CHAPTER 2

Qualitative Research Design

Overview

Each qualitative research has an exclusive design for each occasion. It can be developed for longitudinal (temporal) and spatial studies. Longitudinal qualitative research design is used to study people or subjects of the same region over time in periodical intervals. Some ethnographic studies are longitudinal as the subjects are involved in comprehensive inquiries over time. This chapter addresses various aspects of qualitative research from defining problems to deriving synthesis. In qualitative inquiries, a researcher can choose broad community- or niche-oriented problems. Therefore, the roadmap of qualitative research discussed in this chapter offers guidance on the right perspective in defining research problems and elaborates on approaches to explore them. It is argued in this chapter that the qualitative research is the best-fit methodology to understand the perceptions of people in the cognitive, socio-cultural, and politico-economic domains. Thus, a significant discussion is focused on exploring the scope of qualitative research and developing the right research questions. The discussion on nine major hybrid insights on conducting the qualitative research provides rich information for researchers. Thoughts on developing research instrument for qualitative research and drawing synthesis on cognitive analytics of qualitative information further add value to this chapter.

Introduction

Qualitative research design is a flexible approach unlike the quantitative methodology. Research topics in qualitative inquiry determine the pattern of study design. Sampling, tools and techniques of data collection, dimensions of cognitive analytics, and data validation process are decided accordingly to develop the research design in qualitative research. Grounded theory is central to the design of qualitative research. The process of developing research design spans across descriptive examinations of research needs, its ecosystem, and prescriptive propositions of the research. Research design in qualitative research is developed through rigorous thinking and reasoning on the elements of research ecosystem. Sometimes, an asymmetrical relationship between the researcher and the subjects affects the predetermined research design and requires changes in the design mid-way into the research process. Due to the inductive attributes of research, developing research design around the theoretical frameworks is not a challenge in qualitative research; however, the rationale of grounded theory does influence the research design in qualitative inquiries (Cash 2018).

In conducting qualitative inquiries, the effectiveness of research depends on researcher–subject compatibility in the context of sociocultural, ethnic, economic, educational, and rational problems in the inquiry process. These interface and acquaintance factors need to be integrated in the research with proposed design of the study. The biggest challenge in qualitative research is the incompatibility between the applied management practices and the existing situations in the field. With the rise of multifaceted social projects, the need to develop research designs specific to the topics becomes imperative in qualitative methodologies. The research designs in qualitative research are knitted around five Ws comprising what, when, why, who, and where factors within the psychosocial and cognitive analytics. The research designs based on the ethnographic, phenomenological, and symbolic interactionism are founded within the epistemological assumptions of design research (Murphy 2017).

The qualitative researcher is the key player in the research design process, who continually deploys reflexivity and evaluative skills to develop an instrument for data collection and determines the information acquisition process. The researcher commands analysis and the decisions concerning the direction of the next step in the study. The design of each qualitative research study, therefore, is considered as unique for each occasion. Research designs in qualitative research can be developed for longitudinal (temporal) and spatial studies. Some ethnographic studies are longitudinal as the subjects are involved in comprehensive inquiries over time. Studies analyzing socioeconomic development and quality of life of the subjects in a given region are planned over time intervals to measure the change. Methodological continuity and on-field situations suggest that research designs in qualitative research can be developed by establishing appropriate study goals and data requirements for both longitudinal and spatial studies. Sometimes, research deigns are subjected to subtle and minor methodological changes such as changes in subject identification approaches or revisions of interview questions. In other contexts, methodological modifications can lead to major changes, including additional data collection points, construction of additional interview ­protocols, or alternative data analysis approaches. Such designs are known as ­transitory study designs in qualitative research. From a methodological perspective, longitudinal qualitative research creates challenges in ­continuity of research, and is often accompanied by ethical dilemmas and confidentiality considerations from prolonged engagement with participants (Koro-Ljungberg and Bussing 2013).

The rationale and construction of qualitative research problems, questions, sampling strategies, data collection techniques, data analysis approaches, and interpersonal perspective of qualitative inquiries constitute the integrity of qualitative research designs. A widely recognized research design of qualitative inquiry is developed by making assumptions about the relationship between researchers and the subjects, the role of conceptual or theoretical paradigms, and the ways in which questions are asked. The research design is defined also as the approach to sampling or data collection, the analysis process, and the timeframe for qualitative study. The research design in qualitative research should be developed specific to the ethnography, phenomenological research, and narrative inquiries (Knapp 2017).

In theoretical qualitative research design, emotions also stimulate investigators to work with lead participants to engage in open-ended dialogues for acquiring information. A humanistic research design for qualitative research can be developed in the following manner (Wong et al. 2017):

• Researchers identify the need for an exploratory approach and potential to enrich data through priming the participants for in-depth inquiries.
• The data sampling and data collection tools are carefully developed considering technology tools.
• Relevant research questions are developed to optimize the information acquisition.
• Finally, data analysis is planned for the acquired information.

The design for qualitative research in marketing is widely used to understand consumer emotions, their perceived value on products and services, and interactivity on social media. Qualitative research is used by marketing research organizations and companies to understand, identify, and leverage the particular emotions, motivations, and self-image stimuli to maximize their competitive advantage and growth. In such qualitative research, companies perform cognitive analytics by bridging the market trend and customer insight data and develop qualitative descriptions of the elements that motivate their customers. These elements may be desire for freedom, security, perceived value, social status, and the like. ­Customer-centric companies analyze their customers to learn the stimuli and motivators important to the high-value group, which could help ­customers in developing a strong association with their brand. Such qualitative research provides a guide to the emotions they need to connect with, in order to create their most valuable customer segment (Magids, Zorfas, and Leemon 2015).

Qualitative research designs help companies explore six universal emotions that a common consumer feels, but does not commonly reveal, to the manufacturers and marketers. The sequential qualitative inquiries with consumers help the companies understand their happiness, anger, disgust, sadness, fear, and surprise about the products and services. The low-cost airlines, upon conducting qualitative surveys of air travelers in the airports and through the travel agencies, learn about consumer emotions and focus their marketing strategies on the consumer touch points. The Indian sky is getting congested with the low-cost and third-tier airlines, which are focusing on price and promotion strategies as critical touch points. Low-cost carriers like Indigo, Spice Jet, and Air Odisha are pursuing a “red ocean” strategy as they look to offer the lowest prices at a low cost. In Europe, Ryan Air, an Irish aviation company, has emerged as one of the strongest low-cost competitor within the airlines industry. Upon conducting casual interviews with young tourists across destinations, Ryan Air, for instance, was likely to introduce “standing only” or vertical seats while charging passengers between four to eight pounds per person, depending on the journey. However, the aviation regulatory authorities did not approve the proposal. The qualitative research thus helps companies develop out-of-the-box strategies based on analyzing consumer opinions. Smaller sized airlines with limited capital are likely to struggle increasingly in this environment against the strength of bigger players.

