Data Methods & Sample Sizes
When determining the best qualitative methodology to use for assessing if consumers and businesses would be interested in its products, SpotOn will need to use an ethnographic study, and a phenomenological study. According to Sauro (2015), ethnographic studies are centered on understanding the overall motivations and goals of a specific environment (p.1). In effect, it allows the researcher to assess why people do what they do. As such, this will require individuals from SpoOn to engage customers throughout the area where they seek to sell their products (i.e. visits to Home Depot stores, demonstrations at their own stores, visits to consumers home using door to door demonstrations).
Sauro (2015) writes that the specific focal point of ethnographic studies is in experiencing the environment in a firsthand manner rather than looking at it from another angle by using prior studies or research. Phenomenological studies are observances of a certain type of phenomenon in order to obtain feasible and usable data. This involves visiting places and conducting interviews (p.1). For SpotOn, it will obtain insight into whether consumers will even consider entertaining such a product related to preventing floors from becoming slippery when wet.
For the ethnographic study, the sample size cannot be determined because it will depend on how much SpotOn wants to spend on assessing particular environments and cultures. What matters to one neighborhood (say the suburbs, for example) may not matter to another. Moreover, businesses such as hotels may prefer the paint over schools and vice versa. The company will need to conduct a background assessment of the specific neighborhoods where it wants to actually sell SpotOn, and also examine where it currently sells the paint to come up with a reasonable sample size. Qualitative studies tend to have a sample size that is less than 100, and is very small. Thus, for the phenomenological study, SpotOn will need to conduct anywhere between 20-30 interviews across the areas where it wants to sell its paint. This will require a determination of the cities that it wants to sell in as that data is unavailable in the prompt. Further, the company may want to consider conducting this range of interviews in each of the cities that it wants to sell the paint in.
For the quantitative methods, SpotOn should employ the use of both experimental research as well as survey research. According to Klazema (2014), experimental research tends to require a hypothesis, in order to effectively discern whether something can be proven, while survey research provides a sense of the behavior associated with a certain group or culture (p.1). The experimental research will allow SpotOn to determine if there is a viable customer base for only in schools versus hotels, or if there is a strong likelihood that consumers will purchase it at Home Depot versus Lowe’s. It will add an additional component to the qualitative research that will be conducted. Surveys afford a supplemental element to research.
Klazema (2014) details that surveys can be conducted in a variety of ways including through mail, over the phone or via email. Surveys provide a greater chance for understanding the particular influences that are affecting a group of people, and allow for the researcher to tap into multiple groups (p.1). To this end, SpotOn will be able to gauge the potentiality for purchasing of its paint across multiple cities, sectors, regions, age groups, etc. The possibilities are endless.
Gogtay (2010) considers that there is a specific need for the researcher to determine the sample size when conducting quantitative research in terms of certain elements. These elements include beta error, variability, alpha error, and other aspects such as funding available, the ethics of the research that is to be conducted (p.517). Quantitative research is much more extensive than qualitative in this regard because the population or rather sample size is larger. SpotOn will need to assess what it hopes to gain from the research surveys and experiments, and the means by which it will conduct said studies.
Quantitative research sample sizes tend to be larger than 100 participants. Moreover, as noted by The University of Davis (n.d.), there is a certain element to the sample size. The sample size can be a representative sample, which within it is random or stratified. The former is when individuals in the sample are selected at random, while the latter deals with the characteristics of the sample that will be examined such as education level, income, gender, etc. The sample size can also be non-representative, which is not as desirable as it tends to be extremely general in terms of the results that it yields (p.1). For SpotOn, there will need to be an evaluation of what it hopes to gain from the research. For example, is there a potentiality for different income groups to engage more with its paint than others? Will women use it more than men, and vice versa? These determinations will need to be examined prior to evaluating the best approach as it relates to sample size. Given the context of the situation, however, it is probably best that the company uses stratified sampling in its conducting of the quantitative study. This would be for both the experiment(s) and the survey(s) that are conducted.
There is substantial reason to believe that with a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods in assessing the potentiality of paint sales, that SpotOn will be able to reasonably say how its products will perform. Additionally, it may even be able to effectively gauge whether the specifics that the studies reveal will hold over a certain amount of time. This will be beneficial for them both in the short and long term.
References
Gogtay, N. J. (2010, November). Principles of sample size calculation. Indian J Ophthalmol, 58(6), 517-518. doi:10.4103/0301-4738.71692
Klazema, A. (2014, June 9). Types Of Quantitative Research for Students and Researchers. Retrieved from Udemy website: https://blog.udemy.com/types-of-quantitative-research/
Sauro, J. (2015, October 13). 5 Types of Qualitative Methods. Retrieved from Measuring U website: http://www.measuringu.com/blog/qual-methods.ph
Types of samples. (n.d.). Retrieved from UC Davis website: http://psc.dss.ucdavis.edu/sommerb/sommerdemo/sampling/types.htm
