European journal of marketing action research in marketing

Action research in marketingChad Perry and Evert Gummesson Keywords Action learning, Marketing, Learning methods, Marketing strategy Develops a definition of action research that is part

ISBN 0-86176-932-5 ISSN 0309-0566

European Journal

of Marketing

Action research in marketing

Guest Editor: Chad Perry

Volume 38 Number 3/4 2004

www.emeraldinsight.com

Access this journal online 291

Action research in marketing

Chad Perry and Evert Gummesson _ 310

Action research reviewed: a market-oriented

approach

David Ballantyne 321

Improving customer relationship management

through database/Internet marketing:

a theory-building action research project

Chris O’Leary, Sally Rao and Chad Perry 338

CONTENTS

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Action research in turbulent environments:

an example in e-commerce prioritisation

Elizabeth Daniel and Hugh N Wilson _ 355Towards rigour in action research:

a case study in marketing planning

Hugh N Wilson 378Generalising results of an action research project in

one work place to other situations: principles andpractice

Frank Thompson and Chad Perry 401Adapting action research to marketing: a dialogic

argument between theory and practice

Steven M Kates and Judy Robertson _ 418There can be no learning without action and no

action without learning: a case study

Damien McLoughlin _ 433Uncovering ‘‘theories-in-use’’: building luxury wine

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Action research in marketing

Chad Perry and Evert Gummesson

Keywords Action learning, Marketing,

Learning methods, Marketing strategy

Develops a definition of action research that is

particularly suitable for marketing and based

on the articles in this issue of European

Journal of Marketing, emphasising the breadth

of action research in marketing and its

distinctive interest in analytic generalisation,

that is, in building a theory that extends

beyond the particular situation that is being

action researched to other situations The

three sections of this commentary include:

definition of traditional action research, action

learning and case research Second, drawing of

four implications from the articles within this

special issue about how action research can be

done in marketing Finally, presents a broad

definition of action research in marketing.

Action research reviewed:

a market-oriented approach

David Ballantyne

Keywords Action learning,

Customer orientation,

Knowledge management, Market orientation,

Relationship marketing, Australia

The purpose of this article is to provide an

understanding of the methodology of action

research, especially its use in a marketing

context A retrospective account of a

market-oriented action research project in

which the author was involved is provided in

the form of a summative evaluation of the

methodology used The status of research

claims for action research in scholarly

publications is discussed and found to be

problematic A hermeneutic case research

pathway is recommended as a solution.

Links between action research as

methodology and internal marketing as

strategy are made A conclusion is reached

that the basis of market-oriented action

research is “knowledge renewal” This is

achieved through an iterative process of action

and learning, facilitated by the relationships

formed between those involved.

Improving customer relationship management through database/Internet marketing: a theory-building action research project

Chris O’Leary, Sally Rao and Chad Perry Keywords Internet marketing, Database marketing, Customer relations, Action learning

Firms have only just begun to use the Internet

to obtain customer information in their database marketing processes to enhance customer relationship management This research uses an action research approach to develop a new framework about how they can

do this The action research project was carried out in a large Australian database company because no other sources of empirical information about the topic were available and it could provide rich findings about an under-researched, practical area.

Results showed that integration of the Internet and database marketing enhances the effectiveness of customer relationship management practices For example, the Internet offers benefits such as increased consumer data collection accuracy and speed, cost savings, greater interaction and better relationships with customers This research also identifies that organizational culture, top management support and collaboration between marketing and IT teams need to be

in place to provide a supportive environment that is critical for the success of the integration.

Action research in turbulent environments: an example in e-commerce prioritisation Elizabeth Daniel and Hugh N Wilson Keywords E-commerce, Action learning, Predictive techniques

Planning tools originating from logical rational models of strategy formation still have their place in e-commerce, albeit complemented with elements of incrementalism and vision Tools for prioritisation specifically, though, are unvalidated in this sphere Action research would seem to be well suited to turbulent

Abstracts and keywords

293

European Journal of Marketing Vol 38 No 3/4, 2004 Abstracts and keywords

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

environments such as e-commerce, due to its immediacy of outcome, its future orientation, its respect for practitioners as co-producers of knowledge and its cyclical process An action research study is described which modifies the directional policy matrix (DPM) to take account of competition between business models, not just between individual organisations Conclusions are drawn on the wider applicability of the matrix, the role of strategy tools in situations of uncertainty, and the role of action research in reducing the gap between theory and practice.

Towards rigour in action research:

a case study in marketing planning Hugh N Wilson

Keywords Action learning, Marketing planning, Decision support systems, Data analysis, Bias

A research study is described exploring the potential of decision support systems to improve marketing planning practice, using

a combination of project action research and case research approaches The paper focuses

on solutions to two practical methodological problems: how to analyse action research data

in as rigorous a way as possible; and how to minimise the biases which can arise from the action researcher’s dual role as participant and observer In particular, the paper describes an adaptation of the research design termed analytic induction to the complex, multi-propositional theory common in action research, and indeed in much qualitative management research The findings of the study itself are also reported briefly.

Generalising results of an action research project in one work place to other situations: principles and practice Frank Thompson and Chad Perry

Keywords Action learning, Analytical methods, Management research, Paradigms

An action research project is usually restricted

to improving one workgroup’s practices within

one organisation However, after that project is done, some academics or consultants may want

to try to generalise the findings from that one particular project to several other situations The aim of this paper is to identify the two scientific paradigms appropriate for each of these two purposes, and to identify the criteria that could be used to judge how well each purpose is achieved Essentially, it argues that the critical theory paradigm underlies the action research project of a workgroup within one organisation, and the realism paradigm underlies the generalisation from those findings to other situations Criteria from the two paradigms can be used to evaluate the validity and reliability of these two processes.

An example of how this has been done in practice is provided.

Adapting action research to marketing:

a dialogic argument between theory and practice

Steven M Kates and Judy Robertson Keywords Action learning, Organizational theory, Change management, Organizational culture

The purpose of this article is to offer a perspective on adapting action research principles and methods in academic marketing research contexts From combined theoretical and practical perspectives, the article provides a dialogical argument about the issues associated with implementing action research, addressing three important and related questions First, are marketers specifically (and people in organizations, more generally) truly reflective? Is reflection suited

to some organizations’ authoritarian realities? Second, how is a strong organizational culture

a barrier to change and further learning, and how might this difficulty be overcome by action research? Third, what is the role of the researcher in the process, and what skills, knowledge, and influence must this person have to successfully implement an action research program? The article concludes by proposing that an incremental orientation to change and intervention effectiveness is needed for these approaches to work in demanding marketing contexts.

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There can be no learning without

action and no action without learning:

a case study

Damien McLoughlin

Keywords Action learning,

Marketing theory, Education,

Curriculum development

The purpose of this paper is to present an

example of action learning in marketing –

the unique postgraduate programme in

marketing called the marketing

development programme (MDP) This

uniqueness arises in three main ways.

First, the MDP is open only to those

students with no work experience Second,

it employs action learning as the central

pedagogy rather than an add-on Finally, it

is a rolling programme with overlapping

intakes and as such appears to have no

beginning and no end There are two

important streams of learning to be

harvested from such a programme First,

the MDP has for more than 20 years

educated young marketers through

affording them the opportunity to learn

from marketing action within a supportive

learning environment The second is that

there can be no action without learning, that

is, the MDP has learned from its experience

and created new learning for participants as

a result The paper concludes by considering the implications of the MDP for marketing education, theory and practice.

Research and practitioner experience suggests that these brands focus on building abstract,

“timeless” images or dreams However, no systematic research has been carried out on the processes and strategies of luxury marketers Based upon case studies in the luxury wine trade, this research sought to uncover the tacit processes underlying the creation and maintenance of luxury wine brands Results highlight that luxury brands are a complex combination of dedication to product quality, a strong set of values, tacit understanding of marketing, a focus on detail, and strategic emergence.

Abstracts and keywords

295

French abstracts

Recherche active en mercatique Chad Perry et Evert Gummesson Mots-cle´s Apprentissage actif, Mercatique, Me´thodes d’apprentissage, Strate´gie de mercatique L’article met au point une de´finition de la recherche active qui convient particulie`rement bien a` la mercatique et qui est fonde´e sur les articles publie´s dans le nume´ro de European Journal of Marketing que voici; il souligne l’ampleur de la recherche active en mercatique et l’inte´reˆt distinct qu’elle montre envers la ge´ne´ralisation analytique, c’est-a`-dire l’e´laboration d’une the´orie qui va au-dela` de la situation particulie`re, qui est soumise a` la recherche active et applique´e a` d’autres situations Le commentaire que voici comprend les trois sections suivantes: il de´finit tout d’abord

la recherche active traditionnelle, l’apprentissage actif et la recherche sur des cas pratiques Il tire ensuite quatre implications des articles renferme´s dans le nume´ro spe´cial que voici, concernant la manie`re dont la recherche active peut eˆtre entreprise en mercatique, et pour terminer il pre´sente une de´finition ge´ne´rale de la recherche active en mercatique.

Examen de la recherche active: une approche oriente´e vers le marche´

David Ballantyne Mots-cle´s Apprentissage actif, Orientation vers le consommateur, Mercatique interne, Gestion des connaissances, Orientation du marche´, Mercatique des rapports

Le but de l’article que voici est de permettre de comprendre la me´thodologie poursuivie par la recherche active, surtout son utilisation dans un contexte de mercatique Il donne un compte- rendu re´trospectif sur un projet de recherche active oriente´ sur le marche´, dans lequel l’auteur fut implique´; ce compte-rendu prend la forme d’une e´valuation sommaire de la me´thodologie utilise´e Il discute l’e´tat actuel des demandes pour une recherche active dans les publications e´rudites et de´couvre la pre´sence de proble`mes Il recommande l’herme´neutique comme solution pour la recherche pratique Il e´tablit des rapports entre la recherche active en tant que me´thodologie et la mercatique interne en tant que strate´gie Il arrive a` la conclusion que le fondement de la recherche active oriente´e vers le marche´ re´side dans le ‘‘renouveau des connaissances’’ Ce renouveau s’obtient par un processus ite´ratif d’action et d’apprentissage, facilite´ par les rapports qui se forment entre les personnes implique´es.

