Analytical Model An explicit specification of a set of variables and their interrelationships designed to represent some real system or process in whole or in part Associative Techniques A type of projective technique in which the respondent is presented with a stimulus and asked to respond with the first thing that comes to mind Buyer Behavior A body of knowledge that tries to understand and predict consumers reactions based on an individual s specific characteristics Cartoon tests Cartoon characters are shown in a specific situation related to the problem The respondents are asked to indicate the dialogue that one cartoon character might make in response to the comments of another character Causal design A design in which the independent variables are manipulated in a relatively controlled environment Causal Research A type of conclusive research whose major objective is to obtain evidence regarding cause and effect relationships Causality When the occurrence of X increases the probability of the occurrence of Y Competitive intelligence The process of enhancing marketplace competitiveness through a greater understanding of a firm s competitors and the competitive environment Conceptual Map A way to link the broad statement of the marketing research problem with the management decision problem Conclusive Research Research designed to assist the decision maker in deterring evaluating and selecting the best course of action for a given situation Concomitant variation A condition for inferring causality that requires that a cause X and an effect Y occur together or vary together as predicted by the hypothesis under consideration Cross Sectional Design A type of research design involving the one time collection of info from any given sample of population elements Customer Relationship Management CRM A decision support system that is used for managing the interactions between an organization and its customers Customized Services Companies that tailor research procedures to best meet the needs of each client Data Mining Technique involving the use of powerful computers and advanced statistical and other software to analyze large databases in order to discover hidden patterns in the data Data warehouse A centralized database that consolidates company wide data from a variety of operational systems Database marketing The practice of using CRM databases to develop relationships and highly targeted marketing efforts with individuals and customer groups Decision Support System DSS An info system that enables decision makers to interact directly with both databases and analysis models The important components of a DSS include hardware and a communication network database model base software base and the DSS user Demand artifacts Responses given because the respondents attempt to guess the purpose of the experiment and respond accordingly Depth Interview An unstructured direct personal interview in which a single respondent is probed by a highly skilled interviewer to uncover underlying motivations beliefs attitudes and feelings on a topic Descriptive Research A type of conclusive research that has its major objective the description of something usually market characteristics or functions Design control A method of controlling extraneous variables that involves using specific experimental designs Direct Approach A type of qualitative research in which the purposes of the project are disclosed to the respondent or are obvious given the nature of the interview Environmental context of the problem Factors that have an impact on the definition of the marketing research problem including past info and forecasts resources and constraints of the firm objectives of the decision maker buyer behavior legal environment economic environment and marketing and technological skills of the firm Ethnographic research The study of human behavior in its natural context that involves observation of behavior and setting along with depth interviews Experience survey Interviews with people knowledgeable about the general topic being investigated Experiment The process of manipulating one or more independent variables and measuring their effect on one or more dependent variables while controlling for the extraneous variables Experimental design The set of experimental procedures specifying 1 the test units and sampling procedures 2 independent variables 3 dependent variables and 4 how to control the extraneous variables Experimental group The group exposed to the manipulated independent variable Exploratory Research A type of research design that has as its primary objective the provision of insights into and comprehension of the problem situation confronting the researcher External Data Data originate external to the organization External suppliers outside marketing research companies hired to conduct a complete marketing research project or a component of it External validity A determination of whenever the cause effect relationships found in the experiment can be generalized Extraneous variables variables other than the independent variables that influence the response of the test units Field Environment An experimental location set in actual market conditions Full service suppliers Companies that offer the full range of marketing research activities Graphical Models Analytical models that provide a written representation of the relationships between variables Grounded Theory An inductive and more structured approach in which each subsequent depth interview is adjusted based on the cumulative findings from previous depth interviews with the purpose of developing general concepts or theories History Specific events that are external to the experiment but that occur at the same time as the experiment Humanistic inquiry A special form of personal observation in which the researcher is immersed in the system under study Hypothesis An unproven statement or proposition about a factor or phenomenon that is of interest to the researcher Indirect approach A type of qualitative research in which the purposes of the project are disguised from the respondents Instrumentation An extraneous variable involving changes in the measuring instrument or in the observers or scores themselves Internal data Data available within the organization for which the research is being conducted Internal validity A measure of accuracy of an experiment It measures if the manipulation of the independent variables or treatments actually caused