Abstract:

One of the main problems concerning marketing research is that of the effective use of the results and their integration into the decision-making process. Although much effort has been devoted to the improvement of research methods, one has in general paid much less attention to the gap which might exist between research and decision-making. This often results in a considerable loss of potentially useful information. Identifying and measuring the usefulness of studies constitutes one of the main difficulties in the examination of this problem. Measuring the efficiency of research by their ability to improve decisions indeed poses considerable problems. Another possible approach consists in measuring this usefulness in terms of the user's satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) level ; this factor may determine the effective use of the results. The object of this paper is to set forth the results of an inquiry into the use of marketing research in the largest French firms, as well as into the attitudes toward them of marketing heads in these companies.