Ame´liorer la gestion des relations avec les clients au moyen de la mercatique sur bases de donne´es/par l’Internet: un projet de recherche active qui permet d’e´laborer une the´orie

Chris O’Leary, Sally Rao et Chad Perry Mots-cle´s Mercatique par Internet, Mercatique sur base de donne´es, Relations avec les clients, Apprentissage actif

Les entreprises viennent a` peine de commencer a` utiliser l’Internet pour obtenir des informations sur leurs clients dans leurs processus de mercatique sur base de donne´es qui leur permettent d’ame´liorer la gestion des relations avec leurs clients La recherche que voici se sert d’une me´thode de recherche active afin de mettre au point une nouvelle structure qui leur permette de le re´aliser Le projet de recherche active fut entrepris dans une grosse socie´te´ australienne de bases de donne´es, parce qu’aucune autre source d’information empirique n’e´tait disponible sur le sujet et qu’elle permettait de fournir des informations pre´cieuses sur un domaine pratique qui avait fait l’objet de peu de recherches Les re´sultats indiquaient que l’inte´gration de la mercatique par l’Internet et sur bases de donne´es permet de rehausser l’efficacite´ des pratiques de gestion des relations avec les clients Par exemple, l’Internet offre les avantages suivants: une pre´cision et une rapidite´ accrues lors de la collecte des donne´es sur les clients, une re´duction des couˆts, une inte´gration plus grande et de meilleures relations avec les clients La recherche que voici identifie e´galement que la culture organisationnelle, le soutien de

la direction supe´rieure et la collaboration entre l’e´quipe de mercatique et l’e´quipe d’informatique doivent eˆtre en place pour pouvoir fournir l’environnement de soutien qui est essentiel pour le succe`s de l’inte´gration.

Recherche active dans les environnements turbulents: un exemple dans la

prioritisation du commerce e´lectronique

Elizabeth Daniel et Hugh N Wilson

Mots-cle´s Commerce e´lectronique, Apprentissage actif, Techniques pre´dictives

Les outils de planification, provenant de mode`les de formulation de la strate´gie qui sont

rationnels et logiques, occupent toujours une place dans le commerce e´lectronique, bien qu’ils

soient comple´te´s par des e´le´ments d’incre´mentalisme et de vision Cependant, la validite´ des

outils de prioritisation, plus spe´cifiquement, est infirme´e dans cette sphe`re La recherche active

semblerait bien convenir aux environnements turbulents, comme le commerce e´lectronique, en

raison de l’imme´diacite´ de ses re´sultats, de son orientation future, de son respect pour les

praticiens en tant que coproducteurs des connaissances et de son processus cyclique L’article

de´crit une e´tude de recherche active qui modifie la matrice de politique directionnelle

(directional policy matrix DPM) pour prendre en conside´ration la concurrence entre les mode`les

commerciaux, et pas seulement entre les organisations individuelles Il tire des conclusions

quant a` l’applicabilite´ plus ge´ne´rale de la matrice, au roˆle des outils de strate´gie dans des

situations d’incertitude, et au roˆle de la recherche active, lorsqu’il s’agit de re´duire la lacune qui

existe entre la the´orie et la pratique.

Aspirer a` la rigueur en recherche active: une e´tude pratique dans la planification

de la mercatique

Hugh N Wilson

Mots-cle´s Apprentissage actif, Planification de la mercatique, Syste`mes de soutien de´cisionnel,

Analyse des donne´es, Pre´juge´s

L’article de´crit une e´tude de recherche en explorant les possibilite´s offertes par les syste`mes

de soutien de´cisionnel d’ame´liorer la pratique de planification de la mercatique, en combinant

la me´thode de recherche active sur un projet et la me´thode de recherche sur des cas pratiques.

Il se concentre sur les solutions que l’on peut apporter a` deux proble`mes me´thodologiques

pratiques: comment analyser les donne´es de la recherche active de manie`re aussi rigoureuse

que possible, et comment re´duire au minimum les pre´juge´s pouvant provenir du roˆle double

que joue le chercheur actif, en tant que participant et en tant qu’observateur Plus

spe´cifiquement, il de´crit l’adaptation du mode`le de recherche, appele´ induction analytique, a` la

the´orie complexe et multi-propositionnelle qui est commune en recherche active, et certes dans

de nombreuses recherches de gestion qualitatives Il de´crit e´galement brie`vement les re´sultats

de l’e´tude elle-meˆme.

Ge´ne´raliser les re´sultats d’un projet de recherche active, entrepris dans un lieu de

travail, pour les appliquer a` d’autres situations: principes et pratiques

Frank Thompson et Chad Perry

Mots-cle´s Apprentissage actif, Me´thodes analytiques, Recherche en gestion, Paradigmes

Un projet de recherche active se limite normalement a` l’ame´lioration des pratiques d’un groupe

de travail au sein d’une seule organisation Cependant, une fois ce projet termine´, certains

acade´miciens ou consultants voudront peut-eˆtre essayer de ge´ne´raliser les re´sultats de ce projet

particulier et les appliquer a` plusieurs autres situations Le but de l’article que voici est

d’identifier les deux paradigmes scientifiques qui conviennent a` chacun de ces deux buts, et

d’identifier les crite`res qui pourraient servir pour de´terminer la qualite´ du but obtenu.

Essentiellement, nous postulons que le paradigme the´orique critique est sous-jacent au projet de

recherche active d’un groupe de travail au sein d’une organisation et que le paradigme re´aliste

est sous-jacent a` la ge´ne´ralisation provenant de ces re´sultats et a` leur application a` d’autres

situations Les crite`res emprunte´s aux deux paradigmes peuvent servir pour e´valuer la validite´

et la fiabilite´ de ces deux proce´de´s L’article donne un exemple de la manie`re dont ceci a e´te´ fait

en pratique.

French abstracts

297

Adapter la recherche active a` la mercatique: un argument dialogique entre la the´orie et la pratique

Steven M Kates et Judy Robertson Mots-cle´s Apprentissage actif, The´orie organisationnelle, Gestion du changement, Culture organisationnelle

Le but de l’article que voici est d’offrir une perspective sur l’adaptation des principes et me´thodes

de la recherche active pour les appliquer aux contextes de la recherche acade´mique en mercatique En combinant notre perspective the´orique a` notre perspective pratique, nous offrons

un argument dialogique concernant les questions associe´es a` la mise en oeuvre de la recherche active, et nous abordons trois questions apparente´es importantes Tout d’abord, les mercaticiens,

en particulier (et plus ge´ne´ralement, les personnes se trouvant a` l’inte´rieur des organisations) sont-ils vraiment re´fle´chis? La re´flexion convient-elle a` certaines des re´alite´s autoritaires pre´sentes dans les organisations? Deuxie`mement, comment une culture organisationnelle forte repre´sente-t-elle un obstacle au changement et a` l’apprentissage poursuivi, et comment cette difficulte´ peut-elle eˆtre surmonte´e au moyen de la recherche active? Troisie`mement, quel roˆle le chercheur joue-t-il dans le processus, et quelles sont les compe´tences, les connaissances et l’influence requises de cette personne pour pouvoir mettre en oeuvre, avec succe`s, un programme

de recherche active? Pour conclure, nous sugge´rons qu’une orientation incre´mentielle envers le changement et une intervention efficace sont ne´cessaires pour que ces approches puissent re´ussir dans des contextes de mercatique exigeants.

Il ne peut pas y avoir d’apprentissage sans action et pas d’action sans apprentissage: une e´tude pratique

Damien McLoughlin Mots-cle´s Apprentissage actif, The´orie de mercatique, E ´ ducation, Mise au point du curriculum

L’article que voici a pour but de pre´senter un exemple d’apprentissage actif en mercatique le programme de mercatique de troisie`me cycle, appele´ ‘‘de´veloppement de la mercatique’’ (marketing development programme MDP) Le caracte`re unique de ce programme a trois facettes principales Tout d’abord, le MDP n’est accessible qu’aux e´tudiants n’ayant aucune expe´rience de travail Deuxie`mement, il se sert de l’apprentissage actif comme pe´dagogie centrale plutoˆt que comme supple´ment, Finalement, le programme est continuellement en cours

et les recrutements d’e´tudiants se chevauchent; c’est pourquoi il ne semble avoir ni commencement ni fin Un programme de ce genre renferme deux courants d’apprentissage principaux Tout d’abord, pendant plus de 20 ans, le MDP a e´duque´ les jeunes mercaticiens en leur offrant la possibilite´ d’apprendre, a` partir de la mercatique active, dans un environnement d’apprentissage supportif Deuxie`mement, il ne peut pas y avoir d’action sans apprentissage: le MDP a retire´ des lec¸ons de son expe´rience et, en conse´quence, il a cre´e´ de nouvelles lec¸ons pour les participants L’article conclut en conside´rant les implications du MDP pour l’e´ducation en mercatique, ainsi que pour la mercatique the´orique et pratique.

Re´ve´ler les ‘‘the´ories utilise´es’’: e´laborer des marques de vin de luxe Michael Beverland

Mots-cle´s Vins, Noms de marques, Image de marque, Premie`res marques Malgre´ la haute conside´ration dont jouissent de nombreuses marques de luxe internationales, rares sont les connaissances concernant les processus qui permettent de cre´er ces marques et comment elles maintiennent leur position sur le marche´ Les expe´riences des chercheurs et praticiens sugge`rent que ces marques se concentrent sur l’e´laboration d’images ou de reˆves a` caracte`re abstrait et ‘‘intemporel’’ Cependant, aucune recherche syste´matique n’a e´te´ entreprise sur les processus et strate´gies mises en oeuvre par les mercaticiens de marques de luxe La recherche que voici se fonde sur les e´tudes pratiques entreprises dans le commerce des vins de luxe; elle s’efforce de re´ve´ler les processus tacites qui sous-tendent la cre´ation et le maintien des marques de vin de luxe Les re´sultats indiquent que les marques de luxe constituent une notion complexe qui combine l’attachement a` la qualite´ d’un produit, un ensemble de valeurs puissant,

la compre´hension tacite de la mercatique, l’attention au de´tail et l’e´mergence de strate´gies.

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German abstracts

Aktionsforschung im Marketing

Chad Perry und Evert Gummesson

Stichworte Aktionslernen, Marketing, Lernmethoden, Marketingstrategie

Die Autoren erarbeiten eine Definition der Aktionsforschung, die besonders auf den

Marketingbereich zugeschnitten ist und auf den Artikeln in dieser Ausgabe des European

Journal of Marketing beruht Besonders hervorgehoben wird das breite Spektrum der

Aktionsforschung im Marketing und ihr spezielles Interesse an einer analytischen

Generalisierung der Aufstellung von Theorien, die u¨ ber die im Rahmen der

Aktionsforschung untersuchte Situation hinaus auch andere Situationen einbeziehen Dieser

Kommentar untergliedert sich in drei Bereiche: Als Erstes werden die traditionelle

Aktionsforschung, das Aktionslernen und die Fallforschung definiert Anschließend werden

aus den Artikeln in dieser Sonderausgabe vier Schlussfolgerungen bezu¨glich der Anwendung

der Aktionsforschung im Marketing gezogen Zuletzt wird eine breite Definition der

Aktionsforschung im Marketing vorgestellt.

