appendixdata collection formsdetailed calculationsgeneral tablesother support materials W r i t i n g

Part 1

1. Using the preliminary results from your survey:
   • Define the reliability and validity of the results.
   • Analyze the decisions you made in your questionnaire design.
   • Assess the flow and possible order bias of your survey.
2. Discuss how to choose an appropriate sample design.
3. Distinguish among the concepts of population, sample, and sampling distributions.

Guidelines

• Support your analysis with a minimum of two Peer-reviewed (scholarly) articles from the Hodges University Databases. World Wide Web articles will NOT be accepted as support.
• Write in third person.
• Do not use bullet points.
• Do not use direct quotes.
• Use the APA template.
  • Include a cover sheet and reference page.
  • Include one-inch margins per APA guidelines.
  • Include page numbers and the appropriate heading in the header of the document.
  • Use Twelve point, Times New Roman font as required per APA.
  • Do not use contractions as required per APA (e.g. isn’t, wasn’t, can’t, etc.).

• Include correct spelling and grammar.

Part 2——-The stages of your research project will include:

1. Defining research objectives – What types of research need to be done and what type of information a certain firm is hoping to obtain from the research
2. Planning a research design – Typically the options would be surveys, experiments, secondary data and observation. For this assignment, it will be limited to a survey.
3. Planning a sample
   1. Define your target population
   2. Select a sampling frame – who will be surveyed and why
   3. Plan procedure for selecting sampling units
   4. Determine sample size (20 completed questionnaire surveys)
   5. Select actual sampling units
   6. Conduct fieldwork via telephone, email or internet interviews
4. Collecting data – Make sure you are addressing the right issue. You want to make sure your decision statement is well defined and that your research questions address relevant issues.
5. Analyzing data – computation, summarizing and reasoning to understand the gathered data.
6. Formulating conclusions and preparing a report – This section should make up the bulk of the report and should present the findings of the project that bear on the research objectives. This section organizes results in a continuous narrative, designed to be convincing to the reader. Summary tables and charts should be included and serve as points of reference to the data.

You will determine the questionnaire survey that you use based upon the best fit for your firm and your objectives (using Survey Monkey web-based survey tool). You will base your survey results on minimum 20 completed questionnaire surveys. This is not a statistically correct number of completed surveys, but will provide a representative sample for your paper. You are welcome to survey family and friends, if they match your sampling frame.

The following outline should be followed for your report:

1. Title Page
2. Table of Contents
3. Executive Summary
   1. Objectives
   2. Results
   3. Conclusions
   4. Recommendations
4. Body
   1. Introduction
      1. Define the organization’s current situation
      2. Identify useful decision statements and related research questions
      3. Hypotheses
      4. Define how consumers, competitors, and employees view the firm
      5. Provide ideas for product improvements or possible new product development
      6. Test ideas that will assist in implementing marketing strategy including innovations
   2. Background
   3. Objectives
   4. Methodology
   5. Results
   6. Limitations
   7. Implications
   8. Conclusions and Recommendation
5. References (a minimum of three APA references excluding the textbook)
6. Appendix
   1. Data collection forms
   2. Detailed calculations
   3. General tables
   4. Other support materials