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Solution Manual for Business Research Methods
9th
Edition by Zikmund Babin Carr and Griffin
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Chapter 7
Qualitative Research Tools
AT-A-GLANCE
I. What Is Qualitative Research?
A. Uses of qualitative research
II. Qualitative “versus” Quantitative Research
A. Contrasting qualitative and quantitative methods
B. Contrasting exploratory and confirmatory research
III. Orientations to Qualitative Research
A. Phenomenology
• What is a phenomenological approach to research?
• What is hermeneutics?
B. Ethnography
• What is ethnography?
• Observation in ethnography
C. Grounded theory
• What is grounded theory?
• How is grounded theory used?
D. Case studies
• What are case studies?
• How are case studies used?
IV. Common Techniques Used In Qualitative Research
A. What is a focus group interview?
• Advantages of focus group interviews
▪ Speed and ease
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▪ Piggybacking and multiple perspectives
▪ Flexibility
▪ Scrutiny
• Focus group illustration
• Group composition
• Environmental conditions
• The focus group moderator
• Planning the focus group outline
• Focus groups as diagnostic tools
• Videoconferencing and streaming media
• Interactive media and online focus groups
• Online versus face-to-face focus group techniques
• Disadvantages of focus groups
B. Depth interviews
C. Conversations
• Semi-structured interviews
• Social networking
D. Free-association/sentence completion method
E. Observation
F. Collages
G. Projective research techniques
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
V. Exploratory Research In Science And In Practice
A. Misuses of exploratory and qualitative research
• Scientific decision processes
• Time
• Money
• Emotion
Learning Outcomes
1. List and understand the differences between qualitative research and quantitative research
2. Understand the role of qualitative research in exploratory research designs
3. Describe the basic qualitative research orientations
4. Prepare a focus group interview outline
5. Recognize technological advances in the application of qualitative research approaches
6. Recognize common qualitative research tools and know the advantages and limitations of their use
7. Know the risks associated with acting on only exploratory results
CHAPTER VIGNETTE: What’s in the Van?
Vans shoes traditionally are synonymous with skate boarding and skate board culture. A decade before VF Corporation acquired the brand, Vans was practically a dead brand. However, the last 10 years has seen a revival in skate board interest, and Vans has remained the number one skate- board shoe provider. Now management wants to increase sales to $500 million per year. Two important research questions involve “What is the meaning of a pair of Vans?” and “What things define the skate-boarding experience?” These questions call for qualitative research methods, and one way to collect this data is to hire young, energetic research employees to become “boarders” and immerse themselves into the culture. Depth interviews of Vans wearers will also be useful.
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SURVEY THIS!
Surveys can be used to collect qualitative data. Students are asked to look at a question from the survey that asks respondents to provide suggestions about improving the quality of business education at their school, which is qualitative in nature. Students are asked to look over the comments provided by the students in their class, to identify major themes or issues, and to offer suggestions to administrators at their school for improving the educational environment.
Research Snapshots
➢
Discoveries at P&G!
With thousands of products to manage, Proctor and Gamble (P&G) finds itself conducting qualitative research almost daily. P&G doesn’t introduce a product that hasn’t been reviewed from nearly every possible angle. At times, P&G seeks outside help for its research. Qualitative research techniques (i.e., depth interviews, observational techniques, and focus groups) with managers and marketing employees revealed a management problem. Marketing problems were really due to low morale among the marketing employees. A quantitativestudy followed up these findings and supported the idea and led to suggestions for improving marketing morale.
➢ “When Will I Ever Learn?”
A hermeneutic approach has been used to provide insight into car shopping experiences, which uses a small number of consumers providing relatively lengthy stories about recent car shopping experiences. The goal is trying to discover particular reasons why certain car modelsareeliminatedfromconsideration. Oneconsumer’sstoryenumeratedtheproblems with the GM automobiles she has purchased and why she came to the conclusion to never purchase a GM automobile again. The research concludes that a hermeneutic link existed between the phrase “When am I going to learn?” and the plot of self-responsibility.
