UNIVERSITÀ DI PISA
Facoltà di Economia
Corso di Laurea Specialistica in
MARKETING E RICERCHE DI MERCATO
TESI DI LAUREA SPECIALISTICA
Volkswagen clients’ purchase behavior in Czech
Republic and Italy:
an observational research
ZUZANA CHYTKOVA
RELATORE
CORRELATORE
Prof. Alessandro Gandolfo
Prof.ssa Monica Pratesi
To my mom, my dad and my grandfather,
who never questioned my choices
Special thanks go to my tutor, Prof. Gandolfo, who led me
through the path of this work and without whom this theses
would not be what it is, and to all the people from Auto
Vysocina and Automatic, because without their kind help this
theses could not have come into existence.
This is the end of a long journey and I would not be where I
am now without the support and love of my family, my friends
and someone special.
Mom, dad, my little brother... Petra, Linda, Alenka, Oriana,
Jing-jing, Gaetano, Selene, Nino, Luca and everyone else who
joined me during this journey...
...Gaspare...
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION... 1
1. METHODOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ... 3
1.1. EXPLORATORY RESEARCH... 3
1.2. DATA COLLECTION METHODS... 4
1.3. QUALITATIVE MARKET RESEARCH... 4
1.3.1. Qualitative vs. quantitative market research... 4
1.3.2. Qualitative market research definition and characteristics ... 5
1.3.3. Theoretical approaches within qualitative market research ... 6
1.3.4. Qualitative research process... 7
1.4. OBSERVATION AND ETHNOGRAPHY... 9
1.4.1. Observation in the traditional market research literature ... 9
1.4.2. Observation and ethnography: origins and evolution... 12
1.4.3. Features ... 13
1.4.4. Strengths and weaknesses ... 14
1.4.5. Ethnographic methods... 16
1.4.6. Participant observation... 17
1.4.7. Marketing issues adapt to observational and ethnographic methods ... 19
1.4.8. Sample design... 21
1.4.9. Data collection process and data recording ... 22
1.4.10. Analysis and interpretation ... 23
1.5. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY... 25
2. BACKGROUND... 27
2.1. SECONDARY DATA THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND ITS IMPORTANCE... 27
2.2. GENERAL ENVIRONMENT:SLEPT ANALYSIS... 29
2.2.1. Czech Republic... 30
2.2.2. Italy ... 43
2.3. AUTOMOTIVE MARKET ANALYSIS... 54
2.3.1. Czech Republic... 54
2.3.2. Italy ... 61
2.4. CULTURAL ANALYSIS... 67
2.4.1. Czech Republic... 68
2.4.2. Italy ... 70
2.5. COMPARISON AND INTERPRETATION... 74
3. THE RESEARCH ... 85
3.1. DATA COLLECTION... 85
3.2. DATA ANALYSIS... 88
3.2.1. Czech Republic... 88
3.2.1.1. General impressions ... 88
3.2.1.2. The observational data analysis... 89
3.2.2. Italy ... 103
3.2.2.1. General impressions ... 103
3.2.2.2. The observational data analysis... 104
3.3. DATA COMPARISON AND INTERPRETATION... 120
3.3.1. General impressions comparison and interpretation ... 120
3.3.2. Observational data comparison ... 121
3.3.3. Observational data interpretation... 128
CONCLUSIONS ... 144
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 149
