Untitled Flashcards Set

Introduction (Chapter 1)

Q: What is the role of marketing research (MR) in strategic planning and decision-making?
A: MR provides data-driven insights to support strategic decisions, identify market opportunities, and reduce uncertainty.

Q: Define marketing research.
A: The systematic process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to support marketing decisions.

Q: What are the steps in the MR process?
A: 1. Defining the problem, 2. Developing the research plan, 3. Collecting data, 4. Analyzing data, 5. Presenting findings, 6. Making decisions.

Q: Why is the MR process interdependent?
A: Each step builds on the previous one; errors in earlier steps affect later steps and overall research validity.

Q: What are external providers of MR?
A: Independent research firms, syndicated data providers, and consulting agencies that conduct research for companies.

Q: Who are the key parties involved in ethical issues in MR?
A: Researcher (ensures accuracy), client (uses data responsibly), respondent (provides honest responses), and the public (impacted by findings).

Defining the MR Problem (Chapter 2)

Q: What is the environmental context of the problem?
A: Factors such as company goals, market trends, competitive landscape, and legal environment affecting research.

Q: How does a research problem differ from a management decision problem?
A: A research problem identifies causes and requires investigation, while a management decision problem focuses on action and solutions.

Q: Define research questions and hypotheses.
A: Research questions specify what the study aims to answer; hypotheses are testable statements predicting relationships between variables.

Research Design (Chapter 3)

Q: What is the difference between exploratory and conclusive research?
A: Exploratory research is open-ended and used to gain insights, while conclusive research is structured and used to confirm hypotheses.

Q: What are common methods for conducting exploratory research?
A: Key-informant interviews, focus groups, case studies, and observation.

Q: What are the two types of conclusive research?
A: Descriptive (quantifies characteristics) and causal/experimental (tests cause-and-effect relationships).

Q: How do cross-sectional and longitudinal studies differ?
A: Cross-sectional studies collect data at a single point in time; longitudinal studies track changes over time.

Q: What are primary and secondary data?
A: Primary data is collected firsthand for a specific study; secondary data is previously collected and repurposed.

Exploratory Research Design - Qualitative Methods (Chapter 6)

Q: How do qualitative and quantitative methods differ?
A: Qualitative focuses on insights and depth (e.g., interviews), while quantitative measures numerical trends (e.g., surveys).

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of focus groups?
A: Advantages: rich insights, interaction-driven ideas. Disadvantages: high cost, potential bias, small sample size.

Q: What are depth interviews, and how do they compare to focus groups?
A: One-on-one interviews for detailed insights; they avoid group influence but take more time.

Q: What are projective techniques in MR?
A: Indirect questioning methods (e.g., word association, sentence completion) used to uncover subconscious thoughts.

Measurement and Scaling (Chapters 9 & 10)

Q: What are the four primary scales of measurement?
A: 1. Nominal (categories only)
2. Ordinal (rank order, no exact difference)
3. Interval (equal differences, no true zero)
4. Ratio (equal differences, true zero)

Q: What are comparative scaling techniques?
A: Rank order scaling (prioritizing items) and constant sum scaling (allocating points to options).

Q: What are noncomparative scaling techniques?
A: Itemized rating scales such as Likert, semantic differential, and Stapel scales.

Q: What are considerations for designing noncomparative itemized rating scales?
A: Balanced vs. unbalanced, odd vs. even points, and clear verbal descriptors.

Questionnaire Design (Chapter 11)

Q: What are the key components of questionnaire structure?
A: Logical flow, clear sections, and a mix of question types (open-ended & closed-ended).

Q: What is the difference between structured and unstructured questions?
A: Structured questions have predefined answer choices; unstructured questions allow open-ended responses.

Q: Why is question wording important in MR?
A: Avoids ambiguity, leading questions, and double-barreled questions for unbiased responses.

Q: Why is pretesting a questionnaire important?
A: Identifies confusing wording and ensures clarity before large-scale deployment.

Descriptive Statistics and Frequency Distribution (Chapter 16)

Q: What are measures of central tendency?
A: Mean (average), median (middle value), and mode (most frequent value).

Q: What are measures of dispersion?
A: Range (difference between highest and lowest), variance, and standard deviation (spread of data).

Q: How do you interpret a frequency distribution table?
A: Shows how often each response appears, helping to identify trends and outliers.

Q: What does cumulative percentage in a frequency table represent?
A: The percentage of responses that fall at or below a given category