International Marketing in Germany – From a cultural perspective

3.2
 
Research Design and Choice of Design 
Research design provides the basic plan that holds the essay together by structuring the 
research, guiding the data collection and analysis phase.
121
Choosing the right design makes 
the outcome of the study more likely to be consistent with the research objective. According 
to Kinnear there are different types of research within international marketing: exploratory, 
conclusive and performance-monitoring. The research depends on which information that is 
needed in the process of the essay. 
122
3.2.1
 
Exploratory Research 
The first type of research according to Kinnear is the exploratory research which is most 
useful at the beginning work phase of an essay. It is often used when there is a lack of 
knowledge within the area and it helps in the process of identification and definition of the 
problems in the essay as well as the way how to solve them. Important is to collect as much 
information as possible within the problem areas. Since this research is characterized by lack 
of knowledge, it is also characterized by flexibility. This helps in finding information that can 
lead to new ideas. Various procedures are common in the exploratory research, such as 
secondary sources, interviews or case observations. This phase gives guidance to the entire 
process of the essay.
123
3.2.2
 
Conclusive Research
Kinnear’s next type of research is called conclusive research. It can be divided into 
descriptive and casual research.
The main reason to apply descriptive research is to identify the cause of an event. However, it 
doesn’t explain the relationship between cause and effect. It is used when: picturing 
characteristics and frequency of phenomena, deciding associated variables and how they are 
related to each other, making predictions of phenomena. Important when performing good 
descriptive research is that the problem is clearly stated, the research objects are specified and 
that the information need is detailed.
124
Descriptive research comes mainly from secondary 
sources as well as interrogations of respondents. 
Casual research is used to explain and in the process of finding cause effect relationships. It is 
useful when there is a need of understanding the causing variables to an effect and when 
understanding how the relationship works between the effect and the cause. The main sources 
of data are interrogating respondents and experiments.
125
121
Kinnear, T. & Taylor. J., 
Marketing Research -An Applied Approach,
(1987), p. 123 
122
Ibid, p. 124 
123
Ibid, p. 125 
124
Ibid, p. 126-127 
125
Ibid, p. 128 

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