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Business Research Methods
Qualitative Techniques
Qualitative versus Quantitative
Research
• Purpose
– Exploratory versus descriptive and conclusive
• Small versus large samples
• Broad range of questioning versus
structured questions
• Subjective interpretation versus statistical
analysis
Qualitative Research Methods
• Direct ( Nondisguised)
---Focus Groups
---Depth Interviews
• Indirect ( Disguised )
---Projective Techniques
Focus Groups
• It is a group of individuals selected and
assembled by researchers to discuss &
comment on ( from personal experience)
the topic that is the subject of research.
• It helps in getting several perspectives about
the same topic
• It helps in understanding what makes
people tick & what is going on in their mind
that cannot be obtained through survey data
Focus Group Interviews
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Unstructured
Free flowing
Group interview
Relaxed informal
atmosphere
• Start with broad topic
and focus in on
specific issues
Group Composition
• 6 to 10 people
• Relatively
homogeneous
• Similar lifestyles and
experiences
Outline for a Focus Group
• Establish a rapport
• Begin with broad topic
• Focus in on specific topic
• Generate discussion and interaction
• Discussions for about 2 hours
• Responses are recorded through
---manual notes
---audio recording
--video recording
The Moderator
• Develops rapport helps people relax
• Interacts
• Listens to what people
have to say
• Everyone gets a
chance to speak
The Focus Group Moderator
• Maintains loose control and focuses
discussion
• Stimulates spontaneous responses
Advantages of Focus Groups
• Synergism: Wider range of information, insights & ideas because of
group
• Snowballing: One person’s comments triggers chain reaction
• Stimulation: General level of excitement over the topic increases in
the group
• Security: Feeling of security in homogeneous group increases
willingness to express ideas
• Spontaneity: Since specific questions are not to be answered
responses are spontaneous & unconventional
• Serendipity: Ideas arise out of the blue in a group
• Specialization: Use of a specialized moderator is justified for a group
• Scientific Scrutiny : Data collection process can be witnessed &
recorded
• Structure: Provides for flexibility in topics covered & depth of
treatment
• Speed: Interviewing a large number of people at the same time makes
data collection & analysis faster
Disadvantages of Focus Groups
• Misuse: FGD results used as replacement for
survey data: FGDs probe attitudes & motivations &
not their frequency in population
• Misinterpretation: Difficult to decide on responses
to be generalized resulting in interviewer's bias
• Poor management of group dynamics: Difficult to
find moderator with skills ,insights &experience
• Messy: unstructured answers pose difficulties in
coding analyzing & interpreting responses
Advantages of Online
Focus Groups
• Fast
• Inexpensive
• Bring together many participants from
wide-spread geographical areas
• Respondent anonymity
• Transcript automatically recorded
Disadvantages of Online
Focus Groups
• Less group interaction
• Absence of tactile stimulation
• Absence of facial expression and body
language
• Moderator’s job is different
Depth Interviews
• A direct personal interview in which a
single respondent is probed by a highly
skilled interviewer
• It helps in uncovering underlying
motivations, attitudes & beliefs on a topic
• It serves as a prelude to a more analytical
questionnaire design for quantitative
research
Depth Interviews
• Three Types depending on guidance
extended by the interviewer
• Unstructured ( Natural conversation)
• Semi –structured (Check list prepared)
• Standardised open ended( Uses a proper
Questionnaire)
Laddering
• Investigating attitude towards airlines among male middle
managers
• Attribute such as wide body aircraft was probed
• Why ? I can get more work done---I accomplish more---I
feel good about myself
• Laddering indicated-advanced seat reservation,
wide body aircraft& first class cabin seating( Product
characteristics)
• Work done on flight, sense of accomplishment, higher self
esteem (User characteristics)
• Ad campaign like “You are the Boss" which bolsters self
esteem for managers
Depth Interview Techniques:
Laddering
In laddering, the line of questioning proceeds from
product characteristics to user characteristics. This
technique allows the researcher to tap into the
consumer's network of meanings.
Wide body aircrafts
(product characteristic)
I can get more work done
I accomplish more
I feel good about myself
(user characteristic)
Advertising theme: You will feel good about yourself when flying
our airline. “You're The Boss.”
Hidden Issue Questioning
• It tries to probe into hidden issues and items like
daydreams, anxieties, fascinations & hopes in
peoples’ lives
• What would you do if you get Rs 10 crores? How do
you see yourself as a celebrity? Are typical
questions
• It probes into respondents attitude towards work,
leisure, home etc
Depth Interview Techniques:
Hidden Issue Questioning
In hidden issue questioning, the focus is not on socially
shared values but rather on personal “sore spots;” not on
general lifestyles but on deeply felt personal concerns.
fantasies, work lives, and social lives
historic, elite, “masculine-camaraderie,” competitive
activities
Advertising theme: communicate aggressiveness, high
status, and competitive heritage of the airline.
Hidden Issue Questioning
• Male middle managers were questioned about
fantasies, work lives, social lives to identify hidden
life issues
----Answers indicated glamorous, historic, elite.
masculine events, like Grand Prix car racing.