➢
A Sensory Safari Provides Play Time (and Good Research) for Time Warner Cable
Spark, a market research firm, seeks to engage all of the senses of consumers as a way to understand potential products or services. The Sensory Safari gives a new meaning to “play time,” giving consumers all kinds of materials, including Styrofoam, toys, fresh flowers, and even coffee beans and asking them to build collages that reflect how they feel regarding a new product. Time Warner Cable wanted to see the impact of a new ad campaign, and consumers included heart-shaped images with technology in the middle of it. When people are allowed to fully engage all of their senses, they can “say a lot.”
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
I. WHAT IS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?
➢ Qualitativebusinessresearch–addressesbusinessobjectivesthroughtechniquesthat allow the researcher to provide elaborate interpretations of phenomena without depending on numerical measurement.
➢ Less structured than most quantitative approaches.
➢ More researcher-dependent in that the research must extract meaning from unstructured responses (i.e., text from a recorded interview or a collage representing the meaning of some experience).
➢ Uses of Qualitative Research
➢ Generally, the less specific the research objective and/or when the emphasis is on a deeper understanding of motivations or on developing novel concepts, the more likely that qualitative research tools will be appropriate.
➢ Commons situations that often call for qualitative research:
1. When it is difficult to develop specific and actionable decision statements or research objectives.
2. When the research objective is to develop an understanding of some phenomena in greater detail and in much depth.
3. Whenthe researchobjectiveistolearnhow aphenomenonoccurs initsnatural setting or to learn how to express some concept in colloquial terms.
4. When some behavior the researcher is studying is particularly context dependent.
5. When a fresh approach to studying some problem is needed.
II. QUALITATIVE “versus” QUANTITIVE RESEARCH
➢ Qualitative research can accomplish research objectives that quantitative research cannot and vice versa.
➢ Many good research projects combine both.
➢ Quantitativebusiness research –businessresearchthat addresses research objectives through empirical assessments that involve numerical measurement and analysis approaches.
➢ Quantitative research is more apt to stand on its own in the sense that it requires less interpretation.
➢ Contrasting Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
➢ Exhibit 7.1 illustrates some differences between qualitative and quantitative research.
➢ Quantitative researchers measure concepts with scales that provide numeric values.
➢ Qualitative researchers are more interested in observing, listening, and interpreting.
• Researcher is intimately involved in the research process and in constructing the results.
• Qualitative research is said to be more subjective, meaning the results are researcher-dependent.
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• Qualitative research lacks intersubjective certifiability (sometimes called intersubjective verifiability), which means the ability of different individuals followingthesameprocedurestoproducethesameresultsorcometothesame conclusion.
➢ Qualitative research usually involves a handful of people, which is acceptable in discovery-oriented research.
• Smaller sample does not necessarily mean cheaper because of the greater researcher involvement.
➢ Qualitative is most often used in exploratory designs.
➢ Contrasting Exploratory and Confirmatory Research
➢ Philosophically, research can be considered as either exploratory (i.e., develop ideas that lead to hypotheses) or confirmatory (i.e., tests hypotheses).
➢ Most exploratory research designs produce qualitative data – data that is not numerical, but rather is textual, visual, or oral.
➢ Quantitative data represent phenomena by assigning numbers in an ordered and meaningful way.
➢ Exploratory research may be a single formal investigation or a series of informal studies.
➢ A qualitative approach can, but does not necessarily, save time.
III. ORIENTATIONS TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
➢ Orientations to qualitative research are very much influenced by the different fields of study involved in research.
➢ Major categories of qualitative research:
1. Phenomenology – originating in philosophy and psychology.
2. Ethnography – originating in anthropology.
3. Grounded theory – originating in sociology
4. Case studies – originating in psychology and in business research.
➢ Phenomenology
➢ What Is a Phenomenological Approach to Research?
• Phenomenology represents a philosophical approach to studying human experiences based on the idea that human experience itself is inherently subjective and determined by the context in which they live.
• Researcher focuses on how a person’s behavior is shaped by the relationship they have with their physical environment, objects, people, and situations.
• Relies largely on conversational interview tools.
• Interviews are usually video or audiotaped and then interpreted by the researcher.
