Marketing Research and Information Systems:

                                                             

     The Unholy Separation of the Siamese Twin

                Dr. Z. S. Demirdjian

     California State University, Long Beach, CA
                                                                                
ABSTRACT
With the advent of the personal computer, there has been an explosion in the information technology. Against the backdrop of increasing demand for literacy in information systems since 1970s, universities began to offer information systems (IS), also known as management information system (MIS), courses usually in a separate departments, carrying the same name as IS or MIS. Almost all of the courses offered in the IS department are designed to process, store, and retrieve secondary data. In the age of information, management needs primary data to keep abreast of the constantly changing competitive environment. Myopically, the IS department does not require a course in research methodology to prepare the IS student to generate primary data and be able to appraise data produced by others. On the other hand, marketing department does offer such a course titled Marketing Research. When a student majoring in IS graduates, he or she would lack the conceptual knowledge and the requisite skills in either conducting a systematic and objective research study to generate information for aid in making business decisions or in evaluating the accuracy of data produced by someone else. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate by means of a model that Marketing Research and IS are congenitally joined together like the Siamese twins whose unholy separation would shortchange the IS student. Additionally, recommendations are made to correct the shortsightedness and the deficiency of the IS curriculum in order to prepare students for the real world, who will be well rounded in dealing with both secondary and primary data management and usage.


 
INTRODUCTION
The environment of business is constantly changing to incorporate new technologies for conducting exchanges more efficiently and strategically in order to obtain differential advantage. With the advent of the personal computer in the 1970s, a revolution has taken place in the landscape of business. As a result, the demand for literacy in the information systems has experienced a trajectory rise in the last several decades. Virtually, every university has established an Information Systems (IS), Management Information Systems (MIS), or Computer Information Systems (CIS) department to fill an ever expanding demand for graduates with IS orientation. Several dozens of courses are being offered in the IS department of various universities. These courses prepare students mainly to process information as a secondary data. When it comes to generating primary data, IS students lack the requisite knowledge and skills in research methodology to conduct a systematic and objective study. Even if the students would not be required to engage in some sort of research, they would need the same knowledge and skills in research in order to be able to evaluate the accuracy of the data being processed. In the face of rapidly changing business environment and information technologies, today's responsibilities of an IS professional range not only throughout the boundaries of the company but also throughout the entire interconnected network of suppliers, customers, competitors, and other entities located around the world.. Stair (1997) maintains that this broad scope offers 1S processionals a new challenge: how to help the organization survive in a highly interconnected, highly competitive, international environment? In the information era, they are fast becoming the stewards of business and industry. Since the IS professional has begun to play a pivotal role in the ongoing survival of the organization, he or she should possess skills commensurate to the professions newly acquired responsibilities. One such critical empowering competency would be in the form of knowledge of research methods. After a brief introduction to the ever increasing need for IS educated and trained graduates, the common foundation of IS in the company is presented to point out a major deficiency in its components, which curtails its viability as a source of timely and accurate information for management decision making; then, the role of marketing research is discussed to show how it is destined to remain together with IS; finally, some recommendations are made to improve the IS program in the hope of producing well rounded IS majors to meet the challenges of the dynamism in the information age.

 A MAJOR DEFICIENCY IN IS MODEL
IS majors have to take a core course in marketing. In Principles of Marketing, these students are exposed only to one single chapter on marketing research and information systems. For all practical purposes, they end up with insufficient background in research methods to either conduct research to produce primary data or to be able to evaluate data produced by someone else. Upon close examination, it was found that the 1S department does not offer a course which covers research methodology, while the marketing department offers several such courses. For example, Principle of Marketing and Marketing Management each contain a chapter on research. Marketing department, furthermore, offers an entire course in research titled Marketing Research on both undergraduate and graduate levels. According to Jessup and Valacich (2001, p. I-6) "Information Systems are combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications networks which people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful data [sic], typically in organizational settings." IS should distribute information and not data for decision making, but that is not the issue here. The issue is that it clearly states that the IS "create ..data." This signify that IS produces primary data, yet no provision is made in any discussion of IS with either the mention or incorporation of research methodology. Somewhat exemplary of almost all the current introductory text books in IS, O'Brien (2001) presents similar components of an information system as input of data resources, processing of data into information, and output of information products as is shown in Figure 1. The model is based on O'Brien's (2001) representation of the components of an information system as closely as possible. O'Brien further states that "All information systems use people, hardware, software, data, and network resources to perform input, processing, output, storage, and control activities that transform data resources into information products."
                                                                                               Figure 1
Components of an Information System
Control of System Performance
Processing
Input of Data Output
Data Into Of
Resources Information Information
Products

