• Introduction
– Including your Management Question
• Literature Review
• Your Model
– Research Questions
– Hypotheses you plan to test
• Your Proposed Research Master Plan
– Methodology
– Sample
– Questionnaire
• Limitations
• Decisions that may be supported by the results

• You will not collect data.
• You will not draw conclusions
• You will not make recommendations

Problem Discovery and Definition
Problem discovery
Selection of exploratory research technique
Sampling
Selection of exploratory research technique Probability Nonprobability
Secondary
(historical) data
Experience survey
Research Design
Experiment
Laboratory Field
Problem definition
(statement of research objectives)
Selection of basic research method
Pilot study
Interview
Survey
Questionnaire
Case study
Observation
Secondary
Data Study
Data
Gathering
Data
Processing and Analysis
Conclusions and Report
Collection of data
(fieldwork)
Editing and coding data
Data processing
Interpretation of findings
Report

• Manufacturer of palm-size computers with Internet access
• Symptom
– Distributors complain prices are too high
• PD based on the Symptom
– Investigate business users to learn how much prices need to be reduced
• True Problem
– Distributors do not have adequate product knowledge to communicate product’s value

Management Decision Problems vs.
Marketing Research Problems
• Management Decision
Problems
– Ask what the decision maker needs to do
– Action oriented
– Focus on symptoms
• Marketing Research Problems
– Ask what information is needed and how it should be obtained
– Information oriented
– Focus on the underlying causes

Translating Management Problems into Research
Problems (Questions)
• Management Problem
– Determine the best ways the firm can communicate with potential purchasers of laptop computers
• Research Questions
– How familiar are consumers with the various brands of computers?
– What attitudes do consumers have toward these brands?
– How important are the various factors for evaluating the purchase of a laptop computer?
– How effective are the communications efforts of the various competitive marketers in terms of message recognition?

• An unproven proposition or possible solution to the problem.
• Assert probable answers to research questions.
• Hypotheses & research questions both state relationships
– Research questions are interrogative
(ask)
– Hypotheses are declarative (state)

Tasks Involved In a Research Design
Define the Information Needed
Design the Exploratory, Descriptive, and/or Causal Phases of the Research
Specify the Measurement and Scaling
Procedures
Construct a Questionnaire
Specify the Sampling Process and the
Sample Size
Develop a Plan of Data Analysis

A Classification of Market Research Designs
Research
Design
Exploratory
Research
Conclusive
Research
Secondary
Data
Experience
Surveys
Pilot
Studies
Case
Studies
See next slide

A Classification of Market Research Designs
Research
Design
Exploratory
Research
See previous slide
Conclusive
Research
Cross-sectional
Study
Longitudinal
Study
Descriptive
Design
Causal
Design
Secondary
Data Study
Survey Observation
Experiment

• Usually conducted during the initial stage of the research process
• Purposes
– To narrow the scope of the research topic, and
– To transform ambiguous problems into welldefined ones

Exploratory Research Techniques
• Secondary Data Analysis
– Secondary data are data previously collected & assembled for some project other than the one at hand
• Pilot Studies
– A collective term for any small-scale exploratory research technique that uses sampling but does not apply rigorous standards
– Includes
• Focus Group Interviews
– Unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group of people
• Projective Techniques
– Indirect means of questioning that enables a respondent to project beliefs and feelings onto a third party or an inanimate object
– Word association tests, sentence completion tests, role playing

Exploratory Research Techniques
• Case Studies
– Intensively investigate one or a few situations similar to the problem situation
• Experience Surveys
– Individuals who are knowledge about a particular research problem are questioned

• Descriptive Research
– Describes attitudes, perceptions, characteristics, activities and situations.
– Examines who, what, when, where, why, & how questions
• Causal Research
– Provides evidence that a cause-and-effect relationship exists or does not exist.
– Premise is that something (and independent variable) directly influences the behavior of something else (the dependent variable).

Cross
Sectional
Design
Sample
Surveyed at T
1
Longitudinal
Design
Sample
Surveyed at T
1
Time
T
1
Same
Sample also
Surveyed at T
2
T
2

Cross-Sectional vs. Longitudinal Designs
Detecting change
Amount of data collected
Accuracy
Representativeness
Response bias
Cross-Sectional
Worse
Worse
Worse
Better
Better
Longitudinal
Better
Better
Better
Worse
Worse

(a)
Some Alternative Research Designs
Exploratory
Research
• Secondary Data
Analysis
• Focus Groups
(b)
Conclusive Research
•
Descriptive/Causal
Conclusive Research
• Descriptive/Causal
(c)
Conclusive Research
•
Descriptive/Causal
Exploratory
Research
• Secondary Data
Analysis
• Focus Groups

• Secondary Data Analysis
– Historical analysis
• Surveys
– Asking; self-reported
• Experiments
– Testing in controlled environments
• Observation
– Watching & recording

Which is the “Best” Research Design &
Method?
• “ You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.”
– Publilius Syrus
• It depends on the
– problem of interest,
– level of information needed,
– resources,
– researcher’s experience, etc.