1 UNIT 1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF RESEARCH TOPICS TO BE COVERED Understanding and Definitions of Research Research Objectives Business Research : Definitions, Importance Unit Of Analysis WHAT IS POPULATION AND SAMPLE What is Variable and Constant What are Attributes Dependent & Independent Variable Hypothesis Types of Research Design 2 3 BASIC STATISTICAL CONCEPTS STATISTICS 4 The word statistics has many different meanings in our culture. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary gives a comprehensive definition of statistics as a science dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of numerical data. Role of Statistics in Research – Designing Research, Analyzing Data, Draw Conclusion about research 5 BRANCHES OF STATISTICS Descriptive Statistics Inferential Statistics To understand the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, definitions of population and sample are helpful 6 POPULATION in Research POPULATION 7 Population is a collection of persons, objects, or items of interest. The population can be a widely defined category, such as “all automobiles,” or it can be narrowly defined, such as “all Ford Mustang cars produced from 2002 to 2005.” A population can be a group of people, such as “all workers presently employed by Microsoft,” or it can be a set of objects, such as “all dishwashers produced on February 3, 2007, by the General Electric Company at the Louisville plant.” The researcher defines the population to be whatever he or she is studying. POPULATION 8 When researchers gather data from the whole population for a given measurement of interest, they call it a CENSUS. Most people are familiar with the Indian Census. Every 10 years, the government attempts to measure all persons living in this country. TYPES OF POPULATION 9 Finite Population •The population in which number of units is finite and can be counted precisely, is called finite population. •Eg - Population of the students who appeared in S. S. C. Exam in Gujarat in March 2017. •Students enrolled in Post Graduate courses in Gujarat. Infinite Population •The population, in which the number of units is infinite and cannot be counted is called infinite population. •Eg - Decimal numbers lying between integers 1 and 2. •Number of stars in the sky. TYPES OF POPULATION 10 Homogeneous Population • If all the units of population are identical or similar in terms of certain characteristic/s. • Eg - Blood in a living being, crop produced in a particular farm, DNA of persons having blood relation, water in a particular vessel and atoms in a particular element • Matching the DNA of two persons one can decide whether they have blood • relation or not Heterogeneous Population • If all the units of population differ completely or in some aspects with one another • Eg - All students of the same school and class differ from one another in different mental and physical abilities 11 SAMPLE in Research SAMPLE 12 A sample is a portion of the whole and, if properly taken, is representative of the whole. For various reasons, researchers often prefer to work with a sample of the population instead of the entire population. For example, in conducting quality control experiments to determine the average life of lightbulbs, a lightbulb manufacturer might randomly sample only 75 lightbulbs during a production run. Because of time and money limitations, a human resources manager might take a random sample of 40 employees instead of using a census to measure company morale. CHARACTERISTICS OF IDEAL SAMPLE 13 Number of units in sample must be proportionate. It means a size of sample must be in proper proportion of number of units in population. Units selected in sample must represent all the characteristics of different units of population. Sample should be helpful in realising all the objectives of research. Units of sample must be selected fairly without any bias. It means all the units of population must have equal chance to be selected in sample. Sample should be such, that can save time, energy and money of researcher. Contact of units of sample should be convenient for researcher. It means, units of sample should be within the reach of researcher. Collection of data from units of sample should be convenient for researcher. Relationship between Population and Sample 14 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 15 If a business analyst is using data gathered on a group to describe or reach conclusions about that same group, the statistics are called descriptive statistics. For example, if an instructor produces statistics to summarize a class’s examination effort and uses those statistics to reach conclusions about that class only, the statistics are descriptive. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 16 Many of the statistical data generated by businesses are descriptive. •They might include number of employees on vacation during June, •average salary at the ABC office, •corporate sales for 2009 •average managerial satisfaction score on a company-wide census of employee attitudes, and •average return on investment for the Lofton Company for the years 1990 through 2008. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS 17 If a researcher gathers data from a sample and uses the statistics generated to reach conclusions about the population from which the sample was taken, the statistics are inferential statistics. The data gathered from the sample are used to infer something about a larger group. Inferential statistics are sometimes referred to as inductive statistics. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS 18 One application of inferential statistics is in pharmaceutical research. Some new drugs are expensive to produce, and therefore tests must be limited to small samples of patients. Utilizing inferential statistics, researchers can design experiments with small randomly selected samples of patients and attempt to reach conclusions and make inferences about the population INFERENTIAL STATISTICS 19 The advantage of using inferential statistics is that they enable the researcher to study effectively a wide range of phenomena without having to conduct a census. 20
