MRKT 600 Week 1 Research Topic Selection Example

Course	MRKT 600 Applied Market Research (MRKT600)
Module/Week	1
Assignment	Research Topic Selection
Paper type	Research topic proposal
Length	about 524 words, 2 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: per the course guide, at least 500 words giving an overview of the chosen marketing research topic and the reason for choosing it, with at least five peer-reviewed journal references in current APA format
Format	APA 7 student paper
Points	50
School	Liberty University Online
Program	MS in Marketing
Where it sits	Module/Week 1 in Liberty's published MRKT 600 course guide; current sections can differ
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for MRKT 600 Week 1

Research Topic Selection: How Online Reviews Shape Adults' Choice of a Primary Care Physician

[Student Name]

School of Business, Liberty University

MRKT 600: Applied Market Research

Research Topic Selection

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The topic is a composite standing in for a student's approved topic; every source is real and described from its published version; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for MRKT 600.

Why this part earns its pointsThe proposal states the topic in its first sentence and then shows why it matters to marketers, which is what the guide's overview asks for.

Research Topic Selection: How Online Reviews Shape Adults' Choice of a Primary Care Physician

This research will examine how online reviews shape adults' choice of a primary care physician. Choosing a doctor was once a matter of insurance networks and word of mouth from friends and family. Increasingly, it begins with a search engine, a physician rating website or a health system's own online directory, where star ratings and written comments sit beside each physician's name. For health care marketers, this shift turns patient reviews into a marketing channel that a practice does not fully control, and it raises practical questions about which review features persuade patients and how practices should respond.

Overview of the Topic

Online physician reviews have grown quickly. Working from the full archive of one national rating site for 2005 through 2010, Gao et al. (2012) concluded that roughly a sixth of practicing U.S. doctors had been reviewed online within five years of the site's launch, mostly favorably. Surveying a national sample of adults, Hanauer et al. (2014) examined public awareness of rating sites and found that many people considered them important when choosing a physician. Research has also begun to show that reviews affect behavior. Xu et al. (2021), studying a large appointment-booking website, derived service-quality topics such as bedside manner, waiting time and diagnosis accuracy from review text and found that including them substantially improved predictions of which physicians patients chose. Experimental studies point in the same direction. A randomized dentist-search experiment by Grabner-Kräuter and Waiguny (2015) tested how review style and the number of reviews affected participants' attitudes toward a fictitious dentist, and in Han et al. (2024), unfavorable comments lowered how willing participants were to book a physician even when the overall rating was high, with factual negative comments doing more harm than evaluative ones and a physician's response helping only partly.

Reason for Selecting the Topic

Why this part earns its pointsThe reason for the choice comes from the writer's own workplace, which shows the topic is practical and that data will be reachable.

My employer, a health system with eleven primary care clinics, began publishing patient reviews on its physician profile pages two years ago, and our team regularly debates whether star averages or written comments matter more to prospective patients. The research suggests that both matter but leaves open how patients balance them, particularly for primary care, where the relationship is long term. Daskivich et al. (2018) found that online ratings of specialists did not predict performance on measures of quality, value or peer review, which raises the marketing and ethical question of what patients are actually learning from reviews. These gaps make the topic important for practice as well as researchable within this course. They also matter for fairness: if prospective patients rely on reviews that reflect friendliness and wait times more than clinical skill, marketers have a responsibility to present reviews honestly and to help patients understand what they do and do not measure.

Draft Research Question and Scope

Why this part earns its pointsThe draft question names the population and the two features being compared, so the instructor can approve it or narrow it.

A draft research question is: Among adults who have chosen a new primary care physician in the past two years, how did star ratings and written review content influence their choice? The study would survey and interview adults about their own past decisions and would not involve special populations or invasive procedures. The topic sits where marketing research meets health care, and the patient's first click on a physician's profile is where the two now meet in practice.

