PurposeThe paper seeks to present discussion on laddering application in the practice of marketing, considering both academic and market researches.Design/methodology/approachIt provides summary points of laddering as a qualitative research technique and the importance it can have in better understanding behaviour.FindingsThe paper argues that laddering is a useful and powerful technique but still underused by scholars and practitioners. The authors consider that the main apparent barriers precluding its proper use can be related to the following aspects: time‐consuming and expensive interviews; artificial set of answers; researcher biases; and simplistic analysis of the results.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to a better practice of laddering since it highlights its limitations and suggests alternatives to cope with them.

RESUMO ste artigo aborda a tipologia do método do caso na área de administração e tem por objetivo identificar os principais tipos de casos e as situações mais apropriadas para o emprego de cada uma de suas versões. Realizou-se um levantamento bibliográfico sobre os tópicos: (i) definição do método do caso, (ii) finalidades pedagógicas do método do caso, (iii) tipologia dos casos e (iv) critérios para classificações dos casos. Com base nisso, foram sugeridos quatro critérios para categorização dos tipos de casos, a saber: finalidades pedagógicas, disponibilidade de informações, nível de estruturação e nível de complexidade. Cada formato de caso se mostra adequado a uma situação educacional peculiar, incluindo diferentes níveis de ensino. Recomenda-se que essa técnica seja utilizada em conjunto com outras estratégias educacionais. É fundamental que os instrutores estejam habilitados a selecionar o tipo do caso conforme a necessidade dos alunos e os objetivos pedagógicos pretendidos.ABSTRACT his article focuses the types of cases in the business area. The goal was to identify the main types of cases and the more appropriate situations to use each version. A desk research was made, leading to the development of the following topics: (i) definition of case study, (ii) the educational purposes of the case study, (iii) the types of cases and (iv) criteria to classify the cases. Based on the bibliographical research, it could be suggested four criteria to categorize the types of cases; there are: educational purposes, information available, structure level and complexity level. Each case format is more appropriate to a particular educational situation, including undergraduate and graduate courses. The case method has to be accompanied by other educational techniques. It is important that the instructors are able to select the type of case according to the student needs and the desired educational objectives.

This article aims at analyzing laddering as a technique of qualitative research, emphasizing the procedures for data collection, analysis and interpretation, and its main limitations as well. “Laddering refers to an in-depth, one-on-one interviewing technique used to develop an understanding of how consumers translate the attributes of products into meaningful associations with respect to self, following means-end theory” (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988, p. 12). The critical literature review shows that laddering is useful in studies on human behavior, especially those related to the Means-End Chain (MEC) model. For a successful application, highly trained interviewers, homogeneous groups of respondents, and the Laddermap should be taken into consideration.