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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

Game Development Of Ibong Adarna Visual Novel
Celso T. Agos Jr., Mark Lester C. Bal-Ut, Lorraine G. Calam, Relly N. Cantuba, Marlon Heindric M. Vallo. Engr. Mary Regina Apsay
Abstract: Computer games are becoming a main entertainment. But this research tackles about Visual Novel a kind of game that has extremely minimal game-play, story-driven, usually have multiple or branching storyline and is commonly developed and released in Japan. The proponents made a game based on a story tackled in high school, after they developed it; the high school students compared it with a Visual Novel that is made and popular in Japan. The results are; the Ibong Adarna Visual Novel has the advantage with a difference of .08 in the over-all weighted mean but after the statistical treatment, this score is not significant with the score of .017. Index Terms: Branching Storyline, Game, Game Development, High School Students, Ren’Py Visual Novel Engine, Story-driven, Visual Novel, ————————————————————

1 INTRODUCTION
In this past decade, computers revolutionized the way of living. Computers make our work faster, more reliable and more accurate. Computers can be in different form like mobile phone, tablet PC, or in the form of desktop computer. Computers help us in numerous ways; communication, transportation, education, entertainment and many more. While computers have entered millions of families in most countries, computer games also became increasingly popular and the main entertainment during leisure time among family members [9]. Today, there many kinds of games from personal computer games like Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds to local area network games like Warcraft III, and Counter-Strike up to online games like Special Forces and Audition. And it really becomes the one of the main entertainment in and out of the family.

There is a kind of game called, visual novel. It is usually composed of images with texts, sounds, music and even voice to add more dramatic effects in the game. It is a story-driven game with a gameplay which is extremely minimal; by simply clicking to keep the game moving. These kinds of game are usually developed and more popular in Japan. The usual visual novel uses multiple storylines; this is to achieve different endings of the story. Decision points are available for the player to select and alter the story. But the decision points in the game, its corresponding options to select and events are still handled and created by the authors of the game.

————————————————  Celso T. Agos Jr. is currently pursuing bachelor degree program in information technology in Our Lady of Fatima University–Lagro Campus, Philippines. E-mail: author_name@mail.com  Mark Lester C. Bal-Ut is currently pursuing bachelor degree program in information technology in Our Lady of Fatima University–Lagro Campus, Philippines. E-mail: marklester7_24@yahoo.com  Lorraine G. Calam is currently pursuing bachelor degree program in information technology in Our Lady of Fatima University –Lagro Campus, Philippines. E-mail: hi_lorr@yahoo.com  Relly N. Cantuba is currently pursuing bachelor degree program in information technology in Our Lady of Fatima University –Lagro Campus, Philippines. E-mail: rellycantuba@gmail.com  Marlon Heindric M. Vallo is currently pursuing bachelor degree program in information technology in Our Lady of Fatima University –Lagro Campus, Philippines. E-mail:marlonvallo@gmail.com, mhmvallo@live.fatima.edu.ph  Engr. Mary Regina Apsay is a faculty member in Our Lady of Fatima University Philippines. E-mail: regina_mb2001@yahoo.com

1.1 Background of the Study In reading a novel or watching a drama series or a movie on the television or in the cinemas, you may notice that they are always having linear storylines and its major drawback is the lack of flexibility and possibilities for personalisation and adaptation [4]. Unlike the usual novels, drama series or movie, most visual novels use multiple storylines to achieve different endings, which turns into non-linear action of story and freedom of choice for the player. The game used the story of Ibong Adarna, an epic poetry. Ibong Adarna is about the adventure of three sons of the king of Berbania. Ibong Adarna is part of the high school curriculum that was currently in use. The story is tackled on first year high school students. The students are only using their books on studying Ibong Adarna. How about using a game in making their studies more interesting? Its more common today that girls like computer games. But gender equality is still an issue on the game development; most of the games are designed for the male players. In her study, she said that gender difference indeed exist in the game industry. Males like competitive games; confrontations, actions or fighting games. But for females, they like romance or RPG [9]. 1.2 Objective of the Study
General Objective. The main objective of the study is to develop a visual novel game with multiple story branches and can also be educational. This game has extremely minimal gameplay and uses static images, background music, sounds and dialogues. It can also be thought as a novel with graphics and sound.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

Specific Objectives. The specific objective of the study that is needed for the completion of it is as follows: 1. To design a visual novel game. a. To create a script that will be the basis of the story and dialogues. b. To create character images that will act in the game. c. To create background images that will show the current settings of the plot. d. To create background music that will add emotion to the game. e. To create voice recordings that will add realistic effects on the game. To program the game. a. To program or integrate the game proper; the dialogues, images, music and voice recordings. b. To use save, load and settings functions which are prebuilt in the Ren’Py Visual Novel Engine. To test and debug the game if all the functions and choices are functioning properly. To evaluate the game by the respondents, to know the reliability, user-friendliness, portability and accuracy.

