Projective Techniques in US Marketing and Management Research: The Influence of \u3cem\u3eThe Achievement Motive\u3c/em\u3e

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the use of projective techniques for published marketing and management research in the USA. The paper emphasizes the influence that McClelland, Atkinson, Clark and Lowell’s study, The Achievement Motive (1953), has had on subsequent research. That work applied quantitative analysis to responses obtained using projective techniques. Design/methodology/approach – The approaches used in this paper consist of descriptive historical methods and a literature review. The historical analysis was conducted using Kuhn’s 1967 conception of paradigms, showing that the paradigm from which projective techniques emerged – psychoanalysis – failed to gather many adherents outside the discipline of psychology. The paradigm failed to gain adherents in US colleges of business, although there are some exceptions. One exception is managerial motivation research, which built on the traditions of The Achievement Motive. The literature review suggests that, despite lacking institutional bases that could be used to develop new adherents to the paradigm, projective techniques were used by a number of researchers, but this research was marginalized, criticized or misunderstood by adherents of the dominant paradigm, positivism. Findings – Some of the criticism directed at projective techniques research by positivists involves criticism of the paradigm’s assumption that humans have an unconscious, and a belief that projective techniques are unreliable and invalid. This paper points out that a growing number of cognitive psychologists now accept the existence of an unconscious, and measure it using the “implicit association test.” This paper argues that the IAT is an associational test is the tradition of word association. Moreover, the literature review shows that projective techniques are much more reliable than critics contend, and exhibit greater predictive validity than many positivist instruments. Research limitations/implications – As with all literature reviews, this one does not include every published research study using projective techniques. As a consequence, the conclusions may not be generalizable to the studies excluded from the analysis. Originality/value – The paper is one of the few to assemble the literature on projective techniques used in several disciplines, and draw conclusions from these about the applicability of the techniques to market research

Advertising Media Selection

Advertising media planning is part of the media planning process. It consists of selecting the appropriate media and vehicles that will carry the campaign advertisements. The decision making involved in media planning is quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative decisions include analyzing the vehicles\u27 delivery to the target market and determining the cost efficiency of particular media and vehicles. Qualitative decisions include looking at the appropriateness of a vehicle\u27s editorial environment for the product being advertised, and the attentiveness of prospects to that vehicle

Sex and Shock Jocks: An Analysis of the \u3cem\u3eHoward Stern\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eBob & Tom Shows\u3c/em\u3e

Studies of mass media show that sexual content has increased during the past three decades and is now commonplace. Research studies have examined the sexual content of many media, but not talk radio. A subcategory of talk radio, called “shock jock” radio, has been repeatedly accused of being indecent and sexually explicit. This study fills in this gap in the literature by presenting a short history and an exploratory content analysis of shock jock radio. The content analysis compares the sexual discussions of two radio talk shows: Infinity’s Howard Stern Show and Clear Channel’s Bob & Tom Show

Measuring Responses to Commercials: A Projective-Elicitation Approach

Photoelicitation and projective assessment are research methods derived from visual sociology and psychoanalysis respectively. This study combined the methods by having respondents view a commercial, and then showing them one of two versions of a projective drawing showing a lone or a male-accompanied woman sitting on a couch. Respondents were told that the woman in the drawing had just seen the commercial and were asked about what the woman was thinking. The results show that a paper-and-pencil attitude measure correlated moderately with the visually-primed responses, but the visually-primed responses included psychoanalytically-predicted reactions such as denial and displacement and were dependent upon the social situation depicted in the drawing

Transparency in Communication: An Examination of Communication Journals’ Conflicts-of-Interest Policies

Increased corporate-sponsored university research and professorial consulting has caused medical, psychological, and other scientific journals to adopt conflicts-of-interest disclosure policies. This study examines editorial policies concerning conflicts of interest at communication journals in the context of Habermas’s theory of communicative action. The results show that communication journals do not have the same mandatory disclosure requirements that journals of other disciplines have. In this regard, communication research journals are similar to the mass media. Consequently, the article suggests that disclosure policies are needed if communication research journals are to function as part of a larger dialogic process. Moreover, communication researchers are not in a position to criticize the mass media for failing to disclose conflicts of interest when their own journals do not require disclosure

Research and the Bottom Line in Today’s University

Citing examples of corporate involvement in university research and decision making, the authors argue that today’s university is characterized by a web of symbiotic relationships which may turn them away from other important priorities, particularly teaching. When universities are scrambling for corporate support, the missions that become most important are conducting research that attracts corporate sponsors, developing marketable products and technologies, maintaining and cultivating ties with the private sector, and fashioning imaginative partnerships with corporate patrons

The Corporatization of Communication

Our next panel discusses the corporatization of communication