Free Essay

Research

In:

Submitted By missbaeyah
Words 3187
Pages 13
SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: ANTECEDENTS OF CUSTOMER’S RE-PATRONAGE INTENTIONS
YAP SHEAU FENa KEW MEI LIAN
KDU College

ABSTRACT This study was designed to examine the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer’s re-patronage intentions in the context of the restaurant industry. The respondents were 377 restaurant patrons who completed the self-administered questionnaire. Pearson Correlation analysis indicated that service quality and customer satisfaction had a direct positive effect on customer’s re-patronage intentions. Multiple Linear Regression highlighted customer satisfaction as a stronger predictor of re-patronage intentions compared to service quality. Possible interpretations, limitations, and implications for marketing professionals are discussed. Key words: Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Re-patronage Intentions, Restaurant

INTRODUCTION In today’s fast-paced and increasingly competitive market, the bottom line of a firm’s marketing strategies and tactics is to make profits and contribute to the growth of the company. Customer satisfaction, quality and retention are global issues that affect all organizations, be it large or small, profit or non-profit, global or local. Many companies are interested in studying, evaluating and implementing marketing strategies that aim at improving customer retention and maximizing share of customers in view of the beneficial effects on the financial performance for the firm. There has been a strong advocacy for the adoption of customer retention as one of the key performance indicators (e.g. Kaplan and Norton, 2001). For instance, a study by Reichheld and Sasser (1990) reported a high correlation between customer retention and profitability in a range of industries. However, the fragmentation of media choices and the dynamic nature of the market, coupled with an increased number of more demanding and affluent consumers, brought greater challenges to marketing practitioners in retaining their customers. Quality and customer satisfaction have long been recognized as playing a crucial role for success and survival in today’s competitive market. Not surprisingly, considerable research has been conducted on these two concepts. Notably, the quality and satisfaction concepts have been linked to customer behavioural intentions like purchase and loyalty intention,
Email: acrystalyap@kdu.edu.my

Sunway Academic Journal 4

60

willingness to spread positive word of mouth, referral, and complaint intention by many researchers (Olsen, 2002; Kang, Nobuyuki and Herbert, 2004; Söderlund and Öhman, 2005). The most commonly found studies were related to the ‘antecedents, moderating, mediating and behavioral consequences’ relationships among these variables – customer satisfaction, service quality, perceived value and behavioral intentions. However, there have been mixed results produced. As many industry sectors mature, competitive advantage through high quality service is an increasingly important weapon in business survival. The restaurant industry has certainly not been exempted from increased competition or rising consumer expectations of quality. In Malaysia, the restaurant industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation and experiencing heightened competition. Restaurant is an important but often neglected area of study (Kivela, Inbakaran and Reece, 1999a). The fact is that ‘restaurant business’ is regarded as a low credence service and the quality of the services are difficult to prove until customers patronise the restaurant. Moreover, the quality of the service that customers encounter may be different each time they re-visit that particular restaurant, thus influencing the level of satisfaction and eventually affecting their re-patronage intentions. Given these important issues that need to be addressed, the main purpose of this study was to examine the factors that affect customers’ repatronage intentions in the restaurant context. Specifically, this paper aims to examine the nature and strength of relationships between customer satisfaction, service quality and customer’s repatronage intentions. The predictive ability of satisfaction and service quality on repatronage intention will also be analyzed.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY The interest in studying satisfaction and service quality as the antecedents of customer behavioural intentions in this paper has been stimulated, firstly, by the recognition that customer satisfaction does not, on its own, produce customer lifetime value (Appiah-Adu, 1999). Secondly, satisfaction and quality are closely linked to market share and customer retention (Fornell, 1992; Rust and Zahorik, 1993; Patterson and Spreng, 1997). There are overwhelming arguments that it is more expensive to win new customers than to keep existing ones (Ennew and Binks, 1996; Hormozi and Giles, 2004). This is in line with Athanassopoulos, Gounaris and Stathakopoulos’s (2001) arguments that customer replacement costs, like advertising, promotion and sales expenses, are high and it takes time for new customers to become profitable. And lastly, the increase of retention rate implied greater positive word of mouth (Appiah-Adu, 1999), decrease price sensitivity and future transaction costs (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990) and, finally, leading to better business performance (Fornell, 1992; Ennew and Binks, 1996; Bolton, 1998; Ryals, 2003). From the literature that has been reviewed so far, customer satisfaction seems to be the subject of considerable interest by both marketing practitioners and academics since 1970s (Churchill and Surprenant, 1982; Jones and Suh, 2000). Companies and researchers first tried to measure customer satisfaction in the early 1970s, on the theory that increasing it would help them prosper (Coyles and Gokey, 2002). Throughout the 1980s, researchers relied on customer satisfaction and quality ratings obtained from surveys for performance

