This summary contains all information of the five modules of ACCO, including: the six web clips and the three interactive lectures (tutorials). Applicable for all premaster studies at TiSEM 2019 (Tilburg University). As preparation for the midterm 2019.
Summary for midterm 14 October 2019
Table of contents
Module 1 – What to expect..................................................................................................................... 4
What is a research proposal? .............................................................................................................. 4
Structure of a research proposal ......................................................................................................... 4
What is a business problem?............................................................................................................... 4
Start your research proposal ............................................................................................................... 4
Why do a critical literature review? .................................................................................................... 4
Structure of academic papers ............................................................................................................. 4
Reading academic papers.................................................................................................................... 5
Structure of paragraphs ...................................................................................................................... 5
Module 2 – The business problem .......................................................................................................... 5
Web clip 1 – Defining a business problem .......................................................................................... 5
The seven-step deductive research process ................................................................................... 5
The seven-step inductive research process .................................................................................... 5
When does a business problem occur?........................................................................................... 6
What makes a good business problem?.......................................................................................... 6
Interactive lecture 1 – Defining a business problem ........................................................................... 8
Literature review in deductive research ......................................................................................... 8
What is a variable? .......................................................................................................................... 8
Exercise 1: The high price of not completing college in four years ................................................. 8
Exercise 2: TV’s next act: targeting ads at yoghurt lovers and home buyers.................................. 8
Exercise 3: The end of car ownership .............................................................................................. 9
Writing a good background section ................................................................................................ 9
How to write a good academic relevance section?....................................................................... 10
How to write a good managerial relevance section? .................................................................... 10
Module 3 – Formulating a problem statement and research questions .............................................. 10
Web clip 2 – Formulating a problem statement ............................................................................... 10
What makes a good problem statement? ..................................................................................... 10
Theoretical research questions ..................................................................................................... 11
, Practical research questions.......................................................................................................... 11
Interactive lecture 2 – Problem statement and research questions................................................. 12
Research proposal 1: Fighting private labels ................................................................................. 12
Research proposal 2: Managing the waiting experience at CAP airlines ...................................... 13
Research proposal 3: Do international accounting standards result in consistent financial
reporting? ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Research proposal 4: Does tweeting affect product demand? ..................................................... 15
Module 4 – From research questions to conceptual model ................................................................. 16
Web clip 3 – Developing a conceptual model ................................................................................... 16
How to define variables? ............................................................................................................... 16
How to build a conceptual model? ............................................................................................... 16
Mediating variable......................................................................................................................... 17
Moderating variable ...................................................................................................................... 17
Conditional process model ............................................................................................................ 17
Web clip 4 – The concept of mediation ............................................................................................ 18
Full vs. partial mediation ............................................................................................................... 18
Partial mediation ........................................................................................................................... 18
Partial mediation: direct and indirect effect in same direction .................................................... 18
Partial mediation: direct and indirect effect in opposite direction ............................................... 19
Parallel vs. sequential mediation .................................................................................................. 20
Parallel multiple mediators ........................................................................................................... 20
Parallel multiple mediators: indirect effects ................................................................................. 20
Serial multiple mediators .............................................................................................................. 20
Web clip 5 – The concept of moderation .......................................................................................... 21
A positive effect becoming stronger ............................................................................................. 21
A negative effect becoming stronger ............................................................................................ 22
A positive effect becoming less strong .......................................................................................... 22
A negative effect becoming less strong ........................................................................................ 23
Extensions / special cases.............................................................................................................. 24
Web clip 6 – Building hypotheses ..................................................................................................... 26
What is a hypothesis?.................................................................................................................... 26
How to phrase testable hypotheses? ............................................................................................ 26
How to justify a hypothesis? ......................................................................................................... 27
Link with statistics: null and alternate hypotheses ....................................................................... 28
Interactive lecture 3 – Theoretical framework ................................................................................. 29
Research proposal 1: Fighting private labels ................................................................................. 29
, Research proposal 2: Managing the waiting experience at CAP airlines ...................................... 31
Research proposal 3: Do international accounting standards result in consistent financial
reporting? ...................................................................................................................................... 32
Research proposal 4: Does tweeting affect product demand? ..................................................... 33
How to write a good justification for a hypothesis? ..................................................................... 34
Synthesize rather than summarize ................................................................................................ 34
Module 5 – Wrap up – Q&A Lecture ..................................................................................................... 34
What did we learn? ........................................................................................................................... 34
Q&A ................................................................................................................................................... 35
Information about the exam ............................................................................................................. 37
,Module 1 – What to expect
What is a research proposal?
