Bike and Hike

CAPE BICYCLING AND FITNESS:

UNDERSTANDING RECREATIONAL PATTERNS

IN THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI MARKET

A MARKET RESEARCH STUDY

Prepared for:

Mr. Wayne Chandler

A NOTE CONCERNING THE USE OF THIS TEMPLATE:

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A GUIDE ONLY FOR YOU IN CREATING YOUR RESEARCH REPORT. YOU ARE WELCOME TO USE THE INFORMATION HERE, THE FORMATTING STYLES, AND THE OVERALL LAYOUT (IN FACT I RECOMMEND IT). BUT PLEASEDO NOT USE IT AS A “FORM” TO BE MERELY FILLED IN! MAKE IT YOUR OWN WORK! BY ADDING SUBSTANTIALLY TO WHAT’S HERE, OR BY MODIFYING TITLES OR TEXT, YOU’LL HAVE MADE IT YOU OWN. IF YOU MERELY WRITE ONE OR TWO SENTENCES WITHIN A SUB-AREA, THAT’S MERELY USING THIS AS A “FORM.”

IN OTHER WORDS, YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT IN A SENTENCE WHERE I’VE PUT A WORD, A PARAGRAPH WHERE I’VE PUT A LINE, ETC. SEE ME IF YOU WANT MORE GUIDANCE.

By:

Southeast Research Associates
Name 1

Name 2

Name 3

Name 4

Name 5

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of

MK345, Marketing Research

Dr. John Cherry

May 2003

Letter of Transmittal (don’t include this label)

Some kind of letterhead would be nice. I can provide you some official SEMO letterhead if you want.

May 2, 2003

Mr. Wayne Chandler

Cape Bicycling and Fitness

2410 William Street

Cape Girardeau, Missouri63701

Dear Mr. Chandler:

We are pleased to present the results of the research project that we’ve prepared for Bike and Hike. The Executive Summary has an overview of the primary findings, as well as several conclusions and recommendations.

Be sure to include contact information.

Etc.

Sincerely,

< Sign your names in ink, blue is best

Name1

name2

name3

name4

name5

Table of Contents

Section Page

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………….i

List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………..ii

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………iii

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1

Background………………………………………………………………………..?

Definition of the Problem………………………………………………………....?

Research Objectives..……………………………………………………………...?

Research Method………………………………………………………………………….?

Research Design…………………………………………………………………..?

Definition of the Population……..…………………………………………….….?

Sample Plan…………………………………………………………………….…?

Sample Size…………………………………………………………………….…?

Development of the Questionnaire…………………………………………….….?

Data Collection Method……………………………………………………….….?

Results of the Research…………………………………………………………….….….?

Demographics of the Sample……………………………………………………...?

Research Objective 1……………………………………………………….….….?

Research Objective 2……………………………………………………….….….?

Research Objective 3……………………………………………………….….….?

Conclusions and Recommendations……………………………………………….….…..?

Limitations of the Study…………………………………………………………….….….?

Table of References………………………………………………………………………..?

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………..?

List of Illustrations

FigurePage

1.Title of Figure 1…………………………………………………………………..?

2.Title of Figure 2…………………………………………………………………..?

3.Title of Figure 3…………………………………………………………………..?
4.Title of Figure 4…………………………………………………………………..?
5.Title of Figure 5…………………………………………………………………..?
6.Title of Figure 5…………………………………………………………………..?
7.Title of Figure 5…………………………………………………………………..?
8.Title of Figure 5…………………………………………………………………..?

TablePage

1.Title of Table 1…………………………………………………………………..?

2.Gender of Respondent .…………………………………………………………..3

3.Academic Major……………………..….………………………………………..3

4.Class Standing …………………………………………………………………..4

5.Cross Tabulation of Gender and Academic Major .……………………………..4

6.Title of Table 6…………………………………………………………………..?

7.Title of Table 7…………………………………………………………………..?

8.Title of Table 8…………………………………………………………………..?

Executive Summary

Your goal here is to summarize your project in not more than two pages.

Use single spacing, and a space between paragraphs.

The first paragraph will serve to introduce the project. It will identify the background of the problem. Be sure to identify the importance of the study here. A comment: some experts say that the last sentence of the first paragraph is THE MOST IMPORTANT sentence in any document. This is where you either make or lose the sale.

Then, in a separate paragraph, you’ll identify your research objectives. Remember, each objective should have a VERB. Putting them into a bulleted list is very effective.