Qualitative Research: The Roadmap

The roadmap of qualitative research begins with the identification of an appropriate research problem, which is suited to the qualitative research design. The human elements in business like perception, value, leadership, governance, efficiency, and so on, underpin the relevant problems and raise opportunity for qualitative research. A right research problem help a researcher to develop a functional research design for qualitative inquiry. Decision-making in business needs analytics beyond data sets, which is usually supported by the qualitative information, and validation though the qualitative analysis might entail the risk inaccurate observation. In order to increase the chance of success, qualitative research is conducted on the behavior of consumers, managers, motivators, and other market role-players. Their responses and psychophysical actions and opinions are used to interpret the current situation and exploring the possible solutions. Therefore, it can be stressed that to develop an ­appropriate research design, it is necessary to identify a right research problem ­(Szyjewska-Bagińska and Szyjewski 2018). The stages of qualitative research are as discussed as follows:

• Defining the problem
• Developing an approach to the problem

  º Selecting type of study: exploratory, descriptive, ­experimental, casual

  º Developing research questions: proposition

• Formulating a research design

  º Sampling

  º Data collection

  º Scenario setting

• Theoretical motivation
• Methodology: study design

  º Sampling, identifying variables, data collection, structuring constructs, research proposition(s)

  º Quality assurance criteria

• Instrument development

  º Structured or semistructured, type of questions, ­core-­peripheral-intercept questions

• Preparing data sets, organizing data, coding, and analyzing data
• Drawing inferences, presentation of results, and judgments on propositions
• Implications, conclusions, and future research prospects

Qualitative researchers tend to choose convenience sample that can be as low as one subject. In this research process, information is acquired using interview technique, and drawing inference based on various perspectives of the subject. Designing research instrument is a lengthy process in qualitative research as it is refined many times in view of the interactions and the required interview protocols. Therefore, interviews are designed to generate the perspectives of subjects about their ideas, opinions, and experiences. In qualitative inquiries, a variety of methods of observation including taking general notes, using checklists or time-and-motion logs may be used. The transcription of information takes a long time, which deters many researchers from using this method.

Defining Research Problems

Problems for qualitative research can be defined from the existing research domain in the context of society. The broad and narrow spectra of problems can be mapped by the researcher to choose an appropriate problem. The spectrum of probable problems in the business and society are explained in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 Mapping research problems

Figure 2.1 illustrates five domain of research areas for qualitative research with various broad and narrow spectrum problems. These research domains are contextual to business and society. Qualitative research is widely conducted to understand the perceptions of people in cognitive, sociocultural, and politico-economic domains. However, qualitative research also focuses on organizational problems to learn about employee behavior at various organizational tiers. Generation gap in the society has widened over time, and new generations have branched out paralleling growth in innovation and technology in the global marketplace. Thus, the qualitative research has also extended inquiries into the behavioral elements of generation-X, generation-Y, and millennial consumers. The generation-X consumers are those born during 1965 to 1975, while the generation-Y consumers are those aged 14 to 31 years in 2008, who are in the marketplace with the numbers and the purchasing power to have an unprecedented impact on the economy (Noble, ­Haytko, and Phillips 2009).

Cognitive inquiries using the qualitative research designs are commonly aimed at understanding the personality and behavioral issues of people (civil or defense) and consumers within the social and business contexts. Spatial and temporal research designs in qualitative inquiries are employed to measure stakeholder perceptions toward social development, quality of life, gender empowerment, and cultural perspectives in various geo-demographic segments. The social problems studied in qualitative research spread across education, health, housing, employment, and social infrastructure. In business, qualitative research is commonly applied to explore workplace culture, employee engagement, welfare measures, and performance of corporate social responsibility. Besides these problem areas, corporate relations, role of government, and public relations also form the core of qualitative research problems. On the politico-economic platform, discussions on political ideologies, public participation, impact of economic policies on quality of life, and critical views of citizens constitute the core issues for research using qualitative methodology. Social entrepreneurship and social innovation research have emerged as new areas of qualitative research, which focus on analyzing the information about challenges of designing hybrid society. Such socioeconomic development integrates the competing institutions to tackle social problems using market-based methods, especially in developing economies that can be studied spatially and longitudinally through the qualitative research designs.

Approach to Study Research Problems

Upon defining the problem for qualitative research, the type of research to be conducted is decided. The researchers choose one of the two common types of research designs—exploratory or experimental, which can fit into the qualitative research methodologies. Exploratory research design is used to study a research problem by obtaining comprehensive information. This research design is chosen when there is a paucity of studies on the problem and inadequate evidence exists to predict an outcome. The focus of exploratory research design is to gain prima facie insights and familiarity on the identified problems. Exploratory designs are often used as gateways to advance in studying an issue, and to determine what methodology would effectively help in collecting quality information about the issue. Exploratory study designs develop familiarity with basic details, settings, and concerns, and deliver a well-acquainted picture of the research environment. This approach helps in developing new ideas and assumptions to derive new concepts and grounded theory to guide qualitative research or propositions. In this study design, the predetermined research problems are refined for more systematic investigation and formulation of new research questions. Exploratory research generally utilizes small sample sizes; hence, findings are not generalizable to a large population. In exploratory research design, a researcher can gain insights on the behavioral and environmental issues but cannot derive definitive conclusions. This research design is flexible and often unstructured, leading to opinion analytics and tentative conclusions that have limited value to decision-makers. Often, the research norms and ethics applied to qualitative methods are subjective to respondents and researchers for information acquisition.

Experimental research design allows the researcher to acquire opinion of subjects on a theme, dividing them into the control and non-control groups. Control group subjects are those who have experienced the benefits of a given cause like using the entrepreneurial loans or are involved in a process like social development. The subjects of noncontrol group are observers, gatekeepers, and influencers within the aforementioned environment. This research design is often used where there is causal relationship (cause precedes effect) and consistency in a causal relationship (a cause will always lead to the same effect) with high proximity value. The classic experimental design specifies an experimental group and a control group. The independent variable is administered to the experimental group, not to the control group; and both groups are measured on the same dependent variable. The effective experimental research should be conducted with control, randomization, and marginal manipulation. Most researchers in social sciences seek causal explanations that need enormous information for validating the propositions in the qualitative research.

Most pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials on new medicinal formulas by carrying out in-depth inquiries with the patients who form the control group. The Pfizer Clinical Research Unit (CRU) in New Haven, Connecticut, provides comprehensive clinical care and monitors clinical trial volunteers during their stay at the unit. The CRU is engaged in conducting a study of a marketed prescription drug that has been in the market since 2016 for curing mild to moderate atopic dermatitis. The research is likely to employ experimental research with qualitative research attributes.

