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Our long term goal is to make the retail buying process scientific and therefore more efficient. Our objective for this application is to develop critical incident-based, research-driven educational materials, focusing on international best practices in retail buying. <P>
To accomplish this goal we propose three Aims: <OL> <LI> Collect critical incidents of best buying practices by interviewing buyers throughout the world. <BR> Rationale for this Aim: Daily, retail buyers experience the problems and issues of dealing with suppliers. Their direct experience and how they solved retail buying dilemmas provide the foundation for credibility in this research. <LI>Match critical incidents with available research to provide generalizations for why the critical incident was successful. <BR> Rationale for this Aim: Critical incidents that are random cannot be generalized, and therefore not applicable to other situations. We propose to identify a base theory and supporting research that would explain why the best practices worked. <LI> Develop educational materials (interactive learning) to teach the best buying practices. <BR> Rationale for this Aim: Designing effective, engaging serious simulation and games requires theoretical understanding of learning, cognition, emotion, and play. Simulations and games are interactive and exciting. They provide the opportunity to create a unique learning environment where students are engaged and excited to learn.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This proposal is unique because it is the first time that international best practices have been combined with research and theory to develop a set of interactive educational materials. One of the researchers has conducted research on retail buying throughout the world for 25 years. The other researcher has taught buying for 25 years. Both researchers have been retail buyers. Collaborators include a food safety expert and an expert in the development of educational games. One unique aspect of this project is the use of critical incidents to project learning experiences and provide the foundation for providing a serious gaming environment. Critical incidents are real world experiences or events that trigger an awareness that something is different. After a critical incident, a person thinks to him/herself that this is a learning experience. Most educational materials dealing with buying do not use this type of real world insight. The books on buying focus on anecdotal information, devoid of field research. Likewise these books do not attempt to tie research and theory to explain the phenomena.
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APPROACH: Aim 1: Collect critical incidents of best buying practices by interviewing buyers throughout the world. Methods: We will use alumnae data bases of former students who now hold senior buying positions. Michigan State University has one of the most extensive databases of retailing alumnae. We will use a Delphi technique to generate a classification of areas where critical incidents could be generated. We think that beginning with a list of 40-50 critical incident areas will help future "story tellers" focus their thoughts. We will also use this list of industry contacts to begin a nomination process for potential critical incident "story tellers". In addition, our own contacts and contacts from colleagues who worked with us on previous research projects will assist in the process of nominating "story tellers". A critical incident occurs when employee behavior results in unusual success or unusual failure in some part of the job. Critical incidents have an important effect on the final outcome of a scenario. In other words, a critical incident is an observable action or form of expression that is complete enough in itself to allow inferences to be drawn. Because the behavioral incidents are specific, they can facilitate employee and organizational feedback and development. Critical incidents are then used to solve practical problems and develop broad behavioral/psychological principles. A selected number of the critical incidents will be videotaped, and the visual footage will be integrated into the educational materials. Aim 2: Match critical incidents with available research to provide generalizations for why the critical incident was successful. Methods. The research team as well as the doctoral students employed on this project will review the literatures and will determine theoretical or research based results to generalize the real world outcome of the critical incident. Literature from a variety of disciples such as Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Marketing, Management and Educational Psychology will be used to generate the theories and research bases. Aim 3: Develop educational games (interactive learning) to teach the best buying practices. Methods. A doctoral student involved with the MSU GEL (Games for Educational Learning) will develop programming for the critical incident scenarios. Our long term goal, for which we will seek NSF funding, is to develop a series of full scale games to teach the Buying Game. We view funding of this USDA-Challenge Grant proposal as an important first step: gathering the real world stories and tying them to scientific explanations which can be generalized. Our next step would be to create a real world game.