Location: Room 10.45, Building 10 Pultney Street
Telephone: 8313-0090 (email is best)
Email: janet.stone@adelaide.edu.au
Course website: www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au

Tutors:
William Lake
william.lake@adelaide.edu.au

Sylvia Ng
sylvia.ng@adelaide.edu.au

By the end of this course students should be able to:

1	Plan and undertake qualitative or quantitative Market Research and demonstrate the ability to appropriately analyse data to resolve marketing issues.
2	Be able to assess market research for quality and relevance.
3	Critically analyse market research methods and understand their strengths and weaknesses.
4	Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical framework that market research needs to operate within.
5	Understand how marketing research fits into the broader strategic planning process, with reference to existing theories, concepts and models from within the program.
6	Identify and describe the principal steps involved in the marketing research process.
7	Recognize the differences in scale types, and describe the principles of data transformation.

Marketing Research, Hair, J.F., Lukas, B.A., Miller, K.D., Bush, R.P., and Ortinau, D.J., Sydney, McGraw-Hill 3rd edition.

Course Outline and Powerpoint slides (will be available in course MyUni)

References
• The Least You Should Know About English, Wilson P. And Glazier T.F., ISBN 978 -0495906339.
• Questionnaire Design and Administration, Frazer and Lawley, 2000, BSL.001 433 F848q
• Essentials of SPSS for Windows Bersions 14 and 15: A Business Approach, Lowe, B., Winzar H. and Ward, S., Thomson Learning, 2007.
• The Art of Asking Questions, Payne, Stanley L., Princeton University Press, 1951.
• http://australia.gov.au/publications/style-manual 

QUALTRICS
The data collection software can be found at www.adelaide.qualtrics.com

The course MyUni site contains readings and links. MyUni is the primary form of non-class lecturer-to-student contact.

The course is made up of two complementary components. Lectures cover the content of Market Research. The lectures will be supported by problem-solving tutorials developing material covered in lectures. In the tutorials, students will also work in groups and as individuals, in preparing their Market Research project assignments.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This means that you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours for a three-unit course or 13 hours for a four-unit course, of private study outside of your regular classes.

Students in this course are expected to attend all lectures throughout the semester plus attend one tutorial class each week.

Week	Lecture Topic	Readings	Tutorial	Assignment Due
1	Role of MR, MR Process, Ethics	Ch. 1	No tutorial
2	Problem Definition, Secondary Data, Intro to Qualitative Research, Depth Interviews	Ch.2, 3, 4	1
3	Focus Groups, Making Sense of Qualitative Data	Ch. 5, 7	2
4	Surveys, Measurement - Construct Development	Ch. 8, 11	3
5	Measurement - Scale formats, Questionnaire Design	Ch. 11, 12	4
6	Sampling	Ch. 10	5	Assignment #1
7	Data Analysis - Test for Difference, Test for Association	Ch. 14, 15	6	Assignment #2
8	Editing and Coding, Data Analaysis - Test for Interdependence	Ch. 13, 16	7
	MID SEMESTER BREAK
9	Communicating Research Results	Ch.17	8
10	Managing Customer Value with MR	Ch. 18, 19, 20	9
11	Experiments and Observation Research	Ch. 6, 9	10	Assignment #3
12	Review		11
	SWOT WEEK
	EXAMS

Students should note that the lecture and tutorial program outlined above is a guide to the material covered in this unit and not a definitive statement of the material covered. Text book chapters noted above, lecture material and files on MyUni are also a part of the course.


Tutorial Topics

The format of tutorials includes class discussion and individual/group consultation.

Each tutorial will forcus on two activities that require student preparation. The Tutorial Preparation activity focuses on building knowledge and applying skills developed from the previous week’s lecture and textbook readings. The Group Discussion activity focuses on particular assignment requirements. The proportion of time spent on each activity will vary from week to week and within the tutorial groups.

To make the most of tutorial time, students should have considered the topics and tasks detailed in the Tutorial Schedule provided in the course MyUni. 