61

Sunway Academic Journal 4

monitoring, compensation as well as resource allocation (Bolton, 1998) and began to examine further the determinants of customer satisfaction (Swan and Trawick, 1981; Churchill and Surprenant, 1982; Bearden and Teel, 1983). In the 1990s, however, organizations and researchers have become increasingly concerned about the financial implications of their customer satisfaction (Rust and Zahorik, 1993; Bolton, 1998). While satisfaction has been examined by many researchers in different industries (Fornell, 1992; Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Bolton, 1998; Caruana, 2002; Ranaweera and Prabhu, 2003), service quality is also likely to influence consumer behavioural intentions (Bitner, 1990; Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994; Choi et al., 2004). Cronin, Brady and Hult (2000) stated that examining only one variable at a time may confound the understanding of consumer decision-making and this may lead to inappropriate marketing strategies. This view is supported by Caruana (2002) and it is crucial to study the effect of other constructs such as quality on behavioural intentions in addition to customer satisfaction. Hence, this study incorporated service quality into the model in examining customer’s repatronage intentions in the restaurant context.

Definition of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Repatronage Intention There are many researchers who have defined service quality in different ways. For instance, Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994, p. 97) define service quality as ‘the consumer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority / superiority of the organisation and its services’. While other researchers (e.g. Cronin and Taylor, 1994; Taylor and Cronin, 1994) view service quality as a form of attitude representing a long-run overall evaluation, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, p. 48) defined service quality as ‘a function of the differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions’. This has appeared to be consistent with Roest and Pieters’ (1997) definition that service quality is a relativistic and cognitive discrepancy between experience-based norms and performances concerning service benefits. Many researchers (Oliver, 1981; Brady and Robertson, 2001; Lovelock, Patterson and Walker, 2001) conceptualize customer satisfaction as an individual’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. Generally, there are two general conceptualisations of satisfaction, namely, transaction-specific satisfaction and cumulative satisfaction (Boulding et al., 1993; Jones and Suh, 2000; Yi and La, 2004). Transaction-specific satisfaction is a customer’s evaluation of his or her experience and reactions to a particular service encounter (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Boshoff and Gray, 2004), and cumulative satisfaction refers to the customer’s overall evaluation of the consumption experience to date (Johnson, Anderson and Fornell, 1995). Intentions are subjective judgements about how a person will behave in the future and usually serves as dependent variables in many service research and satisfaction models (Boulding et al., 1993; Soderlund and Ohman, 2003). Rust, Zahorik and Keiningham (1995) argues that repurchase intentions and actual repurchase patterns are not necessarily the same.

Sunway Academic Journal 4

62

Butcher (2005) agreed that repurchase intention is regarded as a sound service outcome that is measurable. While Soderlund and Ohman (2003) consider repurchase intentions as intentions-as-expectations, Hellier et al. (2003, p. 1764) defined repurchase intention as ‘the individual’s judgement about buying again a designated service from the same company, taking into account his or her current situation and likely circumstances’.

The Distinction between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction A review of the emerging literature suggests that there appears to be relative consensus among marketing researchers that service quality and customer satisfaction are separate constructs which is unique and share a close relationship (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Oliver, 1993). Most researchers in the services field have maintained that these constructs are distinct (Bitner, 1990; Carman, 1990; Boulding et al., 1993; Spreng and Mackoy, 1996). Table 1 identifies a number of key elements that distinguish customer satisfaction from service quality.

