Formulating the Research Problem

The first step in research is formulating a research problem It is most important stage in applied research as poorly defined problem will not yield useful results. Poorly defined problems cause confusion and do not allow the researcher to develop a good research design.

To find out the problem, three categories of symptomatic situations, namely overt difficulties, latent difficulties and unnoticed opportunities should be studied. Overt difficulties are those which are quite apparent and which manifest themselves.

E.g. if a firm has been witnessing a decline in its sales for sometime, this could be called an overt difficulty Latent difficulties, on the other hand, are those which are not so apparent and which is not checked, would soon become evident. For example, declining sale may, in due course, demoralise the sales staff. Unnoticed opportunities indicate the potential for growth in a certain area of marketing. Such opportunities are not clearly seen and some effort is required to explore them.

After a problem has been chosen, the next task is to formulate it precisely. Formulation implies a clear statement or definition of the problem. A complete problem definition must specify each of the following

• Unit of Analysis: The individual or object whose characteristics are to be measured is called the units of analysis. The unit always identifies the objects to be studied. It is necessary that the universe is well defined. For example, -”Women’s dress buyers in Delhi stores on May 31st ,2004.” This specifies a particular universe, provided that clear definition are given for ‘Women dress buyers’, and ‘Delhi’
• Time and Space Boundaries: We find that the two universes are again different. In the first instance, a precise date, viz. 31st May,2004 is given while in the second instance the entire month of May is given. Similarly, the two universe are different in terms of space- the ‘buyers’ universe specifies stores located in Delhi while the ‘shoppers’ universe specifies the Delhi Metropolitan area which should be a larger territory than the former.
• Characteristics of Interest: Characteristics of interest can be style and colour preference, buying behaviour, personality traits, etc. It is necessary that the problem definition specify one or more characteristics to be measured and the fact that the nature of relationships amongst them is to be determined.
• Environmental Conditions: It indicates the uniqueness or generality of the problem. The problem definition must specify the environment for which the company wants research results. It may also spell out the possibilities of changes as well as the direction of change in the environment so that the results of the research study do not become irrelevant. For example, if the management is interested in knowing how the units respond to price changes, then the problem definition should specify the prices to be researched.

Hypothesis Development

A hypothesis is a proposition which the researcher wants to verify. Often there may be several competing hypotheses, either specified or implied. One objective of research is to select among the possible hypotheses and to test them empirically with the help of statistical tools in order to ascertain whether they are true or false.