All articles that had to be read for the course and the notes of the lectures are summarized. The summary consists of so-called knowledge clips in which theory is given about, in this case, the topic of branding. The readings consist of articles that had to be read. This summary contains the most i...
Life is like being chained up in a cave, forced to watch shadows, flitting across a stone wall:
suggestion Plato. Concepts: justice, truth and beauty.
In the allegory, a group of prisoners have been confined in a cavern since birth with no knowledge of
the outside world. They are chained, facing a wall, unable to turn their heads while a fire behind
them gives off a faint light. People pass by the fire, carrying figures of animals and other objects that
cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners name and classify these illusions believing they’re perceiving
actual entities. One prisoner got freed and goes outside for the first time. He finds the new
environment disorienting. He sees new things in the world and goes back to tell the other prisoners
but he had a hard time seeing the shadows on the wall now. The other prisoners think the journey
has made him stupid and blind and violently resist any attempts to free them.
- Plato introduces this passage as an analogy of what it’s like to be a philosopher trying to
educate the public. Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance, but hostile to
anyone who points it out.
Plato says that the masses are too stubborn and ignorant to govern themselves. The allegory can be
read in a lot of ways. Like the shadows on the wall, things in the physical world are flawed reflections
of ideal forms, such as roundness or beauty. The cave leads to many fundamental questions. As we
go in our lives, can we be confident in what we think we know? Perhaps one day a glimmer of light
may punch a hole in your most basic assumptions.
Video: research fundamentals
You will be able to answer three fundamental questions:
1. What is research?
2. Why do we conduct research?
3. How can we conduct research?
We conduct research on a daily basis:
- We might look stuff up on the internet.
- We might take our smartphone to check the wheatear.
Research: gathering information to solve a particular problem.
What is 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 or revised theories or laws.
Why do we conduct research?
- To solve problems and advance knowledge
o Example: the way we threat patients or how we educate the next generation, but
also exercising and how we educate our children is based on research.
, o Once a research finding is established; it doesn’t have to stay like this. Research is
something that is a continuous process. To solve problems better in the future we
have to make sure that it is updated.
Systematic research consists of three steps:
1. Research question
a. A question that can be answered by conducting a research study.
b. How can you come up with such a question?: observation, prior research (build on
previous studies), professional literature, or peers.
2. Collecting data
3. Analyzing the data
Hotel director wants to become more sustainable.
Observation: most guests do not re-use their towels (not good for sustainability).
So research question: how can I increase towel re-use in my hotel?
How can we conduct research?
- We can use existing theories to derive hypotheses and test them
- We can create new theories based on observation and inquiry
You can start we generating theories:
- Why do my guest do not re-use the towels?
o Lack of awareness (people do not know that it is bad)
o Social norm to request a new one
Theory: a statement of concepts and their interrelationships that shows how and/or why a
phenomenon occurs. You generate theories.
After generating theories, you can generate hypotheses:
- H1: awareness of negative environmental impact of towel use will increase towel re-use.
- H2: Changing the social norm will increase towel re-use.
Hypothesis: a proposition or prediction about a phenomenon/state of the world.
After theories and hypotheses, you are going to collect data.
Experiment: a form of research in which one or more factors are manipulated to see their effect on
an outcome.
Observation research questions
- Example research question: How do these temporary communities function? How do
consumption practices at burning man differ from those in ordinary markets?
In this case: you collect data
- Ethnography: a form of naturalistic inquiry (observation, participation, interviews, etc.) that
has a specific interest in culture.
- Build theory: results: consumer emancipation & hypercommunity
Video: research paradigms
Question to be answered:
1. What is research paradigm?
2. What characterizes different research paradigms?
3. How do research paradigms dictate (consumer) research?
,What is a research paradigm?
- Lens or a way of thinking about the world: provides direction for the researcher, different
ways of thinking about reality.
Two different types of paradigm:
1. Positivist paradigm
2. Interpretivist paradigm
Looking through different lenses and see the world in different ways.
What characterizes a research paradigm?
- Basic assumptions, beliefs, norms, and values of each paradigm.
Four concepts
1) Ontology: what is the nature of reality?
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
Beliefs about the nature of reality: influences our perception of truth – what we think we can know
about reality; characterized by what is? Questions.
- Positivist paradigm
o Realism: one objective reality or ‘truth’
o Independent of context
o Human behavior is determined or shaped by the environment
- Interpretivist
o Relativism: multiple subjective realities or ‘truths’ (all of them are subjective and
depend on the context)
o Reality is socially constructed and perceived and evolves with context
o Human behavior is created
Positivist: only one answer only a duck, nothing else.
Interpretivist: depends on how you look at the picture (look at it from the
left or from the right) duck or rabbit.
Climate change is an example of objective truth: positivist
Culture is subjective and relative (look from the inside or?): interpretivist
Epistemology
The study of knowledge; determines how we can know reality (a researcher’s approach to knowledge
generation); dictated by ontological beliefs.
- Positivist
o Objective measurements
o Regularities and laws
o Real causes and effects
o Specific rules for doing science (e.g. falsifiability)
- Interpretivist
o Subjective perception
o Meaning, motives, or experiences
o Mutual, simultaneous shaping of cause and effect (not one specific cause)
, Example
- Positivist: etic approach = from the outside looking from the outside into the fish bowl.
- Interpretivist: emic approach = from the inside swimming with the fish in the bowl.
Axiology
The study of value; deals with the nature of what is valuable and ethical, what you value or aim in
your research (i.e. goals)
- Positivist
o Free of values
o Guided by logic
o Goal: explanation and prediction
- Interpretivist
o Values help co-construct meaning
o Guided by intuition
o Goal: understanding
Methodology
General research strategy; outlines how the research is conducted and identifies the methods used.
How knowledge is discovered and analyzed in a systematic way.
- Positivist
o Deductive; look at theories, come up with hypothesis and then test it if the
hypotheses can be confirmed or rejected.
o Systematic
o Testing theories and hypotheses
o Mostly quantitative
- Interpretivist
o Inductive; collecting data and make your theory
o Emergent (not systematic, methodology might change)
o Generating theories and hypotheses
o Mostly qualitative
Example:
- Positivist: e.g. experiments (towel example)
- Interpretivist: e.g. ethnography (burning man example)
Methodology is not the same as method.
- Methodology: approaches that guide how data is gathered and analyzed (research design,
setting, subjects, analysis, reporting)
- Method: a particular research tool or data-gathering technique e.g. experiments, interviews,
questionnaires.
Video: what is consumer research?
Three questions:
1. What is consumer research?
2. Why do we need consumer research?
3. What is the goal of contemporary consumer research?
Consumer research: the study of people operating in a consumer role involving acquisition,
consumption, and disposition of marketplace products, services, and experiences.
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