Answers to additional case studies
Case studies are numbered according to the chapter for which they are most relevant. For
example, the cases which are most relevant for Chapter 2 are numbered 2a, 2b, etc. These are
followed by an ongoing case divided into three parts.
A complete list of additional cases available to students on the Companion Website (without
answers) is given in Appendix 3 of the Instructor’s manual.
Unless stated answers to case studies are written by the book’s authors.
Case 1a: Business and management research1
1. How do you think Isabelle’s understanding of theory and method changed in
adopting the approach she chose?
Isabelle became increasingly aware of alternative approaches to research other than the more
traditional one associated with Positivism. She conceived this alternative approach using a
more qualitative method could be just as rigorous and have some practical relevance. She
could understand how even the physical sciences which had influenced Positivism where not
always as ‘scientific’ as they assumed. This understanding she conceived from reading the
seminal work of Kuhn on Scientific Revolutions. Thus, because of this it was arguably more
difficult for researchers to be critical of social scientists merely on the grounds of being less
rigorous and indeed systematic. She also argued that research on managers could be more valid
and meaningful if she adopted a more qualitative approach.
2. What particular knowledge and skills did she develop in preparing this research?
Isabelle had developed her knowledge and skills in conducting her research.
Researching life histories requires a knowledge and understanding of in-depth interviews and
careful use of secondary data. Before her in-depth interviews with managers on how they
coped with pressure at work, she decided to interview some family members using a technique
pioneered by Bertaux (1995). These practical family history exercises could sensitise one to
the interplay between the individual and the wider social structure in which they are
embedded.
The other knowledge and skills developed were ethical concerns. Problems could arise
because there are potential dangers with life history interviews. Given that life history is an
introspective process for the interviewee, this process may not always be a positive experience,
it could be negative. This process may then become problematic for the interviewee.
Reflecting on ones experiences may be fraught with any number of psychological pitfalls. This
requires careful interviewing so that the interviewee feels that the experience has been a
worthwhile experience.
Equally, the vulnerability of the participant in this kind of study requires the exercise of
informed consent. As well as taking care during the collection of the information, she needed
to ensure that the closing of the interview is done with sensitivity. This should then make it
possible for the interviewee to contact the researcher at a later date. Isabelle realised that
conducting such interviews, given the theoretical, methodological and ethical issues involved
required a psychological ‘maturity’ on her part if the process was to be successful.
1
Answers to case study provided by Michael Savvas
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
3. What problems do you think she would have anticipated in conducting research into
pressure and coping among managers that her literature review may not have
identified?
The problems she would have anticipated include getting access to managers, usually a
problem in this type of research. She would have to interview a number of managers. This
would require obtaining their consent and expecting a longer interview. This type of
qualitative research would arguably take more time than giving out a postal questionnaire.
Secondly, managers may be reluctant admit that the pressure they are under can lead to
problems. Pressure and coping among managers could thus be problematic enough in itself, let
alone all the other issues highlighted above.
Reference
Bertaux, D. (1995) Social genealogies commented on and compared: an instrument for
observing social mobility in ‘the Longue Duree’, Current Sociology, Vol. 43, (2/3), 67–88.
Case 1b: Reporting evidence from business and management
research2
1. If Katie is correct, and evidence doesn’t necessarily tell managers the best way to
take action, do we still need evidence?
If academics were only to generate evidence that addresses managerially-defined problems
then they would ultimately be managers’ servants. In the long term, many argue, without ‘blue
skies’ research – work that is not meant to be applied to a specific ‘problem’ but done out of
curiosity and without taking account of the vested interests of managers – there would be
nothing to move our knowledge on to new ways of thinking.
2. Can Katie’s decision to submit a report she thinks is misleading, be justified on
ethical grounds?
There is no definitive ‘answer’ to this quandary. But it is one that many academics face,
because their research is often funded by people in industry and government who clearly
would like the research to point in a particular direction. As students read on the book, they
will learn about research ethics and ethical dilemmas. The key with this question is that it starts
a debate and raises the importance of ethics in research. Ask the student ‘What would you do?’
3. In what ways are the kinds of research projects that most managers want to read
likely to be different from the kinds of research projects that get high marks at
university?
In general, managers need to be ‘action-orientated.’ This means that they tend to want reports
that are short, easy to read and (appear to) tell them what to do – perhaps like the Deloitte
report that Katie found. This orientation is reflected in a well known managerial cliché: ‘don’t
bring me problems, I want solutions!’ Academic work, in contrast, tends to emphasise
complexity and paradox – dwelling on the problems and why the solutions may not be as easy
as they appear!
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Answers provided by Mark Learmonth
2
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Case 2a: The use of internal and word of mouth recruitment
methods
1. Do you think that Phil and Mark had good reasons for choosing the research
topic initially? Give reasons for your answer.
Well, we did! Perhaps the best reason for the choice of topic was that it was of intrinsic
interest to both of us. It was a question, which excited our intellectual curiosity.
2. Draft a possible first research question for Mark’s and Phil’s idea as described in
the first three paragraphs of the case study.
Two possible questions are suggested by the third paragraph. The first is descriptive, the
second explanatory. They are:
1. How prevalent is word-of-mouth recruitment in UK local authorities?
2. Why is word-of-mouth recruitment still used in UK local authorities given its
inconsistency with equal opportunities policies?
3. What lessons can you learn from Phil’s and Mark’s experience?
The main lesson is a sobering one. All the ‘correct’ procedures to construct a research
proposal may be followed and yet the piece of research planned still may not be viable.
The reason was simple. The research question could easily be answered without a process
of systematic research. This is not to say that research on the topic would have been
useless. It may well have thrown up interesting new insights that were not immediately
apparent from the practitioner discussions. But one of our criteria for topic choice was the
usefulness of the research to organisations. On the basis of our practitioner discussions it
seemed that our time might be spent better on research, which would yield more
practically useful results.
The second lesson to be learned was the value of discussing ideas with people who may be
able to shape the content of the proposal. Had we gone ahead with this research we may
have found it useful and stimulating. However, our practitioner discussions suggested that
the results generated may have done little more that promoted an uninterested shrug of ‘so
what?’ among practising local authority managers.
The third lesson was that even experienced researchers go up blind alleys. This is an
important point to emphasise; especially to novice researchers who will almost certainly
go up their own blind alleys.
There was a fourth lesson. That is a research question can usually be amended in the light
of discussion.
4. To what extent do you feel that Mark’s and Phil’s final research question meets
the criteria outlined in Table 2.1?
The final research question was ‘why do organisations use word of mouth recruitment?’
The extent to which this meets the criteria is outlined in Table 2.1 in Chapter 2 is noted
below:
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Criterion
Met by research question?
Does the topic fit the specifications and meet the
standards set by the examining institution?
This was not relevant.
Is the topic something with which you are really
fascinated?
Yes we were!
Does your research topic contain issues that have a
clear link to theory?
Yes. This was clearly theory-driven and
emanated from the literature.
Do you have, or can you develop within the project
time frame, the necessary research skills to
undertake the topic?
Yes. The skills of the
complemented one another.
Is the research topic achievable within the available
time?
This was not a major consideration, as it did
not seem as if it would pose problems.
Is the research topic achievable within the financial
resources that are likely to be available?
Yes.
Are you reasonably certain of being able to gain
access to data you are likely to require for this
topic?
Yes. A workable database of all UK local
authorities existed. In addition, we had
useful links with local authority personnel
managers.
Are you able to state your research question(s) and
objectives clearly?
Yes.
researchers
Will your proposed research be able to provide fresh Yes, albeit the risk that it may not have done
insights on this topic?
was the reason for not going ahead.
Does your research topic relate clearly to the topic
you have been given (perhaps by an organisation)?
This was not relevant.
Are the findings for this research topic likely to be
symmetrical, which is of similar value whatever the
outcome?
Yes, albeit that there was a risk that fresh
insights on this topic may not have been
evident.
Does the research topic match your career goals?
Yes.
Case 2b: Strategic issues in the brewing industry3
1. From the information collected by Steve on the Brewing industry, suggest at least
two possible research questions.
There are several possible titles for Steve to consider. Inevitably, students’ answers will differ
from those suggested below. However, three possibilities are:
3

How are large traditional UK brewers likely to be affected by global competitors
taking major stakes in the UK brewing industry?

To what extent is the trend in the change in buying and lifestyle habits of UK brewing
customers likely to continue? How might this impact on the brewing sector?
Answers provided by Mike Blee, Bournemouth University
4
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies

