Why Multicountry Fieldwork Is Essential for Global Research
International market research projects are key to getting insights on local market conditions and buyer behaviors. Global fieldwork research – that is, deploying researchers, surveys and other data collection tools on a worldwide scale – lets brands find out how new target purchasers are different from existing customers, what is important to those new buyers, how they make decisions, and how they can be persuaded to buy from your brand. Cross-country research coordination and well-executed international market research projects give firms the global, national and local insights they need to tailor entry strategies and capture value from their new markets.
Key Challenges in Multicountry Fieldwork
Global fieldwork research is hard to get right, and studying a new market will involve solving fieldwork challenges. Let’s take a look at common multicountry fieldwork challenges and – no less importantly – how to tackle them.
Cultural Differences and Local Context
Many challenges in global fieldwork center on the specific economic, social and cultural contexts particular to each country. To take a B2C example, cultural attitudes about using credit cards or layaway plans to finance household purchases represent important cultural differences in research topics because both are common in the United States but are rare in Europe. That matters in global fieldwork research because including questions about these practices on a questionnaire deployed in the US would probably be insightful but would be unlikely to reveal valuable information in Spain or Italy. Likewise, part of cross-country research coordination could involve adjusting amounts of money to the local context. In the case of doing a survey that asks about ranges of annual household income or firm turnover, addressing multicountry fieldwork challenges would involve modifying those ranges to match reasonable figures in that country.
Language Barriers and Translation Issues
Perhaps the best-known challenges in global fieldwork involve language barriers and translation issues. Solving for cultural differences in research – and local preferences – almost always involves putting the research in a language that people will want to speak or read (i.e. their native language). Even buyers in countries with high levels of English competency appreciate and respond better to brands that speak to them in their own language, but producing research materials in local languages introduces challenges in global fieldwork projects. Cross-country research coordination will also be sensitive to the fact that respondents in certain countries will have different attitudes toward talking about financial matters and purchasing habits, so part of the translation process will be adapting research instruments in line with local cultural differences in research expectations (e.g. making the questions more or less direct, as appropriate).
Complex Recruitment Across Multiple Markets
Cultural differences in research come to the fore in finding participants for international market research projects. Challenges in global fieldwork in this vein include handling participant pools who prefer different ways of engaging with researchers. For instance, people in one market may be eager to sit for in-person interviews with market researchers, while buyers in another market may prefer to answer questions over the phone. Approaches to solving fieldwork challenges need to account for finding participants in the first place, and cross-country research coordination will have to account for different methods of gathering data across markets.
Data Consistency and Quality Control
Since international market research projects involve a fair bit of local adaptation, ensuring data consistency and quality control can be hard due to the variety of data and topic areas addressed. Global fieldwork research invites this kind of diversity within a dataset because it necessarily studies populations in divergent contexts. Proper cross-country research coordination is key to ensuring that all variables of interest are addressed in ways that ensure the data can be analyzed and compared to the results from other markets, while remaining responsive to the initial research questions.
Logistics, Timing, and Coordination
International market research projects can also run into snags with getting the right resources into the right place at the right time. Multicountry fieldwork challenges of this sort range from managing time zone differences (Madrid, for instance, runs one hour ahead of Lisbon and London) to making sure that someone with appropriate decision-making authority can be reached for routine management questions, supplier issues and any concerns from local partners that come up during global fieldwork research. A firm with experience in international market research projects will be able to coordinate people, material inputs, local networks, and decision-making authority to ensure that market studies run smoothly.
How to Overcome These Challenges
Overcoming challenges in global fieldwork is no small feat, but an experienced market research partner will be able to foresee roadblocks and deliver insightful international market research projects. Let’s take a look at some best practices for solving fieldwork challenges.
Leveraging Local Research Partners
Local research partners are key resources for success in global fieldwork research and solving fieldwork challenges. In-country firms are aware of the cultural differences in research and also have experience in participating in cross-country research coordination. Leveraging these partnerships yields data that has better coverage and is more responsive to your brand’s research questions, and can be the key to solving fieldwork challenges. Local networks also help address cultural differences in research by creating instruments that fit the local tone, have culturally relevant examples and are a good fit for the conditions on the ground.