2.

3.

story of Ibong Adarna. Filipino language was used in the script and dialogues. The game has the following functions: save, load and settings. Save, a function that enables the player to save a point where he or she is currently in the game. Load, a function that enables the player to continue his or her saved game. Preferences or also known as settings is a function that enables the player to set his or her preferred settings on how to play the game; sound or music volumes, display type and skipping options. . The game includes a simple battle system that is usually used in the fights of two characters. The game also reminds if the player has been playing for more than 2 hours. The game also integrates a mini game; a battle system for battle scenes found in the story of Ibong Adarna. And the game can also be played in multiple platforms; Windows, Linux and Android. The game is limited to clicking to keep the images and sounds moving and making decisions of where the player wants the story to go or to end. The voice feature or the feature that the player can hear the characters’ voices, the recordings are not clear and the character of the kawal (soldiers), taga-pagsilbi (servant) and manggagamot (doctor) are also not voiced. The game was not tested in MacOS X and other operating systems not mentioned.

1.6 Significance of the Study
4. High School Students. Since the researchers used the story of Ibong Adarna, this game may benefit the students in high school especially the first year students. This game may help their studies in Ibong Adarna, this can be their reference. They may enjoy while studying. Filipinos who likes watching drama series, reading novels and playing computer games. Since, visual novels are commonly produced in Japan and it is not popular and not known by the Filipinos; this study may contribute in the awareness of the Filipinos about this kind of game. Also, since, in watching a telenovela, or a drama series or reading a novel has a linear kind of story and visual novels have a branching kind of story, users may personalize the story and may therefore adding more exciting twists in the story. 1.7 Definition of Terms Accuracy. The game is provides the desired output that is free of errors. Android. An operating system developed by Google Inc. and Open Handset alliance that is usually used in smartphones and tablet computers. Clannad. A Japanese visual novel. The researchers will be using this game for data gathering and comparison. Drama Series. A televised series of episodic drama show. Game. Refers to the computer games. It may also refer to the game developed by the researchers. Game Engine. A system designed for developing games. Ibong Adarna. An epic poetry, used as the story of the game developed by the researchers.
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1.3 Statement of the Problem
1.3.1 How do the respondents evaluate the existing game, Clannad in terms of the following: a. Reliability b. User-friendliness c. Portability d. Accuracy How do the respondents evaluate the proposed game, Ibong Adarna Visual Novel in terms of the following: a. Reliability b. User-friendliness c. Portability d. Accuracy Is there any significant difference between the existing (Clannad) and the proposed game (Ibong Adarna) in terms of the following: a. Reliability b. User-friendliness c. Portability d. Accuracy

1.3.2

1.3.3

1.4 Hypothesis of the Study There is no significant difference between the existing and the proposed game in terms of the following: a. Reliability b. User-friendliness c. Portability d. Accuracy 1.5 Scope and Limitation The game is called visual novel, the researchers adapted the

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

Linux. Different unix-like operating systems that is usually free and open source. Load. To play the saved game. Mac. A series of graphical interface operating system developed by Apple Inc. and it is exclusively running only on Macintosh computers. Also known as OS X and formerly known as Mac OS X. Multiple Storyline. Refers to the branching of story or plot, having multiple possibilities available for the player to choose. May also refer to branching storyline. Novel. A prose narrative work of fiction with considerable length. Philippine Visual Novel. A visual novel that is made by Filipinos. Platform. Also known as operating system. Portability. The game can run on different platforms. Reliabilty. The game is consistent on producing desired results. Ren’Py. An open source visual novel engine that is used to make visual novel games. The visual novel engine used by the researchers. Ren’Py Language. A scripting language that is used in making visual novel games in Ren’Py. Save. A point in the game where the player wants to continue the game when he or she plays again. Telenovela. A televised soap opera usually in Latin-American countries. User-Friendliness. The game is easy to navigate, use and understand. Visual Novel. A kind of game normally consists of static images of anime-style art or live-action stills; it also has an extremely minimal gameplay that is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sounds moving. Windows. A series of graphical interface operating system developed by Microsoft Corp.; its popular operating systems are: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

