Deck 5: Descriptive and Causal Research Designs

Question 1

Which of the following statements is true regarding the types of self-administered surveys?

A)Mail surveys ensure faster and greater response rates.
B)Mail panel surveys can be used for longitudinal surveys.
C)Drop-off surveys are less expensive than mail surveys.
D)Online surveys require coding.
E)Mail surveys have high interviewer-related costs.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

A descriptive research design may not be the most appropriate choice in which of the following situations?

A)When the research objective is to describe characteristics of an existing market situation
B)When the research objective is to evaluate current marketing mix strategies
C)When the research objective is to determine the when, where, and how for the target population
D)When the research objective is to identify relationships between variables
E)When the research objective is to gain an insight into the deeper emotions or feelings behind a purchase decision

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Data generalizability is:

A)the degree to which the data is an accurate portrait of the target population.
B)the degree to which a specific question or investigated issue leads the respondent to give a socially expected response.
C)refers to how hard the respondent needs to work to respond and the level of preparation required to create an environment for the respondent.
D)refers to the degree to which respondents share some similarities.
E)refers to the percentage of the general population that is the subject of the market research.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

While giving responses to a survey, a respondent discovered that the interviewer nodded her head whenever he expressed a favorable opinion about the issue being discussed. Sensing that the interviewer wanted to hear positive things, he started distorting his responses to please the interviewer. This major disadvantage of the person-administered surveys is referred to as:

A)response adaptability.
B)rapport response.
C)interviewer-respondent interaction error.
D)interviewer projection.
E)respondent desirability bias.

Question 5

All of the following statements are true about nonsampling errors, EXCEPT:

A)such errors are controllable.
B)such errors are caused by faulty design or poor execution of a study.
C)such errors cannot be directly measured.
D)such errors can be minimized by increasing the sample size.
E)such errors reduce the quality of data collected.

Question 6

Mall-intercept interview may be more desirable than in-home interviews in many situations. Which of the following is NOT a strength of the mall-intercept interview method?

A)Mall-intercept interviews are less expensive.
B)Mall-intercept interviews take less time to complete.
C)Interviewers spend less time traveling using the mall-intercept method.
D)Mall patrons are more likely to be representative of the target population.
E)Researchers spend little time or effort in securing a person's agreement to participate in the mall-intercept interview.

Question 7

Which of the following can be used to increase respondent participation?

A)Providing financial incentives or non-monetary rewards such as pens or coupons
B)Telling respondents that they are the sole participants
C)Speaking about the credibility of the organization's management
D)Delivering the questionnaire by mail to ensure minimum contact
E)Providing incentives as rewards

Question 8

Marylyn is interested in using a survey method that would allow her to have the respondent fill out the survey close to the moment of shopping and decision-making. Which of the following methods is best suited for this purpose?

A)Telephone interview
B)In-home interview
C)CATI
D)Online survey
E)Wireless phone survey

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI)?

A)You can interview even those people who do not have access to a computer.
B)You can stop in the middle of an interview and complete it at a later time.
C)It eliminates the need of separate data entry tasks.
D)The program can automatically skip questions that are not relevant to a particular respondent.
E)The computer can allow the respondent to call back later to complete the interview.

Question 10

Given the problem of topic sensitivity, which of the following activities are likely to be over-reported in a face-to-face interaction?

A)Gambling behavior
B)Visiting pornographic web sites
C)Contributions to charity
D)Cigarette smoking
E)Alcohol consumption

Question 11

Courtney, a marketing research manager, is interested in surveying people who are fans of The Simpsons show. Given this unique requirement, she should use which of the following survey methods?

A)Direct mail survey
B)Drop-off survey
C)Mail panel survey
D)Internet survey
E)In-home survey

Question 12

Assume that respondents aged 65 or older are only one-third as likely to be in an Internet sample as their actual incidence in the population. Using propensity scoring, their responses would be:

A)excluded from the sample to avoid any potential bias.
B)included as is (only once) to keep the data truly representative.
C)counted three times in the sample.
D)included selectively (about one-third of the time) in the sample.
E)included alternatively.

Question 13

Nancy was told by her research manager that people preferred red colored toasters over blue colored ones. When Nancy asked for the ratio of red vs. blue preference subjects, she was told that the inference could not be drawn from the data collected. This problem is an illustration of:

A)budget limitation.
B)task difficulty.
C)data generalizability.
D)data precision.
E)data incompatibility.

Question 14

Which of the following statements is true regarding telephone interviews?

A)It makes the supervision of interviewers difficult.
B)It is time-consuming.
C)It makes certain questions seem more complex.
D)It transcends national borders.
E)It has high levels of participation.

Question 15

Compared to person-administered surveys, self-administered surveys have all of the following advantages, EXCEPT:

A)low cost per survey.
B)respondent control.
C)no interviewer-respondent bias.
D)higher response rates.
E)anonymity in responses.

Question 16

Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI):

A)refers to when the interviewer reads the respondent questions from a computer screen and directly keys in the responses.
B)refers to when the interviewer calls up respondents, sends them an electronic survey, and assists them in completing the form. Respondents return the survey via e-mail.
C)refers to when computer disks are mailed to respondents, the respondent completes the survey on their own computer, and returns the disk to the researcher via the mail.
D)refers to when a computer is used to dial and send a survey to a potential respondent via fax. The respondent returns the survey via fax or mail.
E)refers to when the computer calls respondents and asks questions. The respondents record their responses by using the key pad of their touch tone telephone.

