TECHNOLOGY LINKS (PVT) LTD

2015
APPLICATION OF THE HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE METHOD TO
THE SALES PROBLEM OF MEDICAL DIVISION

INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Mansoor Ali Seelro (18419)

Faheem Ahmed (18396)
MBA (RE) 2Y

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

PREFACE
The purpose of this report is quite simple. We are supposed to apply practically the following
process of Hypothetico-deductive Method. We are finally to present and submit the report to
our instructor of the course Methods in Business Research. For better understanding of the
readers of this report, the steps of the process have been reproduced here from our book
RESEARCH METHODS FOR BUSINESS by Uma Sekaran and Roger Bougie.

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

CONTENTS
(Page numbers labeled as per pdf count)
[

Preface

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY....

THE PROBLEM WITH SALES VOLUME OF THE MEDICAL DIVISION ..

The Problem .

APPLICATION OF THE HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE METHOD .

The Broad Problem Area (statement) ..............

The Problem Statement ....

Hypothesizing ...

The Theoretical Framework ....

Variables Description ...

The Research Design ....

Type of Investigation

Operationalization: Measurement of Variables ..

Data Collection .

Data Analysis and Interpretation .

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY

Technology Links is a private limited company incorporated in Pakistan in 1989. Its head
office is located in Karachi and it has branches in all major cities in the country. With staff
strength of over a hundred, and a management composed of highly qualified and
experienced

professionals, the company caters primarily to requirements in the health,

research, Scientific and engineering education sectors. Thus, Technology Links is perhaps
the only company in Pakistan, which provides meaningful links, under one roof, to the
educationist, doctor, scientist, Industrialist and engineer alike. As well as this, the company
also supplies equipment and machinery related to industry and infrastructure development.
The company is the exclusive distributor within Pakistan for a number of international
suppliers and manufacturers. It also handles projects, funded on a bilateral basis
through

outright

grants

or

state

credits

from donor countries, by representing

multinational trading companies and suppliers.

The companys range of activities include the following

Sales promotion of specialized items

Installation and engineering services

Provision of on-site training

Consulting services related to project formation

After sales service

Engineering services related to implementation of projects.

The company philosophy is to maintain the highest possible standards while responding to
customers needs. The company therefore, demands of itself and its employees, the highest
levels of integrity, performance and quality, and continuously seeks to improve its position as
one of the best companies of its kind in Pakistan. It is perhaps for these self assigned
goals and objectives, that the Company was registered as ISO Certified Company.

THE PROBLEM WITH SALES VOLUME OF THE MEDICAL

DIVISION
The company has four divisions viz. Scientific, Education, Medical, Analytical. The focus
here is on the sales volume of the Medical Division. The Medical Division of the company is
the sole distributor of Shimadzu [JAPAN] (Radiology equipment which includes X-rays, C-

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

arm, Fluoroscopy, Angiography), SAMSUNG [KOREA] (Ultrasound) and Enraf-Nonius

[HOLLAND] (which includes physiotherapy equipment complete range).

The Problem
The gap between the desired (ideal) state and the actual state is the problem. At Technology
Links, the gap between desired sales and actual sales is applicable. That is, for 2015:
Target sales: 830 million
Actual sales: 240 million
Gap: 590 million (thats the problem)

APPLICATION OF THE HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE METHOD

The Broad Problem Area (statement)
Given the problem, the broad problem area for Technology Links is identified and said as:
The sales volume of the Medical Division is not picking up

The Problem Statement

After thorough inquiry and data collection from the company, the following possible
(tentative) reasons were revealed for the low sales volume of the Medical Division.
1. Incomplete Product Range
2. Brand Comparison (Japanese vs. Korean)
3. Lack of Specialized Training of Sales Staff
Having known above reasons, the problem statement is defined as:
To what extent do incomplete product range, brand comparison and lack of staff
training affect the sales volume?

Hypothesizing
From the problem statement, following (tentative) hypotheses are developed:
Null:
H0 : Product range, brand and training have no impact on / association with the sales

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

Alternative:
HA : Complete Product Range would boost sales
HA : Japanese Brand would boost sales
HA : Specialized Training of Sales staff would boost sales
Alternative hypothesis # 3, however, is further affected and influenced by top management
willingness and support for the proper training initiative. Hence, the final model will include
a moderating variable as well.

The Theoretical Framework

After hypothesizing we are ready to show how the theoretical framework would look like;
what influences what! (The arrows show the influence of one variable on the other).

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

Variables Description
Dependent:
Sales Volume refers to the sales of medical equipment mentioned earlier in the previous
section(s) of the report.
Independent:
1. Product Range companies like Toshiba and Siemens being the major competitors (of
Technology Links) provide complete range which includes MRI, Gamma Camera and CT
scanner, whereas Technology Links does not have MRI and CT scan in their product
range.
2. Brand Japanese brand outweighs the Korean one in the market; Technology Links suffers
low sales by offering Korean brand.
3. Staff Training poorly trained sales staff also influences the sales volume.
Moderating:
Top Management willingness and support staff training programs cant be launched
without top management support and willingness.

The Research Design

The design suitable here is hypothesis testing explaining relation among the variables. All
the hypotheses developed can be tested on quantitative data. The design is not exploratory
because we know much about the given variables. It is not descriptive because we are not
interested in describing (the characteristics of) the variables.

Type of Investigation
The investigation is correlational how variables are associated with the problem. In case
of Technology Links, it follows that how the product range, brand and training variables are
associated with the sales volume.

Operationalization: Measurement of Variables

Operationalization is a technique to break down the abstract concepts/characteristics (or
attributes) into the observable behaviors (or characteristics) in order to measure the variables.

By: Mansoor & Faheem (MBA IoBM)

In our model developed for the sales problem there arent any abstract concepts. Hence, it is
not difficult to measure the variables defined. Here is how:
Sales are measured in amount of rupees received against the total turnover.
Product Range is measured in the number of components, parts or accessories that
accompany the main product or equipment.
Brand Comparison is measured physically. That is, it requires differentiating between the
Japanese and the Korean brand.
Training of Sales Staff is measured in terms of cost incurred by the company on a particular
training program and whether or not the program paid off. It is also measured in terms of how
much and how long a sales rep has been exposed to the training formal, informal, on-thejob, off-the-job, etc. How many training programs has the sales rep attended?

Data Collection
Data on sales, product range, brand (Japanese vs. Korean) and training would be collected
internally from the company.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The tool available for analysis and interpretation is SPSS. This last step is necessary to know
whether the hypotheses developed earlier are supported or not. For instance, if all the
hypotheses are supported, we deduce that complete product range, Japanese brand and
training of sales staff do have significant impact on the sales volume. The company then must
have to focus on these variables if they want to boost sales. On the other hand, if the
hypotheses are not supported, we then need to revise our theory i.e. the variables identified
and selected previously (product range, brand, training) have no association with the sales,
and that we need to explore the problem even deeper in order to discern what are the other
variables that are associated with low sales volume.