The Purpose of This Course Is to Familiarize You With

(Revised: 11 December 2001.)

MTKG 610: Marketing and the Scientific Method
Course Syllabus
Spring 2002
Instructor: Dr. Michael Hyman, Professor of Marketing
Department of Marketing and General Business
Office: 307A Guthrie Hall
Phone: 646-5238 (office), 522-8463 (home)
Fax: 646-1498 (office)
e-mail:

Purpose

The purpose of this course is to familiarize you with:

• the publication-related aspects of an academic career in marketing;
• the purposes, value, and limitations of marketing research;
• the design, administration, and limitations of survey research;
• the basics of qualitative research, observational research, and experimentation in marketing;
• the basics of sampling in survey research;
• ethical concerns in marketing research; and
• the logic and presentation of scholarly research, especially in reviews of the extant literature.

Readings

• Erlandson, David A., Edward L. Harris, Barbara L. Skipper, and Steve D. Allen (1993), Doing Naturalistic Inquiry: A Guide to Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications
• Henry, Gary T. (1990), Practical Sampling. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications
• Damer, T. Edward (2001), Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
• Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Columb, and Joseph M. Williams (1995), The Craft of Research. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
• Peterson, Robert A. (2000), Constructing Effective Questionnaires. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Hammersley, Martyn and Paul Atkinson (1995), Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge (supplemental; do not purchase; available in Branson library).
• Set of photocopied readings (described below). (Note: Each week, the instructor will assign one student to photocopy the readings for two weeks hence, i.e., you will have at least ten days to complete your readings for each class).
• A standard marketing research textbook of your choice, but published after 1990. For a less advanced text, consider an undergraduate marketing research textbook authored by (1) Zikmund, or (2) Aaker, Kumar, and Day. For a more advanced text, consider the marketing research textbook authored by Malhotra.

Assignments

Weekly

You should master the readings assigned for each class and be prepared to discuss them in depth (i.e., your class participation grade is one significant component of your overall grade).

You should submit 'two' thoughtful, integrative questions concerning the readings for each class. As these questions may serve as the basis for in-class discussion, you must send them via e-mail to the instructor and to the other students by 9:00 am on class days.

Semester-Long Survey Research Project

Each student will conduct his or her own survey research project. Although the client for your research may cover your expenses (e.g., photocopying costs), neither you nor the instructor are meant to earn a profit from your research efforts. (However, your client is permitted to give an honorarium to the Department of Marketing or to the Professional Golf Management Program.) A typical project would include the following tasks: formulate a research problem, design a questionnaire, select a sample frame, collect respondent data, keypunch respondent data, analyze respondent data with a personal computer, write a research report, and make a brief, in-class presentation.

At a minimum, your research proposal should include a description of your overall research problem, specific research questions, and sample. Your research report should follow the conventional format for a scholarly article. You should use either SPSS for Windows or SAS to analyze your survey data. SPSS is installed on personal computers in the BC and Jacobs Hall computer labs and the BC Marketing Suite (BC 208). Finally, you will make a brief, in-class presentation during the last class.

The schedule for your research projects is as follows:

Submission of first drafts is optional. However, the instructor will not provide ungraded feedback for drafts submitted after the draft due date unless you and the instructor agree on an alternative date.

Note: For each day that the final draft of an assignment is late, the instructor will reduce the grade on that assignment by one letter grade unless you provide a university-sanctioned excuse.

Examination

From the published question set for this course--which will include instructor-written questions and student-written questions--the instructor will select at least six questions. At 8:00am on Thursday, May 9th, the instructor will send these questions via e-mail to all students. By noon on Friday, May 10th, students must submit their answers to all six questions as e-mail attachments in Word or WordPerfect. (Other than a university-sanctioned excuse, no exceptions to this deadline will be made. Thus, students may wish to confirm receipt of their answers.) Although students are permitted to discuss the questions among themselves, students must submit original answers. Submission of even one answer that represents another person's work as one's own work is grounds for failing the entire examination.

Grading Policy

Your course grade will be computed as follows:

Reading Schedule

Final Notes

Dropping the Course. Although the instructor may drop students administratively, students remain responsible for dropping this course.

Course Coverage. Although the above schedule is flexible, the exam dates are fixed. Although the instructor will make a good faith effort to cover all of the above material, he does not guarantee that all of it will be covered.

Incomplete Grades. Under university policy, incompletes may be given only if a student has a passing grade at mid-semester (the last day to withdraw from a class) and is precluded from successful completion of the second half of the course by a documented illness, documented death, family crisis or other similar circumstances beyond the student's control. An incomplete should not be given to avoid assigning a grade for marginal or failing work. Requirements for removal of the I grade must be clearly stated on the I grade form and a copy of the form should be provided to the student. Details on incompletes appear in the catalog.

Cheating. The instructor defines cheating as (1) submitting another person's work as your own work, or (2) fabricating respondent data or research results. Any student caught cheating on an assignment or test will receive a permanent 0 (zero) for that assignment or examination.

Students with Disabilities. If you have or believe you have a disability and would benefit from any accommodations, you may wish to self-identify by contacting the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office located in Garcia Annex (phone: 646-6840). If you have already registered, please make sure that your instructor receives a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD within the first two weeks of classes. It is your responsibility to inform either your instructor or SSD representative in a timely manner if services/accommodations provided are not meeting your needs.

If you have a condition which may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or which may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any concerns with the instructor and/or Ms.Jane Spinti, SSD Coordinator. Feel free to call Ms. Elva Telles (EEO/ADA and Employee Relations Director) at 646-3333 with any questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.