Deck 4: Research Design and Implementation

Question 1

Exploratory research is characterized by research methods that are highly structured.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Exploratory research may be useful in finding out what kinds of questions the respondents will be willing or able to answer.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In causal research, the research questions and hypotheses are very specific.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Syndicated data are an example of secondary data.

Question 5

In exploratory research, hypotheses may be very vague or may not exist at all.

Question 6

A single research approach is seldom perfectly suited to a research objective, and the best choice is often the approach with the greatest number of strengths and the fewest weaknesses.

Question 7

The research objective, approach, and tactics should fit together. A researcher has an indication that the decision process is not going well when earlier decisions have to be modified because of subsequent decisions.

Question 8

A research design can be defined as the detailed blueprint used to guide the implementation of a research study towards the realization of its objectives.

Question 9

The difference between laboratory and field experiments is whether variables are manipulated in an artificial or a natural setting.

Question 10

A researcher should only use a secondary source after all primary sources have been exhausted.

Question 11

Descriptive research can be thought of as a snapshot of some aspect of the marketing environment at a particular point in time.

Question 12

Descriptive research can be used to find out how a company should change its product or what kinds of potential customers it should appeal to.

Question 13

Among the many decisions involved in designing a research study, the decision of how the data will be obtained is not one of the most important.

Question 14

Exploratory, descriptive, and causal research approaches differ in how precise their hypotheses are and in their data collection methods.

Question 15

Tactical research decisions must be made before the research approach has been chosen.

Question 16

Descriptive research can isolate the cause in a cause-and-effect relationship.

Question 17

The three research approaches - exploratory, descriptive, and causal--are often used to complement each other in a research study.

Question 18

Using outside research suppliers will nearly always reduce the credibility of research results.

Question 19

Asking experts their opinions and doing depth and focus-group interviews are examples of qualitative research.

Question 20

Because different research methods serve different purposes, a researcher can get into difficulty by combining several methods in a single research study.For that reason, it is best to stick with one method.

Question 21

Response errors occur when the respondent provides inaccurate answers to the research questions.

Question 22

Lower cost and specially skilled personnel can be two good reasons to use outside research suppliers.

Question 23

Design errors are also called research induced errors.

Question 24

The total error in a research study is the difference between the true mean value of the variable being studied and the observed mean value obtained through the research study.

Question 25

Deciding on the sampling plan and anticipating the results of analysis are significant steps in the research process, but at this point it is still too early in the process to allow for a more reliable estimate of the cost of a study.

Question 26

If the expected value of information exceeds the costs of the research project, the project should be shelved.

Question 27

When a detailed cost-benefit analysis is done, one decision alternative is to terminate the research study.

Question 28

The time involved in doing a research study should be considered when calculating the cost of research.An opportunity may be missed if research delays a management decision.

Question 29

Sampling error is maximum when the sample size equals the population.

Question 30

A major challenge that is faced by the researcher in designing the sampling plan is how to minimize nonresponse.

Question 31

Sampling frame error occurs when an inappropriate population is chosen for the research study.

Question 32

In a probability sample, each member of the population has a known probability of being included in the sample.

Question 33

Surrogate information error is the difference or variation between the information required for a marketing research study and the information being sought by a researcher.

Question 34

Because the results of research studies are unpredictable, it is not possible to judge beforehand whether specific cross-tabulations of one question by another will be relevant to the research question.

Question 35

One useful method to anticipate the results of analysis is to produce dummy or fictional data for survey questions and then to analyze that data.

Question 36

After the research objective has been translated into information requirements and then specific questions, data collection is ready to begin.

Question 37

Error caused by the improper design of an experiment is measurement error.

Question 38

Selection error occurs when a sample selected is not representative of the population.

Question 39

When selecting an outside research supplier or consultant, it's important to judge how well the people who will be responsible for the project understand the research objective.

Question 40

Probability sampling should be used whenever it is crucial to have a sample that is representative of the population being studied.