Given the UK’s government’s attitude to consolidation issues in the UK brewing
industry are there still potential strategies for Brewers to achieve increased
profitability?
Each of the above titles would suggest a different theoretical base for the research:
a.
is in the strategy competition and global area;
b. appears to be concerned with marketing, segmentation and buyer behaviour;
c. suggests, at least initially, a macro-economic approach followed by a consideration of
strategic options, which might include potential for diversification and movement to
increase exports to overseas market places.
2. What criteria would you use to assess whether or not these research questions form
the basis of a good research topic?
It is certainly advisable when choosing a topic to bear in mind some rules. Those outlined in
Box 2.1 provides a good start to assessing the suitability of a research topic.
When choosing topics students may well find it helpful to initially have a title, which poses a
question. Although this is not mandatory and titles may metamorphose as the research
progresses, using a question helps give the student a focus for their project.
3. How do you think Steve should address the requirement for collecting at least some
primary data?
This is a question of practicality and resource. As much as Steve would like to interview chief
executives of brewing companies unless he is fortunate, his chances of access are low. Public
relations department of large breweries may be worth contacting. Alternatively, he might be
able to talk to small local brewery owners or directors on the basis that they would have
sufficient insight over the sector.
To address research questions ‘a’ or ‘c’ would require access to people within the brewing
industry. However, there are trade and or interest bodies within the UK, for example, CAMRA
(Campaign for Real Ale), which might be able to help identify potential sources. The key for
both these questions is that students think objectively about their needs for access to collect
primary data. Question ‘b’ is likely to give far greater opportunity for primary collection of
data. For example, to explore customer segmentation, Steve could, with permission,
distributing questionnaires to customers at different retail outlets. Interviewing owners of a
sample of retail outlets could also give Steve useful primary data. However, the approach
adopted would have to take into account the financial resources available to Steve.
4. Outline the structure that Steve’s research proposal should be indicating:
i.
Those areas where Steve will need to do more work
ii. Suggest how the content will be formulated to address one of the titles you have
chosen at Question 1.
The precise structure of Steve’s research proposal will be dependent upon his University’s
requirements and the research question. However, whatever his research question, he will need
to do more work in the following areas:
5
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Reading the academic literature. There are many textbooks on business strategy and on global
activity, which would provide a useful starting point before searching for and reading journal
articles:
Porter, M.E. (1998) Competitive Advantage of Nations, 2nd edn Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Yip, G. (1995) Total Global Strategy, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice Hall.
Hill, C. (2001) International Business: Competing in the Global Market Place, (3rd edn),
Boston: Mass. McGraw-Hill.
Johnson, G and Scholes K (2002) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Harlow, Prentice Hall.
[includes a case on the European Brewing Industry].
Reading trade literature. Searches of trade journals; trade bodies websites, company reports,
market intelligence reports and newspapers will find specific articles linked to the brewing
industry.
Research approach and likely method(s). Steve needs to think out what research approaches,
strategies and data collection techniques are most suitable to answering his question. This will
need to take into account his University’s requirement to collect some primary data. He will
also need to consider issues of access to data and research ethics as part of this.
5. Outline a possible research time scale for Steve’s project, taking into account your
answers to Question 4.
Setting time scale is difficult and will very much depend on Steve’s programme of study. Most
under graduate and masters’ research projects are written in the final year; in practice this often
translates into between six and nine months. The answer needs to have a series of milestones
to make sure that the project stays on track. These should include the key milestones outlined
in the worked example, and may also include a Gannt chart. Within this answer it is important
that students recognise that they should not leave writing up until the last month, and that some
different activities such as collecting data and drafting the methods chapter can be undertaken
over the same time period.
6. What lessons can you learn from Steve’s first meeting with his project tutor?
The message here is come prepared with more than ‘I think I have an idea that interests me and
here is a possible theory that I am sure is relevant’. Throughout Chapter 2, we emphasise that a
question that the student wants to answer is a good starting point. On the basis of this, students
should be encouraged to think along the lines of ‘I have found a question that interests me and
I am looking how it might be answered’. Explaining why they are interested in the subject area
and justifying this with reference to the literature starts to help focus this question. Discussing
their ideas with other people as well as their project supervisor will help shape the project, and
the selection of methodology and hopefully preventing too many blind alleys.
Case 2c: Catherine Chang and women in management
1. How advisable do you think it was for Catherine to concentrate her study in China?
Concentrating her study in China presents Catherine with advantages and disadvantages. The
main advantage is that she is studying a topic to which she is both emotionally and
intellectually attached in context with which she is very familiar. In addition, it is a very
topical dissertation given the emerging role of women in the world’s fastest growing economy.
Another advantage of Catherine concentrating her study in China is that when she returns to
China she will be able to talk with authority about a particular issue concerned with Chinese
management. This will give her credibility in her search for a management job.
Without doubt the biggest drawback concerns data collection. Often students in Catherine’s
position have to return to their homeland to collect data which is obviously expensive and
time- consuming. Alternatively, they may call upon friends and colleagues to organise data
collection. This last option is far from ideal since there needs to be reliance on a third party to
collect data. Conceding control of events is one of the great problems with dependence on
organisations for data collection. Adding another layer of dependence by relying on a friend or
colleague is a further potential problem.
2. Had you been Catherine’s course tutor what comments would you have made in
response to her proposal?
Clearly, Catherine had done a lot of work on the proposal and if the tutor would have been
heartened to see the way in which she was using the literature to give her study a sound
theoretical basis. As her tutor your main concern may have been with ensuring a promise of
consistency between the research objectives, the literature covered, the methods to be
employed and any specific hypotheses which may drive the findings and conclusions.
Expecting this level of consistency as the tutor may well lead you to seek clarification from
Catherine about precisely from whom she is seeking to collect data. The second and fourth
research objectives: ‘to identify what difficulties and problems women face when they work in
management’ and ‘to understand the barriers which women may face when seeking top
managerial jobs’ suggest that data collection focusing principally on women in management
positions is required. The third objective: ‘to recommend actions that senior management
should take to overcome the problems women face when they work in management’ points to
the necessity to include senior managers in the data collection process.
3. Why do you think Catherine was so disappointed to receive no feedback from her
tutor?
The provision of feedback provides valuable guidance on progress to date and a source of
ideas which come from someone who is not as close to the project as the student. Just the
process of asking questions will generate ‘well, I had not thought of the problem in that way’
type of responses from researchers. In Catherine’s case the role of tutor is vital since she may
need even more motivational support that a home – based student. Studying in a foreign
country must be very difficult when the work is set by the tutor, but when the work is student
led the need for support is even greater.
4. What difficulties, both of a theoretical and practical nature, would you alert
Catherine to were you her course tutor?
The practical difficulties involved with data collection have already been alluded to in the
answer to Question 1. The theoretical difficulties in the particular piece of work may well stem
from the objectives set. The objectives (or at least the first three of them) are such that they call
for ‘lists’ (of reasons, difficulties and actions). The problem here is that it could lead to an
overly descriptive set of findings and conclusions. This is not necessarily a problem with the
findings but discovering such phenomena as reasons, difficulties, actions promises fertile
territory for developing models (e.g. of social, psychological and economic reasons for the
difficulties and problems women face when they work in management) which could be the
feature of an insightful and very exciting set of conclusions.
5. What specific comments would you make to Catherine about the main source books
she used in preparing her proposal?
The phrase in the case study which may just set a few alarm bells ringing is ‘although these
(the websites and books consulted in the preparation of the research proposal) were western
books she found the ideas pertinent to the changing social context in China.’ It would be
tempting to assume that the cultural and historical context of working women in China and
North America and Europe did not merit a very critical examination. Making these comments
to Catherine may simply reinforce the views she already has, but that would do no harm.
Case 2d: Media climate change reporting and environmental
disclosure patterns in the low cost airline industry in the 21 st
century4
1. Why is it important that your research can be related to a relevant theory base, and
when during the project does the theoretical framework need to be identified?
In general terms, a theory is used to provide an explanation for your findings in the research
project. Without an appropriate theory then the research findings may remain at a descriptive
level, without offering any real explanations that lie behind the research findings. Secondly, an
appropriate theory should be able to predict future observations. In the case of Emma’s project,
legitimacy theory would predict that there would be an increase in disclosure following
adverse media coverage. By analysing your research findings using an appropriate theory you
are adding valuable analysis to your research. This is particularly important in the analysis
section of your project, which now goes beyond just a tabulation and description of research
findings. You are also showing that you understand your research findings and seek to provide
an appropriate explanation for them. This is the unique aspect of your research as you are
using an established theory to explain your own research findings. Within the literature review
you are now able to critique both the subject based literature and also the theory that you will
use to explain your findings. For Emma, she can now include the academic literatures relating
to environmental reporting and also legitimacy theory.
The question of when the theoretical base is identified relates to your overall research
approach. With deductive (positivist) research the relevant theory is identified at the start of
the research process. From this hypotheses are developed and the theory tested using the
research findings.
4
Answers provided by Richard Slack
With an inductive approach (interpretivism or action research) the data is collected in the first
instance and then an appropriate theory is used to explain the data findings. It is very unlikely
in your research project that you will be creating new theories; rather you will be using
existing theories to explain your collected data and findings.
In order to provide a framework for new researchers it is common to try and establish a theory
base in the early phase of research. This enables you to get started with your research knowing
the importance of identifying and using an appropriate theoretical framework that adds value
to your subsequent research findings and analysis.
2. Do you think that Emma is right to restrict her project to only low cost airlines,
rather than the whole industry or a comparison with another sector? Give reasons
for your answer.
The selection of the dataset to be used in the research needs to be consistent with, and to be
sufficient for, the research question and research objectives. Deciding on the dataset should be
done early in the research design alongside the overall research approach to be adopted. The
data could relate to a single organisation if an in depth case study approach was to be
undertaken. At the other end of the scale the dataset could be a very large questionnaire
distribution. The choice of the data set will inform the generalisability of your research
findings.
For Emma’s research it is appropriate to focus on the low cost airlines only as she is seeking to
test legitimacy theory to that specific part of the airline sector. Emma would not be able to then
generalise her results to the sector as a whole nor to any other sectors, as she has not included
those within her research. This is consistent with her research question. She could, if she
undertook further research, extend the research to include all of the airline industry, or
compare the results to media coverage and companies in other sectors to identify if there were
differences within the airline sector itself and in comparison with other sectors.
For some research questions the dataset needs to contain two elements where comparisons are
being made, for instance, big companies against small companies. In such cases it is important
that the two datasets are then controlled by a size factor, so that all of the companies in each
dataset are of a certain defined size by turnover or assets for large and small companies
respectively. This control factor should also be applied to research involving companies in
different sectors. To ensure that the companies in each sector dataset are comparable they
should have common size characteristics, so that a valid sector comparison can be made.
3. Do you think Emma was correct in her decision not to carry out interviews? Give
reasons for your answer. If she was to change her mind, are there any ethical issues
that would need to be addressed?
It is common in research projects for all of the data used to be secondary data. This is the case
with Emma’s current research. The uniqueness of Emma’s project comes from her use of
theory to then analyse and explain her data. Emma does not need to carry out primary data
collection to answer her research question, and it is sufficient to base her research on
secondary data which is easily obtainable and publicly available, from media sources and
company annual reports. The advantage of this is that the data can be collected in a timescale
set by the researcher and is not dependent on the agreement of a particular organisation or
person.
During the research design stage you should think very carefully about the data that you intend
to collect and use. Be careful not to be over ambitious in your data collection ideas, but to
think what data is needed to answer your specific research question. Also you should at that
stage
refer to the appropriate institutional regulations for your research project that may outline
whether or not primary data can or needs to be collected.
If Emma did need to carry out interviews to answer her research question then there are a
number of ethical issues that she would need to address. Even though Emma is familiar with
the organisation and knows some of the likely interviewees, there are issues that need to be
addressed which are designed to protect both the interviewee and the researcher. These ensure
that there is clarity over participation and how any primary data will be stored and used. Emma
should agree with her supervisor the primary research to be carried out, the organisation
involved and the number of interviews to be performed. Appropriate organisational consent
should then be obtained to ensure that the organisation is happy that Emma is carrying out
primary data interviews with employees. Secondly at an individual level, appropriate informed
consent would be obtained so that each interviewee was happy to take part and were fully
aware of the research being carried out and the subsequent use of the interview material.
Emma would also need to clarify the level of anonymity required at both an organisational and
individual level.
Case 2e: Self-service technology: Does co-production harm
value co-creation?5
1a. Why is it important that George’s research draws upon existing theory?
A strong link to a theoretical base positions your work within the body of knowledge that you
will contribute to. It is a way of demonstrating that you are familiar with the state of
knowledge in a given field of study and ensuring that you are not ‘reinventing the wheel’.
George’s story demonstrates how important it is to become familiar with how the words and
phrases (terminology) are being used and interpreted within a particular academic field of
study. It was through understanding that there is a difference between co-production and cocreation that George determined a researchable question and focus for his study.
Theory provides a mechanism, or framework, for structuring your work in terms of:

Literature review: what you should include or leave out and how to structure the
chapter.

Research design: dominant research methods used in the field.

Developing the mechanism for data gathering (survey/discussion guide): knowing
what areas to include.

Data analysis: explaining your results/findings and recognising new findings/results
that contribute to the body of knowledge.

