Search results

Investigates the extent to which various quantitative techniques are employed in marketing across Europe. Marketing practitioners, marketing services providers and marketing educators were all surveyed in a pan‐European study aimed at uncovering the extent of diffusion into practice of quantitative methods. Finds that, despite the increased use of computers, and the wider availability of modelling software, the most popular quantitative techniques are still the most basic data summary and presentation methods. Marketing students receive only a limited exposure to advanced quantitative methods and practitioners typically find little use for the more sophisticated techniques.

Notes that many authors have supported the value of integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches within a research design to address research questions that aim both to develop or extend theory and test its application. Presents research which explores two alternative approaches to conducting qualitative interviews within an integrated research method. Aims to determine how those different approaches can enhance the design of the quantitative component of the research, and contribute to the interpretation of the quantitative data. Concludes that the findings indicate the importance of adopting both qualitative interview techniques within this combined approach, while completing a comprehensive review of the literature. Suggests that this will develop a theoretical framework and quantitative design, and assist in the interpretation of the quantitative data. The qualitative components of two outshopping studies, each study having a combined qualitative/quantitative research design, were selected to illustrate the nature of the data produced through each qualitative interviewing technique and the contribution of the data to the interpretation of the quantitative findings.

Discusses ways in which qualitative techniques might be incorporated in quantitative research and quantitative techniques in qualitative research ‐ a transfer of techniques. Explores the use of neuro‐linguistic programming (NLP) and projective techniques in quantitative research. Reports the results of customizing a self‐completion questionnaire to a respondent’s preferred representational system (PRS). This application of NLP produced encouraging findings. Provides suggestions for further research. Describes an example of how NLP and projective techniques can benefit a quantitative study with a case study in which TRBI’s BrandWorks was used. Suggests that, although the adoption by qualitative researchers of techniques used in quantitative research focuses on computer applications, the recent academic interest in the use of text analysers has not been matched by practitioners. Discusses issues related to quality, validity, transparency and value, and reports the findings of a survey of the largest qualitative marketing research suppliers. Finally, examines the use of correspondence analysis and describes ways in which correspondence analysis might benefit the qualitative researcher.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze author and methodological characteristics in top-tier publications in higher education. As the importance of research in the professoriate continues to grow and faculty face ratcheted-up expectations for prestige in their research, such data are important contextually and historically.

This descriptive study examines 587 articles within four top-tier higher education research journals from 2008 to 2012. Data were open coded and analyzed with a research team, resulting in an intercoder reliability of 0.96.

Results show most authors are assistant professors, overwhelmingly received PhD’s from very high research institutions (Carnegie classification), and currently work in similar institutions. Five degree-granting institutions accounted for 29.0 percent of publications in top-tier journals. Additionally, quantitative research accounted for 60.6 percent of published articles, with regression as the most commonly used analytic technique (34.7 percent).

This study examined only higher education faculty and institutions based in the USA as well as first authors.

These results are meant to provide baseline data for top-tier journals within higher education and might inform conversations about methodological acceptability, respectability of qualitative research, graduate education research requirements, journal editor trainings, and tenure and promotion criteria.

This paper provides an update to previous studies that examined publications in higher education within the last three decades. In addition, this study examines author characteristics, which previous studies have mostly excluded. This study offers empirical data to inform conversations about the state of research in top-tier publications within higher education.

Discusses a number of important issues pertaining to the domain of qualitative market research. Attempts to define what qualitative research is about and discuss some of the difficulties involved in coming up with a clear definition of the qualitative paradigm. Suggests a number of issues relating to theory and practice that warrant the existence of a new journal devoted specifically to qualitative market research. Concludes with a discussion of validity and reliability in the context of qualitative research.

Purpose – The chapter outlines mixed methods as a recursive and co-operative approach to research. In doing so, it challenges the dominant conception of ‘real’ mixed methods research as requiring the use of methods from both qualitative and quantitative frameworks by outlining not only logistic and pragmatic issues requiring the attention of researchers but also the underlying philosophical tensions inherent in mixed method designs.

Design/methodology/approach – The process of designing a mixed methods project that investigated the sociological and phenomenological impact of running shoes is outlined with reference to the various pragmatic and epistemological considerations of the project.

