Assignment Title Conducting Primary ResearchDeveloping the ab.docx

Assignment Title: Conducting Primary Research
Developing the ability to conduct primary research can be an
invaluable asset to add to your business tool belt. In this
assignment, you will engage in developing the following
professional competencies related to marketing research:
Analyze qualitative data in decision making.
Marketing researchers conduct primary research to gain human
perspective on the problem or opportunity being studied, or to
identify problems or opportunities for study.
Directions for completing this assignment:
In this assignment, you will analyze the Student Computer Lab
(Click Here) case study. To effectively meet the requirements of
this assignment, analyze the qualitative data derived from the
primary research found in the case study scenario.
To successfully complete this assignment, write a 2-3 page
critical essay covering the following topics:
1. Determine overall student satisfaction with the computer lab.
2. Do you think it was wise to have a group with both graduate
and undergraduate students included?
3. Analyze the focus group transcript very thoroughly. Make a
list of problems and ideas generated for the student computer
lab.
4. What do you see as the benefits and limitations of the focus
group findings? Do you think the task force plan for utilizing
the focus groups is appropriate?
5. What changes would you make to improve the problems or to
capitalize on the opportunities identified in the primary
research? Collect and describe student recommendations for
improvements.
Directions for Submitting this Assignment:

Review the grading rubric below before beginning this activity.
For additional help with your writing and APA citation, please
visit the Kaplan University Writing Center. Compose your
Assignment as a Microsoft® Word® document and save it as
(Example: TAlex-MT355 Assignment-Unit5.docx). Submit your
file by selecting the Unit 5: Assignment Dropbox by the end of
Unit 5.
Case Scenario
Student Computer Lab
A major university served over 2,000 undergraduate and
graduate students majoring in business administration. The
large number of students enrolled in the Business School
coupled with increasing use of computer technology by faculty
and students created overwhelming demands on the Business
School’s computer center. In order to respond, the Business
School decided to upgrade its computer facilities.
Rod Stevenson, director of the Student Computer Center (SCC),
opened a new computer lab in the fall of 2007. The new lab
offered specialized software required by student courses and the
latest technology in hardware and software.
Computer Lab Project
After operating for six months, Stevenson recognized some
potential problems with the new computer lab. Although the
number of computers had doubled, student suggestions and
complaints indicated that the demand for computers at times
exceeded the available resources. To address this problem,
Stevenson established a task force to investigate the level of

student satisfaction with the computer lab. The task force was
made up of four graduate students and was established in
January 2008. The task force aimed to help the computer lab
identify student needs and provide suggestions on how those
needs could be most effectively met.
The first activity of the task force was to examine available
information on the lab and its functions and resources. Services
offered by the computer lab included network and printer
access. The lab usually had three to four lab monitors to collect
money for printouts and answer any of the student’s questions.
Lab hours were 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00
a.m. to 5:00on Saturdays and Sundays.
After reviewing available information on the lab, the task force
decided it needed to conduct some research before making
recommendations on the services offered. Exhibit 1 displays a
proposal written by the task force outlining the information to
be obtained and the time frame for the research.
Focus Group Study
Stevenson received the proposal and approved it. He agreed
with the task force’s use of focus groups to gain a
preliminary understanding of the students’ attitudes. The
focus groups would identify existing problems better than
secondary research, although the process of collecting and
analyzing the data would be more time consuming. After
receiving approval, the task force posted information around
the Business School to alert students that focus groups were
being conducted. Free laser copies were offered as an incentive
for participation. Students were selected based on their
interest. The student focus group was held on March 10, 2008.
Seven students participated, five graduate and two undergradu-
ate. Transcripts are provided in Exhibit 2.
Because one of the responsibilities of the lab monitors is to
assist students with questions and problems, separate focus

groups were also conducted on March 9, 2008, and March 11,
2008, with eight lab monitors. Information from both the
student and lab monitor focus groups was used as a guide
to develop questions for the second phase, a student survey.
Information from the focus groups was reduced to a list of key
issues, which were then categorized. An exhaustive list of state-
ments was devised to address potential user attitudes with
respect to each issue. When the list was complete, statements
were revised, combined, or eliminated to a set that succinctly
covered the original key issue categories. The questionnaire
was then pretested and finally administered to a sample of
students attending class in the Business School.
QuestionsDid the moderator do an adequate job of getting the
information needed by the SCC?Do you think it was wise to
have a group with both graduate and undergraduate students
included?Analyze the focus group transcript very thoroughly.
Make a list of problems and ideas generated for the student
computer lab.What do you see as the benefits and limitations of
the focus group findings? Do you think the task force plan for
utilizing the focus groups is appropriate?
1The contributions of Monika E. Wingate to the development of
this case are gratefully acknowledged. © Cengage Learning
Exhibit 1 Task Force Proposal
DATE: February 1, 2008 TO: Rod Stevenson
FROM: Computer Center Improvement Task Force RE:
Computer Lab Research Proposal
Background: In 2007, the Business School opened a new student
computer lab. Through suggestions and complaints, the SCC

