Tag Archives: research

What is Qualitative Research?

What is Qualitative Research?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Qualitative research is a type of research that deals with the collection and analysis of non-numeric data. This type of research is used to explore and understand the experiences, beliefs, and motivations of individuals or groups. Qualitative research is often used to gain insights into social, cultural, and even political phenomena.

Qualitative research is used to explore a variety of topics, including culture, values, beliefs, and behavior. By using qualitative methods, researchers can capture the complexity of human experience. For example, qualitative research can be used to investigate how people make decisions, what motivates them, and how they interact with their environment. Qualitative research can also be used to uncover deeper insights into how people think, feel, and behave.

Qualitative research can take many forms, including interviews, focus groups, and observational studies. Each of these techniques has its own strengths and weaknesses, but all involve collecting and analyzing data from participants. Interviews involve asking questions and gathering responses from participants, while focus groups involve gathering a group of people together to discuss a particular topic. Observational studies involve observing participants in their natural environment.

Qualitative research is an important tool for gaining insights into social and cultural phenomena. By using qualitative methods, researchers can capture the complexity of human experience, which is often difficult to measure using quantitative methods. Qualitative research is also useful for exploring emerging trends and developing new theories. Ultimately, qualitative research enables researchers to gain deeper insights into their topic of interest.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What is Quantitative Research?

What is Quantitative Research?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Quantitative research is a type of research that focuses on the collection and analysis of numerical data. It is used to assess relationships between variables, measure changes over time, and develop predictive models. Quantitative research is often used to generate statistically significant results, which can help inform decisions and guide strategies for businesses, organizations, and governments.

Quantitative research typically involves collecting large amounts of data from a variety of sources and then analyzing it using tools such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and experiments. The data is then analyzed using statistical methods to measure relationships between variables and assess trends.

Quantitative research is often used to answer questions such as “What is the average age of customers in my store?” or “What percentage of my customers are female?” It can also be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or to predict the success of a new product.

Quantitative research is an invaluable tool for understanding and predicting human behavior. By collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, researchers can gain insights into trends and relationships that would otherwise remain hidden. The results of quantitative research can help organizations make better decisions and develop more effective strategies.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What We Can Learn About Innovation From Crows

What We Can Learn About Innovation From CrowsCrows are everywhere. There is no denying it. What is fascinating is that unlike many animal species, crows live in harmony with humans (along with rats and cockroaches), and in fact choose to live with humans instead of away from them, continuing to evolve in order to thrive in areas where humans dominate the landscape.

I came across an interesting Ted video with hacker and writer Joshua Klein about his fascination with crows. It is about ten minutes long and documents examples of a variety of academic research and observations highlighting the intelligence of crows, including his own experiments with a crow vending machine.

What’s also evident in the video and interesting is how much we underestimate crows, which may go back to the popular saying ‘bird brain’. Joshua Klein highlights in the video that far from being ‘bird brains’ crows have the same ratio of brain power as a chimpanzee and possess complex communications, socialization, and memory capacity.

If you watch the video above you’ll see that crows are creative problem solvers (creativity having also been proven as a trait of dolphins) and much more persistent than a squirrel (and many humans for that matter).

So, what can we learn about innovation from the crows in the video (or in real life)?

Well, two things for sure:

1. Goals help.

Crows are inspired to use their creativity in the pursuit of food. Rewards are not a panacea for humans, but can be useful from time to time, when properly framed and reinforced with the right inspiration.

2. We must encourage people to be persistent.

If we let people be squirrels, people won’t push through the difficulties that wicked problems present, and won’t get to the other side where wicked solutions are achieved. Look at how the crows in the video were led step by step to overcome smaller challenges that accumulated into a complex solution that people wouldn’t normally think the crows would have been capable of.

These are the links between the crows and innovation that I identified from the video.

What did you see?

Image credit: HuffingtonPost.com

This article was originally featured on Linkedin


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Highlights from IBM’s Latest Innovation Research

Highlights from IBM's Latest Innovation ResearchMore Than Magic

According to a recent research study published by the IBM Institute for Business Value, outperforming organizations are 79% more likely to establish dedicated innovation teams.

