RESEARCH METHODS FOR DOCTORATE DEGREE

4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

4.1. Definitions

Qualitative research includes an "array of interpretive techniques which seek to

describe, decode, translate, and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the
frequency of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in the social world.
Qualitative techniques are used at both the data collection and data analysis stages of a
research project. At the data collection stage, the array of techniques includes focus
groups, individual depth interviews (IDIs), case studies, ethnography, grounded theory,
action research, and observation. During analysis, the qualitative researcher uses content
analysis of written or recorded materials drawn from personal expressions by participants,
behavioral observations, debriefing of observers, as well as the study of artifacts and
trace evidence from the physical environment.

Qualitative research aims to achieve an in-depth understanding of a situation, whether it

explains why a person entering a grocery proceeds down each aisle in turn or heads for
the rear of the store and chooses only alternate aisles thereafter or explains why some
advertisements make us laugh and contribute to our commitment to a brand while others
generate outrage and boycotts.

Qualitative research draws data from a variety of sources, including the following:

• People (individuals or groups).

• Organizations or institutions.
• Texts (published. including virtual ones).
• Settings and environments (visual/sensory and virtual material).
• Objects, artifacts, media products (textual/visual/sensory and virtual material).
• Events and happenings (textual/visual/sensory and virtual material).

Qualitative versus Quantitative Research

Quantitative research attempts precise measurement of something. In business

research, quantitative methodologies usually measure consumer behavior,
knowledge, opinions, or attitudes. Such methodologies answer questions related to
how much, how often, how many, when, and who. Although the survey is not the only
methodology of the quantitative researcher, it is considered a dominant one.

The purpose of qualitative research is based on "researcher immersion in the

phenomenon to be studied, gathering data which provide a detailed description of events,
situations and interaction between people and things, [thus] providing depth and detail.
Quantitative research is often used for theory testing, requiring that the researcher
maintain a distance from the research to avoid biasing the results. Qualitative research-
sometimes labeled interpretive research because it seeks to develop understanding
through detailed descriptions - often builds theory but rarely tests it.

Exhibit 7-1 offers some examples of appropriate uses of qualitative research in business.

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Several key distinctions between qualitative and quantitative research are elaborated in
Exhibit 7-2.

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4.2. The Process of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research starts with an understanding of the manager’s problem, but the
management-research question hierarchy is rarely developed prior to the design of
research methodology. Rather, the research is guided by a broader question more similar
to the management question. Exhibit 7-3 introduces the modifications to the research
process.

Much of qualitative research involves the deliberate preparation of the participant, called
pre-exercises or pretasking. This step is important due to the desire to extract detail and

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meaning from the participant.

Exhibit 7-4 provides an example of research question formulation.

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4.3 Qualitative Research Methodologies

The researcher chooses a qualitative methodology based on the project's purpose; its
schedule, including the speed with which insights are needed; its budget; the issue(s) or
topics(s) being studied; the types of participants needed; and the researcher's skill,
personality, and preferences.

4.3.1. Sampling

One general sampling guideline exists for qualitative research: Keep sampling as long as
your breadth and depth of knowledge of the issue under study are expanding; stop when
you gain no new knowledge or insights. Sample sizes for qualitative research vary by
technique but are generally small.

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Qualitative research involves non-probability sampling-where little attempt is made to
generate a representative sample. Several types of non-probability sampling are
common:

• Purposive sampling. Researchers choose participants arbitrarily for their unique

characteristics or their experiences, attitudes, or perceptions: as conceptual or
theoretical categories or participants develop during the interviewing process,
researchers seek new participants to challenge emerging patterns.
• Snowball sampling. Participants refer researchers to others who have
characteristics, experiences, or attitudes similar to or different from their own.
• Convenience sampling. Researchers select any readily available individuals as
participants.

4.3.2. Interviews
The interview is the primary data collection technique for gathering data in qualitative
methodology. Interviews vary based on the number of people involved during the
interview, the level of structure, proximity of the interviewer to the participant, and the
number of interviews conducted during research. Exhibit 7-5 compares the individual
and group interview as a research methodology.

