Research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Research - Assignment Example Interviews: Are a good method of data collection as they are in the form of a one on one conversation and both the interviewer and interviewee play an important role to come up with a solution to the problem or the research study topic: Interviews are useful in communicating on deep and lengthily research topics as they provide more insight to a problem and they open up a good platform or discussion between the interviewer and interviewee. They produce a higher response rate from the interviewee. Lastly the data collected has a high probability to be accurate as compared to the other qualitative research methods. Some of the disadvantages of interviews include. First, the interviewer may not deduce the right data if they are not consistent with the questions. Secondly, it may be time and energy consuming setting up the interview. Thirdly, interviews are best done on a one on one perspective, thus limitation in the numbers. Fourth, great interviews require great and skilled interviewe rs. Lastly the interviewer may ask biased questions and get the wrong replies thus could lead to a complication in the data collected (MBAOFFICIAL, 2010). What is the importance of interviews with regard to the business research topic? Interviews are used so as to find out information from customers about the products that are recommended and their importance. The main question a consumer could want to know from the company is whether the products do work or not and if they have a guarantee on safety. Interviews can act as a form of gathering information from the company that manufactures the product and can be used to enhance a discussion and share the benefits of using the products, thus the interview in this scenario acts as a point of creating awareness about the product to its consumers. When the consumer wants to know more about the nutritional products that they can use and supplement, interviews on the product(s) can be used to give such information in depth and with clarity . Focus groups: Are also referred to as focussed interviews or group depth interviews are structured in a manner where a group of people are asked more information about their opinions about a particular topic, product or idea. This is an open kind of discussion with the other members in the group. The researcher in this case their work is to give opportunity to people to speak and air their views and the researched also manage the group or acts as the group moderator. The advantage of a focus group is the personal experience and touch of experiences shared among the members. They do provide information based on experiences. Secondly, if a company has new products that it want to project to the market, focus groups could be used to test the product and get the opinion of the product entry in the market and acceptance by other consumers. Thirdly, if a product company wants to introduce a new product to the market, then a focus group is better place to determine the competitors and al so come up with solutions that could help keep at par with the competing product in terms of packaging, pricing and advertisements. The disadvantage of this is that the researcher has little control over the group as compared to a one on one interview. A second disadvantage is that too much time can be wasted on issues that are not relevant to the topic. Thirdly, the information collected may not be related to the topic since the group members may add additional comments to