International Journal of Market Research Collecting information from groups: a comparison of two methods Jillian C. Sweeney University of Western Australia Geoffrey N. Soutar Edith Cowan University Douglas R. Hausknecht Akron University Raymond F. Dallin Graduate School of Business Curtin University and Lester W. Johnson Graduate School of Business, University of Sydney Introduction In recent years, personal computers have been used in an increasing number of marketing research applications. These uses include a variety of data analysis and data collection techniques. For example, since the mid - 1970s, Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI) systems have been used directly to input survey data when conducting telephone interviews (Tyebjee 1979). Additionally, interactive methods, in which consumers interact with the computer in an interview setting, have been developed. An example of this type approach is adaptive conjoint analysis, through which only relevant product profiles are evaluated by consumers (Johnson 1987). Totally automated telephone systems are also available, during which an entire interview, including initiating the phone call and asking questions, is conducted by a computer using a digitised human voice. Consumers respond by pressing various touch-tone buttons (Havice & Banks 1992). More recently, questionnaires have been attached to home pages on the Internet (Gjestland 1996). While there seem to be real opportunities from changing technology, new methods need to be tested against established approaches (Frankel & Frankel 1987). Research into the effects of the completely automated interview, for example, has shown that the data obtained are similar to those collected by human telephone interviews but that the automated interview is relatively free of social context effects (Havice & Banks 1992). In Havice & Banks' (1992) study, automated interview respondents appeared to be more honest and more willing to give a negative response than were respondents talking to a human interviewer. Further, the belief that respondents will not participate in computer type surveys because of anxiety about the computer appears to be unsupported (Havice 1990). While previous research has examined the effects of computers when conducting quantitative survey research, there has been little research into the effectiveness of computers in exploratory 1 of 14 29 Sep 2017 14:20:11