Chapter 7 Part 1: Marketing Research

Social desirability bias

Bias in responses caused by respondents desire, either conscious or unconscious, to gain prestige or appear in a different social role.

Auspices Bias

Bias in the responses of subjects caused by their being influenced by the organization conducting the study.

Systematic Error

Error resulting from some imperfect aspect of the research design that causes respondent error or from a mistake in the execution of the research.

Types of Response Bias

Include acquiescence bias, extremity bias, interviewer bias, auspices bias, and social desirability bias.

Interview Error

Mistakes made by interviewers failing to record survey responses correctly.

Data Processing Error

A category of administrative error that occurs because of incorrect data entry, incorrect computer programming, or other procedural errors during data analysis.

Acquiescence Bias

A category of response bias that results because some individuals tend to agree with all questions or to concur with a particular position.

Extremity Bias

A category of response bias that results because some individuals tend to use extremes when responding to questions.

Respondent Error

A category of sample bias resulting from some respondent action or inaction such as non response or response bias.

Survey

A method of data collection in which information is gathered by communicating with a representative sample of people.

Sample Bias:

A persistent tendency for the results of a sample to deviate in one direction from the value of the population parameter.

No contact

A person who is not at home or who is otherwise inaccessible on the first and second contact.

Non respondent

A person who is not contacted or who refuses to cooperate in the research.

Refusal

A person who is unwilling to participate in a research project.

Unstructured Quesiton

A question that does not restrict the respondents answers.

Structured Question

A question that imposes a limit on the number of allowable responses.

Interviewer Bias

A response bias that occurs because the presence of the interviewer influences respondents answers.

Random Sampling Error

A statistical fluctuation that occurs because of chance variation in the elements selected for a sample.

Undisguised Questions

A straightforward question that assumes the respondent is willing to answer.

Respondent

The person who verbally answers an interviewers questions or provides answers to written questions.

Interviewer Cheating

The practice of filling fake answers or falsifying questionnaires while working as an interviewer.

Non Response Error

The statistical differences between a survey that includes only those who responded and a perfect survey that would also include those who failed to respond.

Advantages of Surveys

They are reliable, generalizable, efficient, higher accuracy, and flexible.

Administrative Error

an error caused by improper administration or execution of the research task.

Self-selection bias

A bias occurs because people who feel strongly about a subject are more likely to respond to survey questions than people who feel indifferent about it.

Response Bias

A bias that occurs when respondents either consciously or unconsciously tend to answer questions with a certain slant that misrepresents the truth. (deliberate falsification, unconscious misrepresentation)

Sample Selection Error

An administrative error caused by improper sample design or sampling procedure execution.

Disguised Questions

An indirect question that assumes the purpose of the study must be hidden from the respondent.