Causal effect (nomothetic perspective) occurs when variation in one phenomenon affects the variables in another related phenomenon. For example, in social development research, improvement in the educational facilities in less developed demographics affects the quality of life and social value in the society. Nomothetic perspective is known as “trait” approach,’ used to study and predict behavior in a given situation. Psychologists adopting this approach hold that traits are source of human personality. A trait is assumed to be any enduring characteristic of an individual, which is relatively stable and influences human behavior. Qualitative researchers use nomothetic approach combined with observations during the in-depth interviews or participatory research appraisals to measure the personality-related factors. Discussion on the prior attributes explains the causal research design used by the qualitative researchers.

Longitudinal qualitative research design is used to study people or subjects of the same region over time in periodical intervals. Such research design is managerially termed as action research design, which is generally applied for monitoring the socioeconomic development programs and their impact on social welfare and well-being of people. Such monitoring and measurement programs in qualitative research are conducted in “social laboratories,” where researchers are engaged in conducting continuous interviews with people. Social laboratory is a collaborative venture among researchers, community, and local governing bodies, which encourages action research design for studying community situations. Action research design focuses on pragmatic and solution-driven outcomes rather than testing theories. Practitioners use action research, as it allows them to learn consciously from the experience of participants. Action research continuum can be regarded as a learning cycle. Action research studies lead to improving practice and advocating for change. They focus on the collaborative learning and the design, enactment and evaluation of liberating actions within social, cognitive, and anthropological areas. These studies offer action and reflection in an ongoing cycle of co-generative knowledge (Coghlan and Brydon-Miller 2014).

Qualitative research is often used in the health care research. The qualitative research designs are commonly applied to understand the values and perceptions of patients and clinical trial respondents, and social response to the community and social-preventive medicines. The health service researchers view qualitative research as a tool including focus groups, in-depth interviews, methods for developing consensus, and participants’ observation, and so on. Accordingly, researchers develop grounded theory and initiate the process of qualitative inquiry. Researchers apply qualitative research methodologies to explore the sociocultural determinants of health. Within the community health sector, the cohort research design is used to explain the causes of disease by exploring how the human psycho-sociological factors interact with the disease agent and the environment. Disease prevention strategies generated from good qualitative research tend to be more effective, since they focus on the very core of unhealthy host behavior (Isaacs 2014).

Upon defining an appropriate research problem for qualitative research, the study area needs to be determined. However, in the reverse process, a study area is defined first, and the right research problem to be studied is explored later. For example, to study the socioeconomic development experience of the population in a less developed region, the study is defined first, and later a research problem is chosen rationally. The next step is to describe the topic of the research study to provide a contextual understanding and explain the significance of research topic in reference to studying the human experience. This is done by collecting demographic information, statistics, and trends. In addition, academic debates on the subject would enable the researchers to justify the thesis of the research appropriately and develop grounded theory. In this process, conventional wisdom of researchers and previously laid ideologies would also support the rationale of the qualitative research. Methodology for the qualitative inquiry can be created, refined, and applied to collect information in the next stage. It is also necessary to delineate whether the qualitative research is a case study, spatial investigation, or a longitudinal approach.

Research Questions and Propositions

Developing research questions is a sensitive task in qualitative research because the quality of information depends on the questions asked. Upon defining a research problem, the questions should be framed for understanding the ecosystem of the research problem. The ecosystem of a research problem consists of the following elements:

• Understanding problem: trigger questions
• Cause and effect: core questions
• Gravity of problem: intercept questions (social, cultural, ­ethnic, economic, political, technology, legal implications)
• Personality factors: questions related to self-congruency and cognition
• Remedial stances: questions concerning perceptions on ­possible solutions to the problem

The trigger questions should be broader in scope, while the succeeding questions on problem ecosystem can be proportionately narrowed in scope to focus on acquiring quality information. Research propositions in qualitative research are the arguments developed on the assumptions in the context of grounded theory. Several propositions can be developed in qualitative research, which need to be validated from the point of view of commonality and argumentative clarity. However, all proposition in qualitative research are contextual and in reference to the study area, sample population, and the assumptions made during the study. It is difficult to generalize the propositions developed during the study at a macro- or meso level. Propositions developed in the qualitative research should be contextual to the objectives of the research. Commonly, the propositions in qualitative research are developed considering the previous research studies and initial observations of the researchers during the pilot study or focus group.

Scope of Qualitative Research

Qualitative methods have a wide scope of use within socio-cultural, political, ethnic, economic welfare, human development, leadership, community health research, and clinical trials. They can address issues such as critical opinions, new ideas, informed consent, and randomized information, and allow respondents to share their own experiences of the benefits and impacts of various developmental perspectives. Beyond sharing personalized and community opinions of subjects, the ecosystem of the study enhances the scope of research in diversified and symbiotic themes such as technology and society, globalization and ethnicity, and political ideologies and human development. Often, respondents help researchers in drawing right inferences for complex, unclear, and induced responses. To date, qualitative methods have not been widely used in community health and clinical trials to evaluate the use of psychotropic drugs in older or younger people, or more specifically in people with dementia. Hence, there is wider scope of research in community health, social preventive medications, and clinical trials. The qualitative research is participatory, where subjects feel valued for their information. The participatory methodology encourages reflexive behavior among the subjects to share inside information, which could not be obtained through quantitative research (Gibson et al. 2004).

The scope of qualitative research spreads across cross-sectional studies that collect data from two or more sections of a sample, based on the geo-demographic differences within the target community. Like cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies are also conducted with qualitative methodology, as they are concerned with factors affecting the change (Taguchi 2018). The extended scope of qualitative research covers the following areas of research on consumer behavior including the study of consumer perception to buying decisions:

• Consumer perceptions
• Media and communication models
• Relationship and convergence
• Customer value measurement
• Social networking models
• Asymmetric behavior model
• Buying decisions and factor sensitivity

Qualitative research is one of the dominant methodologies used to understand consumer perception in reference to the media, publicity, and referral programs. These studies measure the expectations and impact of consumers on products and services. The scope of qualitative methodologies is used to explore consumer relationship, social networking, and buying behavior. Documenting heterogeneous information, and drawing inferences on behavioral inputs in spatial and longitudinal studies can be well documented through qualitative studies.

Inductive reasoning enhances the scope of cognitive analytics with observation of specific instances and seeks to establish generalizations. Most often, qualitative research follows an inductive process. However, in most occurrences, the theory developed from qualitative investigation may not be able to validate the theory over the spatial and temporal dimensions. Qualitative researchers demonstrate deductive and inductive processes in their research but fail to recognize these processes. Adoption of formal deductive procedures can represent an important step for assuring consistency in qualitative research findings (Hyde 2000). However, the qualitative research methodology is blamed for subjectivity and biasness in drawing inferences and inductive observations. Developing good research ideas is both a science and an art. The researcher should develop knowledge on theoretical foundations and learn the ethical parameters on conducting qualitative research. Initially, as the researcher decides upon an approach to utilize in the research process, research directors and sponsors should encourage the researcher to develop research questions that would expand the knowledge on the topic of research and enhance the scope of information acquisition. In order to expand the research knowledge base, the research proposal should be meticulously reviewed and information should be acquired through the taxonomy of research questions (Bradley 2001; Rajagopal 2018).

