WIU College of Business and Technology
Accredited by AACSB,
The International Association for Management Education

Fall 1999

COBT Mission
The Mission of the College of Business and Technology at Western Illinois University is to provide a focus for educational excellence which promotes the intellectual and personal growth of participants and enhances their contributions to individuals, organizations, and society.

Course Description (from the WIU Graduate Studies catalog):
A general outline of the methods of conducting research in business, including research design, data collection, and analysis, and presentation of results. The emphasis is on the methodology of conducting applied business research.

Prerequisite:
DS 503 or equivalent

Course Focus:
The focus for this particular course will be two fold: First, students will understand the overall process for conducting an effective business research project involving primary data. This will be achieve through a semester long project in which students will develop a data collection instrument, test it, implement it, collect the results, and analyze and interpret the information. Second, students will understand how to conduct selected types of business research using secondary data sources and common statistical procedures. These will be conducted individually and due periodically as homework assignments.

Credits:
3 semester hours

Required Learning Materials:
McDaniel, Carl, Jr., and Roger Gates (1999) Contemporary Marketing Research, Fourth Edition. South-Western College Publishing: Cincinnati.

You will also need access to SPSS for Windows (available in the computer labs) to complete certain assignments.

Course Goals:
Upon completing this course, the student should be able to:

1. Understand the steps in the business research process.
2. Define a problem so that it can be answered through research.
3. Identify alternative courses of action for a defined problem.
4. Use Bayesian Analysis to determine when additional information is necessary to solve a problem.
5. Identify the uses and limitations of the following four types of exploratory studies:
   a. Literature search
   b. Experience survey
   c. Focus groups
   d. Analysis of selected cases
6. Differentiate between a longitudinal study and a cross sectional study, and be able to select when each is most appropriate.
7. Diagram and explain the strengths and weaknesses (particularly as they apply to validity) for each of the following experimental designs:
   a. One-shot case study
   b. One-group pretest-posttest
   c. Static group comparison
   d. Before-after with control group design
   e. Four-group six study design
   f. After-only with control group design
   g. Time series experiment
8. Analyze a source of secondary data and determine its appropriateness for inclusion in a research study.
9. Read and interpret the following secondary sources of data:
   a. Nielsen television index
   b. Starch surveys
   c. Simmons media/marketing service
   d. Sales and Marketing Management Survey of Buying Power
   e. US Department of the Census
   f. US Department of State (international economic data)
10. Select the most appropriate means of collecting primary data (communication vs. Observation)
11. Select the most appropriate means of collecting communication-based primary data, balancing the potentially conflicting issues of time, cost, validity, and bias.
12. Explain why multi-item measures are preferable to single item measures, using classic measurement theory as the basis.
13. Understand the difference between nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio data.
14. Write objective, non-leading survey questions that address a defined marketing problem.
15. Define and demonstrate how to check for each of the following in measurement:
    a. Unidimensionality
    b. Reliability
    c. Convergent validity
    d. Discriminant validity
    e. Nomological validity
16. Select and defend the most appropriate type of scale for a given research problem:
    a. Likert scale
    b. Semantic differential
    c. Magnitude scale (graphic rating scale)
    d. Rank order scale
    e. Constant sum scale
17. Understand the benefits and limitations of the following types of samples:
    a. Simple random sample
    b. Stratified sample
    c. Non-probability sample
18. Calculate an appropriate sample size.

Course Outline

Related Class Information

Please Read the Following Information Carefully

Participation and Attendance

You are expected to attend each class. I try to take attendance each class, but I do not deduct points for missing class - attending class is your responsibility. I do make a note after each class which students have participated in the class in a meaningful way, and which have not. This forms the basis for the participation grade you will receive at the end of the semester. To receive the maximum number of participation points, a student should attend every class and actively participate in every class.

It is important to note that participation is more than simply coming to class. Participation is actively participating in class discussions, asking questions and making comments that show a good basic knowledge of the material. To get the maximum number of participation points, you should be in class and actively participate every day.

Reading Assignments

All reading assignments for the semester are listed in the course outline. You are expected to have read the assignments prior to the class meeting, since the discussion in class will assume that you are knowledgeable of the material.

Examinations

There are four examinations scheduled throughout the semester. The purpose of each examination is to test your understanding of the materials covered in the text and in the classroom. These exams will consist of a combination of multiple choice, short answer, and interpretation questions. In the latter, you will be asked to examine data/results and specify the meaning of the data/results. It is not enough to be able to calculate a particular statistic - you must understand what the statistic means in practical terms (remember, the course is called Applied Business Research!)

Please note that the exams are not all worth the same number of points. This is because of the different amounts of material on the exams, and the difference in the level of importance of the content covered in each section of the course.

Quizzes

There are three take-home quizzes in the course. The purpose of these quizzes is to provide a formative check of you understanding of the material in preparation for an upcoming examination. These quizzes will be distributed to you at least one week in advance of the due date and are to be completed on your own outside of class. Do not work with other students in the completion of these take-home quizzes - doing so will only make you less prepared for the subsequent examination.

Assignment

Each student is required to complete a research assignment as specified in the syllabus. Please be sure to prepare your work in a professional manner (i.e., no typos, no printer errors, all pages numbered.) Sloppy work will be graded significantly lower.

A late assignment will be accepted. However, the grade for a late assignment will be reduced by five points for every 24-hour period it is late. For example, an assignment due at 2:00 on Monday but submitted on Tuesday at 9:00 am would lose five points. If the assignment was submitted at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, it would be two days late. If you know you will be unavailable on the day an assignment is due, it is your responsibility to make the necessary arrangements before the time it is due.

Projects

Each student will be assigned to a group, and each group will be assigned to a specific project. Students will develop a survey questionnaire and refine it, collect data, analyze and interpret the data, and write up and present the results to the instructor and a member of client organization. The purpose of the project is to provide a means for each student to apply what they have learned from the text and class into a real-world application. The project is also intended to demonstrate that "doing" research can be very challenging and is different that simply studying it! You cannot depend upon others in your group to do the work on your portion of the project. At the same time, you will need to work as a team to ensure that the overall quality of the project is satisfactory for the final report. If you are having difficulties working with other members of the team, you should attempt to work these difficulties out through every means possible before coming to see me (i.e., you may not like my solution to your group’s problem.)

Academic Honesty

One of the foundations of any meaningful evaluation system is that each student is accountable for his/her own work. You are expected to do your own work. Copying information from another on exams or assignments (or allowing someone else to copy your work), bringing unauthorized materials into a quiz/examination, writing information on table tops, or representing the work of another as your own (plagiarism) are all acts of academic dishonesty. Such incidents can result in severe penalties, including a grade of "F" for the entire course. If you are in doubt as to whether an action is academically honest, please see me in advance. Failure to understand that an action is academically dishonest is not an acceptable excuse.

Evaluation
The course grade will be determined using the following criteria: