Chapter 4: The Human Side of Marketing Research: Organizational and Ethical Issues

Placebo

a false experimental effect used to create the perception that some effect has been administered

Syndicated service

a marketing research supplier that provides standardize information for many clients in return for a fee

Research analyst

a person responsible for client contact, project design, preparation of proposals, selection of research suppliers, and supervision of data collection, analysis, and reporting activities

Idealism

a term that reflects that degree to which one bases one's morality on moral standards

Relativism

a term that reflects the degree to which one rejects moral standards in favor of the acceptability of some action. This way of thinking rejects absolute principles in favor of situation-based evaluations

Research generalist

an employee who serves as a link between management and research specialists. The research generalist acts as a problem definer, an educator, a liaison, a communicator, and a friendly ear

Outside agency

an independent research firm contracted by the company that actually will benefit from the research.

Cross-functional teams

employee teams composed of individuals from various functional areas such as engineering, production, finance, and marketing who share a common purpose

Forecast analyst

employee who provides technical assistance such as running computer programs and manipulating data to generate a sales forecast

Manager of decision support systems

employee who supervises the collection and analysis of sales, inventory, and other periodic customer relationship management (CRM) data

Mystery shoppers

employees of a research firm that are paid to pretend to be actual shoppers

Conflict of interest

occurs when one researcher works for two competing companies

Moral standards

principles that reflect beliefs about what is ethical and what is unethical

Ethical dilemma

refers to a situation in which one chooses from alternative courses of actions, each with different ethical problems

Research assistants

research employees who provide technical assistance with questionnaire design, data analysis, and similar activities

In-house research

research performed by employees of the company that will benefit from the research

Custom research

research projects that are tailored to specifically to a client's unique needs

Debriefing

research subjects are fully informed and provided with a chance to ask any questions they may have about the experiment

Advocacy research

research undertaken to support a specific claim in a legal action or represent some advocacy group

Do not call legislation

restricts any telemarketing effort from calling consumers who either register with a no-call list or who request not to be called

Spyware

software placed on a computer without consent or knowledge of the user

Push poll

telemarketing under guise of research

Marketing ethics

the application of morals to behavior related to the exchange environment

Confidentiality

the information involved in a research will not be shared with others

Director of marketing research

this person provides leadership in research efforts and integrates all staff-level research activities into one effort. The director plans, executes, and controls the firm's marketing research function

Informed consent

when an individual understands what the researcher wants him or her to do and consents to the research study

Human subjects review committee

carefully reviews proposed research design to try to make sure that no harm can come to any research participant

Research suppliers

commercial providers of marketing research services

Standardized research service

companies that develop a unique methodology for investigating a business specialty area

Pseudo-research

conducted not to gather information for marketing decisions but to bolster a point of view and satisfy other needs