Table 1. The Distinction between Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction can result from any dimension, whether or not it is quality related. Customer satisfaction judgements can be formed by a large number of non-quality issues, such as needs, equity, perceptions of fairness. Customer satisfaction is believed to have more conceptual antecedents. Satisfaction judgements do require experience with the service or provider. Service Quality The dimensions underlying quality judgements are rather specific. Expectations for quality are based on ideals or perceptions of excellence. Service quality has less conceptual antecedents. Quality perceptions do not require experience with the service or provider.

Source: Adapted from various sources (Taylor, 1993; Oliver, 1993; Rust and Oliver, 1994; Spreng and Mackoy, 1996; Choi et al., 2004; Grace and O’Cass, 2005)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The present paper developed a conceptual framework (see Figure 1), which aims to examine the predictive ability as well as the nature and strength of relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and re-patronage intentions. All constructs were conceptualised to fit better into the current study setting. Based on the original view of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985), service quality was conceptualised as a function for the differences between expectation and performance along with restaurant attributes such as food quality, service transaction, environment, convenience issues, and its overall images. Next, customer satisfaction has been conceptualized in this study as the patrons’

63

Sunway Academic Journal 4

cumulative post-purchase affective evaluation based on the most recent services consumption experience at the restaurant. Lastly, the repatronage intention construct has been conceptualized as a customer’s likelihood of revisiting the restaurant during the coming month by adopting the definition of Hellier et al. (2003).

Service Quality Re-patronage Intentions Customer Satisfaction

Figure 1. The Conceptual Framework of the Study
Source: Cronin, J. J., Brady, M. K., and Hult, G. (2000). Assessing the Effects of Quality, Value, and Customer Satisfaction on Consumer Behavioral Intentions in Service Environments. Journal of Retailing, 76(2), 193-218.

The Direct Effect of Service Quality on Repatronage Intentions Substantial empirical and theoretical evidence in the literature suggests that there is a direct link between service quality and behavioural intentions (Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991a). Among the various behavioural intentions, considerable emphasis has been placed on the impact of service quality in determining repeat purchase and customer loyalty (Jones and Farquhar, 2003). As pointed out by Bolton (1998), service quality influences a customer’s subsequent behaviour, intentions and preferences. When a customer chooses a provider that provides service quality that meets or exceeds his or her expectations, he or she is more likely to choose the same provider again. Besides, Cronin and Taylor (1994) also found that service quality has a significant effect on repurchase intentions. Other studies which support that repurchase intentions are positively influenced by service quality include Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman (1996), Cronin and Taylor (1992, 1994), Cronin, Brady and Hult (2000), and Choi et al. (2004). Hence, it was hypothesized that: H1: Service quality is positively related to re-patronage intentions.

The Direct Effect of Customer Satisfaction on Repatronage Intentions A wide variety of studies has been done to support the link between customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions (Fornell, 1992; Rust and Zahorik, 1993; Taylor and Baker, 1994; Patterson and Spreng, 1997). Bearden and Teel (1983, p. 21) argue that ‘customer

Sunway Academic Journal 4

64

satisfaction is important to the marketer because it is generally assumed to be a significant determinant of repeat sales, positive word of mouth, and customer loyalty’. Similarly, Anderson and Sullivan (1993) have also argued that the more satisfied the customers are, the greater is their retention. This view is also supported by Ranaweera and Prabhu (2003) study that the effects of customer satisfaction on customer retention are found to be significant and positive. Specifically, the levels of customer satisfaction will influence the level of repurchase intentions and this is supported by past research in a wide variety of studies (Rust and Zahorik, 1993; Taylor and Baker, 1994; Patterson and Spreng, 1997; Bolton, 1998; Hellier et al., 2003). On the basis of the above, it was then hypothesized that: H2: Customer satisfaction is positively related to re-patronage intentions.

The Relative Importance of Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction for the Prediction of Customer Repatronage Intentions Both service quality and customer satisfaction have been widely recognised as antecedents of repurchase intentions. However, it is believed that restaurant owners would like to know which of these variables exerts the strongest influence on re-patronage intentions. A recent study reveals that customer satisfaction is a better predictor of intentions to repurchase than service quality (Ravald and Gronroos, 1996). Evidence is provided by Cronin and Taylor (1992) who found a much stronger relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions than the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions. Academically, from a practitioner’s point of view, customer satisfaction is deemed to be more influential on repurchase intentions (Dabholkar, 1995). Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1994) also revealed in their analyses that customer satisfaction is likely to achieve a greater level of statistical significance when both service quality and customer satisfaction have a significant effect on repurchase intentions. H3: Customer satisfaction will be a stronger predictor of customer’s repatronage intention than service quality.

