Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research

By Mary Anne Casey and Richard A. Krueger

Book Overview

"Focus Groups. . . is the essential guide on the subject, providing an easy to read, step by step approach to planning and conducting successful focus groups." --PPA News "The book meets its purpose very nicely. The writing is clear, with an absence of technical or academic jargon. . . . The chapters are well organized. . . . A variety of important areas are covered. . . . The text is peppered with particular examples and stories, some humorous, that help the reader understand the material in a real-life context. . . . its perspective is practical and balanced. . . . the strength in this work is the careful presentation of what focus groups can and cannot provide as part of the arsenal of evaluation techniques. . . . The book is well edited. . . . Administrators, managers, and other professionals in information organizations of all types should find this book a worthwhile purchase. Public and academic libraries should find this an excellent selection for their patrons as well as for internal use." --Richard Rubin in Library and Information Science Research "Although the target audience is the public and nonprofit sector, less experienced practitioners will find this book helpful." --Teresa B. Jovanovic in Journal of Product Innovation Management "Richard A. Krueger has managed to address almost every issue and problem the potential researcher is likely to encounter. The book is packed with sound advice and detailed approaches, making this method a success. . . . If you are even thinking about doing any kind of group interview, this is the place to start." --Nursing Times The highly acclaimed first edition of Richard A. Krueger′s Focus Groups has become the standard introduction to this widely used technique. Retaining its focus on applied research and its step-by-step approach to planning and conducting a successful focus group, this new edition has been expanded to offer broader coverage on analyzing focus group results and exploring various collaborative approaches. It also includes additional material on questioning strategies, moderator roles, selecting participants, and accounting for cultural diversity within a focus group. Replete with common sense suggestions and concise descriptions on the technical aspects of focus groups, this new edition is the ideal text for introducing this method to students.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803955669
• ISBN13: 9780803955660
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

No unpleasant surprises here!

I received my item within the time indicated and the book was in great shape. If the transactions continued to go as smoothly as this one, I would definitely buy from this seller again! I'm satisfied with the product, price, and timeliness of receiving my product.

Excellent Book

I purchased this book prior to taking a class on focus groups with the authors. I found the book was written in a manner that was both clear and informative. Information in the book provides the necessary background and detail to understand focus groups. The authors are experienced moderators with many jewels of wisdom to share which are found in this book. This one is a keeper!

Helpful

As explained in the acknowledgements, this book grew out of research projects of the authors. It seeks to explain how one draws valid meaning from qualitative data. The focus of the book, as a consequence, is analysis. The authors see themselves as logical positivists. Three components of analysis are: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification.Like a large number of other scholars, they see compatibility between qualitative and quantitative research. They contend that "qualitative research can be outright 'confirmatory.'"This book covers the basics of doing a qualitataive study. It is a helpful reference to use for experienced researchers as well as an excellent introduction for beginners.

User friendly - not research friendly

This book contains a great deal of information about conducting focus groups and is very easy to use; however, the format is far too simplistic. Focus groups are a research technique; this book takes the approach of "so easy even a child could do it." Although it is filled with information and guidelines about appropriate techniques and uses for data, the lighthearted format undermines the serious nature of data collection and analysis. The second edition was much better as a comprehensive guide to focus groups that maintained some research integrity.Incidentally, I suspect that Paladin Red actually reviewed the second edition. The third edition does not contain appendices after each chapter - another unfortunate loss from the earlier edition.

A superb research guide!

Krueger's book on focus groups has been by far the most useful guide in terms of the step-by-step approach used. Everything from concise budgeting techniques to handling those "difficult" participants are outlined neatly and in a straight-forward fashion. The appendices after each chapter are also really helpful especially for beginner researchers such as myself. I borrowed this book from the library for a summer marketing research job and it was all I needed for the focus group portion. Recommended to me by my marketing prof, I in turn highly recommend it!