification?
End of Exam
DrAshrafElsafty-E-RM-68B-FinalExam.xlsx
Answer
a. The broad problem :
b. Problem statement:
c.
Problem statement.
Problem Definition:
Must add reference(s) used