Interviewing requires a trained interviewer (of called a moderator for group interviews) or
the skill gained from experience. These skills include making respondents comfortable,
probing for detail without making the respondent feel harassed, remain neutral while
encouraging the participant to talk openly, listening carefully, following a participant’s train
of thought, and extracting insights from hours of detailed descriptive dialogue. Skilled
interviewers learn to use their personal similarities with or differences from their
interviewee to mine information; similarities are used to convey sympathy and
understanding, while differences are used to demonstrate eagerness to understand and
empathize.

The researcher chooses either an unstructured interview (no specific questions or order
of topic to be discussed, with each interview customized to each participant: generally
starts with a participant narrative) or a semi-structured interview (generally starts with a
few specific questions and then follows the individual’s thought with interviewer probes) or
a structured interview (often uses a detailed interview guide similar to a questionnaire to
guide the question order and the specific way the questions are asked, but the questions
generally remain open-ended). Structured interviews permit more direct comparability of
responses; question variability has been eliminated and thus answer variability is
assumed to be real. Also, in the structured interview, the interviewer's neutrality has been
maintained.

Most qualitative research relies on the unstructured or semi-structured interview. The

unstructured- and semi-structured interviews used in qualitative research are distinct from
the structured interview in several ways. They:

• Rely on developing a dialog between interviewer and participant.

• Require more interviewer creativity.
• Use the skill of the interviewer to extract more and a greater variety of data.
• Use interviewer experience and skill to achieve greater clarity and elaboration of
answers.

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Interviewer Responsibilities

In building the guide for the interview, many interviewers employ a hierarchical
questioning structure, depicted in Exhibit 7-6.

• Recommends the topics and questions.

• Controls the interview, but also plans–and may manage the locations and
facilities for the study.
• Proposes the criteria for drawing the sample participants.
• Writes the recruitment screener (Exhibit 7-7) and may recruit
participants.
• Develops the various pre-tasking exercises.
• Prepares research tools (e.g., pictures sorts or written exercises) to be
used during the interview.
• Supervises the transcription process.
• Helps analyze the data and draw insights.
• Writes or directs the writing of the client report, including extracting video
clips for oral report.

4.3.3. Projective Techniques

Because researchers are often looking for hidden or suppressed meanings,

projective techniques can be used within the interview structures. Some of these
techniques include

• Word or picture association – participants are asked to match images,

experiences, emotions, products and services, even people and places,
to whatever is being studied.
• Sentence completion – participants are asked to complete a sentence.
• Cartoons or empty balloons – participants are asked to write the dialog

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 for cartoonlike picture.
• Thematic Appreciation Test – participants are confronted with a picture
and asked to describe how the person in the picture feels and thinks.
• Component sorts – participants are presented with flash cards containing
component features and asked to create new combinations.
• Sensory sorts – participants are presented with scents, textures, and
sounds, usually verbalized on cards, and asked to arrange them by one
or more criteria.
• Laddering or benefit chain – participants are asked to link functional
features to their physical and psychological benefits, both real and ideal.
• Imagination – participants are asked to relate the properties of one thing
person/brand to another.
• Imaginary universe – participants are asked to assume that the brand and
its users populate an entire universe; they then describe the features of
this new world.

• Visitor from another planet – participants are asked to assume that they
are aliens and are confronting the product for the first time; they then
describe their reactions, questions, and attitudes about purchase or
retrial.
• Personification – participants are asked to imagine inanimate objects with
the traits, characteristics and features, and personalities of humans.
• Authority figure – participants are asked to imagine that the brand or
product is an authority figure and to describe the attributes of the figure.
• Ambiguities and paradoxes – participants are asked to imagine a brand
as something else, describing its attributes and position.
• Semantic mapping –participants are presented with a four-quadrant map
where different variables anchor the two axes; they then spatially
organize health insurance options, product components, or organizations
within the four quadrants.
• Brand mapping – participants are presented with different brands and
asked to talk about their perceptions, usually in relation to several criteria.

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 They may also be asked to spatially place each brand on one or more
semantic maps
• Metaphor elicitation techniques – participants are pretasked to collect
images that reveal how they feel about a research topic; during an IDI,
participants discuss each image and create a collage of their images,
with emotions, thoughts, or perceptions noted near each image.

4.3.4. Individual Depth Interviews

An individual depth interview (IDI) is an interaction between an individual

interviewer and a single participant. Individual depth interviews generally take
between 20 minutes (telephone interviews) and 2 hours (prescheduled, face-to-
face interviews) to complete, depending on the issues or topics of interest and
the contact method used. Participants are usually paid to share their insights
and ideas.