Aktionsforschung im U ¨ berblick: ein marktorientierter Ansatz

David Ballantyne

Stichworte Aktionslernen, Kundenorientierung, internes Marketing, Wissensmanagement,

Marktorientierung, Beziehungsmarketing

Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, ein Versta¨ndnis fu¨r die Methodik der Aktionsforschung und

insbesondere ihre Anwendung im Marketingkontext zu vermitteln Ein marktorientiertes

Aktionsforschungsprojekt, an dem der Autor beteiligt war, wird retrospektiv in Form einer

summativen Evaluation der verwendeten Methodik beschrieben Der Stellenwert der

Forschungsaussagen in wissenschaftlichen Publikationen wird untersucht und fu¨r

problematisch befunden Als Lo¨sung wird ein hermeneutischer Fallforschungsansatz

vorgeschlagen Es werden Verbindungen zwischen der Aktionsforschung als Methodik und

dem internen Marketing als Strategie hergestellt Der Autor kommt zu der Schlussfolgerung,

dass die Grundlage der marktorientierten Aktionsforschung die ‘‘Wissenserneuerung’’ ist Diese

wird durch einen iterativen Prozess der Aktion und des Lernens erzielt, der durch die

Beziehungen zwischen den Beteiligten gefo¨rdert wird.

Verbesserung des Managements von Kundenbeziehungen durch Datenbank-/

Internet-Marketing: ein theoriebildendes Aktionsforschungsprojekt

Chris O’Leary, Sally Rao und Chad Perry

Stichworte Internetmarketing, Datenbankmarketing, Kundenbeziehungen, Aktionslernen

Firmen haben gerade erst damit begonnen, das Internet im Rahmen des

Datenbankmarketing-Prozesses zur Sammlung von Kundeninformationen zu nutzen, um das Management ihrer

Kundenbeziehungen zu verbessern Die hier beschriebene Untersuchung verwendet einen

Aktionsforschungsansatz, um hierfu¨ r einen neuen Rahmen zu entwickeln Das

Aktionsforschungsprojekt wurde in einer großen australischen Datenbankfirma durchgefu¨hrt,

weil keine anderen empirischen Informationsquellen zu dem Thema zur Verfu¨gung standen und

weil diese umfassende Einblicke in einen bisher nur mangelhaft erforschten, praktischen

Bereich liefern konnte Die Ergebnisse haben gezeigt, dass die Integration des Internet- und

Datenbank-Marketings die Effektivita¨t des Managements von Kundenbeziehungen verbessert.

Zu den Vorteilen des Internets geho¨ren eine genauere und schnellere Sammlung von

Kundendaten, Kosteneinsparungen sowie eine sta¨rkere Interaktion und bessere Beziehung

mit den Kunden Die Untersuchung hat zudem gezeigt, dass eine entsprechende

Organisationskultur, eine Unterstu¨tzung seitens der Unternehmensleitung und eine gute

Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Marketing- und IT-Teams gegeben sein mu¨ssen, um das

unterstu¨tzende Umfeld zu schaffen, das fu¨r eine erfolgreiche Integration wichtig ist.

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European Journal of Marketing Vol 38 No 3/4, 2004 German abstracts

#Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Aktionsforschung in turbulentem Umfeld: Beispiel E-Commerce-Priorisierung Elizabeth Daniel und Hugh N Wilson

Stichworte E-Commerce, Aktionslernen, pra¨diktive Techniken Planungsinstrumente, die von logischen rationalen Modellen der Strategiebildung abgeleitet sind, haben im E-Commerce noch immer ihren Platz, sie werden jedoch durch andere Elemente wie den Inkrementalismus und die Vision erga¨nzt Insbesondere die Instrumente, die zur Priorisierung verwendet werden, sind in diesem Bereich bisher jedoch noch nicht validiert worden Eine Aktionsforschung scheint in turbulenten Umfeldern wie dem E-Commerce aus verschiedenen Gru¨nden besonders geeignet: wegen der Direktheit ihres Ergebnisses, ihrer Zukunftsorientierung, ihrer Beru¨cksichtigung von Praktikern als Koproduzenten des Wissens und wegen ihrer Zyklizita¨t Es wird eine Aktionsforschungsstudie beschrieben, die die Matrix der Richtungspolitik (Directional Policy Matrix, DPM) dahingehend modifiziert, dass auch der Wettbewerb zwischen den Business-Modellen und nicht nur der zwischen den einzelnen Organisationen beru¨cksichtigt wird Es werden Schlussfolgerungen hinsichtlich der breiteren Anwendbarkeit der Matrix, des Stellenwerts von Strategieinstrumenten in Unsicherheitssituationen und der Rolle der Aktionsforschung bei der U ¨ berbru¨ckung der Kluft zwischen Theorie und Praxis gezogen.

Mehr Strenge in der Aktionsforschung: eine Fallstudie zur Marketingplanung Hugh N Wilson

Stichworte Aktionslernen, Marketingplanung, entscheidungsunterstu¨tzende Systeme, Datenanalyse, systematischer Fehler

E s w i r d e i n e F o r s c h u n g s s t u d i e b e s c h r i e b e n , d i e u n t e r s u c h t h a t , w i e entscheidungsunterstu¨tzende Systeme durch eine Kombination aus projektbezogenen Aktionsforschungs- und Fallforschungsansa¨tzen die Marketingplanung verbessern ko¨nnen Der Artikel konzentriert sich auf die Lo¨sung zweier praktischer methodologischer Probleme: die Frage, wie Aktionsforschungsdaten so streng wie mo¨glich analysiert werden ko¨nnen, und die Frage, wie sich die systematischen Fehler, die sich aus der Doppelrolle des Aktionsforschers als Teilnehmer und Beobachter ergeben ko¨nnen, reduzieren lassen Der Artikel beschreibt insbesondere die Anwendung einer speziellen Forschungsanlage, der ‘‘analytischen Induktion’’, auf die komplexen, mehrere Aussagen einschließenden Theorien, die in der Aktionsforschung und in vielen anderen Bereichen der qualitativen Managementforschung anzutreffen sind Die Ergebnisse der Studie werden ebenfalls kurz vorgestellt.

Generalisierung der Ergebnisse eines Aktionsforschungsprojekts an einem Arbeitsplatz auf andere Situationen: Prinzipien und Praxis

Frank Thompson und Chad Perry Stichworte Aktionslernen, Analysemethoden, Managementforschung, Paradigmen Aktionsforschungsprojekte beschra¨nken sich meist darauf, die Praktiken einer einzelnen Arbeitsgruppe innerhalb einer Organisation zu verbessern Es kann jedoch vorkommen, dass nach Abschluss des Projekts Akademiker oder Berater daran interessiert sind, die Ergebnisse dieses bestimmten Projekts zu generalisieren und auf andere Situationen anzuwenden Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, die fu¨r diese beiden Zwecke passenden wissenschaftlichen Paradigmen zu ermitteln und Kriterien zu identifizieren, anhand derer sich beurteilen la¨sst, wie gut die jeweiligen Zwecke erfu¨llt worden sind Im Wesentlichen wird argumentiert, dass das Paradigma der Kritischen Theorie dem Aktionsforschungsprojekt einer Arbeitsgruppe innerhalb einer Organisation zugrunde liegt, wa¨hrend das Realismus-Paradigma der Generalisierung dieser Erkenntnisse und ihrer Anwendung auf andere Situationen zugrunde liegt Die Kriterien der beiden Paradigmen ko¨nnen dazu verwendet werden, die Validita¨t und Zuverla¨ssigkeit der beiden Prozesse zu evaluieren Ein Beispiel dafu¨r, wie dies in der Praxis geschehen kann, wird angefu¨hrt.

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Anpassung der Aktionsforschung an das Marketing: ein dialogisches Argument

zwischen Theorie und Praxis

Steven M Kates und Judy Robertson

Stichworte Aktionslernen, Organisationstheorie, Vera¨nderungsmanagement,

Organisationskultur

Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, eine Perspektive fu¨r die Anpassung der Aktionsforschungsprinzipien

und -methoden im akademischen Marktforschungskontext zu geben Durch Kombination

unserer theoretischen und praktischen Perspektiven pra¨sentieren wir ein dialogisches

Argument, das sich mit Themen der Implementierung der Aktionsforschung befasst Dabei

werden drei wichtige, miteinander in Zusammenhang stehende Fragen angesprochen: Erstens:

Sind Marketer im Besonderen (und Personen in Organisationen im Allgemeinen) wirklich

reflektiv? Eignet sich Reflexion fu¨r die autorita¨ten Gegebenheiten in manchen Organisationen?

Zweitens: Inwieweit kann eine starke Organsiationskultur Vera¨nderung und weiteres Lernen

behindern und wie la¨sst sich diese Schwierigkeit durch Aktionsforschung u¨berwinden?

Drittens: Welche Rolle spielt der Forscher bei dem Projekt und welche Fertigkeiten, welches

Wissen und welchen Einfluss muss er mitbringen, um ein Aktionsforschungsprogramm

erfolgreich zu implementieren? Wir stellen abschließend fest, dass eine zunehmende

Orientierung hin auf eine effektive Vera¨nderung und Intervention erforderlich ist, damit

diese Ansa¨tze im anspruchsvollen Marketingkontext funktionieren.

Es gibt kein Lernen ohne Aktion und keine Aktion ohne Lernen: eine Fallstudie

Damien McLoughlin

Stichworte Aktionslernen, Marketingtheorie, Ausbildung, Lehrplanentwicklung

Der Zweck dieses Artikels ist es, ein Beispiel fu¨r Aktionslernen im Marketing vorzustellen: ein

einzigartiges Postgraduierten-Marketingprogramm namens MDP (Marketing Development

Programme) Das Programm ist in dreierlei Hinsicht besonders Erstens steht das MDP nur

Studenten ohne Berufserfahrung offen Zweitens spielt das Aktionslernen bei dem Programm

nicht nur eine nebengeordnete, sondern eine zentrale pa¨dagogische Rolle Und drittens handelt

es sich um ein fortlaufendes Programm mit U ¨ berlappungen im Zugang der Studenten, so dass

das Programm keinen Anfang und kein Ende zu haben scheint Ein solches Programm

unterstu¨tzt zwei verschiedene wichtige Lernstro¨mungen Zum einen hat das MDP seit u¨ber 20

Jahren zur Ausbildung junger Marketer beigetragen, indem sie ihnen Gelegenheit gegeben hat,

in einem unterstu¨tzenden Lernumfeld von Marketingaktionen zu lernen Zum anderen kann es

keine Aktion ohne Lernen geben, d.h das MDP hat aus seinen Erfahrungen gelernt und daraus

ein neues Lernen fu¨r die Teilnehmer geschaffen Der Artikel untersucht abschließend die

Implikationen, die das MDP fu¨r die Marketingausbildung in Theorie und Praxis mit sich bringt.

