Abstract:

The purpose of our paper is to evaluate the application potential of experimental research, especially experimental field research, from the viewpoint of marketing decision making. On the one hand we try to demonstrate extensively some general and feasible application issues. On the other hand, to illustrate the possibilities and problems of experimental research, we utilize as a case an experimental field study done in Finland. We classify the area of experimental research and point out some critical features as well as exemplary characterisations of field experiments, especially concerning organisations as experimental units. After presenting some possible experimental targets we go through the process of experimental reach pointing out both positive and negative aspects of our case study. In chapter 3 we illustrate by our case study the nature of experimental results and how the results can be exploited. Finally, we shortly evaluate experimental field study on the basis of the case study and characterize the future of experimental field study. The objective of this paper is to show in rather detailed manner the efficiency and practicability but also weaknesses of experimental field research.