METHOD

Participants There are three major categories of restaurants in Malaysia (1) family restaurant, (2) fast food outlets and (3) fine dining. Malaysia is, perhaps, not particularly known for its fine dining scene and research has been conducted on fast food restaurant. Hence, this paper focused only on the family restaurant as there is a lack of studies carried out in this context in Malaysia. The sampling unit in this study was FUSION, a Chinese cuisine family restaurant situated in Klang Valley, Malaysia, which serves HALAL food. A sample size of 420 was targeted and the subjects are patrons who visited the FUSION restaurant at least

65

Sunway Academic Journal 4

three times in the past 6 months and involve an exchange of money for services rendered. A filtering question was used to screen qualified respondents who met the requirement.

Design and Procedure This study design is cross-sectional in nature and was conducted using self-administered questionnaires with the consent from the restaurant owner beforehand. Pilot testing was conducted using a small convenience sample of 35 respondents, including the restaurant owner who checked for any ambiguities and confusion in the first draft of the questionnaires. Data was collected from the patrons who visited FUSION restaurant from June 2006 to October 2006. The respondents were informed that their participation was on a voluntary basis and all information provided would be kept private and confidential. Questionnaires were distributed only to those who qualified and agreed to participate in the study. The researcher then briefly explained the nature and requirement of the survey before the respondent filled up the questionnaire.

Measures The multiple-items used to measure service quality were taken from Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) and Kivela, Reece and Inbakaran (1999b). A total of 14 items was used and includes the additional item (i.e. operating hours convenience) based on the suggestions of restaurant owners during the pilot testing. Single-item approach was used for the satisfaction and repatronage intention construct. Typically, assessment of reliability in terms of internal consistency cannot be computed for single-item measurement (Soderlund and Ohman, 2003). Rossiter (2002) has strongly argued that intentions should not be captured with multiple-item scales, as they invite the possibility of a confounded measurement. Though Churchill (1979) argued that single items are unreliable, Rossiter (2002) opposed this by demonstrating that the main issue is the validity problem rather than reliability problem. This is further supported by Westbrook and Oliver (1981) who indicated that single item rating scales were common among researchers in testing customer satisfaction. All the three main constructs were measured, using a five-point Likert scale. Selected demographic data was also collected at the end of the questionnaire.

RESULTS The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, Windows Version 13.0 (SPSS 13.0) was used to analyse the data collected.

Descriptive Findings A total of 420 questionnaires was distributed, of which 377 were returned completed and met the screening requirements, representing a net response rate of 89.8% out of which 25

Sunway Academic Journal 4

66

was excluded from further analysis due to missing data. Among the 377 respondents, 60% were females and 82.7% were aged between 20 to 49. As expected, a majority of them were Chinese customers and about half of the respondents (56%) were middle-income earners receiving a monthly income from RM2,000 to RM4,999. Customer Expectations. Based on the mean analysis, it was found that the highest expectations were related to the convenience and service factors. This may be due to the busy lifestyle in urban areas. On the other hand, the restaurant’s image scored the lowest in terms of customer expectation. However, this does not suggest that restaurateurs can ignore the importance of image but at least fulfil the minimum expectation of customers. Perceived Performance. The respondents’ general perception towards the service quality offered by the restaurant was between a mean score of 3.24 (Atmosphere factors) and 3.90 (Convenience factors). Further analysis by comparing the perceived performance and expectation level revealed that the perceived performance on all dimensions fell short of their expectations, except for the convenience factor. This indicates that the service quality offered did not meet their customers’ expectations on most aspects.

The Direct Effects of Service Quality and Satisfaction on Repatronage Intention Table 2 provides a matrix of the correlation coefficient for the main measures.

