2.5 AR I MPACT S TUDY
2.5.3 Data collection
In the two impact cases, data collection followed the general principle of seeking an in-depth understanding of the cases. Given available empirical sources, multiple viewpoints were sought whenever possible to achieve this. Also, to the extent possible, data was collected for triangulation, validating factual claims.
Saks Case
The different questions and interviews were developed and conducted depending on the AR characteristics and the customer experience from organizational and customer standpoints.
Table 1 summarizes the data collection, comprised of primary and secondary data sources, including face to face interviews, online/video interviews, emails, feedback, and clarifications with the Mastercard Labs leaders, and YouTube videos provided by Mastercard on example cases, supplemented by Annual Reports. Press Releases available publicly and reports published in the media were used to inspire and complement data collection. Quotations found in publicly available articles were used to contextualize the customer experience and AR characteristics provided by this integrated AR solution studied at Saks 5th Avenue (Yin, 2003).
Table 1. Sources for data collection in the Saks case
Role Data Collection method
Mastercard Labs Practice Lead Primary interview, feedback on write-up, email inquiries Senior Account Manager, Mastercard Primary interview, facilitating data collection
Global Head, R&D Mastercard Labs, Dublin Interview, quotation provided Executive Vice President, Digital Partnerships, Mastercard Quotations - publicly available Executive Vice President, Digital Payments and Labs, Mastercard Quotations - publicly available
Vice President, HEadworn, ODG Quotations - publicly available
Active review of ODG smartglasses Quotations - publicly available
Founder and CEO, ODG Quotations - publicly available
Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies Quotations - publicly available
Mastercard and ODG (Press briefings) Links provided
Mastercard (Media reports) Links provided
Mastercard (YouTube videos) Links provided
Mastercard (Annual reports) Links provided
Semi-structured interviews
The interview guide (Appendix 5) and case protocol (Appendix 6) were designed around the research questions, and the theoretical framework from Chapter 3 guided the interview questions (Section 2.3.1).
The interview guide contained a list of questions and topic areas covered in the interview with Mastercard. However, these were not read verbatim or in order but served more as an aide-mémoire.
"Usually, the interviewer will have a prepared set of questions, but these are only used as a guide, and departures from the guidelines are not seen as a problem but are often encouraged" – Silverman (2009, p.
194). I could add additional questions about an unexpected but relevant area that emerged, and sections that didn't apply to the participant could be negated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, using the face-to-face method to allow participants to easily clarify their answers or ask for questions to be elaborated (Lavrakas, 2008). Legard, Keegan, and Ward (2003, p. 138) note that "Although a good in-depth interview will appear naturalistic, it will bear little resemblance to an everyday conversation."
Contacts were established early, and meetings were scheduled in advance for these interviews.
These interviews were conducted with people who had different roles concerning this Mastercard AR solution. The interviews complemented the other data provided like YouTube videos, annual reports, and press briefings to provide contextual and technological understanding and triangulate findings from interviews. The interviews were conversational, but with a charter to cover the theoretical framework (Chapter 3).
Mastercard Labs Practice Lead: A face-to-face interview with the practice lead of Mastercard Labs, who was engaged in developing the integrated AR solution, was critical. The goal was to understand the role of Mastercard Labs, its involvement in immersive technologies, the solution's intention, the
integration methodologies, the companies involved, what worked and what did not, and why a high-end retail store was selected for the in-store retail setting.
Senior Account Manager, Mastercard: This was my initial contact when I expressed interest in a case study related to AR. At that time, Mastercard Labs was working with three other companies to build an integrated AR solution to be tested in-store at Saks 5th Avenue in NYC. The Manager helped me
understand the nature of the study and that it was being done to help understand how integrated services with AR could impact customer experience in-store, given that previous Mastercard immersive
technology set-ups were using VR at that time.
Publicly available quotations: The Practice Lead provided links to different interviews and press releases that provided the context of the integrated AR solution as seen by the key executives of the
participating companies, including Mastercard, ODG, and Qualcomm, and that were available in public domains.
• https://www.vi-mm.eu/2017/10/31/odg-mastercard-and-qualcomm-show-off-augmented-reality-shopping/
• https://www.pymnts.com/mastercard/2017/mastercard-showcases-augmented-reality-shopping-with-iris-authentication/
• https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/23/odg-mastercard-and-qualcomm-show-off-augmented-reality-shopping/
• https://www.etcentric.org/money2020-companies-partner-on-ar-shopping-prototype/
Other data was collected from various sources depending on the research focus, such as annual reports and financial statements, public records, newspapers, and social media (Maimbo and Pervan, 2005), minutes of meetings (Myers, 2009). This type of data collection was adopted in all the studies to augment the primary data collection10.
Louis Poulsen Case
Different questions and interviews were developed and conducted depending on both AR characteristics and the customer experience from an organizational and customer standpoint. The following sub-sections will elaborate upon the different data methods depending on the stakeholders. Two Masters Degree students performed the data gathering and initial analysis as part of their thesis. I have used their research and re-interpreted the data collected for this thesis, using the theoretical framework developed from Chapter 3. The sections below are extracted from what was provided by these students.
Semi-structured interview with Louis Poulsen personnel and retailers
10 Mastercard provided a list of publicly available data and access to their annual report
• https://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-eyes-the-future-of-retail-with-augmented-reality-shopping-experience/
• https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171023005360/en/Mastercard-Eyes-Future-Retail-Augmented-Reality-Shopping
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7qa15inORc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdCCZzQX27Q
• https://www.ezodproxy.com/mastercard/2018/ar/HTML1/tiles.htm
The interview guide and case protocol (Appendix 7) was designed around the research questions, and the theoretical framework for the studies guided the interview questions (section 2.3.1). All interviews for this impact study were based on semi-structured interviews conducted with experts to capture rich and descriptive data about the participants' feelings, perceptions, attitudes, and opinions. A predetermined set of questions was used to perform these interviews where themes from these questions could be used throughout all the interviews with LP personnel and retailers. The order of questions varied a lot depending on the conversational flow and which stakeholders were interviewed, with additional questions added to get the required information. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, using the face-to-face method to allow participants to quickly clarify their answers or ask for questions to be elaborated (Lavrakas, 2008). Contacts were established early, and meetings were scheduled in advance for these interviews.
