One ethical issue that does not affect the marketing research industry is research
integrity. Because marketing research objectively gathers and reports information, there
is no issue with withholding, altering, or intentionally misinterpreting information.
A tactic for reducing falsehoods and nonresponse error is the use of incentives, which
are cash payments, gifts, or something of value promised to respondents in return for
their participation.
An alternative measure of central tendency is the variance, which expresses that value
whose occurrence lies in the middle of an ordered set of values.
The data-collection landscape of China is the same as that in Western and European
countries.
Self-selection bias is very strong in in-home interviewing.
Nonresponse has been labeled as the marketing research industry’s biggest problem.
The size of a probability sample depends on the client’s desired accuracy (acceptable
sample error) balanced against the cost of data collection for that sample size.
Analysis of variance is a ‘signal flag” procedure. By this, we mean that it alerts the
researcher to the fact that there are many differences that are statistically significant and
it flags him or her to those differences which are most important, those which should be
acted upon first.
An example of a disadvantage of secondary data not being reported in measurement
units that match the researchers needs would be: income being reported before tax,
household income instead of per capita, and after-tax income.
When the distances between scale descriptors are absolute and known, the scale is
referred to as an assumed interval scale.
The two main sources of problems are failure to meet an objective and opportunities.
Marketing researchers may be certified, and the certification is called the Professional
Researchers Certification (PRC).
When we want to use one variable to predict another and use the equation: y =a + bx,
we use the technique known as multiple regression.
A common ethical code among major associations is to ensure that respondents
understand that they may elect to not participate in a research request. This code falls
into the category of:
A) fair dealings with respondents.
B) fair dealings with clients and subcontractors.
C) maintaining research integrity.
D) concern for society.
E) raising ethical sensitivities.
If the research objective is to gain background information, it is likely that the most
appropriate research design would be:
A) exploitive.
B) exhaustive.
C) deductive.
D) exploratory.
E) causal.
If you perform a blind draw in sampling, what type of simple random sampling method
are you using?
A) random digit
B) random numbers
C) random units
D) random device
E) random skip
If we are using the sample size formula to be used when estimating a mean and we are
trying to determine e, we are trying to indicate:
A) the allowable error.
B) the proportion of s to S in the sample.
C) the range of possible z scores in the population.
D) the percentage of the respondents who will answer p.
E) the percentage of the respondents who will answer q.
P values are identified by what terms on computer output by statisticians?
A) propositional values and levels of confidence
B) levels of confidence and Pearson coefficients
C) waving flags
D) significance (Sig) and probability (Prob)
E) either .0001 or .0005
Rick Smith, of Smith & Associates Research, has decided that a client’s project should
use telephone interviewing as the method of data collection. He knows that there are
disadvantages to the telephone interview method he has chosen, and he must be ready
to discuss these limitations with the client. Which of the following disadvantages will
he be discussing?
A) mistakes in administering the questions
B) insufficient call back for not-at-homes
C) dishonest interviewers
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Sometimes a researcher will find that the ANOVA F is not significant in regression
analysis or if the F is significant, the R square is lower than desired. It is appropriate in
these cases to:
A) examine the data using another stat package other than SPSS.
B) change the scaling assumptions from ratio or interval to ordinal and rerun the
analysis.
C) run a confidence interval around the predicted values and then make the interval
narrower.
D) run a confidence interval around the predicted values and then make the interval
wider.
E) run a scatter diagram, search for outliers, and remove them and rerun the regression.
You are an officer in your college’s Student Marketing Association. You are looking for
ways to ensure that members will join again the following year. Students tend to join
for one semester or one year and then drop out. You decide to take a simple random
sample of this year’s members and give them a survey. One of the questions asks: Will
you join the SMA next semester? Yes, No, Don’t Know. Another question asks
respondents to check all the following that they feel provides them with “value” by
virtue of being in the SMA: free food at meetings, getting to socialize in a relaxed
setting with fellow classmates, learning about businesses through the guest speaker
program, getting job search information through the organization’s “Career Search”
program, and getting to know your professors on a more personal basis. You want to
know which of these are related to whether or not students will join the SMA in the next
semester. What analysis should you run?
A) Pearson product moment correlation analysis
B) independent samples t tests
C) cross-tabulation
D) cross-tabulation with chi-square tests
E) paired samples tabulation analysis
Focus groups should NOT be used when:
A) there is a need to understand the consumers’ vocabulary.
B) there is a need to determine consumers’ attitudes.
C) there is a need to predict the sales volume for a new product in a market territory.
D) there is a need to understand consumers’ motives.
E) there is a need to know how accepting consumers are of a proposed new package
design.
Which of the following was NOT discussed in the text as an advantage of using
secondary data?
A) may be obtained quickly
B) may be obtained in any form desired by the researcher
C) is relatively inexpensive
D) is usually available
E) may achieve the research objective
Which of the following marketing information system components is NOT continuous?
A) consumer information support system
B) marketing research system
C) internal report system
D) decision support system
E) marketing intelligence system
________ is an umbrella term which refers to the online posting of consumer opinions,
comments, and personal experiences.
A) Online information databases
B) Consumer-generated media (CGM)
C) ChatBack
D) Blogging
E) Buzz
Suppose we wish to test the hypothesis that an internship program allows its interns to
earn $2,750 per semester and let us assume that this hypothesis is, in fact, true. Which
of the following best illustrates the logic of hypothesis testing at the 95% confidence
level?
A) From among 100 samples, 95 percent of them would generate means that fell within
±1.96 z scores.
B) From among 99 samples, 100 percent of them would generate means that fell within
±2.58 z scores.
C) From among 100 samples, 95 percent of them would generate means that fell within
±2.58 z scores.
D) From among 100 samples, 99 percent of them would generate means that fell within
±1.96 z scores.
E) From among 95 samples, 100 percent of them would generate means that fell within
±1.96 z scores.
Deception, especially invasion of privacy, is a serious ethical issue in marketing
research and occurs in research studies. Which of the following is an example of
deception?
A) Potential respondents are not told the true identity of the sponsor of the research.
B) Potential respondents are viewed during a study without their permission.
C) Potential respondents are told they will remain anonymous when they will not.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Which of the following states that the difference between the population parameters
between two groups is zero?
A) null parameter
B) null hypothesis
C) alternative hypothesis
D) null alternative hypothesis
E) zero hypothesis
Agnes Montgomery is the director of marketing for Ideal Plastics, Inc. Ideal has
distributors all over the world. Last year, Agnes developed a system for measuring the
distributors’ satisfaction levels with Ideal on 20 different dimensions. Each dimension
of company service, such as “Return Policy” and “Ease of Placing an Order,” was
evaluated by the distributors on a semantic differential scale ranging from “Very
Satisfied” to “Very Dissatisfied.” Now, several months after implementing the system,
Agnes has data to analyze. She noticed that the Asian countries seemed to have
different means from the countries in the UK, United States, and Western Europe.
Agnes looked carefully at the actual scores and saw that Asian distributors seemed to
have much stronger feelings, either positively or negatively. Agnes should:
A) immediately conduct some exploratory research within the Asian division to
determine why the mean scores are so different.
B) take aggressive action in the Asian division by changing the company’s procedures
on all the service dimensions having lower means than the other divisions.
C) view the results between countries with major cultural differences cautiously
because different cultural influences affect how individuals respond to scales.
D) view the results among countries with similar cultures cautiously because
differences in means on service dimensions are likely due to reference group influences
instead of real differences in company performance.
E) all of the above
A multiple regression equation is best described by which of the following forms?
A) The independent variable is predicted by the intercept plus a series of values of the
slope times each dependent variable.
B) The independent variable is predicted by the slope plus a series of values of the
intercept times each dependent variable.
C) The dependent variable is predicted by the intercept plus a series of values of the
slope times each independent variable.
D) The dependent variable to be predicted is equal to the intercept plus a series of
values of the slope times each independent variable.
E) y =a + bx
In bivariate regression analysis, the dependent variable is one that is:
A) used to predict the independent variable, and it is the x in the regression formula.
B) used to predict the independent variable, and it is the y in the regression formula.
C) predicted, and it is usually termed x in the regression formula.
D) predicted, and it is usually termed y in the regression formula.
E) predicted, and it is termed b in the regression formula.