Please read the attached case and answer the questions at the end.
- Prepare a two to three page proposal outlining the major management issues, research objectives, and research methodology.
- Prepare a questionnaire to respond to the objectives you have listed in your proposal
Application Of Market Research: Lone Pine Kennel Club
Information from the selected case study reveals that Lone Pine Kennel Club’s (LPKC) primary mission is training hunting and show dogs. However, the club’s president, Jack Thornton, has been working towards incorporating a foundation, Basic Animal Relief Foundation (BARF), into its core activities. The foundation’s primary goal is to raise capital for the local animal shelter to enhance care for derelict animals in the metropolitan. Unfortunately, the foundation struggles with the fundraising efforts and has produced only modest results. An analysis of this information reveals potential misalignment of strategic objectives could be the leading cause of the foundation’s poor performance.
While strategic misalignment could hinder the foundation’s success, there is still a need to understand the issue from the public’s lens. Arguably, gathering empirical evidence from the community will help the management adopt effective ways of improving donations to the foundation. Therefore, this research proposal aims at determining the community’s awareness of BARF and the local animal shelter and its willingness to support animal control and care.
Major Management Issues
One of the primary management issues facing the BARF and LPKC is the misalignment of strategic goals. As the literature suggests, strategic alignment significantly and positively impacts decision effectiveness (Ghonim et al., 2020). Arguably, an alignment between an organization’s internal structure and resources is critical for the management’s decisions. In this scenario, there lacks strategic alignment between BARF and LPKC, which explains the former’s failure. LPKC is somewhat profit-driven, whereby hunting and show dogs are trained to win championships and facilitate recreation activities such as hunting and fishing. Conversely, BARF is a charitable foundation that seeks to support the local animal shelter. While both programs deal with dogs, their strategic misalignment could be a significant management issue for Thornton.
Research Objectives
Besides internal management issues, the challenges facing BARF could be harbored within the urban community. Therefore, the research’s objectives are to:
- Determine the public’s concern over stray animals
- Determine the public’s interest in adopting animals from the local shelter
- Seek the community’s opinion about the condition and treatment of animals at the local shelter
- Determine the community’s awareness of the local dog shelters in the area
- Determine the public’s awareness of BARF’s fundraising role and its part in supporting the local dog shelter
Research Methodology
The proposed methodology for this research is using a survey to gather the public’s opinion about the outlined issues. As defined by Check and Schutt, a survey is a “collection of information from a sample of individuals through their responses to questions” (Ponto, 2015, p.168). A survey seeks to gather data from a preselected population to gain insight into a researcher’s area of interest. In this context, a survey will allow the market research firm to collect first-hand information on the outlined topics from a sample of residents living in the area in which LPKC operates.
The selection of a survey is based on some benefits and fits for this study. As the literature suggests, surveys are ideal in social and psychological research (Ponto, 2015). One of the probable reasons for its fit in social research is generalizability. Researchers can use survey results to represent the characteristics of a large population. Therefore, using a survey in this research will allow the generalization of the population’s attitude and knowledge of BARF and other aspects of the local dog shelter.
Moreover, a survey is fit for this study because it is relatively inexpensive and quick to administer and obtain results. Arguably, undertaking the study may only require asking targeted questions to a sample of the metropolitan population. Besides, the cost of gathering responses to the survey questions may be far less than those incurred in other research methods.
The researchers will couple the proposed survey with a questionnaire as the primary data collection method. As the literature suggests, researchers may use self, professional, individual, or group questionnaires in a survey with a series of items reflecting the research aims (Ponto, 2015). This research will mainly rely on a group and individual questionnaires to gather data on the research objectives.
Moreover, the researchers will administer the questionnaires to a random sample of approximately 1000 residents in the metropolitan area. A random sampling technique will be ideal because it will increase the likelihood of the responses accurately reflecting the perception of the region’s population about the local dog shelter (Ponto, 2015). Besides, using an adequate sample size will enhance the generalizability of the survey outcomes over the region.
Questionnaire
As mentioned, one of the tools that the researchers will use to obtain data is a questionnaire. Therefore, below is an open-ended questionnaire that the researchers will use to respond to the study objectives listed in the proposal.
Public’s Opinion about Animal Shelter Questionnaire
- Do you have any concerns about stray animals? If yes, what are they?
- Do you know of any animal shelters in this region?
- What is your judgment about the condition and treatment of animals at the local animal shelters?
- Would you be interested in adopting animals housed by the local shelters?
- Are you aware of BARF’s involvement in raising funds to support the local animal shelter? If yes, how did you know about it?
References
Ghonim, M. A., Khashaba, N. M., Al-Najaar, H. M., & Khashan, M. A. (2020). Strategic alignment and its impact on decision effectiveness: A comprehensive model. International Journal of Emerging Markets, (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoem-04-2020-0364
Ponto, J. (2015). Understanding and evaluating survey research. Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology, 6(2), 168–171. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4601897/