realizes that there is a service delivery problem in that student
demand for computers at times exceeds available resources.
The aim of this research is to help the SCC identify student
needs and provide suggestions on how those needs can be most
effectively met. The results of this research will be limited to
the student computer lab. Other Business School computer
facilities, such as the computer classrooms and the multimedia
lab, are outside the scope of this project.
Objectives: The research objectives are as follows:Determine
overall student satisfaction with the labIdentify current problem
areasCollect student recommendations for improvements
Methodology: The research design is divided into two parts,
exploratory research followed by descriptive research. The
exploratory research would attempt to gain a better
understanding of students’ perceptions of the computer lab and
to identify the issues that concern them. The student survey
would aim to quantify the magnitude of these problems and to
develop recommendations.
Focus Groups: The task force feels that focus groups would be
the most appropriate method for exploratory research. Two sets
of focus groups are recommended. One set will focus on
students who use the computer lab, while the other will address
the lab monitors who deal with student problems on a daily
basis.
Student Survey: The focus group information would be used to
develop questions for a subsequent survey. Since the population
of interest is students enrolled in the Business School, this
survey would be administered to students attending classes
within the Business School, both graduates and undergraduates.
Time Schedule Completed By
Focus Groups March 11
Questionnaire Design April 2
Pretest Questionnaire April 9
Survey April 23
Data Analysis May 10

Exhibit 2
Student Focus Group Transcript
Moderator: I’m Robert from Professional Interviewing. I really
appreciate your participation in this group session. As you can
see, I am taping this session so I can review all of your
comments. We are here tonight to talk about the computer lab at
the Business School. As business students, you all have access
to the lab for your class assignments. How do you think the
computer lab is meeting your needs?
Lisa: I think there is a problem with the lab because the folks
who are using computers don’t know about computers. That’s
been reflected in the fact that you go to one computer and you
pick up a virus. These people don’t know anything about
viruses, they’re transmitting them all over the place, nobody is
scanning for viruses, and there’s something that could easily be
put on the systems.
Oliver: I think there has to be training for the people who are
watching the computers. They are ignorant. You ask them any
question and they can’t answer it. It’s a computer lab and this
computer doesn’t seem to be doing the thing that it should be
doing, why? Why is this network different from the rest? How
are we supposed to handle this network? They don’t know.
Lisa: Not only that, they don’t know any of the software.
Oliver: Absolutely!
Lisa: This is like I have Word at home and this is WordPerfect,
‘‘How do I do XYZ in WordPerfect?’’ They don’t know. They

say, let
me go check with John and it takes three of them to try to
answer the question. (Continued)
case 5 519
Exhibit 2
Student Focus Group Transcript (Continued)
Marion: And there are three of them!
Lisa: I know!
Oliver: There is always a big queue so you cannot get onto a
Windows machine; you have to go to Pagemaker Plus if you
need to make a presentation. You cannot go to these
WordPerfect machines that have just keyboard entries. But there
are very few computers and a lot of lines in the peak times and
they are just not equipped to handle it. They have so many staff
over there, five people, all of these people, but not one of them
will help anyone.
Moderator: How about you, Jennifer, have you experienced
this?
Jennifer: Yeah, I even had it today. I just don’t have time to
wait in line to get a computer. It’s a half hour sometimes to go
in and get one.
Lisa: And that’s now. At the end of the semester it’s worse.
Jennifer: Yeah, it gets worse.
Lisa: It takes an hour and there’s no sign-up. There’s no regular
sign-up.
Mike: They truncated the hours the last two weeks of the
semester.
Jennifer: You could take these four people and turn that into
one educated person, or take the four people and have one

