UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT/ MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
DATA COMMUNICATIONS/ MASTER OF SCIENCE IN DATA
ANALYTICS
MDC 6401/ MISM 5401/ MDA 5401: ADVANCED RESEARCH METHODS
DATE: APRIL 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE (20 MARKS)
a) Briefly describe the differences between triangulation and chain of evidence in
qualitative research [3 MARKS]
b) The linear regression model is a common data analytic technique used in quantitative
research. Briefly describe a research problem where the use of a linear regression model
could be appropriate to analyze the data. Be sure to identify the variables in the study
and their scale of measurement [4 MARKS]
c) What is commonly referred to as “negative findings” is not desirable in most research
situations. What is the meaning of the term “negative findings” and how can the chances
of its occurring be minimized in a study? [3 MARKS]
d) Briefly describe the following concepts as used in research.
i. Reliability [2 MARKS]
ii. Phenomenology [2 MARKS]
iii. Statistical power [2 MARKS]
iv. Research Design [2 MARKS]
v. Coefficient of Determination [2 MARKS]
QUESTION TWO (15 MARKS)
The Ugandan Oil Company is attempting to develop a reasonably priced gasoline that will deliver
improved gasoline mileage. As part of this development process, the company would like to compare
the effect of three types of gasoline (A, B, and C) on gasoline mileage. For testing purposes, the
company will compare the effects of gasoline types on the mileage obtained by a Toyota Prado TX.
The data below gives the mileage for 15 vehicles that were randomly assigned to each of the three
gasolines types along with basic descriptive statistics for this data:
Descriptive Statistics
Dependent Variable: MILEAGE
GTYPE Mean N Std. Deviation
A 35.00 5 1.000
B 36.60 5 1.140
C 34.00 5 1.000
Total 35.20 15 1.474
a) State a null hypothesis appropriate for data analysis in this study [2 MARKS)
b) Construct and complete an ANOVA Table for this analysis [4 MARKS]
c) Test the null hypothesis you stated above at 0.05 level of significance. [3 MARKS]
d) Provide a brief interpretation of the findings of the analysis above [3 MARKS]
e) Find and interpret the Coefficient of Determination in this analysis [3 MARKS]
QUESTION THREE (15 MARKS)
Identify and briefly describe the distinctive features of any FIVE of the following concepts as
used in research:
a) True-experimental research [3 MARKS]
b) Ethnographic research [3 MARKS]
c) Action research [3 MARKS]
d) Non-experimental research [3 MARKS]
e) Effect size [3 MARKS]
f) Type II Error [3 MARKS]
g) Coefficient of determination [3 MARKS]
QUESTION FOUR (15 MARKS)
An accountant wishes to predict Direct Labor Cost (DLC) on the basis of the Batch Size (BS) of
a product produced in a job shop. Data for 12 production runs along with the basic descriptive
statistics are given below:
Descriptive Statistics
N Mean SD Variance
BS 12 45.75 29.985 899.114
DLC 12 4.67 2.964 8.788
a) Sketch a scatterplot of this data [2 MARKS]
b) Briefly describe the relationship between DLC and BS [2 MARKS]
c) Compute the covariance of the two variables [4 MARKS]
d) Compute the correlation coefficient of the two variables [4 MARKS]
e) Suppose a regression model
were used in this analysis and the
following findings obtained:
Coefficients a
Model Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) .184 .226 .816 .433
BS .098 .004 .991 23.435 .000
a. Dependent Variable: DLC
In a sentence or two, provide an interpretation of these findings [3 MARKS]