researchers used the Library Method, Internet Method, and Descriptive Method. Descriptive Method - it is the method used by the researchers to describe data and characteristics of the game that is being proposed. Library Research Method - it is a method that includes searching in the library and reading some books to get valid and verifiable source about on the researchers proposed game. Internet Method - a method that it includes surfing in the net to find more accurate and knowledgeable information about on any studies of visual novel game that used by the researchers 2.1.2 Respondents of the Study Since the game can be played by almost all, the researchers preferred to have a 34 (thirty-four) respondents who are in high school students. These are students of Holy Rosary School of Science and Technology. 2.1.3 Data Gathering Tools Data gathering tools it is the most crucial of this study, it tells the tool used by the researchers, to know the way that they have used to conduct their research it includes the Interview, Observation, Questionnaire, Survey and etc. but in this study the researchers used only the Questionnaire Tools. Questionnaire Tools – the researchers used the questionnaire tools which include an instrument which includes a series of question for the respondents for the purpose of gathering information.

2

METHODOLGY

2.1 Research Design Research Design states the method of research used by the researchers in their study, the respondents of it, the tools they needed to, and the system design of the game.
2.1.1 Method of Research Used Methods of research used tell about the methods used by the researchers. To achieve the accuracy of this research the
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

2.2 Tools Used in the Analysis
2.2.1 System Flow Chart

2.2.2

Conceptual Framework

Figure 3.2. Conceptual Framework Conceptual Framework of the proposed system of the researcher, shows the Input, Process and Output of the proposed system. Input is the Information and Software requirements needed to do the designing the interface, creating the database and programming to get the output of the said proposed system.

2.3 System Design System Design tackled about the development of the system, the analytical used in the system and the methods used for evaluation in the proposed system by the researchers.
2.3.1 Planning – This is the first phase in making the game. Determining the problems that need to be solved and formulating ways on how to deal with in the entire research. In planning it includes identifying the problems, creating our objectives and creating our scope and limitations. The researchers make a brain storming in order to identify the problems that the other visual novel have. They also create their objectives in making the game which is the visual novel of the Ibong Adarna and at the same time they also create their scope and limitations in order for them to limit the things that the game can do. a. Developing the Script – Creating a dialogue that the researchers are going to use in making the game. Since the propose game is visual novel, the player will became more attracted to the game if they can see and if they are informed about the happenings in the game. In developing the script, the researchers read the story that they are going to make as a game, writing down the dialogues and arranging the dialogues. One of the researchers made the linear story of the novel which is the Ibong Adarna and the other members make their own branching story. Creating, Background, Music, Voice and the Character – In this phase of planning the researchers will look for an artist who will create the characters of the propose game which is the
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Figure 3.1. System Flow Chart of the visual novel game.

b.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

Ibong Adarna visual novel game that are needed to insert in the said game. The researchers also look for the best music that will fit in the scene that is portrayed. The researchers get the background pictures from the internet and in order for the picture to become more appropriate in the characters the researchers edit the picture in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and make it in water colour form. In making the background music the proponent get the music also from the internet and in order for the music and the sound become more suitable to every scenes the researchers edit the sounds and music in the MAGIX 17 premium download version. And the character that has been used in the game is made by the artist that the researchers deal with. 2.3.2 Programming – in this phase of system design the researchers will use a tool, visual novel engine called, Ren’Py. This is also the part where the programming language, the Ren’Py 6.13.12 Language will be use and encode the program code in order for the Visual Novel game which is the Ibong Adarna to run and turn into a visual novel game. One of the researchers encodes the whole game in order for the game will not mix its content. The researchers use Ren’Py because it is open source and free of charge. It can also run on both Linux and Windows Based computer with the ability to port the finished game to Android. It is also easy to code. a. Designing the GUI (Graphical User-Interface) – In this part of programming the researchers will design what will be the output of the game in order for the player to feel more attracted on the game. This also includes making character and backgrounds, the styles, inserting fonts, and colours the texts used in the game. The Designing of the GUI or the Graphical User – Interface is being made in an Engine called Ren’Py. Ren’Py is a Visual Novel Engine where the researchers can design the graphical user – interface and code the program at the same time. The version of Ren’Py that the researchers will use is 6.13.12 because the researchers think that this version is much easier to use and it has less bugs than the other version that has been made and is the latest stable release upon the start of the development. The Ren’Py 6.13.12 is also an open source and free of charge software. It can also run on both Linux and Windows Based computer with the ability to port the finished game to Android. It is also easy to code. Coding the Game Proper – In this part, the researchers encode the script, images, sound effects and background music in the Ren’Py visual novel engine with the version of 6.13.12 with their corresponding codes. Also in this part, the transitions and effects on images, sounds and background music are programmed. The researchers use the Ren’Py because it is an easy code – based visual novel maker and it can work on both mac and windows base computer even in an open source operating system like linux and it is free and open source, while the other visual novel maker needs a lot of effort for you to create your own visual novel and pricey, and