References

Daskivich, T. J., Houman, J., Fuller, G., Black, J. T., Kim, H. L., & Spiegel, B. (2018). Online physician ratings fail to predict actual performance on measures of quality, value, and peer review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 25(4), 401-407. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocx083

Gao, G. G., McCullough, J. S., Agarwal, R., & Jha, A. K. (2012). A changing landscape of physician quality reporting: Analysis of patients' online ratings of their physicians over a 5-year period. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14(1), Article e38. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2003

Grabner-Kräuter, S., & Waiguny, M. K. J. (2015). Insights into the impact of online physician reviews on patients' decision making: Randomized experiment. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(4), Article e93. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3991

Han, X., Lin, Y., Han, W., Liao, K., & Mei, K. (2024). Effect of negative online reviews and physician responses on health consumers' choice: Experimental study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 26, Article e46713. https://doi.org/10.2196/46713

Hanauer, D. A., Zheng, K., Singer, D. C., Gebremariam, A., & Davis, M. M. (2014). Public awareness, perception, and use of online physician rating sites. JAMA, 311(7), 734-735. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.283194

Xu, Y., Armony, M., & Ghose, A. (2021). The interplay between online reviews and physician demand: An empirical investigation. Management Science, 67(12), 7344-7361. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3879

What the MRKT 600 Week 1 instructions ask

MRKT 600 opens in a five-day first module with the checklist, an ungraded introduction, a program assessment, Forum 1 and this Research Topic Selection, each of the last two worth 50 points, read with chapters 1 to 3 of Alreck and Settle, chapters 1 and 7 of Creswell and chapters 1 to 3 of Moskowitz and Gofman. The guide asks the student to choose a marketing research topic for instructor approval and to submit a 500-word-plus overview explaining the topic and why it was chosen, supported by five or more refereed journal articles cited in current APA style. Topics involving special populations or invasive, intrusive or stressful procedures will not be approved. The approved topic is used for the literature review, the qualitative or quantitative prospectus and the course's interview and survey work.

How this MRKT 600 Week 1 example is built

The proposal opens with the topic in a sentence and a short overview of why it matters for marketers: a growing share of patients choose physicians online, and health systems now publish their own reviews. It then summarizes what research has shown, from Gao and colleagues' analysis of national rating trends to Hanauer and colleagues' survey of public use and Xu and colleagues' finding that review text predicts physician demand. It explains the reason for the choice: the student's work in a health system's marketing department, and a gap in research on how patients balance star averages against narrative comments. The proposal closes with a draft research question and a note that the study will survey adults about their own choices, avoiding special populations and any invasive procedure.

MRKT 600 Week 1 grading rubric: where the points go

Grading for the topic selection asks whether it satisfies each term in the guide and lays a workable foundation for the rest of the course. Graders look for at least 500 words, a clear overview of the topic, a reason for choosing it that goes beyond personal interest to the topic's importance for marketing, and references that include five refereed journal articles at minimum, formatted correctly in APA style. Because the instructor must approve the topic, a proposal that is focused, researchable within the course and free of special populations or invasive procedures is more likely to succeed. Showing awareness of what the literature already says, and where its gaps lie, signals readiness for the literature review due the next module.

MRKT 600 Week 1 help: mistakes that cost points

The most common problem is a topic too broad to study, such as social media marketing. Narrow it to a specific behavior, setting and population, such as how adults use online reviews when choosing a primary care physician. Make sure the five references are peer-reviewed journal articles, not trade magazines or websites, and check each in a database. Explain why the topic matters to marketers, not only why it interests you. Avoid topics that would require studying children, patients in treatment or other special populations, which the guide rules out. Draft a research question, even a rough one, because it will guide the literature review. Finally, confirm that the topic has at least twenty refereed studies behind it, since the Module/Week 2 literature review requires that many.

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MRKT 600 Week 1 questions, answered

What is the MRKT 600 Research Topic Selection?

A 50-point Module/Week 1 assignment of at least 500 words presenting a marketing research topic, the reason for choosing it and at least five peer-reviewed references, for instructor approval.

Where can I find a free MRKT 600 Week 1 sample paper?

This page offers a complete MRKT 600 Week 1 research topic selection on how online reviews shape adults' choice of a primary care physician.

What topics will not be approved in MRKT 600?

The guide states that topics involving special populations or physically or psychologically invasive, intrusive or stressful procedures will not be approved by the instructor.

How is the MRKT 600 research topic used later in the course?

The approved topic carries into the literature review, the interview transcripts, the survey instrument and the final qualitative or quantitative research prospectus.

What textbooks does MRKT 600 use?

Alreck and Settle's The Survey Research Handbook, Creswell's Research Design and Moskowitz and Gofman's Selling Blue Elephants, read across the eight modules.

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