Variables Repatronage Intention Service Quality Customer Satisfaction

Table 2. Intercorrelations between Main Measures Repatronage Service Intention Quality Pearson Correlation 1 .537** Sig. (2-tailed) . .000 N 377 377 Pearson Correlation .537** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 . N 377 377 Pearson Correlation .822** .486** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 N 377 377

Customer Satisfaction .822** .000 377 .486** .000 377 1 . 377

Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The results for direct effect of service quality on repatronage intention revealed an r-value of 0.537 and the correlation is significant at p

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Research

...The Research Process Writers usually treat the research task as a sequential process involving several clearly defined steps. No one claims that research requires completion of each step before going to the next. Recycling, circumventing, and skipping occur. Some steps are begun out of sequence, some are carried out simultaneously, and some may be omitted. Despite these variations, the idea of a sequence is useful for developing a project and for keeping the project orderly as it unfolds. Exhibit 3–1 models the sequence of the research process. We refer to it often as we discuss each step in subsequent chapters. Our discussion of the questions that guide project planning and data gathering is incorporated into the model (see the elements within the pyramid in Exhibit 3–1 and compare them with Exhibit 3–2). Exhibit 3–1 also organizes this chapter and introduces the remainder of the book. The research process begins much as the vignette suggests. A management dilemma triggers the need for a decision. For MindWriter, a growing number of complaints about postpurchase service started the process. In other situations, a controversy arises, a major commitment of resources is called for, or conditions in the environment signal the need for a decision. For MindWriter, the critical event could have been the introduction by a competitor of new technology that would revolutionize the processing speed of laptops. Such events cause managers to reconsider their purposes or...

Words: 376 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Research

...requirements of talking on the phone.  These predictions were derived from basic theories on limited attention capacities. 2. Microsoft Company has basic research sites in Redmond, Washington, Tokoyo, Japan etc.at these research sites work on fundamental problems that underlie the design of future products. For example a group at Redmond is working natural language recognition soft wares, while another works on artificial intelligence. These research centres don’t produce new products rather they produce the technology that is used to enhance existing products or help new products. The product are produced by dedicates product groups. Customization of the products to match the needs of local markets is sometimes carried out at local subsidiaries. Thus, the Chinese subsidiary in Singapore will do basic customizations of programs such as MS office adding Chinese characters and customizing the interface. APPLIED RESEARCH * INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICE COMPANY Offering customers products and services for ‘connected life and work’  Project: 1. Research focused on the organisation’s tendency to appoint ‘safe’ senior executives, rather than those who were able to drive change through the business, and enable a culture of calculated business risk and growth.  This research led to a programme that created different and improved relationships with executive search agencies, established a positive shift in the interaction between the...

Words: 282 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Research

...Myresearch About 30 million other animals. Animal experimentation by scientists can be cruel and unjust, but at the same time it can provide long term benefits for humanity. Animals used in research and experiments have been going on for 2,000 years and keep is going strong. It is a widely debated about topic all over the world. Some say it is inhuman while others say it's for the good of human kind. There are many different reasons why people perform experiments and why others total disagree with it. Each year 20 million animals are produce and breed for the only purpose but to be tested on. Fifty-three thousands of animals are used each year in medical and veterinary schools. The rest is used in basic research. The demand for animals in the United States is 50 million mice, 20 million rats, and aThis includes 200,000 cats and 450,000 dogs. The world uses about 200-250 million animals per year. The problem with working with animals is that they cannot communicate their feelings and reactions. Other people say that they can communicate and react to humans just a well as one person to another. Some of the animals the research's use are not domesticated which makes them extremely hard to control and handle. The experiments that go on behind closed doors are some of the most horrific things a human could think of too torture somebody or something. Animals in labs are literally used as models and are poked at and cut open like nothing is happening. When drug are tested on animals...

