IMPACT OF MARKETING RESEARCH ON BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA

By

Onwubiko N. Dike, Ph.D

Presented To

Department of Marketing

ABSTRACT
The study assessed the extent of the effects of marketing research on the practice of business management in Nigerian organizations. Survey method was used. The target population was 15,600 registered members of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), comprising academic marketers, AM (2200), marketing practitioners, MP (9350) and marketing students MS (4050).Stratified, simple random, convenience and judgmental sampling procedures were adopted. The sample size of 390 was determined using Yamane (1967) formula. Applying Bowley’s proportional allocation formula, the sample size for each category of the respondents was estimated; AM (55), MP (234) and MS (101).One hypothesis and a research question guided the study. Primary and secondary sources were accessed for data. In-depth interviews were held with marketing practitioners and students, academic marketers, coordinators of marketing research firms and secretary of Nigerian Marketing Research Association (NIMRA). The questionnaire adopted the five point Likert scale format, viz, strong agree (5points), agree (4points), undecided (3points), disagree (2points) and strongly disagree (1point). The opinions of marketing experts validated the research instrument. Pilot study was conducted. The reliability coefficient of the research instrument, 0.973 was estimated, using Cronbach’s Alpha technique. With one-way ANOVA and Minitab software techniques, the hypothesis of the study was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance and 15degrees of freedom. The study revealed the extent of the effects of marketing research at 18.08 percent had non-significant positive impact on business management practice in Nigerian organizations. Recommendations were made.
KEYWORDS: Marketing Research, Business Management, Impact, Marketing Practitioners, Academic Marketers.
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 -

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