RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR MARKETING
Instructional goals
The course will examine the specific issues involved in developing and
implementing marketing research to solve a managerial decision
problem. Students will obtain computer skills such as SPSS for Statistics.
Knowledge from this course can be also used for writing a master thesis.
Attention will be focused on such issues as:• Explain and discuss
procedural and methodological factors that play a role whenassessing
marketing research projects.• Discuss the various procedures used for
data collection• Explain and be capable in making a questionnaire•
Explain and discuss in detail the use and application of attitude scales
inmarketing research• Explain the fundamentals of sampling in
marketing research• Explain techniques to check and describe data
(frequency tables, crosstabulations,..)• Perform and interpret parametric
and non-parametric tests• Explain the right multivariate technique for
data analysis given a marketingresearch problem• Know the objectives,
use and interpretation of multivariate data-analysistechniques (e.g.,
regression, factor analysis, ANOVA...)• Understand the report preparation
process and practice it
Intended learning outcomes
This course will contribute to empower students by advancing their knowledge on the statistical and analytical tools needed for solving specific marketing –related problems. Additionally, these capabilities will help students in developing their master thesis. They will be able to critically understand research papers and to propose their own research project.
Individual final exams and team research projects will be particularly useful to assess these skills. Importantly, the intermediate feedbacks planned as a moment o “one-to-one” encounter between the teaching group and students teams will be particularly useful to guide and support students during their learning process and to assess their improvements.
Final exams and team projects will be particularly useful for assessing students’ learning skills.
Course Contents
The course will be divided into three main parts. The first part discusses
research process in depth to write a marketing research report. In
particular, the main issues associated with quantitative research design,
data collection, data collection techniques, questionnaire and experiment
design are discussed.In the second part, an overview of basic statistics
and computer skills ‘SPSS’ is provided. Key topics covered in this part
include exploratory data analysis, univariate and bivariate hypothesis
testing.In the third part, frequent and relevant marketing research
problems, including profiling for predictive modelling, ad-copy testing,
customer value analysis, and positioning are examined. For these
problems, multivariate statistic techniques (e.g. regression, ANOVA,
factor and reliability analyses) will be examined and indicated with SPSS.
Reference Books
Malhotra, N.K., David F. Birks, Peter Wills, “Marketing Research, An
applied
approach”, Fourth edition (check amazon.it), ISBN-10:0273725858, ISBN
Teaching Methods
1. Conventional lectures and practice in computer lab;
2. Team works (written marketing research report);
3. Guest speaker from the business community;
Assessment Method
1. Written Final Exam: 20%
2. Written marketing research project (team project): 50%
3. 30% Assignments
Thesis assignment criteria
final evaluation at least equal to 27/30
Does the syllabus cover sustainability topics?
yes, students will be exposed to different researchs focused on sustainability
Week 1 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Course overview
Introduction to Marketing Research
2. Descriptive Research Design: Quantitative Observation techniques,
Survey
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapters 1-3, 10
Week 2 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Causal Research Design: Experimentation
2. Measurement and scaling
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapters 11, 12, 13
Week 3 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Questionnaire Design
2. Computer Lab 1: Preparing a survey with Qualtrics
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapters 12-13
Week 4 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 2: SPSS introduction, importing survey data from
Qualtrics to SPSS
2. Sampling: Design and Procedures
Sampling: Final and Initial Sample Size Determination
Malhotra, Birks, Wills:
Chapters 14-15
Basic Statistics
Week 5 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Exploratory data analysis: Data preparation, Frequency Distribution,
Cross-tabulation, summary statistics
2. Computer Lab 3: Data screening, Descriptive statistics
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapters 17-18
Week 6 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Scale validity: factor analyses
Scale reliability: reliability analysis
2. Computer Lab 4: Reliability analyses
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapters 22, 12
Week 7 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 5: Factor analysis
2. Hypothesis Testing, Tests for differences between groups and
relationship between Variables (t-tests, chi-square)
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapter 18
Week 8 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 6: Chisquare and t-tests
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapter 19
2. Analyzing marketing experiments: Analysis of Variance and Covariance
Week 9 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 7: ANOVA
2. Predictive models: regression and correlation
Malhotra, Birks, Wills: Chapter 20
Week 10 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 8: Correlation and Regression
2. Predictive models: Moderating and mediating effect, dummy variables,
report preparation
Malhotra, Birks, Wills, Chapter 20, 26
Malhotra, Birks, Wills Chapter 20
Week 11 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 9: Moderating and mediating effect
2. Computer Lab 10: Dummy variables
Week 12 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
1. Computer Lab 9: Moderating and mediating effect
2. Computer Lab 10: Dummy variables