For those of you who don’t have time to download, print, and read the whole thing, I’ve taken the liberty of collecting the highlights for you.

IBM’s analysis revealed three key categories that separate Outperformers from the rest:

  1. Organizational structures and functions that support innovation
  2. Cultural environments to make innovation thrive
  3. Processes to convert ideas into innovation

IBM found that Outperformers approach innovation differently. They:

  • Align innovation with business goals
  • Structure open forms of innovation
  • Create specialized teams
  • Lead with an innovation focus
  • Encourage innovative behaviors
  • Sustain innovation momentum
  • Generate new ideas from a wide range of sources
  • Fund innovation
  • Measure innovation outcomes

Another important point to keep in mind, but not highlighted in the report, is the tension between inefficiency and innovation. The more inefficient the organization, the fewer resources available to invest in innovation.

Something to think about…

But more about that later in another post, so stay tuned!

If you missed the download link above, here it is again.


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How Happy Are You When You Fly?

I came across the following video from British Airways a month or so ago, and I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to write about it, but I finally had a moment and so I thought I would share it with you now.

It’s about a happiness blanket that British Airways has invented and subsequently tested on flights between London and New York.

When I first found the video I had to first check the date it was posted because it almost seemed like an April Fool’s joke, but it was posted in June, so it was definitely something they were serious about.

The question I have is, what actionable data were they hoping to gain from the investment of all of this time, money, and energy (at the expense of not doing something else they were considering)?

Personally, I don’t get it. It seems like a waste of money as they likely learned very little they didn’t already know. And if it was done as a viral marketing ploy, well, that doesn’t really work if it gets people laughing at you instead of with you.

Whatever the reason behind it, personally I would have spent my marketing dollars elsewhere.

So, without further delay, I give you, the happiness blanket:


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Innovation Quotes of the Day – April 6, 2012


“You can get anything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want.”

– Zig Ziglar
– Submitted by Paul Toussaint


“An innovation leader’s job isn’t to provide the answers but to provoke the thinking that gets you there.”

– Braden Kelley


What are some of your favorite innovation quotes?

Add one or more to the comments, listing the quote and who said it, and I’ll share the best of the submissions as future innovation quotes of the day!

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Innovation Requires Diagonal Thinking

Innovation Requires Diagonal ThinkingThe outcome of a back and forth of a dialog on Twitter with Scramray E. Pinkus generated a lovely quote worth sharing:

“Innovating is like thinking diagonally. A perfect combination of both linear and lateral.”

– Scramray E. Pinkus (@Easelton)

The conversation sprung out of a tweet I posted that postulated that when people use technology (iPads, smartphones, laptops, etc.) and television as child minders, that they are actually promoting linear thinking in their children at the expense of the lateral thinking that our society so desperately needs. We need strong lateral thinking to compliment the dominant linear thinking out there, so that together they can drive the social innovation the world needs to fix this mess we’ve made.

What do you think?

Technology as child minder, positive or negative effects on the innovative capacity of our children?

One of my proof points is this article from The Washington Post.

Any other proof points out there?

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Global Innovation Index 2011 – Innovation Efficiency

Global Innovation Index 2011 - Innovation EfficiencyThis article is the third in a series of four articles digging into the recently released Global Innovation Index 2011 put together by Insead along with knowledge partners Alcatel-Lucent, Booz & Co., the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

There is a lot of data in the Global Innovation Index 2011 and so I thought it would share it with you bit by bit to make it digestible and then share my overall thoughts. In previous articles we shared the country rankings and the input/output rankings.

Below you’ll find the country rankings based on innovation efficiency (an index comparing the innovation outputs to inputs):

Global Innovation Index 2011 - Innovation Efficiency

In the final article – coming soon – I will give my analysis of the outcomes and implications of the Global Innovation Index 2011. Until then, feel free to sound off in the comments about whether you believe your country’s position in the innovation inputs or outputs rankings are justified or off base.

