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Consumer Research in Marketing – Week 1 Knowledge Clips
Research fundamentals
Research is being conducted on a daily basis, many times even unconsciously. We look up
stuff on the internet, we look up the weather on our mobile phones, etc. Research is a
systematic process of searching for and gathering information to solve a particular
problem.
Official definition of research = a studious inquiry or examination: especially an
investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, the
revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or the practical application of
such new revised theories or laws.
Why do we conduct research?
• To solve problems, answer research questions, and advance knowledge (everything
around us is based on scientific facts and research).
Systematic research consists of three steps:
1. You start out with a research question (= a question that can be answered by
conducting a research study). You can come up with such a question by observation,
prior research, professional literature, or academic peers.
2. You collect data
3. You analyze data
Example: You observe that most guests do not
reuse their towels in hotels, from which you
conduct the following research question: How
can I increase towel reuse in my hotel?
You start with generating theories (e.g., lack of
awareness, social norm to request a new one).
After doing that, you start to generate
hypotheses, like:
• H1: Awareness of negative environmental
impact of towel use will increase towel
reuse.
• H2: Changing the social norm will increase
towel reuse.
After generating theories and hypotheses, you
start collecting data. The researchers randomly
assigned half of the hotel rooms with a hanger
promoting the environmental message and
another hanger promoting the social norm. They
collected data in the form of an experiment and
the social norm group was more likely to reuse their towels than the environment group.
Theory = a statement of concepts and their interrelationships that shows how and/or why a
phenomenon occurs.
,Hypothesis = a proposition or prediction about a phenomenon/state of the world. This is
based on prior theories.
Experiment = a form of research in which one of more factors are manipulated to see their
effect on an outcome.
Ethnography = a form of naturalistic inquiry (observation, participation, interviews, etc.) that
has a specific interest in culture.
Research paradigms
Paradigm = lens or way of thinking about the world; provides direction for the researcher,
different ways of thinking about reality. We distinguish between two different types of
paradigms (that are on a continuous scale, so there are many more paradigms in between):
• Positivist paradigm
• Interpretivist paradigm
What characterizes a research paradigm (basic assumptions, beliefs, norms, and values of
each paradigm)?
1. Ontology = what is nature of reality? (i.e., what is real?)
2. Epistemology = how can we know reality?
3. Axiology = What is valuable and ethical? Where do values come from?
4. Methodology = How is research conducted?
Ontology determines beliefs about the nature of reality. It influences our perception of truth
– what we think we can know about reality. It is characterized by what is? questions.
Examples of realism in the positive paradigm are climate change (objective truth, not
something that is subjectively created) and gravity. Examples of relativism in the
interpretivist paradigm are studying culture (allows subjective interpretation) and art.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It determines how we can know reality (a
researcher’s approach to knowledge generation); dictated by ontological beliefs.
,A positivist usually takes an etic approach (i.e., approach from the outside). An interpretivist
would take an emic approach (i.e., approach from the inside).
Axiology is the study of value. It deals with the nature of what is valuable and ethical, what
you value or aim for in your research (e.g., goals).
Methodology is the general research strategy. It determines and outlines how the research
is conducted and identifies the methods that are used. How knowledge is discovered and
analyzed in a systematic way.
The positive paradigm would conduct experiments and the interpretivist paradigm would
conduct ethnography.
Methodology is not the same as method.
• Methodology is the general research approach/strategy that guides how data is
gathered and analyzed. It includes decisions about data gathering
techniques/methods, research design, research setting, subjects, analysis, and
reporting.
• Method is a particular research tool or data-gathering technique, e.g., experiments,
interviews, questionnaires.
In sum, how do research paradigms dictate (consumer) research?
They determine what we define as truth, how we can obtain this truth, what values guide
our truth and our general research strategy.
What is consumer research?
Consumer research = the study of people operating in a consumer role involving acquisition,
consumption, and disposition of marketplace products, services, and experiences. There are
seven premises defined for the definition of consumer research:
• Consumer research studies consumer behavior
• Consumer behavior entails consumption
• Consumption = acquisition, usage, and disposal of products
• Products = goods, services, events, ideas, etc. (i.e., anything that provides value for a
consumer).
• Value = when a goal is achieved or need is fulfilled.
, • Such an achievement of value leads to consummation.
• Consumer research = the study of consummation
Consumer research is mainly influenced by three different disciplines:
• Behavioral economics (e.g., perceptual biases, framing effects, judgement, and
decision-making)
• Social & cognitive psychology (e.g., attitudes, information processing, perception,
self-identity, personality)
• Sociology & anthropology (e.g., consumer culture theory → studies phenomena
such as gift giving, rafting)
None of these disciplines focus on all consumption stages. Therefore, we need consumer
research. Consumer research also studies unique stimuli (e.g., advertisements and
commercial videos), they use unique phenomena (e.g., gift keeping), they study unique
behavioral outcomes (e.g., word of mouth, willingness to pay, purchase intention) and
market-force-shaped behaviors (e.g., recycling, crowdfunding, donation behavior, consumer
well-being).
The goal of consumer research over time:
1987: There is a need to ground consumer research in a central preoccupation with
consumption, independent of any relevance that subjects might carry for marketing
managers, or any other external interests.
2018: Manuscripts will be evaluated based not only on their conceptual contribution but
also on the meaningful, practical insights that they generate. Providing practical insight that
can be used by any of JCR’s stakeholders, such as consumers, academic researchers, public
policy makers, or marketing managers, will be important in contributing to JCR.
Now, there is an increased focus on consumer-relevant issues, such as climate change,
sustainable consumer behavior, consumer well-being, health, or consumer savings. In sum,
the goal of contemporary consumer research is to generate theoretical and practical insights
into consumer-relevant issues that are meaningful for researchers, practitioners, policy
makers and consumers alike.
Quantitative vs. qualitative methods
Quantitative methods are mostly associated with the positivist paradigm, so they are all
about objective measurements, statistical analysis, and the quantification of data.
Qualitative methods are mostly associated with the interpretivist paradigm, which is about
understanding and interpreting the meaning of data.
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