Monday, March 9, 2009

Survey says . . . !


Ian D. Parkman is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Marketing of the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. He has asked me to help him spread the word about his current research project, which explores how aspects of design, corporate image and identity affect corporate advantage in creative industries such as architecture. Architectural firms compete on the basis of their knowledge and creativity, and offer services that are judged in part by their symbolic and experiential content. Ian has developed an online survey to further his research on this topic.

The survey is comprised of 60 questions that will ask you about your perceptions of your firmʼs processes relative to image and competitive advantage. Pre-tests that Ian has conducted suggest that completing the survey should take no more than 10 minutes. Your answers will range from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" in response to each item. Care has been taken to keep the scope of this questionnaire as generalized as possible; in other words, it is not a test of a firmʼs specific operation in terms of fees, profitability, etc. Rather, the survey is intended to measure the aggregated effects of image in the architectural design services industry and how a firm goes about building an organizational identity. Ian’s goal is to obtain a large sampling of responses to better validate the statistical significance of the evidence gathered.

If you are interested in participating in the survey, please follow the following link:

https://lcb.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_5mpio5TSR6qABx2&SVID=Prod

The opening page has a brief introduction of the research questions and expected outcomes.

All responses will be completely anonymous in the survey system and all data will be kept in strict confidence by the researcher on University of Oregon server networks.

In return for participating in the survey, Ian is willing to make his findings available to your firm in either written form or by way of a personal presentation following his completion of the study. Ian would also welcome one-on-one discussions on the subject of corporate identity in architectural practice with anyone who is willing to offer his or her time to him.

The following is Ian’s contact information:

I encourage all of you to take ten brief minutes to complete the survey. The outcome of Ian’s research will no doubt be of great interest to our profession.

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