• Researcher tries to avoid asking direct questions and asks the respondent to tell a story about some experience.
• Respondents must be comfortable telling their story, and ways to accomplish this include becoming a member of the group or avoid having the person use his or her real name.
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➢ What Is Hermeneutics?
• Hermeneutics is an approach to understanding phenomenology that relies on analysis of texts in which a person tells a story about themselves.
• Meaning is drawn by connecting text passages to one another or to themes expressed outside the story.
• Hermeneutic unit – a text passage from a respondent’s story that is linked with a key theme from within this story or provided by the researcher.
• Software exists to assist in interpreting texts (e.g., Atlas-Ti).
• Also appropriate in grounded theory approaches.
➢ Ethnography
➢ What Is Ethnography?
• Ethnography represents ways of studying cultures through methods that involve becoming highly involved within that culture.
• Participant-observation typifies this approach and means the researcher becomes immersed within a culture that he or she is studying and draws data from his or her observations.
• Culture can be broad (i.e., American culture) or narrow (i.e., urban gang).
➢ Observation in Ethnography
• Plays a key role.
• Useful when a particular culture is comprised of individuals who cannot or will not verbalize their thoughts and feelings.
➢ Grounded Theory
➢ What Is Grounded Theory?
• Grounded theory represents an inductive investigation in which the researcherposesquestionsaboutinformationprovidedbyrespondentsortaken from historical records.
• The researcher asks the questions to him or herself and repeatedly questions the responses to derive deeper explanations.
• Particularly applicable in highly dynamic situations involving rapid and significant change.
• Two key questions asked:
▪ “What is happening here?”
▪ “How is it different?”
• Distinguishing characteristics of this theory is that it does not begin with a theorybutinsteadextractsonefrom whateveremergesfromanareaofinquiry.
➢ How Is Grounded Theory Used?
• Analyzing several years of text can reveal underlying problems.
• Software can be useful.
• Grounded theorists often rely on visual representations.
➢ Case Studies
➢ What Are Case Studies?
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• Case studies simply refer to the documented history of a particular person, group, organization, or event.
• Can be analyzed for important themes, which are identified by the frequency with which the same term (or a synonym) arises in the narrative description.
• Themes may be useful in discovering relevant variables.
➢ How Are Case Studies Used?
• Commonly applied in business.
• Often overlap with one of the other categories of qualitative research.
• A primary advantage is that an entire organization or entitycan beinvestigated in depth with meticulous attention to detail.
• Allows the researcher to study the order of events or to concentrate on identifying relationships among functions, individuals, or entities.
• Often requires the cooperation of the party whose history is being studied.
IV. COMMON TECHNIQUES USED IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
➢ Exhibit 7.2 lists characteristics of some common qualitative research techniques.
➢ What Is a Focus Group Interview?
➢ A focus group interview is an unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group of people (i.e., 6-10 people).
➢ Led by a trained moderator who follows a flexible format encouraging dialog among respondents.
➢ Moderator begins by providing an opening statement to broadly steer discussion in the intended direction
➢ Ideally, discussion topics emerge at the group’s initiative, not the moderator’s.
➢ Advantages of Focus Group Interviews
1. Relatively fast.
2. Easy to execute.
3. Allow respondents to piggy-back off each other’s ideas – one respondent stimulates thought among the others.
4. Provide multiple perspectives.
5. Flexibility to allow more detailed descriptions.
6. High degree of scrutiny – session can be observed since they are usually conducted in a room with a two-way mirror and are generally tape recorded or videotaped for later examination.
➢ Focus Group Illustration
• A brief example of how RJR is using focus groups in developing a smokeless cigarette in the U.K.
➢ Group Composition
• Ideal size is 6-10 people.
• Homogeneous groups work best because they allow researchers to concentrate on consumers with similar lifestyles, experiences, and communication skills.
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• From an ethnographic perspective, the respondents should all be members of a unique culture.
• Researchers who wish to collect information from different types of people should conduct several focus groups.
➢ Environmental Conditions
• Facilities usually have videotape cameras in observation rooms behind twowaymirrorsandmicrophonesystemsconnectedtotaperecordersandspeakers to allow observation by others.
