The use of the Delphi as a research approach

Introduction So far as we know no researcher who has used this method has suffered the fate of Oedipus, whose question to the oracle at Delphi was worded in such a way that the answer led him to marry his mother and kill his father. This experience should alert us to the possibility of being misled by the pronouncements of experts if we are not clear about the way in which we frame our questions, about the options we are willing to accept as answers, and the way in which we will interpret the answers given to us. The Delphi approach entails gathering information, opinions and ideas from a panel of experts, using a specific sequence (see Table 1).