“Can the profitability of the casual women’s clothing line be improved by increasing prices by 18 percent?” “Will decreasing the current number of brands of shoes from eight to four significantly lower sales in the shoe department?” and “Will offering storewide sales of ‘buy one get a second one for half price’ versus a ‘20 percent discount’ lead to a marked increase in store traffic patterns?” Accurate answers to these questions can be obtained only through some type of controlled causal research design.