International Marketing

RESEARCH APPROACH

The methodological problems of the IMP-project and the way they were solved are

probably best understood in terms of the basic research approach of the project.

This can be explained by distinguishing between two basic types of possible

approaches. The first we refer to as the Co-ordinated Decision Approach and the

second as the Incremental Commitment Approach.

In the co-ordinated decision approach a single major decision is made about the

design of the project. Of course this decision is composed of a number of partial

decisions, but they are assumed to be made simultaneously and in a co-ordinated

way. In this approach the emphasis is on the rationality of the decision. The

implicit assumption is that there are few implementation problems and that the

implementation is not affected by the decision-making procedure. The research is

assumed to take place in some type of organizational vacuum. This approach

probably requires that the research organization is centralized and that the financial

resources of the central authority make it possible for them to control the research

work. Even so, it probably neglects some of the realities of research work.

The incremental commitment approach stresses the series of commitments by

the research workers to carry out the research work. Its emphasis is on the

motivational aspects of the process. It does not assume that research decisions are

not made. Instead it sees the main research problems as one of implementation

rather than of the correctness of the research decisions. Furthermore, it assumes

that implementation is dependent on the decision-making procedure of the

researchers. The commitment of the researchers is crucial to the success of the

project. It is assumed that their commitment depends on their participation in the

decision-making, and that the commitments must be made incrementally and be

reinforced by progress in the research work. This approach is probably more suitable

when there is a decentralized organization, shortage of financial funds initially

and no central competence regarding the particular characteristics of research work

in the various dispersed research groups.

The research approach of the IMP-project can be characterized as being very

close to the incremental commitment approach. The reason for this is simply that

there were no alternatives. The project was initiated on the basis of one, somewhat

unclear although promising idea held by some researchers with very small resources

in terms of both money and time. Consequently the whole research process had

more the characteristics of `muddling through' than of implementation of a

meticulously planned research design. This concept of `muddling through' is taken

from Lindblom (1959) and Braybrooke and Lindblom (1963).

This methodological chapter has been structured in accordance with our basic

approach to the research. Thus each section deals with one phase of the research

process.