Research Paper Option (in completion of Research Credit in relevant Marketing classes) This assignment will NOT be submitted to your professor. It will be submitted through this Webcourses site, and graded centrally, to ensure consistency across classes. Your professor will receive a report of your credits earned from the Canvas site; no need for you to report to them. The deadline to submit this assignment is 12/5/21 at 11:59PM. Late submissions will not be accepted and will receive a score of zero. ONLY timely submissions via this Webcourses site will be graded. Golden Rule: Work is expected to be the original work of the student, and only the student, on their own, through their individual efforts. Any overlap in student submissions in the present and/or prior semesters is plagiarism and/or unauthorized collaboration. Overlap with the article itself (i.e., copy-paste, rather than using your own words) will be considered plagiarism. Either will result in a score of zero and may be pursued in accordance with University guidelines. Your submission will be graded first, on whether it meets the requirements below. If the requirements are met, quality will be assessed, for up to 4 credits, translated into your grade per the criteria in your syllabus. Key Submission Requirements:

1) Your submission word file will be named using the course name (e.g., International Marketing), the professor’s name (e.g., Smith), and your last name (e.g., Jones), e.g.: “International_Marketing_Smith_Jones.docx” (Absent: -2 credits)

2) In the first line/two of the document you must include your full name, email, the course name (NOT #), and professor’s name. (Absent: no credits as we cannot know what course it is for)

3) The next 2-3 lines will include a complete reference for the article you used (authors, journal name, name of article, year, volume, pages). (Absent: -2 credits)

4) A PDF copy of the article you used must be attached. A link (even an embedded link) is NOT sufficient as links often fail. You must download and save the PDF, and then upload it to the assignment as a separate and independent file. PDFs can be downloaded from the library databases; ask a librarian for help if needed. (Separate PDF File Absent: -3 credits)

5) Incorrect Journal/Year: -4 credits (=0 points credit); see below for list of journals. 6) Not a research article: -4 credits (=0 points credit); see below for article requirements.

The assignment is as follows:

1) Select a Research Article from the year 2021 from only one of the following academic Marketing journals:

a. Journal of Consumer Research b. Journal of Marketing Research c. Journal of Consumer Psychology

Articles from other journals/other years will receive a score of zero. Please see next page for what qualifies as a research article for purposes of this assignment.

2) Read the article and answer the following questions about the article:

a. What is the primary research question being addressed? b. What research methodology is being used? c. What conclusion is reached by the research? d. How is this conclusion relevant to marketing managers? How can they apply the findings in

the context of a firm’s marketing activities? The answers must be written in your *own* words; copy-pasting from the article=plagiarism, and may be pursued accordingly (and will receive a score of zero).

Where can I find these journals and articles? It is your responsibility to find these specific journals and identify a research article from the correct year. These journals are available online through the UCF online library database system (https://library.ucf.edu/ ) If you need help, please contact a librarian (please note that librarians can be contacted remotely and can assist you via phone, chat, etc.; please see the library website for details). Even with librarian assistance, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure the correct journal is chosen. The name of the journal should be EXACTLY as in options 1a-1c above. Journal names are listed at the top or bottom of at least every other page. There are many journals with similar names. Only these exact journals will be accepted. These are the leading journals in the field and this assignment focuses on quality research only. The publication date of every article is similarly listed on the first page. Only articles published in 2021 are accepted. Articles in advance publication (slotted to be published at a later time, not yet in press) do NOT qualify. This will ensure you focus on recent and current published research. Articles from journals other than those specified in 1a-1c above, or from years other than 2021, will receive a score of zero. What Qualifies as a Research Article? Research articles:

A. Are at least 12 journal pages long. B. Contain original data collected specifically for testing the hypotheses in that particular article (not

just citing from the work of others/from other articles and NOT using secondary data collected for other purposes [for example, by a company/institute] and re-analyzed for the paper).

C. Contain at least TWO original studies/experiments collecting such original data for that particular article, with details of the specific methods and results in that article.

Research articles are NOT:

– Editorial notes, introductions to special sections, commentaries on other papers, or dialogues commenting on other papers in the journal.

– Summaries of prior research, re-analysis of prior findings, or a new framework for prior findings. – Papers that offer a new theory for explaining prior research without additional experimental work. – Papers with a single set of field data or a single field study (even if collected for that paper).

How can you tell something is NOT a research paper?

o Titles of such papers might (but will not always) include words like editorial, research dialogue, commentary, summary, introduction, review, framework, (re)conceptualization, meta-analysis, and the like.

o Paper content will focus on journal goals and topics, a specific prior paper published and responded to, a set of prior/forthcoming papers on a given topic, a statistical analysis of those prior papers, or a new way to think about a multitude of existing studies.

o Such papers will lack the required 2 original studies conducted in that paper itself How can you tell something IS a research paper? The abstract will note that the paper contains a certain number of studies (e.g., “across X studies we show that…” or “Y studies examine…”). The content will enumerate the studies (e.g., “Study 1” , “Study 2), and each study will have a subtitle detailing the methods (which are required for you to answer 2b above). Assignments using articles that do not meet the criteria for a research article will receive a score of zero.

Grading Criteria

If your article meets the journal, year, and article criteria above, your answers (to Section 2) will be graded for quality as follows:

1. Repetition of the questions will result in a 1 point deduction; students should use the space to demonstrate their understanding of the answers. You may number the questions for clarity, if you wish.

2. Copy-Pasting sentences/sections from the article itself is plagiarism and will result in a score of zero; all assignments will be checked using Turnitin. Students are expected to be able to explain the key ideas in the article in their own words.

3. To detail the methodology (question 2b), students may choose one of the studies in the paper, and offer detail on that study. They should describe in their own words what participants did in the study and how the researchers used that data or other dimensions of how data was collected, organized, and analyzed.

4. Students are expected to present their own ideas and thoughts in item (2d), showing their ability to apply the research they read in the real world.

5. Overall quality of demonstrating understanding of the key ideas will be evaluated. Format: Submissions will be 2 double spaced pages, 1” margins all around, 12 point font. Significantly shorter submissions will be considered as demonstrating lesser analysis and effort in understanding the paper, and may incur point deductions. Longer submissions will result in reading and grading of only the first 2 pages only, to ensure fairness to all students. Other submission information:

– If you are submitting this assignment for multiple classes, a different article is required for each class.

– All submissions will include a minimum of 2 files (your word doc summary and a PDF of the article); be sure to submit both files at once. Upload both files before hitting the submit button.

– Students are eligible for only one submission. If multiple submissions are provided, only the latest one will be graded.