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Thought Leadership
Market Research Best Practices
ESOMAR, http://www.esomar.org/index.php is a global organization headquartered in the Netherlands dedicated to promoting use of a code of practice that governs the way market research is conducted. ESOMAR members worldwide are committed to high professional and ethical standards embodied in the ICC/ESOMAR Code of Market and Social Research Practice.
The International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, http://static.icmci.org/home, also headquartered in the Netherlands, works to promote a closer working relationship between all management consulting institutes/organizations primarily dedicated to the registration or certification of individual management consultants. The purpose of this closer working relationship is to accelerate achievement of mutual goals of the national institutes, particularly to assist them in raising the standards of the profession of management consulting and to create worldwide recognition and acceptance of the Certified Management Consultant mark.
The Institute of Management Consultants USA http://www.imcusa.org/ is the US certifying body for the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes. Their mission is to promote excellence and ethics in management consulting through certification, education and professional resources in the US.
Additionally, major universities in the US and other countries are instituting courses of study focused on best practices in market research. Six Sigma analysts in the private sector are working on best practices in statistical sampling, developing actionable information from soft data, data analysis, etc.