uneducated person there 24 hours a day. That would be nice. If
all they’re going to do is take your card and give you your copy,
why do you have to have four of them? That’s all they’re doing.
And studying.
Moderator: How about you, I didn’t get your name?
Tammy: Tammy.
Moderator: Welcome, Tammy, how about you. What kind of
things have you come across?
Tammy: What I’m hearing are a lot of the problems I’ve seen,
too. I just think there needs to be more computers in the lab and
the hours need to be longer.
Mike: I don’t think they need more computers. They just need to
expand the hours and the computing labs.
Oliver: I had an idea where they don’t need more computers.
One suggestion I already put in the suggestion box is to have
people bring their own computers. Why doesn’t a grad student
who is going to be here for two years, going to interface with
technology when he leaves here, spend a thousand dollars and
go buy his own system? They should do that. Have your own
computer here, I’m saying it’s a requirement. It’s a requirement
at a lot of universities that you come with your own system.
Then you don’t have to worry, you don’t need access to our
labs. Now for undergraduates we still have similar problems,
but it would put less stress on the system.
Moderator: What would you suggest for people who would say,
okay I can get this computer system, but I have to get this
software for this class, and this software for this class, and this
software. That is a lot of money.
Oliver: Yeah, we can already jump into the network from home.
All you need is the software.
Lisa: I don’t think so.
Oliver: You can get in. I can check my mail and stuff.
Lisa: But not software.
Oliver: Oh, software. I haven’t tried, so I don’t know.
Tammy: Getting back to the machine. I’d love to have my own
machine but I don’t want to have it if I don’t have to. As long

as we have all these other computers, why not use what we’ve
got?
Mike: I can’t afford it. If you want to buy a good computer, a
decent printer, a decent monitor, you are still going to spend
between
$1,600 and $2,000.
Oliver: I think while we’re in school the school should support
us with computers.
Mike: I think one of the reasons there aren’t enough computers
is that people who aren’t enrolled in the Business School have
access to the lab. In the old building, they always checked your
ID.
Tammy: Yeah. Why don’t we use the card machines? They were
working, weren’t they? They had the doors closed and you used
a key card.
Oliver: I think the old lab was better because they controlled
people coming and going.
520 case 5
Exhibit 2
Mike: Yeah. Gatekeeping.
Tammy: They had hours when only graduate students could
come in. I think that’s something that should be started again
because they have a lot more papers to type up.
Mike: I don’t see why this lab isn’t open 24 hours. I really
don’t. Why aren’t the labs open 24 hours?
Lisa: Monitor problem, they need someone to monitor them, to
work with them.

Jennifer: Three people, three eight-hour shifts.
Mike: They don’t have a budget to increase their hours. They
need to double the hours, like not having four monitors at one
time.
Moderator: There are peak hours and there are hours that there
are a lot of open computers, where people don’t generally come
in. If there was a way to monitor those times and put a schedule
up, people could come in and indicate a time when we could go
there. Continually monitor that, what do you think about that?
Mike: Every hour is a peak hour, particularly at the end of the
semester.
Oliver: I think it would be a good way of trying to smooth it
out, because that’s what you are trying to do. Have people go
there when it’s not so busy. But then what about times like
today? I happened to get out of class one-half hour early and
went downstairs and used it. But if I hadn’t signed up early,
there were a million folks in there. There are some trade-offs,
but I think it’s a great idea to try and smooth it out. This
morning there were four of us in there at 8:00 or 8:15 when it
opened, and I don’t think anybody else showed up until 10:00.
Mike: Another problem in the lab right now is that there are a
lot of computers that are broken at one time.
Oliver: Oh yeah!
Mike: There are six of them right now that aren’t working.
Oliver: That’s from people not knowing what they are doing. I
was sitting down there on one of the old machines and there was
a gentleman sitting next to me who couldn’t figure out why it
wouldn’t work. He took his disk out and shut the computer off.
When it came back on it got a boot error. Then he got scared
and he just left. He didn’t go tell anyone. The monitors are
looking from the other side, so they don’t know there is
anything wrong. Someone comes in, they just look around, and
see that the computer is broken, or it’s not booted up, and so on.
That’s why I am saying, it’s the students themselves. People
need to know how to use the system.
Ira: I think there should be a small note pasted next to the

computers with instructions as to how to use each computer.
Marion: Even a template for the word processing.
Ira: Even a small hint for troubleshooting, please don’t do this
and do this.
Tammy: I think an excellent model for this are the computer
labs in the dorms. The first time you use them, they scan your
ID to
be sure you are a dorm resident, they know if it’s the first time
you are using it, they ask you to make sure you know how to
use the software. They have a rack with every different kind of
title and anything you need to use the software. They tell you
exactly what’s going to come up on the machine and what you
have to do. I’m sure the Business School can get copies of it all
and
then just copy it.
Marion: We have no reference guides for the software.
Tammy: And then they have the guides there. The little orange
books.
Moderator: Are there any other concerns we haven’t talked
about?
Ira: Is there any way the cost for a laser print can be reduced?
Tammy: It kills me.
Ira: It should be 7 cents. It is 6 cents in the library.
Tammy: You used to have the option to go to a dot matrix
printer. They changed that this semester. The only way to go to
the dot matrix was to go to an AT&T machine. Don’t tell me
someone is looking at cost.
Ira: I think the initial cost is pretty high, that is why they’re
keeping it at 10 cents.
Jennifer: If they are planning on getting more printers, I think
they should have at least one or two individual print stations
where you can grab your stuff. If you’re working on your
resume and you want to print on bond paper or do envelopes,
the people behind the desk won’t let you do it because they
don’t know if other people are going to send before you do, they
don’t know

