Research by Convenience

ConvenienceI n economics the phenomenon of a poor currency driving out a good currency is widely known, and goes under the name of Gresham's Law.In consumer research, a similar phenomenon may be taking place.This phenomenon is the tendency for researchers to turn increasingly to convenience samples and forego probability samples.The simple rationale seems to be that consumer behavior is a basic form of human behavior, and it therefore makes little difference who are the subjects as long as they are breathing ever so slightly.Unlike probability samples, with a convenience sample the selection cost is minimal, simply because the sample is selected on the basis of just that, convenience.The object in that case is not to measure any sampling errors or biases (although sampling error formulas may erroneously be applied to these data) but rather to make it as simple and economical as possible for the researcher to get a set of data.For this reason, it is not surprising that a convenience sample for a commerical researcher may be people picked up on a street or in a shopping center, while for an academic researcher a convenience sample is usually whatever classes that individual happens to be teaching at the time.To judge by the pages of JCR and other publications presenting consumer-related studies, the popularity of convenience samples is growing by leaps and bounds.The purpose of this editorial is to try to deflate this boom.