Insegnamento a.a. 2025-2026

20843 - MARKET RESEARCH AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

Department of Decision Sciences

Course taught in English


Student consultation hours
Go to class group/s: 8 - 9 - 10
MM (6 credits - II sem. - OB  |  SECS-S/01)
Course Director:
LUCA MOLTENI

Classes: 8 (II sem.) - 9 (II sem.) - 10 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 8: LUCA MOLTENI, Class 9: DANIELE TONINI, Class 10: ALBERTO SACCARDI


Suggested background knowledge

It is advisable to possess the basic elements of descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, univariate and bivariate.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

The course aims to provide an overview of the role that quantitative methods can play in strategic and operational marketing decisions, with particular reference to extensive quantitative research and the analysis of internal data (customer database) and specifically in the context of business forecasting.

CONTENT SUMMARY

  • Data sources (internal and research)
  • Phases and process of extensive quantitative survey by survey. References to univariate and bivariate analysis in the context of the analysis of survey data.
  • Introduction to multivariate statistical analysis in the context of questionnaire analysis.
  • Quantitative approaches to demand segmentation: classical model and flexible model (factor analysis, cluster analysis).
  • The attribute based and non attribute based techniques for the study of competitive positioning (linear discriminant analysis, correspondence analysis, multidimensional scaling).
  • Time series analysis: univariate models (seasonal decomposition, exponential smoothing and ARIMA) and multivariate models (linear and logistic regression).

 

The course is characterized by alternating lessons of a methodological nature and lessons of a more applicative nature, through the use of a series of business cases and the use of specific software available on the market. In particular, the aim is to enable the student to autonomously replicate all the analyzes proposed during the course.


Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

understand the processes of extensive quantitative research and the construction of business forecasts on the main company and sector dynamics

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

setup autonomously or collaborate in the realization of an extensive quantitative research and build forecast models based on historical series suitable for the reliability required in corporate decision-making processes


Teaching methods

  • Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
  • Practical Exercises
  • Collaborative Works / Assignments

DETAILS

Marketing manager heavy user will be invited as testimonials of the methodologies presented in the face to face lectures.

The exercises will be carried out on real data and will show the operational use of the techniques illustrated in the lectures.

Group work will be an important part of the exam.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Oral individual exam
    x
  • Collaborative Works / Assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
x    

ATTENDING STUDENTS

For attending students, the evaluation of the course will be based on two group works (with groups composed of a maximum of 3 people), one relating to an extensive quantitative research (weight 70%) and one relating to an analysis of a time series (weight 30%). The two group works help to reach the intended learning outcomes and in particular to be able to setup autonomously or collaborate in the realization of an extensive quantitative research and build forecast models based on historical series suitable for the reliability required in corporate decision-making processes


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

For non-attending students there is a final written test on all the topics covered in the course


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • K. MALHOTRA NARESH, Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, Pearson Education.