Knowledge and Understanding

This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the market research process and the role of market research in strategic decision-making. There will be a focus on understanding the theoretical components of research design, as well as developing practical skills in data collection, analysis and interpretation.

Through practical application within a market research project, students will present a research proposal, design a sampling and research method, develop a survey instrument, manage data collection, conduct statistical analysis techniques, interpret results, and present research findings. Emphasis will be placed on developing written and oral communication skills for presentation to corporate clients. Ethical business frameworks will also be reiterated and required to be adopted.

Learning Outcomes

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

1. Discuss the scope and managerial importance of market research and its role in the development of marketing strategy

2. Provide a detailed overview of the stages in the market research process 

3. Develop research questions and objectives that can be addressed in a research design

4. Develop a market research design; including
     · Identifying appropriate research approaches (from qualitative, survey, observation, and experimental research techniques)
     · Preparing measurement instruments (including surveys and focus group outlines)
     · Designing a sampling approach and sampling frame

5. Manage the data collection process

6. Use contemporary statistical packages to calculate and report descriptive statistics from quantitative data

7. Interpret data analysis in the context of the identified business problem

8. Communicate research results in written report and oral presentation formats

Marketing Research (3rd Asia-Pacific Edition) by Zikmund, D’Alessandro, Winzar, Lowe, B., and Babin. Published by Cengage Learning Australia, Melbourne, 2014. ISBN: 9780170236027

An e-book version may also be purchased ISBN: 0170236021

Please note the update to the 3rd edition of this textbook.

The following text is not required but may be useful in completing some of the course activities.

Field, A. (2009). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Introducing Statistical Methods) (3rd ed.). London, England: Sage Publications.
ISBN 9781847879073 (Paperback)
ISBN 9780857020963 (e-book)

MyUni

Both the MyUni course site and the textbook website are valuable resources for this course. MyUni will be the primary form of (non-class) lecturer-to-student contact. You will find all of the lecture and sessions recorded and uploaded to MyUni, as well as other tools which are extremely valuable for crystallising the concepts covered in lectures and tutorials

Qualtrics

The data collection software that we use can be found at www.adelaide.qualtrics.com. You can use your student ID to build a Qualtrics account.

This course entails a weekly 1.5-hour lecture and one 1.5 hour tutorial per week. The audio of lectures will be uploaded weekly on MyUni.

Tutorial classes will be held weekly commencing the week beginning Monday March 2, for some students this will be prior to the first lecture. YOU MUST ATTEND THE FIRST TUTORIAL – we will allocate teams and discuss the clients in that tute. Students wishing to swap between tutorial classes after this time are required to present their case to the Lecturer-in-Charge, but should be aware that such a request may not be approved.

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 of private study outside of your regular classes.

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

Schedule

	Date	Lecture & Workshop Topics	Textbook Chapters	Tutorial Program	Assessment
Week 1	2 March	The Role of Market Research and the Research Process	1 & 2	Discussion of the research project
Week 2	9 March	Public Holiday - On-line Lecture: The Nature of Qualitative research	3	Interviews and Focus Group Analysis
Week 3	16 March	The Nature of Survey Research	5	Research Proposal Discussions
Week 4	23 March	Survey Design #1 Writing Questions and Measurement	8 & 9	Introduction to Qualtrics and Questionnaire Critique
Week 5	30 March	Survey Design #2 An Overview of Statistical Analysis		Mentoring Session: Questionnaire Design
Week 6	6 April	Public Holiday - On-line Lecture: Sampling and Data Collection	10 & 11	No scheduled tutorial: tutor consultation available	Project Design Document and Questionnaire (15%)
Week 7	27 April	Data Analysis: Tests of Differences	12 & 13	Data Analysis Exercises – data provided on MyUni
Week 8	4 May	Data Analysis: Tests of Association	14	Data Analysis Exercises – data provided on MyUni
Week 9	11 May	Data Analysis: Multivariate Analysis	15	Data Analysis Exercises – data provided on MyUni	Statistics Application Test – in tutorials (10%)
Week 10	18 May	No Lecture: Menoring Sessions		Mentoring Sessions: Data Analysis & Reporting
Week 11	25 May	Interpretation and Report Writing	16	No scheduled tutorial	Research Report (30%)
Week 12	1 June	On-line Lecture: Recap of the Research Process		Presentation of Findings	Presentation (10%)
Exam					Exam (30% or 40%)

Tutorials are an important component of your learning in this course. The communication skills developed in tutorials by regularly and actively participating in discussions are considered to be most important by the School and are highly regarded by employers and professional bodies.