Hybrid Insights

Identify

Qualitative research has evolved across epistemological discussions and research methodologies. However, one major challenge exists in the qualitative design toward the identification of right problem for the research. As qualitative inquiry moves around personality and sociocultural development, researchers need to exercise the problem diagnostics among subjects and within the study area. Accordingly, a specific problem is identified, which is later refined to match with the broad objectives of the study, and justified based on previous research studies, community concerns, and relevant public policies.

Define

The problem defined for qualitative research should be expounded in reference to corollaries among the research model, common sense, and the expected outcome of the study. The common sense of researchers in defining the problem for qualitative inquiries is a sensitive issue as it is often drifted by the community voice, project sponsoring organization, government, or self-image congruence. In defining a research problem, statements need to be avoided. However, the problem definition should be carefully structured without implicit meanings and wordiness. While explaining the research problems, it is necessary to specify whether the study discovers, seeks to understand, explores, or describes the experiences. However, prior to defining the problem, the social phenomenon to be researched should be seen as provisional and negotiated with consistent information. The objective of the study needs to be initially developed as provisional in the qualitative research, as it gets refined over time with the intercepting variables and the ecosystem of the problem. The objective of the study can be comprehensively defined after successfully completing the process of discovery of the problem and its justification. Research questions related to the specific problem should be explained without the use of non-directional wording in the question.

For example, to understand behavioral branding, it important to define cognitive dimensions of consumers on social and consumption brands. Behavioral branding is a cognitive approach of building brands, perceived by consumers as an integrated constituent of their desire and interest, and draws attention to derive satisfaction within the lifestyle and vogue. This is a well-knitted behavioral concept of consumers, which can be studied through the qualitative research. Cognitive branding suggests a pragmatic method, which can be termed as value profile, to ensure that such brands can influence consumer behavior by espousing social and cultural values. Behavioral branding thus becomes a catalyst for the emotional aspects associated with social, cultural, and ethical values of consumers, and a potential topic for qualitative research (Thellefsen et al. 2013).

Describe

The problem defined for the qualitative research can further be supported by socioeconomic, ethno-cultural, and cognitive semantics. Semantics is the linguistic and logical expression of the meaning of the research problem interrelated with a variety of variables determining causes and effects. The semantics can be predetermined, or formal semantics can be developed during the initial study process. The semantics of the problem describes logical aspects of derived meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, to justify the research problem and choose appropriate study design. Qualitative researchers commonly organize focus group sessions with random subjects, or converse informally with target informants to explain the objectives of the research, and to acquire first hand opinion on the research problem.

The hybrid insights in the context of developing a research in qualitative research are shown in Figure 2.2.

All hybrid insights described in Figure 2.2 are discussed in this section. In qualitative inquiries, research designs are flexible and are revised depending on the problem ecosystem and attributes of the sample ­population for research in study area. As a large amount of verbal and nonverbal information is analyzed in the qualitative research, the content analysis need to be screened for removing the redundancy in information and involuntary biases.

Figure 2.2 Hybrid insights and qualitative research design

Inspire

Qualitative researchers need to stimulate and inspire the subjects to share information, as people are often conservative and refrain from sharing information. In order to inspire the subjects, researchers need to exhibit socialization skills and generate confidence among the respondents. Ethnographic researchers stay with the target respondents for log time, mingle with them by participating in their social and cultural events, and become a family member. Such socialization behavior builds trust of a researcher within the geodemographic segment. Human relationship in qualitative inquiries serve as the gateway to quality information. ­Qualitative research often produces surprising and inspiring individual stories, storyboards (chain stories on any event or query), and cognitive portraits (individual experiences) that are invaluable for research designers. In this process, sometimes more rigor is needed to generate insights and streamline the thought process. Hybrid insights approach serves for both concept designing and developing business strategies by embedding individual stories into larger data sets. Since the qualitative research is a human-centered approach, search, observation, interviews, and other qualitative tools help in identifying latent or emerging consumer needs (Seemann 2012).

Explore

In a qualitative research perspective, a research study could attempt to explore behavioral branding in reference to co-creation and vogue dimensions. Branding behavior can be developed for establishing brand beliefs, evoking brand experience, developing trendy brands, sharing consumer experience, and building consumer behavior (Dev and Keller 2014). This stage focuses on the discovered needs, derived insights, and behavioral patterns for mapping the discussions. Researchers need to be alert in exploring information from the subjects as they may encounter provocations, implicit meanings, and undemocratic behavior among the sample population. Behavioral clusters can be introduced during the explore stage of research to set up detailed inquiry at mutual convenience.

The most effective way of acquiring qualitative information is by encouraging the subjects to speak liberally, rationally, and deliver interconnected contents during the interview process. Therefore, documenting uninterrupted narrations help researchers explore comprehensive information for the study. Narrative inquiry, a relatively consistent qualitative methodology, is the study of understanding the experience narratively. It is a way of thinking about, and studying, experience. Narrative inquiry follows a recursive, reflexive process of moving from field notes to field data to interim and final research reports. Alongside organizing the particular interviews, researchers may also like to document the random narrations on common social problems in public places. Narrative inquiry highlights ethical matters and shapes new theoretical understandings of people’s experiences. Long narratives are classified as storytelling in qualitative inquiry. The storytelling may be autobiographical, biographical, testimonial, or personal experience. Thus, narrative is a spoken, written, or visual story that can be presented in various conversational formats serves by exploring the streamlined information.

Prioritize

In qualitative inquiries, information flow during the study is often enormous, unorganized, and raw. Therefore, all qualitative information needs to be scrutinized for consistency, quality, and validity. While classifying the qualitative information, the key indicators to the research proposition must be identified and arranged on priority for analytics. The data can be arranged in a two-dimensional matrix across information categories and sample clusters in the order of priority for content analysis.

Analyze

Data analysis in qualitative research broadly includes content analysis, observations, and written documents. Some critical aspects in data collection and management of information include resource use based on cost and time, quality of information, and using appropriate filters to prepare the data for analysis. Information analysis in qualitative research demands a robust content analysis. Some researchers also use descriptive statistics, if possible, while quantifying small qualitative samples. Graphic and pictorial illustrations are also extensively used in analyzing and reporting the findings of qualitative information. However, it is essential for researchers to check the consistency of findings with the predetermined propositions of the study. The use of information analytics techniques are classified as thematic listing of information, or content analysis of large and complex narrations. The information analytics process is built around common ideas from the data and does not necessarily require verbatim transcripts.

