Establishing the Functional Relationship Between

¶ … Establishing the functional relationship between advertising and sales

This is a causal relationship. It attempts to answer the question of what types of advertising cause or motivate people to buy what they buy.

Investigating reactions to the idea of a new method of defense budgeting

An example of descriptive research that attempts to paint a picture of the variety of logical and emotional responses people feel about changes in the defense budget without determining why people feel as they do.

Identifying target-market demographics for a new shopping center

Exploratory -- it is still uncertain if there is indeed a market for the shopping center's products, or what that market may be interested in when the center is built.

Estimating prices for IBM stock 2 years in the future

Exploratory. Estimating prices is speculative or future-seeking, and must project and determine a variety of possible economic scenarios that could potentially affect IBM stock and the company's fortunes.

Learning how many organizations are actively involved in just-in-time production

Descriptive. The research does not determine if just-in-time production is effective, the cause of its efficacy or lack thereof, or if it will be used in the future, it merely attempts to identify a phenomenon and describe the extent of its use at the present time, in comparison to other methods of production.

Learning the extent of job satisfaction in a company

Descriptive. This attempts to measure an emotional attribute, without determining why, the cause of satisfaction, or what factors may cause this to change in the future.

Question

Describe a research situation that allows the inference of causality.

A method of research that allows the inference of causality requires some scientific method to isolate a particular phenomenon and to measure that phenomenon against a control group. A possible example of this might be if a marketer wanted to determine if large serving plates caused customers to underestimate the food they ate and feel less satisfied after eating. There are several ways to go about determining the answer to this question. In one possible situation, the researcher could survey a sampling of individuals in a controlled environment, broken down into two groups to allow for differences of eating habits, BMI, age, gender, and perhaps ethnicity (to allow for cultural differences) after conducting an experiment upon them. One half of the group could be served the same portion of food on a small plate, the other half on a large plate. Then, the group could rate the generosity of the serving size, and state how much money they would be willing to pay for the entree, and if they would feel as if they were getting a poor deal based upon the entree's stated price point. If more people reported satisfaction and value dining from the small plates, the hypothesis would be confirmed. The restaurant chain could conduct further studies to examine how small a plate the consumers were willing to tolerate before they sensed something unusual was 'going on.'

Another causal study could comprise a comparison between different diners, again with a similar variety of ages, gender, weight, and so forth, in an actual restaurant environment. Half the diners could be served on small plates, the others on large plates, and then after their dining experience they could be asked to evaluate the satisfaction provided by their meal. The difficulty of this field research is that it might be harder to survey diners eating the same item, and the type of food would also affect the customer's level of satisfaction. Of course, only diners eating the same entree could be selected, but it might be more difficult to find a representative group.

Question 3 researcher is interested in knowing the answer to a why question, but does not know what sort of answer will be satisfying. Is this exploratory, descriptive, or causal research? Explain.

Exploratory. The researcher might discover that the phenomena in question might be impossible to measure satisfactorily. For example, say that a researcher was attempting to discover why the obesity rate has been climbing in America for the past decades at such a frightening rate. The possible answers to this question may be dietary, related to a lack of physical activity, or a combination of these factors. How exactly these factors interrelate within their application to different demographic groups may also be very different.

For example, in more affluent populations, a lack of time, increased hours spent at work or in sedentary leisure pursuits like surfing the Internet, eating too many meals out at restaurants, the availability of technology to do chores once done by physical labor, and the ability to outsource chores once done by homeowners like gardening, cleaning, and cooking, might be one answer. In poor neighborhoods, overreliance on fast food, a lack of safe places to exercise, emotional depression, and cultural acceptance of a larger body type may be the cause.

Even in more affluent populations, however, there may be a history of poverty, such as an Italian-American family where they have been exposed to the cultural ideal of thinness, know that a normal BMI is healthy, but still remember grandma telling them to 'eat up that lasagna, chubby cheeks mean a healthy child.' The extent to which different influences create a complex behavior -- overeating and under-exercising -- and produce a medical condition (obesity) are hard to determine, and other cultural and biological variables that affect individual behavior can be hard to isolate. Exploratory research is necessary to arrive at a satisfactory, final study design that is more causal, focused, and specific in nature.

Tulsa Question

Do you agree with the Chamber of Commerce's research objectives and proposed methods of data collection? Why or why not?

The objectives of this exploratory research are to determine the quantity and nature of the downtown population, the commercial enterprise (and vacancy) inventory, current business's opinions about the CBD, and shoppers' opinions about the CBD. The survey of the central business district employers and employees regarding characteristics, work habits, and attitudes is a workable form of exploratory research, although they could also be surveyed regarding possible deficits in the current makeup of the commercial area, and asked as to what they believe needs to be added to the area to improve the current environment.

A physical survey of commercial establishments and of street parking facilities (type, size, and location) is wise but there should also be a survey of attitudes of employees and shoppers as to whether current facilities are adequate at all times of the day. Additionally research and observation to see if traffic patterns and parking needs should be looked over, not just in view of the current configuration but also of potential changes. Also, after the survey of commercial vacancies of ground floor and multistory commercial buildings, a comparative study of other areas with the proposed reforms should be conducted to see how parking needs will change in the future, after the district is redeveloped in the future.

The least satisfactory part of the study is that of the on-the-site surveys of shoppers. Conceivably, anyone could be shopping that day, even tourists who would not be the primary patrons, and also a particular day, depending on weather conditions and the time of the survey, could affect results.