Transcript Who to study

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
Qualitative
Focus Group
In-Depth Interview
Case Study
Participant observation
Secondary data analysis
Quantitative
Surveys
Experiments
Structured observation
Secondary data analysis
Qualitative vs Quantitative
Quantitative
Gen’l Laws
Qualitative
Unique/Individual case
Test Hypotheses
Predict behavior
Understanding
Meanings/Intentions
Perspective
Outsider-Objective
Insider-Subjective
Procedures
Structured
formal measures
Unstructured
open ended measures
Purpose
probability samples
statistical analysis
judgement samples
interpretation of data
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
How ....Where
Gathered
Household
On-Site
Laboratory
Personal
Interview
Surveys
Surveys,
Field Expmts
Focus Groups
Telephone/
Computer
Self-Admin.
Quest.
Surveys
Computer
Interviews
Surveys,
Field Expmts
Computer
Interviews
Experiments
Observable
Observable
Characteristics
Characteristics
Observation
& Traces
NA
Secondary
Sources
NA
Internal
Records
NA
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