Exploratory Research Design.ppt jjejrjejrjjrrj

Research methodology

1. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-1
Techniques of Exploratory Research
Design: Qualitative Research

2. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-2

Child Behavior Study towards a New Toy

3. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-3
Urban Green Landscape and Health Behavior

4. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-4
Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research
To gain a qualitative
understanding of the
underlying reasons and
motivations
Small number of non-
representative cases
Unstructured
Non-statistical
Develop an initial
understanding
Objective
Sample
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Outcome
Quantitative Research
To quantify the data and
generalize the results from
the sample to the
population of interest
Large number of
representative cases
Structured
Statistical
Recommend a final course
of action

5. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-5
A Classification of Qualitative Research
Procedures
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Direct (Non-
disguised)
Indirect
(Disguised)
Focus Groups
Depth Interviews
Projective
Techniques
Qualitative Research
Procedures

6. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-6
Characteristics of Focus Groups
Group Size 8-12
Group Composition Homogeneous respondents,
prescreened
Physical Setting Relaxed, informal atmosphere
Time Duration 30 min. 1.30 hrs
Recording Use of audiocassettes and
videotapes
Moderator Observational, interpersonal, and
communication skills of the
moderator

7. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-7
Procedure for Planning and Conducting
Focus Groups
Determine the Objectives and Define the Problem
Specify the Objectives of Qualitative Research
Develop a Moderator’s Outline
Conduct the Focus Group Interviews
Review Tapes and Analyze the Data
Summarize the Findings and Plan Follow-Up Research or
Action
State the Objectives/Questions to be Answered by Focus
Groups
Write a Screening Questionnaire

8. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-8
Variations in Focus Groups
•Two-way focus group. This allows one target
group to listen to and learn from a related group.
For example, a focus group of physicians viewed a
focus group of arthritis patients discussing the
treatment they desired.
•Dual-moderator group. A focus group conducted
by two moderators: One moderator is responsible
for the smooth flow of the session, and the other
ensures that specific issues are discussed.
•Dueling-moderator group. There are two
moderators, but they deliberately take opposite
positions on the issues to be discussed.

9. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-9
Variations in Focus Groups
•Respondent-moderator group. The moderator
asks selected participants to play the role of
moderator temporarily to improve group dynamics.
•Client-participant groups. Client personnel are
identified and made part of the discussion group.
•Mini groups. These groups consist of a moderator
and only 4 or 5 respondents.
•Telesession groups. Focus group sessions by
phone using the conference call technique.
•Online focus groups. Focus groups conducted
online over the Internet.

10. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-10
Disadvantages of Focus Groups
1.Misuse
2.Misjudge
3.Moderation
4.Messy
5.Misrepresentation

11. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-11
Online Versus Traditional Focus Groups
Characteristic Online Focus Groups Traditional Focus Groups
Group size 4-6 8-12
Group composition Anywhere in the world Drawn from the local area
Time duration 1-1.5 hours 1-3 hours
Physical setting Researcher has little control Under the control of the
researcher
Respondent identity Difficult to verify Can be easily verified
Respondent attentivenessRespondents can engage in other tasks Attentiveness can be
monitored

12. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-12
Online Versus Traditional Focus Groups
Respondent recruiting Easier. Can be recruited online, e-mail,Recruited by traditional means
panel, or by traditional means (telephone, mail, mail panel)
Group dynamics Limited Synergistic, snowballing
(bandwagon) effect
Openness of respondentsRespondents are more candid Respondents are candid, except
for due to lack of face-to-face contactsensitive topics
Nonverbal communicationBody language cannot be observed.Body language and emotions
Emotions expressed by using symbolsobserved
Use of physical stimuliLimited to those that can be displayedA variety of stimuli (products,
on the Internet advertising demonstrations, etc.)
can be used

13. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-13
Online Versus Traditional Focus Groups
Transcripts Available immediately Time consuming and expensive
to obtain
Observers’ communicationObservers can communicate with theObservers can manually send
notes
with moderator the moderator on a split-screen to the focus group room
Unique moderator skillsTyping, computer usage, familiarityObservational
with chat room slang
Turnaround time Can be set up and completed Takes many days for setup and
in a few days completion
Client travel costs None Can be expensive
Client Involvement Limited High
Basic focus group costsMuch less expensive More expensive: facility rental,
food, taping, transcript
preparation

14. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-14
Advantages of Online Focus Groups
•Geographical constraints are removed and time
constraints are lessened.
•Unique opportunity to re-contact group
participants at a later date.
•Can recruit people not interested in traditional
focus groups: doctors, lawyers, etc.
•Moderators can carry on side conversations with
individual respondents.
•There is no travel, videotaping, or facilities to
arrange so the cost is much lower.

15. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-15
Disadvantages of Online Focus Groups
•Only people that have access to the Internet can
participate.
•Verifying that a respondent is a member of a target
group is difficult.
•There is lack of general control over the
respondent's environment.
•Only audio and visual stimuli can be tested.
Products can not be touched (e.g., clothing) or
smelled (e.g., perfumes).

16. Interviewing

17. Interviews as a
Data Collection Tool
Interviews are employed by people in everyday life, but as a scientific tool
of social research, or better as a method of data collection, interviewing is
different with regard to its preparation, construction, and execution in that it
is prepared and executed in a systematic way.
Interviews basically consist of asking questions, listening to individuals and
recording their responses.
Interviews allow participants to provide rich, contextual descriptions of
events. Interviews are a systematic way of talking and listening to
respondents and are another way to collect data from individuals through
conversations.
Kvale (1996) regarded interviews as “an interchange of views between two
or more people on a topic of mutual interest, sees the centrality of human
interaction for knowledge production”
 

18. Why Interview?
•There is a need to attain highly personalized data.
•There are opportunities required for probing.
•A good return rate is important (speed).
•When respondents are not fluent in the native language of the
country, or where they have difficulties with written language.
•Immediacy

19. Types & Styles of Interviews
Interviewing as a research method typically involves you,
as researcher, asking questions and, hopefully, receiving
answers from the people you are interviewing. It is very
widely used in social research and there are many
different types.
A commonly used typology distinguishes among
structured, semi
­structured and unstructured interviews.
The different types can link to some extent to the 'depth' of
response sought (Robson 2002, 269).

20. Interview Types
Fully structured interview: Has predetermined
questions with fixed wording, usually in a pre-set order.
Semi-structured interview: Has predetermined
questions, but the order can be modified based upon the
interviewer's perception of what seems most appropriate.
Question wording can be changed and explanations
given; particular questions which seem inappropriate with
a particular interviewee can be omitted, or additional ones
included.
Unstructured interviews: The interviewer has a general
area of interest and concern, but lets the conversation
develop within this area. It can be completely informal.

21. Interviewing Tips
Your task as interviewer is to try to get interviewees to talk freely
and openly. Your own behavior has a major influence on their
willingness to do this. To this end you should:
Listen more than you speak Most interviewers talk too much. The
interview is not a platform for the interviewer's personal experiences and
opinions.
Put questions in a straightforward, clear and non-threatening way
If people are confused or defensive, you will not get the information you
seek.
Eliminate cues which lead interviewees to respond in a particular way.
Many interviewees will seek to please the interviewer by giving 'correct'
responses
Enjoy it (or at least look as though you do) Don't give the message
that you are bored or scared. Vary your voice and facial expression.
It is also essential that you take a full record of the interview. This
can be from notes made at the time and/or from a recording of the
interview.

22. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-22
Projective Techniques

23. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-23
Definition of Projective Techniques
•An unstructured, indirect form of questioning
that encourages respondents to project their
underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes or
feelings regarding the issues of concern.
•In projective techniques, respondents are asked
to interpret the behavior of others.
•In interpreting the behavior of others,
respondents indirectly project their own
motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings into
the situation.

24. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-24
MINI CASE
An Exploration into consumer’s (un)ethical judgement at
marketplace

25. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-25
Consumer Behaviour
 Dimensions
Do not return and keep excess money given by shopkeeper
Inflated and false insurance claim
Hiding major fault in online selling
Eating inside crowded shop without getting noticed
Misrepresentation of age to get discount
Misrepresentation of child’s age to get discount
Sharing wrong information with shopkeeper to get better price deal
Exaggeration of quality to get better price deal for a garage sale
item
Deliberate return of an item with invalid reasons
Return of used clothes and claim for refund
Deliberate buying an item with Incorrectly marked price
Repeated visits to get limited quantity items
Providing untruthful information in research survey
Return of a good half consumed citing invalid quality reasons
Avoiding paying parking fee
Visiting a store to get free trial gifts and giving wrong personal
information
Rank 1= most acceptable and Rank 16= most unacceptable  

26. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-26
Word Association
In word association, respondents are presented with a list of
words, one at a time, and asked to respond to each with the
first word that comes to mind. The words of interest, called
test words, are interspersed throughout the list which also
contains some neutral, or filler words to disguise the purpose
of the study. Responses are analyzed by calculating:
(1)
  the frequency with which any word is given as a response;
(2)
  the amount of time that elapses before a response is
given; and
(3) the number of respondents who do not respond at all to a
test word within a reasonable period of time.

27. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-27
Word Association
EXAMPLE
STIMULUS MRS. SHARMA MRS. VERMA
washday everyday ironing
fresh and sweet clean
pure air soiled
scrub don't; husband does clean
filth this neighborhood dirt
bubbles bath soap and
water
family squabbles children
towels dirty wash

28. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-28
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 Big Bazaar is
______________________
 
A person who receives a gift hamper from Big Bazaar would be
__________________________________
 
Big Bazaar 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.

29. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-29
Completion Techniques
In story completion , respondents are
given part of a story – enough to direct
attention to a particular topic but not to hint
at the ending. They are required to give
the conclusion in their own words.

30. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-30
Construction Techniques
With a picture response, the respondents are
asked to describe a series of pictures of ordinary
as well as unusual events. The respondent's
interpretation of the pictures gives indications of
that individual's personality.
 
In cartoon tests, cartoon characters are shown
in a specific situation related to the problem.
The respondents are asked to indicate what one
cartoon character might say in response to the
comments of another character. Cartoon tests
are simpler to administer and analyze than
picture response techniques.

31. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-31
Expressive Techniques
In expressive techniques , respondents are presented with
a verbal or visual situation and asked to relate the feelings
and attitudes of other people to the situation.
Role playing. Respondents are asked to play the role or
assume the behavior of someone else.

32. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-32
A Cartoon Test
Let’s see if we
can pick up
some house
wares from this
mall

33. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-33
Advantages of Projective Techniques
•They may elicit responses that subjects would be
unwilling or unable to give if they knew the
purpose of the study.
•Helpful when the issues to be addressed are
personal, sensitive, or subject to strong social
norms.
•Helpful when underlying motivations, beliefs, and
attitudes are operating at a subconscious level.

34. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-34
Disadvantages of Projective Techniques
•Suffer from many of the disadvantages of
unstructured direct techniques, but to a greater
extent.
•Require highly-trained interviewers.
•Skilled interpreters are also required to analyze the
responses.
•There is a serious risk of interpretation bias.
•They tend to be expensive.
•May require respondents to engage in unusual
behavior.

35. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-35
Guidelines for Using Projective Techniques
•Projective techniques should be used
because the required information cannot be
accurately obtained by direct methods.
•Projective techniques should be used for
exploratory research to gain initial insights
and understanding.
•Given their complexity, projective techniques
should not be used naively.

36. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-36
Comparison of Focus Groups, Depth
Interviews, and Projective Techniques
1. Degree of Structure
2. Probing of individual
respondents
3. Moderator bias
4. Interpretation bias
5. Uncovering
subconscious
information
6. Discovering innovative
information
7. Obtaining sensitive
information
8. Involve unusual behavior
or questioning
9. Overall usefulness
Relatively high
Low
Relatively medium
Relatively low
Low
High
Low
No
Highly useful
Relatively medium
High
Relatively high

Relatively medium
Medium to high
Medium
Medium
To a limited
extent
Useful
Relatively low
Medium
Low to high
Relatively high
High
Low
High
Yes
Somewhat
useful
Focus
Groups
Depth
Interviews
Projective
Techniques
Criteria

37. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-37
Brand Image Study
Objective: To understand the perception towards ‘G’
in Parle and ‘Total’ in Colgate logo
Respondents: Children below 12 years of age to
encourage them to express them freely
Sample Size: 50
How would you design this study?
You are free to make suitable assumptions.

38. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice
Hall
5-38
Mini Research –Class Activity

A very old and established business house
wants to foray into mobile handset market.
The group approaches you and ask you to help
them understand the perceptual map in terms
of attribute/features and price which people
hold about major smart phone brands in
India. The brand is more interested to carry
out a preliminary study which may provide a
foundation to more formal conclusive
research.
How would you do it?