SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Department of Business and Economics

END OF SEMESTER II EXAMINATION 2024

MODULE CODE MODULE NAME DATE OF EXAM TIME OF EXAM

MBA 632 Research Methods 20/02. 2025 14:00 - 17:00

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
1. Read the instructions on each question carefully before attempting the question.
2. Number the answers clearly corresponding to the questions being answered.
3. Answer all parts of a question at one place in continuous manner.
4. Please write as clearly as possible.
5. Write all your answers in the answer booklets provided.

6. Write your student number and other details in the space provided on the answer booklet.

7. This paper contains two parts; Section A, B and C. Answer all the questions
PLEASE DO NOT TURN THE QUESTION PAPER UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO
SO.

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Section A
INSTRUCTIONS
For each question in this section, indicate by crossing ‘‘T’’ if you agree or ‘‘F’’ if
you disagree with each lettered choice on the answer sheet provided. 25 Marks
1) Research in social science tends to
a) Delve into metaphysical issues F
T
T
T
T
T

b) Delve into feelings of people F c) Delve into the thoughts of people F d) Delve
into measurement F e) Delve into things that they do every day F
2) You may consider embarking doing research
a) To disprove already established facts F
T
T
T
T
T

b) To address a policy matter F c) To acquire respectability from colleagues in a

profession F d) To develop a sampling technique F e) Because you are curious
about something F
3) Essential features of quantitative research include
a) Controlling and T T
manipulation of all
variables except those that T T
are tested/experimented
upon are kept constant. T
 F

b) Employs hypothesis - guides the investigation process F

F
c) Analytical - There is critical analysis of all data used so that there is
no error in their interpretation
F
d) Objective, Unbiased, & Logical - all findings are logically based on
empirical
F
e) Use of content analysis may include textual data being transformed
into numerical measures and are treated statistically.
4) Idiographic research methodology
a) That is exploratory requires a conceptual framework F
b) When it is descriptive, T T
will use bivariate and
univariate analysis to T
show the results
T T F

c) When it is evaluative, may not require baseline data F d) Could be part of a

monitoring research project F e) None of the above F

2
5) The starting point of a research project could be
a) What the study aims at F
T
T
T
T
T

b) A hypothesis F c) A research question F d) A personal experience F e) A

research topic F
6)True about research objectives is that
a) How questions fit the groups and then, a simple
retroductive strategy if they random sample of clusters T
are about postulating a is selected from the
mechanism population.
b) How questions fit the b) The researcher chooses T
abductive strategy if they the sample based on who
are concerned with why they think would be T
events lead to other events appropriate for the study
c) How questions fit the c) The researcher dividing
deductive strategy when the the population into separate T
researcher wants to solve a groups, called strata. Then,
problem a sample (often a simple T
d) How questions fit the random sample) is drawn
inductive strategy when the by chance from each
researcher desires to show strata.
how things are like T FFFFF
e) How questions fit the
pragmatic strategy when a T
problem has to be resolved
T F
7)Special elements of
criterion i sampling T
include FF
a) The researcher dividing T
the population into separate

d) All of the above F e) None of the above F

8)Research that does not allow the observer’s values includes a) Ethnography F
T
T
T
T
T

b) Quasi experimental designs F c) Ethnomethodology F d) Is one that employs

the inductive strategy F e) Is one that employs the critical rationalist approach
F
9) The following are true about what involves reviewing literature a) A
 literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources F
b) Can be an T T
organizational pattern of
themes that combines T
both summary and
synthesis of ideas. T F
T
c) A presentation of what the results have been on a given topic. F
d) Gives a new interpretation of old material or may combine new with
F
old interpretations.
e) Might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major
F
debates.
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10) The following are c) Addressing sampling, T
related to research data collection methods as
designs well as data analysis T
a) How the researcher techniques
weaves the methods to d) Writing assumptions T
systematically solve the underlying various
research problem techniques and the need to
b) They are about justifying know the criteria of
the steps that are generally selecting them. FF
adopted by a researcher in T
studying his research
problem along with the T FF
logic and justification
behind them
e) All of the above F
11) If you desire to get results that are generalisable you will settle for
a)Unstructured observations F
T
T
T
T
T

b)Checklists F c) Questionnaires F d) Focus group discussions F e)All of the

above F
12) True about deductive research strategy is that it
a) Deals with unreal objects F
T
T
T
T
T

