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JOURNAL OF AAARKETING RESEARCH, NOVEMBER 1986
of the three domains. It also examines research innovations and true paradigm shifts from the point of view
of the VNS, and provides a summary of the strengths
and weaknesses of the system. I did not find this chapter
to be as exciting as the others.
This book is strongly recommended to veteran researchers and to doctoral students. It would be a valuable
addition to doctoral courses in research methodology or
marketing theory. Because one of the main contributions
of the book is to structure and integrate disparate validity
concepts, it is more powerful the more one already knows
about research methods and the more familiar one is with
classics like Campbell and Fiske (1959), Campbell and
Stanley (1963), Cook and Campbell (1979), Cronbach
and Meehl (1955), Gamer, Hake, and Eriksen (1956),
Kuhn (1962), and Platt (1964). Validity and the Research Process deserves a place on the practicing researcher's shelf alongside these works. Like them, it can
be read and reread, with new insights becoming apparent
each time.
but experience their holism we will have tapped the real
meaning of the term clinical—knowledge through encounter, valid because it fits with experience, real because it touches the core, the universal and particular
simultaneously" (p. 34).
One dominant message of this book is that social scientists are also people. We have goals, biases, ideals,
and agendas—all of which may influence our work. We
ought not drive methodological vehicles with blind spots
where our own humanity may obstruct clear vision of
the correct inference, leading to potentially tragic conclusions from time to time. Rather, we ought to recognize the blind spots and use mirror methodologies that
will help us see clearly. The danger of zealous advocacy
of one methodology, such as the one in this book, is that
we may be tempted to ignore the windshield and look
only at the blind spot. However, the editors and common
sense both dictate that clinical methods alone are no better than traditional methods alone. The best inferences
emerge from methodological heterogeneity.
JOHN G . LYNCH, JR.
Essentially this book broadly attacks the establishment
of social science—the editors of major journals and the
corporate research directors—who insist on detached,
rigorous, generalizable, and objective data for publication or decision making. Ritual beatification of methodological diversity rarely translates into altemative modes
of investigation. However, the book fails to address
squarely the question of why this change does not happen. The answer is that few scholars see superior knowledge accumulating in fields where the clinical method
reigns, such as psychiatry and clinical psychology.
This book was written for organizational behavior
scholars, not for marketers. Many examples will require
translation. The editors, for example, would probably
like focus group research. Some advice may not be attractive after translation. Clinical research takes time, often
generations, to complete. If one's goal is to increase sales
next quarter or to eam tenure next year, the confidence
that one is supplying one's grandchildren may not compensate sufficiently for other costs.
Like many edited volumes, this book has extreme stylistic variety, ranging from work by an author who pretends to be a playwright to passages drier than Death
Valley in drought. The lack of an index in this age of
word processing undermines the utility of this book for
those of us who have only a passing interest in organizational behavior, but the section commentaries and introductions do provide helpful guides.
University of Florida
REFERENCES
Campbell, Donald T. and Donald W. Fiske (1959), "Convergent and Discriminant Validation and the Multitrait Multimethod Matrix," Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81-105.
and Julian Stanley (1963), Experimental and QuasiExperimental Designs for Research. Chicago: Rand McNally, Inc.
Cook, Thomas K. and Donald T. Campbell (1979), QuasiExperimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Chicago: Rand McNally, Inc.
Cronbach, Lee J. and Paul J. Meehl (1955), "Construct Validity in Psychological Tests," Psychological Bulletin, 52,
281-302.
Gamer, Wendell R., Harold H. Hake, and Charles W. Eriksen
(1956), "Operationism and the Concept of Perception,"
Psychological Review, 63, 149-59.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Platt, John R. (1964), "Strong Inference," Science, 146, 3 4 7 53.
EXPLORING CLINICAL METHODS FOR SOCIAL
RESEARCH, edited by David N. Berg and Kenwyn
K. Smith. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.,
1985, 400 pp.
The concept of clinical methods of social research
conveys a combination of meanings that many marketing
researchers may find new. Essentially, clinical methods
in this sense combine psychoanalytic techniques with
participant observation techniques to emphasize involvement, fiexibility, depth, and advocacy, as opposed to
detachment, rigor, generalizability, and objectivity. If
the clinical side of this characterization forces a contrast
that resembles the distinction between art and science,
it is no accident. The editors want methodology that blurs
the art-science dichotomy: "When we no longer can distinguish between art and science as separate processes
LYNN R . KAHLE
University of Oregon
COMPETITOR INTELLIGENCE: HOW TO GET I T HOW TO USE IT, Leonard M. Fuld. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1985, 470 pp.
Recent focus on strategic market planning combined
with the contemporary phenomena of maturing markets,
extensive market segmentation, and intensive competitive warfare has spawned a burgeoning interest in the
competitive intelligence system. The literature on this