Interviewees are often provided with advance materials via mail, fax, or the
Internet. Recently, advances in technology have encouraged the use of detailed
visual and auditory aids during interviews, creating the methodology known as
computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPIs). CAPIs often use a
structured or semistructured individual depth interview.

Several unstructured individual depth interviews are common in business

research, including oral histories, cultural interviews, life histories, critical
incident technique, and sequential (or chronologic) interviewing. Exhibit 7-8
describes these techniques and provides examples.

4.3.5. Group Interviews

A group interview is a data collection method using a single interviewer with

more than one research participant. Group interviews can be described by the
group's size or its composition.

Group interviews vary widely in size: dyads (two people), triads (three people),
mini-groups (two to six people), small groups (focus groups – 6 to 10 people –
unarguably the most well-known of group interview techniques), or super-groups
(up to 20 people). The smaller groups are usually used when the overall
population from which the participants’ are drawn is small, when the topic or
concept list is extensive or technical, or when the research calls for greater
intimacy. Dyads also are used when the special nature of a friendship or other
relationship (e.g., spouses, superior-subordinate, and siblings) is needed to
stimulate frank discussion on a sensitive topic. Dyads and triads are also used
frequently with young children who have lower levels of articulation or more
limited attention spans and are thus more difficult to control in large groups. A
super-group is used when a wide range of ideas is needed in a short period of
time and when the researcher is willing to sacrifice a significant amount of
participant interaction for speed.

In terms of composition, groups can be heterogeneous (consisting of different

individuals; variety of opinions, backgrounds, actions) or homogeneous
(consisting of similar individuals; commonality of opinions, backgrounds,
actions). Groups also can comprise experts (individuals exceptionally
knowledgeable about the issues to be discussed) or non-experts (those who
have at least some desired information but at an unknown level).

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The skilled researcher helps the sponsor determine an appropriate number of
group interviews to conduct. The number of groups is determined by

• The scope of the issue(s) being studied: The broader the issue(s), the
more groups needed.
• The number of distinct market segments of interest: The larger the
number and the greater the distinctions, the more groups needed.
• The number of new ideas or insights desired: The larger the number, the
more groups needed.
• The level of detail of information: The greater the level of detail, the more
groups needed.
• The level of geographic or ethnic distinctions in attitudes or behavior:
The greater these influences, the more groups needed.
• The homogeneity of the groups: The less homogeneity, the more groups
needed.

The general rule is: Keep conducting group interviews until no new insights are
gained. Exhibit 7-9 summarizes the facilitators and inhibitors of individual
participation in group interviews.

a) Focus Groups

The focus group is a panel of people (typically made up of 6 to 10 participants),

led by a trained moderator, who meet for 90 minutes to two hours. The facilitator
or moderator uses group dynamics principles to focus or guide the group in an

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exchange of ideas, feelings, and experiences on a specific topic.

Focus groups are often unique in research due to the research sponsor's
involvement in the process. Most facilities permit the sponsor to observe the
group and its dynamics in real time, drawing his or her own insights from the
conversations and nonverbal signals he or she observes.

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Focus groups typically last about two (2) hours but may run from one to three hours.
Facilities are usually provided for the group to be isolated from distractions.

Other common activities within focus groups include:

• Free association. "What words or phrases come to mind when you think
of X?"
• Picture sort. Participants sort brand labels or carefully selected images
related to brand personality on participant-selected criteria.
• Photo sort. Photographs of people are given to the group members, who
are then asked: "Which of these people would ... ?" or "Which of these
people would not ... T"
• Role play. Two or more members of the group are asked to respond to
questions from the vantage point of their personal or assigned role.

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Focus groups are especially valuable in the following scenarios:

• Obtaining general background about a topic or issue.