Additional Global Innovation Index 2011 Articles:

#1 – Global Innovation Index 2011 – Country Rankings
#2 – Global Innovation Index 2011 – Inputs and Outputs
#3 – THE ARTICLE ABOVE
#4 – Coming Soon – Global Innovation Index 2011 – Final Analysis

In the meantime, consider following the Human-Centered Change & Innovation page on LinkedIn.

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Global Innovation Index 2011 – Inputs and Outputs

Global Innovation Index 2011 - Inputs and OutputsThis article is the second in a series of four articles digging into the recently released Global Innovation Index 2011 put together by Insead along with knowledge partners Alcatel-Lucent, Booz & Co., the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

There is a lot of data in the Global Innovation Index 2011 and so I thought it would share it with you bit by bit to make it digestible and then share my overall thoughts. In the first article we shared the overall Global Innovation Index 2011 country rankings. These overall rankings are based on two main components – innovation inputs and innovation outputs.

Below you’ll find the country rankings based on innovation inputs and the country ranking based on innovation outputs.

The source data for creating the innovation inputs rankings includes:

1. Institutions

1.1 Political environment
– 1.1.1 Political stability
– 1.1.2 Government effectiveness
– 1.1.3 Press freedom

1.2 Regulatory Environment
– 1.2.1 Regulatory quality
– 1.2.2 Rule of law
– 1.2.3 Rigidity of employment

1.3 Business Environment
– 1.3.1 Time to start a business, days
– 1.3.2 Cost to start a business, % income/cap
– 1.3.3 Total tax rate, % profits

2. Human Capital & Research

2.1 Education
– 2.1.1 Education expenditure, % GNI
– 2.1.2 Public expenditure/pupil, % GDP/cap
– 2.1.3 School life expectancy, years
– 2.1.4 PISA scales in reading, maths, & science
– 2.1.5 Pupil-teacher ratio, secondary

2.2 Tertiary Education
– 2.2.1 Tertiary enrollment, % gross
– 2.2.2 Graduates in science, %
– 2.2.3 Graduates in engineering, %
– 2.2.4 Tertiary inbound mobility, %
– 2.2.5 Tertiary outbound mobility, %
– 2.2.6 Gross tertiary outbound enrollment, %

2.3 Research & Development (R&D)
– 2.3.1 Researchers headcount/million pop
– 2.3.2 Gross expenditure on R&D, % GDP
– 2.3.3 Quality research institutions

3. Infrastructure

3.1 Info & Comm. Technologies (ICT)
– 3.1.1 ICT access
– 3.1.2 ICT use
– 3.1.3 Government’s Online Service
– 3.1.4 E-Participation

3.2 Energy
– 3.2.1 Electricity output, kWh/cap
– 3.2.2 Electricity consumption, kWh/capita
– 3.2.3 GDP/unit of energy use, PPP$/kg oil eq.
– 3.2.4 Share of renewables in energy use, %

3.3 General Infrastructure
– 3.3.1 Quality of trade & transport infrastructure
– 3.3.2 Gross capital formation, % GDP
– 3.3.3 Ecological footprint & biocapacity, ha/cap

4. Market Sophistication

4.1 Credit
– 4.1.1 Strength of legal rights for credit
– 4.1.2 Depth of credit information
– 4.1.3 Domestic credit to private sector, % GDP
– 4.1.4 Microfinance gross loans, % GDP

4.2 Investment
– 4.2.1 Strength of investor protection
– 4.2.2 Market capitalization, % GDP
– 4.2.3 Total value of stocks traded, % GDP
– 4.2.4 Venture capital deals/tr GDP PPP$

4.3 Trade & Competition
– 4.3.1 Applied tariff rate weighted mean, %
– 4.3.2 Market access trade restrictiveness*, %
– 4.3.3 Imports of goods & services, % GDP
– 4.3.4 Exports of goods & services, % GDP
– 4.3.5 Intensity local competition

