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THE MEASUREMENT OF MEANING

The predominant methodologies that appear in the extant literature on market research are rarely equipped to go beyond any "first order" interpretation, i.e., interpretations of the dominant culture of the researcher. Much of what cross-cultural scholars have suggested in the last 30 years has been consistently ignored. Furthermore, the dominant school of thought derives from psychology. In an attempt to be "scientific," the main conclusions seek to claim universal psychological motivations explaining the behavior of consumers despite the fact that cultures are particular (Callebout et al., 2000; 2003).

All research outcomes are dependent on the methodological stance taken and this is no less so than in international market research. While the physical scientist alone defines a set of variables to be observed, in social sciences in general and in market research in particular, the observational field usually starts with the subject's preselected and preinterpreted cultural meanings. As Cicourel so profoundly says: "The social scientist must attend to the meaning structures employed by the actors of the scene he [sic] wishes to observe and describe, while simultaneously translating such meaning structures into constructs consistent with his theoretical interests" (Cicourel, 1964).

Therefore precise measurement of social action, so fundamental in international market research, rests on the study of the problem of meaning and begins with reference to the commonsense world of everyday life: "Measurement presupposes a banded network of shared meanings, i.e., a theory of culture" (ibid.).

In fact the main criticism to be made of market research is that it is often methodologically flawed, even in domestic markets. It is frequently too simplistic, looking for easy answers. Rarely is there any real ontological quest for the truth in spite of the millions of dollars spent as a result of the data gathered. Even at the basic level, there is a fundamental methodological tenet that market researchers can never know the questions that should really be asked in their surveys. Most just make them up; if you knew what questions to ask, you wouldn't need to conduct the survey in the first place. When extended to international market activity, the methodological problems become even worse.

Kant, in The Critique of Pure Reason (1781), examined the bases of human knowledge and created an individual epistemology. Like earlier philosophers, Kant differentiated modes of thinking into analytic and synthetic propositions. An analytic proposition is one in which the predicate is contained in the subject so that the truth is self-evident. But he pointed out that synthetic propositions are those that cannot be arrived at by pure analysis and can only result from experience of the world. Thereby objects of themselves have no existence, and space and time exist only as part of the mind, as "intuitions" by which perceptions are measured and judged. More narrowly, within metaphysics, idealism is the view that all consumer products are mind-dependent and can have no existence apart from a mind that is conscious of them. Metaphysical realism has traditionally led to epistemological skepticism, the doctrine that knowledge of reality is impossible, and has thereby provided an important motivation for theories of idealism, which contend that reality is mind-dependent and that true knowledge of reality is gained by' relying upon a spiritual or conscious source. This may seem very theoretical, but again it reinforces our thesis that culture is a system of shared meaning. Market research must understand the system of meaning in the culture in which it is collecting and interpreting data.



Primary market research usually involves:

· Survey research: typically to judge reaction to a proposed product, awareness of brand name, or to assess attitudes.

· Observation: has the advantage of no interaction with the subject. This could involve observing whether people turn left or right when they enter a store or leave a car park-so as to help with positioning and location planning.

· Experimentation: This can involve tasting panels, or test marketing, or special promotions and discounts for limited periods.

In any survey research or in some experimentation, the observer is part of the field of action. As such, the observer and the instruments used to measure a group of actors' set of shared meaning, act as a "grid" or "filter" for the definition of certain forms of data. The world of the observable is not simply out there to be described and measured, but the observer and the measurement system can influence what is out there.

Ideally we sould seek a situation in which measurement is entirely free from error, a situation, however, which cannot be achieved (Campbell, 1928). If we only accepted "true measures," those free from error, market research would be impossible to conduct: "If the chance of error alone were the sole basis for evaluating methods of inference, then we would never reach any decision, but merely keep increasing the sample size indefinitely" (Churchman, 1948).

We can distinguish between three major sources of error that can frequently occur in international market research.

· One is related to the sampling procedure both within and between cultures.

· A second source of error is inherent to the measuring instruments used for the collection of data. It focuses in particular on the validity and reliability of instruments used in international market research. This source of error can be minimized through the design of the questionnaires and via the administration of validating interviews.

· A third source of error accompanies the administration of the measurement instrument. It manifests from the fact that the responses of the subjects under investigation are influenced by the way the study is presented to them in terms of its purpose and possible consequences.


Date: 2015-01-12; view: 902


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