BA5004: Business Research Methods
Year:
2019-20
This coursework component is in two parts and contributes 50% to the overall module mark
Advice to students
This is a Turnitin assessment and therefore students should upload their work for Part one and two in a WORD format (single file) using the link available for Coursework 3 to be found inside the “ONLINE ASSESSMENT” folder on WebLearn.
The maximum number of pages for this assessment is 20. Therefore, an element of organisation and discipline is demanded here. All references should be presented in the HARVARD referencing style.
The deadline for this coursework is Friday 22 May, 2020 by 3pm.
Part oneEntrepreneurial Intention and personality traits
The belief that entrepreneurs have unique personalities has a long tradition in the field of research in entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1988). However, within the last two decades, the personality discussion in entrepreneurship has re-emerged, (Baum et al., 2014). In this re-emerging stream, the role of personality attributes in becoming an entrepreneur began to be discussed from a fresh and revived perspective.
Literature review
Personality traits are defined as the dispositions to exhibit a certain kind of response across various situations (Rauch and Frese, 2007, p. 355) that are highly stable over time (Baum et al., 2014). Due to the complexity of human personality, a comprehensive model was developed to explain the major personality traits (Goldberg, 1990). The emergence of this model, lead to widespread support received for the five factors – conscientiousness, openness to experience, emotional stability, extraversion and agreeableness – proposed by the model, causing the five factors to be the most widely used in personality studies (Gosling et al., 2003; Brandstätter, 2011).
Conscientiousness
Conscientious individuals tend to be hard-working, well planned and organized, and dependable in fulfilling their responsibilities and duties (Ariani, 2013). Conscientiousness is closely linked with entrepreneurship, as a person who has a high need for achievement and motivation for goal achievement is more likely to become an entrepreneur (McClelland, 1961; Baum and Locke, 2004). Entrepreneurs are individuals who do not like repetitive and routine work, who take personal responsibility and who want to see the concrete results of their decisions (Antoncic et al., 2015). The conscientiousness dimension was found to be one of the two constructs most strongly linked with entrepreneurial intention in the meta-analysis by Zhao et al. (2010).
Openness to experience
This dimension of the model is defined as an individual’s intellectual curiosity for new concepts, ideas and beliefs, as well as their willingness to try out the new and unprecedented (Ariani, 2013). An individual who scores high on openness to experience is expected to have a vivid imagination and be creative, with a unique way of thinking and a desire to explore new ideas (Liang et al., 2013). These attributes are crucial for individuals who plan to establish their own business (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003). Openness to experience is found to be one of the constructs most significantly differing between entrepreneurs and professional career holders, together with extraversion and emotional stability (Chan et al., 2015). Consistent with that finding, Zhao et al. (2010) found in their meta-analysis that openness to experience was the personality trait second most highly associated with the intention of becoming an entrepreneur.
Emotional stability
Individuals are regarded as emotionally stable if they are calm or even relaxed under stressful conditions. Having negative emotions like depression, low self-esteem, hostility, anger or fear that lead to high levels of neuroticism are also linked with low emotional stability (Costa and McCrae, 1992). It is generally agreed among scholars and practitioners that in order to establish and manage a new venture, a person has to be high in self-confidence, perseverance and resilience, and able to perform successful stress management under difficult conditions (Zhao and Seibert, 2006). Research studies have produced mixed results on this personality trait. In their empirical study, Antoncic et al. (2015) did not find a significant difference for neuroticism between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, whereas a positive association was found between emotional stability and the intention to become an entrepreneur in a study by Zhao et al. (2010).
Extraversion
Individuals who have high extraversion scores are more likely to be warm, friendly, talkative, sociable, energetic and outgoing, as well as demonstrating assertiveness and dominance in social relations. Individuals who possess high social and communication skills frequently demonstrate assertion and persuasion. Entrepreneurs need to build and manage their teams and promote their new venture ideas to employees, investors and customers (Shane, 2003), which is likely to be easier for extraverts than for introverts. Despite that, previous literature on the extraversion trait of entrepreneurs is not conclusive (Zhao and Seibert, 2006; Zhao et al., 2010). While no significant difference was found between entrepreneurs and managers in the meta-analysis by Zhao and Seibert (2006), the meta-analysis by Rauch and Frese (2007) indicated higher extraversion score for entrepreneurs than for managers. In a recent study, entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs significantly differed in extraversion trait (Antoncic et al., 2015). The meta-analysis by Zhao et al. (2010) found a positive association between extraversion and entrepreneurial intention
Agreeableness
Individuals who have high levels of agreeableness tend to be trusting, altruistic, caring and forgiving (Zhao and Seibert, 2006). As entrepreneurs might possess cooperativeness, patience and friendliness to a degree, these individuals also need to exert high energy levels and motivation, which can destroy their relationships (Antoncic et al., 2015). While entrepreneurs have to establish trusting relationships with stakeholders and team members (Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven, 1990; Shane and Cable, 2002), they are also responsible for the survival of their business in tough situations, which sometimes requires the entrepreneur to be self-centred or even manipulative (Zhao and Seibert, 2006). Empirical evidence shows that being agreeable is negatively associated with becoming an entrepreneur (Wooten et al., 1999), though the results by Zhao (2010) did not indicate a significant correlation between the agreeableness and entrepreneurial intention.