Aufdeckung von handlungsleitenden Theorien (‘‘theories-in-use’’): der Aufbau von

Luxus-Weinmarken

Michael Beverland

Stichworte Weine, Markennamen, Markenimage, Premium-Marken

Trotz des hohen Bekanntheitsgrades vieler internationaler Luxusmarken ist wenig u¨ber die

Prozesse bekannt, durch die diese Marken geschaffen werden und ihre Marktposition halten.

Die wissenschaftliche und praktische Erfahrung weist darauf hin, dass diese Marken sich

darauf konzentrieren, abstrakte, ‘‘zeitlose’’ Images und Tra¨ume zu schaffen Bisher wurden

jedoch keine systematischen Untersuchungen zu den Prozessen und zu den Strategien der

Marketer von Luxusmarken angestellt Ausgehend von Fallstudien im Luxusweinhandel hat

diese Studie versucht, die stillschweigenden Prozesse aufzudecken, die bei der Schaffung und

Erhaltung von Luxus-Weinmarken eine Rolle spielen Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass

Luxusmarken eine komplexe Kombination aus kompromissloser Produktqualita¨t, einem

starken Wertesatz, einem stillschweigenden Marketingversta¨ndnis, einer Konzentration auf

Details und eines strategischen In-Erscheinung-Tretens ist.

German abstracts

301

Investigacio´n de accio´n revisada: un planteamiento orientado hacia el mercado David Ballantyne

Palabras clave Aprendizaje de accion, Orientacio´n al cliente, Marketing interno, Gestio´n de conocimiento, Orientacio´n de mercado, Marketing de relaciones

El propo´sito de este artı´culo es ofrecer un entendimiento de la metodologı´a de la investigacio´n

de accio´n, y especialmente, su uso en un contexto de marketing Se proporciona un recuento retrospectivo de un proyecto de investigacio´n de accio´n orientado al mercado en el que participo´

el autor, en la forma de una evaluacio´n aditiva de la metodologı´a empleada Se discute el status

de las peticiones investigativas sobre investigacio´n de accio´n en publicaciones acade´micas, descubrie´ndose que resulta problema´tico Se recomienda como solucio´n una ruta hermene´utica

de investigacio´n de casos Se establecen conexiones entre la investigacio´n de accio´n como metodologı´a y el marketing interno como estrategia Se llega a la conclusio´n de que la base de la investigacio´n de accio´n orientada hacia el mercado es la ‘‘renovacio´n de conocimiento’’ Esto se logra a trave´s de un proceso iterativo de accio´n y aprendizaje, facilitado por las relaciones formadas entre los involucrados.

Mejora de la gestio´n de las relaciones con el cliente a trave´s del marketing de Internet/bases de datos: un proyecto de investigacio´n de accio´n para la creacio´n de una teorı´a

Chris O’Leary, Sally Rao y Chad Perry Palabras clave Marketing de Internet, Marketing de bases de datos, Relaciones con los clientes, Aprendizaje de accion

Las empresas acaban de empezar a utilizar Internet para obtener informacio´n sobre clientes en sus procesos de marketing de bases de datos, con objeto de mejorar la gestio´n de las relaciones con los clientes Este estudio utiliza un planteamiento de investigacio´n de accio´n para desarrollar un nuevo marco de co´mo las empresas pueden hacerlo El proyecto de investigacio´n

de accio´n se llevo´ a cabo en una empresa australiana de bases de datos de gran envergadura, ya que no se disponı´a de otras fuentes de informacio´n empı´rica sobre este tema; y, e´sta podı´a ofrecer interesantes descubrimientos sobre un a´rea pra´ctica y poco investigada Los resultados mostraron que la integracio´n del marketing de Internet y bases de datos mejora la eficacia de las pra´cticas de gestio´n de las relaciones con los clientes Por ejemplo, Internet ofrece beneficios tales como un aumento de la exactitud y la rapidez de la recopilacio´n de datos sobre consumidores; ahorros de costes; mayor interaccio´n y mejores relaciones con los clientes Asimismo, esta investigacio´n identifica que factores tales como una cultura organizacional, apoyo de la directiva superior y colaboracio´n entre equipos informa´ticos y de marketing, necesitan existir con objeto de ofrecer el entorno de apoyo crı´tico para el e´xito de la integracio´n.

Investigacio´n de accio´n en entornos turbulentos: un ejemplo en la asignacio´n de

prioridad al comercio electro´nico

Elizabeth Daniel y Hugh N Wilson

Palabras clave Comercio electro´nico, Aprendizaje de accion, Te´cnicas de prono´stico

Las herramientas de planificacio´n procedentes de modelos racionales y lo´gicos para la

formacio´n de estrategias au´n tienen su puesto dentro del comercio electro´nico, aunque

complementadas por elementos de incremento y visio´n Sin embargo, las herramientas para

asignar prioridades se invalidan especı´ficamente en esta esfera La investigacio´n de accio´n

parecerı´a ser apta para entornos turbulentos tales como el del comercio electro´nico debido a lo

inmediato de los resultados, su orientacio´n de futuro, su respeto a los profesionales como

coproductores de conocimiento, y su proceso cı´clico Se describe un estudio de investigacio´n de

accio´n que modifica la matriz de polı´tica direccional (DPM, Directional Policy Matrix) para tener

en cuenta la competencia entre modelos de negocios, y no so´lo entre organizaciones

individuales Se sacan conclusiones sobre la aplicabilidad ma´s amplia de la matriz, la

funcio´n de herramientas de estrategia en situaciones de incertidumbre, y la funcio´n de la

investigacio´n de accio´n para reducir la separacio´n entre teorı´a y pra´ctica.

Hacia el rigor en la investigacio´n de accio´n: un estudio de caso sobre planificacio´n

de marketing

Hugh N Wilson

Palabras clave Aprendizaje de accion, Planificacio´n de marketing,

Sistemas de apoyo de decisiones, Ana´lisis de datos, Parcialidad

Se describe un estudio de investigacio´n que explora el potencial de los sistemas de apoyo de

decisiones para mejorar la pra´ctica de la planificacio´n de marketing utilizando una combinacio´n

de investigacio´n de accio´n de proyectos, y planteamientos de investigacio´n de casos El trabajo

se enfoca en soluciones para dos problemas metodolo´gicos pra´cticos: co´mo analizar los datos de

la investigacio´n de accio´n de la forma ma´s rigurosa posible; y, co´mo minimizar la parcialidad

que puede surgir de la funcio´n doble del investigador de accio´n como participante y observador.

En particular, el trabajo describe una adaptacio´n del disen˜o de investigacio´n denominado

induccio´n analı´tica a la teorı´a compleja y multiproposicional, comu´n en la investigacio´n de

accio´n y, de hecho, en mucha de la investigacio´n de gestio´n cualitativa Tambie´n se reportan

brevemente los descubrimientos del estudio en sı´.

Generalizacio´n de los resultados de un proyecto de investigacio´n de accio´n en un

entorno laboral aplica´ndolos a otras situaciones: principios y pra´ctica

Frank Thompson y Chad Perry

Palabras clave Aprendizaje de accion, Me´todos analı´ticos, Investigacio´n de gestio´n,

Paradigmas

Generalmente, un proyecto de investigacio´n de accio´n se limita a mejorar las pra´cticas de un

grupo de trabajo dentro de una organizacio´n No obstante, despue´s de realizar un proyecto,

algunos acade´micos o consultores podrı´an querer aplicar los descubrimientos de ese proyecto

particular a otras situaciones El objetivo de este trabajo es identificar los dos paradigmas

cientı´ficos apropiados para cada uno de estos dos propo´sitos, e identificar los criterios que

podrı´an utilizarse para juzgar lo bien que se logra cada propo´sito Esencialmente, discutimos

que el paradigma crı´tico de teorı´a es la base del proyecto de investigacio´n de accio´n de un grupo

de trabajo dentro de una organizacio´n, y que el paradigma de realismo es la base de la

generalizacio´n de estos descubrimientos en otras situaciones Los criterios procedentes de los

dos paradigmas pueden emplearse para evaluar la validez y la fiabilidad de estos dos procesos.

Se ofrece un ejemplo de co´mo se ha aplicado esto a la pra´ctica.

Spanish abstracts

303

Adaptacio´n de la investigacio´n de accio´n al marketing: un argumento dialo´gico entre teorı´a y pra´ctica

Steven M Kates y Judy Robertson Palabras clave Aprendizaje de accion, Teorı´a organizacional, Gestio´n de cambio, Cultura organizacional

El propo´sito de este artı´culo es ofrecer una perspectiva sobre la adaptacio´n de principios y me´todos de la investigacio´n de accio´n en contextos de investigacio´n acade´mica de marketing Desde nuestras perspectivas teo´ricas y pra´cticas combinadas ofrecemos un argumento dialo´gico sobre las cuestiones asociadas con la implantacio´n de investigacio´n de accio´n, tratando tres cuestiones importantes y relacionadas En primer lugar, ¿son los comercializadores, especı´ficamente (y personas en organizaciones, con cara´cter ma´s generalizado), verdaderamente pensativos? ¿Es adecuada la reflexio´n para las realidades autoritarias de algunas organizaciones? En segundo lugar, ¿co´mo puede una cultura organizacional fuerte ser una barrera para el cambio y el avance del aprendizaje, y co´mo podrı´a superarse esta dificultad mediante la investigacio´n de accio´n? En tercer lugar, ¿cua´l es la funcio´n del investigador en el proceso, y que´ habilidades, conocimiento e influencia debe tener esta persona para implantar con e´xito un programa de investigacio´n de accio´n? Concluimos proponiendo que se necesitan una orientacio´n en aumento hacia el cambio y una intervencio´n eficaz para que estos planteamientos puedan funcionar dentro de contextos exigentes de marketing.

No puede haber aprendizaje sin accio´n ni accio´n sin aprendizaje: un estudio de caso Damien McLoughlin

Palabras clave Aprendizaje de accio´n, Teorı´a de marketing, Educacio´n, Desarrollo de currı´culo

El propo´sito de este trabajo es presentar un ejemplo de aprendizaje de accio´n en marketing el exclusivo programa para graduados en marketing llamado programa de desarrollo de marketing (MDP, marketing development programme) Esta singularidad se presenta en tres esferas principales En primer lugar, el MDP so´lo esta´ disponible para aquellos estudiantes sin experiencia laboral En segundo lugar, utiliza el aprendizaje de accio´n como pedagogı´a central

en lugar de complementaria Finalmente, es un programa continuo con admisiones superpuestas

y, como tal, no parece tener principio ni fin Hay dos ramas importantes de aprendizaje que pueden extraerse de dicho programa Primeramente, el MDP lleva ma´s de 20 an˜os educando jo´venes comercializadores y ofrecie´ndoles la oportunidad de aprender de la accio´n de marketing dentro de un entorno educativo de apoyo La segunda rama es que no puede haber accio´n sin aprendizaje, es decir, el MDP ha aprendido de su experiencia y, como resultado, ha creado nuevo aprendizaje para los participantes El trabajo concluye con la consideracio´n de las implicaciones del MDP para la educacio´n, teorı´a y pra´ctica de marketing.

