One-Koat Paint Company has developed a new type of porch paint that it hopes will be the most durable on the market. The R & D group tests the new product against the two leading competing products by using a machine that scrubs until it wears through the coating. One-Koat runs five trials with each products and secures the following results (in thousands of scrubs):
> Use the eight design descriptors in Exhibit 4-2 to profile the research described in the Chapter Snapshots.
> Using the eight design descriptors (Exhibit 4-2), describe a study to determine why enrollment in your major at your university is increasing (decreasing).
> Confronted by low sales, the president of Oaks International, Inc. asks a research company to study the activities of the customer relations department of the corporation. What are some of the important reasons that this research project may fail to make
> Kraft will split off its global snack business this year, naming it Mondelez International. The name came from a massive name suggestion program from Kraft employees, involving more than 1,700 names by more than 1,000 Kraft employees over a five-month pr
> You are the administrative assistant for a division chief in a large holding company that owns several hotels and theme parks. You and the division chief have just come from the CEO’s office, where you were informed that the guest complaints related to h
> You have been asked to determine how hospitals prepare and train volunteers. Since you know relatively little about this subject, how will you find out? Be as specific as possible.
> How did VI use expert interviews during exploration? What were some of the likely questions on VI's interview discussion guides?
> Distinguish between the following: (a) Exploratory and formal studies. (b) Experimental and ex post facto research designs. (c) Descriptive and causal studies.
> Develop the management-research question hierarchy (Exhibits 3-2 and 3-3), citing management dilemma, management question, and research question(s) for each of the following: a. The president of a home health care services firm. b. The vice president o
> Develop the management-research question hierarchy for a management dilemma you face at work or with an organization for which you volunteer.
> You have been approached by the editor of Gentlemen’s Magazine to carry out a research study. The magazine has been unsuccessful in attracting shoe manufacturers as advertisers beause men’s clothing stores are a small and diminishing segment of their bus
> TJX Co., the parent company of T.J. Maxx and other retailers, announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers had been stolen from its IT systems. The company had taken some measures over a
> SupplyCo is a supplier to a number of firms in an industry. Several companies are involved in the manufacturing process—from processed parts to creation of the final product—with each firm adding some value to the product. SupplyCo provides materials and
> Define the distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in a secondary search.
> Explain how each of the five evaluation factors for a secondary source influences its management decision-making value: (a) Purpose, (b) Scope, (c) Authority, (d) Audience, (e) Format
> Using Exhibits 1-8 and 1-9 as your guides, graph the inductions and deductions in the following statements. If there are gaps, supply what is needed to make them complete arguments. a. Repeated studies indicate that economic conditions vary with—and lag
> You observe the following condition: “Our female sales representatives have lower customer defections than do our male sales representatives.” a. Propose the concepts and constructs you might use to study this phenomenon. b. How might any of these concep
> What types of management questions are involved in this project?
> Distinguish among the following sets of items, and suggest the significance of each in a research context:
> Discuss the problems of trading off exploration and pilot testing under tight budgetary constraints. What are the immediate and long-term effects?
> Some questions are answerable by research, and others are not. Using some management problems of your choosing, distinguish between them.
> Researchers recently reported in Cell Metabolism that a natural ingredient found in milk can protect mice against obesity even while they enjoyed diets that were high in fat. Mice given high doses of nicotinamide riboside along with their high-fat meals
> As area sales manager for a company manufacturing and marketing outboard engines, you have been assigned the responsibility of conducting a research study to estimate the sales potential of your products in the domestic (U.S. or Canadian) market. Discuss
> You have received a business research report done by a consultant for your firm, a life insurance company. The study is a survey of customer satisfaction based on a sample of 600. You are asked to comment on its quality. What will you look for?
