State of the art companies apply research techniques to extract valid and reliable information from internal sources, such as market intelligence systems, business account databases and production processes, as well as external sources such as field studies and surveys. This course is relevant to all business professionals or anyone in the field of business administration who needs to understand, use or carry out research studies exploiting these sources of quantitative information.
The aim of this course is twofold. First, students will get to know the nature of multivariate statistical techniques, which are often used in marketing and strategy research. Second, students will learn to apply these techniques to analyse well-known managerial research questions as well as academic research questions.
In terms of techniques, the course will focus on exploratory techniques such as factor analysis, as well as on more confirmatory techniques like analysis of variance, multiple regression (including non-linear terms), logistic regression and partial least squares path modelling.
An important part of this course will be the application of multivariate statistical techniques. This includes using statistical software packages such as SPSS, interpreting the results and understanding the managerial or scientific implications for the field of strategy and marketing. In particular, the scope of the applications ranges from consumer and marketing research to the analysis of competitors and corporate strategy.