Qnt 561 Week 2

Running Head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS, PART I

Business Research Methods, Part I

Team A: Ryan Eisenman, Joseph Pagano, Krystal Pokrop, Ani Raj, Rhonda Rudnik,

Applied Business Research and Statistics – QNT/561

July 5, 2010

Dr. Jud Faurer

Business Research Methods, Part I

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker, recently had a quality assurance crisis that required it to recall eight million of its known cars for their stuck accelerator pedals and defective anti-lock brakes. Toyota did not have a contingency plan in place to deal with such crisis. At this point, Toyota is moving forward extremely cautiously, perhaps recalling anything that even has a remote potential to perform unsafely on the car.  Once the media storm broke out that Toyota was recalling millions of vehicles, the public became very sensitive and aware of any small problem that may occur with Toyota's cars, and this resulted in "vehicle maintenance hypochondriacs" and hoaxes.

Organizational Issue and Research Question

Toyota made some mistakes throughout many steps of the process: sending vehicles out in the market unsafe to drive, a delay in recalling and admitting their fault, and they are facing financial obligations. They would have to pay to fix all of these vehicles and possibly other fines or lawsuits and then spend money re-inventing their image. The key to high customer loyalty is deliver high customer value.

With the failures in vehicle performances and the negative publicity, Toyota has some...