Objective of the study

- Overall GSM mobile customer satisfaction of the Nepalese telecom industry To study the service quality of the telecom service provider. To study about the level of consumers satisfaction. To analyse Factors influencing customer satisfaction.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER PREFERENCE AND SATISFACTION IN NEPALESE TELECOM INDUSTRY

Lecture 1 Paradigm and method: quantitative & qualitative research.

Reading: Banister, P., Burman, E., Parker, I., Taylor, M. and Tindall, C. 1994. Qualitative methods in psychology: a research guide. Buckingham; Open University Press. Chapter 1.

Paradigm and method: the relationship between philosophy and research practice
What is the nature of reality?

What kind of knowledge can we have about reality?

How can we investigate reality? What is the picture that we paint of reality?

Key terms
Ontology basic assumptions about the nature of reality. Epistemology basic assumptions about what we can know about reality, and about the relationship between knowledge and reality. Paradigm - Overarching perspective concerning appropriate research practice, based on ontological and epistemological assumptions Methodology - Specifies how the researcher may go about practically studying whatever he / she believes can be known.

Ontology, Epistemology

Scientific paradigm

Methodology

Knowledge

Paradigms in social science research

Three basic paradigms

Positivism Interpretivism Constructionism

Ontology
What is the nature of reality? If there were no human beings, might there still be galaxies, trees and rocks? Would they still be beautiful? Positivist paradigm: Stable, law-like reality out there. Interpretivist paradigm: Multiple, emergent, shifting reality. NB of subjective experience

Epistemology
What is knowledge? What is the relationship between knowledge and reality? If there were no human beings, would there still be three basic types of rock? Did the unconscious exist before Freud?

Positivism Meaning exists in the world.

Knowledge reflects reality.

Interpretivism Meaning exists in our interpretations of the world. Knowledge is interpretation.

Methodology : The Positivist Paradigm

Positivist research involves precise empirical observations of individual behaviour in order to discover probabilistic causal laws that can be used to predict general patterns of human activity (Neuman, 1997: 63)

Objective, value-free discovery

Methodology: The Interpretive Paradigm

The study of social life involves skills that are more like the skills of literary or dramatic criticism and of poetics than the skills of physical scientists. (Rom Harre, quoted in Phillips, 1987, p105) Importance of the researchers perspective and the interpretative nature of social reality.

Knowledge
Positivism Accurate knowledge exactly reflects the world as it is. Interpretivism Knowledge provides suggestive interpretations by particular people at particular times.

Example of Interpretivist research: My hope lies in adversity (Smit, 2003)

Research problem: Children living on a garbage dump in a South African town. Ineffectiveness of social programmes supplying these children with food, clothing and shelter .

Theoretical departure point

All behaviour is based on interpretation. Therefore, the perspectives and experiences of those who are served by applied programmes must be grasped, interpreted and understood if solid, effective applied programmes are to be created. (Denzin, 1989, p12)

Research methods
Hanging out on the garbage dump, informal conversations with the children there. Small group discussions - stories from the childrens lives. Informal conversations with other members of the community

Findings

At home:

Basic material and emotional needs unmet sadness, loneliness, lack of support. Sense of not belonging - lack of interest of adults Hopelessness

Findings
On the dump: Basic needs met - waste picking. Hope - surprise element in the contents of every load. Social context - sense of support and belonging. Children described feeling happy, peaceful, accepted and supported, understood and in control. Despite difficulties, children desired to remain on the dump due to the hope and support they experienced and the feeling of control over their lives they derived : When Im not on the garbage dump, the only way is to steal and then I get into trouble. But on the dump, what I find there is mine.

Conclusion
While removal from the physical dangers of the dump meets basic physical needs, it simultaneously wrenches these children out of the context within which the hope and support that are central to their lives are created and sustained.