Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University1 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 Advanced Qualitative Research “Prerequisite”: some introduction to qualitative research methods Purpose: to learn the process of qualitative research through project work The project is centered around a theme (or rather two connected themes) A mixture of lectures, discussions, reports, presentations, and, of course, field work

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University2 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 The Project(s) The meaning of things –consumers’ attachment to their objects –a first round of investigations drawing on focus groups and personal interviews The meaning of “home-made” (objects) –food –non-food –a second round of investigations drawing on personal interviews and ethnographic studies

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University3 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 Project organization Group work Division of labour “Workshop” format –Reporting and discussions in class –learning from each other(s mistakes and problems) Under the professors’ guidance Deadlines: April 30 and June 25

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University4 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 Claimed features of research types QUALITATIVE Soft Flexible Subjective Political Case Study Speculative Grounded QUANTITATIVE Hard Fixed Objective Value-free Survey Hypothesis testing Abstract

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University5 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 Qualitative Preferences Qualitative data - –words and images rather than numbers naturally occurring data - –observation rather than experiment, “unstructured” interview Meanings rather than behaviour Natural science is NOT a model Inductive, hypothesis-generating research

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University6 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 Evaluation criteria Are the research methods appropriate to the question asked? Is the connection to an existing body of knowledge or theory clear? Are there clear accounts of the criteria used for the selection of cases and of the data collection and analysis? Does the methods’ sensitivity match the research question? Was the data collection and record-keeping systematic? Is reference made to accepted procedures of analysis? How systematic is the analysis? Is there adequate discussion of how themes, concepts and categories were derived from the data? Is there adequate discussion of evidence for and against the researcher’s arguments? Is there a clear distinction between data and their interpretation?

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University7 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 Data Consumption as “text” Data sources: –interviews –ethnographies –texts –audio- and videotapes A result is not a listing of data –interpretation, thanks!

Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University8 Advanced Qualitative Research 1 The role of theory Model (paradigm) –an overall framework for looking at reality Concept –idea derived from a given model Theory –A set of concepts used to define and/or explain some phenomenon Hypothesis –a testable propostion Method –a specific research technique