Measures
Gosling & al. (2003) has operationalised the personality traits concept in the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). This inventory is a brief measure of the big five personality dimensions – two items for each of the five dimensions. Participants can respond to the TIPI using a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Example items in the TIPI include “I see myself as extraverted, enthusiastic” (extraversion) and “I see myself as dependable, self-disciplined” (conscientiousness).
Intention to start a business
Entrepreneurial intention is considered to be the first step in new business and venture creation; (Lee & Wong, 2004). The intention for a business start-up is simply defined as the necessary commitment to start a physical business venture (Krueger Jr, Reilly, & Carsrud, 2000). According to Krueger et al. (2000), entrepreneurial activity can be predicted more accurately by studying the person’s intention. The scale developed by Thompson (2009) can be used for assessment of entrepreneurial intention. This scale includes items related to intention or plans to establish a business, learn about starting a firm, look for business opportunities, and find initial resources to start a firm. Each item can be measured based on a seven-point scale, anchored by 1 (untrue) to 7 (very true).
Required:
You are supposed to have read the above literature review section regarding the topic and understood the key aspects and concepts highlighted by the review. For this part, you are asked to apply the above literature review for the study of entrepreneurship intention among university students. For this purpose, you are asked to answer the following questions:
- Write down a small review covering the key objectives of this study. [Max: 100 words]
- What are the arguments you give for the use of a positivist paradigm in this study.
[Max: 100 words]
- Indicate the key concepts introduced in this study and state the appropriate research hypotheses. Can you add another factor able to influence the dependent variable other than those mentioned in the text. [Max: 100 words]
- You intend to conduct a confirmatory study on the above topic among London Met University. Write down a draft questionnaire with a maximum of ten questions based on this review.
Note: The questionnaire will not be part of the word count.
Part two
Customer behaviour in shoe shopping
Abstract
Online word of mouth (WOM) communication is certainly one of the most influential drivers of purchase decisions. However, little knowledge is available on the factors that influence the credibility of WOM communication. To address this research gap, this study aimed to assess whether the three independent variables (homophily, authority and reviewability) have a significant positive effect on WOM credibility. The context of the study was shoe shop retailing.
Literature Review
Introduction
The rise and proliferation of social media platforms such as consumer review sites and blogs, social networks, content blogs and microblogging sites (Twitter) has dramatically changed the global media and communications landscape. It has altered the reach and speed of online WOM communication. WOM is essentially ‘any positive/negative statement made by former customers about a product and made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet’. Consumers currently rely more on the advice and information obtained on social media from their networks of friends and other consumers than on advertising messages from companies (Cakim 2010, 3–4).
Consequently, given the importance of online communication, researchers have shifted their focus from traditional WOM to online WOM, to gain more insight into this new phenomenon. For example, Li and Wang (2013, 1351) identified a number of studies concerned with how online WOM impacts the decision-making of consumers in various product categories.
The WOM credibility concept
The dependent variable of the study is online word of mouth (WOM) credibility, which is defined as the degree to which customers believe that information about products, reviews and recommendations is correct and based on factual information. Credibility in the context of online WOM relates to both the online message itself and the communicator of the information. Several studies have proved that WOM credibility can directly affect the purchase intention (Lis 2013).
Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework investigated in this study is presented here.
Homophily
WOM credibility
Authority
Reviewability
Homophily
For the purpose of this study, homophily refers to the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with
other people with the same attributes and characteristics. According to Adams (2012), people connect and interact with and befriend individuals with whom they are similar. Thus, homophily is more likely to influence the persuasive aspect of online WOM communication. It can therefore be assumed that social homophily is also significant for the credibility rating of online recommendations.
