Business Research Spring 2005
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Business Research: A Discussion of the Basics and Information on Ivey’s Behavioral Lab
June Cotte Marketing Professor Director, Behavioral Lab Ivey Business School
Agenda Business research and the research process
Differences between academic and commercial business research
Academic business research at Ivey
Business Research
Business research is pervasive - basic purpose is to help managers make better decisions.
Examples of business research: Business and economic research (trends, acquisition or diversification studies, market share analysis, employee studies) Pricing (cost and profit analysis, elasticity of price/demand, demand analysis and forecasting, competitive pricing) Product (concept tests, brand name tests, test markets, package design studies) Distribution (plant/warehouse location studies, channel performance studies, export studies) Promotion (media research, ad research, public image studies, sales force studies, coupon effectiveness) Buying Behavior (brand preference/attitudes, satisfaction, intentions, segmentation studies)
The Business Research Process
Formulate a problem
Determine research design
Design data collection method and form
Design sample and collect data
Analyze and interpret data
Prepare a report for executives
The Business Research Process
Formulate a problem:
-
Understand your objectives
-
What question is the study supposed to answer?
-
What information would be needed to answer it?
The Business Research Process
Determine the Research Design:
-
How much is already known?
-
Can a hypothesis be formulated?
-
What type of questions will need to be answered?
-
What type of study could answer these questions? - Exploratory (literature, focus groups, cases) - Descriptive (longitudinal, cross-sectional) - Causal (experiments, both lab and field)
The Business Research Process
Determine Data Collection Method:
-
Can I use existing (secondary) data?
-
What is to be measured? How?
-
What is the source of the data?
-
Should the study be done in person, through the mail, over the phone, or electronically?
-
Should the method be observation, survey, focus group, experiments, or a combination?
-
Should the purpose of the study be known to participants?
The Business Research Process
Design Sample and Collect Data
-
What is the target population?
-
Is a sample necessary?
-
How large should the sample be?
-
Who will gather the data?
-
How much supervision is necessary?
-
What methods will be used to ensure the quality of the data collected?
The Business Research Process
Analyze and Interpret the Data
-
Who will edit and code the data?
-
What kind of analytic techniques are necessary? - Statistical tests? - Qualitative analysis?
The Business Research Process
Write up the Report
-
Who will read the report?
-
What is their technical level of sophistication?
-
Are managerial recommendations called for?
-
How should the report be structured?
Differences between Academic and Commercial Business Research
Academic researchers are often trying to solve more basic questions than commercial researchers. Researchers at Amazon want to know if consumers prefer website design A over website design B to make a design change decision. VS. Academic researchers might be interested in how consumers read a website, and how much cognitive effort (brain power) they spend reading words vs. looking at pictures. Researchers at Ford want to know which member of the family (wives or husbands) has more say in the decision to purchase a new vehicle. VS. Academic researchers might be interested in the negotiation strategies married men and women use to “win” arguments.
Academic Business Research at Ivey
We have researchers working in all sorts of areas, on many different problems.
Some researchers, like those in finance, primarily use secondary data from databases and other sources, and analyze their data with econometric modeling. They can answer questions concerning how the stock market rewards or punishes certain company behaviors, for example.
Other researchers, like those in strategy, often use surveys of CEOs or other top managers, to answer questions about corporate strategy and decision making.
Some researchers are interested more in human behavior at an individual level. This group will do mainly experimental work, often using students as research participants.
Research Studies Spring 2005 Pricing Study
The possibility that consumers can ‘self-attribute’ price levels (blame consumers in general for prices) and the consequent impact on price fairness, purchase, and willingness-to-pay is an unexplored area within marketing despite many studies about attribution and price fairness.
In an experimental setting consumers were provided with information by one of two potential sources (university professor or company spokesperson). This information led the participants to believe that they (or the firm, or the general economic environment) were responsible for the price of a product.
We find that consumers’ perceptions of price fairness, willingness to purchase and willingness to pay are influenced by the way in which responsibility for the product’s price is allocated, and by who provides the information on which the attribution is based.
