Problem5 Research Design5 Data Course 2 Assignmen

Assignment 5: Research Report (10%)

In this assignment, you will write a report summarizing your research findings, implications and conclusion. This is the final step of your research project.

Introduction

In this assignment, you will write a marketing research report that will summarize the research that you have conducted so far. You will need to apply the material from the whole course to complete this assignment. The feedback that you have received on past assignments will be especially helpful as you can integrate them into this assignment.

Instructions

Write a concise research report that includes the elements of a marketing research report. You will document and analyze your findings to date and then make recommendations for future course of actions, including future research.

In a report of approximately to 1,500 words, prepare a research report. Information on most of the sections is on pages 550 to 553 in your textbook, and review Topic 4 in Module 6 prior to actually writing. Be sure to focus on answering the marketing research problem and on how it can provide insight to the management decision problem. Highlight the specific research components that you set out to accomplish. Many of the issues have been discussed in your earlier assignments, so make sure to include what is relevant.

Your report must include the following sections:

1. Title page: This is not included in your word count.
2. Executive summary (approximately 150–200 words): Be concise! Include:
   1. The chosen product and its associated management problem and marketing research problem
   2. Explanation of why the research was undertaken
   3. Goals of the study (i.e., what it set out to do)
   4. What the procedures and methods are
   5. Major findings (include some percentages to support your claims), recommendations, and conclusions of the study
3. Introduction and problem definition: Introduce the research study briefly. State precisely what you are setting out to study. Briefly describe and justify your management decision problem and the marketing research problem.
4. Approach to the problem: If you have adopted a theory or a model to guide the study, describe it here. If you haven’t, briefly discuss your development of the research hypotheses and research components—the research sub-questions. Remember, you have used at least three research components (or issues) in your focus group study.
5. Research design: This is about the how of the study. Discuss the procedures and methods of the study and justify briefly all the choices that you’ve made. Concentrate on making this short, clear, and informative because most of the methods have been discussed in earlier assignments. Save space (word counts) for the next few sections.
6. Data analysis: Describe what tools and statistical methods you have used in data analysis, and why.
7. Results: This will be the bulk of your report. Organize the results in a coherent and logical way that supports your arguments. Gear the presentation and interpretation of the results directly to the research components discussed in the approach to the problem and the required information that you have suggested in the research proposal (i.e., the initial goals of this study).In quantitative research, you goal is to quantify your results in tables and graphs. However, tables and graphs can’t explain itself; you need to interpret those data. For example, 50% of the samples take buses. The reader will not understand the meaning of 50% unless you have indicated that it is good, bad, or beyond the normal when comparing to the past data.Use frequency distributions on ALL questions (also known as descriptive statistics) and employ at least two (2) cross-tabulations (multivariate analysis) in answering your marketing research problem. You need to identify relationships, statistical significance, and strength of relationships of your cross-tab analysis. In addition, you must use at least two (2) tables and two (2) graphs in your report. Be sure to properly label, reference, and number everything in APA style. Also, ensure that everything you write is relevant to your marketing research problem. If you have forgotten how to conduct the above analysis, go back to Topic 3 in Module 6.
8. Limitations and caveats: Consider the trade-offs that you made and acknowledge the limitations that resulted.
9. Conclusions and recommendations: In this section, summarize your interpretations in light of the problem being addressed and demonstrate your critical thinking skill in arriving conclusions of this study. Discuss the various insights you have learned based on the results/findings and why managers should care. Based on your findings, recommend and justify a follow-up research that you think is appropriate in order to fully understand this research problem. Be very clear about how you will improve on your research design (e.g., the target population, survey method, survey questions, size of sample, etc.).

Note

Owing to the practical limitations of the course, you only conducted an exploratory research using secondary research, a focus group, and a pilot survey (a small sample of twenty). You probably notice that this is too small a sample to draw serious conclusions for management decisions. However, you should demonstrate that your research effort is somewhat useful for management decision making.

Presentation Standards: Guidelines for Writing

• Paragraphs are unified, developed, and coherent, with transitions between ideas.
• Sentences are grammatically correct; words are chosen for accuracy and impact.
• Writing follows the conventions of spelling and mechanics (punctuation, etc.).
• Documentation follows APA style accurately and consistently.
• Assignment is submitted in double-line spacing and uses 12-point Times New Roman font.
• Templates provided by MS Word are not used.