Anatomy of a global study

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Few things are more disorientating than stepping into a country for the first time. Everything is unfamiliar: the sounds; the buildings; the trees; even the air. The tiniest, most trivial things can be completely different (like a Royale with cheese at a French McDonald’s). It’s no wonder that conducting a global study can be one of the biggest challenges market researchers face.

Beyond the difficulties that come with organising a study of this scope and scale, you also need to ensure that your study is sensitive to the cultural differences of each country that you survey. 

It’s easy to forget, for example, how much of a wonderfully diverse and fascinating place Europe is. And, if you overlook this when conducting research, that diversity will become a major obstacle.

We all have some sense of what we need to do. We know that languages don’t translate precisely and that we have to be conscious of cultural attitudes to different concepts when designing the questionnaire. 

Yet the scale of the challenge and the sheer complexity of these barriers are often understated. So much of what we know about the world has become so engrained in us, that we often forget that it might be different elsewhere. We spot the obvious differences and overlook the more subtle ones. Understanding these cultural nuances are key if we’re to interpret and understand data correctly. 

What makes countries different

What makes countries different?

Take a simple true/false question:

‘Taxes are too high’

• a. True
• b. False

In just six words, you’ve made a whole host of assumptions about the country you’re researching. And these assumptions had better be accurate, as they will determine the validity of your research.

Do you know how taxation works in each country you’re surveying? What do people usually count as a ‘tax’? How aware are people of what taxes they pay? Since Central and Eastern Europe widely uses flat taxes, while much of Western Europe uses a progressive tax system, how will this affect the results?

Then you need to think about how you ask. Is this an online survey? When the internet penetration in Romania is 50% while in the UK it is 90%, you may need to think about what groups of people may be under-represented in the sample. And what country-specific factors may affect the response rate? Are phone surveys popular in that country? What does a well-designed survey form look like in France or in Germany?

If you want to go deeper, even the concept of truth can vary between cultures. You will get more ‘don’t know’ responses from societies where people tend to be more careful and cautious about what they believe, than those where you’re more likely to get strong views that people are committed to.

The picture is a complicated one, and the deeper we look, the more complicated it gets. Being aware of these factors and how they can affect your results is absolutely fundamental.

how to make the most of local knowledge?

While Europe may be a beautifully perplexing place, there are ways in which we can make it understandable. We may not be able to grasp every single nuance, but we can know enough to make the results authoritative and accurate.

Building relationships with local stakeholders and making the most of their knowledge is key. When Future Thinking conducted a global healthcare study across 23 different nations (including 14 European countries) our membership of IRIS – the world’s largest network of independent research institutes – proved extremely useful. We partnered with local IRIS members and learned from their experience of conducting research in their territories for many years.

Accessing that local insight not only lets you learn about the country, it also helps you spot the unknown unknowns – the things that you don’t know that you don’t know. This helps you to avoid unknowingly making assumptions that affect the capture and interpretation of the results. And, when you eventually present the findings, having people on board who understand what your various audiences believe and what they are expecting will be very useful.

Remember that Romania has a significantly lower internet penetration rate than the UK? That could help explain why our study found that only 23% of people in Romania consult websites for healthcare advice compared with 66% in the UK; infrastructure rather than culture may be the primary factor for this result. Similarly, France’s popular public/private hybrid system may explain why most ( 41%) felt that private individuals (through insurance or out of their own pocket) should mainly pay for healthcare expenses.

Ultimately, research is about getting to know people. Building relationships with local stakeholders is the first step to doing the same for several thousand respondents throughout Europe. When you’re stepping into unfamiliar territory, always make sure that you have that local insight to guide you.

Claudia Strauss is managing director at Future Thinking