International Research

Question 1

What is international research?

Answer 1

Bradley, 2012
- International research will take the researcher into different languages, geographies and cultures. It examines the needs and requirements across different nations

Question 2

What is the purpose of international research?

Answer 2

To allow business to find out whether or not there are various factors available for them to start conducting business over there. E.g.

• Distributors
• Joint venture potential?
• Allows them to hone in on the marketing mix: 4 p’s

Question 3

How can you manage international research?

Answer 3

• Centralised | Locally
• The research manager should ideally visit each the country to brief team: failing this a video briefing could be done
• Using individuals with monolingual (less likely to get confused and can check for accuracy), bilingual, and multilingual: can check questionnaires in different languages for consistency
• Research needs to be monitored
• Need to understand local culture

Question 4

What are some elements of culture?

Answer 4

• Religion/belief system
• Language (verbally & non-verbal)
• Attitudes
• Gender roles
• Aesthetics
• Education

Question 5

What can culture impact on?

Answer 5

• Populations available for research
• Willingness to participate in research
• Dress code
• Body language: touching, greeting, posture, gestures
• Use of language
• Freedom of expression: some question formulations could be considered rude

Question 6

What are some differences between countries?

Answer 6

• Developed | Developing
• Cost of doing research: Higher in UK, USA, France, Sweden
• Postal systems, telephone & internet access may affect research method
• Language

Question 7

What are some types of international segments?

Answer 7

• SES: Socioeconomic status score (US)
• SEG: Socio-Economic groupings score (UK)
• The European Social Grade (EU)

Question 8

What are some considerations for international research design?

Answer 8

• Translating questionnaires: Back translations; Translated back into original language compared to original questionnaire
  Parallel translations; Two or more translations created and compared to using the best wording
• Use of marks to indicate answers
• Coding frames required for open ended questions

Question 9

How should international research be reported?

Answer 9

• Synoptic: Brings all countries results together
• Separate: Results for each country being reported separately (allows for additional countries to be added after all the fieldwork is done)