Lecture 1

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING RESEARCH

1.

Define marketing research and distinguish between problem identification and problem solving
research.

2.

Describe a framework for conducting marketing research as well as the six steps of the marketing
research process.

Lecture 2
DEFINING THE MARKETING RESEARCH PROBLEM
AND DEVELOPING AN APPROACH
1.

Understand the importance of and process used for defining the marketing research problem.

2.

Describe the tasks involved in problem definition, including discussion with decision maker(s),
interview with industry experts, secondary data analysis, and qualitative research.

3.

Discuss the environmental factors affecting the definition of the research problem: past
information and forecasts; resources and constraints; objectives of the decision maker; buyer
behavior; legal environment; economic environment; and marketing and technological skills of
the firm.

4.

Clarify the distinction between the management decision problem and the marketing research
problem.

5.

Explain the structure of a well-defined marketing research problem including the broad statement
and the specific components.

6.

Discuss in detail the various components of the approach: objective/theoretical framework,

analytical models, research questions, hypotheses, and specification of information needed.

Lecture 3
RESEARCH DESIGN
1.

Define research design, classify various research designs, and explain the differences between
exploratory and conclusive designs.

2.

Compare and contrast the basic research designs: exploratory, descriptive, and causal.

3.

Describe the major sources of error in a research design including random sampling error and the
various sources of nonsampling error.

4.

Discuss managerial aspects of coordinating research projects, particularly budgeting and

scheduling.

5.

Describe the elements of a marketing research proposal and show how it addresses the steps of
the marketing research process.

6.

Explain research design formulation in international marketing research.

7.

Understand the ethical issues and conflicts that arise in formulating a research design.

8.

Discuss the use of the Internet and computers in research design formulation.

Lecture 4
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH DESIGN:
SECONDARY DATA
1.

Define the nature and scope of secondary data and distinguish secondary data from primary data.

2.

Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data and their uses in the various steps of
the marketing research process.

3.

Evaluate secondary data using specifications, error, currency, objectives, nature, and
dependability criteria.

4.

Describe in detail the different sources of secondary data including internal sources and external
sources in the form of published materials, computerized databases, and syndicated services.

5.

Discuss in detail the syndicated sources of secondary data including household/consumer data
obtained via surveys, purchase and media panels, and electronic scanner services, as well as,
institutional data related to retailers, wholesalers, and industrial/service firms.

6.

Explain the need to use multiple sources of secondary data and describe single-source data.

7.

Discuss applications of secondary data in computer mapping.

8.

Identify and evaluate the sources of secondary data useful in international marketing research.

9.

Understand the ethical issues involved in the use of secondary data.

10. Discuss the use of the Internet and computers in researching secondary data.
Lecture 5
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH DESIGN:
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1.

Explain the difference between qualitative and quantitative research in terms of the objectives,
sampling, data collection and analysis, and outcomes.

2.

Understand the various forms of qualitative research including direct procedures such as focus
groups and depth interviews, and indirect methods such as projective techniques.

3.

Describe focus groups in detail with an emphasis on planning and conducting focus groups, and
their advantages, disadvantages, and applications.

4.

Describe depth interview techniques in detail citing their advantages, disadvantages, and
applications.

5.

Explain projective techniques in detail and compare association, completion, construction, and
expressive techniques.

6.

Discuss the considerations involved in conducting qualitative research in an international setting.

7.

Understand the ethical issues involved in conducting qualitative research.

8.

Discuss the use of the Internet and computers in obtaining and analyzing qualitative data.

Lecture 6
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN:
SURVEY AND OBSERVATION
1.

Discuss and classify survey methods and describe the various telephone, personal, mail, and
electronic interviewing methods.

2.

Identify the criteria for evaluating survey methods, compare the different methods, and evaluate
which is best suited for a particular research project.

3.

Explain and classify the different observation methods used by marketing researchers and
describe personal observation, mechanical observation, audit, content analysis, and trace analysis.

4.

Identify the criteria for evaluating observation methods, compare the different methods, and
evaluate which, if any, is suited for a particular research project.

5.

Describe the relative advantages and disadvantages of observational methods and compare them
to survey methods.

6.

Discuss the considerations involved in implementing surveys and observation methods in an

international setting.

7.

Understand the ethical issues involved in conducting survey and observation research.

8.

Discuss the use of the Internet and computers in surveys and observation methods.

Lecture 7
CAUSAL RESEARCH DESIGN:
EXPERIMENTATION
1.

Explain the concept of causality as defined in marketing research and distinguish between the
ordinary meaning and the scientific meaning of causality.

2.

Define and differentiate the two types of validity: internal validity and external validity.

3.

Discuss the various extraneous variables that can affect the validity of results obtained through
experimentation and explain how the researcher can control extraneous variables.

4.

Describe and evaluate experimental designs and the differences among pre-experimental, true
experimental, quasi-experimental, and statistical designs.

5.

Compare and contrast the use of laboratory versus field experimentation and experimental versus
nonexperimental designs in marketing research.

6.

Describe test marketing and its various forms: standard test market, controlled test market, and
simulated test market.

7.

Understand why the internal and external validity of field experiments conducted overseas is
generally lower than in the United States.

8.

Describe the ethical issues involved in conducting causal research and the role of debriefing in
addressing some of these issues.

9.

Discuss the use of the Internet and computers in causal research.

