The qualitative analysis generated a set of new factors that can influence the attitudes and intentions consumers develop to visit a consumer fair for jewellery. The list of factors contains 32 new items, and it is of interest to test the correlations between the factors before including them in the revised research model. Thus, the problem to be investigated in this study is whether the 32 items can be grouped into a smaller set of factors.
This survey was conducted in September 2011 (21.09.11) and respondents are students at NHH. A total of 167 respondents were asked to answer the survey, and a total of 164 responses were handed in. Information about the number of men and women that answered the survey was noted. This information is not connected to the answers in the survey, however meant as a control of whether responses are based on both genders. Of the respondents 89 were men and 75 women.
6.1 Research design
A research design can be defined as “a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project” (Malhotra, 2007, p. 78). The research design builds the foundation for conducting a study, and we distinguish between three types of research, namely exploratory, descriptive and causal (Malhotra, 2007). Exploratory research gives the researcher insight and understanding of the problem, descriptive research determines the frequency or relationship between two factors, while causal research determine cause-and-effect relationships (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005). In this study the problem is clearly defined based on an already conducted qualitative research. Furthermore, it is not of interest to investigate cause and effect. The best research design for this study will thus be descriptive research.
Descriptive research is used to describe something, such as characteristics or functions. This research design often follows an exploratory research as it assumes that the researcher has a great deal of knowledge about the problem to be investigated. Descriptive research is based on already formulated hypotheses, and results are numbered. Therefore, this research design is highly structured and based on large samples (Malhotra, 2007). Descriptive research is utilized in situations where one or several variables are to be described, and the correlation between them. Descriptive research is employed to investigate the causal relationship
between the independent variables and the dependent variables. The assumption of causality is based on the results of the qualitative analysis; thus, the causality will not be tested.
6.2 Data collection
When collecting data the researcher can separate between secondary and primary data.
Secondary data are data that already exists, while primary data are new data collected for the purpose of the research (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005). Primary data is used to investigate which of the new factors to include in the revised research model, as there does not exist relevant secondary data.
Primary data can be collected by the use of communication or observation techniques.
Communication techniques refer to the use of either an oral or written questionnaire or survey, while observation techniques refers to the recording of behaviours. Thus, we distinguish between asking people and watching people (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005). For this study a communication technique was chosen to investigate the influence of the new factors on how consumers evaluate a consumer fair for jewellery. It is not possible to observe how the factors influence evaluations since consumer fairs for jewellery do not exist in Norway at the current date, and influencing factors are hard to observe.
The communication method is distinguished by its structure and level of disguise. Structure refers to how standardized the questionnaire is, and disguise refers to how much the respondent knows about the purpose of the study. The most frequently used method is undisguised and structured (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005), which is the method used for this survey.
6.2.1 Data collection method
In this study a questionnaire will be used to obtain the information needed. Respondents are asked to fill out the survey on paper, which is a quantitative method for collecting data. This is an efficient method as respondents are less inclined to say no when asked in person to answer the questionnaire. It is an inexpensive method and requires little time. Respondents were found by asking students around the NHH campus.
6.2.2 Scale of measurement
Self-report scales are the most common tools used to measure attitudes. One type of self-report scale is the Likert scale (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005). The scale is widely used and it requires respondents to indicate the level of agreement or disagreement on a scale that typically ranges from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. There are several advantages to using this scale. First of all, it is easy to construct and use, and respondents understand the scale without further difficulties (Malhotra, 2007). The scale can be employed to investigate the level of agreement or disagreement with statements regarding the independent variables that influence the evaluation of a consumer fair for jewellery.
Some researchers have used a seven-point Likert scale instead of a five-point scale (Tullis and Albert, 2008). In this study a seven-point scale is used and the ends are labelled as anchor points, while using a one to seven numerical scale between the ends. The number four (4) will thus equal “neither agree nor disagree”. The use of a seven-point scale will better map nuances in responses. It is correct to use the seven-point scale because the questions asked are easy to comprehend, and presumably it is not difficult for the respondents to develop an opinion about the factors, despite the novelty of the topic.
The scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” can be seen as ordinal because strongly agree (number seven) will be greater than “neither agree nor disagree” (number four). By ranging the answers from one to seven, one can argue that an interval scale is used.
However, one cannot be certain that the intervals between the numbers are meaningful and of exactly the same distance. According to Blankenship (2010) it is assumed that the intervals between each number on the Likert scale are equal, thus the Likert scale can be assumed to be an interval scale.
