I was recently fortunate enough to attend a fascinating presentation by Piyul Mukherjee and Pia Mollback-Verbic from Quipper Research in India. They presented a convincing argument about why we should not always attempt to replicate research designed in the US when we need to conduct that research in countries that are not Western in their culture – countries such as India or China.
I’ll go into detail below, but first, on a related note, I’m proud to announce that I have become part of Think Global Qualitative, an alliance of researchers around the world. Members of Think Global Qualitative are smart researchers (if I do say so myself!) and have collaborated with each other in the past. Our alliance makes it even easier for us to offer our clients international research projects and to share our expertise with each other. Read more at http://thinkglobalqualitative.com/.
But back to the presentation: Piyul and Pia discussed the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. While Western cultures tend to be egalitarian, individualistic and strive to avoid uncertainty, Eastern cultures tend to be hierarchical, collective and accept uncertainty. While these differences are not surprising, they have profound implications for conducting international research.
For example, let’s say we’re conducting research about how moms utilize laundry detergent in the home. In the U.S., the researcher would likely come to the home of the research participant, ask her to demonstrate how she normally does laundry and ask for her opinions about various laundry products. Even though we know the researcher might have some impact on the respondent’s behavior, we’d expect the demonstration to be fairly similar to her behavior in everyday life. We’d also expect to speak mainly to our respondent, even if her husband or children might be at home.
If we tried to conduct the same research in India, we’d be in for some surprises! In India, it isn’t possible for the researcher to be “a fly on the wall;” rather, they would be treated as an honored guest, so respondent behavior would be far from typical. And expect the whole family to join in. If a videographer and clients come along, even the neighbors would likely want to participate! And in many cases, the male head of household would feel he needs to give his opinion first, even when discussing a topic such as doing laundry, about which he would have no knowledge.
Instead of trying to replicate the U.S. research exactly, Piyul and Pia recommend tweaking the methodology to account for those cultural differences. For example, providing cell phones or video cameras to respondents before the interview. We might have the husband or children interview the respondents on camera and then review and discuss the footage with the family during the actual interview. This provides a much more authentic view of the behavior and allows the respondent to express her opinions more freely. In this example, even though the methodology would not be identical in the U.S. and in India, we would be far more likely to obtain accurate answers to the client’s research questions.
Do you need to conduct research in multiple countries? Give us a call! We’ll utilize all our resources – including Think Global Qualitative – to come up with the most effective methodology for the countries involved. Call us at: (818) 588-6050.
Sources: Quipper Research Pvt Ltd; Think Global Qualitative; Bureau West research