Findings – Many researchers require mixed methods to draw on both quantitative and qualitative techniques. However, this chapter demonstrates that such an understanding of mixed methods marginalises critical and interpretivist techniques. It is argued that studies of sport and physical culture have frequently used more than one research method. However, in order for these to be considered mixed methods studies, an explicit attempt is required to connect each technique of data collection and analysis, regardless of the research paradigm in which they operate.

Research limitations/implications – The limitations of mixed methods designs are discussed in relation to pragmatic and logistic concerns as well as the difficulty of connecting methods that present different underlying philosophical assumptions.

Originality/value – This chapter demonstrates the design of a mixed methods project from the initial process of identifying a research problem through to data collection, analysis and publication.

Focuses on the pre‐testing of a global press advertising campaign for Seagram’s Chivas Regal whisky and contrasts the contributions of qualitative and quantitative applications. Examines how an informed decision could be made on the most appropriate research approach ‐ in particular the value of the concept of validity; and the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative pre‐testing given the emotional nature of the product category, importance of branding and nature of advertising. These questions are addressed in this paper through focusing on the research needs for the “global campaign” as well as the need in Japan to evaluate the global campaign and an independently developed local campaign. In the case of Japan, Seagram’s management elected to examine two different research approaches ‐ qualitative and quantitative ‐ to address the question “how to effectively pre‐test international press advertising”. This exercise demonstrated that the two approaches produced seemingly contradictory findings. Reasons for this are discussed.

Quantitative research is based on epistemic beliefs that can be traced back to David Hume. Hume and others who followed in his wake suggested that we can never directly observe cause and effect. Rather we perceive what is called “constant conjunction” or the regularities of relationships among events. Through observing these regularities, we can develop generalizable laws that, once established, describe predictable patterns that can be replicated with reliability. This form of reasoning involves studying groups of individuals and is often called nomothetic and is contrasted with idiographic research that focuses on the uniqueness of the individual. It is clear that large-scale experiments with random assignment to treatment are based on nomothetic models, as are quasi-experimental studies where intact groups of people (e.g., students in a particular classroom) are assigned to treatments.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of research which explores how the concept qualitative management research is variably constructed and defined by those who have a direct interest in, and influence upon, important aspects of qualitative management research.

Information was gathered through the use of semi‐structured interviews conducted with 44 individuals who were drawn from four observer‐identified types of “expert” informant who were taken to generally represent key groups of stakeholders in the conduct, evaluation and dissemination of qualitative management research. Interview data from these individuals were analysed though an iterative process using the NVivo software package to inductively generate definitional categories and explore aspects of their interrelationships.

From data analysis it was apparent that there are eight different, but often interrelated, ways in which interviewees define qualitative management research. The philosophical dimensions of each of these variable definitions are outlined and their relationships to the methodological literature are explored. The variety identified amongst informants, indicates how there is a potential dissensus possible regarding what qualitative management research might entail, as well as regarding its provenance and its academic status. This dissensus potentially can create problems with regard to its evaluation.

So whist there is little evidence to suggest any systematic relationship between the variable institutional backgrounds of informants and how they variably define and perceive qualitative management research, philosophical influences upon this contested terrain are explored and the implications of the identified dissensus for how qualitative management research is perceived and evaluated is discussed. The implications of this evidently contested terrain are discussed with particular reference to the future constitution of qualitative management research and its evaluation.

This paper seeks to examine two management doctoral research projects to highlight the advantages in mixed methods as the primary research design.

This paper summarises the methods of data collection and analysis which were used by two doctoral students in their management research. The researchers used mixed methods approaches (quantitative and qualitative) to explore different areas of management.

The paper supports the view that triangulation of research methods strengthens the findings and inferences made for understanding social phenomena in more depth, compared to using a single method.

The paper relies excessively on two doctoral research projects which utilise sequential mixed methods. Therefore, arguments made in the paper are specific because other doctoral projects that have used different methods from those employed in the two projects were not considered.

Early researchers, in particular students commencing doctorate studies, should apply mixed methods research because it develops skills in the two most dominant data collection methods used in management research. This paper is a practical guide on how this could be done effectively.

The paper is drawn from two unique doctoral research projects. The paper's originality and value is in providing experiences and practical insights on how mixed methods research is undertaken.