the other visual novel engine cannot run on every operating system. 2.3.3 Testing and Debugging – In this part, the game that has been made will run until the researchers found an error or a bug in the game and deal with it. The researchers will repeat the steps until the game is fully furnish. In testing and debugging it includes running the game, look for the error or bug and creating the solutions about the error. 2.3.4 Evaluating the System – This is the part where the researchers and the respondents will judge the game that has been made by playing it. The researchers used questionnaires to measure the game on various aspects. It includes playing the game and its counterpart, Clannad and comparing them. The game will be evaluated by some selected students from the Holy Rosary School of Science and Technology. The method that will be used is Purposive method. a. Statistical Tools – tools that are needed to gather the respondents that are going to evaluate the game that has been propose. i. Weighted Mean – the most common type of average, where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others.

(1) ii. Fisher Sign Test – used to compares two correlated samples. Used the difference between each pair of observations..

(2) 2.3.5 Implementation – In this phase of system design the game will be introduce to the people for them to see what the game is all about. The game will be distributed to those people who are interested via Compact Disk (CD).

3

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA

AND

b.

The results gathered data is presented in this chapter. The proponents used survey form to gather feedback as well as reactions from respondents , after a series of validation and evaluation of the results that gathered and analysed, the proponents were able to came up the results between the existing and the proposed game based on the survey that answered by the respondents. The proponents chose high school student to be the respondents. They are the high school students of Holy Rosary School of Science and Technology. The proponents received 34 filled questionnaires as a turn-out and used it as a population.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

Table 4.1. Evaluation of students on Clannad Visual Novel (Existing). Figure 4.1. Distribution of Respondents According to Gender. Figure 4.1 shows the distribution of respondent according to gender. 65% or 22 students of it are female respondents and (35%) or 12 are the male respondents, it means that the proponents has more female respondents than male. Table 4.1 show the results on how the respondents evaluate the existing game, Clannad in terms of the following: Reliability, User-friendliness, Portability and Accuracy. Based on the evaluation done by the students, the Clannad visual novel got its lowest weighted mean of 4.05 at the criteria of portability which still got a good mark. Next is reliability with 4.06, then user-friendliness with 4.10, and the highest is accuracy with 4.15 which still falls on the good mark. The overall weighted mean or average that this game had is 4.09 which falls on the good mark. This means that the game acceptable to them in terms of the criteria measured. This also means that this game has the appropriate, visuals, background music and voice, the settings and the saved game was loaded accurately.

Figure 4.2. Distributions of Respondents According to Age. Figure 5 shows the distribution of respondents according to age red one represents the sixteen years old respondents which had a 65%, the blue one is for fifteen years old which had 29%, and the green and violet one are for seventeen years and twenty years old which had 3%. Data were classified and sorted according to show the verbal interpretations of the game between the existing and the proposed game with the total number of 34 respondents. Range between 1.00-1.80 means poor, 1.81-2.60 fair, 2.613.40 satisfactory, 3.41-4.20 good, and 4.21-5.00 very good. Tables below show the results between existing game (Clannad) and the proposed game (Ibong Adarna).

