Course description
Course description
The course focuses on quantitative methods of economics and social sciences based on research questions in the field of marketing and strategy. At the beginning of the course, the basics of complex market research will be introduced. Accordingly, skills for developing hypotheses and scales will be part of this course as well.
Based on specific issues of strategic marketing, models for market segmentation will be discussed in the course. The strategic product positioning will be illustrated by using prominent concepts. Causal models and related methods will be addressed in order to model complex effect relationships.
The lecture is accompanied by an exercise. This exercise will be conducted in small groups where marketing research software will be used by students in a computer room.
Learning outcomes
The course enables students to handle and solve complex research questions in economic and social science. Based on examples of (business) strategy students get to know complex multivariate analysis methods and how to apply them on their own. By obtaining knowledge and the ability to use common statistical software packages, students also qualify to perform operational empirical analysis in research project, consultancy and professional practice.
By the end of the course, it is expected that students will be able to:
- demonstrate the ability to transform marketing problems into flexible research hypotheses and proposal.
- display the ability to develop proper measurement to collect data on the variables that are relevant to address the research hypotheses.
- demonstrate the ability to select and utilize proper statistic tools to test the dataset again the research hypotheses.
The skills mentioned above are key for a perspective student becoming an empirical researcher in the fields of social science, especially in market research.
Didactic Concept
Lecture (2 SWS) and exercise (1 SWS)
Recommended prerequisites
In general, it is beneficial to have a basic knowledge in the field of quantitative market research. These can e.g. be obtained by taking the BA course “Operational Research”.
Grading information
Exam (75%), market research project (25%) as well as presence and active participation in STATA-exercises. To pass the course passing the exam is precondition.
Exam relevance
We expect the students to know the learning contents of the lecture, the exercise and the mandatory literature references. It is not sufficient to memorize the slides of the lecture only. Students rather should attend class regularly and prepare and follow-up its contents. Exam questions could possibly be derived from questions of the students.
After the evaluation of your exams, the exams won't be handed over to the students. Instead we offer students to have a look at them at our Chiar. The date for inspection will be published on our homepage (see "Aktuelles") and in StiNE as soon as there is a concise date.
Preparation and follow-up
We recommend students to prepare every single lecture. Therefore, prior to the lecture both the corresponding slides and the mandatory literature should be studied. So we are able to discuss content by mentioning aspects which cannot be found on the slides.
Besides preparation we highly recommend to do a follow-up on every class to enhance mind processing the content. The best way to do so is doing a recap together with other students on weekly bases. Beside recap students should try to transfer the course content to real life problems to improve their application know-how. Discussing memorized contents facilitates the connection of scientific models and thoughts and leads to a quicker and more efficient way of answering exam questions.
Literature
Main course book:
Mario Mazzocchi (2008). "Statistics for Marketing and Consumer Research" (6th edition), Pearson, SAGE Publications Ltd: 9781412911221
Supplemented by:
William G. Zikmund (2013). “Business research methods”(7th edition), Thomson/South-Western, ISBN: 0030350840.