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There is much agreement in the literature that reflection on practice is critically important for the full development and ongoing learning of professionals. The methods of reflection on professional practice reported to date have been developed primarily in the context of professional education in group settings led by a tutor. Research is underway into ways in which managers can be developed as learning facilitators in the workplace. However, there are increasing limitations on the significance of this approach to the continuing development of professionals. The research reported here shows that in‐depth research interviews with professionals to investigate their work and learning can play an important part in supporting their reflection in‐depth on their practice. An analysis of the processes involved, and the characteristics of the three research interviewers involved, indicates that human resource development professionals could be trained for the role of learning facilitators of professionals through 1:1 discourse in the form of in‐depth interviews.

The authors aim to present a structural guide for data collection in a participant‐oriented, B2B context.

A three‐stage interview process following the work of Seidman is presented, along with key issues on how to plan, structure, and execute a B2B interview‐based hermenuetic ethnographic study.

The framework presented in this paper provides strong theoretical foundation for further theory development in global industrial marketing research and managerial cognition research. However, given the conceptual nature of the research, empirical scrutiny and further conceptual and empirical research are required.

There is a serious gap in the literature when addressing the issue of B2B contextual studies, focusing on managers, manufacturers, and various other professional personnel.

This research used the somewhat new methodology of convergent interviews to develop a conceptual framework about relationship constructs in an Internet environment. More generally, this article describes and illustrates the processes and the strengths of convergent interviewing to investigate under‐researched areas, and compares it with alternative qualitative techniques like in‐depth interviews, case research and focus groups. The illustration involves interviews conducted with marketing managers and business consultants from ten service companies, about Internet and relationship marketing. It is argued that convergent interviewing is more appropriate than some other qualitative methods to investigate under‐researched areas where there are few experts because it provides a way of quickly converging on key issues in the area, an efficient mechanism for data analysis after each interview, and a way of deciding when to stop collecting data. Convergent interviews could become another useful qualitative research method to explore new issues about emerging marketing phenomena.

The purpose of this paper is to capture the up-to-date development of quality management (QM) programs in China’s manufacturing landscape. The study aims to gain understanding on the current state-of-the-art QM programs adopted by Chinese manufacturing companies. Furthermore, the study investigates the key drivers and organizational characteristics that may shape the decisions on QM program adoption.

To gain a deep understanding of QM in China’s manufacturing landscape, in-depth interviews were conducted with production managers, quality managers, and/or executives of 12 manufacturing companies in four cities in China in May and June 2012. Each interview lasted about two hours and covered all aspects of QM in the business, including what quality programs are in place and why the business adopts and implements these programs. Grounded theory approach is used to conduct qualitative analysis on the interview transcripts using NVivo 9, a qualitative data analysis program.

Two categories of QM programs adopted by Chinese companies emerged from the analysis, namely, QM systems and QM certifications. QM systems include Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, and Lean. QM certification includes ISO 9000 series standard certificates, ISO 14000 certificate, OHSAS heath certificates, government regulatory certificates, and industry certificates. The authors found while Six Sigma and Lean adoption is related to parent company requirement, TQM adoption is related to internal quality improvement and control, quality assurance, leadership ideology, culture, and employee commitment. QM certification adoption is significantly related to external drivers. Regarding the effect of organizational characteristics, the study reveals that while corporate governance and ownership influence parent company requirements as an adoption driver, industry, product, and market segmentation influence industry requirements and government regulations as adoption drivers.

The findings and proposed conceptual framework are based on qualitative data collected from 12 companies in four cities in China, which may be limited to represent and reveal every aspect of QM programs adopted in Chinese manufacturing industries. The findings provide theoretical propositions that can be verified using a large sample set in future studies. In addition, although the study identified a variety of QM programs adopted, how these programs are implemented warrants further investigation.

This study gives a status update and in-depth investigation on the development of QM programs adopted in Chinese manufacturing companies. How internal drivers, external drivers, and organizational characteristics shape companies’ decision on program adoption were explored. The study results provide implications not only for companies that are involved in supply chains with operations in China, but also for Chinese domestic companies competing in global markets to have QM systems in place to ensure quality performance.

This study used multiple case study approach and grounded theory approach to conduct in-depth investigation on the current state of QM landscape in China’s manufacturing companies. It contributes to the body of knowledge on QM programs in China by uncovering the linkages between program adoption, key drivers, and organizational characteristics in an integrated framework.

This paper introduces the development of a new type of sales promotion strategy to create more value for goods and to avoid price discounting. I use a psychological approach designed by creating consumer insight hypotheses based on in-depth interviews, which are then verified by web-motivation research and text-mining. This innovative sales promotion approach is a very hot topic as a new type of promotion development among large companies in Japan and is useful in avoiding price-discounting sales. This paper explains the concrete process used in this type of promotion and reveals the successful case of a large spice company in Japan. The process uses price sensitivity measurement (PSM) as a pricing technique. In the experiment, conducted in nine retail stores, the most successful sales promotion condition saw an increase of 900% in monetary sales without price discounting during the two weeks of the experiment, and 500% in the two weeks after that.

