Personal involvement

The positivist approach followed in this research came from the understanding of the theoretical perspective of positivism. According to Gray (2013), positivism argues that that inquiry should be based upon a scientific observation. In the case of this research, the inquiry initiated for the action research component was built on the scientific quantitative component of the research. Hence, the action research was initiated based on an empirical inquiry. It is also important to acknowledge the claims of positivists and their fundamental beliefs; based on that understanding, the action researcher should respond in a neutral way with minimal bias in giving the opinion (Kock Jr., 1997). In

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action research, an understanding of positivism can come from the definition given by Greenwood (1998), who argues that logical positivism is based on the ontological argument that the world can be defined objectively by applying objective techniques to acquire the truth and the solution to the problem. In this research, the researcher has followed positivistic logic and objectivist ontology by including quantitative methodology and applying a survey in order to build a base of truth prior to the action research approach.

As suggested by David Gray (2013), it is important to have a theoretical perspective in research in order to help clarify issues in research design. The research philosophy should be acknowledged in order to define which research design will work and which will not. In the current research, it was decided among research peers that it would be best to first use a quantitative survey component as a scientific query of pharmacists’ views on the most effective marketing activities for promoting analgesic OTC pharmaceuticals.

The quantitative methodology in this research was followed by action research and as defined by Greenwood and Levin (1998), action research is a joint learning process that consists of a set of self-consciously collaborative and democratic strategies for generating knowledge and designing actions. Here, the researcher and local stakeholders collaborate to generate action and knowledge. Action research focuses on doing “with” rather than doing “on,” aiming to enhance the change and generate data for the generation of scientific knowledge through broad participation. Therefore, the researcher worked closely with participants in the organization in order to generate useful knowledge for the organization. Action research rejects the separation between thoughts and actions, as it promotes a participatory approach that aims to alter the

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initial situation. In order to alter the initial situation at the researcher’s organization, it was important for the research team to collaborate to identify the ideal methodology for determining ROMI and to identify the marketing activities that would bring the best results through scientific inquiry.

Due to the different natures of identified problems, action research follows a multidisciplinary approach and uses different methods. Action research must respect the multidimensionality of the defined problems in order to utilize local knowledge in a systematic manner to enable participants to make smarter business decisions.

In order to minimize bias, it is important for the researcher to acknowledge the personal effect of involvement in the research, which often results in a high degree of emotional response, especially in situations that involve conflict and stress (Kock Jr., 1997). Ignoring this fact might lead to failure in the intervention implemented by the action research practitioner. Such consideration has been given by the researcher in this research in order to avoid failure due to the researcher’s own behaviour.

Considering the limitations of this research stated above, it is advisable to carry out additional iterations of the action research cycle, which would help overcome any possible distortions in the findings of this research caused by the researcher’s over- involvement. The researcher avoided identification as the managing director and instead self-identified as the research facilitator for the sake of avoiding the negative consequences of personal over-involvement in the research. This is supported by the work of Greenwood (1998), who argues that the key benefit of the action research approach is that it opens the conversation to all participants and keeps the conversation going by bringing all forces of authority and representatives of different functions together in a structured way to make positive contributions.

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Finally, it is important to visit the statement of Greenwood (1998) that action research produces meaningful and valid research results. This defends action research against the standard criticism arguing that action research is unscientific. In this case, acknowledgement of personal involvement should come hand in hand with the stated goal of seeking meaningful and valid research results.

4.4 Conclusion

With action planning being a key part of the action research cycle, it was important to enhance this phase using the quantitative survey data. This data was meant to help the research team solidify the action plan, aim for better engagement within the research team and reach a desirable outcome. Since the action research methodology is not common, it is also uncommon to find combined research that includes both quantitative methodology and action research, as this study does. Chapter Six covers the definition of action research, the use and role of action research in marketing, the types of action research and the specific type used for this study, the investigation and validation of the action research, the intervention that took place through a series of six workshops, and the outcome of the research. It was important for the researcher to acknowledge the possible effects of personal involvement, the positivistic logic used in the research and the fact that the research did not use successive iterations. It is also important to acknowledge that the validity of the research outcome can be enhanced by conducting further iterations of the action research cycle.

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Chapter 5

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5.1 Introduction

In the initial, quantitative component of this study, the data collected from the questionnaire were analysed. The survey, which was distributed to pharmacists, was aimed at assessing the efficacy of marketing activities in the pharmacy channel with regard to OTC products. The survey consisted of two sections, with the first section containing the following questions:

 What is your gender?

 How many years of experience as a pharmacist do you have?  What is the practice setting of the pharmacy?

 How many point-of-sale materials (POSMs) are currently available in the pharmacy?

 What is the frequency of pharmacist-patient interactions regarding OTC products?

 What is the potential of the pharmacy in terms of daily revenue?

 What is the most effective POSM in terms of its impact on analgesic OTC sales? The second section of the survey was aimed at investigating the pharmacists’ perceptions regarding the impact of POSM, prescriptions and the pharmacist-patient relationship on the sale of OTC analgesic products. The second section comprised 7 questions measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The items were rated from 1 to 5, with 1 representing “strongly agree” and 5 representing “strongly disagree.” The reason for using a 5-point scale was that it offered a few alternatives to the respondents. A smaller scale might have affected the reliability of the answers by forcing respondents to give an imprecise answer regarding the statement being investigated (Creswell, 2003). A larger

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scale, on the other hand, might have led to more ambiguity regarding the meaning of the answer (Creswell, 2003).