Question 41

Descriptive research is routinely used to discover all of the following except

A)how a product should be distributed.
B)new ideas and hypotheses.
C)how a product should be changed.
D)the target segment for a product.
E)All of these are discovered by descriptive research.

Question 42

Which of the following can be called exploratory research ?

A)experiments
B)observation
C)case studies
D)interviews

Question 43

Descriptive research can be defined as

A)a research approach which is used when a researcher needs general insights into a problem.
B)an approach to determine cause-and-effect relationships.
C)a snapshot of some aspect of the marketing environment at a particular point in time.
D)an approach which isolates all causal factors.
E)none of the above.

Question 44

Data collection methods also vary depending on the managerial style and the culture of the organization

Question 45

Which research approaches) is/are more often guided by an initial hypothesis?

A)Exploratory research
B)Descriptive research
C)Causal research
D)Exploratory and descriptive research
E)Descriptive and causal research

Question 46

The difference between primary and secondary data centers on

A)who collected the data
B)the variables the data describe
C)why the data was collected
D)the richness of the data
E)the diversity of the data

Question 47

A research proposal does not generally contain

A)description of the research design
B)definition of the problem
C)expected results
D)all of the above

Question 48

If brand preference data is collected instead of brand purchase data, the following error is said to be ommitted.

A)surrogate information error
B)population definition error
C)non-response error
D)measurement error
E)none of the above

Question 49

One of the research tactics is to translate the research objectives into questions that can be answered by the respondents and then into information requirements.

Question 50

Constraints, budgeting and scheduling activities ensure that the resources are used effectively and efficiently.

Question 51

Exploratory research is used 1-when there is little prior knowledge to work from. 2-to gain insight into the general nature of a problem. 3-to identify the relevant variables and possible decision alternatives.

A)1
B)2
C)3
D)1, 2, and 3
E)1 and 2

Question 52

Graphical evaluation and review techniques are essentially a first-generation PERT approach to scheduling, in which both the completion probabilities and activity costs to be built into a network representation are considered.

Question 53

Although research approaches can be classified into one of three general categories of research, there is no significant difference between the categories.

Question 54

GANTT charts are activity flowcharts that schematically represent the activity, time, and personnel requirements of a research project.

Question 55

To find out the effect of price on sales of a particular brand, the most appropriate research design would be

A)exploratory research
B)causal research
C)descriptive research
D)primary research
E)none of the above

Question 56

The absence of structure in an exploratory research permits a thorough pursuit of interesting ideas and clues about the problem situation

Question 57

To find out if the automobile purchased is related to the buyer's income, one would use

A)descriptive research
B)exploratory research
C)causal research
D)none of the above

Question 58

PERT is a network approach that divides the marketing research project into multiple components and estimates the time required for each activity.

Question 59

A causal approach should be used when 1-there exists a knowledge of the research problem, the decision alternatives, and the relevant variables. 2-only speculative hypotheses exist. 3-the research methods can be highly flexible. 4-the researcher must show that one variable determines the values of another variable.

A)1
B)2
C)3
D)4
E)1 and 4

Question 60

One of the dangers of failing to do exploratory research is that of

A)not being able to develop measurement scales.
B)not being able to make specific predictions.
C)researching the wrong hypothesis.
D)being unable to determine a causal relationship.
E)being unable to eliminate causal factors.

Question 61

Which of the following are not types of qualitative research?

A)Mail questionnaires from members of a consumer panel
B)Field experiments
C)Depth interviews
D)Focus-group
E)Mail questionnaires from members of a consumer panel and field experiments

Question 62

Tactical decisions concern

A)issues pertaining to foreign market selection, market and mode of entry
B)micro-level implementation issues in global markets
C)Critical Path Method for global decisions
D)research objective.
E)elimination of error in entering foreign markets

Question 63

Of the following research questions, which could not be answered by exploratory research? 1-How does revenue vary with the size of our company's sales staff? 2-What do customers expect from our product? 3-What are the alternative means of transportation for urban commuters? 4-Are customers satisfied with our product?