Changes to legislation in England during 2006 introduced the requirement for a “farm to fork” approach to food safety. The new regulations require primary producers such as arable farmers, fruit growers and vegetable growers to follow good hygiene practice and manage their operations in such a way as to control food safety hazards. Various food safety incidents in recent years have increased the public's concern with food safety and contributed to the establishment of various farm assurance schemes in order to reassure the public, often via labelling displaying high profile symbols such as the Red Tractor logo, that the food they eat is safe and has been produced in accordance with strict guidelines and standards. The requirement for documented HACCP plans is central to the majority of farm assurance schemes in the UK. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and nature of barriers to HACCP implementation amongst a group of arable farmers and fresh produce growers. The research forms part of the first phase of a larger project being undertaken as part of a PhD.

For this research study an in‐depth qualitative methodology was used, and a non‐prescriptive narrative interview technique utilised in order to investigate the barriers to HACCP implementation amongst four arable farmers and fresh produce growers in England. The farmers and growers all had HACCP plans produced for their business in order to comply with the requirements of farm assurance schemes.

Non‐prescriptive analysis of the narrative interviews identified shortcomings associated with farm assurance audits and several common themes associated with experiences and perceptions of HACCP as difficult, a burden in terms of cost, time and paperwork and unnecessary, all of which acted as barriers to implementation.

This paper combines in‐depth, academically sound research with the involvement of primary producers. It brings together the views of four arable farmers and fresh produce growers. This study both supports and develops previous research studies, contributing to the existing body of research by uncovering additional findings associated with farm assurance schemes and identifying the extent and nature of barriers to HACCP implementation in primary production.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the ISO 9001:2008 and blueprints by using a process approach, to have systematic regulation in hospital quality management.

This study promotes a process approach when developing, implementing, and improving the effectiveness of hospital service quality to enhance patients’ satisfaction by meeting their requirements. This study completes the hospital’s blueprints with the process approach by using case study research methods such as in‐depth interviews with relevant personnel, on‐site observations, and experts’ advice.

The results of hospital blueprints described in this study comprise five‐plane lines to have systematic regulations. The ISO 9001:2008 process approach and service blueprint are not merely a technological application for medical healthcare services, but rather a fully patient‐driven, technologically integrated, and diligently implemented programme.

Because of organisational financial confidentiality, this study does not consider the financial performance of the case hospital, and the results of blueprints may be revised afterward.

This paper promotes the adoption of a process approach when developing, implementing, and improving the effectiveness of a hospital outpatient service management system, to enhance outpatients’ satisfaction by meeting their requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic and rigorous process of data collection and fieldwork in qualitative research using four empirical studies of customer interactions in new product development (NPD) as examples. The intention is to dispel a misconception that the qualitative research lacks objectivity and methodological robustness.

To collect data for all the four studies a preliminary process of conducting fieldwork was first developed from the extant literature. This preliminary framework was applied in the first study and subsequently revised twice in the second and third study by incorporating necessary changes and additions. Finally, the framework was tested and further refined in the fourth study.

The findings from these four empirical qualitative studies have demonstrated that a theory generating idiographic research such as field interviews could be carried out systematically. These findings also provide a basis for proposing a structured framework for data collection.

The paper is based only on business‐to‐business NPD. Therefore, to increase the applicability of the results more studies are needed in other business and marketing fields.

The results offer an in‐depth look at specific research activities that can be carried out for efficient idea generation work and the overall NPD efforts.

The framework reported in this paper allows for an iterative data collection process from multiple respondents and from multiple sources. This method of data collection is a key issue because product managers tend to interact with the customers and other partners repeatedly and throughout the NPD process. Thus the product managers would find this framework useful for research involving NPD and customer interactions.

In 2018, an artificial intelligence (AI) interview platform was introduced and adopted by companies in Korea. This study aims to explore the perspectives of applicants who have experienced an AI-based interview through this platform and examines the opinions of companies, a platform developer and academia.

This study uses a phenomenological approach. The participants, who had recent experience of AI video interviews, were recruited offline and online. Eighteen job applicants in their 20s, two companies that have adopted this interview platform, a software developer who created the platform and three professors participated in the study. To collect data, focus group interviews and in-depth interviews were conducted.

As a result, all of them believed that an AI-based interview was more efficient than a traditional one in terms of cost and time savings and is likely to be adopted by more companies in the future. They pointed to the possibility of data bias requiring an improvement in AI accountability. Applicants perceived an AI-based interview to be better than traditional evaluation procedures in procedural fairness, objectivity and consistency of algorithms. However, some applicants were dissatisfied about being assessed by AI. Digital divide and automated inequality were recurring themes in this study.

The study is important, as it addresses the real application of AI in detail, and a case study of smart hiring tools would be valuable in finding the practical and theoretical implications of such hiring in the fields of employment and AI.