> Based on an analysis of the last six months’ sales, your boss notices that sales of beef products are declining in your chain’s restaurants. As beef entrée sales decline, so do profits. Fearing beef sales have declined due to several newspaper stories re
> Distinguish between the following and identify the research use of each. a. primary and secondary data b. finding and insight c. census and sample d. management dilemma and research question
> Chipotle Mexican Grill continues to suffer from perception issues after a string of outbreaks including E.coli worried customers about the safety of eating at the fast casual chain. Their strategy for getting customers back into their restaurants was to
> An automobile manufacturer observes the demand for its brand increasing as per capita income increases. Sales increases also follow low interest rates, which ease credit conditions. Buyer purchase behavior is seen to be dependent on age and gender. Other
> Describe logos, ethos, and pathos and how each should influence the research report.
> Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked to recall past events or imagine future ones, the participants’ bodies subliminally acted out the metaphors we commonly conceptualized with the flow of time. With past years, the
> “There is an ‘unhealthy correlation’ between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes,” according to Barclays Capital. Examples include: the world’s first skyscraper, the Equitable Life building in New York (completed in 1873 and coin
> A home pregnancy test claims to be 97 percent accurate when consumers obtain a positive result. To what extent are the variables of “actual clinical condition” and “test readings” related? a. Compute phi, Cramer’s V, and the contingency coefficients for
> The day before your presentation, you are suffering from pounding heart, a slight tremor in your hands, and stomach problems. What specific c measures can you take to build your confidence and reduce performance anxiety?
> What are the three types of learners, and how is the presentation different for each of these groups in your audience?
> In your presentation to a venture capital company, you are pitching your research plan for a smartphone application that does short-term cash flow forecasts. Describe how you would use each type of supporting material to create interest, clarify your poi
> 1. Distinguish between the following: a. Technical report and management report b. The motivated sequence and the cause/effect/solution pattern of organization. c. Jargon and language level. d. Audience analysis and audience profile statement e. Conformi
> Using the data in Exhibit 14-12 for the variable flight service rating 2 and airline (2, 3), test the hypothesis of no difference between means.
> A consumer testing firm is interested in testing two competing antivirus products for personal computers. It wants to know how many strains of virus will be removed. (The data are shown on page 529)
> Following the collapse of the dot-coms in 2000, the Fortune magazine annual list of the 40 richest self-made Americans under the age of 40 revealed some interesting changes. (See table on page 528 and 529) a) Devise a grouping variable to classify the co
> Employers, military, and colleges use aptitude tests to predict how well someone might perform. Recently, critics have said there isn’t much difference in performance above a certain level—that everyone is more or less the same. Now, in a current issue o
> Secure Spearman rank-order correlations for the largest Pearson coefficient in the matrix from question 9. Explain the differences between the two findings.
> Using the following data, X Y 3 6 6 10 9 15 12 24 15 21 18 20 a. Create a scatterplot. b. Find the least-squares line. c. Plot the line on the diagram. d. Predict: Y if X is 10 Y if X is 17.
> A research team conducted a study of soft-drink preferences among residents in a test market prior to an advertising campaign for a new cola product. Of the participants, 130 are teenagers and 130 are adults. The researchers secured the following result
> Using the table data in question 3, compute Somers’s d symmetric and then use opinion as the dependent variable. Decide which approach is best for reporting the decision.
> A polling organization collected data on a sample of 60 registered voters regarding a tax on the market value of equity transactions as one remedy for the budget deficit.
> A researcher for an auto manufacturer is examining preferences for styling features on larger sedans. Buyers were classified as “first time” and “repeat,” resulting in the following table. (The data are shown on page 529) a) Test the hypothesis that buyi
> Describe the relationship between the two variables in the four plots.
> Distinguish between the following: a. Regression coefficient and correlation coefficient. b. r = and ρ = . c. The test of the true slope, the test of the intercept, and r² = . d. r² and r. e. A slope of . f. F and t².
