Focus groups

Question 1

Definition

Answer 1

Group interviews aimed at discussing a list of topics. Used in market research to find out opinions without too much interviewer influence.

Question 2

Interpretivist or positivist

Answer 2

Interpretivist

Question 3

Advantages

Answer 3

The moderator can ensure that the conversation is always on track, and encourage participants’ engagement without one individual dominating the meeting.
When participate are stimulated to discuss, the group dynamics can generate new thinking about a topic which will result in a much more in-depth discussion.
The Level Of Participant Involvement In The Research - Because every participant is under observation by the moderator, it is easy to make participants fully engage.
If a great deal of consistency in the results from a series of focus groups have been identified and it is very likely that the results from these sessions probably can represent a larger number of people.

Question 4

limitations

Answer 4

Due to the dynamic environment the moderator can modify the topics leading to bias.
if the moderator is not experienced enough, it is very easy for the whole discussion to be dominated by a few people.
It is difficult to have the participants share their real feelings towards some sensitive topics publicly.
Furthermore, traditional focus groups can only be held in a few cities. This also makes data from focus groups less representative of the total universe.
Focus Groups Are A Very Artificial Environment - In focus groups people are collected in a meeting room thus they might behave differently from how they behave when they are not watched and it will effect the quality of research results.
Transcribing the data