Purpose – The aim of this research was to consider whether focus groups have justifiably become a more frequently used qualitative market research technique because of a superior research outcome. Although focus groups have extrinsic advantages such as speed and cost, there is evidence that individual depth interviews have intrinsic advantages relating to the quality of the research outcome. De...

By referring to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as a case study, this paper seeks to explore the impact of outreach activities by international criminal tribunals. Building upon primary field research findings, including twenty-seven in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 108 respondents, this paper applies a theory-driven investigation of the impact of outre...

Between 20.10.09 and 23.10.09, the Dagstuhl Seminar 09432, Quantitative Software Design, was held at the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. Quantitative software design is a field of research that is not yet firmly established. A number of challenging open research issues are only recently being addressed by the academic research community (see below). The to...

Over the past few years, the focus group method has assumed a very important role as a method for collecting qualitative data in social and behavioural science research. This article elucidates theoretical and practical problems and prospects associated with the use of focus groups as a qualitative research method in social and behavioural science research. The core uses of focus groups in soci...

Triangulation of research methods was used to investigate family planning practices among Swazi women, men and adolescents. Seventeen focus group interviews were conducted. The findings of focus group interviews were used to develop a structured interview schedule for conducting quantitative research. Both the qualitative and quantitative research results revealed that value of children, lack o...

This paper represents a continuation of the program sketched in Outline of a Mathematical Theory of Computation (PRG 2), The language under consideration is the elementary languag~ of flow diagrams where the level of analysis concerns the flo'~ of control but not any questions of storage, assignment. block structure or the use of parameters. A new feature of the approach of this paper is the tr...

Now more than ever, public organizations are changing their role from developers to acquirers of software products and services. To accomplish the principles of transparency and economy that these organizations must preserve, they have adopted the building engineering practice of issuing call for tenders. In order to apply, prospective software suppliers need to analyze these documents, make th...

This paper presents a qualitative study conducted to explore perceptions, attitudes and expectations for a virtual assistive companion designed to supplement human caregiving and facilitate an improved quality of life and long-term health benefits for older adults. The study was conducted adopting a human-centred approach; employing focus groups and individual interviews with older adults, prof...

Initially candidate survey items were compiled from existing literature and presented on a seven-point Likert scale. Then the survey items were filtered through several iterations of pretests. First, these items were examined by a focus group. This group consisted of three colleagues who are knowledgeable about the research subject as well as the measurement theory, and five senior IT managers ...

A plethora of electronic personal task management (e-PTM) tools have been designed to help individuals manage their tasks. There is a lack of evidence, however, on the extent to which these tools actually help. In addition, previous research has reported that e-PTM tools have low adoption rates. To understand the reasons for such poor adoption and to gain insight into individual differences in ...