Recording the responses in electronic devices involves reduction in the original length of data documentation in the field. However, it is necessary to select the relevant data to be transcribed within the underlying assumptions of qualitative research design to carry out content analysis. Researchers should meticulously identify the conversations of the respondents that focus on divergent opinions and involve complex arguments for transcribing in parts. All necessary care must to be taken by the researchers while transcribing the recorded conversation, so the original contents would not be disrupted. Verbal and nonverbal interaction together need to be considered during the transcriptions to derive the right communicative meaning. Content analysis is an essential research technique to describe the qualitative information, narrations, and nonverbal illustrations of individuals, groups, and government programs in a field (Rajagopal 2018).

Observations during qualitative research comprise emotions and gestures of the subjects, and the social dynamics around. Social media websites provide a public forum that gives individual consumers the opportunity to present their observations, and access product information that facilitates their purchase decisions. User-generated online reviews on products and services proliferate among peer consumers through social media that drives a great impact on marketing (Trusov et al. 2010). The word-of-mouth, which percolates down the neighborhood, not only increases guiding messages for consumers, companies, and marketers toward ­converging better value chains, but also alters the processing of consumer information in building customer-centric marketing strategies. Peer communication through social media has emerged as a new form of consumer socialization, which is driving the consumer ­decision-making and helping companies to develop value-added marketing strategies ­(Casteleyn et al. 2009; Rajagopal 2018).

Drawing Inference

Contents of information acquired through qualitative research techniques should be analyzed categorizing the information and its fit to the research model. It should be determined whether analysis of the partial information or complete information is required to validate research propositions. Accordingly, inferences are drawn to support the results and conclusions considering the aspects of informants’ experiences, opinions, and feelings. Drawing inferences in qualitative research is sensitive, as researchers are often influenced by subjectivity concerns and involuntary biasness. Cognitive bias is an involuntary pattern of thinking that leads to distorted perceptions and judgments that can result in errors in reasoning, logic, and evaluation. This is often a reason for people making suboptimal or irrational decisions (Kahneman and Tversky 1996). Due to repetition of information, drawing inferences by analyzing qualitative information is often complex. Qualitative research is documented in various ways, so the conclusions need to be streamlined. Making sense of the information begins as the first data are collected. Often, inferences in the qualitative research involves loop-like patterns as new connections in the data keep emerging while writing the report.

Generalize

Generalization of conclusions in the qualitative research is a difficult task. Since the opinions analyzed are based on the acquired information during the study and refer to a specific sociocultural, ethnic, cognitive ecosystem, it would be biased to generalize the conclusions at macro level. However, commonality in opinions can be established if the qualitative inquiries are spanned across the micro- and meso-regional divisions. Generalization is an act of reasoning, which involves drawing some broad inferences from particular observations or smaller study sample. It is widely acknowledged as a quality standard in quantitative research but is more controversial in qualitative research. The fundamental objective of qualitative studies is to provide a rich, contextualized understanding of psychosocial experience of population through the intensive study of particular cases, not to bring out a generalized decision.

In the research areas like social development, economic growth, entrepreneurial promotion, or personality improvement in the society, evidence-based research and qualitative opinions may lead to generalization of conclusions. The possibility of generalization in qualitative research can be considered in the context of classic sample-to-population generalization (basic statistics), analytic generalization across the sample taxonomy including geo-demographic segments, and case-to-case transference of conclusions (Polit and Beck 2010).

Pathway to Synthesis

Qualitative research design process has chronologically evolved across the epistemological philosophies, which helps researchers in developing synthesis with theoretical support. Researchers often lean toward a particular school of thought while reviewing the information draw inferences on the qualitative information. Research designs based on various epistemologies are as stated in the following:

• Epistemological: History of methods

  º Positivist approach

  ■ Qualitative, logical, perceptual narration Inductive

  º Interpretivism

  ■ Quantitative, evidence based

  ■ Pragmatic: Deductive

  º Triadic convergence

  ■ Theme, design, process

  ■ Illustrative, interpretive, impressionistic

• Problem-based research: Applied and real-time perceptions analysis by reviewing the causes and effects of previous ­projects
• Cross-sectional research designs and synthesis patternsx

  º Spatial and temporal

• Secondary qualitative research design and synthesis

  º Published sources

  º Text mining (digital)

Researchers with the positivist’s theoretical motivation tend to pool information of the subjects and conduct analysis of data considering the quality of information, rationale and logic across the ideas, arguments, and criticism related to the key indicators of the study. This approach of analyzing data is widely based on cognitive and perceptual mapping, emerging semantics from the sequential arguments, and quality of narration. Positivist researchers believe in inductive research unlike those who follow quantitative, evidence-based, and pragmatic research design using the deductive analytics. Triadic convergence models in the qualitative research advocate blending research theme with the study design and the research process and make the data analysis more impressionistic through illustrative and interpretive abilities to discuss the study results. Problem-based qualitative research studies like psychosocial cognitive effects of relocated families due to implementation of mega developmental projects use applied and real-time perspectives of the subjects for analysis and synthesize the opinions in reference to the merits or demerits of previous practices. Cross-sectional studies in qualitative research are largely longitudinal in nature over space and time and cover the information on multiple sectors.

Qualitative research is also conducted using the secondary information acquired through published documents, pictures, and charts. As the information technology is growing rapidly over the years, digital platforms of companies, consumers, and social media networks have encouraged people to share their views liberally across the geo-demographic population. Most researchers today rely on “text data mining” by acquiring, pooling, and analyzing the information using these digital platforms. It is the process of deriving high-quality information from the text available on print or digital platforms. Since its emergence, text mining has involved multidisciplinary studies, focused primarily on database technology, web-based collaborative writing, text analysis, and machine learning for discovering new areas in knowledge management. The textual data sources for information extraction span across free-form text to semiformatted text (HTML, XML, and others digital formats). The data sources include the data pools encoded in open source document formats, data warehouses, and other proprietary formats. In the data-text-mining process, the keywords associated with the main labels such as knowledge discovery and text mining, can be categorized in reference to periods from 1998 to 2009. In addition to these terms, sentiment analysis, review manipulation, microblogging data, and knowledgeable users were the other terms frequently used from 2010 to 2017 (Usai et al. 2018).

