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(More customer reviews)Marilyn Mitchell has written an insider's report on doing social science research in the private sector. The intended audience is academic social scientists, especially anthropologists. She orients the reader to where the private sector uses research, what methods are common and useful, effective entrepreneurial behaviors, and to managing communications and contracts. The book is a useful guide to private-sector work for academics. People contemplating working outside academia - both students and faculty - should read it.
Review
This text by anthropologist Marilyn Mitchell is a useful addition to the Sage Qualitative Research Methods series. It is organized into seven chapters, includes five appendices, and provides references and resources. Social scientists thinking about a move from the academic into the private sector are the intended readers. The subject is not methods but where to apply them: "This is not a book about mastering research methods. It is a book about how to get paid for mastery you already have or can easily acquire." (p. 2)
Her attention in much of the text is on entrepreneurial contract work as a freelance operator or as an employee actively selling research services. Readers enticed by private-sector opportunities will learn much about valued behaviors just by attending to the numerous remarks about salesmanship.
Private-Sector Research Settings. This chapter summarizes organizations that employ social scientists. Settings are divided into supplier side and client side organizations. Ad agencies, market research firms, consulting outfits and people doing freelance work are some of the external research suppliers she describes. Internal research departments and human resources departments are major client side research centers. Throughout the chapter, the emphasis is on what functions are performed and where academically trained and experienced researchers fit. Anthropologists should take note of this: "Freelancing is especially appropriate and lucrative for social scientists with exotic methodological capabilities." (p. 11).
Renaming Your Skills. In this chapter "...the emphasis is on information that will enable you to make the translation to commercial research." (p. 14); the chapter is divided into sections that discuss qualitative and quantitative methods. Varieties of interviews are the primary qualitative methods. These include depth interviews (one-on-ones, dyads, triads); focus groups, which she characterizes as the "...mainstay of private sector qualitative research..." (p. 16); and ethnographic interviews. Interesting because it fits with what anthropologists do, she remarks that "In consumer market research, good clients for ethnographic projects are those who design, make or sell products that involve complex purchase decision processes, high substitutability, and lots of symbolic content." (pp. 19-20). But, ethnographic interviewing is seldom used and researchers will need to introduce and sell the method (and see Appendix D). Innovative use of observational techniques also finds a place in the commercial researcher's tool box. Sales modeling and predicting require knowledge of statistical methods many anthropologists lack but may want to acquire upon moving into the private sector; she notes (p. 24) that modeling research is intellectually demanding and often highly lucrative.
Business Activities That Require Research. This chapter is on behaviors businesses research. Consumer, public & political, and organizational behaviors are treated separately. Consumer behavior is the most important of the lot; she presents material on markets and marketing and on sales modeling and predicting here. Anthropological knowledge allowing a firm to target particular segments is valuable: "...do not hesitate to talk about the cultural aspects of targeting. This is one of the most powerful and salable elements of the ethnographic perspective." (p. 28).
Marketing Yourself to the Private Sector.This chapter is the heart of the volume; it is a primer on effective entrepreneurial behavior in the commercial research sector. The chapter is directed to individuals seeking contract work so the emphasis is on self-promotion, making effective presentations to win contracts and on materials that remind clients of one's services. This is essential reading for people who are thinking of going into business as research suppliers; Mitchell makes it clear that effective self-promotion and salesmanship are required. She covers making yourself known to clients (creating and maintaining visibility) and the content and context of effective presentations. Her advice on how to manipulate the symbols of business practice through presentation and follow-up is apt; academics used to lecturing classes of students will learn much here about different expectations for behavior.
Project Management. Topics in this chapter include requests for proposals (rfp), bidding on a contract, presenting and reviewing bids, and the product delivered to clients. She includes observations on writing in the private sector and the proprietary nature of data in this sector. The business model contrasts with the academic model of sharing and open collegiality with respect to research results. Business Management. This chapter is on the role of communications in a contractual environment, conflict and its management, privacy and property in commercial transactions and time and money management. The sections on managing conflicts and time and money management highlight differences between academic and private sector relationships.
The book ends with a conclusion, five appendices, references and a section on additional resources. Two of the appendices (A: Example of a Request for Proposal and C: Where to learn about an Industry) are particularly useful. Appendix D: Response to an RFP Using Ethnographic Interviewing and Semiotic Analysis is not, in fact, a response to an RIP but is instead a mini-discussion of various qualitative research methods and their merits; this appendix is mistitled.
Recommendations
Social scientists (both faculty and students) interested in the private sector should read this book. Faculty advisors will read it to help students plan for non-academic careers; skills valued in the private sector, and the places that value them, are presented here. Students will read it because it discusses realistic alternatives to academic and public sector work, and because the discussion is loaded with information that can be used to plan career goals and select classes and research topics.
Comments
Mitchell points out very clearly along the way where academic practices differ from business practices, and where they are similar, so that adaptation can be made. Strict regard for confidentiality - even the legal necessity of this - is required in the private sector. The tips and tactics she presents for working in the private sector are pointers to impo rtant symbols and behaviors in a culture of work different from the academic world. She invites the reader to imagine being comfortable in this setting, and to reflect on whether choosing to earn a living in business is a workable personal choice. Important behaviors expected include self-promotion, the ability to turn projects around quickly, and considerable skills in cooperating, cajoling and flattering. Intellectual rigor and research skills are the underpinning but do not, of themselves, bring work in the door.
The book has signs of having been edited in a hurry. The Chapter Two title (Renaming Your Skills) has scant relation to the subject; one appendix is also misnamed. The conversational tone adopted in some sections does not enhance the material, but currently is the vogue in academic writing.
This is a valuable little book but, when it is prepared, the second edition needs a heavier editoial hand.
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