RES/351 Week 4
February 25, 2013

State which type of research design— exploratory, descriptive, or causal—is appropriate for the following examples? You also need to explain why you choose what you did, tying the example into the concept of the chosen design. Each question is worth 8 points. The correct design is worth 4 points, a clear and correct explanation (50+ words) of why you choose what you choose is worth 4 points. Show me you understand research designs.

The goal of this research is to discover the real nature of the problem and to suggest new possible solutions or new ideas.

• Exploratory With exploratory research we look into the source of a particular problem and gain a better understanding of what caused. This help designing a solution to better solution the problem.

A food manufacturer wants to know the demographics of people who purchase organic foods.

• Descriptive With this design the manufacturer would study and observe the people and their purchasing behaviors. This research is done indirection with the manufacturer not influencing the outcome of the research.

A scientist wanted to find out what animals lived the longest, how long they lived, and what environmental characteristics were that the animals lived in.

• Causal In this research the Causal Design would be most appropriate it would involve laboratory experiments as well as field experiments. Discovering which variables affect the other, such how the environment influences the life span and characteristics of the difference animals being researched. It is also a process of narrowing down your targeted research participants.

British Airways would like to test in-flight Internet services on one of its regular flights from New York to Tokyo. The company charges $30 one week and $15 the next week

• Causal This type of research would be Exploratory because it would consist of testing research. British Airways is trying to determine if a decrease in internet charges may result in an increase in internet service purchase during flights. This research will allow a person to determine the cause and effect. Cause being the increase in cost which results in lack of purchased service.

A firm is thinking of hiring a research firm to ‘try out’ different commercials with potential customers. They plan on showing each commercial to the respondents, and asking them to rank the effectiveness of each commercial.

• Causal This would be Causal Research Design because it describes a scenario where the additional of commercials being shown to potential customers may cause an increase in sales.

A manufacturer investigates whether consumers will buy a new pill that replaces eating a meal.

• Exploratory This type of research requires surveys and experimental studies to find out if people can been satisfied on pills as a substitute for meals.

Cosmopolitan magazine sends out a cover in selected markets featuring a female model to half of its readers and a cover with a female and male model to the other half of its readers to test differences in purchase response between the two groups.

• Causal Cosmopolitan Magazine is conduction a causal research in an attempt to test different magazine covers in different markets. What the company hopes to find is which magazine cover appeal to the general public.

A candy maker interviews wholesalers, retailers, and customers to determine the potential for introducing new flavors of taffy.

• Exploratory By interviewing the wholesalers, retailers, and customers the candy makers is going straight to the experts in their particular fields of work to determine the potential of new taffy flavors.

On the CBS television show Undercover Boss, top executives disguised as middle level or lower level employees investigate company departments to discover potential issues or problems.

• Exploratory What these top level executives are trying to accomplish is a research that involves them get to the source of potential problems with the company. The researcher (the executive) are exploring the work environments with the employees knowing so they can obtain unbiased data.

This type of research attempts to capture a population’s characteristics by making inference from a sample’s characteristics and testing hypotheses.

• Descriptive By introduction a well-informed hypotheses, the researcher hopes to obtain additional information for their study in response. In this hypotheses the population’s characteristics are used in the test.

Faculty Guide
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