Authority
This refers to authority of the source and determines the degree to which consumers will believe the online WOM to bring about a change in the customer’s reasons for purchase. Martin and Lueg (2011) further note that although the construct of source authority seems to be related to source expertise, it depends on actual product/ service usage, with reviewers’ comments or ratings being based on first-hand consumption-related experiences. Within virtual communities, evaluating “source authority” has been made easier by the availability of social media. Consumers can now easily check positive or negative ratings generated by a review or recommendation.
Reviewability
This construct relates to the ability of important and highly rated reviews by others to draw and grab the attention of WOM seekers. When a message appeals to consumers, they become a willing and receptive audience for the content, making them more willing and likely to distribute the message content. It seems “reviewability” is of primary importance and can influence the acceptance and pass-on intentions.
Research objectives
Objective 1: To examine the demographic profile and purchase intention aspects of the shoe consumers.
Objective 2: To test if the proportion of customers who intend to buy once in the shop is greater than 50%
Objective 3: To analyse the WOM credibility factor.
Objective 4: To test if the average score for the factor WOM credibility is greater than 12
Objective 5: To test if the average score for the factor WOM credibility is different for males and females
Objective 6: To test if the average score for the factor WOM credibility depends on buying frequency
Objective 7: To test if the Homophily factor scores are associated to Gender, Age, Marital status,
Occupation and buying frequency
Objective 8: To investigate the relationship between overall scores of the dependent variable WOM
credibility and the independent variables homophily, authority, reviewability and gender.
Methodology
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Canterbury in 2016. A quantitative research design was adopted to address the research objectives for the study. The target population included consumers born between 1980 and early 90s who visited the market leaders in shoe shopping. Canterbury was chosen because it is a university town and has one of the largest populations born during that period and this population is easily accessible and lives within close proximity to the town centre.
Sampling
The sampling units were identified to include all branches of the three leading shoe brands in Canterbury, namely Sports Direct, Clarks and Primark as these are the three retailers that came top in terms of destination for footwear purchase (Mintel, 2016). A total of 600 structured self-administered questionnaires were distributed and a sample of 176 of them was collected by four trained researchers. Customers were approached on a systematic basis (1 every 20) as they exit the shop and were asked to fill in the short questionnaire. This method was chosen to avoid family clusters visiting the shop at the time.
Instrument
The questionnaire that was used as the research instrument included two sections (See next page). The first section collected key demographic data about the consumers and the second section included scales on the four concepts measured in this study. The scale items used were adapted and were designed specifically to measure responses within the context of the study. The scale items for the homophily construct were developed from the studies conducted by McGuire (1985). The scale items for the authority construct were informed by Lis (2013). The reviewability construct scale items are based on a study conducted by Adams (2012). Lastly, the scale items for the online WOM credibility construct were developed from studies conducted by Cheung et al. (2009). The scales were measured on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (score 1) to ‘strongly agree’ (score 5). A face validity was conducted by having the different scales verified by two experts in the field of marketing. Previous studies using these scales have returned appropriate levels of reliability as measured by Cronbach alpha values, although similar checks needed to be made on the data collected for this study.
From the total of 176 participants collected 23 were discarded as they were deemed unsuitable for data analysis due to responses that were incomplete (left blanks) or exhibited biased and extreme rating patterns (easy ticking).
Data
The data was collated and recorded as an SPSS file (WOM credibility.sav) and can be found on WebLearn. The SPSS output for the analysis of all EIGHT objectives is provided as a WORD File named OUTPUT and can also be found on weblearn.
