Utilization of services provided by marketing research firms in developing countries: the case of Tanzania and Kenya
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Date
2009
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Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to assess the Utilization of Services provided by Marketing Research Firms in Developing Countries: A case of Tanzania and Kenya. The Marketing Research Industry is a new phenomenon in most developing countries though it seems to be picking up at a very fast rate. Specifically it aimed at finding out whether factors like attitude and experience/intuition of top managers, culture, cost and time taken to obtain information and nature of company do affect the extent of utilization of these services. It also sought to find out the services that are mostly sought from MR firms. A survey was conducted on 50 companies through structured self report questionnaires and 8 in depth interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data from top managers in the Marketing Research Industry. Using the Chi square, Kolmogorov Smirnov and Kruskal Wallis tests for analysis, the findings revealed that some of these factors affected the utilization of these services while others did not. The results of the tests revealed that attitude, cost and culture affected the utilization of these services while managers’ value of past experience/intuition, time and reputation of firms did not affect the consumption of these services. However, the type of organization did not affect in Kenya but affected in Tanzania due to the differences in terms of maturity of the two industries. The conclusion is that consumption of these services is not only restricted to these factors but others like budget constraints, shortage of expertise and awareness.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library
Keywords
Marketing, Research firms, Utilization of services, Developing countries, Tanzania and Kenya
Citation
Mukana, I. K (2009) Utilization of services provided by marketing research firms in developing countries: the case of Tanzania and Kenya, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam.