50 Pre seen questions, MA RM Examination 07/08

Week 1

  1. Explain the difference between inductive and deductive research
  2. Give two reasons why the “Who” is important to the quality of research
  3. Describe how the “when” can impact on the quality of dissertation research
  4. What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

Week 2

  1. Explain why evidence is a fundamental requirement of critical thinking
  2. What is the main purpose of a literature review? Explain why merely reporting the content of several sources (e.g., journal articles) does not achieve this purpose
  3. What should be considered when assessing the accuracy of secondary data
  4. What is the value of a literature review?

Week 3

  1. Define plagiarism. Give two reason why plagiarism is considered unethical
  2. Explain, using examples, the difference between a direct and an indirect quote
  3. Why is it important to reference your sources correctly?

Week 4

  1. Describe 2 characteristics of grounded theory
  2. Name 4 characteristics of qualitative research
  3. Qualitative research is more useful when the topic has 4 certain characteristics, name and describe these
  4. “What is the meaning, structure, and essence of the lived experience of (a phenomenon) by (an individual or by many individuals)?” This is the underlying question for which methodology? Explain why
  5. Outline four limitations of doing qualitative research

Week 5

  1. Compare the ZMAT and the TAT
  2. What are projective techniques and why are they useful?
  3. Is “Understanding the lived experience of alcoholism” a good question to explore using the focus group method? Explain your answer
  4. What are the main advantages of doing in-depth interviews?
  5. Describe egocentrism vs. ethnocentrism in participant observation

Week 6

  1. Explain ‘saturation’ in qualitative sampling
  2. What kind of sampling is more appropriate in qualitative studies? Give an example
  3. Why is probability sampling unsuitable for qualitative research?
  4. Why might you use different sampling techniques at different stages of a qualitative research project? Answer with an example
  5. What is the defining characteristic of purposive sampling?

Week 7

  1. Describe two common mistakes associated with question wording in quantitative research instruments
  2. Outline four factors that impact on the medium (e.g., telephone surveys, mail questionnaires) used to collect survey data
  3. Describe two advantages of face-to-face surveys compared to electronic surveys
  4. Describe two issues researchers’ consider when pretesting a questionnaire
  5. Sometimes there is a difference between a respondent’s willingness to answer a question and their ability to answer the question. Give an example of a question a respondent might be willing to answer, but is not able to answer

Week 8

  1. Explain two of the conditions necessary to show causality
  2. Give two advantages of laboratory experiments over field experiments
  3. Describe internal and external validity
  4. Give and example of a causal question in business and management research

Week 9

  1. Outline three practical factors that impact on planned (quantitative) sample size
  2. Define probability sampling
  3. Give an example of one non-probability sampling method, and describe a situation where it would be appropriate to use that sampling method
  4. What is a sampling frame?
  5. Define what we mean by population in a sampling context

Week 10

  1. Broadly, why is statistical testing useful?
  2. What is the difference between nominal and ordinal scales?
  3. Describe type 1 error
  4. What three questions should you ask before you decide on your choice of statistical test?
  5. What is the difference between interval and ratio data?

Week 11

  1. Why are research ethics important to consider in any research project?
  2. Give and example of a research problem that might raise significant ethical dilemmas and explain why.
  3. Define interpretivism
  4. Give an example of a question that might be best answered using a constructivist ontology
  5. What is research?