How Acquaintanceship and Analyst Can Influence Focus Group Results.

Little empirical work has investigated the influence of acquaintanceship among the members of a focus group on the output of that group. None has examined the influence of analyst identity on group output, occurring in the scoring of a transcript of the group's conversations. This research investigates these two effects and their interaction on idea quantity and idea quality. Findings show small interaction and acquaintanceship effects but moderate to large analyst identity effects. Findings have important implications for basic and applied research using focus groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]