The questionnaire
Demographic profile
Q.1: Are you: 1. Male? 2. Female? 3. Prefer not to say
Q.2: Age: 1. Less than 30 2. 30 to 34 3. 35 and over
Q.3: Occupational status: 1. Student 2. Employed 3. Unemployed
Q.4: Marital status: 1. Single 2. Married/In relationship 3. Divorced/Widowed
Q.5: Buying frequency (pairs/year) 1. One 2. Two-Three 3. Four or more
Purchasing behaviour
Q.5: Please state the level of agreement towards these aspects of the self-checkout counters:
Please rate as: 1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree
| Factor | Item |
| WOM Credibility | I identify strongly with shoe bloggers and virtual communities[W1] |
| Online shoe reviews on social media are reliable [W2] | |
| Online shoe reviews on social media are generally made by credible consumers [W3] | |
| Online shoe reviews are generally made by experienced customers [W4] | |
| Homophily | I feel I belong when browsing through shoe virtual communities/blogs [H1] |
| Virtual shoe communities represent people with similar interest to me [H2] | |
| Online shoe review sites on social media are representative [H3] | |
| I prefer to communicate on social media with people with the same ideas [H4] | |
| Authority | I get persuaded to choose a shoe shop because of a well-known blogger [A1] |
| I am motivated to try a different shoe shop because of knowledgeable blogger [A2] | |
| Reviews by authoritative bloggers have influence on intentions to purchase [A3] | |
| I am influenced to use a different shoe shop by a well-known blogger [A4] | |
|
Reviewability | I am more likely to use shoe shops which have received positive reviews [R1] |
| I prefer to read shoe reviews which have generated a large number of likes [R2] | |
| I am attracted to shoe reviews which have a large number of views [R3] | |
| Good ratings influence my choice of which shoe shop to use [R4] |
Purchase intention
Q.6: During today’s visit to this shoe shop, please indicate if you intend to buy.
1. No 2. Yes
Advice Part two
Students are asked to refer to the OUTPUT document to find the necessary SPSS output provide to report on the eight objectives. They need to find the necessary results to aid their reports.
The assumptions of the tests should be checked where appropriate and the extent of effect size indicated.
- Your submission should be in a WORD format and you should report on the eight objectives below.
- Your submission should be clearly structured by objective number.
- If possible, use a new page for different objective.
Please note:
For students who decide to use SPSS to produce their own output and to check their results against those provided in the OUTPUT file, you are required to carry out basic data management to the file “Word of Mouth credibility” first. The data in this file was coded as per the questionnaire and therefore basic labelling of categories, etc… need to be undertaken prior to the analysis of the data.
THERE IS NO REWARD FOR PRODUCING YOUR OWN SPSS OUTPUT.
Note also:
The SPSS output file was produced in the order of the objectives (1 to 8).
All hypothesis tests conducted for this investigation are carried out using the 5% level of significance.
Objective 1: To examine the demographic profile and purchase intention aspects of the shoe consumers.
Required:
- Produce a report on a basic descriptive analysis on the demographic characteristics of the consumers. This should cover the variables gender, age, occupation, marital status and the intention to buy.
[Max: 100 words]
The SPSS output for this objective should be placed immediately above the report.
Objective 2 To test if the proportion of customers who intend to purchase during their visit to the shop is greater than 50% [This is related to question 6 on the questionnaire].
Required:
- Report the findings of this claim using the classical research style reporting. [Max: 50 words]
The SPSS output for this objective/claim should be placed immediately above the report.
Objective 3: To analyse the WOM credibility factor.
Required:
Report on the reliability of the WOM credibility factor and the descriptive statistics of its scores.
[Max: 100 words]
Objective 4: To test if the average score for the factor WOM credibility is greater than 12
Required:
Report the findings of this claim using the classical research style reporting. [Max: 40 words]
Objective 5: To test if the average score for the factor WOM credibility is different for males and females
Required:
Report the findings of this claim using the classical research style reporting. [Max: 40 words]
Objective 6: To test if the average score for the factor WOM credibility depends on buying frequency
Required:
Report the findings of this claim using the classical research style reporting. [Max: 40 words]
Note:
For objective 4, 5 and 6, the overall scores for WOM credibility were obtained by adding the scores of items corresponding to the construct. The test against gender was conducted based on declared male and female and ignore the third category “Prefer not to say”.
The SPSS output for objectives 3 to 6 should be placed immediately above the report for each objective.
All unnecessary tables should be submitted.
Objective 7: To test if the Homophily item scores are associated to Gender, Age, Marital status,
Occupation and buying frequency
Required:
Report only the “significant” findings of the above tests in the classic research style reporting.
[Max: 400 words]
Note:
You need to treat each association separately. The SPSS output for this objective should be placed immediately above the report for each association test. All unnecessary tables should be deleted.
Objective 8: To investigate the relationship between overall scores of the dependent variable WOM
credibility and the independent variables homophily, authority, reviewability and gender.
Required:
Report your findings using the classical reporting style. [Max: 100 words]
Note:
The SPSS output for this objective should be placed immediately above the text for this objective.
The overall scores for Homophily, Authority and Reviewability were obtained by adding the scores of items corresponding to the construct. The variable gender is used based on declared male and female only as dummy variable.
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