MRSyllabus_E0211.v1

Master of Science in Business Administration

MARKETING RESEARCH

Academic Year: 2013-14 Semester: Fall

Instructor: Fernando S. Machado

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Course Description:

The quality of Marketing decisions largely depends on the information that is made available to decision makers about consumers, markets and relevant products. The main goal of this course is to familiarise students with the instruments and techniques that are commonly used for producing useful information for marketing-related decision making. The course covers the various stages of the marketing research process, from the basic definition of the research problem to the presentation of the research results.

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Course Content:

PART I – INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Role of Marketing Research in Management Decision Making. 1.2 The Marketing Research Process. 1.3 Defining the Research Problem and Objectives

PART II – RESEARCH DESIGN FORMULATION

2.1 Research Designs. 2.2 Qualitative Research. 2.3 Survey Research. 2.4 Measurement and Scaling. 2.5 Questionnaire Design. 2.6 Experimentation in Marketing Research. 2.7 Sampling. PART III – DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS

3.1 Data Preparation. 3.2 Basic Methods of Data Analysis: descriptive statistics and frequency distributions, cross-

tabs, hypothesis testing. 3.3 Analysis of Variance. 3.4 Linear and Logit Regression. 3.5 Multidimentional Scaling. 3.6 Interdependence Techniques: factor analysis and cluster analysis. 3.7 Report preparation and Presentation. __________________________________________________________________________________

MRSyllabus_E0211.v1

Course Objectives:

When completing the course, students are expected to be able to:

• Prepare and elaborate a simple marketing research project, involving the use of basic data analysis techniques;

• Critically evaluate and correctly interpret the results of marketing research projects where more complex research designs and data analysis techniques are used.

Specific objectives of the course include:

• Develop capacity to structure a management problem, and develop and evaluate decision alternatives to its solution;

• Develop the ability to translate a management problem into a feasible research question;

• Acquire a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of alternative research designs, as well as of the main methods for gathering marketing information;

• Develop capacity to select and use appropriate statistical tools in data analysis for solving management problems;

• Become more sensitive to the biases and limitations of marketing data and its analysis;

• Develop capacity to plan, organize and implement projects within working groups;

• Develop the capacity to prepare and deliver oral presentations and written reports.

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Pre-Requisites:

• Command of Statistics and Marketing fundamentals.

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Grading:

• Group Project/Presentation (4 students per group) 30 %

• Class Participation/Homework Assignments 20 %

• Final Exam (*) 50 %

(*) Minimum grade of 8.0 in the final exam is required to pass

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MRSyllabus_E0211.v1

Bibliography:

The main textbook for the course is:

- Aaker, Kumar, Leone and Day (2013), “Marketing Research”, 11th Edition, International Student Version, Wiley.

Various other textbooks can be used alternatively or complementarily, such as:

- Naresh Malhotra (2010), “Marketing Research - An Applied Orientation”, 6th Edition, Pearson Education.

- McDaniel, C. and R. Gates (2012), “Marketing Research”, 9th Edition, Wiley.

- Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012), “Research Methods for Business Students”, 6th Edition, Prentice Hall.

- Edmunds, Holly (1999), “The Focus Group Research Handbook”, American Market Association, NTC Business Books.

- Hair, Black, Babin and Anderson (2010), ”Multivariate Data Analysis: A Global Perspective”, 7th Edition, Pearson Education

A detailed reading list, including book chapters and various articles will be provided in a detailed syllabus.

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Short Bio:

Fernando S. Machado is an Associate Professor at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics. He holds a PhD in Economics (University of Reading, UK) and undergraduate degrees in Economics and in Business Administration (UCP). Formerly he was Associate Dean of Católica-Lisbon, academic director of the International M.Sc. in Business Administration, director of the Center for Applied Studies and member of the board of directors of Católica’s Center for Public Opinion Studies (CESOP). His current research interests revolve around digital piracy, analysis of consumer preferences and consumer valuation of both market and non-market goods, such as health, life expectancy and environmental quality. His research has appeared in refereed international journals such as Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing and Environmental and Resource Economics.

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Contacts and Office hours:

Email: fmachado@ucp.pt Office: 534C (3rd floor) Office Hours: Wednesdays, 9.30-11.00