The folks at Rockhopper Research, Summit, N.J., have released the results from the 2009 incarnation of the annual Research Industry Trends study and, as you might expect, positivity was in short supply.

True, respondents generally felt that the worst of the bad times are over. But more troubling is the impression that the economic pressures have driven budget-conscious non-researchers to the Web, where they have discovered that DIY research tools and plain-old scouring of the Internet can sometimes satisfy their information-gathering needs.

That kind of “Who needs a researcher?” attitude, coupled with a general sense that research company margins are too high, is enough to make the industry’s blood run cold.

The study was fielded in August and drew 512 usable responses, largely from researchers on the vendor/provider side. Respondent groupings are as follows: full-service providers made up 42.6 percent; research consultants, 25.6 percent; research client/purchaser in an enterprise, 10.9 percent; data collection, 8 percent; qualitative research provider, 5.7 percent; ad agency, 3.7 percent; and academic/non-profit/medical researcher, 3.5 percent. (I was happy, of course, to see Quirks.com again at the top of list of online sources used to locate research providers!)

No one appears particularly sanguine about the state of things.

Against that backdrop, as the study’s excellent report states it, two key questions arise: How long can a healthy industry operate on low margins with insufficient resources? And, what should be done to promote the perception that research is a valuable undertaking that requires expertise and experience and that investing in quality makes good business sense?

Change seems to be the driving force across all techniques. While certain tried-and-true approaches are still popular, there appears to be a lot of dabbling or experimentation going on, whether it’s fue...