MAN314 - Research And Communication For Business Individual Assignment

Assignment Task

Introduction

A conceptual model is a researcher's blueprint, providing a simplified yet comprehensive depiction of the relationships between key variables within a phenomenon under study. It is crafted through a blend of existing knowledge, theories, and the researcher's insights, encapsulating complex ideas in a visually intuitive manner. For example, an independent variable, represented by one circle, might impact a dependent variable through direct pathways or mediated routes via intermediary variables. The model may also account for moderating factors that alter the strength or direction of these relationships. By delineating these connections, the conceptual model empowers researchers to explore, understand, and communicate the dynamics of the phenomenon they investigate, offering valuable insights into its underlying mechanisms. This assignment involves creating a conceptual model and formulating/developing research hypotheses based on the drafted model. Your ability to craft sentences in a coherent manner, cite sources, and build a list of reference sources using APA referencing style will also come under scrutiny when you tackle hypothesis development.

Part A: The Starting Point

For you to be able to draw a conceptual model you, I would like you to start building your research by identifying research variables within your preferred discipline for instance business agility. But how do you do this? Below are the answers that will make your life easier.

a) Firstly, I would like you to consult and review the empirical literature on the research idea. In this regard, you can use the research idea as the search key/s. It is important at this stage for you to be conversant with using different search engines to get current and relevant sources of empirical literature on the research idea. I encourage you to use scholarly search engines such as Google Scholar, Science-direct, ProQuest, EBSCO, Sage, et cetera.

b) Such search engines will provide you with scholarly empirical sources of literature on the research idea (business agility antecedents – in case of the aforementioned example). For example, if you are to use business agility as the key search word(s) in google scholar – you are likely to find among others, empirical literature on determinants of business agility and within the business management discipline you may find variables such as: Strategic agility, Operational agility, partnering agility and many other types of business agility that would emanate from your google scholar search.

c) In addition, it is important to identify research variables of interest from the current and relevant sources of literature. It is advisable when deciding on the research variables of interest to include in your conceptual model. You should consider some of the following issues listed below:

d) Are the chosen variable relevant to your research context? You should note that not all variables provided in the literature, might be logically relevant to a context such as South Africa as an example.

e) Are the variables chosen contemporary and interesting? It is not advisable that you choose variables that have been over-researched in the empirical literature. For example, customer satisfaction lol these variables have been over researched. It will be more exciting and more so, likely contribute new insights to existing literature if you are to choose relatively new variables that have hardly been researched on in the extant empirical literature.

Part B: Conceptualization of Your Research Model

Now using the selected research variables of interest, you need to learn the art of conceptualizing a research model because it is so crucial for the following reasons:

a. It is the skeleton of the whole of the study. One can easily tell a human being from an animal by merely looking at the structure of the skeleton. In the same token, one can somehow tell a good from a bad study by merely looking at the conceptual model. Once the skeleton is there, forming a human being will be a matter of adding enough flesh to build a beautiful or a handsome person. Again, in the same vein, once the conceptual model is there, a complete good study will be a matter of adding the missing information such literature review on the variables in the conceptual model, collecting data to measure the variables in the conceptual model and analyzing data to test the relationships between and among the variables in the conceptual model.

b. A good conceptual model has the research gap embedded in it. When conceptualizing a research model, you will need not to mimic other existing conceptual models or theoretical models – otherwise there will be no research gap embedded in the research model, hence no new knowledge generation. 

c. You are encouraged at this point to thoroughly scrutinize the empirical literature with the aim of understanding the various existing theoretical models and relationships between variables that have been already investigated (Knowing what is known in the empirical literature). Based on the empirical literature on relationships among variables already investigated, you are encouraged to carefully select contemporary variables of interest to craft a conceptual model with relationships among research variables that have been rarely investigated in the empirical literature (Filling in the unknown research gap).

d. It is also important for you to make sure that the postulated relationships and the direction of causality in the conceptual model makes logical and theoretical sense. For instance, let us say one wants to decide on the direction of causality between two variables such as “satisfaction” and “trust”. The question to be asked here is, what should lead to what? Should “trust” lead to “satisfaction” or should “satisfaction” lead to “trust”? The first question is – what makes logical or rational sense between these two possible relationships? The second question is – can that proposed relationship or reasoning be supported theoretically, perhaps elsewhere in the empirical literature? Using this case in point (satisfaction – trust relationship), perhaps it makes more logical sense to believe that – for instance, a consumer needs to be satisfied with a certain brand in previous consumption before trusting that same brand in the future. More so, they happen to be numerous empirical studies that have confirmed the existence of such a relationship..

e. The research variables in the proposed conceptual model should be measurable. The rule is – “if you cannot measure the variables then you cannot test the causal relationships between the variables”. In this regard, you should make sure from the onset that all the research variables included in the conceptual model have measurement instruments designed already in the empirical literature.

f. The research variables in the proposed conceptual model should all be measurable from the same perspective. This is a common problem and mistake made by some upcoming researchers. It is impossible to test a conceptual model with variables measured from more than one perspective. For example, one conceptual model with some research variables measured from a consumers’ perspective and others research variables from the management perspective – is impossible to test. Hence, it is therefore important for you to make sure that the conceptualised research model has variables measurable from the same perspective – otherwise there will be problems with testing the proposed relationships in the conceptual model.

g. Moreover, you should also decide on whether you want to craft a research model aimed at testing direct effects only or with indirect effects included. The decision on whether to have a direct effects model or indirect effects model has replications on the structure and sophistication of the conceptual model. More sophisticated conceptual models are highly encouraged.

Task

1. Determination of Variables And Scale Items

You are required to generate a table to be included as an Appendix in your assignment. This table should list all identified variables along with their corresponding scale items and provide details of the source authors from whom the scale items were adopted. Each variable should be associated with a distinct source, different from the sources for other variables. Here is an illustration of how the table should be formatted:

2. Draw Your Conceptual Model

Using all the variables emanating from the appendix table in task 1, you are required to create your conceptual model. You must use circular shapes to represent variables and arrows to indicate the connections between them. Your model should incorporate at least five relationships. It is imperative that your model includes no fewer than five relationships to adequately demonstrate the interplay between variables.

3. Hypothesis Development

• The five relationships appearing on your conceptual model in (task 1) should be formulated or developed. In total you should have 5 paragraphs, half a page for each paragraph. Below are some of the aspects that need to be covered when developing a proposed hypothesis:
• Highlight the importance of the proposed relationship between the research variables.
• Indicate the possible linkages between the variables – also supporting yourself with empirical literature where possible.
• Indicate which of these identified linkages befit your study and justify
• Support your proposed hypothesis with empirical evidence and also with theory where possible. Drawing from empirical literature can greatly enhance your understanding of these linkages and provide support for the choices made in your model. Identify which of these identified linkages are most relevant to your study and justify their inclusion based on the research context. By grounding your choices in empirical evidence, your strengthen the validity and robustness of your conceptual model, ensuring that it accurately reflects the complexities of the phenomenon being studied.
• Finally, drawing from the aforementioned discussion and empirical evidence, clearly state the proposed hypotheses. Your hypotheses should succinctly summarize the expected relationships between the variables in your conceptual model. By articulating your hypotheses explicitly, you provide a clear direction for your research and establish testable propositions that can be examined through empirical investigation. This step is crucial as it sets the stage for subsequent data collection and analysis, guiding the research process towards achieving meaningful insights into the phenomenon under study.

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