Structuring the discussion of your findings, conclusions and summarising your project.
1b. At what point in the process should he identify a relevant model, theory or framework
to guide his work?
The question of when the theoretical base should be identified when undertaking a research
project generally links to the overall approach. Deductive, research approaches identify
relevant
5
Answers provided by Toni Hilton
theory at the start of the research process in order to develop hypotheses that guide the
research objectives design and data analysis. Such approaches seek to measure the extent to
which existing theory explains the phenomena, or context being studied. Inductive approaches
collect data first and then develop theory to explain the findings that emerge. However, it is
very unlikely that students will be expected to create entirely new theories through their
research projects. They are more likely to use existing theories to inform their data collection
and analysis and to explain their results or findings. It is therefore important that they locate
your research project within an existing theoretical base as early as possible. This will enable
them to commence your study with the confidence that they will be contributing to the
knowledge base of their chosen field of study and will have a mechanism for explaining their
findings or results with academic authority.
Gaining familiarity with the existing written body of knowledge into which they will position
their study will also help students to adopt an appropriate academic writing style for their
project report.
2. George has identified the need for qualitative, rather than quantitative methods in
order to understand the phenomena that constitutes co-production, co-creation and
value. What ways of collecting data might he consider using and why?
George has identified the need for qualitative research methods rather than quantitative
methods because he plans to explore an area where there is currently little understanding of the
phenomena he is researching. That is not the same as there being no theoretical basis for his
study. George has already located the emerging area of service-dominant logic as an
appropriate field of study into which his project will contribute. However there does not yet
exist a model, or framework, that identifies what motivations, behaviours, attitudes or
outcomes can be measured to determine the extent to which customers experience value cocreation. There is currently no explanation of the relationship between the co-production and
co-creation that enables practitioners or academics to predict how increasing co-production
might affect value co-creation. George needs to find out how customers view their coproduction role when using self-service technology and how that might influence their
evaluation of the value they receive. George needs to talk with customers. Given the state of
knowledge of co-production, co- creation and the SST context, it would seem imperative that
George gains a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena as experienced by as wide a
range of customers to determine as many dimensions of the phenomena as possible.
Ethnographic approaches are not going to be appropriate given the time involved and his need
for a comprehensive understanding, although thinking about his own experience might help
George design a discussion guide.
Interview appears to be the most appropriate data gathering technique. George is unlikely to
use structured interviews, for the same reasons that he has rejected using a questionnaire and
because the whole purpose of data gathering in exploratory studies is to obtain a range of ‘nonstandard’ responses. Semi structured or in-depth interviews appear to be the most appropriate
method for gaining a robust understanding of how customers perceive their co-production
roles, the value they receive and how they reach those evaluations. This will allow George to
probe beyond initial responses and pursue specific aspects of customer experiences with
different respondents depending upon their SST experiences and their reactions to them. The
number of interviews will be limited by the time that George has available and the ease of
access to respondents although he should continue interviewing until data saturation is
reached. While focus groups could be used to reach more respondents they are frequently more
time consuming to set up and can be less successful than one-to-one interviews when seeking
an in-depth
understanding of new phenomena. They are more likely to uncover recurring themes than to
identify the full spectrum of responses as a result of the group dynamics that tend to emerge.
3. George plans to collect his data from his fellow university students.
a. Is this a good idea?
George is undertaking an exploratory project using qualitative research where it is unnecessary
to select a probability sample. He needs to complete the project within tight time deadlines so
access to respondents is an issue for him, particularly as he will be using semi structured or indepth interviews to gather his data. On the plus side, George is likely to have good access to
fellow students and the cost of gaining their participation is likely to be low in terms of time,
travel and participation incentives. Given that the student population is likely to be relatively
homogenous, George will probably be able to use a self-selection sample.
b. What issues should George consider before commencing and why?
On the down side a given student body has the potential to be more homogenous than other
population samples he might have considered and very unlikely to be representative of all
people. George must recognise this issue and consider whether it might hinder his findings. It
will certainly affect any generalisability claims for the study but then, as an exploratory and
qualitative study, that is unlikely to be a major concern for George. It may also affect George’s
ability to gain access to the full picture: the full range of responses that are likely to exist
across the general population. George will need to address his choice of sample when
considering the limitations of his study. He should acknowledge that people with
characteristics that differ from the students he interviews may differ in their responses and that
his student participants may not be representative of the general population in terms of SST
use or experiences and therefore he may not gain a full understanding of co-production or
value co-creation. However, given the state of knowledge at this time, his findings should still
be of interest. George might consider ways in which he might ensure heterogeneity within his
student sample, for example:

Gender

Age – if he has access to mature students

Home/non-term time location within UK or internationally

Use of SSTs (maybe have a brief qualifying survey to identify)

Courses studied.
George should also consider what, if any, ethical issues are likely to arise when researching
among a student population of which he is a member. There will no doubt be a need to
guarantee confidentiality and anonymity to all participants and this will need to be addressed
when reporting findings. Allocating an identifying number or code to each participant is
common and good research practice. George should be aware that even if he does not consider
SSTs to be a sensitive area, some of his participants might, particularly if they have had an
uncomfortable experience (for instance, holding up a long queue at a self-scanning grocery
check-out) and have internalised guilt and personal blame rather than blaming the SST or the
store/staff. George should certainly be clear about the subject matter of the interviews and
provide a well considered estimate of the time involvement for participants prior to gaining
their agreement to participate. It is good practice to provide potential participants with a
‘participant information sheet’ and to keep a record of signed agreement to participate, often
referred to as a ‘consent form’. When gathering personal data George should be aware of
potential sensitivities around age and ethnicity, among other categories of personal
characteristics that he might
consider for reporting purposes. There may be specific ethical procedures at the University
level that George will need to abide by and it is therefore important that he remembers to raise
this matter with his project tutor.
Case 3a: The development of discount warehouse clubs
1. How might Jane have overcome the problems of only finding relevant articles in
trade journals and newspapers?
The key issue here is the absence of academic literature in Jane’s first draft of her literature
review. To overcome the lack of articles she could have:

searched a larger number of databases;

consulted with people about likely relevant literature and sources for relevant literature;

broadened the way in which she defined the parameters for her keywords.
As part of this answer it is useful to ask the students to define the parameters they think Jane
might have considered using both narrow and broader terms as in the worked example
(Section 3.4).
2. Why did Jane type all the items she had in her files into her word processor rather
than just those she had referred to directly in the text?
There are a number of reasons why this might be the case. These include:

Jane did not know which items she was going to use until she began to write and revise
her literature review

By recording all the items she ensured that she had all the necessary information and
so would (hopefully) not have to recreate any searches

Jane was required to provide a bibliography rather than a list of references.
3. What lessons can you learn from Jane’s experience?
Numerous lessons may be learnt from Jane’s experience. These include:

Start writing the review early; it always takes longer than you think

Talk to the tutor regularly; send work in advance to allow plenty of time for the tutor
to read it and listen to what the tutor has to say

Do not rely on trade magazines and newspapers

Include only a few pertinent quotations and then only if they add significantly to the
argument

Structure the review clearly and remember it is a critical review

Think in both narrow and broad terms when planning the literature search

Expect to revise and redraft the literature review

Ensure that all information required for the bibliography/references are noted down at
the time of obtaining the item

Make a note of where different items have been found (e.g. which database)

Once the review is written, continue to browse both current periodicals and journal
contents pages and update the review as necessary.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Case 3b: The problems of valuing intellectual capital6
1. How do you think Geoff’s view of the purpose of undertaking a literature review
changed?
Geoff began his review thinking that a literature review could be prepared by reading
everything that had been written on the topic and summarising it. He discovered that he needed
to develop critical skills, which would allow him to identify the most relevant sources and to
evaluate the material in relation to his research questions. A literature review can perform the
following functions:

It locates the topic in its context, helping to clarify the focus of the research

It helps the reader to understand previous work in the area and to identify the
contribution made by the research

It demonstrates the researcher’s competence in seeking out appropriate sources and in
analysing and synthesising material to support their arguments.
2. What specific skills did Geoff develop in the course of preparing the review?
Geoff learned to use a variety of electronic resources to access material, to read more quickly
by skimming, to read more critically by evaluating the material in the context of the specific
issues he had chosen to explore, to construct a simple database to record references.
3. How could Geoff have made better use of Internet search engines in researching his
topic?
General search engines such as Google and Alta Vista can be useful. For example, Geoff’s
search could have identified companies, which had reported the value of their intellectual
capital, and consultants who had developed valuation methodologies. However, searches can
also produce a great deal of material that is not relevant. Geoff could have used more focused
keywords or phrases to search, refining his searches by adding company, industry sector or
author names. Care also needs to be taken with regard to the authority and accuracy of Internet
sources. Where used, they also need to be referenced appropriately, along with the date they
were accessed.
Case 3c: National cultures and management styles7
1. How do you think Petro’s understanding of the literature review changed?
There are a number of issues concerning the development of a literature review including:
6
7

It is not adequate merely to describe a number of studies that have been conducted on
national cultures. It is important to find critical reviews of particular studies.

In order to make an assessment of a piece of research it is useful to have a framework
in which to do this. Thus, a particular theory or model adopted will help to structure
and evaluate writings on national cultures.
Answers provided by Laura Spira, Oxford Brookes University
Answers provided by Michael Savvas
15
© Pearson Education Limited 2016

He realised it was important that the relevance of the various studies discussed to his
present research is made clear.

It may not be sufficiently critical of other work and may fail to explain whether the
results are surprising, impressive, dismal, etc.

He realised a Literature review could be just a long list of other work with little or no
effort to synthesise, compare or contrast.

The need to give more thought to the conclusions. They may end up as descriptive
accounts on what has been read without demonstrating how the other work influences
and shapes his study.
2. What particular skills did Petro develop in the preparation of the review?
Your answer is likely to include a number of points:

Define the overall parameters of the research, considering language and style of
writing, time of publication and type of literature used.

To generate key concepts/ideas and the use of various techniques such as
brainstorming and mind-mapping.

To discuss the ideas as widely as possible with fellow students, tutor and possible at a
conference if appropriate.

Presenting the new ideas in front of an audience is a skill that needs to be acquired if
they are to be assessed by others.
3. Do you think Petro would have benefited from the use of mind-maps in researching
his topic? Give reasons for your answer.
The use of mind-maps provides a useful way of systematising your ideas on a single page or
pages in which they can be looked at and assessed. Varying amount of detail can be added and
rearranged as one reflects on the range of ideas on the page. The ideas can be arranged and
structured and the necessary links made between the various points made on the page.
The mind-map may also help to link up ideas not previously noticed from the various notes.
These links may provide an insight into better understanding the issues and may help see the
relevance of a particular study to the previous studies on national cultures.
4. What problems do you think he would have anticipated in conducting research into
national cultures which his literature review may not have highlighted?
There are several problems when conducting research into management across cultures. The
problems concern methodological issues which have some bearing on the literature review.
The problem of ethnocentrism in understanding cross-cultural management. This is referred to
as the problems of parochialism by Jackson (1995). This is when a particular culture is viewed
from a dominant culture. The latter providing what is perceived as the universal way of
looking at an issue.
When conducting research across cultures it is advisable to use the language of the culture you
are studying. This is particularly the case if a questionnaire is used. This is not only because
the
participants do not speak or write in English. Even if they do, the questionnaire may have
metaphorical phrases which are not meaningful to someone not used to everyday English
language.
The third problem is the dangers of interpreting verbal and non-verbal behaviour from our own
perspective which may lead to misunderstandings and a superficial understanding of that
culture. It may also lead to stereotyping the particular national culture one is studying.
Case 3d: Complexity theory and emergent change8
1. Why is it important for your research investigation that you are critical when
reviewing the literature?
Your work will be of better quality if you build on others’ work. Researching is a complex
activity to learn and it is easy to make mistakes which render your claims about your findings
unconvincing. On your own, you are unlikely to see and solve all the problems that others have
confronted and solved. Building on others’ work means being well-informed about the
relevant claims to knowledge made by others in the light of their studies. Suppose you didn’t
review the literature before you carried out your own research, and relied instead just on your
own hunches. You would be wasting a great deal of knowledge that could have guided your
investigation. You would also risk doing badly what others had already done well.
Building on others’ work also means that you have evaluated their claims to knowledge. You
make your own judgements about how convincing you find these claims after checking how
adequately they are backed by appropriate evidence. You then use your judgements to show
how your investigation is informed by what is most reliably known about the topic. You build
on what you find most convincing, and place less emphasis on what you find less convincing.
So, a critical evaluation of the literature is closely linked to doing a good study yourself. The
literature can show you what is known, what is not known, and how to find out some small
aspect of what is not known. But you have to look hard for this aspect, and think about it,
because claims you read will often contradict other claims, and they will not always be
convincing.
Our book on critical reading is a good source of additional guidance on developing your ability
to engage critically with the literature and to write a compelling review of what you’ve found
out. The reference is:
Wallace, M. and Wray, A. (2006) Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates, London:
Sage.
2. What might Sarah’s project tutor mean by suggesting that a critical literature review
should be ‘balanced’?
Sarah discovered rather painfully that being critical in academic study isn’t about being
negative. There is more to it than just finding fault with claims and rejecting them. The word
‘critical’ can be misleading, because in common usage it tends to entail negativity. However,
one can be critical in a positive and constructive sense too, by checking the backing for claims
8
Answers provided by Mike Wallace and Alison Wray
but being open-minded enough to accept them if the backing is sufficient to make them
convincing.
When the project tutor asked Sarah to develop a more balanced approach, it was an invitation
to be discerning – to weigh up the evidence supporting different claims and make judgements
about which to accept and why. The project tutor was guiding Sarah to apply her balanced
discernment in the pursuit of a constructive, not destructive, purpose. Sarah’s constructive
purpose was to emerge from her review of the literature with a clear idea of how to study
change in university student clubs. Her over-critical account left her with nothing to go on at
all, for none of the claims that had fitted her initial hunch seemed well enough supported to
work with. She had lost sight of her constructive purpose. She needed to consider the ways in
which complexity theory might still inform her investigation, even though some of the claims
about it were not supported by extensive evidence.
Sarah’s new balanced approach needs to weigh up the evidence on all sides, and use it to
develop a solution to the specific challenges of how she should conduct her own study. The
secret of success lies in being discerning. When a claim is not adequately backed up, she needs
to ask why she is not satisfied with that backing. How much support is it reasonable to expect
authors to provide for particular claims? For example, is it fair to discard a claim made in one
research context because it does not provide evidence of applicability to other contexts?
Sarah’s balanced approach to critical literature reviewing needs to consider questions like
these:

