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Research Methods for Management Studies (BUSI4434)
Answer any TWO questions out of the four questions
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: None
INFORMATION FOR INVIGILATORS: None
Question 1
Consider the following scenario you may encounter in your future career. You are working for a bespoke consulting firm, called Easy Sustain. This company offers advice on how clients from a range of different industries can make their operations more sustainable. You have been hired as a Research Services Associate in the marketing and sales team based on excellent marks on your transcript for BUSI4434 Research Methods for Management Studies.
Your line manager requests an investigation into the satisfaction with the services provided by Easy Sustain among current and past clients. The objective is to identify areas of good practices, to emphasise in marketing and sales, while also identifying areas of improvement for further development.
Given the above scenario, please answer the following questions:
a) Elaborate on the reasons to persuade your line manager that adopting a quantitative research strategy, employing a survey design, and utilising a self-completion questionnaire is the most effective approach. Ensure your answer is specific to the above scenario.
[20 marks]
b) After convincing your line manager that the approach mentioned in sub-question 1a is right, outline the step-by-step process of executing the research. Ensure your answer is specific to the above scenario.
[15 marks]
c) Discuss potential challenges that may arise during the implementation of the research project proposed in sub-question 1b and explain how you would address those issues in your planning. Ensure your answer is specific to the above scenario.
[15 marks]
Question 2
A team of researchers aim to investigate pay differences among junior IT technicians in Silicon Valley. They collect data on 500 IT technicians in December 2017 from company records and run an OLS regression in Stata which yields the following results:
|
Variable definitions for this model are as follows:
|
income |
an IT technician’s total income in 2017 (unit: 1000$) |
|
educ |
total number of years of formal education the IT technician has |
|
jobexp |
total number of years of working in similar positions |
|
black |
Dummy variable which takes the value 1 if the IT technician is African-American, and 0 otherwise. |
|
black#c.jobexp |
interaction term between “black” and “jobexp” |
|
cons_ |
the model constant |
a) Interpret the above regression results, focusing on the sign and statistical significance of the coefficient estimates. Comment on the model’s goodness-of-fit and the information you rely on to assess this.
[20 marks]
b) A recent study by researchers from the social science department at Harvard University suggests that the average wage for African Americans (indicated by the ‘black’ group in the above model) in the entire US population is lower than that for other race-based demographic groups. Furthermore, their results suggest that the relationship between experience and wages is weaker for African Americans. Based on the provided evidence, do these claims hold true? If not, what could be a potential explanation?
[10 marks]
d) There is an ongoing debate regarding whether education has diminishing or increasing returns. Propose a new regression model using the data described above, to examine the potential non-linear relationship between income and education. Explain your model and how it addresses the question of diminishing or increasing returns to education.
[15 marks]
Question 3
The director of an organic fruit store wants to determine the factors that influence a consumer’s decision to purchase organic strawberries. You are hired to analyse data on several variables that could potentially explain the purchasing decision. A survey was conducted among the loyal consumers of the store and 660 responded. The director asks you to run the following model:
Where ‘Ln’ stands for natural logarithm and the variables are measured as follows:
|
Orgbuy |
Dummy variable taking value 1 if the customer buys organic strawberries, 0 otherwise |
|
Oprice |
Price of organic strawberries, in £ per kg |
|
Rprice |
Price of regular strawberries, in £ per kg |
|
Inc |
Total family income in ten thousand pounds (£0000) |
|
Hsize |
Size of household as measured by the number of family members |
|
Educ |
Number of years of schooling |
|
Age |
Age of individual in years |
|
Male |
Variable taking value 1 if individual is male, 0 otherwise |
a) The director is unsure about the best way to estimate this model and seeks your advice. What reasons would you give to argue against using OLS to estimate the model specified above?
[15 marks]
b) Explain the logit model, how it is estimated, and how it can be used to predict the probability that a customer would buy organic strawberries.
[15 marks]
c) How would you evaluate the model fit of the above regression model? Indicate what information you rely on and why.
[10 Marks]
d) Later, the director approaches you for further advice and asks why you did not estimate a multinomial logistic or ordinal logistic model. Explain why those types of models are not appropriate for the given scenario.
[10 marks]Question 4
Consider the following scenario you may encounter in your future career. You have been hired as a policy analyst for the UK government with DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) to support policies to regenerate natural ecosystems such as transitioning to organic and biodiverse agricultural practices.
Your team is discussing how to evaluate different policy proposals. A major concern is determining the most effective way to incentivise landowners to shift their practices away from fertiliser and pesticide-intensive farming. A proposed policy requires empirical evidence to influence landowner practices.
Drawing upon your knowledge from BUSI4434 Research Methods for Management Studies, you believe that a natural experiment involving the implementation of the policy in one county of the UK could generate the evidence needed to evaluate the policy’s effectiveness.
a) Your team leader asks you to prepare a proposal for a natural experiment. Explain in detail how you would design such a natural experiment, what data needs to be collected, and what type of analysis you would conduct. Ensure your answer is specific to the above scenario.
[20 marks]
b) A colleague points out that the county you selected differs significantly from many other counties where the policy would apply to if implemented across the UK. How would you respond to this concern? When giving your answer, consider what changes, if any, you could make to the proposed design to address the concern your colleague has expressed.
[15 marks]
c) Another colleague finds out the EU is considering another policy to address the same issue. How would you modify your study design, as proposed in sub-question 4a, to obtain empirical evidence on how both the UK and EU policies would change the practices of UK landowners?
[15 marks]