Storage of Data Resources
O'Brien further states that Data are typically subjected to processing activities such as calculating, comparing, sorting, classifying, and summarizing. These activities organize, analyze, and manipulate data, thus converting them into information for end users. This clearly indicates that the data handled are nothing but secondary data. How does one expect to create data without knowing about research methodology? Obviously, a major component is excluded from the preceding IS model, namely the activity of research. Such an important omission would undoubtedly shortchange the IS major; furthermore, it would hamper the students advancement in the organization for lack of the requisite skills to handle research oriented tasks.
 
THE ROLE OF MARKETING RESEARCH
The role of marketing research is to reduce uncertainty surrounding decisions facing management. Stair and Reynolds (1999) state that "there is a high degree of uncertainty with most executive decisions." Zikmund (2000) does not equivocate about stating that "The task of marketing research is to help specify and supply accurate information to reduce the uncertainty in decision making." Awad and Gotterer (1992) resonate the same stance on information playing an important role in decision making: "It reduces uncertainty and makes decisions easier. As we gain information about a problem, our certainty about a solution increases accordingly." A reduction in uncertainty would mean a lowering in the risk of failure. What mitigates uncertainty is objective information. Objective information could be based on both secondary or primary data or on a combination of both. Figure 2 shows the systematic role of marketing research. According to Professor R. Michael Godfrey "the role of IS can be summed up in the following statement: People make decisions and IS helps people make better decisions by getting the right information to the right people at the right time." Professor Godfrey echoes the same attributes as all the other authors of IS text books are ascribing to IS. Both marketing research and IS are charged with the same mission of procuring information for management decision making. For arguments sake, if the two missions are the same, should we then not train IS students to be proficient in research methodology as well?
Figure 2 The Role of Marketing Research: Uncertainty Reduction Through Information
Management: Challenges/ Opportunities
Outcomes (Profits, Mkt.
Share, Etc.)

Failure

The common denominator of all marketing research projects are to reduce uncertainty. If objective information reduces uncertainty, better decisions are made by management because uncertainty will reduce risk which would produce positive outcomes in the form of greater sales, profits, market share, etc. Thus, the company will get successful results because of the synergistic effect of uncertainty reduction through objective information.
A survey of over a half a dozen of introductory text books have failed to show any discussion of primary data for decision making (Beckman et al. 1999; Jessup and Valacich 1999; Laudon and Laudon 2000; O=Brien 2001, Stair 1997; Stair and Reynolds 1999; Turban et al. 2001) This exclusion of primary data generation is a major weakness of IS=s version of Management Information Systems; it neglects to address the all important role of research or marketing research. For example, O'Briens (2001) components of an information system purports that all information systems use people, hardware, software, data, and network resources to perform input, processing, output, storage, and control activities that transform data resources into information products.@ Yet, no mention is made of generating primary data. Ostensibly, no research activity is included in the entire model of Information Systems. This constitutes a big gap in the IS curriculum. Marketing Information System consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers. The components of a marketing information systems consist of internal records system, marketing intelligence system, marketing research system, and data analysis system as are shown in Figure 3. Internal Data System involves the collection of data from sources within the company such as accounting, sales force, marketing, and manufacturing. Marketing Intelligence involves the collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors and developments in the marketing environment; marketing research is the systematic and objective process of generating information to aid in making marketing decisions; and data analysis system which simply takes sample-based data and analyzes them statistically to extract information ready for use by management for analysis, planning, execution, and control functions. Because marketing research is problem oriented, managers use it when they need guidance to solve a specific problem. Marketing research, for example, has been used to find out what features consumers want in a new personal computer. Marketing research can be one of three kinds: descriptive, diagnostic, and predicative. In its descriptive role includes gathering and presenting factual statements. For example, what is the historic sales trend in the industry? What are consumers=s attitudes toward a product and its advertising? Its diagnostic role includes explaining data. For instance, what was the impact on sales of a change in the design of the package? Its predictive function is to address what if questions. For example, how can the researcher use the descriptive and diagnostic research to predict the results of a planned marketing decision This wealth of information based on primary data should also be included in the IS professional=s framework for the entire company.

