The purpose of this paper is to describe an alternative to the narrative form of review that minimizes the difficulties and subjective factors that plague such an approach. The disparity in the conclusions or each review was attributed to two main factors: differences in the sets of studies included in each review and differences in the interpretation of the findings or studies common to the reviews. Miller (1977) provides an excellent example of different reviewers of research on the psychological benefits of drug therapy reaching unique conclusions. Thus, the conclusions of any one review might be as much a function of the biases of the reviewer as the studies themselves. Second, this situation enhances the likelihood that the reviewer will impose his or her own biases on the integration task. It is a prodigious task usually beyond the objective capabilities or any one individual, especially when conflicting findings exist within the body of studies. Extracting meaning from the many studies in narrative fashion is not unlike an attempt to extract meaning from a raw data matrix prior to reduction. First, the results or several studies can be likened to the many data points that result from a single primary research project. However, as the number of studies being integrated increases, several difficulties can be encountered in the narrative approach. The narrative review might suffice if the number of studies being integrated is not too large (although any review of only a few studies might be considered premature). Several narrative or qualitative reviews exist in the consumer behavior literature, perhaps the best known of which is that provided by Wilkie and Pessemier's (1972) integration of the issues and findings on multi-attribute models of consumer attitudes. The findings are then summarized and integrated for the reader usually with an accompanying interpretation of the entire body of findings. After accumulating (perhaps selectively) several studies on an issue, the author attempts to extract the findings from each study. The typical review paper is narrative in its presentation. When such a situation exists, a review paper that summarizes the existing findings and attempts to resolve any inconsistencies among them is a welcome addition to the literature. As their research efforts proliferate, it becomes difficult for the individual student to keep abreast of the findings that are reported, let alone sort them out. Subareas within consumer behavior each with several active researchers have developed or are emerging. This paper attempts to offer insights into the conduct of a meta-analysis by discussing it in the context of the stages of a primary research study, offering useful examples of existing meta-analyses, and pointing out some limitations of meta-analytic research.Īs consumer behavior increasingly takes on the nature of a discipline in and of itself, a vast amount of consumer research is accumulating. It is the statistical summary of these findings and seeks to explain the observed variations, if any, in findings across studies. Meta-analysis is a quantitative approach to the integration of findings from several individual studies of a research question. Paul Peter, University of Wisconsin, Madison Houston, University of Wisconsin, Madison THE ROLE OF META-ANALYSIS IN CONSUMER RESEARCH Tybout, Ann Abor, MI : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 497-502.Īdvances in Consumer Research VolPages 497-502 Sawyer (1983) ,"The Role of Meta-Analysis in Consumer Research", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 10, eds. This paper attempts to offer insights into the conduct of a meta-analysis by discussing it in the context of the stages of a primary research study, offering useful examples of existing meta-analyses, and pointing out some limitations of meta-analytic research. ABSTRACT - Meta-analysis is a quantitative approach to the integration of findings from several individual studies of a research question.
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