CASE No 5 : ETHICS IN MARKET RESEARCH

DICKSON Research is a small full service custom Marketing Research firm located
in Burlington Vermont. Last year, Dicksons total revenues were 86,000 $. This was barely
enough for Richard Dickson, his secretary and one assistant to survive and to pay all the bills. It
is now late September and this year has been kinder to the organization than last. Total revenue
to date is 95,000 $.
The company is completing a major research project for a national consumer goods manufacturer.
Dickson conducted a total of 800 interviews in 10 different locations in enclosed malls. The
company charged the client 40 $ per interview for a total of 32000 $. This will be paid upon
completion and presentation of the final report, which is due next week.
The data has now been cleaned and tabulated and Richard had just glared at the first print out. To
his horror, he notes that only 760 questionnaires were completed. Further checking reveals that,
2 field services did not complete their quotas. One service in San Francisco was 25 interviews
short and second firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was 15 interviews short. Because of the
tight deadline, there is no time to return to the respective cities and get the 40 interviews required
for the contract sample size of 800.
Richards assistant notes that this is only about a 5 % shortage from the total quota. He suggests
that 40 questionnaires be randomly selected from the 760 interviews and simply replicated. He
claims that replicating 40 interviews from the total of 760 is not going to have much impact on
the total results. Besides, the responses are likely to be similar to what is already in the database.
The client has demanded full 800 interviews. Chances are that if the contract is not fully met, the
firm will not pay for any of the survey. Not only Dickson Research lose the 32000 $ revenue but
it will be out the expense to all of the field services.
Questions :

1. You are Richard Dickson. Would you replicate the 40 interviews? Why ? or Why not ?
2. Given the time constraints, do you see any other alternatives that Richard might pursue?