b) Shares the same ontology with critical rationalism F c) Is used postulate

mechanisms F d) Falls within the critical realist epistemology F e) None of the
above F
13) The following are well matched
a) Hans-Georg Gadamer looked at existentialism T
was a German c) Martin Heidegger
philosopher of the modified Husserl's
continental tradition, conception of T
best known for his 1960 phenomenology because
magnum opus Truth and of (what Heidegger T
Method in transcendental perceived as) Husserl's
phenomenology objectivist tendencies
b) Edmund Gustav T FFF
Albrecht Husserl was a
German philosopher who
established the school of T
phenomenology that
d) All of the above are well matched F e) None of the above are well matched F
14) The following are true about social research employing Gadamerian
phenomenology
a) The use of structured observations F
T
T
T
T
T
 b) The use of structured interviews F c) The reliance on the researcher’s
analysis F d) Social reality is value free in realism F e) All above are correct F
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15) The limitations of a research study should be considered in light of: a)
Money F
T
T
T
T
T

b) Time F c) Language F d) Distance F e) Location of the study F

16) The following are matched correctly:
a) Deduction and theory generation F
T
T
T
T
T

b) Abduction and emergent themes F c) Classical induction and Martin Heidegger

F d) Francis bacon and empiricism F e) Retroduction and conceptual frameworks
F
17) Triangulation
a) Is not used in quantitative designs but qualitative designs F
T
T
T
 T
T

a) Allows researchers to use more than one theory. F

F
a) Can stimulate the creation of inventive methods, new ways of
capturing a problem to balance with conventional data collection
methods.
F
a) Can involve use of more than one sampling technique in a research
project.
a) Triangulation' minimizes the inadequacies of single-source research. F 18) In
mixed methods designs
a) The explanatory design supportive role to the other T
is used when a researcher method type.
needs qualitative data to a) Researchers a T
expand on or explain triangulatory design
initial quantitative findings directly compare T
a) Researchers choose to quantitative and
use an exploratory design qualitative forms of
when they need to first evidence to corroborate
explore a phenomenon results. FF
qualitatively before they T
can measure or test it
a) In an embedded design, T FF
the researcher uses one
type of data in a
b) All of the above are correct F 19) In research
a) Literature review must available T
be reviewed at all times T
before and during the T
study T
b) Criterion i sampling is
need when the researcher T
desires to enrol people FF
who are just merely
c) Respondent driven sampling is the same as snowball sampling F
d) Open ended questions when mixed with closed ended questions in
F
a questionnaire would count as mixing methods
e) All above are not correct F
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20) Survey questionnaires in the positivist paradigm:
a) Depend on the existing literature when operationalising. F
a) Levels of measurement T T
are the drivers of
construction of question T
items
T T F

b) Should include open ended questions F c) The results from them are
transferable F d) All of the above are correct F
20 Marks

SECTION B
Question 21: Write short notes on ANY FIVE of the following:
a) Respondent-driven sampling (2 Marks)
b) Disproportionate sampling (2 Marks)
c) Research design matrix (2 Marks)
d) Induction (2 Marks)
e) Multiple reality (2 Marks)
f) A posteriori (2 Marks)
g) Focus group discussion (2 Marks)
h) Ethnography (2 Marks)

SECTION C

Question 22. Below is a statement of the problem. Read it carefully. You are
expected to develop a research design matrix. In order to help you develop
research questions, you may have to use different highlighters to locate research
question areas (20Marks).
One thing that has puzzled Mr Brown Rodgers an Irish investor in Zambia is the
cultural shock he got of the mourning behaviour of Zambian women. He has been
bewildered at the manner women in Zambia wail uttering words as a manner of
mourning their dead. He has also been puzzled at how women in the funeral
house, who are silent and chatting freely commence mourning as they receive a
fellow mourner who enters the house wailing and uttering words. This is not the
only puzzling thing he has never seen Ireland. Mr Brown further observed that a
number of rituals like isambo lyamfwa (for instance among the Bembas) which he
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saw among his four workers were performed among some tribes. At one other
funeral, there was a ritual which demanded to have chicken’s bloodshed before
burial. At the same funeral, there was also a ritual of sitting in a round robin in
the morning following the burial and a woman clad in black was being smeared
with mealie meal by a woman from the husband’. Mr. Brown read around all these
things and found nothing. He however did not know the extent to which these
practices were widespread among the 72 tribes of Zambia as he had not been to all
tribal funerals. He did not understand the meanings and motives of all these
rituals and opted to conduct a field study to unravel all this.
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Computer Number:
1 2
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
 3 4
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
5 6
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
7 8
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
9 10
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
11 12
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
13 14
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
15 16
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
17 18
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F
19 20
A B C D E A B C D E
T T T T T T T T T T
F F F F F F F F F F