Fill This Form To Receive Instant Help
Fill This Form To Receive Instant Help
Homework answers / question archive / Discussion Question 1 – CLO 2 Use the problem-definition process outlined in Chapter 6 of the Zikmund textbook, then respond to the following question: Describe the steps involved in the problem-definition process
Discussion Question 1 – CLO 2
Use the problem-definition process outlined in Chapter 6 of the Zikmund textbook, then respond to the following question:
Activity 3 - CLO 2, CLO 3, CLO 4
“The U.S. Congress passed a law setting up a National Do Not Call Registry. By law, salespeople may not call numbers listed on this registry, but charities and researchers can still call these numbers. However, a recent Internet survey showed that less than 25% of respondents knew that researchers “are allowed to call,” and over half (63%) weren’t sure about researchers’ rights under the law”.
Use your recent knowledge from Chapter 9 and provide the answer to the followings:
Problem Definition The Foundation of Business Research 6 CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying this chapter, you should be able to 1. Explain why proper “problem definition” is essential to useful business research 2. Know how to recognize problems 3. Translate managerial decision statements into relevant research objectives 4. Translate research objectives into research questions and/or research hypotheses 5. Outline the components of a research proposal 6. Construct tables as part of a research proposal Chapter Vignette: Deland Trucking Has a “Recruitment” Problem their expenses, but the fact that our expenses are skyrocketing must mean something is going on.” James stares at his copy of the spreadsheet. “There is no easy way to do this, without hurting your ability to keep drivers in your trucks,” he says. “Is it that the costs for driver selection and recruitment have gone up?” “No, the costs have been the same,” © David Jones/iStockphoto D avid Deland, who has owned his trucking business for 20 years, struggles with the spreadsheet in front of him. His recruitment specialist sits glumly across from his desk, pondering what kind of response to give to the inevitable question, “Why are our recruitment costs so high?” Next to the specialist sits James Garrett, a business research consultant who has been hired by the Deland Trucking Company to get a handle on the recruitment expenses the company has seen skyrocket over the last six months. “I just don’t get it,” David sighs in frustration. “We have seen a 45 percent increase in our trucker recruitment advertising costs, and our driver intake and orientation expenses are killing us! James, I just don’t understand what is happening here.” James and the specialist have had some initial discussions, but there is no easy way to reduce those costs without reducing the number of truckers that Deland hires. “Perhaps we can find a more efficient way of advertising our openings,” suggests the recruiting specialist. “Maybe we can reduce the number of orientation sessions or travel expenses associated with the hiring process.” David counters, “Well, I don’t see how we are any different from our competitors. We use the same recruitment and orientation approach that they use. I have no handle on 106 Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. CHAPTER 6 Problem Definition: The Foundation of Business Research responds the recruiter. “It’s just that we have had to do so many orientation and hiring sessions since the first of the year.” “David, it might be best if I get a look at some of your hiring statistics, as well as your driver census over the last year,” comments James. Turning to the recruiter, James asks, “Can you give me some of your driver data to look through?” “Sure,” says the recruiter. “We have lots of info about our drivers, and the driver census is updated monthly. We even have some exit data we have gathered from a few drivers who have left us. I don’t know exactly what the trend is with those drivers who leave, since we haven’t had a chance to really analyze the data. I will send it to you through e-mail this afternoon.” James drives back to his office, reflecting on his meeting. As he passes by trucks on the way, he peeks at the drivers who are going 107 in the same direction as he is. What do they think about their company? Would they see Deland as a great place to work? What would make Deland Trucking’s recruitment costs go so high? At his office, the e-mail with the trucker census and the hiring data has already arrived. Opening the numerous spreadsheets, James continues to wonder. Does Deland Trucking have a recruitment problem? Is it a training problem? Is retention too low? Is the problem the company itself? What is going on? As he examines the hiring worksheet, he compares it to the driver census figures for the last six months. “There is the problem!” he exclaims. “I think I need to put together a proposal for David on this. I’m sure he will be surprised about what his company’s problem really is.” Introduction Importance of Starting with a Good Problem Definition The first stage of the research process introduced in the early chapters and highlighted in Chapter 4 involves translating the business decision situation into specific research objectives. While it is tempting to skip this step and go directly to designing a research project, the chances that a research project will prove useful are directly related to how well the research objectives correspond to the true business “problem.” Clearly, the easiest thing for James to do in the opening vignette is to start designing a study of Deland Trucking’s recruitment effectiveness.This seems to be what David and his recruitment specialist want. But is it what they really need? This chapter looks at this important step in the research process more closely. Some useful tools are described that can help translate the business situation into relevant, actionable research objectives. Research too often takes the blame for business failures when the real failure was really management’s view of its own company’s situation. The Research Snapshot “Good Answers, Bad Questions?” describes some classic illustrations involving companies as big and successful as CocaCola, R.J. Reynolds, and Ford.While the researcher certainly has some say in what is actually