The course aims to provide students with the skills necessary to conduct effective marketing research using qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Students will acquire skills in using statistical software useful for these purposes (e.g. SPSS) and in interpreting the results of the conducted analyses to support marketing decisions. In detail, the course aims to: • Illustrate the procedures and methods to develop a marketing research project; • Provide the basis for defining a marketing research problem and for searching and using relevant academic literature; • Discussing the various qualitative and quantitative procedures used for data collection; • Creating a structured questionnaire through Qualtrics; • Describe the use and application of measurement scales in marketing research; • Explaining the fundamentals of sampling in marketing research; • Explaining the techniques to check and describe data (e.g., frequency tables, cross-tabulations); • Performing and interpreting parametric and non-parametric tests in SPSS; • Identifying the right multivariate technique for data analysis given a marketing research problem; • Understanding objectives, use and interpretation of multivariate data-analysis techniques (e.g., regression, factor analysis, ANOVA); • Conduct mediation and moderation analyses using the PROCESS macro for SPSS; • Understanding how to prepare a research report

• Knowledge and understanding: At the end of the course students will acquire knowledge on the qualitative and quantitative research tools needed to solve specific marketing-related problems; • Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: At the end of the course students will be able to design and manage the marketing research process, adopting data collection tools (Qualtrics) and software for statistical analysis (SPSS). Additionally, these capabilities will help students in developing marketing research projects. They will be able to critically understand research papers and to propose their own research project; • Independent judgment: At the end of the course, students will acquire the ability to analyze marketing problems and to identify the right insights for their solution. Specifically, they will be able to apply the acquired knowledge to design marketing research, analyze data critically and draw informed conclusions. Further capabilities (critical thinking, problem solving, team-working) will be adequately developed, thus enhancing their interdisciplinary skills. These abilities will be acquired both during the lessons and through intermediate assignments; • Communication skills: Students will acquire adequate skills and tools for data management and research reporting, both to specialist and non-specialist users; • Learning skills: The course aims to develop methodological and analytical skills to develop a marketing research project and demonstrate theoretical and practical understanding of the qualitative and quantitative research methods available to the researcher. At the end of the course students will be able to autonomously deepen their knowledge on the basis of the acquired competencies

The first part of the course concerns the acquisition of basic knowledge related to the marketing research process, the steps to write a marketing research report, the knowledge of qualitative research tools, the creation of online questionnaires using Qualtrics, and sampling techniques. In particular, the main problems associated with research design, data collection techniques, and the questionnaire will be discussed, and basic elements on experiments will be provided. The second part provides an overview of the quantitative tools and basic statistics available to the marketing researcher using the SPSS software. Main topics covered in this part include the analysis of exploratory data, univariate and bivariate tests, as well as the methods of conducting analyses useful for solving frequent marketing problems (t-tests, regression models, analysis of experiments, mediation/moderation approaches). Details of the course content are reported in the “Weeks” section that follows.

• Malhotra, N.K. (2019), “Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation (7th Ed.)”, Global Edition, Pearson • Slides will be posted on the course website (Luiss Learn) after each lecture • Additional suggested textbooks: Field, A. (2024) “Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics”, Sage; Hayes, A.F. (2022), “Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach (3rd Ed.)”, Guilford Press

1. In-class lectures; 2. Lab sessions; 3. Exercises and intermediate assignments

For attending (compliant) students, the final grade is computed as follows: • Intermediate assignment: 30%; • Final written exam: 70%. Final exam structure for attending (compliant) students (70 mins.): - 3 open questions (6 points each); - 6 multiple choices (1 point each); - 3 multiple choices (2 points each) *** Non-attending (non-compliant) students’ evaluation rules: • Written exam (100% final grade) In addition to the attendant students’ programme, they are required to study extra chapters (18, 20 and 21) from the textbook (Malhotra). Final exam structure (100 mins.): - 4 open questions (4 points each); - 9 multiple choices (1 point each); - 3 multiple choices (2 points each)

Students are required to prepare a preliminary research proposal that will be evaluated by the teaching team