Applications of observational data collection methods to services marketing research are explored. Three key dimensions that distinguish the various forms of observational methods are presented. General applications of observational research to services marketing phenomena are posited. Specific applications of observational research to services quality are suggested. Issues concerning the implementation of direct human observation are considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bateson, John E. G.1985. "Researching the Service Consumer." In Services Marketing in a Changing Environment. Eds. Thomas M. Bloch, Gregory D. Upah, and Valarie A. Zeithaml. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 60-62.
2.
Bateson, John E. G.1989. Managing Services Marketing. Chicago: Dryden.
3.
Belk, Russell W.
, John F. Sherry, and Melanie Calendar. 1988. -"A Naturalistic Inquiry Into Buyer and Seller Behavior at a Swap Meet."Journal of Consumer Research14 (March): 449-470.
4.
Belk, Russell W.
, Melanie Wallendorf, and John F. Sherry. 1989. "The Sacred and the Profane in Consumer Behavior: Theodicy on the Odyssey."Journal of Consumer Research16 (June): 1-37.
5.
Berry, Leonard L.
and A. Parasuraman. 1991. Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality. New York: Free Press.
6.
Bitner, Mary Jo
, Bernard H. Booms, and Mary Stanfield Tetreault. 1990. "The Service Encounter: Diagnosing Favorable and Unfavorable Incidents."Journal of Marketing54 (January): 71-84.
7.
Bitner, Mary Jo
, Jody D. Nyquist, and Bernard H. Booms. 1985. "The Critical Incident as a Technique for Analyzing the Service Encounter." In Services Marketing in a Changing Environment. Eds. Thomas M. Block, Gregory K. Upah, and Valarie A. Zeithaml. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 48-51.
8.
Blumer, Herbert
. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
9.
Bogdan, Robert
and Stephen J. Taylor. 1975. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. New York: John Wiley.
10.
Brinberg, David
and Elizabeth C. Hirschman. 1986. "Multiple Orientations for the Conduct of Marketing Research: An Analysis of the Academic/Practitioner Distinction."Journal of Marketing50 (October): 161-173.
11.
Calder, Bobby J.
and Alice M. Tybout. 1987. "What Consumer Research Is..."Journal of Consumer Research14 (June): 136-140.
12.
Clist, Todd
. 1985. "Marriott Philosophies." In Services Marketing in a Changing Environment. Eds. Thomas M. Block, Gregory K. Upah, and Valarie A. Zeithaml. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 13-14.
13.
Crano, William D.
and Marilyn B. Brewer. 1986. "Observational and Archival Data." In Principles and Methods of Social Research. Eds. William D. Crano and Marilyn B. Brewer. Newton, MA: Allyn-Bacon, 279-309.
14.
Crosby, William E.1985. "American Airlines-A Commitment to Excellence." In Services Marketing in a Changing Environment. Eds. Thomas M. Block, Gregory K. Upah, and Valarie A. Zeithaml. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 10-12.
15.
Dentin, Norman K.1989. Interpretive Interactionism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
16.
Eiglier, Pierre
and Eric Langeard. 1977. "Services as Systems: Marketing Implications." In Marketing Consumer Services: New Insights. Eds. Pierre Eiglier, Eric Langeard, Christopher H. Lovelock, John E. G. Bateson, and Robert F. Young. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute, 83-102.
17.
Flanagan, John C.1954. "The Critical Incident Technique."Psychological Bulletin51 (July): 327-357.
18.
Frederichs, Jorgen
and Harmut Ludtke. 1975. Participant Observation: Theory and Practice. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
19.
Grönroos, Christian
. 1982. Strategic Management and Marketing in the Service Sector. Helsigfors: Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration.
20.
Grönroos, Christian1984. "A Service Quality Model and Its Marketing Implications."European Journal of Marketing18 (4): 36-44.
21.
Grove, Stephen J.
and Raymond P. Fisk. 1990. "Impression Management in Services Marketing: A Dramaturgical Perspective." In Impression Management in the Organization. Eds. Robert A. Giacalone and Paul Rosenfeld. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 427-438.
22.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C.1986. "Humanistic Inquiry in Marketing Research: Philosophy, Method, and Criteria."Journal of Marketing Research23 (August): 237-249.
23.
Hudson, Laurel Anderson
and Julie L. Ozanne. 1988. "Alternative Ways of Seeking Knowledge in Consumer Research."Journal of Consumer Research14 (March): 508-521.