studied, we must remember that the client (either the firm’s management team or an outside sponsor) is the research customer and the researcher is serving the client’s needs. In other words, when the client fails to understand their situation or insists on studying an irrelevant problem, the research is very likely to fail, even if it is technically performed perfectly. Translating a business situation into something that can be researched is somewhat like translating one language into another. It begins by coming to a consensus on a decision statement or question. A decision statement is a written expression of the key question(s) that a research user wishes to answer. It is the reason that research is being considered. It must be well stated and relevant. As discussed in Chapter 4, the researcher translates this into research terms by rephrasing the decision statement into one or more research objectives. These are expressed as deliverables in the research proposal. The researcher then further expresses these in precise and scientific research terminology by creating research hypotheses from the research objectives. In this chapter, we use the term problem definition. Realize that sometimes this is really opportunity seeking rather than truly problem solving. Nonetheless, for simplicity, the term problem definition is adapted here to refer to the process of defining and developing a decision statement and the steps involved in translating it into more precise research terminology, including a set of research objectives. If this process breaks down at any point, the research will almost certainly be useless or even harmful. It will be useless if it presents results that simply are deemed irrelevant and do not assist in decision making. It can be harmful both because of the wasted resources and because it may misdirect the company in a poor direction. decision statement A written expression of the key question(s) that the research user wishes to answer. problem definition The process of defining and developing a decision statement and the steps involved in translating it into more precise research terminology, including a set of research objectives. Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. SURVEY THIS! ? ? ? ? ? Based on the survey you have completed, identify at least three decision statements that might have driven the construction of this questionnaire. Translate each of the decision statements from above into a research question and the related research hypothesis or hypotheses. What would a dummy table (see Exhibit 6.10) look like that would contain the data from the survey that addresses each of these hypotheses? What types of companies might be interested in this information? Would any nonprofit institutions be interested in this data? Courtesy of Qualtrics.com Review the survey you are using for this course. Consider the questions shown here and the other sections of the survey. Ultimately, it is difficult to say that any one step in the research process is most important. However, formally defining the problem to be attacked by developing decision statements and translating them into actionable research objectives must be done well or the rest of the research process is misdirected. Even a good road map is useless unless you know where you are going! All of the roads can be correctly drawn, but they still don’t get you where you want to be. Similarly, even the best research procedures will not overcome poor problem definition. Problem Complexity Simply put, the quality of business research is limited by the quality of the problem definition stage. While certainly critically important to the success of the project, this is far from the easiest stage of the research process. In fact, it can often be the most complex. Exhibit 6.1 helps to illustrate factors that influence how complex the process can be. Situation Easier: 1. Situation is recurring/routine 2. A dramatic change occurs 3. Symptoms are isolated 4. Symptoms are consistent Research Objectives Harder: 1. Situation appears new 2. Change(s) in situation is subtle 3. Symptoms are scattered 4. Symptoms are ambiguous 108 Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. © Cengage Learning 2013 EXHIBIT 6.1 Defining Problems Can Be Difficult RESEARCH Good Answers, Bad Questions? It’s amazing, but sometimes even the most successful companies make huge research blunders. These mistakes often are based on a misunderstanding of exactly what the brand and/or product means to consumers. Some of the famous, or infamous, examples of such blunders include RJR’s introduction of Premier “Smokeless” Cigarettes, Ford’s introduction of the Edsel in the 1950s, and most famous (or infamous) of all, Coca-Cola’s introduction of New Coke as a replacement for regular “old” Coke. Volumes have been written about each of these episodes. One does have to wonder, how did these great companies do such apparently dumb things? The blame is often placed at the foot of the decision makers: “Research should have revealed that product was a loser.” However, researchers address the questions they are asked to address by management. Certainly, the researchers play a role in framing any decision situation into something that can be addressed by a pointed research question. The decision makers almost always start the process by asking for input from their staff, or from research consultants they have hired. Hopefully, the dialogue that results will lead to a productive research question that will provide useful results. However it isn’t always the case that such research questions are self-evident. The “New Coke” saga is well worth repeating. In hindsight, it seems almost unthinkable that Coke could have made its decision to replace a product with a century-long success record without considering the emotional meaning that goes along with drinking a “Coke.” However, management considered Coke to be a beverage, not a brand. Thus, the focus was on the taste of Coke. Thus, researchers set about trying to decide if New Coke, which was more similar to Pepsi, tasted better than the original Coke. A great deal of very careful research suggested clearly that it did taste better. If the key question was taste, New Coke was preferred over old Coke by more consumers. In fact, there was considerable evidence that already showed a taste preference for Pepsi over old Coke. Interestingly, Coke appeared to view itself as its primary competitor. At least two very important questions were never asked or were addressed insufficiently: 1. 