Open University of Mauritius
BSc (HONS) BUSINESS MANAGEMENT/SPECIALISATION [OUbs003/007]
EXAMINATION FOR: July – August 2022
MODULE:
Business Research Methods
[OUbs003221/OUbs007221]
DATE:
Friday 12 August 2022 [Morning Session]
DURATION:
2 Hours
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
1. The paper consists of Section A and Section B.
2. Section A is COMPULSORY.
3. Answer ANY TWO (2) questions from Section B.
4. Always start a new question on a fresh page.
5. Total marks: 100
This question paper contains 4 questions and 6 pages.
Page 1 of 6
SECTION A
COMPULSORY
QUESTION 1 [40 MARKS]
Read the case study below and answer the following questions.
Feedback Plus is a dynamic and fast-growing research agency that specializes in
mystery shopping, market research, and customer service training. Feedback Plus
has a considerable network of specialist mystery shoppers operating from regional
hubs across Australia. These mystery shoppers provide service organizations with
the tools to develop, train and re-train their teams to improve customer service and
sales performance. Feedback Plus has recently been approached by James Vohn,
manager of Virgin Mobile, a mobile phone company headquartered in Sydney. James
has asked Feedback Plus to assess the quality-of-service delivery to customers of
Virgin mobile phone shops across Australia.
Like in many other countries, the mobile phone industry in Australia is huge and
despite the rapid growth of online shopping, brick-and-mortar business is still dominant
in the mobile phone industry; most people interact with a mobile phone provider via a
phone shop. According to many however, the quality-of-service delivery in these
phone shops is poor. A participant in a preliminary study described the quality-ofservice delivery in phone shops as follows: “While it would be unreasonable to expect
every sales assistant to know the complete ins and outs of each phone-although it
would be rather nice if they did - you do expect good advice. Most of the time however,
shop assistants do not offer anything near to advice; they try to shove certain products
down your throat and they are always trying to up- sell.”
James Vohn believes that it doesn’t have to be this way. He thinks that consumers
should get sound advice without being belittled and patronized. He also thinks that
mystery shopping can provide an excellent insight into his team's ability to interact with
customers and that it is therefore a valuable tool to improve both sales and customer
service. That is why James has asked Feedback Plus to develop and launch a
mystery shopping program.
Page 2 of 6
James has explained that the aims of this program are to:
• highlight if company processes are being followed;
• provide a comprehensive evaluation of the service process; James wants to know
what works in the customer service process and what does not;
• identify training needs for the stores to improve their service.
After a thorough discussion with James it was agreed that its mystery shoppers have
to collect the following information: speed of service; the questions asked by the shop
assistant to help the customer find a suitable product; the types of products shown by
the shop assistant; the sales arguments used by the shop assistant; whether or how
the shop assistant attempted to close the sale; compliance with company standards
relating to service and whether the shop assistant suggested any add-on sales. They
have also agreed upon the following. A number of mystery shoppers will be given
instructions to make the transaction atypical to test the knowledge and service skills
of the shop assistants whereas others will try to return previously bought merchandise.
Not all mystery shopping scenarios will include a purchase.
Two months later
After visiting one or more phone shops the mystery shoppers have submitted the
collected data to Feedback Plus, which reviewed and analysed the information. A
report and a presentation of the results was produced, identifying strengths and
weaknesses of the company’s performance.
Points on which improvement was
required were identified and recommendations made as to how to achieve these
improvements.
Page 3 of 6
(a) Discuss the philosophical approach of the study undertaken by Feedback Plus.
Your response should include relevant material from the case study.
[10 Marks]
(b)
Based on the case study, formulate two hypotheses that could be used to test a
survey model. Evaluate the reliability and validity of the research instrument used
to collect data.
[10 Marks]
(c)
Analyse the role of the mystery shopper during participant observation. Hence,
discuss the categories of data generated during participant observation
highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
[10 Marks]
(d)
Explain the relevant ethical principles involved in this type of study. Your
response must be supported by relevant examples from the case study.
[10 Marks]
Page 4 of 6
SECTION B
ANSWER ANY TWO (2) QUESTIONS
QUESTION 2 (30 MARKS)
A digital media company specialising in automotive content wants to anchor itself
locally with contents which are more oriented towards the Mauritian market. However,
before settling down, it tasked its marketing depart to review the number of articles
published since 2010 to determine whether this was indeed a flourishing or stagnating
market. The market research was also conducted to examine the reliance on
traditional media versus digital contents (Table 1).
(a)
Compile the data for each publishing stream over the years and represent the
data in a bar chart with the representative standard error bars for a visual
comparative analysis. Your workings should include the values for the mean,
variance, standard deviation and standard error of mean.
(17 marks)
(b)
State the null and alternate hypothesis if one of the research questions was: ‘Is
digital content picking up the pace over traditional media?’.
(2 marks)
(c)
Which parametric statistical test would you use to test the hypothesis mentioned
at part (b) above? Provide a justification for your choice.
(2 marks)
(d)
Benchmarking the digital content against the private broadcaster, calculate the
fold change in contents published chronologically and represent this data on a
graph.
(9 marks)
Table 1. Automotive-oriented contents over the past 12 years in different
media streams.
Digital
Content
Traditional
media
Private
Broadcaster
2010
2011
2012
Yearly automotive-contents (n =)
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
150
154
149
136
175
210
235
245
260
300
305
325
260
256
245
210
208
235
217
300
310
305
307
302
121
124
120
141
126
147
132
136
138
126
133
128
2019
2020
2021
Page 5 of 6
QUESTION 3 [30 MARKS]
(a)
Critically assess the considerations involved in the choice of a proper research
topic.
(10 marks)
(b)
Using suitable examples where applicable to illustrate your answer, examine the
relevance of the alternative modes of non-probability sampling methods in
research.
(10 marks)
(c)
Discuss the major issues involved in the preparation of a proper literature review.
(10 marks)
QUESTION 4 (30 MARKS)
A questionnaire is the set of questions given to participants of a research project. The
purpose of a questionnaire is to gather data from a target audience. It will include open
ended questions, closed ended questions, or a combination of both.
(a)
Enlist and describe the different parts of a questionnaire.
(10 marks)
(b)
Discuss five different ways of administering a questionnaire.
(10 marks)
(c)
Discuss two strengths and two limitations of using questionnaires in Business
research.
(10 marks)
Page 6 of 6