Industrial Research

Recent Articles

Below are the 3 most recent articles on this topic. These articles were published within the last three years and are only available to registered subscribers.

Local knowledge, global implications

Shanghai-based researcher Laura Mitchelson draws from her own experiences interviewing Chinese businesspeople to show readers the ins and outs of conducting business-to-business research in a vast and fast-paced country.

A global consensus

A large IT firm conducted qualitative research with small and medium businesses around the world to understand how the needs of those businesses differed from those of the larger companies with which the firm was more closely identified.

Data Use: Using the analytical hierarchy process

When there are five or fewer variables to test, the analytical hierarchy process works well. Variables are paired against each other and respondents pick the feature they like best. It can help determine how to bundle product features or how to structure payments options, for example.

Related Articles

There are 27 articles in our archive related to this topic. Below are 5 selected at random and available to all users of the site.

Constructing a new name

Allentown Pneumatic Gun interviewed 300 contractors to help guide its name change and new product launch.

You need a creative approach

Before implementing its actual study, Avon conducted a pilot study to learn how to overcome some of the cultural barriers when involving the Hispanic population. This article summarizes the pilot study’s results, providing guidelines for screening and interviewing, study location and timing, questionnaire construction and incentive structures.

Mystery shopping for manufacturers: What's happening at retail?

Mystery shopping is a key method used by many manufacturers to obtain objective information regarding what is actually happening at the retail level. This article discusses mystery shopping as a useful tool for manufacturers to fine-tune their training programs and incentivize salespeople.

The value of 'practiced ignorance' in cultural research

When it comes to ethnic and cross-cultural research, there are plenty of “experts” who will tell you how difficult it is. The situation isn’t as tough as the experts make it out to be, but worse! This article discusses applied ignorance in cultural research, referring to a consumer-products study focusing on Indonesia.

Survey defines lawn mower purchasing habits

This study used a mailed survey to mower purchasers to identify their characteristics and determine factors influencing their purchasing decisions. The researchers grouped the respondents into categories based upon the primary motivators of their decision-making process: brand name, features, price and outlet.

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