Evaluation and Use of Marketing Research by Decision Makers: A Behavioral Simulation

A behavioral simulation in a laboratory setting was used to investigate decision makers’ evaluation and use of marketing research results. Propositions about the persistence of the decision makers’ prior beliefs under various research design conditions (qualitative interview or quantitative survey, convenience or probability sampling, large or small sample size) were tested. Support for most of the propositions is found, suggesting that research confirming prior beliefs tends to be rated higher and used whereas research contrary to prior beliefs tends to be evaluated as poor and is less likely to be used.