2. Do consumers prefer New Coke over Pepsi? When people know what they are drinking, do they still prefer New Coke to old Coke? For a taste test to be valid, it is should be done “blindly,” meaning that the taster doesn’t know what he or she is drinking. Only then can one assess taste without being psyDoes a name change always make chologically influenced by sense? We must ask the correct research knowing the brand. So, questions to be sure. Coke conducted a blind taste test. This is certainly a good research practice—if the question is taste. The Coke research correctly answered the taste question. The big problem is that since management didn’t realize that most of the meaning of Coke is psychological, and since they were so convinced that their old product was “inferior,” the dialogue between management and researchers never produced more useful questions. In the case of Ford’s Edsel, a postmortem analysis suggests that research actually indicated many of the problems that ultimately led to its demise. The name, Edsel, was never tested by research, even though hundreds of other possibilities were. Similarly, the idea of a smokeless cigarette seemed appealing. Research addressed the question, “What is the attitude of smokers and nonsmokers toward a smokeless cigarette?” Nonsmokers loved the idea. Smokers, particularly those who lived with a nonsmoker, also indicated a favorable attitude. However, as we know, the product failed miserably. If you take the “smoke” out of “smoking,” is it still the same thing? This question was never asked. Would someone who would try a smokeless cigarette replace their old brand with this new brand? Again, this wasn’t asked. It is possible that some famous company could be making a very similar mistake today? Consider Macy’s. Macy’s has acquired many regional and local department stores around the country over the past few years. Clearly, Macy’s is a very recognizable name brand that brings with it considerable “brand equity.” How important is it for Macy’s to ask, “What is the best name for this department store?” If the acquisition involves taking over a local retail “icon” such as Chicago’s Marshall Field’s, is a name change a good thing? These seem to be relevant questions to which research could probably provide good answers! Sources: “New Coke: A ‘Classic’ Marketing Research Blunder?”, http:// imcetys.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/caso-newcoke.pdf, accessed May 8, 2011; “Is Macy’s the New Coke?” Advertising Age 76 (September 26, 2005), 24, http://www.fieldsfanschicago.org/, accessed May 8, 2011. Situation Frequency Many business situations are cyclical, leading to recurring business problems. These problems can even become routine. In these cases, it is typically easy to define problems and identify the types of research that are needed. In some cases, problems are so routine that they can be solved without any additional research, such as when recurring problems can be automated through a company’s decision support system (DSS). 109 Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. © Joshua Lott/fReuters/Landov SNAPSHOT 110 PART TWO Beginning Stages of the Research Process For example, pricing problems often occur routinely. Just think about how the price of gas fluctuates when several stations are located within sight of each other. One station’s prices definitely affect the sales of the other stations as well as of the station itself. Similarly, automobile companies, airline companies, and computer companies, to name just a few, face recurring pricing issues. Because these situations recur so frequently, addressing them becomes routine. Decision makers know how to communicate them to researchers and researchers know what data are needed. Most pricing decisions in the airline industry are automated based on sophisticated demand models. The models take into account fluctuations in travel patterns based on the time of the year, time of the day, degree of competition for that particular route, and many other factors. At one time, these decisions were based on periodic research reports. Now, the information is simply fed into a decision support system that generates a pricing schedule.You can see how quickly information is analyzed and used for pricing decisions by simply checking prices for a specific flight online over the period of a few days. It is interesting that one factor that is not very important in many of these pricing decisions is the cost involved in flying someone from point A to point B. Indeed, some passengers pay a fare much higher than the actual costs and others pay a fare much lower than the actual costs involved in getting them to their desired destination. Dramatic Changes When a sudden change in the business situation takes place, it can be easier to define the problem. For example, if Deland Trucking’s recruiting expenses had increased sharply at the beginning of the year, the key factors to study could be isolated by identifying other factors that changed in that same time period. It could be that a very large trucking contract had been obtained, a current customer dramatically increased their distribution needs, or a new competitor entered the market. In contrast, when changes are very subtle and take effect over a long period of time, it can be more difficult to define the actual decision and research problems. Detecting trends that would permanently affect the recruitment challenges that Deland faces can be difficult. It may be difficult to detect the beginning of such a trend and even more difficult to know whether such a trend is relatively permanent or simply a temporary occurrence. How Widespread Are the Symptoms? The more scattered any symptoms are, the more difficult it is to put them together into some coherent problem statement. In contrast, firms may sometimes face situations in which multiple symptoms exist, but they are all pointing to some specific business area. For instance, an automobile manufacturing company may exhibit symptoms such as increased complaints about a car’s fit and finish, increased warranty costs, higher labor costs, and lower p...
Already member? Sign In