Syntheses in qualitative inquiries are always debatable as they are intangible, being based on the opinions that cause subjectivity in drawing conclusions. Synthesis is the ultimate step in any ideology, epistemology, or qualitative information analytics. This can be achieved upon logically moving from the one-step to another, which begins from developing a thesis for qualitative research. The pathway to synthesis categorically consists of various stages as discussed in the following:

• Thesis

  º Identifying the research problem

  º Setting objectives

  º Conceptualization

  º Theoretical motivation

• Antithesis

  º Previous studies

  º Counterarguments

  º Logical framework analytics

• Hypothesis/proposition

  º Statement of propositions

  º Justification

  º Research model

• Synthesis

  º Content analysis

  º Meta-analysis

  º Meta-synthesis

  º Limitations and future research

Thesis

A thesis of a qualitative research emerges by determining a right question(s) on a right research problem. This logical process converges the research question and the problem to derive a thesis for conducting qualitative research. The reflective and interrogative processes required for developing effective qualitative research questions can help researchers in developing a good thesis and give shape and direction to a study. A thesis supported with the variables chosen from a wider ecosystem of research grows longitudinally over space and time in qualitative inquiries. However, good research questions do not always necessarily produce good research, but a rationally developed thesis might stay sustainable in all subsequent stages of a study (Agee 2009). In qualitative studies, the ongoing process of questioning often prompts researchers to revise the thesis of their research. Sometimes, the thesis in qualitative research is also formed collectively, where participants are invited to collaborate on the formulation of research questions, especially in participatory action research or in social laboratories. Such events call for a larger interactive process wherein the primary premises of qualitative inquiry are more fully realized (Stringer 2007). Developing thesis for qualitative investigation embeds the synchronization of tasks that include identifying research problem, setting objectives, conceptualization, and seeking theoretical motivation.

Conceptualization of a qualitative research model is the blueprint of research. It indicates the principal dimensions of the research and the variables responsible for measuring the cause and effect and exhibits interrelationship of research dimensions and variables with the research propositions. A conceptual framework represents the researcher’s journey to explain a phenomenon. It maps out the actions required in the course of the study given his previous knowledge of other researchers’ point of view and his observations on the subject of research.

Conceptualization reveals how particular variables in the study connect with each other. It is the process map to pursue the investigation.

The conceptual framework is worked out from the theoretical background and with the support of previous studies. The theoretical motivation draws support from time-tested theories that embody the findings of previous research studies on why and how a particular phenomenon occurs. For example, why consumer-spending declines on some occasions can be studied using qualitative methodology by developing a conceptual framework based on findings of the previous studies and theories of economic recession. Consumer spending usually falls in reference to rising prices and stagnation in the consumers’ income. The data from credit card companies reflects that personal investment and value for money concerns of consumers affect their spending pattern. In view of such cause-and-effect situation, a researcher may like to develop the conceptual framework in relation to variables representing prices, income, value for money, and investment leading to a research proposition that states “consumer spending declines because of high price and low-income syndrome in the society.”

Antithesis

Antithesis in qualitative inquiry is beyond the etymological sense of “juxtaposition” of a verbal argument. It refers to debate on research objectives, methodologies, and findings related to the topic of research. A research can array in a table the “for” and “against” arguments of the previous studies related to the topic of research and identify the gaps in both types of conversations across the spatial and temporal studies. The identified gap would provide opportunity to the researcher for strengthening the justification to conduct the study on the desired problem. Accordingly, qualitative researchers can thoroughly review the previous studies and develop counterarguments to fill the research gaps. In addition, logical framework analysis can be used to determine the justified path of research by observing the gaps in the previous studies. The logical framework approach (LFA) is a methodology mainly used for designing, monitoring, and evaluating development projects. It provides clear, concise, and systematic information about a research study through a process framework through linking goal, objectives, methodology, indicators, and results. The LFA helps in connecting these components in one framework, exhibiting their correlations and organizing the expected outcomes.

Setting qualitative research scenario is a challenging task for researchers in which research questions, propositions, and constructs of the study need to be developed upon reviewing the previous studies. It has been argued that a cross-cultural paradigm based on Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) self-construal theory forms the basis for contemporary theoretical approach to the emerging field of qualitative research. Adopting this paradigm has led to some reservations about the helpfulness of sociocultural propositions for promoting theory development in this area. Most qualitative researches are inductive in nature and allow the researcher to generate research propositions from analyzing the collected data. The questions supporting the research propositions act as the distinguishing factors between qualitative research and quantitative research. With qualitative studies, research propositions are formed based on the research data and are developed to confirm or reject the preconceived notions, relationships, or correlations (Burck 2005).

Synthesis

Content analysis has three distinct approaches comprising conventional, directed, or summative. All three approaches are used to interpret meaning from the content of text data and, hence, adhere to the naturalistic paradigm. The major differences among the approaches are coding schemes, origins of codes, and threats to trustworthiness. In conventional content analysis, coding categories are derived directly from the text data. With a directed approach, analysis starts with a theory or relevant research findings as guidance for initial codes. A summative content analysis involves counting and comparisons, usually of keywords or content, followed by the interpretation of the underlying context (Hsieh and Shannon 2005).

Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies. When the treatment effect (or effect size) is consistent from one study to the next, meta-analysis can be used to identify this common effect. Decisions about the impact of an intervention or the validity of a proposition in qualitative research cannot be based on the information analytics of a case or narrow sample study, because the results may not fit to the generalization standards. Therefore, the mechanism of meta-analysis helps in synthesizing opinions across spatial studies. For example, a common social problem like “adolescents’ behavior toward family in Western culture” can be studied across different states in a country, and meta-analysis can be used as methodology to earmark variations. The conclusion and action points may be generalized following the meta-analysis of qualitative inquiry accordingly. Narrative reviews could be used for this purpose. However, redundancy and biases should be removed from the narrative reviews to derive commonalities in the opinions across geo-demographic segments. Meta-analysis, by contrast, applies objective research frameworks and can be used with any number of studies.

In the health care segment, hospitals use meta-analysis through qualitative inquiries in reference to patients’ behavior related to curative, preventive, and social medicines. They conduct series of studies in these research areas and draw categorical conclusions. In addition, pharmaceutical companies also use meta-analysis to gain approval for new drugs, with regulatory agencies sometimes requiring a meta-analysis as part of the approval process. Applied researchers in medicine, education, psychology, criminal justice, and a host of other fields also use meta-analysis to determine best possible preventive or developmental interventions. Meta-analysis is also widely used in basic research to evaluate the evidence in areas as diverse as sociology, social psychology, sex differences, finance and economics, political science, marketing, ecology, and genetics, among others.

Meta-synthesis is the systematic review and integration of findings from qualitative studies. It is an emerging technique in medical research that employs many different methods. Nevertheless, the method must be appropriate to the specific scientific field in which it is used. Meta-­synthesis method has been adapted from thematic synthesis and ­phenomenology approaches to fit the particularities of psychiatric research. This method offers an appropriate balance between an objective framework, a rigorously scientific approach to data analysis, and the necessary contribution of the researcher’s subjectivity in the construction of the final work. ­Qualitative syntheses refer to an integration of different methods for ­systematically reviewing and bridging the findings from sequential qualitative studies over space and time (Lachal et al. 2017).

