The Critical Incident Technique

Abstract The Critical Incident Technique ( CIT ), a research method that relies on a set of procedures to collect, content analyze, and classify observations of human behavior, was introduced to the social sciences by Flanagan (1954) 60 years ago. Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault (1990), who introduced CIT to the marketing discipline, define an incident as an observable human activity that is complete enough to allow inferences and predictions to be made about the person performing the act. A critical incident is described as one that makes a significant contribution, either positively or negatively, to an activity or phenomenon. Critical incidents can be gathered in various ways, but the approach generally asks respondents to tell a story about an experience they have had. In the past 25 years the CIT method has been used frequently in marketing and management, and more recently in service research, to study a wide range of topics.