Verified Test Bank The Marketing Research Process Chapter 3

Test Bank

CHAPTER 3 The Marketing Research Process

_________

True-False

1. The research process consists of connected stages or steps that

guide a project from its conception to the final analysis,

recommendations, and ultimate action.

2. The sole involvement of the Marketing Planning and Information

System in the marketing research process consists of pointing out

the need for research.

3. The single most important element of good research is the

development of a research purpose that links the research to

decision making.

4. Planning is supported by the information system, which (1) anticipates the

type of information required by decision makers and (2) organizes data that

have been collected to ensure their availability when needed.

5. The development of a research purpose and the formulation of research objectives

that serve to guide the research unfortunately are the least important steps in

the research process.

6. A hypothesis is a possible answer to a research question

7. IMR is more complicated because of the necessity to ensure construct,

measurement, sampling, and analysis equivalence before any cross‐cultural study is

conducted.

8. The specification of research tactics is the most important part of

the research process.

9. Researchers have the option to undertake the marketing research process F sequentially or non-sequentially

10. Research that will not affect management decisions has no practical

value.

11. In marketing research, the obvious problem is the one which should

first be addressed. This may save the cost of exploratory research

and will sooner or later reveal the underlying problem.

12. Researchers should know the objectives and expectations of the

managers making decisions, since that will result in a higher

probability of research acceptance.

13. The research objective is a statement of the information that is

needed. This objective should be consistent with the decision

described in the research purpose.

14. There are three elements in the research objective: the research

questions which specify the information needed; hypotheses which are

alternative answers to the research questions; and an outline of the

research design.

15. Even if the results of a project fail to answer the research

question, the information still helps the decision maker.

16. The role of the research objective is to provide guidance to the

research design. The more specific the research question, the less

valuable is the guidance.

17. In general, more specification is added to the research question

when a hypothesis (the anticipated answer to the research question)

is stated.

18. More than one hypothesis will tend to make the research question

more general. For that reason, researchers should usually limit

themselves to developing only one hypothesis.

19. A hypothesis should always be stated, even if it is a simple

restatement of the research question, since the creation of

hypothesis is part of the formal marketing plan.

20. Probably the most important source of a hypothesis is a combination

of a manager's past experience with similar problems and the use of

judgment.

21. In an effort to avoid redundant research, it is important to

indicate the scope of the research. The more important the purpose

of the research, the broader the scope should be.

22. The value of perfect information is always positive.

23. The value of perfect information is calculated to provide the

manager with an estimate of how much he should spend on research.

24. If a decision will not be affected by the research results, the

value of perfect information is zero.

25. The value of perfect information is calculated as the sum of the

probability of obtaining the k-th research result times the value of

the k-th research result, where the k are the different research

results.

26. Foreign market opportunity analysis is a frequent reason to conduct

international marketing research

27. There is no difference in the level of complication between an

international and domestic marketing research.

28. The major reason for failure of businesses in foreign environment's

has been the Self-Reference Criterion adopted by researchers in

defining the problem in a foreign country.

29. Self-Reference Criterion assumes that the environmental variables

that are prevalent in the researcher's home market are also

applicable to the foreign country.

30. The objective of foreign market opportunity analysis is to gather

information on questions to help the management narrow down the

possibilities for international marketing activities.

31. A specific research purpose can have only a specific research question.

32. Identifying loyal customers and doing targeted marketing are essential

components in opportunity analysis

33. A concept test is employed to determine if a concept should be developed further

34. Hypothesis development and research boundaries help the researcher make

the research question more specific

Multiple Choice

Veekay Co. recently developed a new line of computers. Prior to the introduction the management felt that the product had 40% chance of being extremely successful, 20% chance of being successful, and 40% chance of failing. If extremely successful the product would generate $15 million in profits over the planning period, if successful $10 million, and if it failed the result would be loss of $5 million. If Veekay does not introduce this new line, they will stay with the current product and realize a profit of $5 million based on the company’s projections.

Based on the above information, answer the following questions:

1. What is the expected value to Veekay of introducing the new line of personal computers?

1. $8.4 million
2. $6.0 million
3. $9.8 million
4. $5.0 million
5. $9.4 million
6. If Veekay bases their decision only on expected values, should they introduce

the new line of personal computers?

1. yes
2. no
3. they would be indifferent
4. not enough information is given
5. they should provide free sample instead of doing any market research
6. What is the expected value under certainty?
7. $8.4 million
8. $7.0 million
9. $9.8 million
10. $5.0 million
11. $10.0 million
12. The research director was asked what the total cost of the research would be

He stated that after including all the expenses of the test market, salaries, wages,

outside consulting fees etc. the total cost would be $4.4 million. Should the

company do the research study proposed by the director?

1. yes
2. no
3. does not make any difference, expected profits are the same either way
4. not enough information to complete the decision tree and all calculations
5. not enough time to do a decision tree

5. Which of the following is the most essential characteristic of good decision making

information?

