Conceptual analysis and research path

Conceptual analysis always consists of different phases (e.g. Näsi 1980, p.13; see also McKennel 1974, p. 9). In figure 2 the different phases of this study are presented. These different can be regarded also as being the phases of the conceptual analysis (e.g. Näsi 1980, p.13; see also McKennel 1974, p. 9). The first phase (in figure 2) in the research path concerns the preunderstanding¹⁶. The preunderstanding was mainly gathered by extensive reading of the service marketing theory together with IMP-approach and by personal experiences from the phenomena. On the basis of studies related to the service quality tradition, I got familiar with the evaluation divided into episode and relationship levels, and the IMP-approach in turn brought an insight into the study of business relationships.

I was also involved in writing papers related to relationship quality and its evaluation (Lehtinen and Järvelin 1995; Järvelin and Lehtinen 1996). In

16 Preunderstanding is not included to the phases of conceptual analysis presented by Näsi (1980, p. 13) or McKennel (1974, p. 9). But it is included here as it is valuable in understanding the research process as whole.

these papers, frameworks for relationship quality evaluation were presented. Those frameworks have had a quite remarkable impact on developing the preliminary framework for this study. The experiences from the phenomena were gained through working experiences and discussions with colleagues. Also, the experiences gathered from the substance, were for the most part related to the services. The linkage between these personal experiences and the gathering and formation of the theory cannot be traced explicitly, but the fact remains, that those experiences are part of me, and thus affect the way I think as a researcher.

Internal analysis

Figure 2: The research path between different domains.

Before getting into the research concerning relationship quality, I was mainly interested in the theory of services marketing and especially service quality. As the interest in the relationship was increasing also in service marketing in the beginning of 1990’s, when I did most of the reading, I got used to the separation between episodes and relationships. Also, the experiences from the substance supported this separation. This separation between episodes and relationship clearly affected my thinking especially in the beginning of the research process, and thus this separation was at least for the most part taken for granted.

Also this presumption affected the way I treated episode and relationship quality evaluation in building the preliminary framework. The presumption was that episode and relationship quality levels are separate levels, episode and relationship quality evaluations also were seen as separate evaluations.

These separate evaluations were seen as happening in sequential order. The empirical study, however, changed the way I thought in this respect, but the preliminary framework was built according to this presumption.

The second phase concerns the theoretical data collection and organization together with external analysis of the concepts¹⁷. All the possible material related to the relationship quality and its evaluation was gathered and organized. The guiding principle in the data collection was that the term of relationship quality was forgotten and the data was searched for and collected according to the phenomenon (the key words used were:

satisfaction, quality, comparison level, comparison standards and expectations). The data was organized in order to be able to form a picture within each tradition and in order to be able to compare different concepts used within the different research traditions.

The objective of the second phase (external analysis) was to analyze and evaluate the presented conceptual approaches linked to the relationship quality evaluation. In this part, the external nature and basic properties of the concepts, as well as the nature of the embedding conceptual system are elaborated. Also, the relationships between these concepts and their relationships to other relevant concepts are evaluated to some extent. This part of the conceptual analysis is carried out by using ”extended literature review”, which consists of the traditional literature review with special emphasis on the concepts useful for this study (e.g. satisfaction, service quality, relationships and outcomes). It has to be noticed that the concept of relationship quality is looked at from the evaluation perspective. This limits the concepts which are studied in this phase and in the whole study. On the basis of this analysis, the preliminary conceptualization of relationship quality evaluation is formed and parts of it are analyzed in the following phase.

The goal of the third phase in the conceptual analysis was to specify the meaning and properties of the concepts involved. This part deals mainly with the internal nature of the concepts. Both cognitive basis and process of relationship quality evaluation and the concepts being part of it are being examined. On the basis of this phase and preliminary conceptualization (i.e.

framework) of relationship quality evaluation, the empirical case study was performed¹⁸.

In the case study the in-depth interviews form the core source of information (see McKennell 1974), but also additional sources are used (i.e.

unofficial discussion and secondary data). The empirical case study consists of the relationship between the Avionics department of a high tech company and the Finnish army air force division. The relationship has lasted over 20 years, and it can be said that it is institutionalized, since the ways of working together are routinized, co-operation concerns common goals, and partners tend to know each other very well.¹⁹

17 Näsi (1980, p.13) separates data collection and external analysis to separate phases, but they are here treated as belonging to the same phase. This is because they actually happened simultaneously.