Table 4.2. Evaluation of students on Ibong Adarna Visual Novel (Proposed). Table 4.2 show the results on how the respondents evaluate the proposed game, Ibong Adarna in terms of the following: Reliability, User-friendliness, Portability and Accuracy. Based on the evaluation done by the students, the Ibong Adarna Visual Novel got its lowest weighted mean on the criteria of portability which is 3.98 that still made its mark as good. Next is accuracy with 4.21 which falls on very good mark, then reliability with 4.24 that falls on the very good mark and userfriendliness with 4.26 that falls on the very good mark. The over-all weighted mean of the game is 4.17 which fall on the mark of good. Like the existing game, the proposed games are also acceptable to them in terms of the measured criteria and have the same level. This may also mean that the proposed game is used the appropriate language, colors, sounds, text
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSN 2277-8616

and the settings and menu are easily accessible.

null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference between the two games.

4.2 Conclusions After the survey and the statistical treatment the proponents therefore conclude that the proposed game, Ibong Adarna Visual Novel is as good as the existing game, Clannad Visual Novel. The proponents successfully made a visual novel for Filipinos that is educational and have a multiple story branches. They are also successful in creating scripts, character images, background images, background music and voice recordings and they are also successful in integrating it and use the functions which are prebuilt in Renp’y Visual Novel Engine and it is tested and debug. The proponents are also successful in evaluating the games by the respondents. 4.3 Recommendations The proponents recommend to the educational institution to use the game or its concept in teaching different lessons especially literatures this may serve as advancement in teaching. For the students this game may help you in enjoying, studying Ibong Adarna and this may also help to help you think of different possibilities and enhance your imagination in playing this game. For the Filipinos who like watching drama series, reading novels and playing computer games this research is an effort to combine reading novels, watching drama series and playing computer games with multiple story lines to enhance the stories flexibility, personalization and adaptation. This was also the first research about visual novels in the Philippines. The proponents therefore recommend that you may try out playing this kind of games. For the researchers’ the proponents recommend that in making this kind of game make sure to use appropriate tools both on hardware and software. Enhance the voice recordings, background images, background music and sound effects and if possible add different emotions for the characters.

Table 4.3. Comparison on the weighted mean between Clannad Visual Novel (Existing) and Ibong Adarna Visual Novel (Proposed). Table 4.3 shows the comparison on the weighted mean between the existing and the proposed game. Based on the evaluation done, the existing game has advantages over the existing on reliability, user-friendliness and accuracy with only small differences. But the existing game wins over the portability. But in over-all results the proposed game wins with the difference of 0.08. This means that the proposed game is slightly better than the existing game.

Table 4.4. Summary table on the significant difference using Fish Sign Test (α=0.05). Table 4.4 shows the Summary table on the significant difference between the existing (Clannad) and the proposed game (Ibong Adarna) in terms of the following: Reliability, User-friendliness, Portability and Accuracy using fish test. Based on the computation using Fisher Sign test, the result is 0.17 that does not go beyond the critical value of ±1.96 which means that there are no significant differences between the existing and proposed game and also means that the hypothesis is correct.

ACKNOWLDEGEMENT
This research would not be possible without the support of them; Mr. Stephen Bryan Gunhuran for being the statistician, Mr. Daniel Tabanera for checking the questionnaires, Mr. Miguel Fontamillas, our families that would always be there and God, Almighty.

REFERENCES
[1]. Alex Mui, ―Visual Novels: Unrecognized Narrative Art‖, The John Hopkins News-Letter, 2011 Ryo, ―Love Plus Imagination- Part 1: Dating Sims and Other Simulations‖, Skeptikai, 2010 Michael D. Kickmeier-Rust, Stefan Gobel, and Dietrich Albert,‖ 80Days: Melding Adaptive Educational Technology and Adaptive and Interactive Storytelling in Digital Educational Games‖,Austria and Germany, 2009 Stefan Gobel, Florian Mehm, Sabrina Radke and Ralf Steinmetz, ―8ODays: Adaptive Digital Storytelling for Digital Educational Games‖, Germany

[2].

4

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, AND RECOMMENDATION

CONCLUSION
[3].

4.1 Summary of Findings The proponents conducted a survey to get the feedback and reactions of the respondents about to the proposed game (Ibong Adarna) and the existing game (Clannad). Proponents found out that both proposed and existing game are both good on the criteria’s measured with only slight difference of (.08) on over all weighted mean in favour of proposed game but after statistical treatment, the result is (0.17) which is not significant and therefore the proponents have to accept the

[4].

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ISSN 2277-8616

[5].