How much evidence is it reasonable to expect, before authors can appropriately make
the claim that encouraging self-organisation will be effective for all organisations?

Have they supplied the evidence necessary to reach that threshold?

If not, is the evidence at least adequate to support a less generalised claim? For
instance, would the author’s claim be acceptable if it was only generalised to some
kinds of organisation?
3. What does Sarah need to do to develop a literature review which is sufficiently
critical, yet also sufficiently balanced?
At the heart of the critical literature review is the simple question is there adequate evidence
for this claim? and most of that judgement is based on what one can see in the text, so you
don’t need to be an expert to do it. The judgement does also depend on figuring out what
counts as adequate evidence, though, and that does take some experience to learn. This is why
it’s important to read other peoples’ critical evaluations of the literature. Such publications
provide important pointers about what weight to give different types of evidence.
We can identify three key things that Sarah needs to do, to develop balance in her critical
literature review.
a. Take ownership of the literature review
This is Sarah’s review, and its constructive purpose is to help her work out what to do in her
investigation. So she needs to articulate one or more clear review questions that assist her in
that pursuit. Her original review question was a recipe for being under-critical: ‘How does
complexity theory suggest that organisational change should be managed?’ Her second one
made it difficult for her to avoid being over-critical: ‘What are the weaknesses of using
complexity theory to prescribe how change should be managed?’ She needs to articulate the
question in a way that will produce a balance of good ideas and a measure of caution for her
own study, for instance: ‘What are the strengths and limitations of using complexity theory to
prescribe the management of organisational change?’
b. Think around the issues
Before dismissing a claim, think about what the author might say in defence! In our case study,
Sarah is concerned about whether a particularly interesting claim made by an author really
applies to university societies. The author implies that it is valid for all types of organisation,
but Sarah sees no evidence that the author has ever studied university societies. These
organisations have particular features: no one is paid to take responsibility, there is a very fast
turnover of membership, and there are long gaps in activity during the vacations.
Sarah knows that her first impulse, to discard the author’s claim entirely, was too radical. After
all, the author is an experienced and intelligent researcher, and surely would have a view on
this matter. So she tries to imagine what the author would say, if asked ‘do you think your
general claim extends to university societies, given that they have these characteristics?’ She
soon assembles a set of possible replies, including, ‘yes, I think all groups are the same,
irrespective of those characteristics, and here’s why’; ‘no, you’re right, and that’s why I was
careful to define “organisation” in a particular, narrow way that excludes societies with those
characteristics’; and ‘yes, you’re right – my claim is too general and I should have been more
careful’.
Sarah is now in a position to go back to the author’s work and look for clues as to which of
these answers is most likely. If it is one of the first two, her more careful reading has rescued
the validity of the author’s claims. If it is the third, she can politely suggest that the author has
over generalised, by having no evidence to support the extension of the claim to societies like
the ones she is studying, and she can conclude that the author’s claims, while somewhat valid,
must be treated with caution in the present context. In the process, she has identified a possible
focus for her own study: she could investigate whether or not university societies are different
from other organisations with regard to that author’s claim.
c. Be methodical
It is important to create a structure for the review and to compare the agreements and
disagreements between claims, as well as the evidence base for each claim individually. Sarah,
working on her review question, ‘What are the strengths and limitations of using complexity
theory to prescribe the management of organisational change?’ therefore would be welladvised to break it down into some sub-sections, each focused on a narrower question. The
first division might be into ‘What are the strengths…?’ and ‘What are the limitations…?’ and
then, within each of these sub-sections there might be further divisions reflecting aspects of
complexity theory, or aspects of the management of organisational change. Rather than
discussing everything relating to author A, followed by everything related to author B, is it
likely that she will refer to authors more than once, in different subsections, as a particular
claim or point becomes relevant.
A methodical approach to the organisation of the review is complemented by a methodical
approach to the reading and note-taking involved in undertaking the review. If you already
know what your review questions and sub-questions are, you can organise your notes
accordingly, under the right headings.
Finally, being organised in this way gives a huge bonus: it’s much easier to decide when you
have read enough. You can tell, because you have gained a clear and balanced answer to the
sub-question for each section. A structured approach means that you will soon see, as you
write up your review, where you have inadequate evidence for your own claims about the
literature, so you know exactly what else to target in your reading.
Our recommendations for writing a balanced review are intrinsically tied up with developing a
balanced approach to research, in which one has a clear purpose, a focused method, and just
the right amount of confidence in what one is doing. Gaining that confidence is achieved
naturally, because a balanced review will lead to a balanced evaluation of the existing
evidence, and thereby an approach to one’s own study that can be justified explicitly by
pointing to the existing literature.
In addition to the tools for engaging critically with literature and structuring a review in the
book by Wallace and Wray, the following chapter from another book offers a complementary
resource for tutors and students. It is a critical review of the application of complexity theory
to public service change, and it was structured according to the advice from Wallace and
Wray. The reference is:
Reference
Wallace, M. and Fertig, M. (2007) Applying complexity theory to public service change:
creating chaos out of order? in M. Wallace, M. Fertig, and E. Schneller, (eds) Managing
Change in the Public Services, pp. 36–56, Oxford: Blackwell,.
Case 3e: Individual workplace performance – systematically
reviewed9
1. a. Why is it important to apply inclusion and exclusion criteria when deciding which
publications to include in a Systematic Review?
Applying inclusion/exclusion criteria allows the reviewer to approach each publication in an
objective and fair way. This means that all publications have the same chance to be selected
for answering the review question(s), regardless of whether or not their author(s) are big names
in the field, as long as the publications are relevant and good enough. As such, potential effects
of reviewer bias are minimised as far as possible. What is more, because the inclusion and
exclusion criteria are made plain by the reviewer, other researchers should be able to look at all
the references and come to similar conclusions as to which publications are useful and which
are not. Using previously determined inclusion and exclusion criteria means also that only
publications that have been judged to be of sufficient quality will be used to answer the review
question. This in turn leads to a number of publications being sorted out, making the
subsequent analysis process more manageable for the reviewer. In Emily’s case, for example,
she reduced the number of publications down firstly from 2,598 to 126 and then further to 71.
b. What other quality criteria might you use?
Other criteria Emily could have used are concerned with:
9
Answers provided by Céline Rojon

Underlying theory: Do the authors explain previous findings and existing theory and
how this links in with their own research?

Purpose and aims of the study: Have the authors made their research question(s) and
objective(s) clear?

The quality of the journal a paper was published in: Is the journal peer-reviewed?
What is its impact factor? What is its quality as determined by the Association of
Business Schools’ Academic Journal Quality Guide?