Words: 355 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Research

...Research Methodology & Fundamentals of MR. 100 Marks Course Content 1. Relevance & Scope of Research in Management. 2. Steps Involved in the Research Process 3. Identification of Research Problem. 4. Defining MR problems 5. Research Design 6. Data – Collection Methodology, Primary Data – Collection Methods / Measurement Techniques – Characteristics of Measurement Techniques – Reliability, Validity etc. – Secondary Data Collection Methods – Library Research, References – Bibliography, Abstracts, etc. 7. Primary and Secondary data sources and data collection instruments including in-depth interviews, projective techniques and focus groups 8. Data management plan – Sampling & measurement 9. Data analysis – Tabulation, SPSS applications data base, testing for association 10. Analysis Techniques – Qualitative & Quantitative Analysis Techniques – Techniques of Testing Hypothesis – Chi-square, T-test, Correlation & Regression Analysis, Analysis of Variance, etc. – Making Choice of an Appropriate Analysis Technique. 11. Research Report Writing. 12. .Computer Aided Research Methodology – use of SPSS packages Reference Text 1. Business Research Methods – Cooper Schindler 2. Research Methodology Methods & Techniques – C.R.Kothari 3. D. K. Bhattacharya: Research Methodology (Excel) 4. P. C. Tripathy: A text book of Research Methodology in...

Words: 5115 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Research

...Research Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon. Research involves inductive and deductive methods (Babbie, 1998). Inductive methods analyze the observed phenomenon and identify the general principles, structures, or processes underlying the phenomenon observed; deductive methods verify the hypothesized principles through observations. The purposes are different: one is to develop explanations, and the other is to test the validity of the explanations. One thing that we have to pay attention to research is that the heart of the research is not on statistics, but the thinking behind the research. How we really want to find out, how we build arguments about ideas and concepts, and what evidence that we can support to persuade people to accept our arguments. Gall, Borg and Gall (1996) proposed four types of knowledge that research contributed to education as follows: 1. Description: Results of research can describe natural or social phenomenon, such as its form, structure, activity, change over time, relationship to other phenomena. The descriptive function of research relies on instrumentation for measurement and observations. The descriptive research results in our understanding of what happened. It sometimes produces statistical information about aspects of education. 2. Prediction: Prediction research is intended to predict a phenomenon that will occur at time Y from information at an earlier time X. In educational...

Words: 1179 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Research

...STEP 1etasblish the need for research We have to consider if it is a real need for doing a research? Research takes time and costs money. If the information is already available, decisions must be made now, we cant afford research and costs outweigh the value of the research, then the research is not needed. Step 2 define the problem or topic State your topic as a question. This is the most important step. Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. Problem maybe either specific or general. Step 3 establish research objective Research objectives, when achieved, provide the Information necessary to solve the problem identified in Step 2. Research objectives state what the researchers must do. Crystallize the research problems and translate them into research objective. At this point, we will pin down the research question. Step 4 determine research design The research design is a plan or framework for conducting the study and collecting data. It is defined as the specific methods and procedures you use to acquire the information you need. based on the research objectives, we will determine the most appropriate research design: qualitative and/ or quantitative. • Exploratory Research: collecting information in an unstructured and informal manner. • Descriptive Research refers to a set of methods and procedures describing marketing variables. • Causal Research (experiments): allows isolation of causes and...

Words: 1099 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Research

...Research Article Research is important to every business because of the information it provides. There is a basic process to researching information and that process begins by deciding what information needs to be researched. The next step is to develop a hypothesis, which describes what the research paper is about and what the researcher’s opinion is regarding the topic. The research article chosen for this paper is titled, “The Anchor Contraction Effect in International Marketing Research.” The hypothesis for this paper is, “This raises the issue of whether providing responses on rating scales in a person’s native versus second language exerts a systematic influence on the responses obtained.” Simply explained, the hypothesis of this paper is to determine whether research questions should be in a person’s native language rather than expecting them to respond to questions in a language in which they might not be fluent. The hypothesis of this paper was accepted based on the research data gathered by the research team. This hypothesis was supported by nine studies using a variety of research methods. The research methods provided data that demonstrated the level of inaccuracy based on questions being asked in a language that was not the respondent’s native language. The research data provided insight into the probability of more accurate results when the respondent was asked questions in a manner that related well with their culture. There are several implications...

