There have been a number of limitations that have presented themselves during the course of the study. Notably, there were the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 lockdowns. However, as the study was conducted, we
examined the role of our limitations and how the study could have been enhanced to provide more information.
We have listed seven limitations below and their impact on our study.
Limitation 1: Researcher Bias
A key limitation that we should cover is that as innovation students we have approached this study with our own researcher bias. We have approached the study with a presumption that COVID-19 generated innovation and we just wanted to find out how COVID-19 generated innovation. We did not consider if COVID-19 did generated innovation in the first place. We feel that perhaps this could have skewed the results that we were looking at.
Limitation 2: COVID-19 Lockdown
The Danish government had impost strict lockdowns early into our study. These lockdowns started in the middle of December 2020 (Barrett, 2020) and lasted until March, when only a partial reopening emerged. Only shops of certain sizes were allowed to open. As we spent most of the time under lockdown with little contact to the rest of our social network, we found this period to be very mentally challenging. Our motivation to conduct a study of such importance was hard to maintain given the extra ordinary circumstances that were taking place.
Therefore, many of the research methods that could have enhanced our results were simply too difficult to utilize. This included bigger interview samples and possibly surveys. As the pandemic made data collection quite difficult, we identified early that surveying was not going to be a method we could use. First, as it would skew the results, given we would only be able to contact our own network online. Second, as our other fellow students were in the same situation, it became very common that everyone was sending surveys out and we all experienced survey fatigue. We felt that we did not wish to contribute to that, if it was possible to avoid. Also, to get a more suitable data sample for our purpose, it would have been optimal to interview shoppers at one of the central malls. However, the lockdowns ensured their closure, and the risk of approaching people was too great.
Limitation 3: Time and Place of the Observational Study
The time and date of our chosen observational studies was chosen so that we can get early impressions of shoppers and their behaviour towards shopping in a new environment. We chose to do our observational data collection on March 3rd, 2021, when only small shops were allowed to be opened that were of a certain size. We took to Strøget street, the main shopping strip in Copenhagen. This location promised to have the greatest number of shops open and could probably have a decent sample of people who would be out to experience
some shopping post lockdowns. We decided to do our study on a weekday which means that we only got a glimpse of time. We cannot know if a different day, that we could have chosen to conduct our study, would have changed our results in what we saw or who we could have talked to. The results were completely dependent on the day we were there to observe.
Limitation 4: Our Interview Sample Size
The sample of our qualitative interviews were of four people. Our interviews included two people that work with Vero Moda and two that work with Pandora. We could assume that they have company bias (e.g., they refer to the company in a positive light). We have reached out to a larger sample size but were declined by many potential participants.
Limitation 5: Time Frame to Complete the Study
The time that we had available to complete this research was also a limitation for us. The content of this research could have had a wider scope as there is a lot more factors that could be accounted for. Of the time in which we dedicated to our thesis; four months were taken under strict lockdown measures. It became harder to work with others and get more in person exposure to experts, customers as well as retail stores. Therefore, due to lockdown restrictions we also were unable to conduct surveys in public. In addition, the people we have in our social network is too narrow of a sample and not random enough to ensure quality of findings. As we reached out to potential interview participants, we were declined by many of them. This presented itself as an obstacle, as we became limited in time to continue looking for potential participants.
Limitation 6: Slight Shift of Chosen Topic
The start of our chosen topic had to be shifted after we started our research as we realized we do not have much knowledge of retail design and the theories related to that. This was the first topic we considered, and we tried to find ways how we would be able to research this. We had to revert and explore how innovation affects retail design and re-consider the theories we went through in our program that would be related to the topic. This in turn took quite some time to conclude and therefore change how we would conduct the study, as well as who would be relevant to give us the information we needed.
Limitation 7: Long Term Outcomes Unknown
As the pandemic we are living through is quite unique to our digital times. Its consequences will have some very unpredictable effects. Therefore, we cannot predict the long-term outcomes of a pandemic of such scale on the retail industry. We do not have any events such as this to compare an outcome to, as we may have had with other global events.
Due to the holistic and strategic approach undertaken, limitations in the findings arose. Since the beginning of the research, we aimed to display general direction for businesses to challenge existing solutions and future research studies.