5. Business Sophistication

5.1 Knowledge Workers
– 5.1.1 Knowledge-intensive employment, %
– 5.1.2 Firms offering formal training, % firms
– 5.1.3 R&D performed by business, %
– 5.1.4 R&D financed by business, %

5.2 Innovation Linkages
– 5.2.1 University/industry collaboration
– 5.2.2 State of cluster development
– 5.2.3 R&D financed by abroad, %
– 5.2.4 JV/strategic alliance deals/tr GDP PPP$
– 5.2.5 PCT patent filings with foreign inventor, %

5.3 Knowledge Absorption
– 5.3.1 Royalty & license fees payments, % GDP
– 5.3.2 High-tech imports less re-imports, %
– 5.3.3 Computer & comm. service imports, %
– 5.3.4 FDI net inflows, % GDP

Here are the country rankings from the Global Innovation Index 2011 based on innovation inputs:

Global Innovation Index 2011 Inputs

The source data for creating the innovation outputs rankings includes:

6. Scientific Outputs

6.1 Knowledge Creation
– 6.1.1 Domestic resident patent ap/bn GDP PPP$
– 6.1.2 PCT resident patent ap/bn GDP PPP$
– 6.1.3 Domestic res utility model ap/bn GDP PPP$
– 6.1.4 Scientific & technical articles/bn GDP PPP$

6.2 Knowledge Impact
– 6.2.1 Growth rate of GDP PPP$/worker, %
– 6.2.2 New businesses/1,000 pop. 15–64 yrs
– 6.2.3 Computer software spending, % GDP

6.3 Knowledge Diffusion
– 6.3.1 Royalty & license fees receipts, % GDP
– 6.3.2 High-tech exports less re-exports, %
– 6.3.3 Computer & comm service exports, %
– 6.3.4 FDI net outflows, % GDP

7. Creative Outputs

7.1 Creative Intangibles
– 7.1.1 Domestic res trademark ap/bn GDP PPP$
– 7.1.2 Madrid resident trademark ap/bn GDP PPP$
– 7.1.3 ICT & business models
– 7.1.4 ICT & organizational models

7.2 Creative Goods & Services
– 7.2.1 Recreation & culture consumption, %
– 7.2.2 National feature films/mn pop
– 7.2.3 Daily newspapers/1,000 literate pop
– 7.2.4 Creative goods exports, %
– 7.2.5 Creative services exports, %

Here are the country rankings from the Global Innovation Index 2011 based on innovation outputs:

Global Innovation Index 2011 Outputs

In future articles we will take a look at the Innovation Efficiency Index from the Global Innovation Index 2011, which compares the two, and our thoughts about the study in general.

Check back in the coming days for additional articles highlighting whatever insights I can extract from the Global Innovation Index 2011 report. Until then, feel free to sound off in the comments about whether you believe your country’s position in the innovation inputs or outputs rankings are justified or off base.

Additional Global Innovation Index 2011 Articles:

#1 – Global Innovation Index 2011 – Country Rankings
#2 – THE ARTICLE ABOVE
#3 – Coming Soon
#4 – Coming Soon

In the meantime, consider following the Human-Centered Change & Innovation page on LinkedIn.

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Global Innovation Index 2011 – Country Rankings

Global Innovation Index 2011 - Country RankingsThis article will be the first of a series of articles digging into the recently released Global Innovation Index 2011. In this issue we will give you just the country rankings. In the coming days I will dig through the Global Innovation Index 2011 report and see what interesting insights I can uncover about innovation in different regions, and report back here on Human-Centered Change & Innovation.

The Global Innovation Index 2011 was put together by Insead along with knowledge partners Alcatel-Lucent, Booz & Co., the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

So without further ado, here is the Global Innovation Index 2011 rankings of the world’s most innovative countries (based on inputs and outputs):

Global Innovation Index 2011 Country Rankings

Check back in the coming days for additional articles highlighting whatever insights I can extract from the Global Innovation Index 2011 report. In the meantime, feel free to sound off in the comments about whether you believe your country’s position is justified or off base.

In the meantime, consider following the Human-Centered Change & Innovation page on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.