Revelando ‘‘teorı´as en uso’’: creacio´n de marcas de vino de lujo Michael Beverland

Palabras clave Vinos, Nombres de marca, Imagen de marca, Marcas superiores

A pesar del alto perfil de muchas marcas de lujo internacionales, poco se sabe de los procesos mediante los que se crean dichas marcas y sobre co´mo se mantiene su posicio´n en el mercado.

La investigacio´n y la experiencia de los profesionales sugieren que estas marcas se enfocan en crear ima´genes o suen˜os abstractos e ‘‘imperecederos’’ No obstante, no se ha realizado ninguna investigacio´n sistema´tica sobre los procesos y las estrategias de los comercializadores de lujo Esta investigacio´n, basada en estudios de casos del comercio de vino de lujo, intenta revelar los procesos ta´citos que sustentan la creacio´n y el mantenimiento de marcas de vino de lujo Los resultados destacan que las marcas de lujo son una combinacio´n compleja de dedicacio´n a la calidad del producto, un conjunto so´lido de valores, un entendimiento ta´cito del marketing, un enfoque en el detalle y la emergencia estrate´gica.

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Guest editorial

About the Guest Editor Chad Perry has recently retired from being Professor of Marketing

and Management at the Graduate College of Management, Southern Cross University, Gold

Coast His research interests included relationship marketing and qualitative methods He has

written or co-written three textbooks, eight book chapters and more than 100 refereed journal

articles and conference papers He has presented management development workshops in Africa,

Asia, Papua New Guinea, the UK and Australia, as well as doing occasional management

consulting projects in some of those countries.

The call for this special issue on action research in marketing defined action

research widely to include action learning and case research (but not case

stories/descriptions) This call for papers has resulted in a collection of articles

that cover many areas of marketing management and many forms of action

research Moreover, the action research in this special issue has a characteristic

that distinguishes action research in marketing from action research in other

disciplines – an emphasis on theory building, that is, analytic generalisation

This special issue covers three of the many types of “action research”:

traditional action research, action learning and case research Traditional

action research in management is often defined to be about a group of people

who work together to improve their work processes For example, action

research could occur if a small team or task force was set up in a marketing

department to improve customer service or to reduce their company’s time in

getting a new product to market Another example would be the series of

meetings involved in setting an advertising budget for next year so that it was

more successful than this year Yet another example would be a group working

with a consultant to run new marketing software and incorporate it into their

daily processes That is, this traditional action research often occurs within a

group of marketing managers, even though it may not be called that

However, this emphasis in traditional action research upon groups working

together has tended to position action research within the constructivism and

critical theory paradigms (Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Perry et al., 1999) that

emphasise understanding and interpretation of constructed realities These

constructed realities may be especially relevant when the phenomena being

researched are driven by internal, subjective perceptions rather than by an

external reality For example, perceptions of “meaning” decide outcomes in

phenomena like falling in love, brand loyalty based upon a consumer’s identity,

and office power politics in big organisations with slow or blurry feedback

loops to the outside world However, many marketing phenomena are clearly

determined by the external reality of a marketplace, and not by subjective

constructions, and so the underlying paradigm of traditional action research

may have limited applicability in marketing As Gummesson (2000, p 105) putsit:

In marketing, the company’s external environment is always more important than the internal The real decisions are made in the world outside – among consumers, middlemen, competitors, politicians, legislators and trade organisations The external environment is neither particularly knowledgeable nor interested in the company and its development.

In brief, this special issue about action research in marketing had to take abroader definition of action research than is traditionally taken in otherdisciplines like management, to ensure that the broader world that marketingresearchers examine could be considered That is, traditional action researchwas assumed to be only one of several ways of learning about the processes ofmarketing phenomena in a more in-depth way than can be done with surveys

In particular, three different types of action research are presented in thisspecial issue:

(1) traditional action research;

(2) action learning; and(3) case research

To save repetition in the articles in this special issue, the authors of articleswere sent an early draft of the guest commentary that defines each of thesethree methods They were told that these definitions would be in the specialissue and so they did not need to provide them in their article

Introduction to the articles in the special issueThe articles in this special issue cover a wide range of areas of marketing, frominternal marketing through database marketing to marketing planning Theyalso cover a range of methods The first six deal with traditional actionresearch, the next deals with action learning, and the final one is an example ofcase research

Consider the action research ones first Ballantyne describes how projectaction research was successfully carried out in one of Australia’s four majorbanks and raises many of the concerns in this special issue The projectconsisted of an unusually large number of 100 cycles and involved 1,200 staff,and lasted five years The aim of the project was internal marketing ofcustomer-consciousness to staff, and so the unusual action research processesdescribed in the article are a contribution to the internal marketing literature aswell as to the action research literature He explains how the action researchprocesses were appropriate, had to be flexibly adapted to a real world situation,and were emancipatory as well as well as participatory Somewhat unusuallyfor a traditional action researcher, he addresses the issue of generalising fromthe particular situation of his bank to scholarly literature and describes the

“hermeneutic pathway” he has developed to developing academic articles:

The output of this approach has been a series of articles on the bank case published in academic journals, moving from descriptive to interpretive, and then from interpretive to

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theory generating Some sources of interpretive ambiguity have been discovered and clarified

on the way.

O’Leary, Rao and Perry also describe a successful traditional action research

project about a practical problem at work One of the authors led a work team

in a large Australian database company to explore how to use the Internet to

obtain customer information for his company’s database marketing processes,

to enhance customer relationship management The action research project was

carried out because no other sources of empirical information about the

emerging problem were available Results showed that integration of the

Internet and database marketing enhances the effectiveness of customer

relationship management practices The framework developed for the

workgroup’s large and rather technical company happened to be general

enough to be the used in a doctoral research thesis, and in related conference

and journal publications This suggests that analytic generalisation of the

action research findings for a particular situation to academic publications

need not be as difficult as sometimes thought, provided the action researchers

are dealing with a technical issue rather than the more subjective issues that

action researchers are concerned with

The next article also describes a successful action research project, but

instead of ending up with a general framework, it started with one and than

applied it in a workgroup This article demonstrates how important

“preunderstanding” (Gummesson, 2000, p 15) from an initial reconnaissance

through the literature can be in an action research project, before a workgroup

embarks on the first planning step in the action research cycle Daniel and

Wilson describe cycles of action research workshops with strategic marketers

in eight UK firms operating in the turbulent e-commerce environment Action

research was well suited to turbulent environments such as e-commerce, owing

to its immediacy of outcome, its future orientation, its respect for practitioners

as co-producers of knowledge and its cyclical process The action research

project modified the somewhat technical directional policy matrix (DPM) in

textbooks to take account of competition between business models, not just

between individual organisations They conclude that action research can be

very useful for putting theory into practice in several, particular situations

across an industry:

We believe, then, that action research has a role in reducing the “gulf between basic research

and practice” practitioners should be full, equal collaborators in the testing of theories

which are workable as well as publishable, we believe that the action research approach

ensures that this principle is turned into practice.

The three articles above about successful action research projects did discuss

generalising the findings about one particular situation to others, but it was not

their main focus The next two articles do make this issue their main focus

Wilson asks how can we make action research with its iterative, inductive

development of “theory”, as rigorous as possible? Can we be sure that our

findings are not just conjectures based on anecdote? He describes a research

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study exploring the potential of decision support systems to improvemarketing planning practice, using a combination of project action researchworkshops and case interview research, across 11 companies He focuses onsolutions to two practical methodological problems: how to analyse action andcase research data in as rigorous a way as possible; and how to minimise thebiases which can arise from the action researcher’s dual role as participant andobserver He uses analytic induction in a step-by-step consideration of actionresearch and case research data and the building and testing of theoreticalpropositions as the cases proceed His processes add to the external validity ofqualitative studies without reducing their internal validity.

Thompson and Perry also focus on analytic generalisation concerns inaction research projects They confront these concerns by discussing scientificresearch paradigms in their analysis of how the quality of an action researchproject can be judged from within the two initially irreconcilable paradigms ofcritical theory (a particular situation) and realism (many other situations).Their illustrative project was positioned in the area of relationship marketingand involved the development of tenders for international aid projects withintwo small engineering companies This project was less technical and morespecific to the small companies than the database marketing project above, and

so their report to the particular company could not be generalised as readily toacademic or consultant’s reports for other situations They illustrate how thequality of both types of reports – the first within the critical theory paradigmand the second within the realism paradigm – can be planned and judged

In brief, the articles above describe successful applications of action research

in marketing and are at the cutting edge of the serious problem of how togeneralise the findings of a traditional action research project from oneparticular situation to others The next article provides an alternative, morecomplex and dark view of action research in marketing Kates and Robertsonprovide a dialogical argument about the issues associated with implementingaction research in marketing, addressing three important and related questions:(1) Are marketers truly reflective as required in action research cycles,indeed, is reflection suited to some organisations’ authoritarian realities?(2) How is a strong organisational culture a barrier to change and furtherlearning, and how might this difficulty be overcome by action research?(3) What is the role of the researcher in the process, and what skills,knowledge, and influence must this person have to successfullyimplement an action research program?

They conclude by proposing that an incremental orientation to change andintervention effectiveness is needed for the traditional action research approach

to work in demanding marketing contexts

As well as traditional action research, this special issue covers actionlearning McLoughlin presents an example of action learning in marketing –the unique postgraduate programme in marketing at University College Dublin

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called the Marketing Development Programme (MDP) The MDP employs

action learning as the central pedagogy rather than an add-on, it is open only to

those students with no work experience, and it is a rolling programme with

overlapping intakes so that it appears to have no beginning and no end The

article describes the programme and how it has developed over many years

into an effective way of teaching marketing

The final article is an example of case research Beaverland began his

research about luxury brands by looking at 200 sources of secondary data

covering 300 years and then conducted 11 focus groups of 11 experts to scope

his research The main research stage was 35 in-depth interviews with wine

producers and others in three countries The case research uncovered the tacit

processes underlying the creation and maintenance of luxury wine brands

Results highlight that luxury brands are a complex combination of dedication

to product quality, a strong set of values, tacit understanding of marketing, a

focus on detail, and strategic emergence

Postscript

This special issue is the end product of a careful process involving the

reviewers and the authors Until I became an editor, I had not fully realised the

crucial role that reviewers play in a journal A journal relies on patient, careful

reviewers who have high standards and devote precious time to developing

authors I thank the reviewing team of this special issue for doing their job so

thoroughly and efficiently Incidentally, the articles that I co-authored were

blind reviewed through EJM’s regular editors and not through me, and so I do

not know the names of the reviewers (I suffered a rejection rate that was much

the same as the other authors’) I also thank the adventurous authors for

submitting articles about this relatively new topic in marketing and for

graciously working with the reviewers through the revision process Some

submitted articles could not be published in this special issue because they fell

outside the scope of this special issue or were about research that was too

“green” – I hope the articles will be re-submitted to EJM when their research

projects are more advanced

Chad PerryGuest Editor

References

Guba, E.G and Lincoln, Y.S (1994), “Competing paradigms in qualitative research”, in

Denzin, N.K and Lincoln, Y.S (Eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage Publications,

Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 105-17.