Words: 322 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Research

...ACE8001: What do we mean by Research? & Can we hope to do genuine Social Science Research (David Harvey)  What do we mean by research? What might characterise good research practice? There is no point in us trying to re-invent the wheel - other and probably more capable people than us have wrestled with this problem before us, and it makes good sense and is good practice to learn what they have discovered.  In other words - we need to explore more reliable and effective methods and systems for the pursuit of research than we have been doing so far. What is research? Dictionary Definitions of Research: * "The act of searching closely or carefully for or after a specified thing or person" * "An investigation directed to discovery of some fact by careful study of a subject" * "A course of scientific enquiry" (where scientific = "producing demonstrative knowledge") Howard and Sharp (HS) define research as:  "seeking through methodical processes to add to bodies of knowledge by the discovery or elucidation of non-trivial facts, insights and improved understanding of situations, processes and mechanisms".  [Howard, K. and Sharp, J.A. The Management of a student research project, Gower, 1983 - a useful and practical “how to do it” guide] Two other, more recent guides are: Denscombe, Martyn, 2002, Ground rules for good research: a 10 point guide for social research,  Open University Press. Robinson Library Shelf Mark: 300.72 DEN, Level 3 (several copies)...

Words: 4067 - Pages: 17

Free Essay

Research

...solve analytic models or whatever, but they often fail to demonstrate that they have thoroughly thought about their papers—in other words, when you push them about the implicit and explicit assumptions and implications of their research models, it appears that they haven’t really given these matters much thought at all.[1] Too often they fall back on saying that they are doing what they are doing because that is the way it is done in the prior literature, which is more of an excuse than a answer. (Of course, once a researcher reaches a certain age, they all feel that youngsters aren’t as good as they were in the good old days!) Therefore, in this class we shall go beyond simply studying research in managerial accounting. For many of you, this is your first introduction to accounting research and to PhD level class. Hence, in these classes we shall also learn how to solve business problems systematically and to understand what it means to have thoroughly “thought through” a paper. We begin not with academic research, but with some real world cases, because we should never forget that ours is an applied research field: accounting research is a means towards the end of understanding business and is not an end in itself, in the way pure science research is. Developing a systematic procedure for solving a real world business problem is the starting point for developing a...

Words: 2437 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Research

...manger know about research when the job entails managing people, products, events, environments, and the like? Answer: Research simply means a search for facts – answers to questions and solutions to problems. It is a purposive investigation. It is an organized inquiry. It seeks to find explanations to unexplained phenomenon to clarify the doubtful facts and to correct the misconceived facts. Research is the organized and systematic inquiry or investigation which provides information for solving a problem or finding answers to a complex issue. Research in business: Often, organization members want to know everything about their products, services, programs, etc. Your research plans depend on what information you need to collect in order to make major decisions about a product, service, program, etc. Research provides the needed information that guides managers to make informed decisions to successfully deal with problems. The more focused you are about your resources, products, events and environments what you want to gain by your research, the more effective and efficient you can be in your research, the shorter the time it will take you and ultimately the less it will cost you. Manager’s role in research programs of a company: Managing people is only a fraction of a manager's responsibility - they have to manage the operations of the department, and often have responsibilities towards the profitability of the organization. Knowledge of research can be very helpful...

Words: 4738 - Pages: 19

Free Essay

Research

...Contents TITLE 2 INTRODUCTION 3 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 3 AIM 4 OBJECTIVES 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 METHODOLOGY AND DATACOLLECTION 5 POPULATION AND SAMPLING 6 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS 6 PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY 7 STUDY PERIOD (GANTT CHART) 8 STUDY RESOURCES 9 REFERENCES 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 9 APPENDICES: 10 * The Impact of Motivation through Incentives for a better Performance - Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Ahmed Anwar Athifa Ibrahim (Academic Supervisor) Applied Research Project to the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Studies The Maldives National University * * Introduction As it is clear, staff motivation is important in all the sectors especially in the tourism sector where we require highly skilled employees to get the best of their output to reach the organizational goals. Therefore, organizations spend a lot on their staff motivation in terms of different incentive approaches, such as financial benefits, training and development, appreciations, rewards and promotions. As mentioned in the title, the outline of the findings will be focused on the motivation of the staffs on improving their performances by the different incentive packages that they get at the resort. This study will be executed at Adaaran Meedhupparu by giving questionnaire to the staff working in different departments to fill up and return to the scholar to examine the current situation of staff satisfaction on motivation to do...