Online Quizzes are an optional component of the course. There will be an online quiz available for you to complete each week. They consist of 25 multiple choice questions, can be done as many times as you like, and do not count for your assessment. The questions themselves test the theoretical components of the course.

 This course requires you to learn the principles of market research, but you are also required to practically apply those principles. So there are lectures per week, where we talk about what is in the text, but your major continuous assessment involves conducting a piece of market research. We will allocate the groups in week 1. We don’t want you swapping around. In groups of four or five, you will be required to conduct a piece of market research for a client.

TURNITIN FOR ASSIGNMENTS
The Project Design Document and Questionnaire (due Week 6) and Written Research Report (due Week 11) will need to be submitted via Turnitin using the MyUni site. Due dates will be on the Wednesday evening by 11.59pm. Only one person per group is to submit via Turnitin on behalf of the group members.

Assessment	Due Date and time	Weighting	Related Learning Outcome
Assessment 1 Project Design Document and Questionnaire (Individual Assessment)	Wednesday 8 April (before midnight) Via Turnitin or directly to tutor	15%	2, 3, & 4
Assessment 2 Statistics Application Test (Individual Assessment)	In tutorial week beginning 11 May	10%	1 & 2
Assessment 3 Written Research Report (Group Assessment)	Wednesday 27 May (before midnight) Via Turnitin or directly to tutor	30%	2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Assessment 4 Presentation of Research Findings (Individual Assessment)	In tutorial week beginning 1 June*	10%	2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Final Exam 3 hours; closed book (Individual Assessment)	TBA	35%	1, 2, 4, 7, & 8
Total		100%

* Some groups may be asked to schedule time outside of their assigned tutorial.

1. To gain a pass for this course, a mark of at least 45% must be obtained on the examination as well as a total of at least 50% overall. Students not achieving the minimum exam mark will be awarded no more than 49%.
   
   o Supplementary exams will be offered to students who achieve 45-49% in the exam in accordance with University policy.
   
   o Students achieving less than 45% for the exam – regardless of overall course mark – will receive a fail. This is when the student has shown nowhere near enough understanding of the course in the exam.
   
   
2. All assignments are to be lodged prior to the due date and time. A late assignment where no extension has been granted will be penalised by a reduction of 5% of the mark given for each day, or part of a day, that it is late.
   
   
3. Extensions to the due date of individual assessment may be granted under special circumstances. An extension request or application for supplementary exam based on illness or compassionate grounds must include the "Supporting Statement / Certification Form" that is page 4 of the Supplementary Assessment application available at: www.adelaide.edu.au/student/exams/pdfs/supp_applic.pdf Students applying for an extension based on medical reasons must visit their medical practitioner, with that approved University form, and have the medical practitioner complete it. A normal doctor's certificate will not be accepted.
   
   
4. Legible hand-writing and the quality of English expression are considered to be integral parts of the assessment process. Marks may be deducted for poor hand-writing and grammatical expression.
   
   
5. Students in this course are not permitted to take a DICTIONARY (English or English-Foreign) into the examination. In this course, the use of calculators in the examination is not permitted. Also, students are not permitted to bring mobile phones into the examination.
   
   
6. Assessment rubrics will be provided in the tutorials and posted on MyUni.

Mentoring Sessions – Not Assessed
Tutorial Classes Week 5 and Week 10

Each group will have 15 minutes allocated to meet with the lecturer-in-charge.

The purpose of this session is to expose students to practical aspects of the market research process such as client meetings, in addition to providing small group interaction with the lecturer-in-charge. There is an expectation that each group will conduct the mentoring session as a ‘client meeting’ with an agenda and prepared questions they wish to discuss. This is an opportunity to gain feedback on all aspects of the course, including your approach to the research project: research design, sampling, survey design, data analysis and presentation of findings. However, the lecturer-in-charge will not be pre-reading assignments, so please come prepared with specific and direct questions.