Qualitative Research Instrument

Qualitative research questions are largely open-ended and provide ample space to the respondent to express. Most questions are of direct nature. However, information on some sensitive variables are sought using indirect questions. In a qualitative study, the researcher must develop research questions relevant to the propositions and objectives of the study. Research questions should be categorized as lead and supportive questions. Lead questions attribute to the core response related the study and are addressed directly to the respondents. The lead questions should be formed with the maxim of six Ws that include what, why, when, where, which, and who. The supporting questions are constructed using interrogative clues like how, if, and though. Common guidelines for developing the questions for qualitative research can be listed as follows:

• Design only a few general questions to permit participants to share information with you.
• Construct questions that are neutral but exploratory.
• Use polite and ethical language to frame questions.
• Structure direct questions with all respected to sentiments respondents and legal fit of conversation.
• Design and write lead questions and supporting questions to the research topic.
• Do not use many closed-ended questions that restrict the expressions of respondents.

In qualitative research, the research questions differ greatly from a research topic during the conversation with respondents. Such situation emerges when the researcher intercepts the responses and frames new questions instantly. Many inquisitive researchers face such problem and collect enormous information but are unable to streamline the responses. Consequently, a large data gets redundant and cannot be used in the analysis. The research topic is a broad area, in which a central phenomenon is woven around the key concept, idea, or process intended by the researcher to study through qualitative research (Creswell 2005). Once the research questions are drafted, the researcher should examine the questions to validate the response trend and the hidden attributes. Good research questions are researchable, clearly stated, theoretically motivated, and involve applied concepts to drive respondent to reveal his opinion (Bradley 2001). This process of evaluating the research questions consumes a considerable amount of time and effort.

Qualitative research requires both lead and supporting questions to acquire information comprehensively while conducting interviews. Lead questions trigger kick-off of interview process to obtain base information and set the scenario for further data collection. These questions should include direct questions six Ws comprising what, when, where, who, why, and how, and encourage response of subjects on the given situation. The researcher should give the respondents enough space to share their perceived experience during the information-gathering process. Sometimes respondents are sensitive to direct questions, so the lead questions should be structured based on framing questions indirectly seeking opinion on statements, referred reviews, indirect personal questions, and plans and motives. Researchers pursuing information through the qualitative sources should be trained in structuring direct, indirect, and incepting questions to obtain quality information from the respondents. Interceptive questions are derived from the continuing response with a view to gain in-depth information. Such questions do not have just one correct answer but might provoke parallel or counter questions to stimulate diverse or supplementary responses. Intercept surveys are conducted in-person, generally in a public place or business. For instance, interviewers might approach subjects leaving a restaurant and ask to interview them about their experiences. Interviewers ask the questions or simply explain the project and give the questionnaire to the respondent to fill out. The surveys might be completed on paper or any electronic device. Intercept interviews appear to be a great method for obtaining data for a research project. On-site interviews provide top-of-mind feedback of the respondents. However, it is necessary to develop the lead questions that could be responded with the evidential support. Such interpretive questions generate the most engaging discussions and might emerge with several different “correct answers.”

A researcher must be truly interested and passionate about what is to be studied and should get involved in administering the questions to respondents. Such indulgence of investigator would help in scenario setting for administering questionnaire and information acquisition creating adequate interest among respondents. The thoroughness of researchers on the subject would fill a knowledge gap among respondents, drive respondents follow through the research process and reach staying close to the research goals (Farber 2006). However, research questions are not the same questions that are presented during the process of interviewing participants within the study. Research questions are the most important facets within the qualitative study and should be open-ended at large. A researcher must develop skills that allow gaining trust with the participant being interviewed so that responses that are not always positive will be given to provide a clearer picture and provide more details to the story of respondents. Qualitative research questions should be open-ended also to help investigator keep an open mind. These questions guide the research study, but at the same time allow subquestions and incepting questions to pave the way for new and emerging questions (Ohman 2005).

Developing good research ideas is both a science and an art. The researcher should develop knowledge on theoretical foundations and learn the ethical parameters on conducting qualitative research. Initially, as the research decides upon an approach to utilize in the research process, research directors and sponsors should encourage the researcher to develop research questions that would expand the knowledge on the topic of research and enhance the scope of information acquisition. In order to expand the research knowledge base, the research proposal should be meticulously reviewed and information to be acquired through the taxonomy of research questions (Bradley 2001).

The principal concern in developing a qualitative study is composing good research questions to ensure quality information. Most researchers, who are used to conduct quantitative research, feel uncomfortable working with the qualitative research as it is often challenging to compose research questions and conduct content analysis. Developing appropriate qualitative research questions can be practiced by drafting an exploratory research question, and then conducting a number of studies to clarify the research approach and define key terms. In this manner, more specific, narrow questions can evolve and provide a clear direction for the study (Frankel and Devers 2000). A qualitative researcher may even conduct a literature review of the initial research questions, or conduct a small study on the research questions, to determine whether the research questions are researchable. Accordingly, an appropriate scale can be developed by the researcher, or adapted based on the previous studies (Law 2004).

Digital Interactions

Social media communication is one of the most common and effective interventions in business communication, and in forming the interpersonal relationship. Young consumers are the next generation of loyal ­customers. Those with effective communication platforms tend to have higher opportunities to interact with peers and post them with their observations on marketplace and shopping dynamics. To disseminate their ideas among the peers, it is important to speak their language ­independently. Often the voice of customer with specific language skills may be difficult for the companies to match with their corporate ­communication patterns. The growth of technology-led social media communication channels has offered catalytic drive for electronic word-of-mouth communication since the beginning of the 21st century. More and more consumers use Web 2.0 tools such as online discussion forums, consumer review sites, weblogs, social network sites, and the like to communicate their opinions and exchange product information.

In addition, user-generated content in the form of online customer reviews has been found to significantly influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. While word-of-mouth communication on the various Internet platforms has some characteristics in common with the traditional channel of communication, it is different from traditional ways of interpersonal communication in several dimensions. Information in traditional word-of-mouth is usually exchanged in private conversations or dialogues. It is therefore difficult to pass the information on to any individual who is not present when and where the information is exchanged. The informal communication channel, which is largely dominated by the word-of-mouth content, may exhibit working within a framework of “who says what to whom and with what effect,” social communication includes four major elements (Cheung et al. 2012):

• The communicator (source) refers to the person who transmits the communication.
• The stimulus (content) refers to the message transmitted by the communicator.
• The receiver (audience) is the individual who responds to the communication.
• The response (main effect) is made to the communicator by the receiver.

Existing interpersonal communication theories describe word-of-mouth behavior with a focus on face-to-face interaction, which illustrates that the communicators are in close proximity and can significantly influence the buying behavior of consumers in a marketplace (Knapp and Daly 2002). Informal communication theories based on the principles of social cognition and interpersonal relationship development from social psychology suggest that, given enough time to develop peer interactions, individuals can create fully formed impressions of others based solely on the verbal content on Internet portals. It is imperative that marketers understand how these impressions affect the assessment and the use of word-of-mouth information about products, brands, and firms, and consequential consumer behavior, both spatially and temporally, through the virtual platforms (Brown et al. 2007).