> A computer manufacturer is introducing a new product specifically targeted at the home market and wishes to compare the effectiveness of three sales strategies: computer stores, home electronics stores, and department stores. Numbers of sales by 15 sales
> You do a survey of business students and liberal arts school students to find out how many times a week they read a daily newspaper. In each group, you interview 100 students. You find the following:
> A random sample of students is interviewed to determine if there is an association between class and attitude toward corporations. With the following results, test the hypothesis that there is no difference among students on this attitude. Favorable N
> You contact a random sample of 36 graduates of Western University and learn that their starting salaries averaged $28,000 last year. You then contact a random sample of 40 graduates from Eastern University and find that their average starting salary was
> You are curious about whether the professors and students at your school are of different political persuasions, so you take a sample of 20 professors and 20 students drawn randomly from each population. You find that 10 professors say they are conservat
> You conduct a survey of a sample of 25 members of this year’s graduating business students and find that the average GPA is 3.2. The standard deviation of the sample is 0.4. Over the last 10 years, the average GPA has been 3.0. Is the GPA of this year’s
> What hypothesis testing procedure would you use in the following situations? a) A test classifies applicants as accepted or rejected. On the basis of data on 200 applicants, we test the hypothesis that ad placement success is not related to gender. b) A
> The Casey Anthony murder trial garnered headlines around the world, not just for the gavel-to-gavel news coverage it received but for the ‘not guilty’ verdict on murder for the death of her daughter, Caylee. Casey was also found not guilty on aggravated
> Suggest situations where the researcher should be more concerned with Type II error than with Type I error. a) How can the probability of a Type I error be reduced? A Type II error? b) How does practical significance differ from statistical significance?
> Describe the assumptions for ANOVA, and explain how they may be diagnosed.
> In analysis of variance, what is the purpose of the mean square between and the mean square within? If the null hypothesis is accepted, what do these qualities look like?
> Summarize the steps of hypothesis testing. What is the virtue of this procedure?
> Distinguish between the following: a) Parametric tests and nonparametric tests b) Type I error and Type II error c) Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. d) Acceptance region and rejection region. e) One-tailed tests and two-tailed tests. f) Type I
> In your company’s management development program, there was a heated discussion between some people who claimed, “Theory is impractical and thus no good,” and others who claimed, “Good theory is the most practical approach to problems.” What position wou
> Researchers seek causal relationships by either experimental or ex post facto research designs. (a) In what ways are these two approaches similar? (b) In what ways are they different?
> Why not use more control variables, rather than depend on randomization as the means of controlling extraneous variables?
> Using yourself as the subject, give an example of each of the following asymmetrical relationships: 1. Stimulus-response 2. Property-disposition 3. Disposition-behavior 4. Property-behavior
> Establishing causality is difficult, whether conclusions have been derived inductively or deductively. (a) Explain and elaborate on the implications of this statement. (b) Why is ascribing causality more difficult when conclusions have been reached throu
> At an Apple press event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPad, a new mobile device that is a half-inch thin and weighs 1.5 pounds; plays movies, music, and TV shows; and acts as an e-reader. It is powered with a 1-GHz Apple chip and comes with Wi-Fi a
> A new hire at Mobile Oil, you are asked to assume the management of the Mobile Restaurant Guide. Each restaurant striving to be included in the guide needs to be evaluated. Only a select few restaurants may earn the five-star status. What dimensions woul
> Walmart recently asked Mondelez, owner of Oreos, to bring back a new-and-improved version of its 1990s cereal Oreo O’s. By studying social media comments, Walmart discovered a preference for cereal to address late-night snacking. What should Walmart meas
> One of Kraft’s hallmark brands is Jell-O. During May 2009, the Jell-O Sugar Free Pudding cups line was getting a makeover with the introduction of two new flavors: Boston Cream Pie and Cinnamon Roll. a. What survey research would you have done to determi
> Discount department store Kohl’s recently announced its customers would “have a new easy, secure and private way to pay in stores with the rollout of Apple Pay, as well as the ability to use Apple Pay within the Kohl’s app. Kohl’s customers will also be
> An article posted by AdAge Media News on June 18, 2012 revealed that “a study commissioned by the Online Publishers Association found that 54 percent of tablet users prefer free, ad-supported apps over paid ones, up from 40 percent a year ago. At the sam
> Use the data in Exhibit 13-11 to construct a stem-and-leaf display. a) Where do you find the main body of the distribution? b) How many values reside outside the inner fence(s)?
