Abstract:

This paper intends to examine the role of today's in-house market research professionals within business organizations. Specifically, it will focus on: -how the in-house researchers' role have evolved in the past decade, -what are their responsibilities and expectations from business leaders, -how in-house research departments are structured in today's business organizations -what level of impact do in-house researchers have in influencing business decisions. A number of hypotheses will be discussed in this paper in related to the role of in-house research professional and a mini opinion poll among research buyers (likely to cover Hong Kong, China and other SE Asia countries) will be conducted by Oracle Added Value to validate these hypotheses. The paper will also demonstrate a real business case on how today's in-house research professionals can become more proactive and what kind of contributions they can add in helping business leaders to identify business opportunities and assess potential risks. Finally, the paper will highlight the opportunities and challenges that research supplier may have in helping the in-house research professionals to succeed in this expanded role.