Research Studies Spring 2005 Corporate Responsibility Study
There is a purely economic argument that corporations act responsibly when they fulfill their fiduciary duty and legal obligation to shareholders to maximise profits. Put simply, the argument goes something like this: The income generated by corporate activities — dividends to shareholders, wages, salaries and other forms of remuneration to employees and taxes to government — will stimulate consumption and economic prosperity. If this economic wealth is distributed equitably, then social well-being will be assured. There is also an ethical argument that corporations are morally obliged to “give back” to the societies in which they exist. In the ethical argument, the corporation’s moral obligations to society must be considered in all decisions. This research (a choice-based conjoint questionnaire) is intended to help develop a tool that will assess which of these arguments are more persuasive to people (and to which people they are most persuasive).
Research Studies Spring 2005
Personalization Study
This experiment was based on a 2 (participants initially used a personalized interface versus an interface that was not personalized) by 2 (after using the initial interface, participants used a competitor interface for an additional 1 or 6 trials) full-factorial design. This work investigates the power of personalization to create loyal users of an e-commerce website. Our approach focuses on the impact that personalization has on consumer learning and interface loyalty during a series of online flight booking tasks. We find that website personalization has two important effects on consumer behavior: (1) it allows the user to complete the consumption task more efficiently; and, (2) users are substantially more loyal to a personalized incumbent (i.e., the first experienced) interface than to a non-personalized incumbent interface, once they have had sufficient experience with both interfaces. they were on the first trial.
Research Studies Spring 2005
Social Influence Study
In marketing, it is well acknowledged that members of the referent group have a strong influence on individual consumption decision; however, the nature of this influence remains unclear. Two separate streams of research that examined this issue have produced conflicting findings. On the one hand, research on normative social influence posits that a desire to gain social approval and the sense of inclusion in a meaningful group is a primary goal guiding social interactions. On the other hand, however, empirical evidence suggests that people, in fact, believe that uniqueness is evaluated more favorably by others than similarity. The primary goal of the present study is to reconcile these conflicting findings. To this end, we conducted an experiment with a four-cell between-subject design. In all conditions, participants were presented with a scenario describing an individual who purchased a laptop. Depending on the cell, this individual was described as conforming to the group, differentiating from the group, or balancing conformity and differentiation in two different ways. Researchers are currently performing a content analysis of these essays.
June Cotte Marketing Professor Director, Behavioral Lab Ivey Business School
Agenda Business research and the research process
Differences between academic and commercial business research
Academic business research at Ivey
Business Research
Business research is pervasive - basic purpose is to help managers make better decisions.
Examples of business research: Business and economic research (trends, acquisition or diversification studies, market share analysis, employee studies) Pricing (cost and profit analysis, elasticity of price/demand, demand analysis and forecasting, competitive pricing) Product (concept tests, brand name tests, test markets, package design studies) Distribution (plant/warehouse location studies, channel performance studies, export studies) Promotion (media research, ad research, public image studies, sales force studies, coupon effectiveness) Buying Behavior (brand preference/attitudes, satisfaction, intentions, segmentation studies)
The Business Research Process
Formulate a problem
Determine research design
Design data collection method and form
Design sample and collect data
Analyze and interpret data
Prepare a report for executives
The Business Research Process
Formulate a problem:
-
Understand your objectives
-
What question is the study supposed to answer?
-
What information would be needed to answer it?
The Business Research Process
Determine the Research Design:
-
How much is already known?
-
Can a hypothesis be formulated?
-
What type of questions will need to be answered?
-
What type of study could answer these questions? - Exploratory (literature, focus groups, cases) - Descriptive (longitudinal, cross-sectional) - Causal (experiments, both lab and field)
The Business Research Process
Determine Data Collection Method:
-
Can I use existing (secondary) data?
-
What is to be measured? How?
-
What is the source of the data?
-
Should the study be done in person, through the mail, over the phone, or electronically?
-
Should the method be observation, survey, focus group, experiments, or a combination?
-
Should the purpose of the study be known to participants?
The Business Research Process
Design Sample and Collect Data
-
What is the target population?
-
Is a sample necessary?
-
How large should the sample be?
-
Who will gather the data?
-
How much supervision is necessary?
-
What methods will be used to ensure the quality of the data collected?
The Business Research Process
Analyze and Interpret the Data
-
Who will edit and code the data?