Standardizing Methodologies While Allowing Flexibility
Many multicountry fieldwork challenges hinge on the need to adapt to local circumstances while still having standardized data collection practices. Solving fieldwork challenges like these involves getting the balance right between thoroughness and flexibility. For instance, adapting surveys or interview question batteries to cultural differences in research – such as asking about household finances in more or less direct ways, as appropriate – will yield results that are more on-point.
Using Technology to Streamline Communication
Sometimes, multicountry fieldwork challenges stem from communication issues. However, modern technology is a powerful tool for solving fieldwork challenges around the transmission of information. Knowledge bases with clear instructions and answers to common challenges in global fieldwork can be set up for researchers to consult. For new cases where a supervisor needs to be contacted, the abundance of group and direct messaging platforms aimed at institutions help solve multicountry fieldwork challenges by putting researchers and leaders into direct contact.
Building Clear Project Management Structures
Many multicountry fieldwork challenges can be solved before they start. Establishing a proper chain of command and a sensible org chart in the planning phase helps international market research projects be resilient in the face of obstacles. Cross-country research coordination means making sure each member of the team is clear on their responsibilities and that they know who to turn to if they need guidance. Well-crafted systems for overseeing projects provide a framework for quickly dealing with any multicountry fieldwork challenges that may come up.
The Role of Technology in Multicountry Fieldwork
Technology has made global fieldwork research a possibility for innumerable firms and participants. Thanks to technology such as cloud storage platforms, international market research projects can seamlessly compile and analyze data while the researchers and project leaders are in different countries. Additionally, technology makes it easier to address cultural differences in research, as it is easier to create materials that resonate with local participants and to reach out to them in their preferred medium. Modern project management tools also simplify cross-country research coordination.
Future Trends in Global Fieldwork Research
In the future, we can expect international market research projects with broader reach and more granular data analysis. Challenges in global fieldwork research will become more solvable as increasingly sophisticated research management platforms facilitate cross-country research coordination. Likewise, AI stands to be a powerful tool for data analysis and creating content that helps bridge cultural differences in research.
FAQ’s
Still have questions about global fieldwork research and how we tackle multicountry fieldwork challenges? We’re happy to talk about it. Below are answers to some of the most common questions we get about solving fieldwork challenges.
1) How do we ensure consistency across countries?
Our approach to ensuring consistency across countries is based on our record of success in global fieldwork research. We combine existing knowledge and project-specific research to create harmonized international research projects that get responsive data in the same way across markets. ESR Research likewise draws on time-tested practices for cross-country research coordination to make sure that study endpoints are reached on-deadline and on-budget.
2) How do we handle language and translation issues?
Language and translation issues are some of the most famous challenges in global fieldwork, and ESR Research offers modern solutions that blend technological efficiency with human expertise. We use translation and term management technologies to ensure consistent expression across languages and markets, while also turning to human language experts to bridge cultural differences in research. The final product is research instruments that are tailored to the market where they’ll be deployed, while fitting seamlessly into cross-country research coordination practices.
3) What’s the best way to manage recruitment across markets?
The best way to manage recruitment in international market research projects is to account for cultural differences in research at the local level while always working towards the global objectives of the study. This means solving fieldwork challenges by working with local partners and identifying people who may be good participants based on project characteristics. Recruitment challenges in global fieldwork also become more tractable by using strategies applicable across markets, such as gaining the trust of local “gatekeepers” whose endorsement can open the door to large numbers of participants (e.g. the head of a professional or social association whose members include a large number of target buyers). Managing cross-country research coordination in recruitment is a challenge we meet by planning carefully at the outset and turning to experienced staff and partners who can execute the plan and adapt when needed.
4) How can we keep timelines under control across time zones?
We adapt projects and teams to match time zones. For one thing, we set clear expectations for when fieldworkers and remote team leaders will need to be reachable, so everyone goes into a project knowing what to expect and can plan accordingly. We also align projects according to cross-country research coordination principles so that actions in each time zone can operate independently from project owners in other time zones (e.g., using the “follow the sun” workflow, which plans business activities according to compatible time zones such that work is always handled during the normal local workday).
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