Course : RSCH8086 - IS Research Methodology

INTRODUCTION
Session 01

D3392 – By: Ir. Togar Alam Napitupulu, MS., MSc., Ph.D

 What is Research?
Apa itu Penelitian?
• Research basically is a scientific*) investigation,
inquiries, or organized activities in order to
answer a question(s) – a research question(s)

*)Scientific(Sekaran, 2010, pp 19 – 23) means: (1) Purposive, (2)

Rigorous, (3) Testable, (4) Replicable, (5) precision and confidence, (6)
Objective, (7) Generizable, (8) Parsimonial.
Ilmiah (Sekaran, 2010,pp 19 – 23) artinya: (1) bermaksud/bermanfaat, (2)
Jelas, (3) Teruji, (4) Dapat diulangi , (5) Tepat dan Diyakini, (6) Objektif, (7)
Bersifat umum, (8) Tidak jelimet/Sederhana.
 Why the Research Question?
Mengapa Pertanyaan Penelitian
Diajukan?
• Presence of problems - “broad area problem”
– Actual problem or
– Not up to expectation or
– Simply inquiries – like in math or science
• Solving the “broad area problem” is the
Purpose of the research – manfaat penelitian
• Solution can be devised – called policy
implication
• The result must be reported – in writing
 Steps in Doing Reseach
 Number one, we start by identifying the broad area
problem.
 Number two, we define the problem statement – ie.,
further elaboration of the broad area problem.
 Number three, we need to develop theoretical
framework.
 Number four, we need to generate hypothesis.
 Number five, we need to develop measures of the
variables.
 Number six, data collection.
 Number seven, we need to develop data analysis
technique.
 Number eight, interpretation of the result of the analysis
is conducted.
 Writing is the ultimate goal of
any research
Research type:
Explorative : identifying variables, factors, structure,
pattern, etc. of a new haven’t been research phenomenon
Article : Story telling/Reporting type

Descriptive : describing the characteristics of the variables

Article : Reporting/description

Hypothesis (hypothetico-deductive): Finding new

truth or theory or thesis
Article : Argumentative – the role of critical
thinking
 Argumentative Article
Non Scientific (e.g., Research
in paper) 1. Topic : taken from the topic of
1. Topic : doesn’t have to be the research
the same as the Title (judul) 2. Hypothesis
2. Issue (s) : in form of
question
3. Thesis (usually at the
3. Your Position on the conclusion section)
issue 4. Hasil dan Pembahasan
4. Main Points or
Arguments 5. Kesimpulan (Thesis)
5. Conclusion
 Example: Non-research
Topic : World Class University and Research
Issue : Should BINUS be emphasizing on research in pursuance
of a World Class University?
Position : (1) Yes or (2) or (Yes or No)
Main Points : If yes you might explain how. If
No, you might need to provide alternatives.
Each paragraph contains a complete topic, issue,
main points and conclusion – all to support the main
issue.
Can be organized in sub-topics/issues
So it is basically a recursive sets of arguments
Conclusion
A COMPLETE EXAMPLE OF A
RESEARCH
 The Broad Area Problem
A Hospital in West Jakarta have spent substantial
amount of resources in fostering satisfaction of
customers, simply based on believed that satisfaction is
the most important factor in determining loyalty of their
customers, an assertion that has not been tested
empirically. The Board of directors wants to know if
satisfactions of their customers on the service they
provide determines the loyalty of the customers, the
ultimate and long term objective which is stated in their
strategy.

Alternatively, a broad area problem might be “a sharp

declining number of customers over the past three
years” believed to be because of reduction in loyalty.
 The Problem Statement
They then requested a service of a consultant to
answer their inquiry. The consultant begins by
designing the research. He identified one
important variables are involved, i.e., loyalty and
satisfaction. He further translated the research
question (the inquiry), by its nature as equivalent
to answering question as to whether satisfaction
has an impact (or cause) on loyalty. In
research jargon, this is a cause-and-effect
problem.
 The Theoretical Framework
Other terminology is The Model – i.e., the
researcher model pertaining to the problem. It
can graphical or mathematical or physical. Here,
it is graphical as in the following figure:

Satisfac
Loyalty
tion
(Y)
(X)
 The Hypothesis

“Fulfilment of satisfaction of customers

determine their loyalty to the company”
 Variable Measurement
• Because satisfaction and loyalty are concept variables
(non-observable) they device two statements that
characterized satisfied/non-satisfied customers and
statements that characterized loyal/non-loyal customers
as indicators or operational variables.
• Statements for satisfaction are
(1) Doctors treated patients well, and
(2) Nurses and staffs treated patients properly, both are
measured with Likert scale from 1 to 5 (1 = strongly
disagree, 5 = strongly agree) .
• Statements for loyalty are (1) Recommend this hospital
to others, and (2) Visit this hospital when in need of
heath care, also measured with likert scale from 1 to 5 (1
= very unlikely, 5 = very likely).
 Data Collection
 We will assume that the population of customers is
the class of N number of students.
 Instead of interviewing all students, we will take only
n = 10 students as sample. (more on sampling
technique will be covered later).
 The data collected will be organized as followed:
SATISFACTION LOYALTY
Customers
Doctors Nurses Recommend Revisit
1 . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
n . . . .
 Data Analysis
First, since we would like to answer the question as to
whether satisfaction affects loyalty, then we need a
statistical tool that enable us to answer the question and
the most suitable tool would be Regression Analysis with
the following model:
Y = β0 + β1 X + ε . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
Where
X = satisfaction, and
Y = Loyalty

The answer to the hypothesis then is the same as testing

statistical hypothesis:
β1 = 0, against
β1 ≠ 0
 continued

We will use EXCEL Regression command to

test the hypothesis. However we need to first
create two column one for satisfaction having
values the average of nurse and doctor; and
another column for Loyalty, having values
which are the average of Recommend and
Revisit.
 Regression using Excel
Click Data, then Data Analysis
 Exercise (Assignment # 2)

Pick any service in your office. Then do the

same procedure as above to answer whether
satisfaction has an impact on loyalty on the
service. (note: use your peers in the office as
the population and randomly select 15
employees to answer the questioner).
Formulate your conclusion.

Due next week.

 EXCERCISES: (Assignment
#1)
Formulate three broad area problems and their
respective research questions from any of the
following Topics: industrial Engineering,
Information system, Computer Science,
Information technology, or business
management.
Roughly sketch the steps you need to do to
answer the questions.

Due : next week

 References

1) Lecture Notes : Module #1.

2) Sekaran, Uma and Roger Bougie (2010)
Research Methods for Business A Skill
Building Approach. Wiley.