Question 17

Martha sends out 300 mail surveys to a representative group of respondents. Of these, 175 fill out the survey and mail it back to her. She realizes that those who responded were significantly more educated and had higher incomes than the general population. This is an illustration of:

A)response error.
B)nonresponse error.
C)sampling error.
D)interest error.
E)representation error.

Question 18

The disadvantages associated with conducting a wireless phone survey include all of the following, EXCEPT:

A)researchers are not allowed to use autodialing to call people.
B)they allow researchers to reach the mobile-only households.
C)respondents may incur an expense to receive the call and may resent that.
D)it may pose a safety hazard if the respondent is driving when the researcher calls.
E)they are not suitable for long and complex questions.

Question 19

In-home interviews are:

A)inexpensive and fast.
B)likely to reduce respondents' willingness to participate.
C)structured question / answer exchanges that are conducted in the comfort of the selected subject's home.
D)often about a highly technical subject.
E)conducted through the postal service using a respondent's home address.

Question 20

Anne is trying to determine if she should use qualitative or quantitative research methods. Help her make that decision by telling her which of the following statements is NOT true about quantitative research designs.

A)Quantitative research designs can accommodate large sample sizes.
B)Concepts and relationships not directly measurable can be studied using quantitative designs.
C)It is easy to collect in-depth data using quantitative designs.
D)Quantitative designs facilitate advanced statistical analysis.
E)Quantitative designs can produce precise estimates.

Question 21

A manager is interested in studying if there is a relationship between the gender of the order-taker and the amount of food ordered. In an experimental setting, the researcher gathers data in store A for two consecutives days (Monday and Tuesday), between 12:00 and 1:00 PM. On day 1, the order-taker is a female and on day 2, the order-taker is a male. In this situation, the dependent variable is:

A)the gender of the order-taker.
B)the time period during which the orders were recorded.
C)the store at which the experiment was done.
D)the total dollar amount of orders taken on each day.
E)the day of the week when the data was collected.

Question 22

When CATI abilities are added to wireless web surveys, the result is called CAMI.

Question 23

A disadvantage of the random digit dialing is that it cannot be used to select a random sample (as many people have unlisted numbers).

Question 24

Collecting more data lowers response rates.

Question 25

A retailer is interested in studying the effect of in-store promotions on the amount of money people spend during a store visit. Which of the following will NOT be considered an extraneous variable for this study?

A)The mood of the shoppers as they enter the store.
B)The average amount of money spent by shoppers in the store.
C)The number of kids under the age of two that accompany an adult shopper.
D)The day of the week / month when the study is conducted.
E)The air temperature outside the store.

Question 26

In-home interviewing may be completed through door-to-door canvassing of geographic areas.

Question 27

In low incidence situations, personal interview surveys should be adopted.

Question 28

When respondents provide wrong answers due to impaired memory then it is known as faulty recall.

Question 29

If the research objective is to determine whether differences exist between groups, it is appropriate to use descriptive research designs.

Question 30

A marketing researcher is interested in examining the cause and effect relationship between advertising and sales increase. Which of the following is the most appropriate to address this research objective?

A)Personal interview
B)Focus group
C)Internet survey
D)Experiment
E)Telephone survey

Question 31

Online surveys eliminate the effects of question order on responses on account of the ability to randomize the order of questions.

Question 32

Sampling error can be reduced by decreasing the sample size.

Question 33

External validity:

A)exists when the research design accurately identifies causal relationships.
B)refers to the extent to which a causal relationship found in a study can be expected to be true for the entire defined target population.
C)can be threatened by selection bias.
D)refers to the degree that the design and its procedures can be replicated and achieves similar conclusions about hypothesized relationships.
E)refers to causal research designs that manipulate the independent variables to measure the dependent variable in a natural setting.

Question 34

The budget is usually the sole determinant of the survey method.

Question 35

Direct mail surveys make it easy to handle problems of vagueness in question / answer setups.

Question 36

Wireless panels provide relatively large sample sizes.

Question 37

In person-administered surveys, the possibility of the interviewer recording incorrect responses is very low.

Question 38

Sugging is the practice of selling under the guise of research.

Question 39

Errors that occur in survey research design are called nonresponse errors.

Question 40

Compared to lab experiments, field experiments are characterized by all of the following, EXCEPT:

A)field experiments are more realistic.
B)field experiments are more controllable.
C)field experiments take longer to complete.
D)field experiments are more expensive to conduct.
E)field experiments can allow your competitors to learn about your initiatives (that are being field-tested).

Question 41

The ability to participate refers to the respondent's inclination or disposition.

Question 42

Experimental research is primarily a hypothesis-testing method.

Question 43

In what sense is test marketing a special type of experiment? What are its main objectives?

Question 44

Define independent variables, dependent variables, control variables and extraneous variables.

Question 45

How is the term "descriptive" used differently to describe qualitative and quantitative research?

Question 46

Why is it uncommon for marketing researchers to call people on their cell phones?

Question 47

Questions examining causal relationships between variables are framed with the focus being on the specific impact one variable causes on another variable.

Question 48

Discuss some major advantages of online surveys.

Question 49

Internal validity refers to the extent to which the research design accurately identifies causal relationships.

Question 50

Test marketing is the most common type of field experiment.