course 2 assignment 4

Introduction and background

10

Method

10

Question design

30

Actual questionnaire layout

10

Pretesting

15

Summary of participants

10

Reflection

15

Total

100

10

*To obtain full marks for each component, your work must satisfy the grading criteria at the end of the Assignment 4 instructions.

Introduction

In this assignment, you will design and conduct a third type of research, a survey. You will need to apply the material from Modules 3 and 4 to this assignment. Now that your qualitative research is completed, the objective of this study is to use quantitative methods to address the marketing research problem, and to test the survey you have created.

Instructions

Refer to Table 11.3, the questionnaire design checklist on pages 319 to 320 of your textbook. Use this checklist as the process that you will follow to prepare and conduct on your survey. The reporting task will take place in the next assignment.

In a report of approximately to 1,500 words, discuss the process of preparing and conducting a survey study.

Your report must include the following sections:

Introduction and background: Briefly discuss the background of the current study (i.e., what has been done previously). Clearly state the purposes of this paper, your final marketing research problem (which may have been revised as a result of the previous qualitative studies), and the associated research components (you can use the three issues examined in the focus group). Describe and justify briefly the information you need and your sampling plan (target population and sample characteristics) of this study. This involves step 1 and step 4 of Table 11.3.

Method: Briefly discuss step 2, including the type of interviewing method chosen and how you will engage the respondents. You should be prepared to execute your questionnaire, using an electronic method and a personal method.

• • For your electronic method, you may choose to use email or one of the free survey tools available on the Internet. Remember, you cannot promise confidentiality if you are using web server that is saved in US. There are many options, including the following:
    • http://fluidsurveys.com/
    • https://www.hostedincanadasurveys.ca/
    • https://www.qualtrics.com

Question design: When designing your survey questions, follow the guidelines discussed in steps 3, 5, 6, and 7. In this part, you must create a table that lists your questions (wordings), question types, scaling and measurement and your justification of your choices. The questions must match your final questionnaire. For example:

Keep this discussion precise and relevant. Your questionnaire design should demonstrate a strong understanding of the range of question types, wordings, and scales/measurement that have been discussed in the modules. You should have an introduction and approximately ten questions (including relevant demographics). You must justify the use of scaling/measurement, wording, and question structure to achieve high marks. Simply listing the question types, scales/measurement, and question wordings (without justification) does not demonstrate any of your understanding of this section.

• Actual questionnaire: Include a questionnaire before pretesting and one after pretesting in the appendix, and refer to it as required in the pretesting process.

This research will involve human subjects, so you MUST obtain consent. The introductory paragraph of the actual questionnaire can serve this purpose.

Pretesting: Explain what you have done to pretest your questionnaire and how you have applied what you learned. Include the final questionnaire in the appendix. Refer to it when discussing your decisions of making those changes. Pretesting should be done face to face (disregarding your intended methods) with at least four people who match the sample criteria. If significant changes were made, a second round of pretesting should be considered (for at least two to three people).

Summary of participants: Include a brief summary of the number, demographics, and qualifications of your participants. Do not include the results of other questions (they are for your next assignment). Use simple counts (frequencies) and averages to describe them, and put it in an appendix. Do not post a list of participants without summarizing it. The style of summary of participants in quantitative research (such as survey) is different than qualitative research (such as focus group). You must collect at least twenty questionnaires with qualified individuals in order to have sufficient data for the next assignment.

Reflection: For this report, you are not asked to report your findings (except the demographics: the summary of participants). This will be part of your next assignment. You are invited to take some time to reflect on the question design, pretesting and fieldwork process and how effective you think it was in further exploring your marketing research problem. Be critical of your learning and reflect upon, rather than describe, what you have learned.

Note

You do not need to include the data that you collected. In the next assignment, you will be asked to code and enter the data and to analyze the results.

Presentation Standards: Guidelines for Writing

• Paragraphs are unified, developed, and coherent, with transitions between ideas.
• Sentences are grammatically correct; words are chosen for accuracy and impact.
• Writing follows the conventions of spelling and mechanics (punctuation, etc.).
• Documentation follows APA style accurately and consistently.
• Assignment is submitted in double-line spacing and uses 12-point Times New Roman font.
• Templates provided by MS Word are not used.