Relationship between educational background of owners of smaller businesses and the practice of marketing research : case of hair salons in Dr R.S. Mompati district in North-West Province, South Africa

This exploratory study employed mainly quantitative and some elements of qualitative methods to analyse interview data emerged from both informal interviews and questionnaire on 280 salon operators. This study focused on the educational background of the owners of smaller businesses as a factor related to the engagement in the marketing research within hair salon business in Dr. R.S Mompati district in the North-West Province of South Africa. The findings revealed that even though majority of the operators did not engage in marketing research, those who collected information on certain marketing research activities may have been influenced by their educational background. Thus it is postulated that the higher the educational background, the more likely it is that hair salons conduct marketing research. The author discusses the implication of the findings for smaller businesses to engage in marketing research, the value of the study, recommendation for further research and limitations of the study.