ST327     
Market Research: An Integrated Approach

This information is for the 2019/20 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr James Abdey COL.5.10 and Mr Karsten Shaw

Availability

This course is available on the BSc in Business Mathematics and Statistics, BSc in Management, BSc in Mathematics, Statistics, and Business and BSc in Statistics with Finance. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Not to be taken with ST307.

Pre-requisites

Students must have completed one of the following: Elementary Statistical Theory (ST102), Statistics for Management Sciences (ST203), Econometrics: Theory and Applications (MG205), Analytical Methods for Management (MG202), or equivalent.

Course content

The main ideas and applications of market research techniques. ST327.1 Topics covered are introduction to market research, defining the market research problem, research design, internal secondary data and the use of databases, qualitative research: focus group discussions, projective techniques, survey and quantitative observation techniques, measurement and scaling: fundamentals, comparative and non-comparative scaling, questionnaire design, sampling: design and procedures, final and initial sample size determination, cross-tabulation and hypothesis testing, analysis of variance and covariance, correlation and regression, discriminant analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis and conjoint analysis. ST327.2 Case Studies: Students use the information and techniques gained from ST327.1 to carry out a co-operative Market Research Case Study. Individual write up of the Case Study forms part of the assessment.

Teaching

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 6 hours of lectures in the LT. 1 hour of classes in the ST.

Lectures will run in weeks 1-10 and classes in weeks 2-11.

Formative coursework

Students are given weekly exercises to work on for discussion in class.

Indicative reading

Malhotra, N.K., D. Nunan and D.F. Birks (2017) Marketing Research: An Applied Research (Fifth edition), Pearson (earlier editions are also fine).

Assessment

Exam (60%, duration: 2 hours) in the summer exam period.
Coursework (25%) in the ST.
Presentation (15%) in the LT.

The assessed Case Study work is split into two parts; a group presentation and an individual piece of coursework. 

Key facts

Department: Statistics

Total students 2018/19: 60

Average class size 2018/19: 15

Capped 2018/19: No

Value: One Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Personal development skills

  • Application of numeracy skills
  • Commercial awareness