QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND CRITICAL THINKING/ANSWERS
1. Evaluate and comment on the following questions, taken from several different questionnaires. Do
they follow the rules discussed in the chapter?
See the textbook for the actual questions.
a. The fixed alternative responses to this question are somewhat ambiguous. Infrequently,
occasionally, frequently, and all the time may mean different things to different people. The
b. This question about the Federal Trade Commission’s corrective advertising policy is complex
c. The first question asks the respondents to imagine that they do 90 percent of their driving in town.
If this is not the case, the answer has to be pure fantasy. The second question asks the respondent
d. Questions that ask the percentage of usage, time, and the like are fine if every respondent makes
sure that his or her answer amounts to 100 percent. Unfortunately, many times respondents will
e. In this question it may be that not all respondents will believe that the cooperative advertising
h. This question is from a personal interview. Although the question asks for one of two
alternatives, “up” or “down,” if the respondents answer “stays the same” or “don’t know,” these
2. The following question was asked of a sample of television viewers:
We are going to ask you to classify the type of fan you consider yourself to be for different sports and
sports programs.
Diehard Fan: Watch games, follow-up on scores and sports news multiple times a day
Avid Fan: Watch games, follow-up on scores and sports news once a day
Does this question do a good job of avoiding ambiguity?
This is an excellent way of defining terms that the respondent may not formally use. For example,
3. How might the wording of a question asking about income influence respondents’ answers?
4. What is the difference between a leading question and a loaded question?
It is difficult to draw a fine line between the two. However, the wording of a leading question influences
5. Design one or more open-ended response questions to measure reactions to a magazine ad for a
Xerox photocopier.
6. Evaluate the layout of the filter question (shown in the textbook).
This question uses a thin black line to outline the “yes” answer and subsequent questions to be asked to
7. Develop a checklist of things to consider in questionnaire construction.
Students’ responses will vary on this activity. Here are some questions that might be included:
Are simple words used?
Is the language vague?
8. It has been said that surveys show that consumers hate advertising, but like specific ads. Comment.
In survey research, questions are often broadly asked. They ask about advertising in general. However,
9. Design a complete questionnaire:
a. To evaluate a new fast-food fried chicken restaurant.
b. To measure consumer satisfaction with an airline.
10. The Apple Assistance Center is a hotline to solve problems for users of Macintosh computers and
other Apple products. Design a short (postcard-size) consumer satisfaction/service quality
questionnaire for the Apple Assistance Center.
11. [Internet Question] Visit the following Web site: http://www.history.org. What type of questions
might be asked in a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of this Web site in terms of being
informative and in terms of being an effective sales medium?
12. A client tells a researcher that she wants a questionnaire that evaluates the importance of 30 product
characteristics and rates her brand and 10 competing brands on these characteristics. The researcher
believes that this questionnaire will induce respondent fatigue because it will be far too long.
Should the researcher do exactly what the client says or risk losing the business by suggesting a
different approach?
This is an eternal question. Does consumer-oriented mean doing exactly what the client requests or
13. [Ethics Question] A political action organization has on its website a series of short questionnaires
that ask about your political position on an important topic. It also includes a “Support Reply
Form,” a solicitation for donations. Is this approach ethical?
This is not ethical. The purpose of research is research, not promotion or membership solicitation. The
14. [Internet Question] Visit Mister Poll at http://www.misterpoll.com, where you will find thousands
of user-contributed polls on every imaginable topic from the controversial to the downright zany.
What you find will depend on when you visit the site. However, you might find something such as
a movie poll, where you pick your favorite film of the season. Evaluate the questions in the poll.
15. Try to find two friends that know the same foreign language. Write 10 Likert questions that
measure how exciting a retail store environment is to shop in. Have one of your friends interpret
the question into the foreign language. Have the other take the translation and state each question
in English. How similar is the translated English to the original English? Comment.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
1. Design eight questions that assess how effective an undergraduate college business course has been.
CASE 15.1 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Objective: To enable students to evaluate a questionnaire.
Summary: A survey developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services to measure hospital employees’ attitudes about patient safety
in their facilities is given in the case exhibit. The purpose of the survey is to help hospitals ensure safety
by creating an environment in which employees share information, improve safety when problems are
identified, and if necessary, change the way employees deliver care.
Questions
1. Evaluate the questionnaire. Can you suggest any improvements?
2. Will this survey meet its objectives? Explain.
The survey was designed to measure hospital employees’ attitudes about patient safety in their facilities,
and the questionnaire appears to do that. However, the ultimate objective is to improve patient safety, and
CASE 15.2 Canterbury Travels
Objective: The purpose of this case is to critically evaluate a questionnaire.
Summary: Market and customer information is desired by a new travel agency. They design a
questionnaire to obtain this information. See the case exhibit for the questionnaire.
Questions
1. Critically evaluate the questionnaire.
Evaluation of the specific questions:
1. There is no indication of the time period. It is highly likely that almost everyone has traveled
2. Again there is no indication of a usual time period or the last time period. Many
3. The categories are not mutually exclusive. Six or more times per year fits each of the monthly
6. Presents a rating scale without instructions. The instructions could be substantially clearer.
7. Could use a better layout and better instructions.
12. This is redundant if a respondent answers “never” (which is absent) from Question 11.
13. This is out of place. The name of Canterbury has already been indicated in Question 11.
14. Okay, although there may be some redundancy between credit card and company or personal
2. Will Canterbury Travels gain the information it needs from this survey?
3. Design a questionnaire to satisfy Roxanne Freeman’s information needs.
CASE 15.3 McDonald’s Spanish Language Questionnaire
Objective: To illustrate the need for back translation and to test the student’s ability to back translate
from Spanish to English.
Summary: A series of questions from a customer satisfaction survey are presented in Spanish.
Questions
1. What is the typical process for developing questionnaires for markets where consumers speak a
language other than English?
Usually a questionnaire goes through several revisions. The exact number of revisions depends on the
International business takes cultural factors into account when designing questionnaires. The most
common problem involves translation into another language. A questionnaire developed in one country
may be difficult to translate because equivalent language concepts do not exist or because of differences
2. Find someone who speaks Spanish and have them back translate the questions that appear in Case
Exhibit 15.3-1. Are these Spanish language questions adequate?
The translation is excellent. The English language questions appear below.
Start Here
1. Overall, how satisfied were you with your visit to McDonald’s today?
Not at all satisfied 1 2 3 4 5 Extremely satisfied
Food
5. Were you satisfied with the food you received today?
Yes (Y) No (N)
CASE 15.4 Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna
Objective: To illustrate the need for back translation and to test the student’s ability to back translate
from German to English.
Summary: A series of questions from a customer satisfaction survey are presented in German.
Questions
1. What is the typical process for developing questionnaires for markets where consumers speak a
different language?
2. Find someone who speaks German and have him or her back translate the questions that appear Case
Exhibit 15.4-1. Are these German language questions adequate?
The translation is excellent. The English language questions appear below.
Schonbrunn Palace
Poll of Visitors
State of residence _________________________________