6.3 Sample procedure
The objective of this research, as with most other marketing research projects, is to gain information about the characteristics of a population. The population in this survey consist of consumers because the main problem focuses on the attitudes and intention of consumers to visit a consumer fair for jewellery.
There exist two sampling techniques, nonprobability sampling and probability sampling (Malhotra, 2007). Nonprobability sampling is based on the personal judgement of the
researcher of which respondents that should be included in the survey. It is the sampling technique used for this survey. The results are not statistically significant to the population because the likelihood of including a respondent is not equal for all respondents (Malhotra, 2007). The reason behind this choice is limited time and resources when conducting the surveys for the thesis. Respondents from NHH are used in this survey, as this is an easy, convenient, and inexpensive way of finding respondents.
6.3.1 Convenience sampling
Convenience sampling tries to get a sample of convenient elements, or respondents (Malhotra, 2007). The problem with these samples is that the researcher cannot know if the sample is representative for the target population (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005). The convenience sample for this study consists of students from NHH. The use of students as respondents has been criticized because it lowers external validity (Copeland et al., 1973;
Lamb and Stem, 1979; Rubenstein, 1982; Bergmann and Grahn, 1997), and it has been demonstrated that results are not generalizable to other situations (Ferber, 1977; Bergmann and Grahn, 1997). A study conducted by Bergmann and Grahn (1997) found that students could be representative for the general population with similar characteristics. Some studies in marketing and advertising has found students to be adequate representatives, while other studies have found students to lack the experience and knowledge required to be used as surrogates (Chang and Ho, 2004). Despite conflicting findings convenience sampling is utilized in this study, which means that the external validity and thus generalizability of the study decreases. A consequence is that the results from this study cannot be used for other consumers than those of the sample. The purpose of the study, and the thesis, is to be able to gain a larger understanding about the field of interest, and to create a basis for other researchers to investigate whether the results can be generalized to other populations than students at NHH.
6.4 Construction of questionnaire
Before being presented with the question, respondents read an introduction text where important constructs are defined. It is reasonable to believe that not all respondents are familiar with what a consumer fair is, and thus a short text explaining this event and a definition of jewellery was provided. This enables the respondents to answer the question
without guessing or making assumptions as to what a consumer fair for jewellery is.
Respondents were presented with the following context:
“Consumer fairs (also referred to as exhibitions and public fairs) are a type of fairs that attract mainly consumers and the public as visitors. At fairs, a large number of companies present a representative product range from one or more industry sectors and sell it or provide information about it for the purposes of sales promotion.
Jewellery can be defined as products of gold, silver and diamonds, such as necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets.
A consumer fair for jewellery is an event where jewellery brands and designers present their products to consumers in order to sell them or provide information about them”.
Respondents answered one statement that applies to all factors. This is an efficient method, as respondents will not become bored from reading the same statement 32 times, but rather reading the statement and filling in the factors listed. The statement to be answered is
“[factor] is important to me when evaluating a consumer fair for jewellery”, and factors are all the items in the revised items-list.
The questionnaire can be found in appendix 15.10. The survey was pre-tested among five respondents and also reviewed by my supervisor before being distributed in the actual survey. The pre-test resulted in minor changes on words and phrasing.
6.5 Factor analysis
Factor analysis refers to procedures to reduce and summarize data, and can be seen as a data-reduction tool. It allows us to reduce a large amount of variables that are correlated with each other into a smaller amount of underlying factors (Malhotra, 2007).
Factor analysis can be used to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of a scale (Gatignon, 2010). Discriminant validity refers to the situation where a construct must be different from another construct, which means that a measure must not correlate too highly with measures that it is not supposed to be related to (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2005).
Convergent validity refers to the extent a scale positively correlates with other measures of the same variable (Malhotra, 2007). Respondents should be systematic in their answers on items that measure the same construct. For the factor analysis to be appropriate variables
must correlate. Factor loadings should have values above 0,5 to determine which questions are related (Malhotra, 2007) and meet the minimal level of 0,3 to be accepted (Peterson, 2000). Factor analysis assumes continuous ratings and normality (Embretson and Reise, 2000). Questions on a scale from 1-7, such as the Likert scale, are therefore appropriate.
Results from the factor analysis are presented and discussed in the following chapter.