• Refreshments are usually provided to create a more relaxed atmosphere.
➢ The Focus Group Moderator
• The moderator is a person who leads a focus group interview and ensures that everyone gets a chance to speak and contribute to the discussion.
• Qualities that a good moderator must possess:
1. Must develop rapport with the group to promote interaction among all participants.
2. Must be a good listener.
3. Must try not to interject his or her own opinions.
4. Must be able to control discussion without being overbearing.
➢ Planning the Focus Group Outline
• A discussion guide includes written introductory comments informing the group about the focus group purpose and rules and then outlines topics or questions to be addressed in the session.
• The amount of content depends on the nature and experience of the researcher and the complexity of the topic.
• Steps to be used to conduct an effective focus group discussion guide:
1. Welcome and introductions should take place first.
2. Begin the interview with a broad icebreaker that does not reveal too many specifics about the interview.
3. Questions become increasingly more specific as the interview proceeds.
4. If there is a very specific objective to be accomplished (i.e., explaining why a respondent would either buy or not buy a product), that question should probably be saved for last.
5. A debriefing statement should be provided providing respondents with the actual focus group objectives and answering any questions any may have.
➢ Focus Groups As Diagnostic Tools
• Focus groups can be helpful in later stages of a research project, particularly when the findings from quantitative techniques raise more questions than they answer.
• Also an excellent diagnostic tool for spotting problems with ideas (i.e., idea screening).
➢ Videoconferencing and Focus Groups
• With the widespread utilization of videoconferencing, the number of companies using these systems has increased.
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➢ Interactive Media and Online Focus Groups
• Online focus group refers to a qualitative research effort in which a group of individuals provide unstructured comments by entering their remarks into an electronic, Internet display board of some type of chat-room session or in the form of a blog.
• Because comments are entered into the computer, transcripts of verbatim responses are available immediately after the group session.
• Quick and cost-efficient.
• However, group synergy and snowballing of ideas may be diminished.
• “Continuous” focus groups can be established through an Internet blog.
▪ Can call this technique a focus blog when the intention is to mine the site for business research purposes.
➢ On-Line Versus Face-To-Face Focus Group Technique
• Respondents feel online anonymity is very secure.
• Online focus groups can be larger because participants do not have to be in the same room at a research facility (i.e., 25 participants or more is not uncommon).
• The Internet does not have geographical restrictions.
• Disadvantages of online focus groups:
▪ researcher does not exercise as much control over who is participating
▪ moderators cannot see body language and facial expressions
▪ moderators’ ability to probe and ask additional questions on the spot is reduced
▪ respondents cannot touch or taste something
➢ Disadvantages of Focus Groups
1. Requires objective, sensitive and effective moderators that will not interject his or her opinion or allow one or a few participants to dominate.
2. Sampling problems – participantsmay not berepresentativeofthe entiretarget market.
3. Face to face focus groups may not be useful for discussing sensitive topics.
4. Expensive, especially if conducted by an outside research company (i.e., $5,000 or more).
➢ Depth Interviews
➢ A depth interview is a one-on-one interview between a professional researcher and a research respondent.
➢ The interviewer’s role is critical, and he or she must be highly skilled and can encourage the respondent to talk freely without influencing the direction of the conversation.
➢ Probing questions are critical.
➢ Laddering – a particular approach to probing asking respondents to compare differences between brands at different levels.
• The first distinctions are usually attribute-level distinctions, the second are benefit-level distinctions and the third are at the value or motivation level.
➢ Interviews last more than an hour.
➢ Each interview produces about the same amount of text as does a focus group interview, which has to be analyzed and interpreted.
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➢ Another issue stems from the necessity of recording both surface reactions and subconscious motivations of the respondent, and the analysis and interpretation of such data are highly subjective.
➢ Provide more insight into a particular individual than do focus groups.
➢ Respondents are more likely to discuss sensitive topics than in focus groups.
➢ Costs are similar to focus groups if only a few interviews are conducted but higher if more are conducted due to the increased interviewing and analysis time.
➢ Conversations
➢ Conversations are an informal data gathering approach in which the researcher engages a respondent in a discussion of the relevant subject matter.