Assessment 1: Project Design Document and Questionnaire (Individual) - 15%

Due: Wednesday 8 April (before midnight)
Please submit via turnitin on MyUni before 11.59pm

The purpose of this assignment is to prepare a questionnaire (survey) to facilitate the data collection for your project. You will need to submit a Project Design Document that provides the support and rationale for your research design and hence also for your questionnaire. You also need to submit the final questionnaire. You will not need to prepare and present a full research proposal, but you will need to consider elements of a research proposal within this document.

One Project Design Document report will be submitted per group. This document will include the following sections to be completed as a group.

· Statement of the Business Problem
· Overview of Research Design
· Sampling Design and Approach

This component should be no more than 2 pages and will be assessed collectively.

Each group member will nominate a research objective to address. For each objective you are to state the questions asked in the survey, the question scale to be used, and the data analysis technique to be applied (see example below). These questions should all be included in the questionnaire. This will be individually assessed.

Research Objective	Questions	Scale Type	Data Analysis

Consideration will be given to the cohesion of the questionnaire and the group component of assessment penalised appropriately if this is not the case. 
 
Assessment 2: Statistics Application Test (Individual) - 10%
Due: Conducted in tutorial, week beginning 11 May

The purpose of this assignment is to examine whether students are able to conduct the tests of statistical difference and tests of association covered in the lectures and tutorials using either SPSS or Excel software. This test will be completed in the computer labs and students will be required to conduct and interpret a selection of the tests covered in the course.

A data file will be provided to each student via MyUni to enable them to complete the data analysis. Stduents will be required to take a screen shot of the data output and submit this to their tutor at the end of the allotted time. Students are recommended to save an electronic file of the work submitted.

Students will have 45mins to complete this test.

Assessment 3: Written Research Report (Group) - 30%
Due: Wednesday 27 May (before 11.59pm)

The purpose of this assignment is to prepare a research report that summarises the findings from the research project you have conducted. Having defined your research problem, collected data and analysed it, this report allows you to bring it all together to demonstrate the market research process in action. You are expected to provide an overview of the aims and research method used, as well as focus on the research findings and what that means for the business.

Consideration should be given to the following:
· An executive summary
· An overview of the business problem and research objectives
· An outline of the research methodology
· Presentation of the Results
· Conclusion and Recommendations

Written Reports should be no more than 20 pages (excluding cover pages and Appendices) and must be submitted via Turnitin on MyUni.

This assignment will be submitted and marked as a group assessment. If you are experiencing issues with the contribution of any group members please speak to your tutors and/or the lecturer-in-charge as early as possible – upon submission of the assignment is too late. Each group will be required to submit a peer assessment of group members.

Please see the Rubric on MyUni for this assessment for further detail.


Assessment 4: Presentation of Research Findings (Individual) - 10%
Due: In tutorial time week beginning 1 June

The purpose of this presentation is to provide students with an opportunity to present the key findings of their research project. In business, most research reports are presented to key stakeholder groups. It is up to the group to best determine the format and approach they wish to take for this presentation.

Consideration should be given to the following:
· The business problem addressed
· An outline of the research method and sampling approach
· An overview of key research findings
· Recommendations for business strategy

Presentations must be no longer than 10 minutes

Group presentations will have a component to examine the quality of an individual’s presentation skills. Please see the Rubric on MyUni for this assessment for further detail.

Assessment 5: Final Exam (Individual) - 35%
During official exam period – Date TBA

There will be a 3-hour exam focussed on the theoretical components covered in this course. The content covered will include the topics addressed in the prescribed textbook and any material covered in lectures and tutorials.

Presentation of Assignments

• Please retain a copy of all assignments submitted.
• All group assignments must be attached to a ‘Group Assignment Cover Sheet’, which must be signed and dated by all group members before submission – even for electronic submissions. All team members are expected to contribute approximately equally to a group assignment.
• Hardcopy submission should be made directly to your tutor, either in your tutorial or at a pre-arranged time (inability to reach your tutor is not an acceptable reason for not submitting)
• All assignments must be submitted as a digital copy to Turnitin before 11.59pm of the assigned day.
• Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the University’s policy on plagiarism. This is a legal document that must be included with every submission

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details
A copy of the Postgraduate Programs: Communication Skills Guide will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your 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 your 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 you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, 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 at a rate of 5% per day (or part thereof). Submitting your assignment late (with or without an extension) also means you miss the primary marking cycle; it probably will get returned to you a lot later than your classmates get theirs.

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.