Methods Choices Overall Approach/Design Qualitative or Quantitative Primary or secondary data Survey, experiment, case study, etc. Who to study - population, sample individuals, market segments, populations What to study - concepts, measures behavior, knowledge, attitudes Cost vs Benefit of Study
Quantitative Framework Inquiry into a social or human problem based on testing a theory, composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical procedures to determine if predictive generalizations of the theory hold true
Qualitative Framework An inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants and conducted in a natural setting
Qualitative vs Quantitative Approaches Focus Group In-Depth Interview Case Study Participant observation Secondary data analysis Quantitative Surveys Experiments Structured observation
Qualitative vs Quantitative Gen’l Laws Test Hypotheses Predict behavior Outsider-Objective Structured formal measures probability samples statistical analysis Qualitative Unique/Individual case Understanding Meanings/Intentions Insider-Subjective Unstructured open ended measures judgement samples interpretation of data Purpose Perspective Procedures
Primary or Secondary Data Secondary data are data that were collected for some purpose other than your study, e.g. government records, internal documents, previous surveys Choice between Primary /Secondary Data Costs (time, money, personnel) Relevance, accuracy, adequacy of data
Research Designs/Data Collection Approaches
(field and lab experiments) Survey vs Experiment Survey - measure things as they are, snapshot of population at one point in time, generally refers to questionnaires (telephone, self-administered, personal interview) Experiment - manipulate at least one variable (treatment) to evaluate response, to study cause-effect relationships (field and lab experiments)
General Guidelines on when to use different approaches 1. Describing a population - surveys 2. Describing users/visitors - on-site survey 3. Describing non-users, potential users or general population - household survey 4. Describing observable characteristics of visitors - on-site observation 5. Measuring impacts, cause-effect relationships - experiments
Guidelines (cont) 6. Anytime suitable secondary data exists - secondary data 7. Short, simple household studies - phone 8. Captive audience or very interested population - self-administered survey 9. Testing new ideas - experimentation or focus groups 10. In-depth study - in-depth personal interviews, focus groups, case studies