The use of group support systems in focus groups: Information technology meets qualitative research

  • Authors:

  • Esther E. Klein;Thomas Tellefsen;Paul J. Herskovitz

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Business Computer Information Systems/Quantitative Methods, Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University, 211 Weller Hall, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA;Department of Business (Marketing), Graduate Center and College of Staten Island, City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Room #3N - 211, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA;Department of Business (Law), College of Staten Island, City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Room #3N - 206, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA

  • Venue:
  • Computers in Human Behavior
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

This paper explores focus groups supported by group support systems (GSS) with anonymous interaction capability in two configurations: same time/same place and same time/different place. After reviewing the literature, we compare and contrast these anonymity-featured GSS-supported focus groups with traditional focus groups and discuss their benefits and limitations. We suggest directions for future research concerning GSS-supported focus groups with respect to technological implications (typing skills and connection speeds), national culture (high and low context; power distance), and lying behavior (adaptation of model of Hancock, J. T., Thom-Santelli, J., & Ritchie, T. (2004). Deception and design: The impact of communication technology on lying behavior. Proceedings of the 2004 conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 129-134), whereby lying is a function of three design factors: synchronicity, recordability, and distributedness).