➢ Approach is almost completely unstructured and the researcher enters the conversation with few expectations.
➢ Goal is to have the respondent produce a dialog about their lived experiences, and meaning is extracted from that.
➢ Particularly appropriate in phenomenological research and for developing grounded theory.
➢ Computer-based consumer dialogs may enable the discovery of product problems and ideas for overcoming them.
➢ Interviews are usually inexpensive to conduct.
➢ However, prone to produce little relevant information since little effort is made to steer the conversation.
➢ Data analysis is very much researcher dependent.
➢ Semi-Structured Interviews
• Usually come in written form and ask respondents for short essay-type responses to specific open-ended questions and respondents are free to write as much as they want.
• Advantages include:
▪ ability to address more specific issues
▪ responses are usually easier to interpret than other qualitative approaches
▪ questions can be administered without the presence of an interviewer
▪ relatively cost effective
➢
Social Networking
• One of the most impactful trends in recent times, becoming the primary tool for communicating with friends for many consumers.
• A large portion of this information discusses business and consumer-related information.
• Companiesmonitorthesesitesforinformationrelatedtotheirparticularbrands and code it as positive or negative.
➢ Free-Association/Sentence Completion Method
➢ Free-association techniques simply record a respondent’s first cognitive reactions (top-of-mind) to some stimulus (e.g., Rorschach or inkblot test).
➢ Allows researchers to map a respondent’s thoughts or memory.
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➢ The sentence completion method requires respondents to complete a few partial sentences with the first word or phrase that comes to mind (e.g., People who drink beer are ______.).
➢ Effective for finding out what is on a respondent’s mind, but the ability to probe for meaning is not possible.
➢ Can be done quickly and cheaply.
➢ Sometimes used in conjunction with other approaches (i.e., used as an icebreaker in a focus group interview).
➢ Observation
• The participant-observer approach typifies how observation can be used to explore various issues.
• Field notes are the researchers’ descriptions of what actually happens in the field, and these notes then become the text from which meaning is extracted.
• May also take place in visual form (e.g., observing consumers in their homes).
• Advantageous for gaining insight into things that respondents cannot or will not verbalize.
➢ Collages
• Respondents’collagesthat represent theirexperiencewith some good,service, or brand are analyzed for meaning much in the same manner as text dialogs are analyzed.
• Software can be applied to help develop potential grounded theories.
• Often used with other approaches.
• Flexible, but also very subject to the researcher’s interpretations.
➢ Projective Research Techniques
• A projective technique is an indirect means of questioning enabling respondents to project beliefs and feelings onto a third party, an inanimate object, or a task situation.
• Individuals are expected to interpret the situation within the context of their own experiences, attitudes, and personalities and to express opinions and emotions that may be hidden from others and possibly themselves.
• Particularly useful in studying sensitive issues.
➢ Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• A thematic apperception test (TAT) presents subjects with an ambiguous picture(s) in which consumers and products are the center of attention.
• Investigator asks the subject to tell what is happening in the picture now and what might happen next.
• Themes (thematic) are elicited on the basis of the perceptual-interpretative (apperception) use of the pictures.
• Researcher analyzes the contents of the stories that the subjects relate.
• If subjects are to project their own views into the situation, the environmental setting should be a well-defined, familiar problem, but the solution should be ambiguous.
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V. EXPLORATORY RESEARCH IN SCIENCE AND IN PRACTICE
➢ Misuses of Exploratory and Qualitative Research
➢ Exploratory research cannot take the place of conclusive, confirmatory research.
➢ One of the biggest drawbacks is the subjectivity that comes along with “interpretation” (sometimes the term interpretive research is used synonymously with qualitative research).
➢ Is the result replicable, meaning it could be reproduced by another researcher?
➢ The “motivational research” era brought about negative perceptions of these methods due to some interesting and occasionally bizarre reasons for consumers’ purchasing behavior (i.e., baking a cake is symbolic of giving birth).
➢ Today, qualitative tools have won acceptance once again as researchers realize they have greater power in discovering insights that would be difficult to capture in typical survey research.
