4) When did marketing research begin as a “formal
scientific
discipline”
5) What knowledge does marketing research require?
6) What are basic steps of marketing research?
7) According to the text, how can market research are viewed?
8) What are the sources of information of marketing researcher?
UNIT 13
Management: Six basic steps in Decision M aking
Text A
William F. Samuelson Stephen G. Marks
Step 1: Define the Problem
Decisions do not occur in a vacuum. Many come about as part of the
firm’s planning process. Others are prom pted by new opportunities or
new problems. It is natural to ask: What brought about the need for the
decision? What is the decision all about? In all kinds of textbooks
examples, the decision problems is stated and is reasonably well defined.
In practice, however, managerial decisions do not come so neatly
packaged; rather, they are messy and poorly defined. Thus, problem
definition is prerequisite for problem management. A key part of problems
definition is identifying the setting or context..
Identifying the decisions context and the decisions maker represents a large
step toward understanding the choices process. The particular setting has a
direct bearing on both the decisions maker’s objectives and the available
courses of action. The next two steps considers each of these aspects in
turn.
Step 2. Determine the Objective When it comes to economics decisions, it
is a truism that “you can’t always get what you want”. But to make any
progress at all in your choice, you have to know what you want. In most
private sector decisions, the principal objective o f the firm - and barometer
of its performance - is profit: the difference between the firm’s total
revenues and its total costs. Thus, among alternative courses of action, the
manager will select the one that will maximize the profit of the firm-
Attainment of maximum profit worldwide is the natural objective of the
multinational
steel company, the drug company, and the
m anagem ent
and
shareholders of Disney, Canon, Time Inc., Texaco, and Pennzoil-
128
Sometimes the manager focuses on the narrower goal of minimization cost.
For instance, the firm may seek to produce given
level of output at the
least cost or to obtain a targeted increase in sales with minimal expenditure
on advertising. In a host of settings, measures that reduce costs directly
serve to increase profits. The objective in a public sector decision, whether
it be building an airport or regulating a utility,
is broader than the private
profit standard. In making its choice, the government decision maker
should
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