Relevance of the findings: Does the paper claim to make a contribution to the field?
Does the paper create, extend or advance knowledge in the field in a meaningful way?
Does it provide guidance for future research? Is the paper relevant for the practice, i.e.
are the results useful and applicable for a practitioner?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages in using an expert panel of stakeholders
to assist in determining a review question?
Advantages: Experts, such as academics with a research interest in the field, can be a useful
source of information to help determine the review question(s), because they know the area
that is to be reviewed very well and should therefore be able to judge where there is potential
for a literature review to add value. Experts can include not only academics/researchers, but
also practitioners working in the field (Emily could, for example, additionally have asked
Human Resource Managers in the finance industry), policy makers, librarians and other
individuals that may be considered experts. While consulting a range of individuals can make
it challenging to reconcile the different perspectives, it also means that any resulting review
question(s) are likely to reflect a broader perspective.
Disadvantages: Some people might criticise interviewing experts to determine review
questions as it might lead to a narrow focus of the review, or result in review questions that
differ from what the researcher had thought the review would focus on. It is argued that as a
consequence of this, a Systematic Review might produce findings that are not useful to the
wider community. This is a potential danger, but can be avoided by using open and broad
interview questions and choosing a range of different stakeholders.
3. Emily has decided to collect her primary data by interviewing Human Resource
Managers in the finance sector. How can she use the findings of her Systematic
Review to inform her subsequent data collection?
Emily’s findings will inform her subsequent interview questions. She could, for example,
decide to compare the definition/understanding of individual workplace performance that
prevails in the literature with that of HR managers working in the finance sector to see where
differences and similarities may lie. She might discover in her interviews that there is a
discrepancy between what the theory says (i.e. the literature) and what people think in practice
– to find out the reasons why could be interesting and therefore inform future research.
Emily’s Systematic Review might also come to the conclusion that there is no clear
definition/understanding of individual workplace performance in the finance industry – this
would mean that gathering views from HR managers in the industry would be even more
important to inform theory. On the other hand, should Emily find that individual workplace
performance is precisely defined and understood by the scientific community, this could be a
hint for her to take her interviews a step further: She could, for example, ask HR managers not
only about their thoughts and ideas on individual workplace performance in the finance
industry, but also what practical use they might make of the theoretical understanding, how they
might implement it.
Case 4a: Marketing music products alongside emerging digital
music channels10
1. Why is it important to consider epistemology and ontology when undertaking
research?
Every individual has a guiding perspective or vantage point through which every day decisions
are made on what is valid or invalid, rational or irrational or on what is true or false. Guiding
perspectives are comprised of the pre-understandings that we bring to our actions as informed
by our personal ontologies and epistemologies. Ontology relates to our understanding of the
nature of reality and to conceptions of what constitutes the real. Epistemology relates to our
understanding of how we know what we know. Although, guiding perspectives play an
important role in enabling us to define and make sense of what is real and valid in our own
world, for many individuals, these often remain unexpressed and unexamined. Although, daily
life does not require an explicit understanding of our ontological and epistemological
positions, it is good practice for researchers to make these assumptions explicit and to have
examined the philosophical origins and implications of their own understandings (Alvesson
and Sköldberg, 2000;Johnson and Duberley, 2000) in context of alternative understandings.
Ontologies and epistemologies ultimately guide the relationship between the researcher and
what is being researched and define how the researcher engages with individuals and
organisations, in how research questions are developed and framed, in the choice of methods
and methodologies used to explore those questions and, finally, in how the research data and
outputs are interpreted and reported.
2. What will Esmée need to do in order to respond or challenge her tutor’s assertion
that she adopt a quantitative methodology?
Esmée will need to counter that approaching this research as an interpretivist and using
unstructured interviews is more relevant as it will enable her to explore the multiple subjective
meanings and realities that motivate individuals’ actions. In particular, she should emphasise
that she is exploring and that she is specifically interested taking a more in-depth approach
focused on a small sample using in-depth techniques. She will need to draw on her own sense
of ontology and epistemology in order to convince her tutor that a qualitative approach is more
suitable to her research project. Her tutor’s direction that she should use questionnaires
focused on measuring a large sample reflects his own positivist ontology; that the nature of
reality is external, objective and can be known. He assumes that the researcher can take an
objective stance and remain independent from the object of his research. In addition, his
suggestion that she utilise statistical methodology to uncover data for her research, assumes,
epistemologically, that phenomena can be reduced to simple causal elements in order to
uncover knowledge constituted as law like generalisations. In contrast, Esmée’s earlier
experiences of interacting within P2P file sharing communities as a way of trying to
understand the phenomena, led her to believe that her own research would naturally be
subjective, that her experiences and previous understandings would be an integral part of her
research and that she could not be separated out from it. It instilled in her a more interpretivist
sensibility through which she recognised that individuals in these communities represented
multiple subjective explanations of socially constructed realities.
10
Answers provided by Rick Colbourne
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
3. How does Esmée understand the role that her values play with regards to her
research project?
In contrast to her tutor’s view that research is value free, Esmée views her work as grounded in
her own values, experiences and industry knowledge. She is aware that she cannot separate out
her years of experience in the music industry from her role as someone researching it. She will
need to be explicit about how her values and assumptions influence her understandings and
guide her approach to the research project. She will need to do this by becoming more
consciously reflexive (Johnson and Duberley, 2003), through developing a high degree of selfunderstanding and through being explicit about the underlying assumptions driving her
ontology, epistemology and her research.
References
Alvesson, M. and Skoldberg, K. (2000) Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative
Research, London: Sage Publications.
Johnson, P. and Duberley, J. (2000) Understanding Management Research: An Introduction to
Epistemology, London: Sage Publications.
Johnson, P. and Duberley, J. (2003) Reflexivity in management research. Journal of
Management Studies, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 1279–303.
Lawrence, T.B. and Phillips, N. (2002) Understanding cultural industries, Journal of
Management Inquiry, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 430–41.
Premkumar, G.P. (2003) Alternate distribution strategies for digital music, Communications of
the ACM, Vol. 46, No. 9, pp. 89–95.
Case 4b: Consultancy
organisation11
research
for
a
not-for-profit
1. How does pragmatism differ from post-positivism and interpretivism, and are there
some shared beliefs?
Researchers who subscribe to these three paradigms share certain fundamental beliefs: that our
understanding of reality is constructed; that research is influenced by the values of the
investigators; and that research is influenced by the theories or hypotheses or conceptual
frameworks used by investigators (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998: 8).
Important differences exist, however, in the claims made about generalisations and causal
linkages:
11

Interpretivist researchers assert that it is impossible to make time-free and context-free
generalisations, and that the complexities of reality make it impossible to distinguish
causes from effects.

Post-positivists believe that there are some lawful and reasonably stable causal
linkages between variables which can be understood imperfectly, but with greater
accuracy over
Answers provided by Karen Handley
24
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
time as a result of further research. Similarly, there is a view that some generalisations
can be made.

The pragmatist view is subtly different: that whilst there may be a causal relationship
between certain variables, we will never be able to completely pin them down. This
belief leads pragmatist researchers to avoid what they see as an ultimately fruitless
search for ‘truth’ if that truth is a set of deterministic laws about causal linkages.
Instead, their interest is in identifying relationships between variables which – though
not 100% stable – are insightful and relevant for decision-making by individuals and
groups. Pragmatists therefore value the utility of research over claims for its
correspondence to an ultimate truth (Howe, 1988).
2. How can Thomas respond if Jennifer insists on a ‘pure’ qualitative method?
Thomas can argue that the needs of the client should drive the research design and choice of
methods. In this case, the most appropriate research design is a mixed model design, which
uses both qualitative and quantitative data, and qualitative and quantitative collection/analysis
techniques. By using multiple mixed methods in a careful and rigorous manner, the research
project is likely to produce findings and recommendations which are useful for the client.
3. If pragmatism argues that the research questions should drive the choice of research
methods, how can Thomas be sure of the quality of the research?
The quality of research is not determined by the underpinning research philosophy. For
example, there is no guarantee that research completed under the label of interpretivism is any
‘better’ than research which follows the principles of post-positivism or pragmatism.
Quality in research terms is a product of many aspects of the research process. A good
researcher should: identify a research design which is appropriate for the research question;
use suitable sampling techniques; be as explicit as possible about his or her underlying
assumptions; and be transparent about the process of research including the ways in which data
is collected and analysed.
In the case of Thomas’s project – where the research question indicated the need for a mixed
model design – the research process should be carried out with skill and integrity, based on
knowledgeable experience of each research technique.
Case 4c: Organisational learning in an English regional theatre12
1. Why is it important for Zoe to be aware of her values and beliefs as an individual
researcher?
Zoe has become increasingly aware of the role that her values and beliefs (and in this case
those of her research participants) about how people make sense of their worlds play in the
research process. We all hold different viewpoints and use our personal filters to make sense of
the world; these paradigms can have a strong influence on our actions. Zoe recognised that she
was adopting a different approach to her study group peers, reinforcing the view that
epistemology, what constitutes acceptable knowledge, is ‘always and inevitably personal’.
(Bateson, 2002: 82)
12
Answers provided by Dawn Langley and Paul Tosey
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In considering questions of culture, experiences and meaning Zoe felt it was unlikely that lawlike generalisations or the search for facts would take account of the complexity of the story
telling social actors she was encountering within the theatre. Being aware of the role our
values and beliefs play allows researchers to make sense of how research questions evolve and
the choices that are subsequently made about research process including methods, analysis and
reporting.
2. Why should Zoe have been concerned about her previous relationship with the
Theatre she was researching?
In considering her previous relationship with her research participants Zoe was reflecting on
her research philosophy. She was wrestling with issues of subjectivity and objectivity and was
concerned that as she had previously known the organisation concerned it might undermine
her ability to undertake valid research.
This accords with what has been referred to as the ‘outsider’ and ‘insider’ myths , ‘in essence,
outsider myths assert that only outsiders can conduct valid research on a given group; only
outsiders it is held, possess the needed objectivity and emotional distance’. (Styles, 1979: 148)
This reflects a positivist ontology and the view that social entities exist in an external reality to
their social actors and can be studied as distinct objects. Zoe is recognising a socially
constructed position which suggests she is part of the process of social interaction and that
reality is constructed between social actors. In adopting an interpretivist philosophical position
the rigour of her research might in part be evaluated against her reflexivity – that is whether
she has acknowledged the perspective she is taking and that she is aware of that perspective ,
and of its bias, and that this is then articulated in the reporting of her findings.
3. How might Zoe’s interpretivist philosophy and approach impact on how she frames
her research question?
In taking the perspective that the social world is constructed, and subject to change as a result
of the interaction of social actors, it is unlikely that Zoe would develop a specific hypothesis
she would then set out to test. Indeed her discussions with the Chief Executive of the theatre
suggest that she is far more likely to carry out some form of exploratory research than
investigating causal linkages. As a result her approach is more liable to be inductive than
deductive. In taking up an inductive approach Zoe can focus on the specific context of the
TheatreCo and work with a relatively small sample of participants. While she may use
sensitising concepts (Blumer, 1954) to support early data collection, that is she would not go
into the field completely unprepared, the inductive process allows a flexible approach and as
such changes in emphasis can occur as the project develops.
Case 5a: The effectiveness of computer-based training at
Falcon Insurance Company
1. Which type(s) of research strategy are employed in this study?
Clearly, this is an experimental strategy. As illustrated in Figure 5.4 (page 180) it uses a
control group, although in the case of Falcon Insurance there are three experimental
groups.
2. What are the benefits of adding a longitudinal dimension to this research?
The study is about the effectiveness of CBT. This is not defined in the case, but we can
assume that the essence of this would be how much the trainees had learned and the extent
to which they put this learning into effect during the performance of their jobs. There is a
traditional problem with assessment of learning after the course. This is that the ‘happy
effect’ (the degree to which the trainees enjoyed the learning experience) dominates the
measurement rather than what has been learnt. Measurement immediately after the
learning experience and after six months gives a more valid assessment of learning. In
addition, it gives the trainees the opportunity to reflect on their experience.
3. What are the benefits of using multiple methods of data collection?
Questionnaire, interview and descriptive observation are used in this example. As Section
5.3 indicates, they are all good at different things. The questionnaire is an excellent way of
collecting standardised data. Standardisation is important in this case because of the
necessity to collect uniform data on what was learned and on learning styles. Standard
questionnaire content also ensures a reliable and valid comparison to be made after six
months. The interviews would have been good at uncovering some of the ‘meanings’
behind the standardised questionnaire responses. The use of descriptive observation is a
particularly imaginative feature of this research strategy. Objective data are recorded on
the social context of the study. This is a particularly reliable way of ensuring that any
social behavioural processes that may dominate one type of training are recorded. Such
processes may have an important effect in explaining any difference in learning
effectiveness.
4a. What threats to reliability are inherent in the research design?
All four of the threats to reliability (subject error, subject bias, observer error and observer
bias) may have been evident.
4b. How may these be overcome?
Subject error should be overcome by administering the questionnaires at a time and place
where the problem of inaccurate responses is lessened. Subject bias may be lessened by a
clear briefing to the trainees of the purpose of the research and the importance of entirely
truthful responses.
Observer error will be less likely to occur if an observation sheet containing unambiguous
observation categories is used. Training of the observers in the use of the sheet will also
lessen observer effect. Observer bias will be overcome if care is exercised in the selection
and training of observers.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
5a. What threats to validity are inherent in the research design?
The biggest threat to validity in this study may be that of mortality.
5b. How may these be overcome?
The threat of mortality is a very difficult one to overcome. At Falcon Insurance, it was not
a major problem because at the time of the study there was a high level of employment
security due to a difficult external labour market which offered few employment
alternatives. However, this is a difficult problem in today’s organisations, particularly with
more junior employees. There is no simple answer to this question. As with many issues in
research, it is a matter of judgement.
Case 5b: Embedded quality at Zarlink semiconductor
1. Which type(s) of research strategy is Mick employing?
Mick is employing a case study strategy in this project. It clearly falls within Robson’s
definition in that it is a ‘strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation
of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of
evidence’ (Robson, 2002:178). As such it should be effective at answering the ‘what’
questions (what do managers feel about embedded quality? what are the behaviours and
attitudes of the current workforce towards the quality management system at the Zarlink
foundry, Swindon) and the ‘why?’ questions (why do managers hold their views about
embedded quality?).
2. In what other ways could Mick have used the literature to refine his research
question?
Mick was disappointed with much of the quality management literature because it was largely
prescriptive, i.e. prescribing neat solutions to problems (follow these simple rules and
everything will be fine) irrespective of the context in which the problems are set. The literature
was insufficiently concerned with the human problems concerned with organisational change
that the attempt to introduce quality management may encounter. Mick could have changed
direction in his literature coverage and moved away from the quality management literature to
that concerned specifically with organisational change. This concentrates particularly with the
sort of problems in which Mick was interested. Had he have done this his first objective: ‘to
identify general constructs which constitute ‘embedding quality’ within an organisation’ may
have become: ‘to identify general constructs which constitute human barriers to introducing
change within an organisation’. A second objective could have been added: ‘to apply these
constructs to a case study of introducing embedded quality at Zarlink, Swindon’.
3. In what other ways may Mick have achieved his research aim?
Mick wanted to use his dissertation as a way of not only obtaining his MBA but also learning
how he could be more effective in introducing embedded quality at Zarlink, Swindon. He
could have done this in a number of ways. For example, his focus in his proposal was Zarlink,
Swindon. He could have switched this focus away from his organisation and used a completely
different organisation. He could have studied the introduction of embedded quality in another
organisation and asked the question: ‘what can Zarlink, Swindon learn from the strengths and
weaknesses of the approach used in the study organisation and how may the lessons learned
inform the approach to be adopted at Zarlink, Swindon?’ He would have needed to decide
28
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Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
about
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the context of the study organisation and how appropriate that was to Zarlink, Swindon. If he
was worried about comparability he could have researched another Zarlink site where
embedded quality had been introduced, or a site in an organisation in a similar industry.
What Mick decided to do was perfectly reasonable. However, the point remains that there are
always different ways of conducting research to meet the same aim. The way you choose will
usually be a blend of what is desirable and what is practical.
4. What are the benefits of using multiple methods of data collection?
In this study Mick used different methods for different purposes in a study. He conducted
interviews with key managers from other Zarlink sites and Swindon managers in order to ‘test’
the ideas that he had developed about core values as a result of the literature review. He then
designed an audit form, based on a purpose made audit used before in similar organisations,
which was administered in all departments of Zarlink, Swindon. Another method was to
‘piggy- back’ on an imminent general employee attitude survey. The major advantage of using
these different methods was that it enabled Mick to triangulate to ensure that, as far as
possible, the data were telling him what he thought it was telling him.
5. What threats to validity are inherent in the research design and how may these be
overcome?
It is possible that the managers with whom Mick conducted research interviews over-stated the
case in order to cast them in a ‘good’ light. It is also possible that the employees at Swindon
may have felt that the introduction of embedded quality may have disadvantaged them in some
way. Both possibilities would be likely to affect the results. ‘Piggy-backing’ on the imminent
employee attitude survey was also a possible worry in that the other questions in the survey
may have affected the answers to the questions deliberately designed to elicit answers about
quality.
Case 5c: The international marketing management decisions of
UK Ski tour operators13
1. How should Elin justify her choice of a case study research strategy to her project
tutor?
Elin can justify her choice as follows:
Elin’s research aim necessitated that she investigate an organisational phenomena which was
complex, involving many different actors (managers). She needed to go inside organisations in
order to get the answer to her questions, in other words she was investigating a real-life
situation. As a researcher she would have little control over events. The topic, and therefore
her research question, made this strategy most appropriate.
In addition, she was asking ‘How’ and ‘why’ questions which would be best answered through
this research strategy. She wanted to know ‘who’ made the decisions about international
marketing, ‘how’ decisions were made and ‘why’? She also wanted to know the outcomes of
such decisions.
13
Answers provided by Angela Roper
Very early on she recognised that she would need to evaluate a variety and range of evidence,
for example, documentary evidence and interviews with different types of managers and
managers in different parts of the organisation. The use of multiple data sources is fundamental
to the case study research strategy.
2. Gaining and maintaining access into organisations is an important aspect of a case
study research project. What obstacles may Elin encounter when trying to gain
access into these organisations? How should she overcome them?
For large-for-profit organisations, gaining access may be hard, as today’s managers (as well as
researchers themselves) value the cost of their time very highly and short structured interviews
and questionnaires are likely to be much more feasible for them than loosely structured
interviews and observations. Therefore, gaining research access should not be taken as a
simple activity as it involves some combination of strategic planning, hard work and sheer
luck.
There are continual reports of researchers facing major difficulties in this ‘getting in’ stage.
Organisations are dynamic and complex places because of rapid and unpredictable changes in
the external environment, competition, ownership, senior executives and performance. Under
these conditions, managers and employees do not always welcome researchers into their
organisations, particularly those asking what maybe perceived as sensitive and awkward
questions about their firms and managerial actions. They may often be sceptical about the role
of researchers and have contradictory expectations and misperceptions of them and their work.
During recession and crises, managers may not see any interest in devoting time to nonproductive academic research. In addition, managers are often busy (or act as being busy) and
may not see themselves as sharing many common interests.
Organisations and their managers often deny access because researchers fail to provide
convincing answers about what and why they are actually researching and whether their
research will be any value to the managers themselves and also to the company. Again,
researchers may take managers’ time and in return may seldom provide any valuable outcome
for organisations. Therefore, Elin needs to provide a clear indication as to the value of her
research for the companies as well as herself and also convince them of her knowledge of
international marketing and the industry.
She might want to think about how she will answer the following types of questions which
informants might ask:

