Søren Askegaard, Dept. of Marketing, SDU Odense University 1

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 University 2

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 University 3

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 University 4

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 University 5

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 University 6

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 University 7

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 University 8

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