BUSI 331 Week 1 Marketing Research Report Part 1: Research Problem Example

Reviewed by Thomas Kerrigan, MBA, CPA · Liberty University · Updated

This BUSI 331 Week 1 sample sets up a four-part research study on a credit union's underused mobile app. It identifies a composite community credit union whose members install its mobile banking app but rarely use it for deposits and payments, turns that business situation into a research problem with a management decision and specific research questions, and reviews the scholarly literature on why people adopt or reject technology, from the technology acceptance model and its unified successor to studies of mobile banking in particular. The review ends with the variables the survey will measure. Liberty University BUSI 331 grades this 100-point BS in Business Administration part in Module/Week 1, alongside Malhotra's first two chapters.

CourseBUSI 331 Marketing Research (BUSI331)
Module/Week1
AssignmentMarketing Research Report Part 1: Research Problem
Paper typeResearch problem and literature review
Lengthabout 530 words, 2 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: a research problem of 200 to 300 words identifying the company or issue of focus, plus a literature review of 300 to 500 words with at least 4 scholarly resources, in current APA format with a title page, section headings and a reference page
FormatAPA 7 student paper
Points100
SchoolLiberty University Online
ProgramBS in Business Administration
Where it sitsModule/Week 1 in Liberty's published BUSI 331 course guide; current sections can differ
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for BUSI 331 Week 1

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Why Members Download but Do Not Use the Riverbend Credit Union Mobile App: Research Problem and Literature Review

 

[Student Name]

School of Business, Liberty University

BUSI 331: Marketing Research

Marketing Research Report Part 1: Research Problem

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

 

Riverbend Community Credit Union and its figures are a composite standing in for the student's chosen organization; the textbook and studies cited are real.

Why this part earns its pointsThe problem section moves from situation to decision to research questions, the sequence the chapter teaches.
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Why Members Download but Do Not Use the Riverbend Credit Union Mobile App: Research Problem and Literature Review

Research Problem

Riverbend Community Credit Union serves about 18,000 members in three rural counties. Two years ago it launched a mobile app offering balance checks, transfers, bill payment and photo check deposit. Roughly 9,000 members have downloaded the app, but internal records show that fewer than one in four of them used it for a deposit or bill payment in the past three months. Branch traffic for routine deposits has not declined, so the credit union is paying for both the app and the staffing it was meant to reduce.

The textbook separates two questions that are easy to blur (Malhotra, 2015): the one the manager must answer, about action, and the one the researcher must answer, about information. Here the management decision problem is whether to invest in redesigning the app, in teaching members to use it, or in neither. The marketing research problem is to determine why members who have the app do not use its transaction features. The question is not whether members like the app but why they stop short of trusting it with their money. The gap between downloads and use is the puzzle this study sets out to explain. Three research questions follow:

  • 1. How useful and easy to use do members perceive the app's deposit and payment features to be?
  • 2. What concerns about security or errors discourage members from using these features?
  • 3. Do usage patterns differ by age, distance from a branch or prior experience with online banking?
Why this part earns its pointsThe review moves from general theory to the specific setting, then names the variables the survey will use.
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Literature Review

The technology acceptance model offers a starting point. Davis (1989), testing office workers' reactions to software, found that intention to adopt rose with the sense that the program would improve one's work and, less strongly, with the sense that it would be painless to learn. Fourteen years later, Venkatesh et al. (2003) tested eight rival adoption models against one another and folded the best-performing ideas into a single framework; in it, expected benefit, expected effort, the influence of other people and supporting conditions drive use, and a user's age and experience change how strongly some of these work.

Research on mobile banking applies and extends these ideas. Zhou et al. (2010) found that mobile banking adoption depended not only on the factors in the unified theory but also on task-technology fit, how well the app matched the banking tasks users needed to perform. Their finding suggests that an app with many features may still go unused if its features do not fit how members actually bank.

Adoption and rejection are not mirror images. Laukkanen (2016) compared consumers' decisions about internet banking and mobile banking and found that barriers such as perceived risk and the value of the service relative to existing channels shaped rejection, and that some consumers who used internet banking still rejected mobile banking. For Riverbend, this suggests that members comfortable with online banking at home may still resist depositing checks by phone.