➢ Scientific Decision Processes
➢ Objectivity and replicability are two characteristics of scientific inquiry.
➢ A focus group or depth interview or TAT alone does not best represent scientific inquiry.
➢ However, if the thoughts discovered through these techniques are developed into research hypotheses, they can be further tested.
➢ Thus, exploratory research approaches using qualitative tools are very much a part of scientific inquiry
➢ Before making a scientific decision, a research project should include a confirmatory study, but is it always necessary?
➢ In practice, many decisions are based solely on the results of focus group interviews or some other exploratory result for the following reasons:
1. Time – sometimes the risk of delaying a decision may be seen as greater than the risk of proceeding without completing the scientific process.
2. Money – sometimes the costs are too high to follow up on exploratory research results.
3. Emotion – sometimes decision makers become so anxious to have something resolved, or they get so excited about some novel discovery resulting from a focus group interview, they may act rashly.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND CRITICAL THINKING/ANSWERS
1. Define qualitative and quantitative research. Compare and contrast the two approaches.
Qualitative research is research that addresses research objectives through techniques that allow the researcher to provide elaborate interpretations of business phenomena without depending on numerical measurement. Its focus is on discovering true inner meanings and new insights. It is less structured than most quantitative approaches and does not rely on self-response questionnaires containing structured response formats. Instead, it is more researcher-dependent in that the researcher must extract meaning from unstructured responses such as text from a recorded interview or a collage representing the meaning of some experience. The researcher interprets the data to extract its meaning and converts it to information.
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Quantitative research can be defined as research that addresses research objectives through empirical assessments that involve numerical measurement and analysis approaches. It is more apt to stand on its own in the sense that it requires less interpretation. See Exhibit 6.1 for more differences between these two approaches.
2. Why do exploratory research designs rely so much on qualitative research techniques?
When researchers have limited experience or knowledge about a research issue, exploratory research is a useful step. Exploratory research, which often involves qualitative methods, can be an essential first step to a more rigorous, conclusive confirmatory study by reducing the chance of beginning with an inadequate, incorrect or misleading set of research objectives.
3. Why do causal designs rely so much on quantitative research techniques?
Qualitative research is characterized by small samples and interpretive procedures requiring subjective judgments and the unstructured interview format, all of which make traditional hypotheses testing difficult. Thus, these procedures are not best suited for drawing definitive conclusions such as result from causal designs involving experiments.
4. What are the basic orientations of qualitative research?
Major categories of qualitative research: a. Phenomenology – originating in philosophy and psychology. It represents a philosophical approach to studying human experiences based on the idea that human experience itself is inherently subjective and determined by the context in which they live. b. Ethnography – originating in anthropology. It represents ways of studying cultures through methods that involve becoming highly involved within that culture (e.g., participant-observer). c. Grounded theory – originating in sociology. It represents an inductive investigation in which the researcher poses questions about information provided by respondents or taken from historical records. d. Case studies – originating in psychology and in business research. It refers to the documented history of a particular person, group, organization, or event, and cases are analyzed for important themes. a. A product manager suggests development of a nontobacco cigarette blended from wheat, cocoa, and citrus. b. A research project has the purpose of evaluating potential names for a corporate spin-off
5. Of the four basic orientations of qualitative research, which do you think is most appropriate for a qualitative approach designed to better define a business situation prior to conducting confirmatory research?
Students’ responses will vary on this question, and a reasonable argument can be made for any one of the four. However, it may be difficult to provide a convincing argument that one category is better than the others because they can all achieve this objective.
6. What type of exploratory research would you suggest in the following situations?
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The non-tobacco cigarette may have many unconscious associations. A thematic apperception test might be appropriate. With a TAT, individuals do not have to state that they personally feel a certain way about an “imitation” cigarette. Given the mask of a projection technique, respondents may be more honest.
When generating a corporate name, the research question will center associations with several proposed different names. The name should be selected because it has a connotation that is compatible with the intended corporate concept. A connotation that presents a favorable and distinctive image is desired. A word association test might be very useful. A statement such as the following might be used: “I am going to read you several names. I would like you to respond with the first thing that comes to your mind.” c. A human resource manager must determine the most important benefits of an employee health plan. d. An advertiser wishes to identify the symbolism associated with cigar smoking.
