In my previous blog post on research method trends, I explained that one-third of participants (34%) from the study conducted by the Greenbook Research Industry Trends Report used virtual communities as their preferred research method. According to this same study, researchers were also interviewed on the method they use to stay on top of the latest industry trends.
Some figures
In the graph below, there are two sets of columns. In the left-hand column, a comparison is made between the perception of client companies and that of suppliers. Meanwhile, in the right-hand column, the opinions of researchers who have less than 6 years of experience is compared with those of researchers who have over 6 years of experience.
The data demonstrates some differences between the opinions of client companies and those of service providers. Indeed, webinars are the most popular event of choice for both parties. Client companies that outsource research services tend to value this training tool more than service providers do. White papers and print media are as popular among clients as they are among service providers.
In addition, blogs, blog-related emails and Twitter are all sources of information valued more by the supplier than by the client.
Novice researchers tend to find that all tools, except white papers and print media, are adequate for their work, while those two are preferred by researchers with more experience.
For young researchers, webinars, conferences and research on industry websites have great value. Two-thirds of participants gave a fairly high score for these tools. Now let’s take a closer look at these interesting results:
- 68% of participants find that webinars are important;
- 69% gave a high score to seminars or conferences for training value;
- 67% of young researchers do research on the web.
At Exo, one of our company values is training. We, a team of specialists on top of the latest trends, are encouraged to increase our knowledge regularly.
How do you increase your knowledge?