18 For the case selection see more in chapter 5.2.

19 See more about the case relationship in chapter 5.6.

Five persons from the Avionics department and three persons from the air force division were interviewed. The selected persons were from different organizational levels and were active in the relationship. Each interview lasted from 1 to 2,5 hours and interviews were recorded and transcribed. Interviews were based on a semi-structured questionnaire which was used only by the interviewer. As the organizational level and the occupation of interviewees varied, not all the questions were asked from all the interviewees. Interviews were carried out in the autumn of 1996.²⁰ Although the empirical case study was not extensive, it served well the purposes of this study as facilitating the concepts presented in theoretical part.

The fourth and final phase of the conceptual analysis is closely linked to the third phase and to the empirical analysis. The aim of final phase is to develop a conceptual framework of the relationship quality evaluation. In this study two different frameworks were formed in this phase. The first framework, the modified framework, was developed on the basis of the preliminary framework and the results gained from the empirical research.

The second framework, the refined framework, was developed in order to bring together the preliminary framework and the results of the empirical study which are not regarded as being bound to the particular empirical case.

In the following some basic principles used in conceptual analysis of this study are discussed. First, the role of conceptual analysis is important in both qualitative and quantitative research, but it has to be noticed that the use of concepts is different. In quantitative research, the concepts (the method of description) are separated from the phenomenon (what is described). In qualitative research the phenomenon and the concepts are linked together, and the concepts serve as the lenses through which the phenomenon is studied. (Näsi 1980, p. 8; see also Eskola and Suoranta 1998). Following the lines of Rajaniemi (1992, p. 21) the conceptual analysis is not sufficient alone. In order to define the concept, the concept should be studied both in theory and in empiria. It can be said, however, that in this study the theoretical domain has a more central role than the substantive or the methodological domains (more on domains see Brindberg and McGrath 1982).

Second, in studying relationship quality evaluation the different language games are present (see more Näsi 1980, pp. 5-8). The researchers in this area use the same term (e.g. relationship quality) when talking about different phenomena. The practitioners use different terms (e.g. satisfaction and quality) when speaking about relationship quality (as it is understood in this study). In order to manage with these different language games the perspective of the phenomenom is taken. This means that the meanings behind different terms are aimed to be traced, and the analysis is done according to these meanings.

20 See more in chapter 5.3.

Since, research can be seen in a way as a means of developing scientific language (see Brunsson 1982). The scientific language in turn can be used as a tool for describing, analyzing and understanding different phenomena.

The structure of scientific language is a hierarchical, and high-level concepts can be divided into lower level concepts. Often the purpose of scientific language is to build higher-level concepts. (See Normann 1976, p.

88) However, the aim should be in developing better language for describing the concepts and relationships between them. In this study we step closer to understand the evaluation of relationship quality by trying to develop language for describing the concepts related to the relationship quality evaluation and the relationships between these concepts.

Third, the concepts used in scientific research have to fulfill certain requirements in order to be used as building blocks in theory development.

According to Niiniluoto (1980, p. 154) there exists four different aims of the process of concept development. The first aim is simplicity, which means both structural simplicity of the concepts and the usefulness of the concepts. The second aim is the clarity of the concepts, by which is referred to the uniqueness and exactness of the concepts. The third aim deals with universality, which means logical form of the sentences used in conceptual definition. The fourth aim is the truth by which is referred to the content of the sentences used. Normann (1976, p. 88) puts one essential requirement for the concept development; the new concept should be able to describe the phenomenom better than the previous one.

The current conceptualizations of relationship quality and its evaluation can be regarded as being complex in nature (e.g. Liljander and Strandvik 1995a,b; Lehtinen and Järvelin 1995; Järvelin and Lehtinen 1996;

Holmlund 1997). The complexity of the conceptualizations can cause problems in using them for empirical research (see for exception Holmlund 1997). The complex nature of the concepts also can lead to a lack of clarity, which in turn can cause indistinction between researchers. Simplicity has been one of the guiding principles in building the frameworks for relationship quality evaluation in this study, but as the relationship quality evaluation is complex phenomenom the conceptualizations may not seem to be simple.

Fourth, the problem related to the use of conceptual analysis in this study is related to the problem setting presented in chapter 1.4. As the research problem is related to the evaluation process of relationship quality, the requirements set to the conceptual analysis are even more demanding than the conceptual analysis of a single concept. The process nature is, however, an inherent ingredient of the relationship quality evaluation, and in order to examine the nature and properties of the relationship quality evaluation as a concept the process nature cannot be excluded. The conceptual analysis which aims at answering the question of how, requires, in addition to developing definitions to concepts, the analysis of the relationships between these concepts. Thus, instead of only developing a definition for the concept of relationship quality evaluation, the task in this

study is merely to develop a conceptual system to describe the way that the relationship quality is evaluated. The conceptual system also can be described by the words conceptual model, model or framework. The last one is used in this study.