Why this part earns its pointsThe closing paragraph names the variables, linking the review to the Part 2 survey.
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Together, these studies point to the variables the survey will measure in Part 2: perceived usefulness and ease of use of the transaction features, perceived security risk, fit between the app's features and members' banking tasks, and member characteristics such as age, distance from a branch and online banking experience.

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References

Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319-340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008

Laukkanen, T. (2016). Consumer adoption versus rejection decisions in seemingly similar service innovations: The case of the Internet and mobile banking. Journal of Business Research, 69(7), 2432-2439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.013

Malhotra, N. K. (2015). Essentials of marketing research: A hands-on orientation. Pearson.

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540

Zhou, T., Lu, Y., & Wang, B. (2010). Integrating TTF and UTAUT to explain mobile banking user adoption. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(4), 760-767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.01.013

What the BUSI 331 Week 1 instructions ask

The marketing research report is BUSI 331's central project, built in four parts across the course, and Part 1 is due in Module/Week 1, worth 100 points. The student identifies a company or issue of focus and the research problem to be studied in 200 to 300 words, then writes a brief literature review of 300 to 500 words incorporating at least four scholarly resources. The submission must follow current APA format, with a title page, appropriate section headings and a reference page. The same module/week assigns Malhotra's chapters 1 and 2, on the nature of marketing research and on defining the problem and developing an approach.

How this BUSI 331 Week 1 example is built

The sample has two headed sections, as the guide requires. The research problem section describes the credit union's situation with a few figures, states the management decision problem, translates it into a marketing research problem, and lists three research questions. The literature review then moves from general theory to the specific setting: the technology acceptance model, the unified theory that extended it, a study of mobile banking adoption that combined task fit with that theory, and a study of why consumers reject mobile banking even when they use online banking. It closes by naming the variables the survey in Part 2 will measure. The problem section is concrete enough that a reader can picture the decision the credit union faces.

BUSI 331 Week 1 grading rubric: where the points go

Part 1 is graded on a clearly identified focus and a research problem stated precisely enough to guide a study, within 200 to 300 words; a literature review of 300 to 500 words that synthesizes at least four scholarly sources; and current APA format with a title page, section headings and references. Instructors look for the distinction Malhotra draws between a management decision problem and a marketing research problem, and for a review that connects sources to the study rather than summarizing them one by one. Problems stated as broad topics, reviews built on websites, or missing APA elements lose points. A literature review that ends by naming the variables to be measured shows the student is ready for Part 2.

BUSI 331 Week 1 help: mistakes that cost points

Choose an organization you can actually survey, such as your employer, church or a local business, since Part 2 requires collecting real data. Write the management decision first, in one sentence, then ask what information would help make it. Turn that into research questions you could answer with a survey. For the review, search for scholarly articles on the behavior you are studying and look for a theory that names measurable variables. Synthesize rather than summarize, and finish by stating what your survey will measure. Check both word ranges separately. Confirm early that the organization will let you survey its customers or members.

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BUSI 331 Week 1 questions, answered

What is BUSI 331 Marketing Research Report Part 1?

The 100-point first part of the research report, due in Module/Week 1: a 200-300 word research problem and a 300-500 word literature review with at least four scholarly sources, in APA format.

Where can I find a free BUSI 331 Week 1 sample paper?

Here is the full BUSI 331 Week 1 Part 1 for the Riverbend study, problem statement and literature review together. The study continues through Part 4.

What is the difference between a management decision problem and a marketing research problem?

For Riverbend, the management question is whether to redesign the app, teach members or do nothing; the research question is what keeps members from depositing through it.

What does the technology acceptance model say?

Davis's model says adoption hinges on two beliefs, that the tool is worth using and that it is not hard to use, and both can be measured with short agreement scales.

What else is due in BUSI 331 Module/Week 1?

Opening tasks in BUSI 331 are light apart from Part 1: the syllabus checklist, a hello post and Malhotra's two introductory chapters.

Use it as a model, or ask for your own

This paper is an original model written by our desk for study. It is not a submitted student paper and not an official Liberty University document. Read it for structure and reasoning, then write your own to the instructions in your Canvas course. If you want a version built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.

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