Challenges of Social Marketing

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Methodology and Method

In this chapter, the methodology discusses the motivations behind the chosen philosophy, purpose, and approach. In addition, this chapter covers the method used when defining, collecting and analyzing data.
“…the power of case study is its attention to the local situation, not to how it represents other cases in general.”
– Robert E. Stake (2006, p. 8).

Methodology

Methodology implies what type of theory and philosophy a research is based on. It gives suggestions on different methods appropriate for a study (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009).

Research Philosophy

The philosophy undertaken for this thesis was the view of interpretivism, which Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill explain as “…understand differences between humans in our role as social actors.” (2009, p. 115). The interpretive view believes the world of nature differs from the social world created by humans (Williamson, 2002). Humans interpret actions taken by others and interact accordingly, which results in actions gain meaning (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009; Williamson, 2002). By interpreting actions and words, individuals develop different perceptions, and construct a reality with active sense making of their own world (Williamson, 2002). Due to the purpose of this thesis, the view of interpretivism was selected on the reason being the opportunity to interpret a social entrepreneur’s behavior, and what factors that underlay their decisions. When using interpretivism, the researcher needs to adopt a compassionate standpoint towards the research area (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In this thesis, the standpoint demonstrated an understanding of social entrepreneurs and their point of view regarding marketing. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) suggest applying an interpretive philosophy to a case study with a small sample and qualitative in-depth investigation.

 Research Approach

Interpretive philosophy is strongly associated with qualitative research (Williamson, Burstein and McKemmish, 2002). This thesis applied a qualitative research, meaning that the findings were not numerical but aimed to explain behavior, emotions, organizational functions, phenomenon, and interactions between social entrepreneurship and marketing. Strauss and Corbin (1998) explain these factors being of importance when undertaking a qualitative research. When research aims to understand and explain the meaning of nature or a phenomenon, a qualitative research is preferably chosen (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Correspondently, Denzin and Lincoln (2011) claim qualitative research is of interpretive nature and occurs in the subject’s natural setting, with the aim to interpret and deepen the understanding of a phenomenon.
The Paradox of Duality and Marketing Strategy – A Study of Swedish Social Entrepreneurs Ljunggren & Olin Within the qualitative research, we chose an abductive approach, since this thesis established topic, purpose, and research questions before proceeding further with the research by identifying suitable theories. An abductive approach, allows having specific theories in mind when starting the research, but still being able to modify the chosen theories during the data collection (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). To structure the procedure, we adopted a research design by Williamson, Burstein and McKemmish (2002). The procedure is illustrated below with full replica of Williamson, Burstein and McKemmish’s (2002, p. 33) qualitative research design.
An overlap between data analysis and data collection, is important when building theory for case study research (Eisenhardt, 1989). The researcher benefits by an easy start in the analysis, and it allows the researcher to be flexible during the data collection. An advantage for the researcher is to be able to make adjustments during the process, which benefit the end-result (Eisenhardt, 1989). Social entrepreneurship and marketing are two broad areas, and while trying to find the right angle to this thesis’ research problem, flexibility became of great importance. After we had collected the data, different views of the phenomenon became recognizable, as suggested by Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe (1991). Hence, the appropriateness of an abductive approach became more apparent.
An abductive approach is a combination of a deductive and an inductive approach (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). Due to that much of the foundation was already recognized, and our purpose was to investigate social entrepreneurship, a deductive
The Paradox of Duality and Marketing Strategy – A Study of Swedish Social Entrepreneurs Ljunggren & Olin approach was not chosen since it aims to test theory or hypothesis (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012). Similarly, an inductive study seemed unsuitable because a researcher has to enter the field with a blank mind and create possible theories (Eisenhardt, 1989). Building a research on no predefined theory is difficult to achieve (Eisenhardt, 1989), and was therefore not chosen.

 Method

Method is the techniques and procedures undertaken to gather and analyze data through the vision founded in methodology (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Strauss and Corbin continue by the set of methods is the process turning “…that vision into reality.” (1998, p. 8).

 The Strategy of Studying Cases

Within the qualitative research, one can find the approach of case study (Williamson, Burstein and McKemmish, 2002), which this thesis adopted. Case study approach provides a deeper understanding of the research topic (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009; Stake, 2006). Furthermore, Stake (2006) argues the development of qualitative case studies takes on researching ‘real-life’ situations. A case itself carries the objective of representing the reality (Ellet, 2007). Certain characteristics are required in order to fulfill a case’s role in the research (Ellet, 2007). These characteristics include a business issue of significant value in order to draw conclusions from adequate data collection. Furthermore, Ellet states all cases are subjective to their own “…self-interest and limited point of view.” (2007, p. 14).
An advantage of case study research for this thesis was the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship combined with marketing being relatively unknown. Therefore, an opportunity arose to explain and understand how and why the duality coexists, is prioritized, and what consequences it carries in marketing strategies. In addition, Darke and Shanks (2002) stress additional advantages for the use of case study research, i.e. when actions or individual experiences are crucial for understanding development or when theory is at its infancy. Disadvantages of case study research are almost exclusively in terms of data collection and analysis concerning a researcher’s own interpretations and subjectivity, which can limit the credibility of the study (Darke and Shanks, 2002). Further elaboration on credibility of case study research is addressed and explained in section 3.4 Trustworthiness.
When searching for suitable cases to this thesis, we received assistance from Duncan Levinsohn4. He provided us with useful information concerning the case selection of the company Dump Tees, and partly in evaluating criterions regarding the case selections of social enterprises. In addition, Levinsohn assisted in defining social entrepreneurship and gave extended knowledge on the phenomenon.
In addition to Levinsohn, we were assisted with information on understanding the geographical area of our study from Sebastian Stjern, who works at the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Stockholm. Stjern founded and operated the social enterprise, The Fair Tailor, a company that is part of our case study. Therefore, Stjern was interviewed based on his prior knowledge in managing a social enterprise along with his current profession. Stjern gave a deep insight on social entrepreneurship in Sweden, and how the phenomenon may develop in the area.