The assessment components are as follows:

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Learning Outcome
Group Assignment #1 In-Depth interview report	Summative	Week 6	20%	1, 3, 4, 6
Group Assignment #2 Design a quantitative survey	Summative	Week 7	10%	1, 3, 4, 7
Individual Assignment #3 Data analysis & market research report	Summative	Week 11	20%	1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Final Exam 3 hours	Summative	University exam timetable	50%	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

• Self assessment will be available on an ongoing basis throughout the course. Multiple choice questions will be available in MyUni as chapter topics are completed in lectures.
• Detailed sssessment feedback provided.

See Assessment Summary section.

Specific details on Assignment submission requirements are available in course MyUni.

Assignment #1 – In-Depth Interview Report

This is a Group assessment
Suggested word limit: 1500 words
The student must submit one hard copy, a soft copy via Turnitin, and keep a copy for themselves.

The aims of the assignment include:
• Providing practical experience of the material taught in this subject
• To show how research is planned, developed and implemented
• To show why in-depth interviews are an important part to questionnaire development.

The learning objectives of this assignment focus on the student’s abilities to:
• Plan and undertake qualitative Market Research and demonstrate the ability to appropriately analyse data to resolve marketing issues.
• Critically analyse market research methods and understand their strengths and weaknesses.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical framework that market research needs to operate within.
• Identify and describe the principle steps involved in the marketing research process.

In the first part of the assignment the Group is required to perform in-depth interviews on an agreed topic to be scoped with your tutor based on prescibed elements.

The Group will be asked to provide a short report.  Specifics of the report structure will be provided. 

Detailed assessment criteria will be available in the course MyUni.


Assignment #2 – Design a Quantitative Survey

This is a Group assessment
Suggested word limit: 1000 words (excluding survey/questionnaire)
The student must submit one hard copy, a soft copy via Turnitin, and keep a copy for themselves.

In addition to the learning objectives detailed in Assessment Summary, the assignment will focus on the student's abilities to:
• Understand the various stages of survey design.
• Develop skills and knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of various question and scale types.
• Develop skills in questionnaire design and effective question development.
• Understand the need to relate question development to research objectives .
• Understand that the end objective of a market research study is to communication useful and valuable information to the client/management.

The Group will develop a face-to-face or online quantitative survey based on their findings from Assignment #1.  

Survey structure, report structure and assessment details will be in course MyUni.


Assignment #3 - Data Analysis and Market Research Report Writing

This is an Individual assessment but with initial Group requirement
Suggested word limit: 2,000 words
The student must submit one hard copy, a soft copy via Turnitin, and keep a copy for themselves.

This assignment has two steps.


Presentation of Assignments

Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the University’s policy on plagiarism.

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details
A copy of the Postgraduate Programs: Communication Skills Guide will have been given to the student at the beginning of their program. This guide will assist the student to structure their assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from http://www.business.adelaide.edu.au/current/mba/download/2009MBACommSkillsGuide.pdf

This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc. In preparing any written piece of assessment for postgraduate studies it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that the student presents, and sometimes the source of the actual words used, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.) The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide.

Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 6 of the Communication Skills Guide.

Late Assignment Submission
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.

Return of Assignments
Lecturers aim to mark and return assignments to students within two (2) weeks of the due date with written feedback. Students are responsible for collecting their marked assignments from either their tutorials or lectures. If assignments aren’t collected after two (2) weeks, the assignments will be available at the Student Hub for two (2) weeks. The remaining assignments will only be posted out to the students, if the correct mailing addresses are on the assignments.

Copies must also be submitted to MyUni via Turnitin
Each assignment must also be submitted to MyUni by 3pm on the day that the assignment is due. For Group assignments, only one member of each group needs to do this. This is academic integrity software that simply checks that the student is the authentic owner of the report submitted. Not doing this creates all the same risks for the student as if they hadn’t put the hardcopy in at all; penalties and/or longer waits for the marked papers.