Lecture 8
MEASUREMENT AND SCALING:
FUNDAMENTALS AND COMPARATIVE SCALING
1.

Introduce the concepts of measurement and scaling and show how scaling may be considered an
extension of measurement.

2.

Discuss the primary scales of measurement and differentiate nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio
scales.

3.

Classify and discuss scaling techniques as comparative and noncomparative, and describe the
comparative techniques of paired comparison, rank order, constant sum, and Q-sort scaling.

4.

Discuss the considerations involved in implementing the primary scales of measurement in an

international setting.

5.

Understand the ethical issues involved in selecting scales of measurement.

Lecture 9
MEASUREMENT AND SCALING:
NONCOMPARATIVE SCALING TECHNIQUES

1.

Describe the noncomparative scaling techniques, distinguish between continuous and itemized
rating scales, and explain Likert, semantic differential, and Stapel scales.

2.

Discuss the decisions involved in constructing itemized rating scales with respect to the number
of scale categories, balanced versus unbalanced scales, odd or even number of categories, forced
versus nonforced choice, degree of verbal description, and the physical form of the scale.

3.

Discuss the criteria used for scale evaluation and explain how to assess reliability, validity, and
generalizability.

4.

Discuss the considerations involved in implementing noncomparative scales in an international

setting.

5.

Understand the ethical issues involved in developing noncomparative scales.

6.

Explain the purpose of a questionnaire and its objectives of asking questions that the respondents
can and will answer, encouraging respondents, and minimizing response error.

7.

Describe the process of designing a questionnaire, the steps involved, and guidelines that must be
followed at each step.

8.

Discuss the observational form of data collection and specify the who, what, when, where, why,
and way of behavior to be observed.

9.

Discuss the considerations involved in designing questionnaires for international marketing

research.

10.

Understand the ethical issues involved in questionnaire design.

Lecture 10
SAMPLING: DESIGN AND PROCEDURES
FINAL AND INITIAL SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
1.

Differentiate a sample from a census and identify the conditions that favor the use of a sample versus a census.

2.

Discuss the sampling design process: definition of the target population, determination of the sampling frame,
selection of sampling technique(s), determination of sample size, and execution of the sampling process.

3.

Classify sampling techniques as nonprobability and probability sampling techniques.

4.

Describe the nonprobability sampling techniques of convenience, judgmental, quota, and snowball sampling.

5.

Describe the probability sampling techniques of simple random, systematic, stratified, and cluster sampling.

6.

Identify the conditions that favor the use of nonprobability sampling versus probability sampling.

7.

Understand the sampling design process and the use of sampling techniques in international marketing research.

8.

Identify the ethical issues related to the sampling design process and the use of appropriate sampling techniques.

9.

Define the key concepts and symbols pertinent to sampling.

10.

Understand the concepts of the sampling distribution, statistical inference, and standard error.

11.

Discuss the statistical approach to determining sample size based on simple random sampling and the
construction of confidence intervals.

12.

Derive the formulas to statistically determine the sample size for estimating means and proportions.

13.

Discuss the nonresponse issues in sampling and the procedures for improving response rates and
adjusting for nonresponse.

14.

Understand the difficulty of statistically determining the sample size in international marketing research.

15.

Identify the ethical issues related to sample size determination, particularly the estimation of population
variance.

16.

Explain the use of the Internet and computers in statistically determining the sample size.

Lecture 11
FIELDWORK
1.

Describe the fieldwork process and explain the selection, training, and supervision of field
workers, the validation of fieldwork, and the evaluation of field workers.

2.

Discuss the training of field workers in making the initial contact, asking the questions,
probing, recording the answers, and terminating the interview.

3.

Discuss the supervision of field workers in terms of quality control and editing, sampling
control, control of cheating, and central office control.

4.

Describe the evaluation of field workers in areas of cost and time, response rates, quality of
interviewing, and the quality of data.

5.

Explain the issues related to fieldwork when conducting international marketing research.

6.

Discuss the ethical aspect of fieldwork.

7.

Illustrate the use of the Internet and computers in fieldwork.

Lecture 12
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION, CROSS-TABULATION,
AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING

1.

Describe the significance of preliminary data analysis and the insights that can be obtained
from such an analysis.

2.

Discuss data analysis associated with frequencies including measures of location, measures of
variability, and measures of shape.

3.

Explain data analysis associated with cross-tabulations and the associated statistics: chi-square,
phi coefficient, contingency coefficient, Cramers V, and lambda coefficient.

4.

Describe data analysis associated with parametric hypothesis testing for one sample, two
independent samples, and paired samples.

5.

Understand data analysis associated with nonparametric hypothesis testing for one sample, two
independent samples, and paired samples.

Lecture 13

CORRELATION AND REGRESSION

1.

Discuss the concepts of product moment correlation, partial correlation, and part correlation,
and show how they provide a foundation for regression analysis.

2.

Explain the nature and methods of bivariate regression analysis and describe the general model,
estimation of parameters, standardized regression coefficient, significance testing, prediction
accuracy, residual analysis, and model cross-validation.

3.

Explain the nature and methods of multiple regression analysis and the meaning of partial
regression coefficients.

4.

Describe specialized techniques used in multiple regression analysis, particularly stepwise

regression, regression with dummy variables, and analysis of variance and covariance with
regression.

5.

Discuss nonmetric correlation and measures such as Spearmans rho and Kendalls tau.