• Lufthansa Airlines featuring World War I type “Red
Baron” spokesperson communicating
aggressiveness, high status &competitive heritage
• Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von
Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918),
widely known as the Red Baron, was a
German fighter pilot with the Imperial
German Army Air Service
(Luftstreitkräfte) during World War I. He
is considered the ace-of-aces of that war,
being officially credited with 80 air combat
victories, more than any other pilot.
• Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised
automobile racing that began in France as far back as
1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one
town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver.
Innovation and the drive of competition soon saw speeds
exceeding 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), but because the
races were held on open roads there were frequent
accidents with the resulting fatalities of both drivers and
spectators.
• Grand Prix motor racing eventually evolved into formula
racing, and Formula One can be seen as its direct
descendant. Each event of the Formula One World
Championships is still called a Grand Prix. Formula One is
still referred to as Grand Prix racing.
Advantages&Disadvantages of Depth Interviews
Advantages
• Attributes responses directly to respondents
• There is no social pressure to conform to group response
resulting in explorations of attitudes
• Informal atmosphere facilitate discussion of sensitive
questions
Disadvantage
• Difficult & expensive to get skilled interviewer
• Quality of results depends on skills of interviewer
• Cost limits interviews to be conducted
“A man is least himself when he talks
in his own person; when given a mask
he will tell the truth.”
--Oscar Wilde
Projective Techniques
• It is an unstructured & indirect form of
questioning that encourages the respondents
to project their motivations ,beliefs
,attitudes or feelings regarding the issues of
concern
• Respondents are asked to interpret
behaviour of others which indirectly
projects their own feelings
• Scenarios for response are deliberately kept
ambiguous for better projection of feelings
Projective Techniques
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Association techniques
Completion techniques
Construction techniques
Expressive techniques
Sociometry
Association techniques
• Association techniques :Respondents are presented with a
stimulus and are asked to reveal the first thing that comes to
their mind
• Word Association : Most popular association technique
• Respondents are presented with a list of brands ,one at a
time .After each brand they are asked to give the first word
that comes to their mind
• Analysis is done by calculating
-Frequency of words found in response
-time elapsed before response
-number of non respondents
• Used in consumer research for discovering brand image
• FEDEx
• Colgate
• Detol
Word Association Examples
• For COURIER
Service
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FEDEx
DTDC
DHL
FIRST FLIGHT
Word Association Examples
• For CHEESE
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Kraft
Cheddar
Amul
Mother Dairy
Completion Techniques
• A projective technique that requires a respondent to
complete an incomplete stimulus situation :
Sentence Or Story
• Sentence Completion : respondents are presented
with a number of incomplete sentences & asked to
complete them.
• They are asked to use the first phrase that comes to
their mind which helps in tracing their attitudes
,thought process & feelings
Completion Techniques
In Sentence completion, respondents are given incomplete sentences
and asked to complete them. Generally, they are asked to use the first
word or phrase that comes to mind.
A person who shops at Lifestyle is ______________________
McDonalds is most liked by _________________________
When I think of shopping in a department store, I ________
A variation of sentence completion is paragraph completion, in which
the respondent completes a paragraph beginning with the stimulus
phrase.
Construction Techniques
• A projective technique in which respondent is asked
to construct his response in the form of a story
,dialogue or description: Picture or Cartoon
• Picture response technique: Respondent is shown a
picture & asked to tell a story describing it.
• Its roots lie in Thematic Apperception Test which
consists of a series of pictures which are to be
interpreted in the form of stories
• Cartoon characters are shown in specific situation
related to the problem. The respondents are asked to
indicate dialogue that one cartoon character might
make in response to the given comments of another
character
• Several need patterns and personality characteristics
can be traced through these tests
Thematic Apperception Test
T.A.T.
A Cartoon Test
Sears
Let’s see if we can
pick up some
house wares at
Sears
Expressive Techniques
• A projective technique in which respondent
is asked to play the role or assume
behaviour of someone else.
• Respondent is given a verbal or visual
situation & asked to play the role of specific
character like sales executive, manager or
political leader or even brands
• The way in which respondent copes with
the situation reveal a lot about his
personality
Sociometry
• A method devised by Jacob Moreno for assessing
group structure
• It is a mathematical study of psychological
properties of population
• It is based on the fact that people make choices in
interpersonal relationships
• Whenever people are in a group they choose
where to sit or whom to speak to
• Sociometry studies pattern of affection & loyalty
that bind some group members more closely than
others
• It can be applied to situations involving study of
group behaviour in business research
Advantages&Disadvantages of Projective
Techniques
Advantages
• Since respondent is aloof of the purpose of the study
it elicits responses which are not possible by direct
methods
• Data collected is rich & accurate
• Useful for exploratory research to gain initial
insights
Disadvanages
• Requires trained & skillfull interviewers who are
difficult to find
• It is expensive & difficult to administer
• Getting subjects for role playing is difficult
• Reliability measure difficult to work