For the semi-structured interviews, three different interest groups were interviewed to provide different perspectives on how AR characteristics could enrich the retail customer experience. These groups are LP personnel, retailers, and customers. Table 2 visualizes the various stakeholders interviewed. To
adequately cover organizational and consumer sides, 14 interviews were conducted, with two representatives from LP, three retailers, and nine customers.
Table 2. Interviewees in the Louis Poulsen case
The interviews were complemented with a visit to the designer's facility, Virsabi in Copenhagen, to provide contextual and technological understanding and triangulate interviews. The interviews were conversational, but with a charter to cover the theoretical framework (Chapter 3).
Louis Poulsen personnel
The interviews conducted with employees from LP were done to provide an overview of how AR technology can create value internally. We, therefore, interviewed the person who implemented the
Role Key topics
Director of Brand and Communications Target Audience, AR Implementation, Customer Experience, Objective and Purpose Visual Concept and Merchandising Manager Simplifying Processes, Customer Experience and AR Usage
Head of Lighting Departmen, Illums Bolighus Customer Experience, AR Usage and Customers Head of the Lights Department, Johannes Fog Customer Experience, AR Usage and Customers Owner at Vestergaard Møbler Customer Experience and AR Usage, Customers
Customer 1 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 2 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 3 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 4 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 5 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 6 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 7 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 8 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement Customer 9 Customer satisfaction, Brand Experience, Convenience and Customer engagement
application and their Visual Concept and Merchandising Manager. Their perspectives on how AR can create value internally are of great importance to our research as it answers whether AR can internally generate LP value.
Director of Brand and Communications: We conducted a face-to-face interview with the director, who has been employed at LP for seven years, and who was the primary person behind implementing the AR application at LP. The interview with him provided background knowledge of why they chose to invest in AR technology, the investment goals, and what the future had in store for AR at LP.
Visual Concept and Merchandising Manager: The Manager was contacted to learn more about how he can work with this technology and where AR can support his work processes to create a better customer experience.
Retailers
There are some standard criteria as to why specific retailers were interviewed. Firstly, they must sell LP products in their stores. Secondly, LP is a premium brand within the lighting industry, which means not all lighting retailers have their products, hence narrowing the options for retailers that can be
interviewed. Further, there is a geographical limitation for the selection of retailers for interviews. Lastly, there is only a limited number of retailers who fulfill the criteria above. Within this segment, a relatively large number of retailers were not interested in participating in an interview.
Owner at Vestergaard Møbler: The owner, a 2nd generation of furniture and lighting dealer, became the store owner one and a half years ago. His expertise in furniture and lights retailing, where he came highly recommended by LP, was necessary. Secondly, Vestergaard Møbler is one of the largest single stores selling lighting products in the Greater Copenhagen area, with many customers visiting every day. They have good knowledge of customer experience and how this application by LP can be used.
Head of Lighting Department: Another retailer we had a face-to-face interview with was the Head of Lighting, who works at Illums Bolighus in Copenhagen. The head has been in charge of the lighting department for more than ten years. One of the most important reasons for interviewing the head is that Illums Bolighus is the store in Denmark that sells the most LP products per square meter. The head's expertise, combined with the fact that they have the highest conversion rate, gives insights into how AR can increase customer experience. It is fair to assume that Illums Bolighus has a good idea about how to sell LP products, and it is therefore attractive for our research to examine where AR can be used in their processes.
Head of the Lights Department: The head in charge of the lighting department at Johannes Fog in Lyngby has been working for Johannes Fog for many years and has been the head of the lighting department for four years. They were interesting to interview as their store is slightly different from the 'usual' LP retailers in that they sell items from as low as 10 DKK up to 50.000 DKK. They did not have the same exclusivity as other retailers did. It produced some challenges regarding how they could advertise LP products due to some brand-restrictions, where LP did not want to be associated with low-end brands.
Semi-structured interview with customers
In the Saks study, no interviews were conducted directly with customers. On the other hand, this study uses semi-structured interviews with customers to directly examine whether or not the AR technology characteristics can enrich customers' retail experience. Here the semi-structured interviews were
conducted using an experimental approach. LP exposed the participants to the AR application by LP, and they had a chance to play around with it in their natural surroundings. It is important to note that
customers were interviewed in their own homes to measure the effect of AR better, as the intent of the application is to be used by customers within their own homes. Lastly, the participants were exposed to the same line of questioning, enabling a comparison of the answers to measure the effect of AR on the customer.
A non-probability technique was chosen to select the customer samples for this research. The sampling technique to determine the participants for the experiment-inspired semi-structured interview is the typical case sampling. The standard LP segment is in the late thirties, well educated, from wealthy households, and with a fifty-fifty gender distribution. Additionally, LP deepens the age group based on internal research as between 45 and 65 years old. Secondly, to provide the analysis with some depth and applicability, the samples must have purchased or considered purchasing an LP product.
Therefore, sample one contains three customer interviews with participants that meet the sampling requirements of being late thirties and above, well-educated, and from wealthy households. Additionally, there is an intense desire within LP to create an interest with a lower aged audience. Researchers were interested in addressing this audience to make the research more applicable. Hence, sample two contains six customer interviews from a lower age group than the typical LP segment but meets the requirement to consider buying an LP product.