THE FOCUS GROUP, A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD Reviewing The theory, and Providing Guidelines to Its Planning 1

Abstract

The Focus Group (FG) has been actually employed by marketing, and is becoming importanct also in other areas; such as, education, health, management, decision-making, and information systems, among others. Depending on the research objective, the Focus Group can be used alone or in conjunction with other methods. The results obtained from the FG application are particularly effective in supplying information about how people think, feel, or act regarding a specific topic. This paper aims to review the literature, discussing characteristics, forms, phases, and applic ation procedures of the Focus Group. In so doing, this paper may present some useful guidelines to researchers and managers who intend to use this technique in their projects.