 MARKETING RESEARCH AND IS: THE SYMBIOTIC SIAMESE TWINS
In surveying the IS discipline, Stair (1997) points out the expanding role of the IS professional by stating that: Once considered a dedicated specialist, the IS professional now is often called upon to be an internal consultant to all functional areas, knowledgeable about their needs and competent in bringing the power of IS to bear through the organization. The IS professional must exercise a broad perspective, encompassing the entire organization and often going beyond it.
Figure 3 The Components of Marketing Information System
Input
Process Output
Microenvironment: The Company Suppliers Intermediaries Customers Competitors Public
Internal Records Svstem

Analysis
Macroenvironment: Demographic Economic
Natural Technological Political Cultural
Data
Marketing Intelligence System
Marketing Research System
Data Analysis System
Info
10
Planning i Execution Co rol
I I ------------------------------_--Feedback-------------------------
In assessing the future for the IS function, Jessup and Valacich (1999) state that as information systems becomes used more broadly throughout the company, AIS personnel often [will] have dual-reporting relationships reporting to both the central IS group and the business function they serve. Thus, the 1S professional will have centralized and decentralized functions. This kind of outlook indicates that IS specialists will also be involved with the marketing function as is shown in Figure 4. Therefore, a knowledge of research methods would come in handy as a communication vehicle on matters pertaining to Marketing Information Systems. Otherwise, the IS personnel would not be able to gain the confidence of the marketing department, which would cause friction between the two.
The new model in Figure 4 is self-explanatory. It simply combines marketing research and information systems. In this rather complete IS model input data flow into the system from three major sources: microenvironment, macro environment, and from other functional areas of the firm. The data are then processed according to their kind. Secondary data processing has always been carried out by the IS professional. In this new paradigm, however, the IS professional will also generate and/or process primary data. Both secondary and primary data have to be subjected to testing through descriptive and inferential statistics. Thus, statistical analysis will generate information out of the data ready for decision making. The output information will then be made available to management for analysis, planning, implementation, and control purposes. The proposed model meets the exigencies of the ever expanding role of the 1S professional who has to provide timely, accurate, and objective information for management to be able to navigate its way through the complex and fast changing world of globalization of business. Against the backdrop of dynamic business environment, companies are increasingly developing their marketing information systems to provide managers with real-time market information. According to Kotler (2001) companies are expanding from local to national to global operations, consumers are becoming ever more selective in choices due to gains in their disposable and discretionary incomes, and sellers are resorting to non price competition. Companies with state-of-the art marketing information system (MIS) can only attain differential advantage in the marketplace. To aid management as the definitions of marketing research and IS indicate, both IS and Marketing Research are inseparable if IS really means what it says that good decisions are based on timely, accurate, and objective information. Therefore, it is imperative that IS majors also be trained in research methods.


Figure 4 The Components of a Corporate Information System: Showing the Duality of IS Professional=s Responsibilities Toward IS and Other Functional Areas
Input Process Output
Microenvironment: Mgmt.
The Company Processing
Suppliers Of Secondary
Intermediaries Data
Customers
Competitors
Public Analysis
Macro environment:
Demographic
Economic 1
Natural Processing
Technological
Political
--Io,Data~ll Data
Through Planning
Cultural Info. -
Statistical
Functional Areas: Analysis I
Marketing
Finance
Production Execution
Accounting
Human Resources
Processing I
Of
Primary Control
Data