Goal of a research proposal:
- to present/justify the need to study a research problem
- to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted
Structure of a research proposal
Fixed set of paragraphs:
1. Problem background
2. Problem statement
3. Research questions
4. Academic and managerial relevance
5. Conceptual model
6. Hypotheses
Taxonomy of Bloom: is a way of classifying assessment. The course Academic
Competences focusses mainly on the upper three levels. Analyse the existing literature,
syntheses arguments from different sources, and create (evaluation) a new academic work.
What is a business problem?
Two different types of business problems:
1. The actual situation of the company can be seriously wrong and
therefore needs to be solved asap.
2. The current situation of the company may not be seriously wrong, but
it can be improved.
Start your research proposal
First – consult the available literature. The extant literature will explain what
has been done and the main conclusions of that research. It helps lowering
the risk of redoing a research that is already done. Extant literature can
shape your search terms and help define the relevance of your topic.
Why do a critical literature review?
- To not run the risk of reinventing done research (managerial and academic relevance)
- To be able to contextualize in a wider academic debate (academic relevance)
- To introduce relevant terminology and to define your key terms
- To save time and effort in the end
Structure of academic papers
1. Title
2. Abstract (= summary of the article)
3. Keywords (= tags which can be used in searches)
4. Introduction (= background (importance), gap in knowledge)
5. Conceptual framework / Theory (= existing knowledge and expectations)
6. Methodology (=method of collecting data)
7. Results (= data collected is analysed)
8. Conclusion/discussion (= interpretation of the results and set these results in wider context)
9. Reference list (= all sources used throughout article)
,Reading academic papers
3-step approach:
Step 1. Scan the journal article: read the title, keywords, abstract, conclusion
→ Decide if study is relevant based on these parts
If yes, step 2: read introduction, conceptual framework, results (skip method)
Mark relevant references in reference list for future reading
→ Now you are able to summarize the paper in your own words
Step 3: create a system or table to summarize relevant papers (to keep track of what has been done)
Structure of paragraphs
- Each paragraph pertains to a single topic (e.g. explanation of a variable or relationship between two variables)
- Topic of paragraph is typically presented in first sentence, followed by supporting arguments
- Paragraphs start with broad information, followed by more specific information
Module 2 – The business problem
Web clip 1 – Defining a business problem
The seven-step deductive research process
Quantitative in nature. Theoretically driven, first you use theory to develop hypotheses, afterwards
you test these hypotheses by using data. The deductive research process consists of seven steps:
The seven-step inductive research process
Qualitative in nature. Exploratory driven, it uses data as a starting point, seeks explanation for these
data and ends up with developing a theory.
(Deductive process) (Inductive process)
, When does a business problem occur?
A business problem occurs when there is a gap between the actual status of a company and the
desired status of a company. There are two types of business problems:
1. The actual situation is seriously wrong and needs to be solved asap
2. The actual situation is not seriously wrong, but can be improved
Examples:
1. AH boycotts Unilever’s products – thus the actual situation is seriously wrong, as Unilever is losing
a lot of sales due to the boycott.
2. Pfizer may increase profits by having its sales reps approach doctors differently – thus the actual
situation is not seriously wrong, as they already make profits, but it can be improved
What makes a good business problem?
- Feasibility – is it doable / is it possible?
- Relevance – is it worthwhile to solve / is it important?
Checklist – Feasibility
Is the problem demarcated? (Is the problem not too broad?)
Can the problem be expressed in variables?
Are you able to gather the required data?
0 Existing data (data that the company owns e.g. sales/profit data, or purchased data)
0 New data (e.g. through surveys or interviews)
Examples of an infeasible business problems
(1) ABN Amro would like to know how it can increase its profitability.
→ Problem is too big: there is zillions of ways to improve profits ➔ Thus not demarcated
→ Which variables? ➔ Is not expressed in variables
(2) Pfizer would like to know whether soft-selling new drugs to doctors works better than hard-
selling techniques.
→ Much more demarcated
→ However, variables are not well expressed: ‘’better’’ in terms of what? Market share, sales?
(3) Philips would like to know whether running price promotions on its products can reduce the
profitability of its competitors’ new products.
→ Problem is demarcated
→ Is expressed in variables
→ No profit information available on products of competitors ➔ thus not able to gather the data
Examples of feasible business problems
(1) Pfizer would like to know whether soft-selling new drugs to doctors leads to more prescriptions
than hard-selling.
→ Variable is clear: we are interested in the effect of prescriptions
(2) Philips would like to know whether running price promotions on its products can reduce the sales
of its competitors’ new products.
→ Sales data can be purchased from market research agencies (existing data)
(3) Philips would like to know whether running price promotions on its products can increase the
profitability of its own products.
→ Own company has access to own profitability data
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