Michelle :
Akron Children’s Hospital Case Study
Michelle Berry
Liberty University
BUSI 600
Professor Edwin Quinn
February 17, 2022
Akron Children’s Hospital
1 - What is the management-research question hierarchy for Akron Children’s
Hospital?
The management dilemma is that Akron Children’s Hospital is receiving a smaller
market share than rival hospitals, such as Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, in the
same geographical area. The management question becomes how to increase the market
share and increase the patient base for Akron. This will lead to research questions that focus
on the facility and the care received by patients. From these questions, relevant action items
should emerge for Akron Children’s Hospital to follow. “If research questions and answers to
these questions satisfy the needs and expectations of this particular group, research is seen to
clear the hurdle of relevance” (Tucker & Parker, 2019, p. 1263). Relevant questions born of
relevant research should create relevant action items to solve the management dilemma.
2 - What are the advantages/disadvantages of an observation study for this research?
An advantage to this type of field study is that the research subjects are already there.
This research design was to observe patients already going to Akron Children's Hospital. This
would allow researchers to do an observational study with minimal impact on the subjects.
‘Field studies, offering a natural setting, are most likely to obtain unaltered behavior,
especially when the observer isn’t directly involved” (Schindler, 2022, p. 162). Researchers
were able to listen, watch, and record real time events. “There are numerous times when
meaningful information is available from observational studies regarding the potential
effectiveness of a particular treatment on an outcome” (Parast & Griffin, 2017, p. 162).
The disadvantage would be the observations could be at a truly emotional time for the
patients being observed. The emotions could cause subject reactions not related to the actual
care or even the facility. Additionally, there is limited background information regarding
these subjects that could put the observational data in jeopardy of being incomplete.
3- What does the brand promise recommendation reveal about what researchers
experienced and concluded from their study?
The case study notes that “if a parent believed the brand promise, then they would
trust Akron Children’s” (Schindler, 2022). The goal, therefore, was to make the brand
promise not only aspirational, but a promise they could keep. The brand promise lets the
parents know that they are committed to world class healthcare by pointing out that Akron
Children’s has state-of-the-art technology and technical skill. The brand promise also
addresses the emotional side of a parent’s healthcare decision by adding their “goal of helping
every child reach his or her full potential” (Schindler, 2022). “Marketing researchers have
utilized the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model for measuring brand
