Bryman & Bell: Research Project Guide

1. What brand of car do you own? (i)

2. Which degree awarding institutions should be researched orientated? (ii) and (iii)

3. Are you in favour of measures to reduce the level of car fuel emissions resulting in better living conditions for all? (v)

4. How many times have you visited a supermarket in the last month? (vi)

5. (vii) Make it two questions

6. This classification question is not in accordance with Market Research Society guidelines as well as suffering from (ii) bias.

Please indicate below which category approximates to your age

1. Selection of an appropriate sample of students who must be able to voice an opinion on the topic, or a constituent body of respondents who are knowledgeable about the topic, e.g. for topic b) this could be travel agents or lecturers in Tourism. These may be selected using a 'snowball' sampling technique

2. Choice of an unstructured or semi-structured interview. For the former, the student would design an aide-memoire of prompts to cover the topic; in the latter, a more detailed interview guide might be used covering specific topics using a list of questions. The questions designed must fulfil the criteria set out on page 350 of Bryman and Bell.

3. Choice of interview technique either by focus groups of appropriate size or in depth individual interview. If travel agents or lecturers are used as a source of data, these could be 'expert' interviews

4. Ensure the interviewer is prepared to conduct the interview

5. Choice an appropriate recording device either tape recorder, video camera or note books. Respondent permissions must be obtained in advance.

6. Choice of a quiet and appropriate location to carry out the interviews.

7. Select the specific respondents identified in step 1

8. Conduct the interview making sure that all areas of the topic are covered, all respondents are given the chance to express their views and 'dominant' or 'subversive' respondents are appropriately handled. Record the responses

9. Transcribe the responses and, selecting an analysis technique, described in Chapter 19, analyse, verify and report the responses in such a way that will complete the task.

All three of the tasks require that 'attitudes' to the topic are uncovered. This will involve the necessity to design appropriate questions to get the desired response. As an example let us look at topic c) 'opinions on the future of economic development of Sub Saharan Africa in the next 5 years'. Typical topic check questions might be as follows:

• What is your opinion of the current position, and pace of economic development, of Sub-Saharan Africa?
• (in answer to response above)Why is it like this?
• What, in your opinion, are the key factors why Sub-Saharan Africa is in its current economic position?
• What, in your opinion, could be done about its current economic position?
• Do you think Sub-Saharan Africa, or certain countries in it, will ever be a world player? Why? (Why not?)
• What do you see as the critical factors if successful economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa is to take place in the next 5 years?
• What can be done to ensure that these factors are realised?
• Which players (Governments, international bodies, companies, persons) regionally and globally can, in your opinion, influence the successful economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa in the next 5 years?
• (in answer to response above)What should they do, how and when?
• What are the consequences of Sub-Saharan Africa not being successful over the long term?

The ideal groups would include all the company's stakeholders:

• Customers
• Employees
• Dealers/distributors
• Suppliers
• Creative communications agencies
• Plus competitor car ownership groups

These groups should be 'representative' where necessary. For example, whilst there may be only on group of personnel from advertising agencies, there should be a number for customers, representative of the country, users and usage.

The groups however formed, may be made up of 6 persons in total plus a moderator.

Given the above, possible sample check questions for the qualitative research could be:

• What make of car do you own?
• What attracted you to purchase this car?
• How would you describe the typical owner of this vehicle?
• Why did you buy it?
• What specific product features attracted you to buy the car?
• What else was instrumental in helping you buy the car (probe the 'advertising effect', referrals etc)
• What are the car's most desirable features?
• Was it a personal purchase decision or involved other members of the family?
• Who and what influence did other family members have on the purchase?
• How do you feel when you drive the car?
• What do you think other people think of you when you drive this car?
• How long do you keep cars on average?
• Would you repurchase this make?
• If 'yes' why? If 'no' why?
• What, if any, do you see as the car's most undesirable features?
• How could it be improved?
• If the car was a film star who would it be?

This is a challenging but very interesting and important situation. It would be easy to answer the task by designing a quantitative feedback form which merely takes a 'tick box' approach. However this is not the point of the exercise. The exercise is to explore the process of achieving the three objectives and evaluate the different ways of interpreting and achieving these objectives by different tutors. For example, tutors may use a variety or combination of lecture, seminar/tutorial techniques like simulations, case studies, discussion groups, student presentations and video presentations to name but a few. The exercise should last over one current semester and involve an evaluation of all the subjects being studied in that semester

To prepare for this, you should read the relevant academic frameworks provided by the QAA and The ABS to make sure that they are familiar with the context. Next, it should be clear on what exactly you wish to achieve (objectives) and decide on an appropriate technique. There are many ways by which this exercise can be completed but the intention is that the student will use a type of conversation analysis. Look carefully how 'talk' in the teaching, Committee situations are structured and contextualised and make sure that the analysis is grounded in data.

The best way to record the data is to take notes. In Programme Committee meetings, inductions, introduction to subjects being studied etc, note how the teaching staff discuss the different ways to achieve the three objectives, how this achievement is being monitored and any adjustments made consequently. In the lectures and seminars/tutorials, note how the tutors, in utilizing different modes of tuition, explain how this will help you develop competency in the three areas. Note how successful they are or not, as the case may be. Above all, note the process of ensuring that you, the student, achieve the three competencies. Note the interaction between the tutors, especially in Committee meetings, and the process by which decisions are made.

Your analysis should take the form of any appropriate as described in Chapter 17 of Bryman and Bell pages 388-393 and not along the lines of how successfully you have gained the competencies (although, no doubt you will!). The analysis should be an evaluation of the institutional processes to ensure that the three competencies are adequately and effectively developed, using a variety of teaching methods, monitoring and evaluative techniques.

A) Car comparisons

The answer to the assignment might result in the student producing a 'positioning' study involving the construction of a series of perceptual maps combining the relevant 'objective' and 'subjective' attributes. On the other hand the answer might be a report with separate sections comparing the chosen cars physical tangible and non-tangible attributes. Whichever method is chosen to write the report and typical approach could be as follows:

1. Decide which cars are to be compared by model and make

2. Using a search engine like Google or Yahoo look for information which would give details of the physical attributes and subjective attributes. The car manufacturers themselves or motoring magazines would be ideal as well as sites which test and run commentaries on cars. The BBC's Top Gear website would be ideal for this. Typical examples are:

www.autocar.co.uk

www.toyota.co.uk

www.topgear.com

3. Take the data from the sites, both technical and commentorial, and, using categorical, content analysis and/or discourse analysis, configure the data into a format to answer the assignment. Add own comments to accompany the analysis. The technical data could also be put into an analysis package like SPSS and 'descriptive' statistical analysis performed on it. This could, as discussed above, inform the construction of a series of perceptual maps for competitive comparison purposes.

B) Customer attitudes to restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa

In this case, qualitative content or discourse analysis on commentaries from the websites could be utilised to answer the assignment. A typical approach to answering the assignment might be:

1. Decide on which types of restaurants to compare

2. Using a search engine like Google or Yahoo look for information which would give details of the type of food served and customer attitudes to service. Useful sites include:

www.restaurants.co.za

www.southafrica.co.za/lifestyle/restaurants

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2759355-cap

3. The information could then be classified into restaurants which serve similar food or different food, for example, fish, Chinese and Malay, then commentary (analysed by content or discourse analysis.) added from the web based restaurant reviews.