Gummesson, E (2000), Qualitative Methods in Management, 2nd rev ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks,

CA.

Perry, C., Riege, A and Brown, L (1999), “Realism’s role among scientific paradigms in

marketing research”, Irish Marketing Review, Vol 12 No 2, pp 16-23.

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The term “action research” was invented by the eminent social scientist KurtLewin over half a century ago (Lewin, 1946) Since then, it has becomeacclaimed and criticised Reasons for controversy are that the label of actionresearch is rather broad, is often left undefined, or it used in different ways(Coghlan and Brannick, 2001) For example, Gummesson (2000) distinguishesfour types of action research for management: societal action science (thetraditional type where researchers help underprivileged groups to solveproblems), management action science (where the purpose is to understandorganizations, markets and customers better, usually to make an operationmore efficient), real-time action science (working in a research projectplanned for action research), and retrospective action science (letting pastexperience and action through later scholarly reflection become data in aresearch project).

Thus the aim of this commentary is to develop a definition of action researchthat is suitable for marketing in particular That categorisation is based on thearticles in this issue and emphasises the breadth of action research inmarketing and its distinctive interest in analytic generalisation, that is, inbuilding a theory that extends beyond the particular situation that is beingaction researched to other situations

This editorial has three sections First, it defines traditional action research,action learning and case research Then four implications are drawn from thearticles in this special issue about how action research can be done inmarketing Finally, a broad definition of action research in marketing ispresented

Traditional action research

Consider the traditional form of action research first There are four elements of

a traditional action research project (this discussion is based on Carson et al.,

2001 and the references listed there) That is, traditional action research

involves:

(1) a group of people who use spiralling cycles of activities that involve

planning, acting, observing and reflecting upon what had happened,

shown diagrammatically in Figure 1;

(2) to try to improve workgroup processes of action;

(3) that help to solve complex, practical problems about which little is

known; and

(4) produces at least one report to the workgroup’s organisation about what

was found

During these spiralling cycles, what is the relationship between an individual

researcher and the other members of the action research group? How do an

action researcher and others in the group interact? A key point is that an action

researcher and his or her clients differ in knowledge Clients are the “problem

owners” and they have experience-based knowledge from their actual context

Figure 1 The spiralling cycles of activities of traditional action research

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In contrast, the researcher has her or his theorybased knowledge, but suchknowledge can be crucial to more precisely identify actual problems, clarifyimplicit assumptions, and through interaction and training change a client’sperspective on the need to undertake actions for improvements (Argyris, 1983).

In more detail, there are three levels of researcher participation in an actionresearch project: technical, practical and emancipatory (Carr and Kemmis,1986) In the first, technical level of participation the action researcher is merely

a technical “expert”, a consultant who tells other people what to do This is thenormal form of a consultant’s project; for example, a technical agribusinessconsultant is working in a grain development project in a developed countryand simply transfers the technology across This is the simplest form of actionresearch and may not even meet the requirements of traditional action researchnoted above

The second, practical level of participation by a researcher is like thestarting point of a “process consultant” (Schein, 1990), where the researcherhas a Socratic role, encouraging participation and reflection about processes

so that others can learn about learning about doing, and not just learnabout doing The researcher helps the client understand of how he or shefits into a system

The third, emancipatory level of researcher participation is the idealaccording to some action researchers (Carr and Kemmis, 1986) Here theresearcher becomes a co-researcher with the other people, for responsibility forthe project is shared equally among everyone In emancipatory action research,the researchers aim to change the whole context of the problem and thusliberate themselves from its causes, including their mental context That is, thistype of participation:

aims not only at technical and practical improvement [technical] and the participants’ better understanding [practical] but also at changing the system itself and/or those conditions which impede desired improvement in the system or organisation It also aims at the participants’ empowerment and self confidence (Zuber-Skerritt, 1996, p 5).

This third level of participation is indeed an ideal one and is probably onlyreally achieved by “revolutionaries” who change the structure within theirwhole organisation or community In other words, this type of action researcherbecomes a transformative intellectual who transforms the view that people had

of their world and so emancipates them from their mental prison bars Whenemancipatory action research is being done in Latin America, for example, itmight aim to lead to revolutions to liberate the poor (Freire, 1972) Whenemancipatory action research is done in education, it can lead to moredemocratic classrooms When it is done in business, it may not be so dramaticbut it can lead to new ways of thinking that restructure processes and savecosts For example, action researchers from several departments can cometogether to look at functional interrelationships affecting what was at firstthought to be just a marketing problem This traditional form of action

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research is rare in marketing One reason may be that marketing is highly

controlled by the market and its external forces, above all customers and

competitors, as noted in this special issue’s commentary – “In marketing, the

company’s external environment is always more important than the internal

The external environment is neither particularly knowledgeable nor interested

in the company and its development.” (Gummesson, 2000, p 105) In contrast,

traditional action research is more focused on employee resolution of internal

affairs

A second reason is that marketing research as taught and practised in

business school today, emphasises the positivist survey methodology as the

highway to rigorous research and generalizable results This positivistic,

theory testing research retards theory development in marketing Moreover, it

is too often oriented to techniques rather than to useful results that can improve

understanding of essential phenomena and have an impact on enterprises and

society, as shown by the extreme disinterest in business school research by

managers In one survey of marketing managers, “clear evidence was obtained

that academic marketing journals are neither read nor recognised by the great

bulk of the sample” (Mckenzie et al., 2002, p 1196) Similarly, a thorough

investigation of senior managers, new MBA recruits into firms, their superiors

and consultants, found that business school research was definitely not useful

to practising managers:

as far as we could tell, many key managers and executives pay little or no attention to

such research and findings [of business academics] the direct impact appears nil

not a single [manager] who was interviewed cited the research of business schools as

either their most important strength or their major weakness The business world is

ignoring the research coming out of business schools (Porter and McKibbin, 1988, p 180;

emphases added).

A third reason is that marketing researchers are ignorant of action research

and even if they have read about it there are few academic environments where

they are encouraged to use it The action research project becomes high risk –

”Where can we find examiners and reviewers that understand it and will accept

it?” – and is consequently hazardous to an academic career A fourth reason is

that action research could be considered to be too demanding Traditional

action research requires involvement, a secure personality and creativity as

well as an initial “preunderstanding” of business practices beyond those

provided in marketing textbooks (Gummesson, 2000, p 15) It also requires an

ability to make decisions, take action, and balance the split personality of a

simultaneously involved actor and detached scholar These demands of

traditional action research are explored in articles in this special issue

In brief, a key difference between traditional action research and other

methods like surveys is that the action researcher is both an actor and a

researcher and attempts to contribute both to practice and academe It requires

the involvement of the researcher as a consultant and expert, a facilitator or an

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interventionist in a change process, and a desire to dig into complexmechanisms by living them.

Action learning is a sub-set of action researchThe traditional action research above can be distinguished from action learning(Zuber-Skerritt, 2001).Traditional action research necessarily focuses on aworkgroup within an organisation or community, all of whom are involved injoint cycles of planning/acting/observing/reflecting In contrast, action learningemphasises individual learning from experience, and taking action as a result ofthis learning Admittedly, this action learning takes place within a group ofpeople that is called a set of learning associates or “comrades in adversity”(Revans, 1982), but each individual within that group learns from separateexperiences that do not necessarily involve other associates, and the separateexperiences may not even involve workgroups Action research involves actionlearning, but not vice versa, because action research is more deliberate,systematic and rigorous

Case research is also included in this special issueFinally, consider case research about a person’s or a group’s actions thatoccurred in the past and that can affect our present understanding andknowledge, and can in turn affect future actions Essentially, case research(based on Perry, 1998; 2001 and the references listed there) is:

. an investigation of a contemporary, dynamic phenomenon and theemerging body of knowledge about that phenomenon;

. within the phenomenon’s real-life context where the boundaries betweenthe phenomenon and its context are unclear;

. when explanation of causal links are too complex for survey orexperimental methods so that single, clear outcomes are not possible; and

. the use of interviews, observation and other multiple sources of data thatcould include the diaries and minutes of meetings that are the sources ofdata in project action research

Recent examples of case research in marketing that have been published injournals are Alam (2002), Alam and Perry (2002), Batonda and Perry (2003),Madden and Perry (2003), Riege et al (2001) and Riege and Perry (2000).Essentially, these articles have a literature review that develops some researchissues or objectives Then the methodology’s data collection and analysisprocesses (based on the considerable literature about them) are described, alongwith a justification for its use Then the data are analysed, based on theresearch objectives, and a final theory is built Case research is not wide spread

or well understood in scholarly marketing, although it has been used in PhDprograms in Sweden, Finland and Australia

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That is, case research offers empirical data to be used for creating concepts,

categories, models and general theories, even testing theories; it’s not just for

class-room exercises, examples, illustrations, and trendy success stories in

textbooks It demands a lot from the researcher in both understanding the

techniques of case study research and accepting its hardships Case study

research takes a systemic, holistic stance recognizing reality as it is, not just

settling for descriptions but adding value through conceptualization It does

not assume away complexity, chaos, ambiguity, fuzziness, uncertainty and

dynamic forces for the convenience of the researcher and his or her analysis It

is primarily qualitative and interpretive, although quantitative research can be

part of it An observation, which is both amusing and scary, is that quantitative

research starts and ends with qualitative assumptions and subjective

interpretation, and even in its most regulated and systematic collection and

processing of numbers, is dependent on judgment calls and inter-subjective

agreements

This issue’s concern about theory building in action research is

distinctive

Case research is not usually placed within the umbrella of action research, but

it is for this special issue, because it raises important points about theory

building from particular situations for the emerging body of knowledge about a

phenomenon The discussion of action research and action learning above

emphasised the particular situation within which it occurs, but what about

other situations in the firm or in similar types of firms, and in other firms in the

same industry or other industries? That is, a traditional action research project

may enhance learning within one organisation, but it rarely addresses the

question: how can the action research project also make a contribution to a

body of knowledge that interests academics and consultants interested in

principles that can apply in other organisations? That is, a researcher faces two

goals or “imperatives” (McKay and Marshall, 2001, p 46) One goal is to solve a

practical problem within an organisation, and the second is to generate new

knowledge and understanding about other organisations How to address both

these goals has been addressed rarely in the action research literature and there

is “little direct guidance on ‘how to do’ it” (McKay and Marshall, 2001, p 49)

(although guidance for thesis writers is in Perry and Zuber-Skerritt, 1994;

Zuber-Skerritt and Perry, 2002)

Because there is this little guidance in action research literature in other

disciplines, it is somewhat surprising that both these goals of addressing the

particular situation and generalising from it to other situations, is discussed in

nearly all the articles in this special issue! Indeed, it is this feature that provides

the cutting-edge feature of this collection of action research articles Perhaps

this feature is caused by the fact that many marketing phenomena are clearly

determined by the external reality of a marketplace, as noted above In contrast,

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action researchers in other disciplines like management can emphasise just theone organisational situation because their internal, particular world is sopowerful.