-
What kind of analytic techniques are necessary? - Statistical tests? - Qualitative analysis?
The Business Research Process
Write up the Report
-
Who will read the report?
-
What is their technical level of sophistication?
-
Are managerial recommendations called for?
-
How should the report be structured?
Differences between Academic and Commercial Business Research
Academic researchers are often trying to solve more basic questions than commercial researchers. Researchers at Amazon want to know if consumers prefer website design A over website design B to make a design change decision. VS. Academic researchers might be interested in how consumers read a website, and how much cognitive effort (brain power) they spend reading words vs. looking at pictures. Researchers at Ford want to know which member of the family (wives or husbands) has more say in the decision to purchase a new vehicle. VS. Academic researchers might be interested in the negotiation strategies married men and women use to “win” arguments.
Academic Business Research at Ivey
We have researchers working in all sorts of areas, on many different problems.
Some researchers, like those in finance, primarily use secondary data from databases and other sources, and analyze their data with econometric modeling. They can answer questions concerning how the stock market rewards or punishes certain company behaviors, for example.
Other researchers, like those in strategy, often use surveys of CEOs or other top managers, to answer questions about corporate strategy and decision making.
Some researchers are interested more in human behavior at an individual level. This group will do mainly experimental work, often using students as research participants.
Research Studies Spring 2005 Pricing Study
The possibility that consumers can ‘self-attribute’ price levels (blame consumers in general for prices) and the consequent impact on price fairness, purchase, and willingness-to-pay is an unexplored area within marketing despite many studies about attribution and price fairness.
In an experimental setting consumers were provided with information by one of two potential sources (university professor or company spokesperson). This information led the participants to believe that they (or the firm, or the general economic environment) were responsible for the price of a product.
We find that consumers’ perceptions of price fairness, willingness to purchase and willingness to pay are influenced by the way in which responsibility for the product’s price is allocated, and by who provides the information on which the attribution is based.
Research Studies Spring 2005 Corporate Responsibility Study
There is a purely economic argument that corporations act responsibly when they fulfill their fiduciary duty and legal obligation to shareholders to maximise profits. Put simply, the argument goes something like this: The income generated by corporate activities — dividends to shareholders, wages, salaries and other forms of remuneration to employees and taxes to government — will stimulate consumption and economic prosperity. If this economic wealth is distributed equitably, then social well-being will be assured. There is also an ethical argument that corporations are morally obliged to “give back” to the societies in which they exist. In the ethical argument, the corporation’s moral obligations to society must be considered in all decisions. This research (a choice-based conjoint questionnaire) is intended to help develop a tool that will assess which of these arguments are more persuasive to people (and to which people they are most persuasive).
Research Studies Spring 2005
Personalization Study
This experiment was based on a 2 (participants initially used a personalized interface versus an interface that was not personalized) by 2 (after using the initial interface, participants used a competitor interface for an additional 1 or 6 trials) full-factorial design. This work investigates the power of personalization to create loyal users of an e-commerce website. Our approach focuses on the impact that personalization has on consumer learning and interface loyalty during a series of online flight booking tasks. We find that website personalization has two important effects on consumer behavior: (1) it allows the user to complete the consumption task more efficiently; and, (2) users are substantially more loyal to a personalized incumbent (i.e., the first experienced) interface than to a non-personalized incumbent interface, once they have had sufficient experience with both interfaces. they were on the first trial.
Research Studies Spring 2005
Social Influence Study
In marketing, it is well acknowledged that members of the referent group have a strong influence on individual consumption decision; however, the nature of this influence remains unclear. Two separate streams of research that examined this issue have produced conflicting findings. On the one hand, research on normative social influence posits that a desire to gain social approval and the sense of inclusion in a meaningful group is a primary goal guiding social interactions. On the other hand, however, empirical evidence suggests that people, in fact, believe that uniqueness is evaluated more favorably by others than similarity. The primary goal of the present study is to reconcile these conflicting findings. To this end, we conducted an experiment with a four-cell between-subject design. In all conditions, participants were presented with a scenario describing an individual who purchased a laptop. Depending on the cell, this individual was described as conforming to the group, differentiating from the group, or balancing conformity and differentiation in two different ways. Researchers are currently performing a content analysis of these essays.
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