What is aim of your project?

How can my company help you?

How is your project going to help my company?

What type of support and resources do you require from us?
Some type of briefing information and verbal discussion might provide answers to these sorts
of questions, therefore creating a positive impression.
The most common reservations, which may result in access to organisations being denied,
include the time commitment needed by managers, the potential disruption of normal
operations and confidentiality worries. Managers may be concerned with confidentiality since
anonymity is often difficult to protect when interviews are used.
It would be good if Elin could identify a ‘gatekeeper’ in each company. These are those people
who provide and facilitate access for the researcher. They may help the researcher gain access
into different parts of the sample organisation(s) and introduce them to key informants who
can provide valuable information.
3. What skills will Elin need when carrying out case study research in these three
companies?
Elin needs basic interpersonal skills and possibly needs a good appearance. Verbal and nonverbal communication and responding in a non-evaluative and non-partisan manner will all be
important skills in the interviewing process. The researcher’s personality, interpersonal skills
and particularly interviewing skills seem to play an important role at this primary research
stage. This means that this type of research may not be for everyone.
She will need to build up a rapport with informants and gain their trust through not only the
interviewing process but also in the whole period of her time in any one of the sample
companies. Engaging in acceptance and trust strategies was imperative in order to conduct the
investigation in a natural setting and be able to enter and exit the field on a regular basis.
She will also need to be aware of and sensitive to the internal dynamics of the organisations,
namely the organisational culture and structure and the power relationship between different
parties or organisations. She may also have to know how to overcome any bureaucratic
obstacles she may face to gaining information and how to gain evidence from potentially
conservative organisational members in terms of providing company-related information.
Case 5d: Managing the acquisition from the middle14
1. How can Kevin’s management project be his research project?
While traditional research demands researchers to be outsiders, detached and neutral observers,
insider action research conceives of them as immersed actors in the process and who are
committed to making change happen. The insider role is therefore a central element of Kevin’s
project. In terms of Coghlan and Brannick’s (2005) framework of insider action research,
Kevin has to be explicit about (i) his pre-understanding (i.e. his insider knowledge of the
organisation, his insider role, how he is close to people and issues and how he tries to stand
back and achieve some sort of psychological distance), (ii) how he manages emerging
ambiguities and conflicts between his managerial role and his researcher role (role duality) and
(iii) how he manages organisational politics and ensures the success of the project and his
career.
2. How can Kevin contribute to both his company’s successful implementation of the
acquisition and to understanding acquisitions?
Action research seeks to contribute both to effective action and to knowledge. So the intended
outcome of his project is actionable knowledge, that is knowledge that is useful to the world of
practice (in this case the management world of mergers and acquisitions) and to robust theory
(in this case knowledge about processes of mergers and acquisitions). How Kevin contributes
to both is grounded in his methods, particularly his enactment of action research cycles of
action and reflection. He needs to constantly articulate what he is trying to do, what happens at
the various meetings he holds and attends, how he reflects on the process and outcomes of
these
14
Answers provided by David Coghlan
meetings and how he decides what he does next. If he provides documentary evidence of
meetings, memos, management directives as well as reflections from his own journal, he can
demonstrate an evidence-based path through his project and show on what his conclusions are
based.
3. Are Kevin’s political concerns a distraction from his research or are they integral
to it?
The political dynamics of Kevin’s project are integral to his action research. Organisational
politics are part of actionable knowledge and all research is political. As Coghlan and Brannick
(2005) discuss, Kevin needs to act as a ‘political entrepreneur’ whereby he performs to have
the IT system implemented and working in his section and he engages in backstaging by
working in the informal system through networking, making deals and heading off conflicts.
These kinds of issues are integral to the role of change agent which Kevin is as section head
and so he needs to reflect on how he managed them and articulate his learning from the
experience. They also contribute to knowledge about mergers and acquisitions which needs to
include how the politics of mergers and acquisitions were managed and how collaboration
among the different stakeholders and actors in the project (his manager, the other section
heads, his team) was undertaken and managed.
Case 5e: Sangita’s career
1. What are the possible research strategies from which Sangita might chose to address
her research question?
Sangita had narrowed the scope of her proposed research project to focus on analysing
organisational career management policies in one organisation, around her proposed research
question: ‘What organisational career management policies exist in (case study organisation
name) to retain key employees and how have these policies been evaluated in relation to
career- related employee turnover.’ Sangita recognised that her proposed research question
implied that she would be using a Case Study strategy. She found this to be helpful but
recognised that this still offered her strategic choice in the way she could conduct her research
project. Within the boundary of using a single, case study she felt that she had the
methodological choice to use a quantitative, qualitative or multiple methods research design.
This allowed her to consider incorporating a Survey strategy, a Grounded Theory strategy, a
Narrative Inquiry strategy or some combination of these within her Case Study strategy.
2. What are the likely advantages and drawbacks of using each possible strategy?
If Sangita choose to incorporate a Survey strategy within her case study approach, she would
either need to devise a questionnaire or a structured interview schedule to collect data. To
inform the composition of either of these Sangita would need to use available ideas from the
careers management literature and/or from organisational participants. As Chapter 11 goes on
to discuss in much greater detail, questionnaires or structured interviews can be very useful as
ways of collecting standardised data from a sizeable sample, in an economical way allowing
easy comparison. However, designing a questionnaire or structured interview schedule is a
demanding and time-consuming process. Poorly designed questionnaires are likely to reveal
little of real value. Determining a representative sample and ensuring a good response rate will
also be demanding, as will the need to understand how to analyse the resulting data.
If Sangita choose to incorporate a Grounded Theory strategy within her case study approach,
she would embark on the collection of data to analyse this inductively to develop a theoretical
understanding. This process would enable her to explore themes as these emerged, to gain a
deep and rich understanding and to seek explanations as she discussed her topic of interest
with a range of organisational participants. This process would also be demanding, resulting in
the likely collection of a large quantity of data requiring devotion to detailed analysis
involving systematic coding and the process of constant comparison as she analysed these
data, which would require much of Sangita’s time.
If Sangita choose to incorporate a Narrative Inquiry strategy within her case study approach,
she would be interested to allow her participants to provide her with narratives or accounts of
the topic in the ways in which they wished to voice these. This would provide her with rich,
detailed accounts of events related to the topic as they had unfolded according to the recall and
interpretation of her participants. Like the methods above, this process would also be
demanding, again resulting in the likely collection of a large quantity of data requiring
devotion to detailed analysis, the exploration of themes from these data and possibly the
process of restoring these accounts, which would also require much of Sangita’s time.
In making her choice, Sangita would need to consider how each of these possible strategies
would allow her to answer her research question. Where she chose to use these in combination
she would also need to consider how their use may be mixed to help her to answer her research
question more fully.
3. Which research strategy would you use to conduct this research project and why?
This was probably a difficult question for you to answer. If you were in Sangita’s role, you
would be committing yourself to the choice of a particular strategy, or a combination of
strategies. Like Sangita, you would then be confronted by the need to carry out what you have
designed! This question therefore requires you to make a choice – your choice, as there may
not be a ‘correct’ answer to work out and follow. You will need to make this choice and
commit to a research strategy or combination of strategies when you design your own project
proposal!
While we cannot provide you with a ‘correct’ answer to this question, we can help you to think
about choosing a research strategy. The key to choosing a research strategy will be the nature
of your research question. Where the nature of your research question provides you with a
choice of possible research strategies to undertake your project, as in Sangita’s case, you will
need to consider your interest in, motivation to use and comfort with each possible strategy. In
many real-life cases, research questions in the area of business and management lend
themselves to the use of a multiple methods research design, rather than to the use of a single
research strategy. Where you consider using such a multiple methods research design, you will
need to consider how you will mix the methods you intend to use and how you will blend these
to seek to answer your research question.
Case 6a: The effects of a merger in a major UK building society
1
a. What are the issues of access that Jackie does not address?
b. Give reasons for your answer.
Jackie’s gatekeeper for her research project is the Regional Manager, Mrs Sterling who has
already indicated that she will be willing to help with the project if she could.
However, she has not really considered the following issues:

