Section A

Question 1

A car company has designed an advertisement to promote an existing popular product. They are interested in finding out whether the advertisement will increase sales. Indicate whether qualitative or quantitative research would be more appropriate, justify your answer and recommend the most appropriate research method and sampling plan.

Question 2

A retailer of children's toys wants to learn what customers think of the range of products they offer in its mailorder catalogue. The retailer has decided to carry out a self-completion survey of its adult customers on its catalogue mailing list but they are unsure whether the survey should be conducted by post or online.

(a) Outline the benefits and limitations of each approach which the retailer is considering for this research. Illustrate your answer with examples.

(b) The retailer has decided to use a postal survey. Outline the steps which they could take to maximise response rates. Give reasons for the suggestions you make.

Question 3

A statistics student who is curious about the relationship between the amount of time students spend on social networking sites and their performance at school decides to conduct a survey. Three research strategies for collecting data are described below. In each, name and discuss the sampling method proposed and any bias you might expect.

a. He randomly samples 300 students from the study's population, gives them the survey, asks them to fill it out and bring it back the next day.

b. He gives out the survey only to his friends, and makes sure each one of them fills out the survey.

c. He posts a link to an online survey on his Facebook wall and asks his friends to fill out the survey.

a. Victoria University has 1200 students undertaking the unit Introduction to Marketing this semester across three campuses with 900 students enrolled at the Melbourne City Campus, 200 students at the Sydney Campus and 100 students at the Sunway Campus. All lecture notes, teaching and supporting materials are uploaded on the VUCollaborate. The lectures are conducted by three different local lecturers at these campuses. The researcher wants to conduct a survey of 300 students about how satisfied the students are with the unit, and he believes that the campus a student is enrolled at might affect the student's overall satisfaction with the unit.

Suggest the most appropriate sampling strategy for carrying out this study and any bias you might expect from it.

Question 4

Traditionally, qualitative research has been depicted as having a preparatory role in relation to quantitative research. To what extent do the different forms of mixed methods research reflect this view? Discuss, justify and give examples where appropriate.