THE MARKETING ETHICS CASE: CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Recall that a conflict of interest scenario was presented to a sample of 205 marketing researchers and that 111 of these researchers disapproved of the actions taken.
a Let p be the proportion of all marketing researchers who disapprove of the actions taken in the conflict of interest scenario. Set up the null and alternative hypotheses needed to attempt to provide evidence supporting the claim that a majority (more than 50 percent) of all marketing researchers disapprove of the actions taken.
b Assuming that the sample of 205 marketing researchers has been randomly selected, use critical values and the previously given sample information to test the hypotheses you set up in part a at the .10, .05, .01, and .001 levels of significance. How much evidence is there that a majority of all marketing researchers disapprove of the actions taken?
c Suppose a random sample of 1,000 marketing researchers reveals that 540 of the researchers disapprove of the actions taken in the conflict of interest scenario. Use critical values to determine how much evidence there is that a majority of all marketing researchers disapprove of the actions taken.
d Note that in parts b and c the sample proportion is (essentially) the same. Explain why the results of the hypothesis tests in parts b and c differ.
9.72 Last year, television station WXYZ’s share of the 11 p.m. news audience was approximately equal to, but no greater than, 25 percent. The station’s management believes that the current audience share is higher than last year’s 25 percent share. In an attempt to substantiate this belief, the station surveyed a random sample of 400 11 p.m. news viewers and found that 146 watched WXYZ.
a Let p be the current proportion of all 11 p.m. 9.7 news viewers who watch WXYZ. Set up the null and alternative hypotheses needed to attempt to provide evidence supporting the claim that the current audience share for WXYZ is higher than last year’s 25 percent share.
b Use critical values and the following MINITAB output to test the hypotheses you set up in part a at the .10, .05, .01, and .001 levels of significance. How much evidence is there that the current audience share is higher than last year’s 25 percent share?
c Find the p-value for the hypothesis test in part b. Use the p-value to carry out the test by setting α equal to .10, .05, .01, and .001. Interpret your results.
d Do you think that the result of the station’s survey has practical importance? Why or why not?
9.73 In the book Essentials of Marketing Research, William R. Dillon, Thomas J. Madden, and Neil H. Firtle discuss a marketing research proposal to study day-after recall for a brand of mouthwash. To quote the authors:
The ad agency has developed a TV ad for the introduction of the mouthwash. The objective of the ad is to create awareness of the brand. The objective of this research is to evaluate the awareness generated by the ad measured by aided- and unaided-recall scores.
A minimum of 200 respondents who claim to have watched the TV show in which the ad was aired the night before will be contacted by telephone in 20 cities.
The study will provide information on the incidence of unaided and aided recall.
Suppose a random sample of 200 respondents shows that 46 of the people interviewed were able to recall the commercial without any prompting (unaided recall).
a In order for the ad to be considered successful, the percentage of unaided recall must be above the category norm for a TV commercial for the product class. If this norm is 18 percent, set up the null and alternative hypotheses needed to attempt to provide evidence that the ad is successful.
b Use the previously given sample information to compute the p-value for the hypothesis test you set up in part a. Use the p-value to carry out the test by setting α equal to .10, .05, .01, and .001. How much evidence is there that the TV commercial is successful?
c Do you think the result of the ad agency’s survey has practical importance? Explain your opinion.
9.74 Quality Progress, February 2005, reports on the results achieved by Bank of America in improving customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by listening to the ‘voice of the customer’. A key measure of customer satisfaction is the response on a scale from 1 to 10 to the question: “Considering all the business you do with Bank of America, what is your overall satisfaction with Bank of America?”4 Suppose that a random sample of 350 current customers results in 195 customers with a response of 9 or 10 representing ‘customer delight.’
a Let p denote the true proportion of all current Bank of America customers who would respond with a 9 or 10, and note that the historical proportion of customer delight for Bank of America has been .48. Calculate the p-value for testing H0: p = .48 versus Ha: p > .48. How much evidence is there that p exceeds .48?