BSU 305: RESEARCH METHODS.                                        

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer all Questions  

 Corporate Fashions, Inc. was a national franchiser of specialty retail shops that sell wear-to-the-office clothing to career-oriented, professional working women. The company was looking into the possibility of opening a store in the Forest View Shopping Center in a suburb of Chicago. It located its stores in those major metropolitan areas which were believed to contain the highest number of professional career women. The stores were typically placed in large shopping centers surrounded by the residential areas in which the targeted women were believed to reside. Only large shopping centers with a number of stores of the type that attracted professional career women were considered candidate sites for a Corporate Fashions store. The Forest View Shopping Center was being considered as a possible site for a Corporate Fashions store because of the number and quality of stores in the center.

Figures provided by the shopping center manager indicated that the shopping center’s traffic and sales volume more than likely could support a Corporate Fashions store. The main concern among Corporate Fashions management was whether an adequate proportion of the women shoppers at Forest View were the type of professional career women that Corporate Fashions was trying to attract to its stores.  Because the shopping center was unable to provide detailed information about the professional career women shoppers, Corporate Fashions management decided to undertake a survey to obtain the desired information. Corporate Fashions managers felt that one of their stores would be successful in the Forest View Shopping Center if at least 10% of the shopping center’s female shoppers were members of their target market. 

 Characteristics of female shoppers of the target market of Corporate Fashions: Employed full-time, 25-45 years of age, Earns $30,000 or more annually, regularly shops at Forest View, buys clothing of the type sold by Corporate Fashions,  spends at least $600 per year on such clothing,  spends at least $200 per year in specialty stores, buys from specialty stores that are not price-oriented. Corporate Fashions managers wanted an accurate estimate of the proportion of Forest View’s female shoppers who were professional career women. Research showed that approximately 96% of all Forest View female shoppers resided in 15 communities (E.g. Elmhurst, Hinsdale, Villa Park, Western Springs and others)

a)      State a possible research title for the study                                                    (4 marks)

b)      Formulate four  suitable objectives for the study                                           (4 marks)

c)      Identify dependent and independent variables for this study                                   (4 marks)

d)     Describe the type of data to be collected                                                        (3 marks)

e)      Explain how you would analyze the data obtained                                        (4 marks)

f)       State the  characteristic of a good problem statement                                                (5 marks)

g)      Explain three ethical issues you will take into consideration in the study      (3 marks)

h)      Identify three ways you would ensure validity in the study                                    (3 marks)