Zagal, J.P, ―A Framework for Games Literacy and Understanding Games‖, ACM Futureplay 2008 Conference Proceedings, B. Kapralos, M. Katchabaw, and J.Rajnovich, Editors. 2008, ACM: Toronto, Canaada,2008 Squire, K. D, ―Video-Game Literacy‖ in J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, D.J. Leu (eds.) Handbook of Research on New Literacies, New York, NY: Taylor &Francis Group, 2008 Steve Dahlskog, ―Digital Game Competence Literacy or Repertoire?‖, Sweden, 2011 Rania Hodhod, ―Interactive Narrative for Adaptive Educational Games: Architecture and an Application to Character Education‖, 2010 Yan Jingjing,‖ Gender and Computer Games / Video Games (girls perspective orientation)‖,Gotland University, Sweden, 2010 Ray Barnholt, "The Weird World of Japanese "Novel" Games". Retrieved 2011-03-08, 1up.com Jocelyn Cuatrona, Cristine Domantay, Lea Angela Reyes, ―Computer Aided Instruction In Science‖, 2007 Sharon Greenslade,‖ Online Mobile Driving Video Games Sales Growth‖, Sooperarticles.com, 2012 Mikoto,‖ Visual Novels vs. Dating Simulation Games‖, theotakuspot.animeblogger.net

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...Research Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon. Research involves inductive and deductive methods (Babbie, 1998). Inductive methods analyze the observed phenomenon and identify the general principles, structures, or processes underlying the phenomenon observed; deductive methods verify the hypothesized principles through observations. The purposes are different: one is to develop explanations, and the other is to test the validity of the explanations. One thing that we have to pay attention to research is that the heart of the research is not on statistics, but the thinking behind the research. How we really want to find out, how we build arguments about ideas and concepts, and what evidence that we can support to persuade people to accept our arguments. Gall, Borg and Gall (1996) proposed four types of knowledge that research contributed to education as follows: 1. Description: Results of research can describe natural or social phenomenon, such as its form, structure, activity, change over time, relationship to other phenomena. The descriptive function of research relies on instrumentation for measurement and observations. The descriptive research results in our understanding of what happened. It sometimes produces statistical information about aspects of education. 2. Prediction: Prediction research is intended to predict a phenomenon that will occur at time Y from information at an earlier time X. In educational...

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...Contents TITLE 2 INTRODUCTION 3 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 3 AIM 4 OBJECTIVES 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 METHODOLOGY AND DATACOLLECTION 5 POPULATION AND SAMPLING 6 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS 6 PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY 7 STUDY PERIOD (GANTT CHART) 8 STUDY RESOURCES 9 REFERENCES 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 9 APPENDICES: 10 * The Impact of Motivation through Incentives for a better Performance - Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Ahmed Anwar Athifa Ibrahim (Academic Supervisor) Applied Research Project to the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Studies The Maldives National University * * Introduction As it is clear, staff motivation is important in all the sectors especially in the tourism sector where we require highly skilled employees to get the best of their output to reach the organizational goals. Therefore, organizations spend a lot on their staff motivation in terms of different incentive approaches, such as financial benefits, training and development, appreciations, rewards and promotions. As mentioned in the title, the outline of the findings will be focused on the motivation of the staffs on improving their performances by the different incentive packages that they get at the resort. This study will be executed at Adaaran Meedhupparu by giving questionnaire to the staff working in different departments to fill up and return to the scholar to examine the current situation of staff satisfaction on motivation to do...

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...STEP 1etasblish the need for research We have to consider if it is a real need for doing a research? Research takes time and costs money. If the information is already available, decisions must be made now, we cant afford research and costs outweigh the value of the research, then the research is not needed. Step 2 define the problem or topic State your topic as a question. This is the most important step. Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. Problem maybe either specific or general. Step 3 establish research objective Research objectives, when achieved, provide the Information necessary to solve the problem identified in Step 2. Research objectives state what the researchers must do. Crystallize the research problems and translate them into research objective. At this point, we will pin down the research question. Step 4 determine research design The research design is a plan or framework for conducting the study and collecting data. It is defined as the specific methods and procedures you use to acquire the information you need. based on the research objectives, we will determine the most appropriate research design: qualitative and/ or quantitative. • Exploratory Research: collecting information in an unstructured and informal manner. • Descriptive Research refers to a set of methods and procedures describing marketing variables. • Causal Research (experiments): allows isolation of causes and...

