Test Bank Chapter 4 Research Design and Implementation

Test Bank

CHAPTER 4 Research Design and Implementation

True-False

1. 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.

2. The choice of research approach determines how the data will be obtained

3. Tactical research decisions must be made before the research

approach has been chosen.

4. 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.

5. Exploratory, descriptive, and causal research approaches differ in

how precise their hypotheses are and in their data collection

methods.

6. Exploratory research is characterized by research methods that are

highly structured.

7. In exploratory research, hypotheses may be very vague or may not

exist at all.

8. Exploratory research may be useful in finding out what kinds of

questions the respondents will be willing or able to answer.

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

relationship.

10. 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.

11. Descriptive research can be thought of as a snapshot of some aspect

of the marketing environment at a particular point in time.

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

specific.

13. The three research approaches — exploratory, descriptive, and

causal--are often used to complement each other in a research study.

14. A researcher should only use a secondary source after all primary

sources have been exhausted.

15. Without evidence of a relationship or an association between two variables,

we would have no basis for even inferring that causality might be present.

16. Asking experts their opinions and doing depth and focus-group

interviews are examples of qualitative research.

17. 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.

18. Because different research methods serve different purposes,

researcher can get into difficulty by combining several methods in

single research study. For that reason, it is best to stick with one

method.

19. Probability sampling should be used whenever it is crucial to have

sample that is representative of the population being studied.

20. In a probability sample, each member of the population has a known

probability of being included in the sample.

21. A major challenge that is faced by the researcher in designing the

sampling plan is how to minimize nonresponse.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. When a detailed cost-benefit analysis is done, one decision

alternative is to terminate the research study.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Design errors are also called research induced errors.

29. Sampling frame error occurs when an inappropriate population is

chosen for the research study.

30. Selection error occurs when a sample selected is not representative

of the population.

31. 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.

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

error.

33. Response errors occur when the respondent provides inaccurate

answers to the research questions.

34. PERT is a network approach that divides the marketing research

project into multiple components and estimates the time required for

each activity.

35. GANTT charts are activity flowcharts that schematically represent

the activity, time, and personnel requirements of a research

project.

36. Although research approaches can be classified into one of three general

categories of research, there is no significant difference between the categories.

37. 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.

38. Constraints, budgeting and scheduling activities ensure that the resources

are used effectively and efficiently.

39. 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.

40. The absence of structure in an exploratory research permits a thorough pursuit

of interesting ideas and clues about the problem situation

41. A research proposal should be viewed as a persuasive device that demonstrates

the researcher’s grasp of the problem and ability to conduct the research and also

highlights the benefits of the study.

Multiple Choice

1. The difference between primary and secondary data centers on
2. who collected the data
3. the variables the data describe
4. why the data was collected
5. the richness of the data
6. the diversity of the data
7. The detailed blueprint used to guide a research study toward its objectives refers to
8. research design
9. primary data
10. secondary data
11. Sampling error
12. If brand preference data is collected instead of brand purchase data, the following

error is said to be committed.

1. surrogate information error
2. population definition error
3. non-response error
4. measurement error
5. none of the above
6. To find out the effect of price on sales of a particular brand, the most

appropriate research design would be

1. exploratory research
2. causal research
3. descriptive research
4. primary research
5. none of the above
6. Ensuring that the meaning of stress is understood in the same way across

countries is called as

1. construct equivalence
2. measurement equivalence
3. sample equivalence
4. none of the above
5. Which of the following can be called exploratory research ?
6. experiments
7. observation
8. case studies
9. interviews
10. To find out if the automobile purchased is related to the buyer’s income, one would use
11. descriptive research
12. exploratory research
13. causal research
14. none of the above
15. A research proposal does not generally contain
16. description of the research design
17. definition of the problem
18. expected results
19. all of the above

9. 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

10. 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

particular point in time.

d. an approach which isolates all causal factors.

e. none of the above.

11. 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

12. _____ is/are collected especially to address a specific research objective.

a. Causal research

b. Secondary data

c. Primary data

d. PERT data

13. 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.

14. Which research approach(es) 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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. Which of the following is a type of response error?

a. Sampling frame error

b. Recording error

c. Selection error

d. Interference error

e. Data error

18. 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

19. Which of the following is not a design error?

a. Sampling frame error

b. Recording error

c. Selection error

d. Measurement error

e. Experimental error

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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

23. When conducting research in different countries, researchers must pay greater attention to issues like:

1. Understanding the nature and type of information sought
2. Achieving equivalence of samples and measures across countries and cultures
3. Learning the cost of conducting research in multiple countries
4. Availability and comparability of data
5. All of the above

24. ________ 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

25. 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

true measure obtained from the sample in a previous study.

d. a researcher induced error.

e. none of the above.

26. If an interviewer fabricates the responses to a survey, it induces

a(n) __________ error.

a. recording

b. interference

c. interviewer

d. questioning

e. personnel

27. 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.

28. The issue(s) 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

29. A(n) ___________ describes a plan for conducting and controlling

research project.

a. action plan

b. research proposal

c. Critical Path Method

d. research objective

e. control plan

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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