Abstract:

This paper provides a prognosis for the future of internet research based on the attitudes, experiences and opinions of the buyers of research within the FMCG sector. The paper provides an understanding of the dynamics involved in the possible adoption process from conventional to interactive research. Given their work within the marketing research industry – part of the information economy – and involvement in the collection and dissemination of ‘bits’ of information rather than physical products, the authors hypothesised that the marketing research industry will be more heavily impacted by this transformation than most. There are two ways of addressing this transformation. The first is from the supply side, measuring the extent to which research agencies are investing and responding to this challenge. However, the supply side was already well covered by papers at this and other conferences. Consequently, the authors felt a more valuable approach would be from the demand side, testing their hypotheses with empirical research to explore what users actually think about the future of research.