Words: 2768 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Research

...goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge or deepen understanding of a topic or issue. This process takes three main forms (although, as previously discussed, the boundaries between them may be obscure): * Exploratory research, which helps identify and define a problem or question. * Constructive research, which tests theories and proposes solutions to a problem or question. * Empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence. There are two ways to conduct research: Primary research Using primary sources, i.e., original documents and data. Secondary research Using secondary sources, i.e., a synthesis of, interpretation of, or discussions about primary sources. There are two major research designs: qualitative research and quantitative research. Researchers choose one of these two tracks according to the nature of the research problem they want to observe and the research questions they aim to answer: Qualitative research Understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. Asking a broad question and collecting word-type data that is analyzed searching for themes. This type of research looks to describe a population without attempting to quantifiably measure variables or look to potential relationships between variables. It is viewed as more restrictive in testing hypotheses because it can be expensive and time consuming, and typically limited to a single set of research subjects. Qualitative...

Words: 498 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Research

...Volume 3, number 2 What is critical appraisal? Sponsored by an educational grant from AVENTIS Pharma Alison Hill BSC FFPHM FRCP Director, and Claire Spittlehouse BSc Business Manager, Critical Appraisal Skills Programme, Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford q Critical appraisal is the process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, results and relevance before using it to inform a decision. q Critical appraisal is an essential part of evidence-based clinical practice that includes the process of systematically finding, appraising and acting on evidence of effectiveness. q Critical appraisal allows us to make sense of research evidence and thus begins to close the gap between research and practice. q Randomised controlled trials can minimise bias and use the most appropriate design for studying the effectiveness of a specific intervention or treatment. q Systematic reviews are particularly useful because they usually contain an explicit statement of the objectives, materials and methods, and should be conducted according to explicit and reproducible methodology. q Randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews are not automatically of good quality and should be appraised critically. www.evidence-based-medicine.co.uk Prescribing information is on page 8 1 What is critical appraisal What is critical appraisal? Critical appraisal is one step in the process of evidence-based clinical practice. Evidencebased clinical practice...

Words: 4659 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Research

...How To Formulate Research Problem? Posted in Research Methodology | Email This Post Email This Post Formulating the research problem and hypothesis acts as a major step or phase in the research methodology. In research, the foremost step that comes into play is that of defining the research problem and it becomes almost a necessity to have the basic knowledge and understanding of most of its elements as this would help a lot in making a correct decision. The research problem can be said to be complete only if it is able to specify about the unit of analysis, time and space boundaries, features that are under study, specific environmental conditions that are present in addition to prerequisite of the research process. Research Process Research process is very commonly referred to as the planning process. One important point to be kept in mind here is to understand that the main aim of the research process is that of improving the knowledge of the human beings. The research process consists of the following stages – 1. The Primary stage :– This stage includes – a. Observation – The first step in the research process is that of the observation, research work starts with the observation which can be either unaided visual observation or guided and controlled observation.It can be said that an observation leads to research, the results obtained from research result in final observations which can play a crucial part in carrying out further research. Deliberate and guided...

Words: 1487 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Research

...activities for the quarter 4 which include weekly class discussion, class participation, midterm and final exam * Learned about what Research is and what Research is not. * Eight characteristics of research. * Sub problem – that is a question or problem that must be address before the main problem is resolved. * Hypothesis- that is a reasonable quests that needs to be proving. * I learned about assumption –that is a statement that is presume to be fact. * Learned about theory * Learned about methodology- that is a process a researchers use to collect data and information is research work. * Learned about internet – A researchers use internet to access information online. * Learned about two types of research report which is Juried or refereed – a reviewed report * Nonjuried or nonrefereed – none reviewed report. E.g. Journal report. * Learned about checklist evaluating research- that a report juried that is judge. * Learned that a research that is not screen or viewed by expert is not valid * Guidelines in reviewing research by going to library to sort for information needed for case study. * I learned as a researcher, you must read more than articles. * I learned about research paper / APA Style – that first thing is to choose the research topic. * Learned about what research paper entails, like cover page, table of content, abstract, introduction, summary, conclusion and references. * I learned about APA...

Words: 1117 - Pages: 5