The MRS Silver Medal is given to the best paper published in the International Journal of Market Research during 2004. The judges decided that Ben Page’s paper “How much can we predict?” should win because it highlights the value of the current trend towards the ‘holistic’ analysis of market research evidence. They felt that, in analysing residents’ satisfaction with different local authority services, Ben dramatically improved the quality of his interpretation by undertaking a ‘meta analysis’ of what we already know about the impact of place and geography on residents’ attitudes. He detected that by knowing, for an area, only the level of deprivation and the degree of ethic diversity, it was possible to predict within a relatively small range residents’ attitudes towards the local council, the local area and the local services.
What the judges said: "This paper alerts us to the value of analysing survey data with what else we know, to move beyond naïve conclusions to informed and actionable recommendations."
FINALISTS:
Anja Goritz, University of Erlangen-Nurnberg
Erhard Meier & Corrine Moy, MRS CGG Working Party on Social Grade
The MRS Silver Medal is given to the best paper published in the International Journal of Market Research during 2004. The judges decided that Ben Page’s paper “How much can we predict?” should win because it highlights the value of the current trend towards the ‘holistic’ analysis of market research evidence. They felt that, in analysing residents’ satisfaction with different local authority services, Ben dramatically improved the quality of his interpretation by undertaking a ‘meta analysis’ of what we already know about the impact of place and geography on residents’ attitudes. He detected that by knowing, for an area, only the level of deprivation and the degree of ethic diversity, it was possible to predict within a relatively small range residents’ attitudes towards the local council, the local area and the local services.