> A local health agency is experimenting with two appeal letters, A and B, with which to raise funds. It sends out 400 of the A appeal and 400 of the B appeal (each subsample is divided equally among working-class and middle-class neighborhoods). The solic
> In a class project, students developed a brief self-administered questionnaire by which they might quickly evaluate a professor. One student submitted the following instrument. Evaluate the questions asked and the format of the instrument.
> A problem facing shoe store managers is that many shoes eventually must be sold at markdown prices. This prompts a manufacturer to conduct a mail survey of shoe store managers in which we ask, what methods have you found most successful for reducing the
> You study the attrition of entering college freshmen (those students who enter college as freshmen but don’t stay to graduate.). You find the following relationships between attrition, aid, and distance of home from college. What is your interpretation?
> You are preparing to give a research presentation about the effectiveness of Toyota’s advertising to restore public confidence in the wake of their delays in solving the accelerator pedal malfunction and antilock braking problems for high-tech hybrid veh
> Suppose you were preparing two-way tables of percentages for the following pairs of variables. How would you run the percentages? a) Age and consumption of breakfast cereal. b) Family income and confidence about the family’s future. c) Marital status and
> How should the researcher handle missing data?
> How should the researcher handle “don’t know” responses?
> Distinguish between: a. Coding scheme and recoding b. Bar chart and histogram c. DK response and missing data. d. Listwise deletion and pairwise deletion e. Thematic units and referential units
> Using the response strategies within Exhibit 11-8 or Exhibit 11-16, which would be appropriate to understanding the various indicants of student demand for the academic program in which you are majoring?
> Following are six questions. Evaluate each on its strengths and weaknesses a. Do you read National Geographic magazine regularly? b. What percentage of your time is spent asking for information from others in your organization? c. When did you first star
> Assume the American Society of Training Directors is studying its membership in order to enhance member benefits and attract new members. Below is a copy of a cover letter and mail questionnaire received by a member of the society. Please evaluate the us
> What invalid assumptions might a researcher make in instrument design? How would each affect the instrument?
> One of the problems in developing rating scales is the choice of response terms to use. Below are samples of some widely used scaling responses. Do you see any problem with them?
> What would you say are four major faults of survey instrument design? Justify your choices.
> The head of New York City’s teachers’ union has a theory that every time there is something that could be construed as bad news for the city’s Department of Education, the city leaks a salacious story about teacher misconduct to draw attention away from
> Summarize the instrument design decisions that would result in decreased participant rapport.
> What is the function of the skip logic diagram?
> 1. Distinguish between the following: a. administrative and classification questions b. Screen and buffer questions. c. Introduction and transition. d. Rapport and social desirability bias. e. Measurement instrument and measurement question.
> According to BusinessWeek, the U.S. workforce is becoming a temporary workforce. Even full-time workers are often contract employees without health, vacation, or other benefits. What measurement scale(s) would be appropriate to measure this trend?
> You have been asked by the head of marketing to design an instrument by which your private, for-profit school can evaluate the quality and value of its various curricula and courses. How might you try to ensure that your instrument has:
> Below is a Likert-type scale that might be used to evaluate your opinion of the educational degree program in which you are enrolled. There are five response categories: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.
> You are working on a consumer perception study of four brands of bicycles. You will need to develop measurement questions and scales to accomplish the tasks listed below. Be sure to explain which data levels (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) are approp
> You receive the results of a paired-comparison preference test of four soft drinks from a sample of 200 persons. The results are as follows:
> An investigative question in your employee satisfaction study seeks to assess employee “job involvement.” Create a measurement question that uses the following scales: a) A graphic rating scale. b) A multiple rating list.
> Assume you are Menu Foods and you planned a major research study just prior to the largest pet food recall in our history. You plan to proceed with the study and feel you must add one or more questions to measure the consumer’s confidence that your firm
> Why did VI insist on a custom-designed measurement question for the survey questionnaire?