Third paragraph, you’ll summarize all the decisions you made concerning methodology. Define the population, discuss your research design, discuss your sample plan, how you arrived at your sample size, discuss primary aspects of development of the questionnaire. Also say a word or two about data collection: when, where and how. Remember, this is an executive summary. This is only a brief coverage of your in-depth discussion that will follow in the body of the report. So when you’re writing the main discussion in the body, be sure you can write more on these subjects than you have written here.

Fourth Paragraph: Results concerning Objective One. Your findings and one or two sentences to explain/clarify.

Fifth paragraph: Results concerning Objective Two. Your findings and one or two sentences to explain / clarify.

Etc.

Next-to-Last Paragraph: Conclusions and recommendations. Provide an overall qualitative discussion of the findings, as well as your recommendations to client.

Last paragraph: Identify (very briefly) the limitations of the project, and your willingness to address any questions or concerns the client may have. End on an appreciative and forward-looking note.

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Introduction
(Begin here on a new page; from here on out, you can double space)

Background

Basically, you provide a narrative of the research setting. Begin with a review of the secondary literature that’s pertinent to your client’s industry. In other words, here we want to look at the BIG PICTURE. What’s going on in society or in the business world, the legislative arena, the technology sector, that has a bearing on your client’s situation? Then on to specifics: How, when, where, did your group come to be involved with this client? How, when, where, by whom was information gathered? Take some space to discuss the client’s needs, things happening in the industry, in the clients’ markets, in the competitive arena, etc.

Definition of the Problem

Having explained the client’s situation, here you will identify how you defined the problem for this project. Identify the MANAGEMENT DECISION PROBLEM and the RESEARCH PROBLEM. (We discussed these in detail in Chapter 4 – Defining the Problem). This may be pretty much lifted from the proposal you wrote earlier in the semester. It would be a good idea to not merely cut and paste it, but to polish and refine it to reflect your improved understanding of the problem after about 12 weeks of working on this project.

Research Objectives

Provide a full paragraph discussion of each objective. What are the client’s stated concerns that led to each objective?

Research Method

A general comment about these elements of your report: As you know, many – but not all – of your decisions have been made for you, e.g. sample size. Nevertheless, within each section below, be sure to open your textbook, and restate some of the important considerations concerning research design, sample size, data collection, etc. In other words, justify your choices, and let it show that you know the issues involving research design, sampling plan, sample size considerations, questionnaire development issues, etc. Just stating what you did only takes a line or two. Beyond that I want an informed discussion and justification of your decisions. Use citations.

Research Design

Discuss the issues, the decisions. What are the advantages / strengths of your research design?

Definition of the Population

Discuss the issues, the decisions

Sample Plan

Discuss the issues, the decisions. What are the advantages / strengths of your sampling plan?

Sample Size

Discuss the issues, the decisions

Development of the Questionnaire

Discuss the issues, the decisions

Data Collection Method

Discuss the issues, the decisions. Who, when, when, how, and why?

Results of the Research

Research Objective 1

Double Space for this section also. Re-state the first objective. (Example: The first objective of this study is to determine the level of support in the campus community for a tuition increase beginning Fall 2005.)

Then write something like “…item number 97 was one of three survey items used to collect the information needed to address this objective. The question itself was worded specifically to learn how students feel about a tuition increase:

Item 97: ‘I personally would not be upset if tuition were increased.’
(Note that whenever you INSERT a portion of a questionnaire from your survey into the body of your text, it’s important to SET IT APART, to avoid confusion. It’s a good idea to INDENT, and maybe single space it so it really stand apart….)

followed by the alternatives ‘strongly agree,’ ‘agree,’ ‘neutral,’ ‘disagree,’ and ‘strongly disagree.’ Responses were coded so that a lower number indicates agreement; higher numbers indicate disagreement. Table 1 below shows the data collected for item 97.”

Then, in prose form, write up your findings, using some means to verbally summarize the results. Your commentary will be accompanied – immediately within the text before you move on to the next objective – by a table(s) and/ or a figure(s). The table(s) may be generated from SPSS and may be a table of frequencies, a cross-tabulation, a test of means, a regression, a correlation, etc. A figure may be a bar chart, a pie chart, etc. Summarize any statistical information. And be sure to indicate that Table/ Figure number ___ (which is included immediately below this discussion) is provided as a reference. Also note the Table/ Figure number and page number in your List of Illustrations.

Remember, you must have at least four questions designed for each objective, so at this point, introduce the next question which bears on Objective 1; present it pretty much the same way as you did the one above.

When you’ve carefully discussed all the responses to all the questions used to address the objective, summarize with something like… “in summary, the data from the three items in the survey appears to suggest that students, faculty, and staff are not favorably disposed toward a tuition increase. Accordingly, we conclude with regard to Objective 1 that there is little or no support for a tuition increase at this time.”

