28 Nov 2022

Dr. Chandana Hewege is Back in the Management Study Program’s Visiting Professor Series PKKM 2022

The Visiting Professor Series under the Kompetisi Kampus Merdeka Program (PKKM) 2022, organized by the Management Study Program, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, goes on. This time, the Study Program hosted a virtual Guest Lecture, ‘Marketing Research Methods and Marketing Analysis I,’ through the Zoom Cloud Meeting. The agenda was conducted on Thursday, November 24th, 2022, inviting Dr. Chandana Hewege from Swinburne Business School, Australia, to discuss a topic entitled ‘Marketing Research: Planning your undergraduate research project,’ which lasted for around two hours.

Starting the material presentation, Dr. Hewege shortly explains the definition of research as a form of systematic investigation, which involves a systematic process to uncover new facts, theories, or practices. Further, he explains that the reason for a corporation to invest in research and development is motivated by the significance of market data in determining the global market and decision-making process. “Good research will help a company to formulate accurate decisions and policy, which means a good decision is supported with qualified data and adequate research,” explains Dr. Hewege.

However, he also highlights the differences between market research and marketing research. According to him, even though the two types of research share an overlapping section, however, there is a fundamental difference where market research is only focused on market conditions. In contrast, marketing research covers all marketing activities and aspects. “Marketing research is broader than market research, where the coverage of marketing research includes all marketing activities and aspects. Many students think that their research is marketing research, yet, they are actually conducting market research since they only focused on market trends, market size, market target, and market segmentation,” he revealed.

Afterward, Dr. Hewege continued delivering more in-depth material related to the research approach. This approach must be considered by the students before conducting research or when preparing thesis research. Meanwhile, regarding global marketing research, Dr. Hewege specifies six research stages to be conducted by students, namely, formulating the research problem, developing the research design, determining the source of information, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and lastly, research report.

“The main objective of the material I shared today is to provide a brief description and background for you to prepare your final bachelor thesis research. Hopefully, this material can be beneficial to support your research process,” said Dr. Hewege concluding the session.