Assume that you have been hired by Post as the manager of the university bookstore. Your manager believes a recent report that he has seen that predicts that in the next five years the majority of textbooks sold to college and university students will be electronic (e-books) books where the entire book is online and no paper copies are sold in bookstores. The e-book will sell for about one-half the price of a paperback book and will be much cheaper to produce. A student signs up online with a specific publisher and receives a pin number that allows access to the e-book for a limited amount of time (say 16 weeks) and security ensures that only one student may use the pin number. No books will be sold in the bookstore and there will be no used books since none were originally sold. He is obviously concerned and would like you to investigate.

Your task is to conduct qualitative research (e.g., focus groups) with students to determine the impact of such a report and the anticipated trend.

For this week's discussion:

• Help design the focus group discussion guide! What is your process, what are you hoping to find, and what conclusions do you anticipate?Use the Focus Group Discussion Guide (Appendix B) to guide this process.
• What other qualitative research techniques might shed light on this issue?

For information about publishers and their current practices, see the publisher of this text, McGraw-Hill Higher Education atwww.mhhe.com, or others of your own choosing.