1. accuracy
2. currency
3. sufficiency
4. relevancy

6. The Bayesian approach to decision making

1. assigns probabilities to each state of nature based on relative

frequency probabilities

1. uses personal probabilities reflecting the decision maker’s

confidence in the truth of a specific proposition

1. is based on the principle of insufficient reason
2. assumes complete ignorance about the true state of nature
3. The most important activity stage in the marketing research process is
4. marketing problem or opportunity identification
5. marketing research project design
6. data collection
7. preparing and presentation of the research report
8. Statistical hypotheses are
9. qualitative in nature
10. usually selected in a positive form
11. incapable of definitive testing
12. either accepted or rejected

Use the following information for questions 9 - 11:

The decision tree below was prepared for the introduction of a new

product. Which of the following is true?

0.5

Very successful ($800,000)

Introduce 0.2

Moderately successful ($300,000)

0.3

Not successful (-$200,000)

Don't Introduce

9. The expected value under uncertainty is

1. $520,000
2. $460,000
3. $400,000
4. $120,000
5. $60,000

10. The expected value under certainty is

1. $520,000
2. $460,000
3. $400,000
4. $120,000
5. $60,000

11. The expected value of perfect information (EVPI) is

1. $400,000
2. $120,000
3. $60,000
4. $0
5. -$60,000

12. Which of the following is not true of a hypothesis? They

1. may be accepted or rejected
2. are merely a restatement of a research question
3. may be unproven
4. are all of the above

13. Which of the following is not true about the research process?

a. It is a systematic, planned approach.

b. It ensures that the stages of the research project will be independent of each other.

c. It guides the project from conception to the final analysis and presentation of results.

d. It creates a consistency between the research design and the research purpose.

e. All of these are true.

14. Which of the following is not a part of the research process?

a. Formulation of the problem

b. Calculating the expected value of the project

c. Analyzing the data

d. Discussing the background of the research with decision makers

e. All of these are part of the research process.

15. Which of the following should be understood before developing the research purpose?

a. The decision alternatives and means of choosing among them

b. The timing and importance of the decision to be made

c. Anticipated problems or opportunities

d. The expectations and objectives of the research users

e. All of these

16. Which of the following statements regarding the relationship between

research users and researchers is false?

a. When an internal problem is being studied, the researcher should

not know the identities of the research users.

b. The more a researcher knows about the objectives of the research

users, the more valuable the researcher is likely to be.

c. The larger the problem, the more difficult it tends to be for

researcher to maintain contact with the research users.

d. They should have a shared understanding of decision alternatives,

the importance of the decision, and the problems or opportunities

that are anticipated.

e. All of these are true.

17. Which of the following could be the covert purpose for a research study?

a. Postponement of an awkward decision, such as recalling an old product.

b. A desire to give the researcher responsibility for a difficult decision.

c. A manager's need for public relations for his programs.

d. A manager's desire to confirm the wisdom of a decision which has already been made.

e. All of these

18. The research question

a. refers to the question of whether or not to proceed at each

evaluation point in the research project.

b. should not be specified in research involving internal problem-solving.

c. should be prepared in general terms.

d. asks what specific information is needed to achieve the research purpose.

e. should be consistent with the research purpose, with only one

question stated for each purpose.

19. Which of the following is not true about hypotheses?

a. A hypothesis is a possible answer to a research question.

b. A hypothesis usually adds specificity to a research question.

c. Only one hypothesis is concerned with each specific research purpose.

d. The alternative hypothesis is often obvious and need not be stated.

e. Not all situations require the development of hypotheses.

20. Sources of information to develop hypotheses include

a. previous research.

b. exploratory research specifically designed to come up with a hypothesis.

c. different academic fields, such as psychology, sociology, and marketing.

d. a manager's past experience.

e. all of these.

21. In estimating the value of research information, which of the following should

not be calculated?

a. The expected value of the decision

b. The probability of obtaining each outcome

c. How the research would affect the expected value of the decision

d. The amount to be gained or lost corresponding with each outcome

e. The value of additional information

22. A decision tree represents

1. decision alternatives.

2. the uncertainty involved in the decision process.

3. the path that the research process will follow.

a. 1

b. 2

c. 3

d. 1 and 2

e. 1, 2, and 3

23. The research design does not involve

a. determining the sampling plan.

b. decisions on the sampling frame.

c. collection of the data to be used.

d. creating the questionnaire.

e. selection of the research approach.

24. Gathering information on questions that would help the management to

narrow down the possibilities for their marketing activities in an

international context is called

a. an exploratory survey.

b. foreign market opportunity analysis.

c. programmatic research.

d. formalized research.

e. international research.

25. Assuming that the environmental variables prevalent in the

researcher's domestic market is also applicable to the foreign country is called

a. Self-Reference Criterion.

b. ethnocentricity.

c. geocentricity.

d. home country affiliation.

e. none of the above.

26. Research studies evolve through a number of steps which are linked

a. sequentially

b. randomly.

c. geographically.

d. they are not linked

e. symmetrically

27. The following is not a part of the Research Objectives

a. research question.

b. analysis of results.

c. development of hypotheses.

d. scope.

e. all of the above

28. Research problems in cross-cultural contexts are due to:

1. differences in socioeconomic conditions,
2. levels of economic development,
3. differences in any of the macroenvironmental factors
4. all of the above
5. none of the above