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...Research Article Research is important to every business because of the information it provides. There is a basic process to researching information and that process begins by deciding what information needs to be researched. The next step is to develop a hypothesis, which describes what the research paper is about and what the researcher’s opinion is regarding the topic. The research article chosen for this paper is titled, “The Anchor Contraction Effect in International Marketing Research.” The hypothesis for this paper is, “This raises the issue of whether providing responses on rating scales in a person’s native versus second language exerts a systematic influence on the responses obtained.” Simply explained, the hypothesis of this paper is to determine whether research questions should be in a person’s native language rather than expecting them to respond to questions in a language in which they might not be fluent. The hypothesis of this paper was accepted based on the research data gathered by the research team. This hypothesis was supported by nine studies using a variety of research methods. The research methods provided data that demonstrated the level of inaccuracy based on questions being asked in a language that was not the respondent’s native language. The research data provided insight into the probability of more accurate results when the respondent was asked questions in a manner that related well with their culture. There are several implications...

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...ACE8001: What do we mean by Research? & Can we hope to do genuine Social Science Research (David Harvey)  What do we mean by research? What might characterise good research practice? There is no point in us trying to re-invent the wheel - other and probably more capable people than us have wrestled with this problem before us, and it makes good sense and is good practice to learn what they have discovered.  In other words - we need to explore more reliable and effective methods and systems for the pursuit of research than we have been doing so far. What is research? Dictionary Definitions of Research: * "The act of searching closely or carefully for or after a specified thing or person" * "An investigation directed to discovery of some fact by careful study of a subject" * "A course of scientific enquiry" (where scientific = "producing demonstrative knowledge") Howard and Sharp (HS) define research as:  "seeking through methodical processes to add to bodies of knowledge by the discovery or elucidation of non-trivial facts, insights and improved understanding of situations, processes and mechanisms".  [Howard, K. and Sharp, J.A. The Management of a student research project, Gower, 1983 - a useful and practical “how to do it” guide] Two other, more recent guides are: Denscombe, Martyn, 2002, Ground rules for good research: a 10 point guide for social research,  Open University Press. Robinson Library Shelf Mark: 300.72 DEN, Level 3 (several copies)...

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...solve analytic models or whatever, but they often fail to demonstrate that they have thoroughly thought about their papers—in other words, when you push them about the implicit and explicit assumptions and implications of their research models, it appears that they haven’t really given these matters much thought at all.[1] Too often they fall back on saying that they are doing what they are doing because that is the way it is done in the prior literature, which is more of an excuse than a answer. (Of course, once a researcher reaches a certain age, they all feel that youngsters aren’t as good as they were in the good old days!) Therefore, in this class we shall go beyond simply studying research in managerial accounting. For many of you, this is your first introduction to accounting research and to PhD level class. Hence, in these classes we shall also learn how to solve business problems systematically and to understand what it means to have thoroughly “thought through” a paper. We begin not with academic research, but with some real world cases, because we should never forget that ours is an applied research field: accounting research is a means towards the end of understanding business and is not an end in itself, in the way pure science research is. Developing a systematic procedure for solving a real world business problem is the starting point for developing a...

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...manger know about research when the job entails managing people, products, events, environments, and the like? Answer: Research simply means a search for facts – answers to questions and solutions to problems. It is a purposive investigation. It is an organized inquiry. It seeks to find explanations to unexplained phenomenon to clarify the doubtful facts and to correct the misconceived facts. Research is the organized and systematic inquiry or investigation which provides information for solving a problem or finding answers to a complex issue. Research in business: Often, organization members want to know everything about their products, services, programs, etc. Your research plans depend on what information you need to collect in order to make major decisions about a product, service, program, etc. Research provides the needed information that guides managers to make informed decisions to successfully deal with problems. The more focused you are about your resources, products, events and environments what you want to gain by your research, the more effective and efficient you can be in your research, the shorter the time it will take you and ultimately the less it will cost you. Manager’s role in research programs of a company: Managing people is only a fraction of a manager's responsibility - they have to manage the operations of the department, and often have responsibilities towards the profitability of the organization. Knowledge of research can be very helpful...

