Paper Example on Money Transfer System

The questions used in the research methodology should help achieve the set objectives. In this case, the questions should help determine the preferred money transfer system, reasons for using illegal transfer, and whether quality of service has any bearing on the choice of money transfer. These questions will also give an insight into possible solutions to the research problem. The research questions used include:

What is the customer satisfactionwhen sending transferring money legally or illegally?

How frequently do immigrants send money to their home countries?

What are their preferred channel of money transactions? Is it the legal and formal forms of money transfers? Is through the illegal channels?

What are the forms of illegal; money transfers?

What encourages or drives the immigrants to use the illegal ways of money transfer

What are the views and the opinions the immigrants on the formal money transfer systems

Can the formal money transfer organization use customer satisfaction and high-quality services to combat the use of illegal means of money transfers

What are the strategies and tactical measures that the businesses in money transfer need to adopt for stellar customer services and quality services that would encourage transactions by the immigrants

Hypothesis

Hypothesis is the predictions that are based on the theory and the problem that one is supposed to be researching on. In this case, it is the effect of customer satisfaction and customers service in the money transfer industry in combating illegal transactions by the immigrants. The hypothesis needs to be tested first before the initial research is carried out. The hypothesis should be a good and well-drafted hypothesis because it supports the research findings and the guides in what knowledge one can draw from the research. It also guides in the flow and conduct of the research. The hypothesis should contain the independent variables where you are able to contain the researcher and the independent variables where one does not have any control over. The hypothesis can either be alternative hypothesis where there is a proven relationship between the different variable in the research or it can be null where it predicts the negative, that there are no existing relationships between the variables.

The link between quality of service, customer satisfaction and return business is implicit( Borjas, 2008). In the banking industry, many customers opt for illegal services when they can obtain them through legal means, to suit their situation. It may be, at times, more expensive at times to transfer funds illegally. This implies that cost is not a major factor when opting to use backdoor transfer means(Naeem, et al 2009). This hypothesis test for the link between customer satisfaction and the use of legal channels to transfer money.

Hypothesis: Customer satisfaction affects the use of legal channels of money transfer

Research MethodologyThe approach

The research took a descriptive approach. The aim was to determine any relationships between quality of service, customer satisfaction and the use of illegal money transfer by Ghanaians in Hannover.

Technique

Answering the research questions required the use of different methedologies. For example to comprehensively answer the first research question, a qualitative approach was taken by cause interviews to determine what customer satisfaction meant to them. For the second research question, a more qualitative approach was taken to the interviews employed in the first question.A wider sample group was used and statistical analysis like mean was applied. For the remainig qustions, a questionaire was admininsterd as detailed below and statistical analysis done on that.

Sample size:

A sample population of the case of the Ghanaian residents living in Hannover was selected and studied. The total number respondents surveyed were 102 who represented the overall populace of the Ghanaians in Hannover 65% of which being men and 35 being female respondents. The respondents were within the age of 25 and 50 years.

The primary data collection methods included the following;

Interviews:

There were various interviews were posed to the respondents which were conducted in person orally and others were done in writing by using questions which had been preparedprior to the interactions and interviews. The interview was conducted on many respondents as possible. There was the second group of respondents who were the staff at the various institutions in the money transfer business.

Focus groups;

Different focus groups were used but two major ones stood out through the research period. That is the illegal market ventures and the formal market of money transfer. Qualitative techniques; various qualitative techniques were used in the determination of the level of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is continuum variable, therefore, the research answers and determinants were stated as not satisfied at all or completely certified, there were values that were definitely in between this variables that represent the level of satisfaction of a customer, that is the reason this of measurement is considered an approximation. Therefore, since it is an approximation the researcher will for some margin or degree for error in the results obtained. Customers satisfaction is therefore referred or known as a latent variable, in which case the difference between the latent variables and manifest variables have to be determined.

The manifest variables are directly proportional to the latent variables. When there is an increase in the latent variables there is also a considerable increase in the manifest variables. For example, when the market researcher is measuring the component of the amount of customer satisfaction in a company the questions posed would address the use of a website, the speed to which the transaction was made and ensuring a one on one experience in the customer service. The customer satisfaction data and figures can also be analyzed by the use of structures equation model where statistical and mathematical methods of data are used. This analysis estimates the relations between the manifest and the latent variables of customer satisfaction. The method works in a way that it determines the relationship between the model and the available data will be gauged and analyzed against a given criteria, for example, it determines the weighting that is connected with the relationship of the latent variables. In the end, this determines how reliable the latent variable collected in this manner is effective as compared to those who were calculated from scratch.

Record keeping and documentation:

This is another form of research methodology that was used widely in the research. The data collected both in hard copies and soft copies were adequately stored and the case of soft copies the back plan was always available for secondary storage of all the data. The data was also recorded as it was received from the field without any tampering of addition or subtractions. To determine the effects of money laundering experts in the said field were invited to make sure that they decipher and expel every detail in the money laundering business. This helped the researchers and in the end the user of the research results to differentiate between financial activities that would be considered to be engaging in laundering activities.

Sampling procedure:

This is another method that was adversely used during this research process. There are different types of sampling but the one that was frequently used in this research was the group sampling techniques. The number of groups was chosen from the immigrants respondents to private the required data where the results of each group were combined and analyzed as one. The institution respondents were also grouped in order to conduct the research where the different set of the results were grouped and analyzed together. This form of data collection ensures that everyone has been covered and represented in the research process since the members of the groups could have been picked or examples using their geographical locations, therefore, everybody in a different location is represented in the research.

Surveys and questionnaires:

There different kind of surveys carried out during this research process. Surveys are the collection of data from the respondents using the various types of field results extraction techniques. Questionnaires are the use of questions that are posed to the respondents to obtained their opinions and therefore different data statistics about a given research topic, the questionnairehas been widely used in this research through written questions and the orally delivered questions.

Observation was another qualitative method used in the collecting of the given research data. Several of the respondents and the customers, in general, were observed on their behaviors while carrying out their transaction in the money transfer organizations. They were observed to be happy or otherwise about the services they were offered. This in the long run determines whether they are happy about the customer services and will keep coming back to this establishment and even recommend it to friend or is t...