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Chapter 3, Research Methodology:
3.1, Introduction:
This chapter provides an overview of exactly how research will be undertaken to achieve the research aim. This chapter is divided into eight sections. The first section reflects the objectives and the conceptual method developed in the literature review. The second and third section describe the research strategy and explain in detail which research design and tactics are chosen for the present research. The next section deals with the generation and the actual design of the questionnaire followed by the section explaining more about the respondents and the sampling procedure. Subsequently, the next section is concerned with how the data is obtained from which target population and how the research design will be structured in detail. At the end, research limitations and problems will be mentioned.
3.2, Research objectives:
In chapter 1.3 ‘Research aim and objectives’, a clear aim, and also objectives regarding each research chapter are presented. The research aim may be broken down into three different research objective sections according to which the research hypotheses were developed. In general, the questionnaire seeks to obtain information regarding attitude and behaviour of German and Spanish consumers which has been influenced by external stimuli and marketing stimuli. On the basis of these findings, conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the marketing stimuli may be drawn. In accordance with the research aim, the behavioural and attitudinal impact of loyalty cards will be analysed in this paper and the preferences regarding promotional techniques and bonus systems will be reviewed. In addition, behavioural and attitudinal store loyalty will be analysed and compared between loyalty card holders and non-holders in the two countries, referring to the favourite retail store of the respondents. Consequently, the following research objectives for the questionnaire arise:
General behaviour & attitude towards loyalty cards:
a. General behaviour: Find out if Spanish consumers possess more loyalty cards and make greater use of respective benefits
b. General attitude: Find out if the attitude differs across Germany and Spain.
Preferences regarding loyalty card features:
a. Find out if German and Spanish consumers prefer different promotional techniques and bonus systems.
Store loyalty towards favourite apparel retail store:
a. Find out if behavioural and attitudinal store loyalty differs across the two countries.
Important is also the demographic composition of the respondents:
Demographic variables: Determine the demographical information of the target population and the sample:
3.3. Research design and strategy:
In order to gather all the information needed to answer the research questions, primary quantitative information needs to be obtained to create a reasonable basis for comparative analysis. Therefore, the research design ‘survey’ was chosen. The survey is the appropriate research design for this research for several reasons. Firstly, a survey provides the opportunity to gather primary quantitative data to undertake a clear comparative analysis. By means of this research design, data about persons and their attitudes and behaviour can be obtained. The purpose of research is often divided into three different types, namely „exploratory, descriptive and explanatory” (Saunders et al, 2009 p. 139). The purpose may either be a single one of these or a combination. Young (2008) distinguishes between exploratory, constructive and empirical research. Explanatory research, according to Saunders et al (2009 p. 140), is the „studying (of) a situation or a problem in order to explain the relationships between variables.” Exploratory research investigates a ‘new’ topic that has not yet been properly examined. Constructive research seeks to answer a specific research problem about a topic that has already been explored. Empirical research seeks to prove the feasibility of findings (Young, 2008). The present research will be explanatory, as it seeks to analyse ‘causal relationships’ (Saunders et al, 2009 p. 140) by undertaking a comparative analysis of the two countries, Germany and Spain. In addition, the research will be constructive because it aims to find answers to a research problem. A survey, which will be analysed statistically, adds an empirical side to this research. For any type of research (e.g. explanatory, exploratory), all sorts of research strategies may be employed (Saunders et al, 2009). Due to the nature of this research attempt, the approach will be deductive. The alternative approach, the inductive approach, would gather information with the aim to create a theory (Saunders et al, 2009). Saunders et al (2009) argue that surveys are commonly employed in the deductive approach. Consequently, this work will make use of a research strategy that will serve to test hypotheses to confirm the developed theory.
3.4, Research tactics: Sources of data:
In the present investigation, quantitative and primary data shall be obtained. Gathering information about consumer store loyalty and analysing the behaviour and attitudes of consumers between two countries requires quantitative data for comparative analysis. Qualitative data would provide little individual input that would not enable the research to provide a meaningful comparison. Primary data will be obtained due to the fact that a data base or a research providing the specific data needed for this specific research project could not be found in secondary data.