______________________________ Feedback -------------------------- :
RECOMMENDATION TO CLOSE THE GAP
A case was made of the conspicuous absence of a critical component of the IS model. Without marketing research to produce primary data, IS would be a pot of stale soup of secondary data. Strategic planning requires a lot of primary data to enable management to look into the future of the business world. IS managers cannot claim ignorance for defense if management decisions were based on biased data. They should be able to stop the flow of biased data into their system for dissemination, otherwise it would be biased data in, biased data out just like garbage in, garbage out situation. For example, the purchasing agent in the company should know about quality, otherwise material would be bought blindly for the production department. Likewise, the IS manger should have the competence to evaluate the accuracy of the data processed for producing information products for management decision making. Such a quality control mechanism is only made possible through IS peoples competence in matters of research. Upon graduation, the IS major should have also a sound, and not just a smattering, knowledge of how to conduct research objectively and how to evaluate measurements done by others. In other words, among other things, they should be able to:
* Generate data systematically and objectively (following scientific methods in observational, survey, or experimental research)
* Evaluate the reliability of the measurement (are we obtaining similar results over time?) * Evaluate the validity of the measurement (are we measuring what we intend to measure?)
* Determine the sensitivity of the scales used (refers to the ability of an instrument to accurately measure variability in stimuli or responses).
*Appraise the overall robustness of the methodology used.
The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge * September 2003 222

With IS majors enhanced competence, management can now be protected from making decisions based on biased information. Although the definition of IS raises the expectations, directly or indirectly, that IS students are being trained to generate primary data to aid management make better decisions, the fact of the matter is that IS majors lack conceptual and working knowledge of research methods. If IS is to provide management with information for decision making, then by definition it should include marketing research or research methodology as an additional component in the IS framework. Moreover, IS department could offer a course in research or require IS students to take a marketing research course. Segregating research methods from IS courses can rob students of crucial problem-solving skills. Focusing exclusively on IS principles would create a barrier between the two disciplines and functional areas. Marketing research and IS are one special Siamese twins, symbiotic in nature, born together not to be tampered with in any way. Any attempt at separation would be cardinally unholy. To remain in the good grace of business visionaries and to give the organization a differential advantage, we should keep the two together for better way of reducing the fog of uncertainties surrounding management decisions.
REFERENCES
Awad, Elias M. and Malcolm H. Gotterer. Database Management. Danvers, Massachusetts: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company, 1992, p. 7. Beckman, George and Eugene J. Tathswohl. Computer Confluence: Exploring Tomorrow=s Technology, Second Edition. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.
Deans, Candace and Jaak Jurison. Information Technology in a Global Business Environment: Readings & Cases. Danvers, Massachusetts: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company, 1996.
Ettlie, John E. Managing Technological Innovation. New York, NY: John Wiley & sons, Inc., 2000.
Godfrey, R. Michael, Professor of Information Systems at California State University, Long Beach, who has had extensive industry experience before taking up teaching, was interviewed on July 5, 2001.
Jessup, Leonard M. and Joseph S. Valacich Information Systems Foundations. Indianapolis, IN: Que Education and Training, Macmillan Publishing, 1999.
Kotler, Philip. A Framework for Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2001, p. 63.
Laudon, Kenneth C. and Jane P. Laudon. Management Information Systems, sixth Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. McKeown, Patrick G Information Technology and the Networked Economy Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001.
O=Brien, James A. Introduction to Information Systems: Essentials for the Intemetworked E-Business Enterprise, Tenth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hillilrwin,2001.
Parsons, June Jamrich, Dan Oja, Stephanie Low. Computers, Technology and Society, Second Edition. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology, 1999.
Stair, Ralph M. An Introduction to Information Systems. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology, 1997, p. ix.
Stair, Ralph M. and George W. Reynolds. Principles of Information Systems: A Managerial Approach, fourth Edition. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology, 1999, p. 465.
Turban, Efraim, R. Kelly Rainer, Jr., and Richard E. Potter. Introduction to Information Technology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001. Turban, Efraim, Efraim McLean, and James Wetherbe. Information Technology for Management: Making Connections for strategic Advantage. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.
Wollmer, Richard D. and Lincoln L. Chao. Statistics for Management. New York: John Wiley Custom Services, 2001. Zikmund, William G. Exploring Marketing Research. Philadelphia: The Dryden Press - Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.

 

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