A focus group interview with employees might provide insight into what benefits are most important to employees.
A thematic apperception test might be a very useful technique in this situation. For example, the first picture might be a man and a woman seated at a restaurant with the person at the next table smoking a cigar. Or the picture might show two people in the same room, one beginning to light up a cigar. A sentence completion test might also be used. If a focus group is used, smokers and nonsmokers should not be in the same group.
7. What are the key differences between a focus group interview and a depth interview?
A focus group interview is an unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group of people, usually between six and ten people. A depth interview is a one-on-one interview between a professional researcher and a research respondent.
8. [Internet Question] Visit some websites for large companies like Honda, Qantas Airlines, Target, Tesco and Marriott. Is there any evidence that they are using their Internet sites in some way to conduct a continuous online focus blog or intermittent online focus groups?
At the time of this writing, it did not appear that any of the sites listed in this question are using their sites to conduct a continuous online focus blog or intermittent online focus group. The instructor might want to note the risk in allowing blogs related to a business’s site because of the lack of control the company has over what visitors might post.
9. What is laddering? How might it be used in trying to understand which fast-food restaurant customers prefer?
Laddering is a term used for a particular approach to probing asking respondents to compare differences between brands at different levels. What usually results is that the first distinctions are attribute level distinctions, the second are benefit level distinctions, and the third are at the value or motivation level.
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Laddering can be used to determine not only which fast-food restaurant a consumer prefers but also why he or she prefers that one. For example, a mother may indicate that McDonald’s is her favorite fast-food restaurant. The first level of probing will likely result in attributes as the explanation (e.g., McDonald’s has several choices from which to choose, such as hamburgers, Happy Meals, salads, etc.). The next level may reveal benefits that the stated attributes provide (e.g., wide selection allows all family members to be happy). Finally, the third level might reveal the value or motivational level, such as a mother wanting her child to be happy, and the playground and Happy Meal toy satisfy this motivation.
10. Comment on the following remark by a business consultant: “Qualitative exploration is a tool of research and a stimulant to thinking. In and by itself, however, it does not constitute business research.”
By “business research,” this question is getting at the concept of scientific inquiry. Objectivity and replicability are two characteristics of scientific inquiry, and one could argue that qualitative research does not possess these characteristics. Many qualitative research techniques reduce to a matter of opinion that may vary from researcher to researcher and from one respondent group to another. So these methods alone do not best represent scientific inquiry. However, if the thoughts discovered through these techniques survive preliminary evaluations and are developed into research hypotheses, they can be further tested. Thus, exploratory research approaches using qualitative research tools are very much a part of scientific inquiry, even if they do not represent “good science” on their own.
11. [Ethics Question] A researcher tells a manager of a wine company that he has some “cool focus group results” suggesting that respondents like the idea of a screw-cap to top wine bottles. Even before the decision maker sees the report, the manager begins purchasing screw-caps and the new bottling equipment. Comment on this situation.
Before acting on the results of any focus group, managers should examine the sample used because some unique sampling problems arise with focus groups. Researchers often select focus group participants because they have similar backgrounds and experiences or because screening indicates that the participants are more articulate or gregarious than the typical consumer. Such participants may not be representative of the entire target market. While the researcher may have some “cool focus group results,” if the participants are not representative of the target market the results in the marketplace will not be realized. For example, did the focus group consist of everyday consumers, or were wine aficionados included?
12. A packaged goods manufacturer receives many thousands of customer letters a year. Some are complaints, some are compliments. They cover a broad range of topics. Are these letters a possible source for exploratory research? Why or why not?
Yes, they can be considered a possible source for exploratory research. Computerized software exists to assist in interpreting text. Atlas-Ti is one such software package that adopts the term hermeneutic unit in referring to groups of phrases that are linked with meanings. The letters can be treated similarly to case studies and then analyzed for important themes. Themes are identified by the frequency with which the same term (or a synonym) arises in the narrative description. The themes may be useful in discovering variables that are relevant to explanations.
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