Not following her University’s procedures regarding research ethics in terms of
formally requesting access to undertake research.

The potential sensitivity of the topic as indicated by Simon’s request that she does not
mention her conversation with any of the others.

The confidential nature of some of the information she requires as indicated by Mrs
Sterling’s response to a request for another meeting.

The likelihood that she may cause harm to Simon if he is found to be her source of
confidential information.
2. What procedures related to access should Jackie have followed?
As she already knows Mrs Sterling, Jackie’s initial telephone request to the secretary is a
sensible way to start. However, she should have followed this with a formal written request in
which she provided a clear account of the purpose of her research project and precisely the
type of access required and the likely amount of time any interviews would take. Within this
she should have shown she was aware of the sensitive nature of the topic and given clear
assurances of confidentiality and, if appropriate, anonymity. She could also have outlined any
possible benefits to the organisation.
Subsequently, she should have ensured that she had also informed all participants of the
purpose of the research and obtained their consent (including those in the nightclub). As part
of this she should have provided an information sheet and asked them to sign a consent form.
3
a. Where has Jackie failed to consider the ethical implications of her actions? Dfmds.
i.
The first time Jackie fails to consider the ethical implications of her actions is in
the nightclub. It is not clear whether or not she has formally sought permission
from the people to use the data they are providing during the conversations as part
of her research. If she has not done so, then she should not use these data.
ii. In addition, she has not considered the implications of using the information on
branch closures and associated redundancies from her conversation with Simon.
He has asked her not to mention this to the others and so she should treat it as
confidential, rather than using it later as the basis for questions in her interview
with Mrs Sterling.
iii. She has not acted ethically in her interview with Mrs Sterling as, despite Mrs
Sterling being late and requesting the interview be rearranged, she still proceeds.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
iv. This is further compounded by her attributing data actually obtained from Simon
and the others in the nightclub to Mrs Sterling.
b. What are the implications for her research?
i.
Using data provided in the nightclub without permission is unethical. It could
therefore result in her research project being failed by her tutor.
ii. Similarly using the data provided without his permission by Simon is also
unethical. In this case it could also result in harm to him, such as the building
society taking disciplinary action, if he were found to be the source.
iii. The implications of using the knowledge gained from the nightclub conversations
explicitly in her interviews are clear. Even allowing for Mrs Sterling being rushed,
she has terminated the interview early and seems unlikely to offer a further
interview within Jackie’s timeframe.
iv. Jackie’s subsequent attribution of data obtained from other sources to Mrs Sterling
means her research is a lie! This means the findings cannot be trusted.
4
a. What might be the consequences for all parties involved?
Jackie is already likely to have lost the opportunity for further access within her project
timeframe. In addition, she has almost certainly not abided by her university’s ethical policies.
In some universities this can result in failing the module. Finally, she may well have lost any
opportunity of working at the building society after she has graduated.
The consequences for Simon and his friends are less clear and are, at least in part, dependent
on the source of the information being established. If this does happen, it could result in
disciplinary proceedings.
In the longer term, if the research project is placed in the university’s library, the data will be
available publicly. If the data have not been suitably anonymised, this could be problematic for
both the building society and Jackie.
b. How could it have been avoided?
The simple answer here is by acting ethically! While answers will vary, the easiest way to
ensure all aspects are covered is to use the checklists in Chapter 6.
Case 6b: The quality of service provided by the accounts
department15
1. Should Angela go ahead with the study? What advice would you give her?
How do you respond to this question? The values we bring to bear on issues we face are very
much our own, although we may share a similar outlook to others. In addition, while the
consequences for others associated with our actions may be one perspective, the consequences
for Angela in any decision she might make are also important.
15
Answers provided by Barry Baker
35
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In exercising choice about our behaviour in a research context a number of factors are likely to
influence the expression of our preferred values. For example, how public will the link
between Angela’s decision and the likely consequences be? For Angela, whether she can
rationalise a course of action to her own satisfaction. In particular, will her ‘self-interest’ ethic
outweigh her concern for others and the robustness of her research. In addition, she will need
to consider whether she can separate her role and part in the project from that of the Finance
Director. There may also be a need for Angela to defend her decision with other significant
players in the research project. For example, her tutor may not consider her amended research
methodology to be suitable and reduce her mark accordingly.
Carrol (1990) provides a classification of ethical standpoints which is useful in such situations.
Using this the Director might be seen as taking the ethical standpoint ‘might is right’, in effect
doing what he can get away with; operating under an ‘organisational ethic’, doing what is in
the interest of the organisation; and operating under a ‘utilitarian ethic’, doing what is
ultimately in the interest of the majority. In contrast, Angela might be seen as using the ethical
standpoints of ‘the golden rule’, that is doing unto others what you would have done unto you;
and ‘public defending’, in other words do what you would be happy defending to others.
Since the research methods have been compromised by the Director’s amendments, Angela
should consider not undertaking the study, whether out of concern for others, not respecting
deceit, or because she does not wish to be associated with the consequences. All research has
consequences, which is why we do it. In this case, the process of contracting with the Finance
Director has led to an amended research methodology that threatens the validity and reliability
of results. For these and other reasons you might argue, she should not continue.
2. What are the likely outcomes if the research goes ahead as planned?
You might undertake a stakeholder analysis focusing those who have an interest in this study
and upon whom it might impact. This is likely to highlight the following:

Her tutors may mark down the study significantly because the methodology is not
sound.

There may be, from Angela’s perspective, unintended outcomes that harm the interest
of some participants.

Angela may feel badly about being used by the Finance Director.