• Generating research questions to be explored via quantitative
methodologies.
• Interpreting previously obtained quantitative results. Stimulating new
ideas for products and programs.
• Highlighting areas of opportunity for specific managers to pursue.
Diagnosing problems that managers need to address.
• Generating impressions and perceptions of brands and product ideas.
Generating a level of understanding about influences in the participant's
world.

b) Other Venues for Focus Group Interviews

Telephone Focus Groups: Often there is a need to reach people that face-to-
face groups cannot attract. With modern telephone conferencing facilities,
telephone focus groups can be particularly effective in the following situations:

• When it is difficult to recruit desired participants-members of elite groups

and hard-to-find respondents such as experts, professionals, physician
specialists, high-level executives, and store owners.
• When target group members are rare, ‘low incidence’' or widely dispersed
geographically – directors of a medical clinic, celebrities, early adopters,
and rural practitioners.
• When issues are so sensitive that anonymity is needed but respondents
must be from a wide geographic area-people suffering from a contagious
disease, people using nonmainstream products, high-income individuals,
competitors.
• When you want to conduct only a couple of focus groups but want
nationwide representation.

A telephone focus group is less likely to be effective under the following

conditions:

• When participants need to handle a product.

• When an object of discussion cannot be sent through the
mail in advance.
• When sessions will run long.
• When the participants are groups of young children.

Online Focus Groups: Online focus groups have also proved to be effective
with teens and young adults, as well as technically employed segments of the
market, those essentially comfortable with computer use.

Videoconferencing Focus Groups: Videoconferencing is another technology

used with group interviews. Many researchers anticipate growth for this
methodology. Like telephone focus groups, videoconferencing enables
significant savings. By reducing the travel time for the moderator and the client,
coordinating such groups can be accomplished in a shorter time. However,
videoconferencing retains the barrier between the moderator and participants,
although less so than the telephone focus group.

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c) Recording, Analyzing, and Reporting Group Interviews

In face-to-face settings, some moderators use large sheets of paper on the wall
of the group room to record trends; others use a personal notepad. Facility
managers produce both video- and audiotapes to enable a full analysis of the
interview. The verbal portion of the group interview is transcribed along with
moderator debriefing sessions and added to moderator notes. These are
analyzed across several focus group sessions using content analysis. This
analytical process provides the research sponsor with a qualitative picture of the
respondents' concerns, ideas, attitudes, and feelings. The preliminary profile of
the content of a group interview is often done with computer software in content
analysis. Such software searches for common phrasing and words, context, and
patterns of expression on digitized transcripts.

4.4. Combining Qualitative Methodologies

4.4.1. Case Study

The case study, also referred to as the case history, is a powerful research
methodology that combines individual and (sometimes) group interviews with
record analysis and observation. Researchers extract information from company
brochures, annual reports, sales receipts, and newspaper and magazine
articles, along with direct observation (usually done in the participant's "natural"
setting), and combine it with interview data from participants. The objective is to
obtain multiple perspectives of a single organization, situation, event, or process
at a point in time or over a period of time. Case study, methodology – or the
written report from such a research project, often called a case analysis or case
write-up – can be used to understand particular processes. For example, one
study might evaluate new product development processes for similarities,
especially, the use of outside consultants, ideational techniques, and computer
simulation. Another study might examine in detail the purchaser's response to a
stimulus like a display. The results of the research could be used to experiment
with modifications of the new product development process or with display
selection and placement processes to generate higher-value transactions. The
research problem is usually a how and why problem, resulting in a descriptive or
explanatory study.

4.4.2. Action Research

Managers conduct research in order to gain insights to make decisions in

specific scenarios. Action research is designed to address complex, practical
problems about which little is known-thus no known heuristics exist. So the
scenario is studied; a corrective action is determined, planned, and
implemented; the results of the action are observed and recorded; and the
action is assessed as effective or not. The process is repeated until a desired
outcome is reached, but along the way much is learned about the processes
and about the prescriptive actions being studied. Action researchers investigate
the effects of applied solutions. Whatever theories are developed are validated
through practical application.

4.5 Merging Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies

Triangulation is the term used to describe the combining of several qualitative

methods or combining qualitative with quantitative methods. Because of the
controversy described earlier, qualitative studies may be combined with

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quantitative ones to increase the perceived quality of the research, especially
when a quantitative study follows a qualitative one and provides validation for
qualitative findings. Four strategies for combining methodologies are common in
business research.

• Qualitative and quantitative studies can be conducted simultaneously.

• A qualitative study can be ongoing while multiple waves of quantitative
studies are done, measuring changes in behavior and attitudes over
time,
• A qualitative study can precede a quantitative study, and a second
qualitative study then might follow the quantitative study, seeking more
clarification.
• A quantitative study can precede a qualitative study.

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