7 - Research and evaluation

Summary

Research and evaluation require specialist technical expertise. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of relevant research methods and to facilitate interaction with such experts rather than impart research skills.

We first distinguish between qualitative and quantitative research and present some of the major qualitative research methods. Qualitative research is particularly important because this is where strategy development comes from and where there is perhaps least understanding. We then describe the research framework of the US National Academy of Sciences as an overarching framework for research and evaluation.

Given that much of the application of social marketing is in public health, we then define the public health research concepts of prevalence and incidence, describe ‘epidemiological’ studies and note how to interpret logistic regression odds ratios – one of the major tools in public health research. Given that much formative and experimental research measures behavioural intentions as the dependent variable, we also comment on the relationship between intentions and behaviour, concluding with a brief discussion on research in Indigenous communities and rural communities in developing countries.