Rres 351understanding Bus Terms and Research Partii

University of Phoenix Material

Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 2

Which type of research design— exploratory, descriptive, or causal—is appropriate for the following examples? Explain why.

• The goal of this research is to discover the real nature of the problem and to suggest new possible solutions or new ideas.

Exploratory – The researcher is trying to determine the problem and will need to do some exploratory work to determine possible solutions.

• A food manufacturer wants to know the demographics of people who purchase organic foods.

Descriptive – The food manufacturer is trying to understand the demographics of the market in order to develop a strategy for selling organic foods.

• A firm is considering hiring American celebrity Paris Hilton to endorse its products.

Casual – The film company is using a celebrity as a stimulus-response to sell a product.

• British Airways would like to test in-flight Internet services on one of its regular flights from New York to Tokyo. The company charges $30 one week and $15 the next week.

Casual – The airlines uses asymmetrical relationships to determine which price point will cause change in the dependent variable (response) for the in-flight internet service.

• This type of study attempts to discover answers to the following questions: who, what, when, where, or how much.

Descriptive – This type of study provides descriptions of phenomena or characteristics associated with a subject population.

• A manufacturer investigates whether consumers will buy a new pill that replaces eating a meal.

Exploratory – The manufacturer is testing the pill as a way to forma hypothesis to the question.

• Cosmopolitan magazine sends out a cover in selected markets featuring a female model to half of its readers and a cover with a female and male model to the other half of its readers to test differences in purchase response between the two groups.

Casual - The magazine is using causation to see if more people respond to the magazine featuring just the female model on the cover or the issue featuring both the female and male model on the cover.

• A hair-care manufacturer interviews wholesalers, retailers, and customers to determine the potential for a new shampoo package.

Exploratory - The hair-care manufacture is using qualitative techniques to determine the experience and need of each group. This will allow the manufacturer to form a new hypothesis about the new product from different perspectives.

• This type of research attempts to capture a population’s characteristics by making inference from a sample’s characteristics and testing hypotheses.

Descriptive - Descriptive studies forms investigative questions or hypothesis about the size, form, distribution, or existence of a variable.

• On the CBS television show Undercover Boss, top executives disguised as middle level or lower level employees investigate company departments to discover potential issues or problems.

Exploratory – The top executives are trying to learn more about potential issues and problems by using observation as a way to explore first-hand what the employees’ experience.