what is going to come out. (Continued)
case 5 521
Exhibit 2
Oliver: Or they waste your paper because they can’t coordinate
it.
Jennifer: So I think there should be some individual
workstations.
Oliver: I have something to say and maybe I’m the only one
with this problem. I always find that when I go there and I am
working alone, other groups are creating a racket, so it’s really
frustrating. I’m working on a project, I need to think. I don’t
need this kind of heavy distraction, this loud talk. I go and work
in groups too, we try to whisper. There should be some kind of
discipline in the computer lab. I think I may be the only one
being that sensitive, but I think silence has to be maintained. It
is a computer lab,
it is a place for people working, if you’re having a fun time go
have it outside.
Moderator: How effective do you think their waiting lists
system is?
Tammy: It stinks.
Ira: I didn’t even know they had one.
Tammy: It would be better to set up a physical waiting list
where there would be chairs or a bench or something like that.
Ira: Or like a number.
Tammy: Or six chairs in a row and you sit down next to the
computers and that means you are next to get on; then if you

leave the next person can move down and then you can see that
no one is getting in front of you.
Oliver: It worked pretty well for me. Every time I used the
waiting list I had to wait for maybe a half hour and my name
was called and I could get a computer. I have no complaints.
This happened every time. There was no problem. I had no
problems at all.
Mike: Until now I didn’t even know there was a waiting list. If
there was an open computer, I would just sit down.
Tammy: I found out the hard way, I went down and sat down
and someone told me.
Assignment Details and Grading Rubric
Assignment Title: Conducting Primary Research
Developing the ability to conduct primary research can be an
invaluable asset to add to your business tool belt. In this
assignment, you will engage in developing the following
professional competencies related to marketing research:
* Analyze qualitative data in decision making.
Marketing researchers conduct primary research to gain human
perspective on the problem or opportunity being studied, or to
identify problems or opportunities for study.
Directions for completing this assignment:
In this assignment, you will analyze the Student Computer Lab
case study. To effectively meet the requirements of this
assignment, analyze the qualitative data derived from the

primary research found in the case study scenario.
To successfully complete this assignment, write a 2-3 page
critical essay covering the following topics:
1. Determine overall student satisfaction with the computer lab.
2. Provide an opinion describing if it was wise to have a group
with both graduate and undergraduate students included?
Support your opinion with research.
3. Analyze the focus group transcript very thoroughly. Make a
list of problems and ideas generated for the student computer
lab.
4. What do you see as the benefits and limitations of the focus
group findings? Do you think the task force plan for utilizing
the focus groups is appropriate?
5. What changes would you make to improve the problems or to
capitalize on the opportunities identified in the primary
research? Collect and describe student recommendations for
improvements.
For additional requirements in relation to this assignment,
download the grading rubric below.
Directions for Submitting this Assignment:
Review the grading rubric below before beginning this activity.
For additional help with your writing and APA citation, please
visit the Kaplan University Writing Center. Compose your
Assignment as a Microsoft® Word® document and save it with
your first name initial and last name (Example: TAlex-MT355
Assignment- Unit5.docx). Submit your file by selecting the Unit
5: Assignment Dropbox by the end of Unit 5.

Unit 5 [MT355: Marketing Research]
Grading Rubric:
Percent
Possible Score For This
Assignment: 100
Content, Focus, Use of Text/Outside Sources (60%) Percent
Possible Points
Determine the overall sudent satisfaction
20%
8
20%
8
20%
8
60%
24
Computer Lab analysis of problems and ideas

Analysis of the focus group findings
Analysis and Critical Thinking (30%)
Recommendations based on analysis Analysis is well thought
out Flow of answers is logical
7.5%
3
7.5%
3
7.5%
3
7.5%
3
30%
12
Considers different positions on the issues

Writing Style Grammar, APA Format
10%
4
100%
40
0
Gross Assignment
Score:
Less: Late Penalty (Per Policy)

Assignment Title Conducting Primary ResearchDeveloping the ab.docx

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