1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

approach is probably the most widely used in qualitative research (Bryant, Charmaz, 2007). It was formulated by Glaser and Strauss in 1967 and originates from the philosophical tradition of positivism, pragmatism and symbolic interactionism. GTM helps build the theory of the explored phenomenon – its abstract theoretical grasp of the phenomenon to be named and better understood in various contexts (Starks, Brown Trinidad, 2007). Each qualitative research project is unique in this respect, and the researcher’s task is to find a meaningful and controlled way of analysis that corresponds to the research problem, the nature of the data and interacts responsibly with the respondent. The specific reason for using some of the principles of GTM is to categorize the main groups of factors affecting the customer and to identify the exact areas of the multi-industrial network that the customer takes into account in their preferences. The principles of GTM used in this research are open coding and theoretical sampling. Open coding of the conversation allows the conversation to be captured in certain “codes” and then categorized them selectively – in this case, to identify groups of factors that influence the customer when buying a car. The essence of theoretical sampling is that other respondents are selected only on the basis of concepts and their dimensions that emerge during the analysis itself. Factors influencing the customer in process of selecting and buying a car were monitored from the perspective of the concept of 4 values. Individual values should determine the area that the customer perceives as the most important and in this way it is possible to categorize the factors and find out which subjects are the most important for him (eg. bank and its advantageous financing, insurance company with extended duration of service, above-standard service, VIP services of car seller and so on). 2.1 Research objective The main objective of the research was to focus on internal as well as external factors acting on the customer and influence him in the process of selecting and buying a car. All physical aspects and technical parameters of the vehicle were not considered. Emphasis was placed on perceiving the automotive supply chain and revealing such strong attributes that the customer’s loyalty is retained, or whether they are able to change preferences. Primary data was obtained through deep structured interviews with 21 respondents in March and April 2018. Criteria for selecting the study respondents were: (a) respondent should be at least 18 years old, (b) respondent should have an experience with the process of selecting and buying a car, (c) respondent should be willing to share his experience with this research. Each respondent was given enough time to express the opinion. On average, one interview lasted half an hour. In the introduction, a research question was raised. Further routing and content of questions was determined by the individual respondent, based on his / her answer to the research question and other related questions, which had the role of encouraging the respondent to develop his / her answers and make the closest characterization of the testimony – questions such as: Why do you consider this factor to be the most important? What do you think of? How do you perceive the

279