Large manufacturers of consumer goods recognize the added benefit of the Internet, especially the one-to-one relationships that it offers. Some large manufacturers have used the Internet to introduce customized shopping options, thus becoming retailers themselves and providing yet another challenge to the traditional store owner. It is observed that shoppers can choose the hair, eye and dress color of the doll they purchase by visiting the Barbie website of Mattel Company where shoppers may feel different, as they get service the traditional stores cannot offer. ­Consumers through Internet shopping gradually reveal their demographics and purchasing patterns, including date of birth, average spending, product preferences, and hobbies. Web-based businesses largely use this information as a platform to create an interactive loyalty program and database marketing. Although consumers can research high-price items such as cars and real estate via the Internet by analyzing the information on the attributes of offerings, the deal is still more effectively done face to face as confidence of buyers is boosted in personal negotiation. A retailer provides necessary personal contact the Internet cannot offer. However, in future, a successful retail store must build upon what the Internet cannot offer and add value to its customer’s shopping experience by giving them that “something extra” to ensure continued patronage. In contrast, certain industries such as music industry have won a significant percentage of the market away from retail outlets. There will always be a place for retailers that serve impulsive and recreational purchasers, and for those who sell products that don’t sell well over the Internet. The conventional retail stores need to reinvent store ambience as often their online competitors compete offline and online.

The social media backed by the Internet has changed the style of communication among consumer, companies, and the associated market players. Social media websites are designed to carry verbal and nonverbal communication with stimulus contents to attract millions of users, many of whom integrate the sites into their daily lives and business practices. Thus, social media allow users to connect with peers, companies, and brands irrespective of individual familiarity by adding them to networks of friends (Zhang and Daugherty 2009). Firms deploying marketing strategies through interactive and addressable communications within the social media platforms, improve their corporate image and products and services in various consumer communities. There are commonly six key elements that drive the interpersonal communications in the social media including love and passion, self-connection, interdependence, commitment, intimacy, and brand quality (Fournier 1998)

Consumer socialization among peers is driven with the dynamism of the social media, which encourages market-based interactions among the peers. Blogs, instant messaging, and social networking sites all provide communication tools that make the socialization process easy and convenient. Virtual communities easily socialize new incumbents into common and special interest groups and help them quickly learn task-related knowledge and skills through their interactions with other members. Besides quick inductions of members in the virtual groups, the inflow of consumers to social media websites is increasing and helping them communicate with others and find information to help them make various consumption-related decisions. The grapevine effect of the social media also facilitates education and information analysis among the members as the socialization agents within the informal groups provide vast product information and evaluations quickly (Taylor et al. 2011). Some studies reveal that peer communications influence consumers to such an extent that they convert others into virtual shoppers while some retailers also encourage social media communication by setting up tell-a-friend functions on websites.

The enormous growth of social media platforms and its usage among stakeholders has given marketers a compelling new avenue for conducting qualitative research. Many consumer products companies like Kellogg’s (diet cereals brand), Mars Chocolate Companies (M&M brand), and Samsung (consumer electronics) have learnt and developed best practices from pilot researches leveraging Google Plus for consumer insights research. To test the viability of use of social media to conduct structured, qualitative consumer research, Google partnered with two research companies to run four pilot studies using Google Plus in October 2012. The research methods were woven around the videos and behavioral logs of social media users. Live Hangouts with participants were conducted with focus group discussions, while other social media users were engaged in specific activities like watching and evaluating advertisements on YouTube together, or a group brainstorm using a third party Google Hangout applications. The behavioral logs were analyzed using Google Docs. The smartphone owners were asked to log their wireless data usage over the course of a day via a pre-designed Google Docs form linked within an event.

Social institutions play significant role in nurturing the cultural heritage, which is reflected in the individual behavior. Such institutions including family, education, political structures, and the media, affect the ways in which people relate to one another, organize their activities to live in harmony with one another, teach acceptable behavior to succeeding generations, and govern themselves. The status of gender in society, the family, social classes, group behavior, age groups, and how societies define decency and civility, are interpreted differently within every culture. Social institutions are a system of regulatory norms and rules of governing actions in pursuit of immediate ends in terms of their conformity with the ultimate common value system of a community. They constitute underlying norms and values making up the common value system of a society. Institutions are intimately related to, and derived from, the value attitudes common to members of a community. This establishes institutions as primarily moral phenomena, which leads to enforce individual decisions on all human needs including economic and business-related issues. The primary means for enforcement of norms is the moral authority, whereby an individual obeys the norm because that individual believes that the norm is good for its own sake.

Social media, on one hand, spreads peer communication, while it prompts the marketing companies to stay responsive to the issues raised within the informal networks, on the other. Marketers can filter the social media communication and develop appropriate insights in the creation of useful concepts such as market and customer orientations, disseminate marketing knowledge, and strategies toward enhancing the customer value. Many organizations have successfully inculcated the practice of converging the social media information with development of marketing strategy. Although social network effects seem to have earned its place in business organizations, major differences remain in how organizations are market- or customer-oriented, how they organize and operationalize their marketing activities, and how they use marketing knowledge. Moreover, many marketing problems have not yet been solved through the social networks, for example, how to make organizations competitive, how to improve the capabilities of operational staff, and how to organize marketing activities to satisfy stakeholders’ aims (operationalization). Marketing scientists may need to assist in the search for these answers by actively participating with the social networks and communication anchors.

Summary

Defining justifiable research problem is a challenging task for the qualitative researchers. The four major approaches to explore the defined problems through qualitative inquiry include explorative, experimental, casual, and action research in social laboratories. While describing the process of qualitative research nine important hybrid insights comprising identify, define, describe, inspire, explore, prioritize, analyze, draw inferences, and generalize have been discussed in this chapter, which supports various arguments on conducting qualitative research. Researchers choose one of the two common types of research designs, exploratory and experimental research design, which can fit into the qualitative research methodologies. Qualitative researchers also use nomothetic approach combining with observations during the in-depth interviews or participatory research appraisals to measure the personality related factors. The scope of qualitative research spans across cross-sectional studies that collect data from two or more sections of a sample based on the geo-demographic differences within the target community. In qualitative inquiries, the research designs are flexible and revised in view of the problem ecosystem, and attributes of the sample population for research in study area. Synthesis in qualitative inquiries are always debatable as they are intangible, being based on the opinions that cause subjectivity in drawing conclusions. Qualitative research questions are largely open-ended and provide ample space to the respondent to express. Content analysis has three distinct approaches comprising conventional, directed, or summative.

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