24.
Hunt, Shelby D.1989. "Naturalistic, Humanistic, and Interpretive Inquiry: Challenges and Ultimate Potential." In Interpretive Consumer Research. Ed. Elizabeth C. Hirschman. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 185-198.
25.
Jorgensen, Danny L.1989. Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
26.
Kidder, Louise H.
and Charles M. Judd. 1986. Research Methods in Social Relations. Fifth Edition. New York: CBS College Publishing, Chapter 11.
27.
Kirk, Jerome
and Marc L. Miller. 1986. Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
28.
Lincoln, Yvonna S.
and Egon G. Guba. 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
29.
Lovelock, Christopher H.1991. Services Marketing. Second Edition.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
30.
Marshall, Catherine
and Gretchen B. Rossman. 1989. Designing Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
31.
McClung, Jacquetta
, Stephen J. Grove and Marie Adele Hughes. 1989. "An Investigation of the Impact and Situation as Determinants of Customers Approach Skills in Retailing." In Proceedings: Summer Educators' Conference of the American Marketing Association. Eds. Paul Bloomet al.Chicago: American Marketing Association, 92.
Miles, Matthew B.
and A. Michael Huberman. 1984. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
34.
Ozanne, Julie L.
and Laurel Anderson Hudson. 1989. "Exploring Diversity in Consumer Research." In Interpretive Consumer Research. Ed. Elizabeth C. Hirschman. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1-9.
35.
Parasuraman, A.1991. Marketing Research. Second Edition.Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
36.
Parasuraman, A.
, Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry. 1985. "A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications."Journal of Marketing49 (Fall): 41-50.
37.
Parasuraman, A.
, Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry. 1986. SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Customer Perception of Service Quality. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.
38.
Roethlisberger, Fritz J.
and William J. Dickson. 1939. Management and the Worker. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
39.
Rosenthal, Robert
. 1966. Experiment Effects in Behavioral Research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
40.
Rossman, Gretchen B.
and Bruce L. Wilson. 1985. "Numbers and Words: Combining Quantitative and Qualitative in a Single Large-Scale Evaluation Study."Evaluation Review9 (5): 627-643.
41.
Sechrest, Lee
. 1979. New Directions for Methodology of Behavioral Science: Unobtrusive Measurement Today. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
42.
Shostack, G. Lynn
. 1977. "Breaking Free from Product Marketing."Journal of Marketing41 (April): 73-80.
43.
Shostack, G. Lynn1987. "Service Positioning Through Structural Change."Journal of Marketing51 (January): 34-43.
44.
Shostack, G. Lynn
and Jane Kingman-Brundage. 1991. "How to Design a Service." In The AMA Handbook of Marketing for the Service Industries. Eds. Carole A. Congram and Margaret L. Friedman. New York: AMACOM, 243-261.
45.
Solomon, Michael R.
, Carol F. Surprenant, John A. Czepiel, and Evelyn G. Gutman. 1985. "A Role Theory Perspective on Dyadic Interactions: The Service Encounter."Journal of Marketing49 (Winter): 99-111.
46.
Surprenant, Carol F.
and Michael R. Solomon. 1987. "Predictability and Personalization in the Service Encounter."Journal of Marketing51 (April): 86-96.
47.
Swartz, Teresa A.
and Stephen W. Brown. 1989. "Consumer and Provider Expectations and Experiences in Evaluating Professional Service Quality."Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science17 (Spring): 189-195.
48.
Wallendorf, Melanie
and Russell W. Belk. 1989. "Assessing Trustworthiness in Naturalistic Consumer Research." In Interpretive Consumer Research. Ed. Elizabeth C. Hirschman. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 69-84.
49.
Webb, Eugene J.
, Donald T. Campbell, Richard D. Schwartz, and Lee Sechrest. 1966. Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in the Social Sciences. Chicago: Rand McNally.
50.
Weber, Robert Philip
. 1985. Basic Content Analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
51.
Zeithaml, Valarie A.
, Leonard L. Berry, and A. Parasuraman. 1988. "Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service Quality."Journal of Marketing52 (April): 35-48.
52.
Zeithaml, Valarie A.
, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard L. Berry. 1985. "Problems and Strategies in Services Marketing."Journal of Marketing, 49 (Spring): 33-46.
53.
Zeithaml, Valarie A.
, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard L. Berry. 1990. Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations. New York: Free Press.