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Multiple Cases

This thesis adopted a multiple case study, and collected data through interviews and an observation. A case study can consist of either a single case or multiple cases, which has different levels of analysis (Eisenhardt, 1989). We chose a multiple case study on the terms that it gave our investigation a broader view to the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship. According to Stake, “…a multicase study starts with recognizing what concept or idea binds the cases together.” (2006, p. 23). A well thought through research focus is of high importance, hindering the collecting of data to become exhaustive (Eisenhardt, 1989). Furthermore, Eisenhardt (1989) states if a researcher has the possibility to specify concepts, this helps during the progress and result in a foundation to build research on.
Since multiple case studies usually require a great deal of time to complete a well-done study, a multiple case study has the possibility to achieve a broad view of the investigated subject (Stake, 2006). Eisenhardt (1991) agrees by the fact that a multiple case study can build elaborate theory, find individual patterns across cases (Darke and Shanks, 2002), and compare or link them together to attain a greater picture (Eisenhardt, 1991). In a multiple case study research, a span of four to ten cases is required to provide with sufficient information, which should correspond well to the research’s topic (Darke and Shanks, 2002; Stake, 2006). This thesis took on four cases, which lay within the required number of cases, in order for the case study to be of accurate value. The number of cases in this thesis was determined due to time constraints. Although, a multiple case study was still preferable, since applying this approach strengthens findings as well as conclusion (Stake, 2006).

Case Selection

Cases chosen for a research have different roles e.g. reproduction of previous studies (Eisenhardt, 1989), examining different relationships (Stake, 2006) or multiple situations (Darke and Shanks, 2002). Random selection is not preferable for the reason being time limitation to the amount of cases studied (Eisenhardt, 1989; Stake, 2006). Therefore, the selected cases should be of relevance to the focus and provide with diversity to the context (Stake, 2006), or even be each other’s extremes (Eisenhardt, 1989). Furthermore, the four cases selected in this thesis were found applying purposeful sampling based on the following criterions: 1) they are profit-driven social enterprises founded and operated in Sweden, 2) they offer a commodity in which they need to market to their customers, and 3) they are currently engaged in marketing.

 Data Collection

Denzin and Lincoln (2011) recommend collecting empirical data through multi-method approaches including case study, interviews, observations, and personal experience. While conducting this thesis, we applied a multi-method qualitative study. Multi-method combines several techniques to enrich the findings and thus the analysis (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). Using different types of methods create a strong foundation, which outweighs the strengths from the weaknesses (Williamson, Burstein and McKemmish, 2002).
Qualitative method is most suited for understanding a phenomenon by linking concepts together (Stake, 2006). The author continues by mention data collection for multiple cases to include interviews, observations, coding, data management, and interpretations. The first two techniques are usually associated with, and preferred in a qualitative research methodology, where collection and analysis of data generates non-numerical information (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009; Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Therefore, we applied observations and interviews to this thesis.

Interviews

There are different types of interviews, however this investigation used semi-structured in-depth interviews. Semi-structured interviews uses, as described by Smith (1995), the assumption that responses reflect the interviewee’s beliefs, attitudes and actions. When conducting these interviews, we used interview schemes with open questions covering the areas of investigation, followed by probes developing the answers further. One scheme was used when conducting the interviews with Dump Tees, Hjärna.Hjärta.Cash, Bee Urban and The Fair Tailor. Another scheme was constructed for the interview with Sebastian Stjern at Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Stockholm. Constructing an interview scheme beforehand serves the idea of thinking about what possible areas the interview can cover (Smith, 1995). The detailed interview guides used in this thesis are found in appendices.
The conducted interviews used a one-to-one technique, representing interviewer and a single interviewee, as mentioned by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009). The first interview was face-to-face, and the second used telephone for clarifications of responses. All interviews were in Swedish, and face-to-face interviews were recorded in order to make the transcribing word-for-word easier. The transcriptions assisted the findings and analysis parts. Furthermore, we translated the quotes from interviewees from Swedish to English. On the next page, Table 2 shows a detailed overview of the interviews.

1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem
1.3 Purpose
1.4 Delimitation
1.5 Definitions
1.6 Thesis Disposition
2 Frame of Reference
2.1 Motivation of Theory and Concepts
2.2 Social Entrepreneurship
2.3 Values
2.3.1 Classifying Values
2.4 Social Marketing
2.4.1 Challenges of Social Marketing
2.4.2 Social Marketing in a Social Enterprise Context
2.5 Summarizing the Theory and Concepts
3 Methodology and Method
3.1 Methodology
3.1.1 Research Philosophy
3.1.2 Research Approach
3.2 Method
3.3 The Context of Study
3.3.1 Sweden as the Geographical Research Area
3.4 Trustworthiness
3.4.1 Ethics of Study
4 Empirical Findings
4.1 Dump Tees
4.2 Bee Urban
4.3 Hjärna.Hjärta.Cash
4.3.1 Introduction to Hjärna.Hjärta.Cash
4.3.2 Interview with Amir Sajadi
4.4 The Fair Tailor
4.4.1 Introduction to The Fair Tailor
4.4.2 Interview with Sebastian Stjern
4.5 Common Themes
5 Analysis
5.1 Duality Coexistence in Marketing Strategies
5.2 Prioritizing Duality in Marketing Strategies
5.3 Consequences of Duality in Marketing Strategies
6 Discussion
6.1 Social Enterprise Marketing Strategy Model
6.2 Limitations
6.3 Further Research
7 Conclusion
List of References
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