These two goals of the particular and the general reflect the differentparadigms of organisational action researchers and the readers of academicjournals and theses Those two goals can be best understood by distinguishingthree “worlds” of phenomena that scientists can investigate For each world,scientists share a worldview or paradigm that is internally consistent, rationaland logical In more detail, we consider three worlds identified by Popper andtheir corresponding scientific paradigms (based on Magee, 1985 and Guba andLincoln, 1994):

(1) World 1 fits the positivism paradigm consisting of objective, materialthings Here, in essence, reality is a straightforward concept that is easy

to measure We need not consider this physical sciences world furtherhere because marketing is a social science

(2) World 2 fits the critical theory and constructivism paradigms and

“consists of the subjective world of minds”, that is, of meanings The twoparadigms of this world are sometimes combined into one paradigmcalled the hermeneutic or interpretive paradigm (Gummesson, 2000;Zuber-Skerritt, 2001) In this world, “perception is reality” Traditionalaction research fits into this world 2 and the critical theory paradigm;action learning fits into this world 2 and the constructivism paradigm.(3) World 3 fits the realism paradigm and consists of abstract things thatare born of people’s minds but exist outside and independently of anyone person These abstract things are the phenomena investigated bymany social scientists Here, a person’s perceptions are importantbecause they are a window on to that blurry, external reality, rather thanbeing important for their own sake Case research often fits into thisworld and the realism paradigm This is the world and paradigm ofreaders of academic journals and theses, and also the world of theorieswithin a consultant’s mind when he or she approaches a new actionproject

Case research has addressed the important issue of bridging the two differentworlds of traditional action research and academic/consultant knowledge Thisbridge can be called analytic generalisation (Yin, 1994) This analyticgeneralisation is theory building, that is, the development of a holisticframework out of past, particular situations that can be used to plan action infuture, other situations (Gummesson, 2000); in contrast, statisticalgeneralisation that is the cornerstone of positivism and tests if a randomsample fits a population In-depth case interviews, action learning or traditionalaction research can all be used as the data to be used in the process of theorybuilding, for all three provide the in-depth understanding of structure, process

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and driving forces that are required to construct the frameworks that will be

the basis of future action Indeed, the major difference between the three types

of research considered in this special issue is that the researcher is personally

involved in action research and action learning, and the researcher learns about

this involvement in action through other people in case research In other

words, traditional action research is allied to case research although traditional

action research is “the most demanding and far-reaching method of doing case

study research” (Gummesson, 2000, p 116)

Four implications of the special issue’s articles for marketing action

research

This collection of articles about traditional action research, action learning and

case research has four implications for readers of EJM and other marketing

researchers First, action research does have a role in many areas of the

marketing discipline Wherever a workgroup of marketing people has to

grapple with its work processes, traditional action research can indeed be used

to improve those processes That action research can consist of a researcher

working within a group for as long as six months (as in the article by O’Leary,

Rao and Perry) and even for longer times (as in Ballantyne), or in shorter

workshops (as in Daniel and Wilson)

Second, what seems to mark action research in marketing is a greater

emphasis on the external, outside world of the market place; in contrast, action

research in other settings usually emphasises the internal, subjective world of

the participants or the social world within an organisation That is, action

research in marketing is more concerned with generalising from a particular

situation to many others than it is in some other disciplines An understanding

of scientific paradigms can help this generalisation to be done and can

“liberate” some researchers from the one paradigm of their personal

preferences and training; in brief, this understanding allows action research

to be a methodology rather than an ideology Thus marketers should be careful

that their action research projects are not judged by action researchers from

other disciplines like management who sometimes appear to ignore the

importance of phenomena in Popper’s world 3 and look at only the subjective

elements of a constructed, world 2 reality Examiners of marketing research

theses and reviewers of marketing journal articles should be chosen with care,

to ensure they appreciate that phenomena from both of Popper’s worlds 2 and 3

can interest social scientists

Next, note how all the articles deal with marketing managers rather than

consumers Marketing management phenomena are legitimate topics for

marketing research, but the methodologies to investigate them have to focus on

complex activities in an in-depth way that quantitative methods cannot do As

well, competitive secrecy makes response rates to surveys too small Thus

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these three forms of action research are effective and efficient methods toinvestigate marketing management phenomena.

The final implication is that action research is an umbrella term inmarketing that can cover the three methods of project action research, actionlearning and case research These three methods cover a person’s or a group’sactions that occurred in the past and that can affect our present understandingand knowledge, and can in turn affect future actions Thus they represent threeclosely related ways of exploring the social science world of marketing in anappropriate way

In brief, these four implications suggest action research in marketing should

be called “marketing action research” or “interactive marketing research” or

“marketing action science” (Argyris et al., 1985) to reflect its greater breadththan traditional action research, for action research in marketing can coveraction learning and case research This breadth is required because of theimportance of the eternal reality of customers and competitors to marketingmanagement, and because of the related importance that marketing researchersplace upon analytic generalisation This marketing research has the merit ofprivileged access to reality (Clark, 1972), and does not just rely upon the claims

of respondents and their perceptions in a survey Anthropological approaches,using direct or participant observation, are useful but they do not take you asfar as marketing action research can do There is always the risk in this broadapproach to action research that the methodology of traditional action researchwill be deprived of its core and that its practice will be diluted; but that risk has

to be balanced against the risk in a fundamentalist strategy for applying themethodology that it will be useless except in some very select cases Some kind

of compromise and balance between different and conflicting demands isneeded For further discussion of methodological issues for research inmarketing and in management where action research plays a role, seeGummesson (2000; 2001; 2002)

Conclusion

In conclusion, action research in marketing must address the importance of theeternal reality of customers and competitors to marketing management, andthe related importance that marketing researchers place upon analyticgeneralisation What should be recognised under the label of action research inmarketing need not be conclusively established here But this special issue ofEJM is a first step towards an understanding of what that label could cover.That first step is that marketing action research is about a person’s or a group’sinvolvement in actions related to a market place that occurred in the past andthat can affect our present understanding and knowledge, which can in turnaffect future actions This research can use data sources ranging from theemancipatory participation of a researcher in a traditional action researchproject through to case research The cutting-edge examples of this kind of

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action research in this special issue make us hope that its use will increase If

that happens, practising marketing managers will begin to read reports of

business school research, and marketing students and researchers will master

management action competencies as well as academic ones

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Services Marketing, Vol 16 No 6, pp 515-34.

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Coghlan, D and Brannick, T (2001), Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation, Sage,

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at www.themarketingreview.com Perry, C and Zuber-Skerritt, O (1994), “Doctorates by action research for senior practising managers”, Management Learning, Vol 25 No 2, pp 341-64.

Porter, W.M and McKibbin, L.E (1988), Management Education and Development: Drift or Thrust into the 21st Century?, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

Revans, R.W (1982), The Origins and Growth of Action Learning, Studentlitteratur, Lund Riege, A and Perry, C (2000), “National marketing strategies in international travel and tourism”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol 34 No 11/12, pp 1290-304.

Riege, A.M., Perry, C and Go, F.M (2001), “Partnerships in international travel and tourism marketing: a systems-oriented approach between Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom”, Journal of Travel and Tourism, Vol 11 No 1, pp 59-78.

Schein, E.A (1990), “A general philosophy of helping: process consulting”, Sloan Management Review, Vol 31 No 3, pp 57-64.

Yin, R.K (1994), Case Study Research Design and Methods, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA Zuber-Skerritt, O (1996), New Directions in Action Research, The Falmer Press, London Zuber-Skerritt, O (2001), “Action learning and action research: paradigm, praxis and programs”,

in Sankaran, S., Dick, B., Passfield, R and Swepson, P (Eds), Effective Change Management Using Action Research and Action Learning: Concepts, Frameworks, Processes and Applications, Southern Cross University Press, Lismore, pp 1-20.

Zuber-Skerritt, O and Perry, C (2002), “Action research within organisations and university thesis writing”, Organisational Learning, Vol 9 No 4, pp 171-9.

Further reading Perry, C., Riege, A and Brown, L (1999), “Realism’s role among scientific paradigms in marketing research”, Irish Marketing Review, Vol 12 No 2, pp 16-23.

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Action research reviewed:

a market-oriented approach

David Ballantyne

Monash University Caulfield Campus, Melbourne, Australia

Keywords Action learning, Customer orientation, Knowledge management,

Market orientation, Relationship marketing, Australia

Abstract The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the methodology of action

research, especially its use in a marketing context A retrospective account of a market-oriented

action research project in which the author was involved is provided in the form of a summative

evaluation of the methodology used The status of research claims for action research in scholarly

publications is discussed and found to be problematic A hermeneutic case research pathway is

recommended as a solution Links between action research as methodology and internal marketing

as strategy are made A conclusion is reached that the basis of market-oriented action research is

“knowledge renewal” This is achieved through an iterative process of action and learning,

facilitated by the relationships formed between those involved.