A)1
B)2
C)3
D)4
E)1 and 3

Question 64

The issues) critical to international research design is/are 1-determining information requirements. 2-achieving equivalence of measurement, construct, and sample. 3-determining the unit of analysis.

A)1
B)2
C)3
D)1, 2, and 3
E)1 and 2 only

Question 65

The probability based scheduling approach that recognizes and measures the uncertainty of the project completion times is the

A)GANTT chart.
B)PERT chart.
C)Critical Path Method.
D)GERT chart.
E)none of the above.

Question 66

____________ occurs when an inappropriate population is chosen to obtain data for the research study.

A)Selection error
B)Sampling frame error
C)Population specification error
D)Nonprobability error
E)Population error

Question 67

To" anticipate the analysis of data" means that a researcher should

A)write down all of his or her expectations and report those findings which confirm a priori beliefs.
B)plan how each of the data items is to be analyzed.
C)expect that the data may sometimes be more interesting than useful.
D)expect that occasionally the data will not successfully test the hypotheses.
E)do all of these

Question 68

If an interviewer fabricates the responses to a survey, it induces an) __________ error.

A)recording
B)interference
C)interviewer
D)questioning
E)personnel

Question 69

A ___________ escribes a plan for conducting and controlling a research project

A)action plan
B)research proposal.
C)Critical Path Method.
D)research objective.
E)control plan.

Question 70

Global strategic decisions concern

A)issues pertaining to foreign market selection, market and mode of entry
B)micro-level implementation issues in global markets
C)Critical Path Method for global decisions
D)research objective.
E)elimination of error in entering foreign markets

Question 71

A detailed cost-benefit analysis of a research study may conclude that 1-the project is not cost effective and should be terminated. 2-a smaller sample should be used. 3-a different methodology should be used.

A)1
B)2
C)3
D)1, 2, and 3
E)only 1 or 2

Question 72

Rainbow Airlines has experienced a continuing and unexplained decline in the number of tickets sold on its major routes from New York to San Francisco.You have been asked to give the Senior Vice- President of the Marketing Division a report on the problem and to Outline alternative courses of action for the airline to take.How would you start?

A)Descriptive research
B)A survey of Rainbow Airlines' passengers
C)A survey of passengers who patronize competing airlines
D)Exploratory research
E)Causal research

Question 73

The research proposal may

A)influence the decision to find a proposed study.
B)record the agreement between a manager and a researcher.
C)serve to reduce misunderstanding.
D)summarize the major decisions in the research process.
E)do all of these.

Question 74

Good reasons to use an outside research supplier may include all of the following except

A)lower cost.
B)lack of confidence in the internal research staff.
C)special facilities or expertise.
D)political considerations in the case of an internal policy dispute.
E)the need for high credibility because the research findings will be used in legal proceedings.

Question 75

All of the following are sources of secondary data except

A)syndicated data.
B)the existing company information system.
C)a questionnaire designed to address the research objective.
D)government sources, such as the Census Bureau.
E)trade association studies and reports.

Question 76

The sampling plan may describe all of the following except

A)how demographic questions will be cross-tabulated.
B)how a subgroup of the population of interest will be chosen.
C)the size of the sample.
D)how to minimize the effects of nonresponse by sample members.
E)what kind of sample to use, probability or nonprobability.

Question 77

Sources of secondary data are:

A)the existing company information system
B)databanks of other organizations
C)syndicated data sources
D)all of the above
E)none of the above

Question 78

Sampling error is

A)the difference between a true measure obtained from the population and a measure obtained from a sample representing the
Population.
B)the difference between the expected measure of the population and a true measure obtained from the population.
C)the difference between the expected measure of the sample and a true measure obtained from the sample in a previous study.
D)a researcher induced error.
E)none of the above.