Editorial

Citation

Tiu Wright, L. (2009), "Editorial", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 12 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/qmr.2009.21612daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Volume 12, Issue 4

Conceptual considerations leading to methodological development in researches are presented in this issue with papers featuring international contributions from Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. The first two papers examine the ethnographic and cultural influences with entrepreneurs. The following two papers take account of online contexts in conducting research with one examining vendors and franchising for electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) and the other with consumers in internet surveys. These papers point to neglected areas of theory in the literature. The fifth paper focuses on consumer decision processes and consumption with a food marketing perspective whilst the sixth paper includes implications for consumers from the internationalization of sports clubs and their brands. While the papers deal with different subject matters their findings have topical relevance for academics and practitioners with reference to qualitative research into the aspirations, cultures and motivations of consumers, entrepreneurs and firms as well as market implications.

Supported by an Economic and Social Research Council grant the first paper is about a study of a sample of 258 Turkish and Chinese ethnic minority firms in London. The paper demonstrates the necessity to be culturally sensitive when gaining access to and researching the needs of such firms. The UK authors, Levent Altinay and Catherine L. Wang, identify research access as an important part of research design in order to overcome the obstacles in gaining access for data collection. The paper highlights the problem of access and that of cultural affinity as a key component in any practical research endeavour. Obtaining appropriate knowledge of both socio-cultural and socio-political aspects of such firms and the business practices they adopt are important for entrepreneurs in order to grow their firms in their markets.

For the practical applications of marketing there is a traditional reliance on marketing mix techniques. The second paper by Diane M. Martin from the USA exposes the limitations of reliance on the traditional approach to the marketing mix, as presented in the literature review in researching corporate (firm) and individual entrepreneurs. To examine the problem further the paper seeks to understand what types of marketing practices entrepreneurs are likely to adopt. A qualitative mixed methods' approach is employed in the paper using a case study featuring an ethnographic investigation of a marketing entrepreneur, participant observation, multiple interviews and interpretation of textual and video data. The conclusions point to far less reliance on the traditional 4Ps of product, price, place and promotion in support of using the entrepreneurial 4Ps of purpose, practices, process and people so as to build success in marketing strategy and practice.

An examination of how strategy and practice can be successful is provided in the third paper by Kelley O'Reilly and David Paper in the USA. The authors looked at the role and influence of vendors in the design, development, and delivery of eCRM tools. Their paper specifically attempts to fill a knowledge gap by capturing the vendor's “voice”, which they saw as neglected in the literature. Exploratory research is employed to highlight the objectives of vendors involved with eCRM products with the focus on the interactions of both sellers and consumers throughout their commercial transactions. The paper identifies the importance of strategic management and illustrates the importance and value of vendor-based influence concerning consumer relationship management. Their suggestions for managers are to create a balance of online and offline activities and to avoid allowing vendors to distort the balance between online and offline marketing efforts.

The fourth paper is a joint contribution from New Zealand and the USA. Vallen Han, Gerald Albaum, James B. Wiley and Peter Thirkell present a qualitative exploratory study into respondent motivations for cooperating in internet-based surveys and the barriers to responding to such surveys. The sampling frame for an entire population of student e-mail addresses at a New Zealand University was adopted. From 12,000 questionnaires distributed a total of 841 comments were collected. The theories of Albaum, Evangelista, and Medina (AEM) and Evangelista, Albaum, and Poon (AEP) are suggested for extending AEM theory to apply to qualitative feedback gathered from applying content analysis for the data gathered The paper supports the theories of social exchange as being more pertinent than the theories of commitment in analyzing what influences consumers to respond to internet surveys.

Leila Hamzaoui Essoussi and Mehdi Zahaf explore in their qualitative research study, the decision-making processes of Canadian organic food consumers taking into account issues concerning their motivations and trust of suppliers and brands. Organic food is presented in the media as linked to better farming methods thereby generating fresher food, but as the authors point out, there is no clear understanding of the barriers preventing a big demand for organic food. The authors consider the differing mindset of consumers in countries where the organic consumption trend is, potentially promising, but is likely not to be driven by the same considerations or values for non-organic foods. Additionally, the value comparisons of Canadian consumers with their European counterparts are made, as cultural differences are seen as important in explaining consumption habits.

The lucrative nature of sports clubs provides an important area in marketing that is ripe for more research studies. The last paper by Nicolas Chanavat and Guillaume Bodet looks at the appeals of the big sporting clubs and identifies the attractiveness of four major sports clubs. Taking a French perception of these four big sports clubs the paper identifies the advantages of attracting foreign customers in order to implement an internationalisation marketing strategy with regard to creating a global sports brand. The research was compiled from cross-cultural interviews undertaken to ascertain the perceptions of international consumers buying into these four biggest football sports brands. Though the fortunes of these clubs appear to be growing, despite the global recession, the advice for the management of professional sports clubs, is to undertake strategic market planning at home before implementing their strategies abroad for the variety of reasons detailed in the paper.

The contributions of all the authors and reviewers for this normal issue are as always, greatly appreciated.

Len Tiu Wright