Introduction

This article is a retrospective account of a customer service improvement/

action research project undertaken at one of the four major retail banks in

Australia The project was conceived at the bank in its branch banking division

and implemented Australia-wide

An action research methodology was adopted in the light of uncertain

knowledge of what service “improvements” were really critical to customers

There was also uncertainty about the processes by which possible

improvements might be reviewed and implemented However, there was a

determination to avoid prescriptive approaches of the kind that had failed in

the bank in the past Within the evolving boundaries of this new project,

volunteer groups of employees vigorously challenged and recommended

changes to policies and procedures that impacted on the standards of customer

service delivery More that 100 action cycles took place, involving over 1,200

staff in all Insights from one cycle were fed into the next cycle, forming

iterative cycles of action and learning This project continued for five years

without interruption from 1986-1991

I was a career banker, marketing practitioner and participant in this project

from its beginning, first as a team member, then as the project leader for

Australia, and later as an ex officio adviser (when I took up an academic

appointment at a University in England) Thus I bring multiple perspectives to

my review of this case

More than ten years have passed since the project “action” wound down and

some readers may intuitively feel that any learning that can be surfaced now

must be past its use-by date However, retrospective action research reports

have scholarly support when they are theory generating and not merelymemoirs (Gummesson, 2000, p 122) There has been other research published

in academic refereed journals concerning this case (Ballantyne, 1990; 1997;2000a,b; 2003) However, these post priori reviews do not focus on themethodological issues from a market-oriented approach By market orientation

I mean a chosen direction in external markets, and the organisational issuesthat relate to that

Thus the purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of themethodology of action research used in a marketing context This is intended as

a new contribution to the marketing literature in an important but overlookedfield

To do this, a retrospective account of the project is provided as the basis for

a summative evaluation of the methodology used My aim is “to consolidatewhat has been learned through the process of implementing the project” (Flood,

1999, p 142) Also, the literature on action research, strategy, organisationallearning, knowledge management and organisational behaviour is examined,where relevant, as a source of contrasting or confirming evidence New sources

of understanding and unexpected meanings from the bank case are revealed Inthis way, the methodology used is made more explicit and accessible for othermarketing applications

My approach will be to seek answers to these questions:

. What is the intent of an action research strategy?

. How is learning related to action?

. How is new knowledge generated?

. Why are participation and emancipation related?

. Is there an ethical conflict in action research?

. What is the status of knowledge claims?

. What theoretical contribution can I make, arising from this review?

I am not setting out to “prove” the success of the original bank project in terms

of quantitative gains made by the bank, although there were many Nor will Iattempt to trace the causal links between such gains through to the bank’smarket-place performance Either of these aims would require a differentapproach – an evaluation against some specific standard of accountability(Flood, 1999, p 142) This would deflect attention away from a criticalexamination of the methodological issues involved in action research

Strategic intentThe strategic intent of action research is to bring about changes inorganisational, institutional, business or community relations Thisimmediately raises further questions concerning the impact of any change,and who or what exactly is to be changed The question always is – whose

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interests are to be served? Of course, these stakeholder concerns arise in many

kinds of change processes as well as action research

What makes action research different from other strategic change

methodologies is a combination of participative action and critical reflection

(Dick, 2001, p 21) There are different degrees of emphasis on these dimensions

in various kinds of action research, as the editor’s introduction to this special

issue reveals However, there is common agreement that the purpose is to

change the particular social or organisational system in which the participants

are involved In other words, action research is a form of inquiry grounded in

the actions of its participants and their critical reflections about the

consequences of their actions In this way learning occurs, and is amplified

through the medium of research as a basis for further action

In the banking case, the stakeholders were customers, staff and

shareholders The plan was to put the “customer first”, as ratified at board

level This legitimised the involvement of staff in recommending changes to

retail banking policies and processes Many bank executives had previously

assumed that the main customer service “problem” was staffing levels, or

training, but this new strategy was more comprehensive The idea was that

staff involvement in a broad range of service redesign activities would lead to

better service performance, and thereby complement the bank’s marketing

activities Overall, this would contribute to customer retention and better

long-term profitability Thus the vested interests of various stakeholders were

explicitly recognised and reconciled at the level of strategic intent

The project had five phases (Ballantyne, 1997) and these are summarised

and evaluated next:

(1) The first phase was a “false start” Opinions and recommendations were

sought from staff members Australia-wide These ideas were channelled

to the head office customer service team for evaluation and resolution

This was referred to by the external consultants of the day as cascading

down What is revealing is the implicit hierarchical notion embedded in

the “cascading” metaphor It proved not to work; ideas were not really

thought through and the customer service department was deluged with

unfinishable business that could not be “cascaded up”

(2) Next, the “new start”, which involved setting up volunteer staff teams to

review and recommend changes to internal policies and processes that

might enable better customer service It was during this phase that an

action research strategy was decided and adopted Australia-wide It was

not called “action research” because the head office project team were

very conscious that the term “research” often meant “paralysis by

analysis” in the sensitivities of the day The plan involved bringing

groups of staff volunteers together from all parts of Australia, around 20

in number at a time These volunteer groups were called diagnostic

review groups Each group was divided into smaller cells of three to five

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participants for working on “customer critical” issues and for mutualsupport How to proceed with this customer service improvement taskwas left very much open ended but the work was grounded in rigorousquantitative customer service research The plan worked Yet not all newpolicy and procedural recommendations made it past the decisionmakers’ “approvals” stage, so strategy morphed to the next phase.(3) In the third phase, the “evolutionary phase”, how-to learning from thefirst rounds of the Australia-wide diagnostic review program wasdevolved down to regional and branch level What emerged in this phasewas a committed group of past and present participants (they calledthemselves “groupies”) who supported the project in its ongoing aims,and acted as facilitators for new regional and branch level start-ups Arange of participant magazines was introduced to keep people in touchand to exchange ideas An internal network of advocates spontaneouslygrew and improved power relations positively from the bottom up Thiscontributed to the credibility of the project.

(4) The next phase was “routinisation”, through which many new workingtheories were made explicit For example, customer-focused diagnostic(or process) tools and workshop resource kits were developed Whatwere experimental tools in earlier days were checked for validity in otheraction settings and often found to be of use in a broader range of localworking situations Also, new workshop designs were instituted forfacilitators, regional sales managers and branch managers

(5) In the final “demise phase”, the project was wound down, due to thepriority of other agendas, in the deep financial recession of the early1990s There had been over 100 iterations of the action research cycleinvolving more than 1,200 staff over five years

This brief review shows that the strategic intent of putting the “customer first”remained constant but the means by which it was played out shifted according

to prevailing opportunities and constraints This conforms to the view thataction research is a transformative, emergent process Yet the project wasfinally overtaken by rival organisational agendas, brought on by externaleconomic conditions There can be no guaranteed continuity

What might help ensure continuity? Participants certainly need to believe inthe project and its aims at the outset, as a basis for their voluntaryparticipation More than this, they need to feel that they have the means withinthemselves to participate fully and make a useful contribution In this way,strategic intent is shared Consider, for example, these post-event reflectionsfrom one past bank employee/project facilitator:

I’m just thinking of the people actually I was just thinking of all those faces everywhere, and the different trips to different States, and just how many people became involved in diagnostic review groups How it had a real snowballing effect, and the energy, with the right

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people, the right groupings it was so easy to join [the] energy and become a very powerful

group of people There were other people there that seemed to have the same thoughts We

all seemed to be – although we were all different people and there were a lot of different

personalities there - we all seemed to have this very common vision and we shared a similar

energy and there was no fear in going ahead because you knew there were others there too

and they were ready – they’d be going with you (Research tapes, 1996).

The comments made by the facilitator above suggest that the group process

actually helped participants to develop the courage to face the unexpected

What needs to be managed is the process, not the people While it is not often

expressed in this way, I conclude that action research needs to develop an

organisational climate of trust, and facilitating participative action within

small groups, one following on after another, is the way to develop that climate

Thus with personal commitment and support from the group, individual

learning flourishes and sets up a base for organisational learning

Action-based learning

The classical action research cycle involves change and learning, organised

into iterative phases of action and reflection Reflection leads to understanding,

and understanding shared by participants is fed back into action This cycle

continues as long as the participants wish, or until the aims of the project are

fulfilled or abandoned, or until those aims are revised and the process begins

again The dialectic principle involved is found in Plato’s dialogues In its

modern form it is often expressed in the literature as a four-step cycle,

involving:

(1) planning;

(2) implementing (action);

(3) observing (evaluating); and

(4) overall reflection on the results of steps 1-3, as a basis for re-planning

This cycle also finds expression in Deming’s TQM concept of continuous

improvement, as plan, do, check and act (“act” here means “what did we

learn?” Deming attributed the cycle to the statistican, Walter Shewhart, which

dates it back to 1939 (Deming, 1982, p 88)

In day-to-day business practice, the final reflective step is usually

overlooked, or subsumed into step three, such as when business research is

presumed to define the nature of a problem as well as its solution Sometimes

step three is overlooked as well Also to be considered is the allied idea of

double-loop learning, which is a reflective review of assumptions that are

embedded in action (Argyris and Schon, 1978) The alert signal here is that this

depth of reflection is at risk of being glossed over in step four, and so redefining

step four as a so-called “double loop” is sometimes useful

In my view, the four-step cycle is an over generalisation of what needs to be

done and practitioners need to stay alert to the particular organisational

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context in which it is to be applied Also to consider is the readiness of newparticipants, which means that a preliminary “orientation workshop” may beneeded to start up each new project group Certainly, in the bank project, it wasfound to be an essential preparation for step two.

Udas (1998, p 602) reminds us that at any stage of the cycle, fact findingmay be necessary, which means that fact finding is not necessarily exclusive tostep three This was found to be the case in the bank project Also, diffusion ofnew knowledge may be required beyond the immediate project group, that is,

to circulate this knowledge to other levels of the organisation in the form of newroutines and work place skills I argue that this important step often needs to beseparately delineated, as a follow on from step three

This discussion about the interplay of steps in the classic action researchcycle shows that context matters, and the only pedagogical generalisationabout the “right steps” for action research is that there will be action andreflection in iterative progression over time Following this line of thought, thetime-sequenced cycle steps are really a programmatic way of learning how todevelop reflective skills, to be “conscious in the midst of action” (Torbert, 1991,

p 221)

In the bank project, the action research cycle in use evolved from observingthe actual learning steps that seemed to work well The pedagogical modelshown in Figure 1 was called “Turning the Wheel” by project groups, and itwas used as an explanatory aide in many participant orientation workshops

This cycle shows key steps, inputs and outputs However, as a

technical/practical representation of the action research process, it does not

adequately highlight the learning activity modes that were important for the

continuity of the project This kind of learning orientation was made clearer

post priori in a revision of the original model titled “The Internal Marketing

Cycle” This is shown in Figure 2

With hindsight, the four modes of participant learning activity in the bank

project can be reframed as follows (Ballantyne, 2000b):

(1) Energising: learning how to work together on useful market place goals

that are broader than the bounds of any individual job description

(2) Code Breaking: learning how to apply personal resources of “know-how”

in working together to solve customer problems, create new

opportunities and change internal procedures

(3) Authorising: learning to make choices between options on a cost-benefit

basis and gaining approvals from the appropriate line authority

(4) Diffusing: learning how to circulate and share new knowledge across

managerial domains in new ways

Given the “customer first” orientation of the project, each learning mode was an

essential requirement for the “spin” from one step of the cycle to the next, and

then on from one cycle to the next However, what is not made clear in this

Figure 2 The Internal Marketing

Cycle

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