Book Review: Total Global Strategy: Managing for Worldwide Competitive Advantage

focus group moderators with a reference book. This expanded version is a how-to book that provides the reader with a conceptual framework for understanding focus group processes to produce successful results. The Handbook covers such new topics as (1) the new type of moderator for the 1990s, (2) new techniques of moderation, (3) new applications of focus groups, (4) new types of demands made by clients and moderators on research facilities, and (5) recent technological changes affecting focus groups. The basic goal of this book is to bridge the gap between the mid-1980s focus group literature and the changes occurring in the 1990s. The author’s first book is recommended as a good introduction to the topic of focus groups and will guide the reader to a more complete understanding of the Handbook. In the beginning, focus groups were regarded mainly as a simple and quick task of asking any group of respondents, usually in someone’s home, to answer questions about a product or service. However, over the past 20years, focus groups have evolved into an important source of qualitative research. Today, a great amount of time is taken to ensure that the facility, moderator, and respondents are of high quality. Advance preparation is key to obtaining important and useful information from the participants, and this book gives suggestions on how to obtain a successful focus group, taking into account the many factors involved. The author does a good job of discussing organizational abuses of focus groups, resulting from firms depending too much on the technique as a way of solving all their information needs. If there is a question at hand, it is easy for managers to believe that a focus group is a quick and inexpensive way to answer those questions. Readers gain a better understanding of when using focus group research, as compared with other techniques, is more appropriate in light of the company’s research objectives. Some of the common abuses discussed are using focus groups as a cheap alternative to quantitative research, using them to produce data that they are not invented to generate, and implementing more focus groups than are necessary to achieve the research objectives. Another strength of the book is the fact that common mistakes associated with focus group research are addressed. Many marketing professionals do not support using focus group research because of either concern with the basic methodology or negative experiences. The author suggests that the reason for these pejorative feelings toward focus groups is the common mistakes made by organizations in the use of this type of research. The mistakes addressed are associated with methodological abuses, focus group procedures, and analytical tasks. A few of the major mistakes that seem to be widespread in use are the fact that companies often use focus group information as a decision-making tiebreaker and/or to generate new product ideas. Moreover, companies tend to use inadequate materials during the focus group discussion (i.e., concept testing, package samples). Readers will have a better understanding of these common errors, therefore reducing the chance of encountering these problems in the future. The book adequately accomplishes its main goal of integrating the focus group literature, in that it addresses new moderating techniques and discusses current focus group costs. Some of the new techniques discussed include a projective technique in which a People Board is used to obtain respondent’s attitudes through photograph associations and forced relationships, in which participants indicate which of several images in a category relate to the subject at hand. The description of these new techniques is one of the most informative sections of the book. When discussing the new focus group techniques, the author does not address respondents’ nonverbal behavior. For example, respondents in the focus group may report one answer or feeling orally when, in fact, their body language indicates an opposite feeling. Possibly, a facial expression or a body kinetic model should be introduced as a moderator tool used to monitor the accuracy with which respondents report their attitudes and feelings. The study of nonverbal behavior has the potential to assist moderators in gaining high-quality results from respondents. Another limitation of the book is that it is unclear just exactly who the audience is. Although the audience is specified as users of qualitative market research, the topics covered reflect a broad spectrum of issues that tend to overgeneralize the material. It seems as though the book is directed more toward the marketing manager, because most moderators are already familiar with the fundamentals of focus group research. Therefore, from the manager’s perspective, more detail is needed on the logistics involved when planning and interpreting focus group interviews. An example of an actual focus group would have been useful in understanding the general flow of this type of research, including examples of moderator-group discussions. Another aspect not considered is that some companies conduct their own focus groups and do not utilize a moderator or a facility. Possibly they hold adequate experience on moderation and other aspects involved with focus groups. These users would benefit from a more detail-oriented handbook. For managers who are interested in utilizing focus groups and do not have much experience with this type of research, this book is a must. However, moderators and experienced focus group users may require more specific or more detailed information. Despite the book’s shortcomings, there are some enlightening topics covered (e.g., the new moderating techniques). In general, this Handbook is recommended reading for anyone who wants to understand the past, present, and future of focus group research.