Chris Berry’s Marketing Research Class - Marketing Research Project

Marketing Research Report: Working Students

Prepared for

Chris Berry’s Marketing Research Class

May, 2016

Table of Contents

Executive Summary…………………………………………………...i

Introduction……………………………………………………………1

Methods………………………………………………………………..1

Results………………………………………………………………....2

Number of Students Working …………………………………

Why Students Are Working……………………………………

Graduation Dates …………………………………………….

Prioritization of Schedules ……………………………………

Credit Hours ………………………………………………….

Conclusion…………………………………………………………….6

Limitations…………………………………………………………….7

Executive Summary

Objective:

Our overall intention was to find The purpose of this study conducted on University of Arkansas students is to clarify if having a job during college affects their academic performance.

Research Questions:

How many students are working?

How many hours are they working?

Why are students working? To help pay for school, social activities, or living expenses?

Does having a job impact students’ graduation dates?

How many credit hours are working students taking compared to non-working students?

To what degree to students prioritize their class schedule?

Methods: Our research design was descriptive research. We proceeded to do primary research using surveys to answer our research questions. The survey was formed using the funnel approach. Since this was quantitative, the data was collected then entered into SPSS to be analyzed.

Population: College students Sample: University of Arkansas students

Males: 47% Females:53%

Freshman: 19% Sophomore:12% Junior:55% Senior:14%

Highest number of respondents from: J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences 41%

Results: Survey data was evaluated using SPSS, through the performance of a variety of different tests in order to draw conclusions from the data. After evaluating the data it can be said that there are less working students than non-working students on campus. Other than the prioritization of class schedules, it does not seem that working has a significant impact on any of the other factors that we tested. Within the working group it seems that most of these students are working in order to earn extra spending money.

Conclusion: According to the data, working and going to school at the same time has no significant effect on academic performance. With 36% of students working, it was surprising to find that the amount of time students were taking to graduate was not affected by having a job. With the findings, we can recommend that students get a part time job if they have the time. It would work as a resume booster and since it doesn’t have negative effects on academics, the money for most working students goes towards social spending. Gaining only a positive experience, working an average of 15 hours per week would be key for these students.

Limitations: Time constraint was an issue, we only had a limited amount of time.