Research for Marketing Decisions I

Introduction

Please note that this is a preliminary course description. The final version will be published in June 2026.

Course content

Module 1: Foundations of Research in Marketing

Purpose: Build shared understanding of the research process and its philosophical, ethical, and strategic foundations.

Topics:

• Role of research in marketing decision-making
• The research process: from problem definition to actionable insight
• Types of research: exploratory, descriptive, causal
• Validity, reliability, and measurement issues
• Research ethics and transparency

Module 2: Research Design and Data Collection

Purpose: Equip students with tools to design sound studies and collect appropriate data – qualitative and quantitative.

Topics:

• Designing causal vs descriptive studies
• Sampling methods and trade-offs
• Survey and experimental research design
• Qualitative and exploratory approaches (e.g. interviews, focus groups, observational research)
• Introduction to text mining/content analysis (could focus on coding schemes or automated tools like basic NLP)