Conducting business to business research
Some key points
- Respondents must always be told of the client's wish to observe.
- Interviewers must be honest about the length of interview.
- Due to the smaller sample universe for business research extra care must be taken to
protect business respondents identities.
Find out more
Business-to-business research guidelines (PDF 72KB, PDF
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(Word format, 156KB)
May 2006
See also:
Frequently Asked Questions
 I'm
conducting a business to business survey with respondents drawn from
an industry list provided by the client. In order to validate the industrial
profile of the companies interviewed, the client would like the names
of the companies contacted (but not the names of the respondents). Is
this OK?
 Providing
the names of companies contacted, but not respondents within the companies,
is permitted for validation purposes as long as the respondent is
neither directly nor indirectly identified. This will depend on the
job title of the respondent, eg if all respondents were managing directors
then the name of the company could not be revealed as to do so would
indirectly identify the respondent.
In some circumstances, respondents may be sensitive to the name of their company being revealed, particularly if their responses may cast their company in a negative light. It should be explained to respondents that the company name may be revealed and the valid purpose for this.
See: Business-to-business research guidelines: section 1
I
conduct 'business to business' research. Is data on organisations or
their employees covered by the 1998 Act in the context of market research?
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 the definition of 'individuals' includes sole traders and partnerships in England and Wales, and sole traders in Scotland. Therefore all the rights available to individuals will be available to business organisations of this type. In addition most business data collected during a survey will include personal opinions from the respondents and as such will be defined as personal data (irrespective of the type of organisation). A simple test is whether, if the job holder changes, the
data (other than the individual's name) will change in any way. If
it does the Data Protection Act 1998 is likely to apply. This would
also apply to databases/sampling frames that contain details of individuals.
See: The Data Protection Act 1998 and Market Research: Guidance for MRS Members: introduction
Caller
has been asked by a research agency to take part in a group discussion.
When the caller asked the name of the client, the agency was vague and
did not reply. The caller persisted and asked whether the identity of
the client would be revealed if and when the caller turned up for the
group discussion. Again no fixed reply. Finally the caller asked for assurance that the unamed client was not a direct competitor, and this was eventually given in writing. Caller asked the official
position on client confidentiality.
The client
does have a right to anonymity but this must be waived a) if the client
has provided the database from which the respondent's name was drawn,
and b) if the client is a present or potential competitor of the respondent.
In this case the agency's reported vagueness in response to the caller's
questions as to whether the client had requested anonymity and whether
respondents were or could be competitors of the client is surprising,
as these two matters should reasonably have been well known to an
agency before any potential respondents were first approached.
See: MRS Code of Conduct: Rules B7, B37 and B38
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