A considerable amount of survey research is carried out among children and young people for both economic and sociological purposes. This is a legitimate and valuable form of research but, as the ICC/ESOMAR International Code points out, it calls for special care and precautions on the part of the researcher. This Guideline specifies in more detail what such special care involves. It concentrates on the ethical issues involved and does not deal with the technical problems of such research. One difficulty is that at present there is no common international definition of child, young person etc. Even within a single country the definition may vary with the activity under consideration. Because it would be very difficult to agree any general definition based on factors such as the child's cognitive powers, to fulfil the objectives outlined above, this Guideline takes a straight-forward, practical approach to the issue. In addition, the interviewing of children and young people must in all respects conform to the general Rules set out in the main ICC/ESOMAR International Code, as well as to the requirements of data protection and other relevant legislation and to any National Code of Research Practice.
The paper starts from the standpoint that most of the recent literature on fieldwork organisation and quality control is concerned with the conventional field force consisting of a comparatively large number of freelance interviewers dispersed throughout the country. The paper then discusses the advantages that derive from using a small field force, principally those arising from the fact that interviewers in a small field force must work for the company concerned on a frequent and continual basis, which results in the interviewer identifying closely with the company and in the company being more easily able to impose and maintain the standards it requires. The further advantages of using an exclusive field force are then described. Finally, the paper looks at the disadvantages of this approach, which are mainly the apparent limitations on flexibility of capacity and geographical coverage, and concludes with an illustration of the way Burke has adapted the concept to differing market situations throughout Europe.
Today I should like, in the main, to put before you certain possibilities and models which have already been successful in practice and which are no doubt suitable for conducting empirical field research with these pound scales - in terms of the metaphor.
Today I should like, in the main, to put before you certain possibilities and models which have already been successful in practice and which are no doubt suitable for conducting empirical field research with these pound scales - in terms of the metaphor.
Just to summarise very quickly, I have talked about the things which are meaningfully taken into account on a methodical basis in planning industrial interviewing. I have suggested considering:- 1. The nature of the marketing problem; 2. The kind of information required 3. The people from whom the information is required; 4. The nature of relevant activity; 5. The use of the information. All of these things have a very real impact upon the kind of interviewing that is going to be right for any one study. What is important is not to make up rules of conduct which make it impossible to react with common sense to differing situations, but to make sure that we stay flexible enough to carry out the kind of interviewing that the job demands.
The quantitive and qualitative productivity of interviews depends upon many factors. To these belong also the interviewers themselves, who under certain circumstances can exercise a considerable influence on the interview situation and on the outcome of the enquiry. The tendency is, in the case of standardised interviews, for the chance or the danger of such influence by the interviewer to be minimised, because in such a case there is no possibility of variation in the putting of the questions and their order. The many problems that nevertheless remain, and the additional difficulties that arise as a result of standardisation are thoroughly discussed on a theoretical basis in the literature. Unfortunately, however, there is a lack, both by number and extent, of practical investigations of this group of questions (or of publication of the results thereof!) that would make it possible to verify, to improve and to evaluate these theoretical questions. In this connection it was interesting to link up with two larger surveys which were carried out under the author's leadership within the framework of the seminar for market and consumer research at the Friedrich-Alexander University at Erlangen-Nuremberg, a detailed questioning of the interviewer (about his experience when interviewing people in Nuremberg - an enquiry into enquiries, in fact), and to evaluate the results .
In this article we will investigate the interviewer's influence on the quality of research results a little further, ignoring many interesting aspects of the interview as a research technique and restricting ourselves intentionally, to the interviewer. In this article we will attempt to show, mainly on the basis of American literature, to what extent interview errors are due to factors other than insufficient understanding of the questions and to carelessness in writing down the answers.
During the course of the paper given by Mr. Knapper from Makrotest it was mentioned that interviews with farmers can only be carried out by industrial interviewers. In the contrary we found that discussing political problems with farmers can not be done by employing interviewers specialised in technical problems but by interviewers who are well acquainted with the local situation such as teachers, people from the civil service etc. and that it would be absolutely unwise to employ industrial interviewers who may be well acquainted with problems in connection with machinery etc. but do not know the local situation.
The problem of evaluating judgements obtained by questioning is an open one. If such Judgements are to be used as a basis for market policy decisions, we must be certain they are valid. They must be differentiated and analysed. This should be based on the one hand on familiarity with and the importance of the problem, and on the other hand the processing of the problem, the extent of problem maturity. Here measurement of these called conviction degree will be a valuable indicator. It Is considered that this method will help in the refinement of market research methods. Permanently changing economic conditions are forcing us to improve our methods and continuously to seek new research possibilities.
Industrial market research Is the Investigation of the markets for capital goods by means of the approved market research methods adapted to the special requirements of the Industrial market. Industrial or capital goods are those products which are sold by one manufacturer to another, whether these products are finished, semifinished or serve as raw materials to the buying manufacturer. Industrial market research as It Is known to-day Is of a much more recent date than Is consumer research. Basically, it has taken over the techniques used In consumer market research, but it has also evolved methods of Its own which originated in the special requirements for this type of research which differ on some occasions widely from those of consumer market research. In this paper these differences will be pointed out whenever necessary. The scope of industrial market research is much wider and, at the same time, in some respects, much narrower than consumer market research. To take the latter first, psychological techniques of Investigation, known In consumer research as motivation research, are hardly used in the investigation of the industrial markets. Industrial market research has never indulged in "nose counting" as has' been the case with consumer market research for a long time and as it is still practised there. Industrial market research has one paramount aim: to forecast the development of the market for a particular Industrial product for, at least, the next five years and often for the next ten years.