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...Volume 3, number 2 What is critical appraisal? Sponsored by an educational grant from AVENTIS Pharma Alison Hill BSC FFPHM FRCP Director, and Claire Spittlehouse BSc Business Manager, Critical Appraisal Skills Programme, Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford q Critical appraisal is the process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, results and relevance before using it to inform a decision. q Critical appraisal is an essential part of evidence-based clinical practice that includes the process of systematically finding, appraising and acting on evidence of effectiveness. q Critical appraisal allows us to make sense of research evidence and thus begins to close the gap between research and practice. q Randomised controlled trials can minimise bias and use the most appropriate design for studying the effectiveness of a specific intervention or treatment. q Systematic reviews are particularly useful because they usually contain an explicit statement of the objectives, materials and methods, and should be conducted according to explicit and reproducible methodology. q Randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews are not automatically of good quality and should be appraised critically. www.evidence-based-medicine.co.uk Prescribing information is on page 8 1 What is critical appraisal What is critical appraisal? Critical appraisal is one step in the process of evidence-based clinical practice. Evidencebased clinical practice...

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...ISS334: Information Systems Security (Project Description) * Each student work alone in this project (individual project). * Each student is required to complete a mid-size project, which includes proposal, implementation, and final demo or paper. * Students will be grouped into teams for the sake of presentations at the end of the semester. Marks allocated for each individual piece of the project are as follows: a) Proposal – 10% b) Project write-up – 22% c) Presentation – 8% Projects include but are not limited to: * Research Paper * You can work on original research problems. The outcome should be a paper with original technical contribution. Your grade on this will be judged on originality, soundness of the approach, and quality of presentation.  * Example Topics: * Vulnerability Analysis * Wireless Security * Intrusion Detection  * Authentication * Access Control * Authorization * DNS Security * Digital Watermarking * New Attacks * Survey Paper * You can write a paper that surveys a particular field on information security. The outcome should be a paper that summarizes the trend in the field you have chosen. Your grade will be judged on the completeness of the survey, the quality of the trend analysis, and the quality of presentation. * Example topics: * Vulnerability Analysis * Wireless...

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...Marketing Department, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0RQ, United Kingdom e-mail: 1sh@ukm.my 1,3 ABSTRACT This study examined the adequacy of using undergraduate student samples in research on online consumer attitudes by comparing the attitudes of students (n = 161) towards online retailing services with the attitudes of non-students (n = 252) towards such services. A structured questionnaire administered online was used to gather data on perceptions, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions with regard to online retailing services. The t-test results showed that, in general, students' attitude towards online retailing services is similar to that of non-students. Therefore, undergraduate students may be reasonable surrogates for consumers in research on online retailing. Keywords: internet users, electronic commerce, online consumer attitudes, online retailing services, student surrogates INTRODUCTION The usage of the internet as a communication and transaction medium in consumer markets is growing rapidly (Castells, 2000; Hart, Doherty, & EllisChadwick, 2000). In line with this expansion, consumer-based electronic commerce has become an emerging research area (e.g. Demangeot & Broderick, 2006, 2007; Teo, 2006; Tih & Ennis, 2006a, 2006b). In particular, a stream of research addressing issues related to online consumer attitudes (e.g. George, 2004; Wang, Chen, Chang, & Yang, 2007) and behaviors (see Cheung, Chan, & Limayem, 2005 for a review) has emerged. Although...

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...Importance Of Research Research is tool, which is utilized by my organizations and co-operations to have a fundamental knowledge of goods, products, and also to finding out consumer behavior. It is also a systematic investigation into the study of materials and sources inn order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Research informed the marketers of Glidden paint because it helped them start from were the audience was which was Walmart in this case scenario. A marketer finds out what you want, and creates or finds product that fits you. Research aided the marketers of Glidden paint to come to a conclusion that not only should you hypothesize, you should also carry out experiments as well. In this case we see that the help of experiments helped them realize that Walmart’s brand name of saving money was not deterring the perceived quality of the paints. Meaning that Walmart’s cheap pricing of goods played no part in the durability of the paint. Research helped the marketers of Glidden paint realize that they could revamp the Walmart paint section, which has been ignored for years. They are confident that Glidden paint will do great numbers because they have raised awareness and created a media platform that consumers can interact with the most. Not only has research helped in satisfying consumer wants, it also gives the marketer an in-depth knowledge on the frequent changes of consumer taste. Research helped Glidden paint marketers realize...

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