INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Business management refers to the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of human and economic resources to achieve specific objectives of organizations (Onah and Thomas, 2004: Thierauf, Klekamp and Geeding, 1977). Effective planning requires accurate information derived from marketing research. Marketing research is the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision making (Malhotra, 2002). It applies scientific methods in data collection and analysis for the test of prior notions or hypotheses. It aims at providing accurate information that reflect the true state of affairs of organizations. There are two dimensions to marketing research, namely; problem identification research and problem solving research (Abugu, 2014).A problem identification research is undertaken to identify problems which are not apparent on the surface and yet exist or likely to arise in future, e.g. market potential, market share, sales analysis, forecasting and business trends. A problem solving research refers to any research undertaken to solve specific marketing problems like product pricing, promotion and distribution. The findings of the problem solving research are used to make decisions about designated marketing problems. Marketing research develops, interprets and communicates decision-oriented information to marketing practitioners (Abugu, 2014).Through the provision of relevant information, marketing research eliminates uncertainties and links the marketing variables with the environment and consumers. Marketing research provides information on controllable and uncontrollable factors and enhances the effectiveness of decisions made by marketing managers (Twedt,1983).Marketing decisions depend on research information to succeed, withstand competitions and other external pressures. However, in a developing business environment like Nigeria, total reliance on marketing research to make decisions is rather risky because research results are not hundred percent correct (field survey). Being cautious on how marketing research findings are used, however, should not undermine their relevance and diminish the need to conduct marketing research. While making business decisions without research findings may work in the short-run, failure is inevitable in the long-term without continuous efforts at assembling accurate information. The extent to which marketing practitioners apply marketing research findings in decision making in their organizations defines its overall effects or impact and is what this study seeks to address, among others.
Statement of the Problem The terms market research and marketing research are usually interchanged by marketing practitioners. While market research is concerned specifically with markets, marketing research is all about marketing process (McDonald, 2007).Some marketing scholars are of the opinion that the impact of marketing research on the practice of business management is not much. According to Poster and Mckibben (1988), if impact is -
