The research proposal is a group-based assessment that allows you to demonstrate your conceptual and technical understanding of the important concepts related to marketing research. Based on a brief case study (see Moodle), you will be required to develop a marketing research proposal, accompanied by a data collection instrument (e.g., survey questionnaire).

From your reading of the assigned case study, you need to identify the overall problem and recommend a marketing decision to the management team. The proposal must reflect the relevant stages in the marketing research process and the logic for using them, and clearly describe what information will be needed, and how and from where it will be obtained.

It is essential that you include academic literature in your research proposal to support and justify your ideas and arguments. Any unsupported statement will not provide credibility to your discussion.

Your research proposal should include (but not be limited to):

INTRODUCTION

This section is where you identify and discuss the problem, and highlight the focus and purpose of your research. Research questions and objectives should be discussed here, so that the scope of the study could be clearly and easily identified.

RELEVANT LITERATURE AND HYPOTHESES

This section is where you critically review relevant bodies of research to develop the foundation upon which you propose at least three testable hypotheses related to your research problem, objectives, and questions.

RESEARCH DESIGN This section is where you explain and justify the method that you will adopt to collect the data required for testing your hypotheses. This section should address issues related to: Sample (e.g., who are your target respondents, why should they be included in the sample, how do you ensure the sample is representative of the target population, etc.) Procedure (e.g., how are you identifying and approaching the targeted respondents, how are you obtaining information from them, why is this approach appropriate, etc.) Measures (e.g., what questions are you asking of your respondents and in what format, why are these questions appropriate, where are these questions taken from, etc.) CONCLUSION Briefly explain how and why the management team might benefit from your proposed research. Include an overall evaluation of the research (e.g., brief discussion clarifying how overall focus and purpose of the research study is addressed), potential limitations of the study (e.g., what should have been done but has not within the context of the current study), and recommendations for future research. Your proposal must be typed in word file for submission. It must be developed using double line spacing, Times New Roman 12-point font and 2.54cm margins all around. Submitted work should be spell-checked and free of spelling and grammatical errors. Marks will be deducted for inattention to such detail.