“Let’s fight, Help and Win” 
Research Studies | Research analysis on a large association of college and university bookstores
Focus group discussion guide
Process
|
Questions |
Notes |
Common responses |
Noteworthy individual responses |
|
What do you think is better between e-books and paperbacks for increasing student’s inclination towards studying? |
Most of the people had commented that e-books and paperbacks both can be equally effective study. Hence, a further one-to-one interview might be reconsidered to receive more structured responses |
Majority of people had responded towards e-books since it is easily available |
Some people had opined in favor of paperbacks because they make people better readers and offers no scope of being distracted while reading. |
|
Can the high price of textbooks make people students inclined towards accessing e-books? |
Most of the people had commented yes in its response. Hence, there would not be any need of reconsidering this discussion. |
Majority of people had blamed high price textbooks a major reason for their inclination towards e-books |
However, some had also said that people often prefer e-books as it is easily searchable and provides instant gratification |
|
What do you think about e-books being beneficial of an eco-friendly world? |
Most of the students had said that e-books are beneficial because it saves at least 8 million of tress yearly. |
Common responses were oriented towards the tree plantation schemes as the entire millennial claim to be concerned about global warming. |
Some had said that even digital books are hampering the environment because it needs large electricity production hampering the non-renewable energy sources of earth |
Table 1: Focus group interview transcript
(Source: Created by Researcher)
Findings
It has been found from the focus group interview responses that most of the students are finding e-books and textbooks to be equally effective for enhancing the knowledge paradigm of an individual. It is the arena of price and being eco-friendly that is mostly diverting the textbook readers towards digital ones (thrall.org, 2020). Majority of students had said that accessing e-books are easier for students of any financial background while the high price of textbooks often discourage students. However, it is also mention worthy that the researcher has become biased towards the e-books here because most if the questions are somehow designed to make students inclined towards e-books only and not the vice versa. It might happen that the researcher itself is inclined towards e-books because of the increased price of textbooks and that is why the biasness has been portrayed in the interview questions.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that e-books are apparently more eco-friendly than the printed books because they do not require cutting tress and thus the earth can be a better place for future generations. However, stopping the production of printed books will require much effort and it is not likely to be ceased within the next 5 years. Although, it is recommended that the bookstores and publishing houses could shift their focus towards digital books if they want to maintain a moderate margin of profit.
Other qualitative techniques
Apart from focus groups there are innumerable other qualitative research techniques that could shed light on this similar issue. Ethnographic model is one such technique where the researcher interacts with the study participants in their real-life environments (Bhattacharya, 2017). Henceforth, application of this technique could enable the researcher interact with college and university students who are currently preferring e-books and paperback books. Rather than ethnographic model technique, the phenomenological method can further be effective to describe, understand and interpret the meanings of the interaction procedure conducted with the students (Dodgson, 2017). This technique can also be efficient enough for the manager to draw out relevant findings on this issue by communicating with the students.
References
Bhattacharya, K. (2017). Fundamentals of qualitative research: A practical guide. Abingdon: Routledge. Retrieved on 25th January 2020 from: https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2016-0-98082-9&isbn=9781315231747&format=googlePreviewPdf
Dodgson, J. E. (2017). About research: Qualitative methodologies. Journal of Human Lactation, 33(2), 355-358. Retrieved on 25th January 2020 from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0890334417698693
thrall.org (2020) News Retrieved on 25th January 2020 from: https://www.thrall.org/docs/ebooksandbooks.pdf