Informants in Organizational Marketing Research

50 Pages Posted: 26 Aug 2006

See all articles by G.H. van Bruggen

G.H. van Bruggen

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM); Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Gary L. Lilien

Pennsylvania State University - Institute for the Study of Business Markets

Manish Kacker

McMaster University - Michael G. DeGroote School of Business

Date Written: 22 2000 8,

Abstract

Organizational research frequently involves seeking judgmental data from multiple informants within organizations. Researchers are often faced with determining how many informants to survey, who those informants should be and (if more than one) how best to aggregate responses when disagreement exists between those responses. Using both recall and forecasting data from a laboratory study involving the MARKSTRAT simulation, we show that when there are multiple respondents who disagree, responses aggregated using confidence-based or competence-based weights outperform those with data-based weights, which in turn provide significant gains in estimation accuracy over simply averaging respondent reports. We then illustrate how these results can be used to determine the best number of respondents for a market research task as well as to provide an effective screening mechanism when seeking a single, best informant.

Keywords: organizational research, marketing research, survey research, aggregation, screening

JEL Classification: M, M31, C44

Suggested Citation

van Bruggen, Gerrit H. and Lilien, Gary L. and Kacker, Manish, Informants in Organizational Marketing Research (22 2000 8,). ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2000-32-MKT, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=370834

Gerrit H. Van Bruggen (Contact Author)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands
+31 10 408 2258 (Phone)
+31 10 408 9011 (Fax)

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Gary L. Lilien

Pennsylvania State University - Institute for the Study of Business Markets ( email )

University Park, PA 16802-3306
United States
814-863-2782 (Phone)
814-863-0413 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/isbm/about/people/LILIEN.

Manish Kacker

McMaster University - Michael G. DeGroote School of Business ( email )

1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4
Canada