Note: the research objectives, and your findings are the main purpose of your report, and your discussion of each objective should provide considerable substance and scope. At least a page or two for each objective should be adequate. Try to find a BALANCE between being too terse in your discussion and being unnecessarily wordy.

Research Objective 2

(An example of the suggested format is provided. Note that if you right click on a table in your SPSS output file, you can import tables to your file, and you can edit any aspect of these. If you right click and “copy object” in SPSS you’ll bring the file in as a picture, not editable.)

The second research objective of the study is to learn the overall demographic profile of the student body and to understand how students’ demographics are related to their academic major. Overall, the typical undergraduate student at SoutheastMissouriStateUniversity is a male junior, majoring either in Marketing or Management. More specifically, Tables 2 and 3 immediately below show that the student body is somewhat dominated by males. About 55% of the sample consisted of males, 45% females. Additionally, our survey reveals that of 112 subjects surveyed, a clear majority (45%) are marketing students. Another interesting finding is that the sample suggests that the student body tends to favor the non-quantitative side of business administration. Fully 73% of respondents were either Marketing or Management majors; only about 27% indicated they were Accounting or Finance majors.

Table 2. Gender of Respondent

Gender / Frequency / Percent / Valid Percent / Cumulative Percent
Male / 61 / 54.5 / 54.5 / 54.5
Female / 51 / 45.5 / 45.5 / 100.0
Total / 112 / 100.0 / 100.0

Table 3. Academic Major

Major / Frequency / Percent / Valid Percent / Cumulative Percent
Marketing / 50 / 37.3 / 44.6 / 44.6
Management / 31 / 23.1 / 27.7 / 72.3
Accounting / 21 / 15.7 / 18.8 / 91.1
Finance / 10 / 7.5 / 8.9 / 100.0
Total / 112 / 83.6 / 100.0

Results presented in Table 4below show that our sample is primarily upperclassmen. Only about 20% of respondents were freshmen or sophomores. The modal value for Class Standing is “junior;” fully 45% of the sample indicated junior class standing.

Table 4. Class Standing

Class / Frequency / Percent / Valid Percent / Cumulative Percent
Freshman / 14 / 10.4 / 12.4 / 12.4
Sophomore / 8 / 6.0 / 7.1 / 19.5
Junior / 51 / 38.1 / 45.1 / 64.6
Senior / 40 / 29.9 / 35.4 / 100.0
Total / 113 / 84.3 / 100.0

As to the question: “is academic major related to students’ gender?” the results are summarized in Table 5 (below). A cross tabulation of Gender and Academic Major shows a statistically significant relationship. While males were especially concentrated in the Marketing and Management majors, Females are more evenly represented in all the majors. Clearly, females are much more likely than Males to be Accounting or Finance majors: of 31 Accounting and Finance majors, fully 21 (66%) are female in our sample.

Table 5. Cross Tabulation of Gender and Academic Major

Academic Major / Gender of Respondent / Total
Male / Female
Marketing / 30 / 20 / 50
Management / 21 / 10 / 31
Accounting / 10 / 11 / 21
Finance / 0 / 10 / 10
Total / 61 / 51 / 112

More detailed statistical data for the cross tabulation in Table 5 is contained in the appendix.

Research Objective 3

Ditto for objectives 1, 2…

Conclusions and Recommendations

This discussion will give you the opportunity to provide your summarizing and conclusive comments on the research project, and the client’s concerns. It should anticipate and address client’s questions.

This is an ideal place to “revisit” your review of the literature, and to show how your

findings are consistent with, or contradict, (or whatever) industry trends.

Your last paragraph should be forward looking, with recommendations to help the client increase her/his understanding, directions for future research.

Limitations of the Study

Every study has limitations. Acknowledging these lends your study credibility.

Table of References

List all your cited references alphabetically.

Ten References are REQUIRED for an A project.

Appendix(start a new page)

Should include:

• Summary Survey
• Code Book
• Frequencies Tables for all variables (except for questionnaire ID_
• All completed Questionnaires
• Any tables or other SPSS output. Any statistical analyses not cited in the body of your report.

Table 5. Academic Major * Gender of Respondent Crosstabulation

Value / df / Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square / 15.179(a) / 3 / .002
Likelihood Ratio / 19.020 / 3 / .000
Linear-by-Linear Association / 8.261 / 1 / .004
N of Valid Cases / 112

• An electronic copy of your SPSS .sav file

Finally:

Be sure your project is professionally presented. Use your best judgment as to what looks diligent and professional.

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