Following are the major limitations of MR:

(i)    MR uses the techniques of science but it itself is not an exact science. Therefore, the results obtained are not very accurate as compared to physical and chemical sciences.

(ii)    MR is carried our in open marketplace where so many variables are acting on the research settings. It is not comparable anyway to the controlled laboratory situations as available in physical and other exact sciences. For example, suppose we want to measure advertising effectiveness and conducting an experiment in certain markets assuming that conditions will remain the same during the experiment period. If the competitors change their strategies during the period of experiment results will get affected.

(iii)    MR is carried out on consumers, dealers, wholesalers retailers, etc., who are human beings. Human beings have a tendency to behave artificially when they know that they are being observed. So the customers and respondents start behaving artificially when they know that their attitudes, opinions, beliefs, etc., are being studied. This aspect of human behavior distorts the MR results.

(iv)    Subjectivity is the research main limitation of MR. It is very difficult to verify the research results. Also the replication of the same project on the same group of respondents produces different research results. Verification which is the important characteristic of physical science research is present to a lesser extent in MR.

(v)    The MR projects generally take longer time period than other ones. The time by which the research results are presented market situation also undergoes a change. Hence, the time gap affects the successful implementation of research results.

(vi)    Researcher intentionally or unintentionally is biasing the research result in MR. While collecting data, the researcher may not feel motivated and may engage in cheating and misrepresentation of facts. Sometimes researchers may be misled by the respondents by providing false information. They may be playing fun with the researcher or they may be trying to help the researcher in completing his task in a shorter time period and in the process distorting the research information results.

(vii)    Generally, the lack of appropriate training o researchers leads to misinterpretation of questions to be asked for data collection. They may not be able to collect and present it sin a systematic manner.

(viii)    Some research sponsoring agencies are intruding the researchers to come out with particular type of solutions to particular type of problems. This may also be done by certain top management executives to justify their arguments and thus the want the researchers to come out with particular type of research results and suggestions. These whimsical attitudes of the top management and agencies lead to distortion of research results.

(ix)    Many research executives are not very clear about the research problem and its objectives. They are not able to direct the researchers in clear-cut way, how to conduct the research. This leads to haphazardness in the research and researchers are not able to do anything concrete.

(x)    In India, research is taken as a time-wasting and resource-wasting activity. Therefore, MR does not get its due resource allocation in the organizations. Time and money remain the major limitations worth mentioning in all sorts of MR studies. This discourages the researchers and in turn they do not give their best to the organizations. There is an immediate need to change this negative attitude harbored by many Indian business houses.

(xi)     The researchers are not much motivated to make use of computers for analyzing the research results. First, the computers are very costly. Secondly, many researchers have not been imparted proper training in using the computers. If computers are widely used these will reduce the time taken by researchers for analysis and research results can produced to the sponsors in s shorter period of time. Computers can be much help for conducting multivariate analysis.

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