ote 1: I have attached additional chapter materials provided by the professor to support this report.
Note 2: This report is written in moderate English level and original form. The plagiarism and AI involvement are kept below 10%.
Assignment 5: Pilot Testing, Data Collection, Data Cleaning & Preliminary Results
Assignment 5 (10 Marks) Due Date: 30 April 2026
Pilot Testing, Data Collection, Data Cleaning & Preliminary Results
(Builds directly on Assignment 4 – Data Analysis Plan)
Objective
To give students hands-on exposure to:
- Pilot testing instrument
- Conducting small-scale data collection
- Data screening & cleaning
- Reliability and validity testing
- Reporting preliminary results
This assignment transforms the proposal into real research execution.
Assignment Description
Students must:
- Conduct a pilot test (minimum 20–30 responses)
- Perform data cleaning and screening
- Conduct reliability analysis
- Run basic hypothesis testing (Regression or PLS-SEM preferred)
- Present preliminary findings
Detailed Task Requirements
Part 1: Pilot Testing (Instrument Validation)
Students must:
- Collect minimum 50 responses
- Report:
- Sampling method
- Demographics summary
- Time taken to complete survey
- Feedback from respondents
Required Analysis:
- Cronbach’s Alpha for each construct
- Remove problematic items if necessary
Part 2: Data Cleaning & Screening
Students must report:
1. Missing Values
- How many?
- How handled?
2. Outliers
- Z-score / Mahalanobis distance (if applicable)
3. Normality (for regression users)
- Skewness
- Kurtosis
4. Common Method Bias (basic check)
- Harman’s single factor test OR VIF in PLS
Part 3: Reliability & Validity
Depending on method:
If Using SPSS:
- Cronbach’s Alpha
- Exploratory Factor Analysis (optional)
If Using SmartPLS:
- Composite Reliability
- AVE
- Outer Loadings
- Discriminant Validity (Fornell-Larcker or HTMT)
Part 4: Preliminary Hypothesis Testing
Students must:
- Run regression or PLS bootstrapping
- Report:
- Beta values
- t-values
- p-values
- R²
Part 5: Results Interpretation
Students must explain:
- Which hypotheses are supported?
- Are findings aligned with literature?
- Any surprising results?
Report Structure (6–8 Pages)
- Introduction (brief recap)
- Pilot testing summary
- Data screening results
- Reliability & validity results
- Hypothesis testing results
- Discussion of preliminary findings
- Limitations of pilot
Suggested References
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) Using SmartPLS.
Field, A. (2018).
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS.
Tabachnick & Fidell (2019).
Using Multivariate Statistics.
Podsakoff et al. (2003). Common Method Bias in Behavioral Research.
Marks Distribution (10 Marks)
Component | Marks |
Pilot testing clarity | 2 |
Data cleaning & screening | 2 |
Reliability & validity analysis | 2 |
Hypothesis testing execution | 2 |
Interpretation & discussion | 2 |
Assignment: Final Research Presentation
Final Component (10 Marks) Due Date: 30 April 2026
Final Research Presentation
(Based on Assignments 1–5 combined)
Objective
To simulate:
- Conference paper presentation
OR - Thesis proposal defense
OR - Journal submission presentation
Presentation Requirements
12–15 Slides Covering:
- Introduction & Problem
- Research Gap
- Literature Review
- Conceptual Framework
- Hypotheses
- Methodology
- Pilot Testing Summary
- Data Screening
- Measurement Model Results
- Structural Model Results
- Contributions
- Limitations & Future Research
Presentation Time:
- 12–15 minutes
- 5 minutes Q&A
Marks Distribution (10 Marks)
Component | Marks |
Research clarity | 2 |
Methodological rigor | 2 |
Data analysis explanation | 2 |
Contribution & implications | 2 |
Delivery & handling Q&A | 2 |