The organisation’s interventions may not be based on truly valid and reliable data and
interpretations of results.
3. In what ways have the following influenced the study's directions and process?
a. Imbalance of power
The Finance Director has power through his position in the organisation (‘positional power’)
and, in the case of his relationship with Angela, ‘exchange power’ as he is exchanging the
granting of access for influence on her research. There is also the symbolic power capable of
influencing that which comes from other’s perceptions of position, status, bearing and
messages from the trappings of the quality of office furniture, more than one telephone, space
the person controls and so on. This imbalance can render some relatively impotent.
b. Sample selection and access
Following on from the Finance Director’s power position and expression of interference, the
sample selection is far from being stratified or random. It is unlikely that the sample will be
representative. In addition, it may not be large enough for subsequent statistical analysis.
c. Hidden agendas and deceit
Clearly, the Finance Director has a ‘hidden agenda’ that is not being declared to Angela. His
control of the situation makes it possible for him to maintain this deceit even if Angela is
astute enough to recognise it. This is made possible through the Finance Director’s power
position and Angela’s perception of her own powerlessness.
d. Control of the process
Angela’s initial methodology gave her some control over a research process that would stand
up to scrutiny. In accepting amendments that inject ‘threats’ to the coherence and integrity of
her methodology, Angela has lost a significant element of control.
e. Personal relationships/insider information
An awareness of the Finance Director’s hopes and the feelings that Angela might have about
the process could affect her relationship with Billy. Moreover, her knowledge of the preferred
outcomes could inadvertently influence her data collection and interpretation. Just as allowing
others to influence study designs and parameters can adversely impact on the study so too can
the prospect of ‘self-fulfilling prophesy’.
f. Handling results and outcomes
The Finance Director has made it clear that he wishes to peruse the results prior to release and
to control the circulation. Angela’s control has therefore diminished and there is every
prospect of the results being used selectively. This may involve different results being
communicated to different stakeholders. The findings may also be used in a way that supports
preferred outcomes and which further lends support to preferred interventions.
g. Angela’s lack of assertiveness
Angela’s permission to proceed with the study is vested in the one omnipotent person. Angela
is thankful for the opportunity to undertake the study that may further her standing in the
organisation and lead to a job. Also, the opportunity meets the demands of her programme of
study. The scene is set for a potentially very one-sided negotiation. Angela would need
considerable social skills to disagree with and to influence the Financial Director and perhaps
maintain her study opportunity. Nonetheless, Angela should be armed with all her ‘research
methodology’ arguments for protecting the coherence and integrity of her design, aiming
always to promote validity, reliability and ethical integrity. Alas, all too often, political
imperatives, ‘time being of the essence’ and the raising of ‘sensitivity of information
arguments’, that may well be real, have the result of reducing ideal research designs to
approximations.
4. Negative impact on people can occur in research. What is the prospect of this kind of
consequential impact on participants in this case?
The consequences for ‘harm’ and adverse impact on stakeholders can always exist. In this
case, the amendment of methodology due to a hidden agenda could lead to invalid and
unreliable
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
results being used to support managerial interventions. Indeed these interventions may have
already been formulated. The outcomes of the research may be therefore be used to legitimise.
The answer to Question 2 offers some suggestions as to where harmful impact might occur and
to whom it might extend.
References
Buchanan, D., Boddy, D. and McCalman, J. (1988) Getting in, getting on, getting out and
getting back in A. Bryman (ed) Doing Research in Organisations, pp. 53–67, London,
Routledge.
Carrol, A. (1990). Principles of business ethics: their role in decision making and an initial
consensus, Management Decision, Vol. 28, No. 8, pp. 20–25.
Wells, P. (1994) Ethics in business and management research, in V.J. Wass and P. Wells,
(eds), Principles and Practice in Business and Management Research, Aldershot, pp. 277–98,
Dartmouth.
Case 6c: Misreading issues related to access and ethics in a
small-scale enterprise16
1. What are the key ethical issues raised in this case study
There is a range of ethical issues here, but the biggest problem Lefteris faces is what to do
about the confidentiality of the data he collects. Perhaps the over-riding problem is to do with
the nature of his role as the owner’s nephew and as an honest researcher. He cannot be both a
‘management spy’ for his uncle and a dispassionate researcher and participant observer. His
research design forces him to play too many roles, and in this context they contradict each
other. The terms of his access – which have been dictated by his uncle – mean that he is
hopelessly compromised when his uncle starts to demand something in return.
2. Should Lefteris continue with his research?
Clearly Lefteris’ attempts at participant observation will have to be abandoned, as he does not
have the informed consent of the people he wants to observe. It might be possible to explain
this to his uncle and to get out of the very difficult situation in the marketing section. He may
yet be able to use some of the results from his employee survey, but he still has to deal with
the problem that the answers are not strictly confidential, though he does not need to disclose
that to his uncle. He will have difficulty doing a follow-up survey and he might not have
enough data. It might in theory be possible for Lefteris to continue some informal interviews
with managers he knows outside work, perhaps in the summer when every-one might have
calmed down. But if the situation is really as serious as it appears, people might be afraid to
co-operate. Alternatively, he might be able to alter the focus of his dissertation so that he looks
more at the general strategic business issues posed for Greek SME’s by EU enlargement. He
could then perhaps do some depth interviews with people in the local business association, the
regional government and the banking sector, and relegate his uncle’s company to a much
smaller case study, based on his limited research.
16 Answers provided by Teresa
38
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Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
3. With hindsight, how could Lefteris have designed his research to avoid some of the
ethical issues outlined above?
Lefteris used his assumptions about easy access to his uncle’s company and the pleasant
experiences of working there in the past to affect his research design. He needed to get the
agreement not just of his uncle but also of the people he was going to observe for his
participant observation. He should have explained to them the nature of the research he was
doing and its purpose, why he wanted them to take part, what it involved and how he would
deal with the results. He should have given them assurances on the confidentiality of the data
he collected, and explained that anyone who did not want to take part could refuse to do so. He
should have offered to share the general results and conclusions of his research. He could have
given each of them a participant information sheet explaining all this, and asked them to think
about it before agreeing to take part. For the survey, again Lefteris should have made more
effort to explain to the work force what the purpose was, and that it was part of a University
project rather than for his uncle.
Lefteris should also have discussed things much more openly and thoroughly with his uncle
before he started his research. He needed to be reasonably assertive and to explain that his
research project had to abide by the rules of the University where he was doing his Masters,
and that there might be some interesting results, but that from a business point of view these
would be a bonus. The primary purpose of his research was to write a good dissertation. If his
uncle would not grant him access on these terms, Lefteris could have re-thought his research
design at an early stage.
Case 6d: Mystery customer research in restaurant chains17
1. What is the main ethical issue with regard to Jane’s proposed research project?
From the ethical point of view the issue is one of informed consent for all the participants –
they must know in advance where, how and for what purpose the research is being conducted.
There are also issues of privacy – for people who are being covertly filmed – especially when
those films might be shown to their employers and it could be possible to identify them.
2. How can Jane change the design of her mystery customer observation method to
avoid ethical problems?
For the mystery customer study Jane cannot film people without their consent, nor could she
show the films to the head offices. It is unethical to film without consent unless there is a good
reason (e.g. possible criminal activity and you are the law enforcer). Showing the film to head
offices would therefore also be unethical and breach people’s right to privacy. Therefore
covert filming is not a good idea. She could still do the study and take discreet hand written
notes, and then de-identify the data, so that she keeps the identifying information and the
results separately. She could then use some of the de-identified data in her interviews, as long
as she had made sure it was not possible for industry insiders to guess the identities of the
people or the restaurants involved.
3. How might Jane carry out the second part of her research – with the companies’
head offices – in an ethical manner?
17
Answers provided by Teresa
Smallbone
39
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
If a student is doing a project for a company, even if they will receive the results at a much
later date, it should be separated from what she is doing as a student. Jane can use the same
data for both purposes, but she needs to make clear to her participants how the data she is
collecting from them is going to be used. She needs to inform her contacts that she is or will be
working for her company as well as being a student. She should therefore tell all her target
interviewees who she is, the name of her sponsor, why she is doing the research and what it
will be used for.
4. Use online databases such as EBSCO Host and Emerald to obtain copies of the two
articles that Jane used to justify her use of mystery shopping. To what extent do you
believe that these articles support Jane’s belief that becoming a mystery customer is
ethical?
Calvert’s (2005) article partially support’s Jane’s research in that it emphasises the extensive
use made of mystery customer and mystery shopper programmes. However, while
emphasising that the article does not consider ethical issues associated with using mystery
customers in depth, it does highlight a number of possible ethical issues. These include:

The uncertainty of not knowing when a mystery customer will occur can place stress
on employees

Sending a mystery shopper to a rival’s company and taking up staff time without
making a purchase.
In addition this article provides references to ethical guidelines for mystery shopping which
would have been of help to Jane.
Erstad’s (1998) article provides no real support for Jane’s approach to mystery shopping.
Rather it argues that, in order for a mystery shopping programme to be successful, employees
must be aware that a mystery shopping programme has been developed and have been
involved in its development. This Erstad argues, is essential if the organisation wishes to avoid
mystery shoppers being seen as spies by employees and to avoid the fear factor.
References
Calvert, P. (2005) It’s a mystery: mystery shopping in New Zealand’s public libraries, Library
Review, Vol. 54, No. 1, 24–35.
Erstad, M. (1998), Mystery shopping programmes and human resource management,
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 10, No. 1, 34–38.
Case 6e: Gaining access to business angels networks18
1. Which factors helped Stephanie getting access to these highly sought-after
organisations?
18

Have a topic that is interesting to the people you are approaching.

Show that you are credible:
Answers provided by Stephanie Macht
40
© Pearson Education Limited 2016

Get informed as much as possible about the people you speak to and
about the company you are dealing with

Try to be in a room by yourself, which makes it sound less like a call
centre

Maybe logo of your university on letters or e-mails

Explain properly what you are doing and that it is a big deal (makes
more people respond if it is a PhD/DBA instead of BA or MA)

Offer anonymity.

Show that you are professional.

Be a perfectionist:



Include your complete contact details at the end of every e-mail

Make sure that you address the right people, especially if you copy the
e-mail to several people

On the phone, have a list of what you need to say so that you do not
stutter or forget half of it

Make notes about everything so that the next time you call, you do not
mix up anything or forget what you have spoken about or who you
have spoken to

When you promise to send something, send it right away

Check for spelling mistakes

Be polite and wait for them to offer to be addressed by first name.
Emphasise the benefits for them/provide incentives:

Collect comments from people in the area

Offer a report

Offer to mention the name of the organisation in publications (if
possible concerning anonymity, etc.)

Offer to mention the name in the published final thesis.
Conversations:

Do not give up right away: if they promise to call back but do not,
call again € remember, these people are busy and might not have
the time to deal with it immediately

Nevertheless, figure out when to stop: if they NEVER call back, etc. at
some point I stopped because I thought they really are not interested.
2. What problems did Stephanie face in the access negotiation stage of her project?
How did she overcome these?




High dependence on others/need for support from Business Angel Network
managers

Make sure you address these others appropriately

Be professional

Be a perfectionist

Be fully prepared when you contact them

Be persistent, but polite

Emphasise benefits for them

Remember: You often only get one chance and make sure that you get
it right!

Explain in a very detailed and exact way what they have to do for your
research (e.g. when the questionnaire has to be sent out, who should be
the recipients of it, any other requirements you have).
Need for a total change in research strategy if access negotiations fail

Make sure that you are getting it right the first time

Since there are 20 Business Angel Networks, it would still be possible
to continue doing the research even if a few drop out

Emphasise the benefits to them and make sure they understand how
much they can gain from the study

Design the study in a way that it allows you to provide them with
sufficient benefits

Ask for reasons why they are not willing to participate so that you can
incorporate that into the next conversation with someone else.
Need to access two levels of people

Be professional on both levels

Be aware of the time and cost implications of having to access two
levels – incorporate it into your planning

Approach them in different ways – tailor your approach to the group
you are talking to.
Need to access a vast amount of different people

Keep a detailed record of all points of contact

Be organised

Prepare properly and thoroughly for each participant

Tailor your approaches to the different people



Incorporate the time implications into your research design and
planning.
Networks are interlinked, so if one network talks bad about you as the
researcher, you will find it difficult to access others

This interlinked nature makes the need for a professional and perfect
approach and appearance even more pressing

Allocate an equal amount of preparation effort and time to each
network

Do not underestimate the power of credibility and reputation

Be equally professional with each manager.
Anonymous participants

Find ways of accessing them anyway

Find intermediaries or gatekeepers who can facilitate contact to these
participants

Attend meetings (e.g. investment meetings) and networking events to
identify possible participants for potential snowballing and to meet
gatekeepers

Talk to as many people in the area as possible to identify ways around
the anonymity.
3. What access negotiation techniques has Stephanie applied in her project?

Telephone

E-mail summaries

Organise account of communications

Networking meetings

Usage of positive endorsements and quotes
4. What are the downsides of these access negotiation techniques?

Time consuming

Only works if there is a sufficient backing from important organisations

Ethical issues with regards to asking for permission to use quotes (need to
make sure you have permission to do so!)

There is a need to be disciplined and keep the record and spreadsheets updated
– otherwise you will confuse people and organisations and that would make you
look stupid and lose credibility

Credibility is difficult to build, but EASY to lose.
Case 6f: The impact of colour on children’s brand choices19
1. List the problems researchers can encounter when conducting research on children?

Need ethical approval – researchers need the full research design before applying for
ethical approval. The approval period can take a few months depending on how often
the University’s research committee meet. The application can be rejected as in
Helen’s case.

Need a full CRB check completed. Again this can take months from the application
being posted to getting the CRB form returned.

Accessing children – need to gain access to schools, after school clubs if want large
sample size.

Gaining consent – need the child’s parental consent. Some parents may not wish to
give their consent depending on the research involved, others may just be nonresponsive and not bother filling in the form and returning it to the requested location.

Observation hard – makes observing children in a retail environment extremely hard as
need parental consent before this can occur and that may invalidate the findings (if the
child is aware they are being observed).

Understanding the task – children may find they do not know the reason why they are
behaving as they are, more so than adults. Also their inability to follow orders or
complete tasks may be limited depending on their age and level of development.

Understanding the language – children of a younger age may not be able to read and
write and therefore questionnaire approaches may not be the best method.

Ability to count – also younger children may not be able to count or to put things into
order. For instance, Helen’s research simply asked the children to indicate their
favourite colour instead of asking the child to rate the colour or rank the colours in
order of preference.

Level of analysis – as a result, Helen was only able to analyse Nominal data and
therefore her analysis was limited to frequencies and chi squared analysis.

The old adage ‘never work with children or animals’ is true, sometimes due to age or
gender children may not be responsive to questions, more so than adults.
2. What did Helen do to help her gain access to the Head Teachers?
19

She had a topic which was interesting and current, i.e. encouraging healthy eating.

She made initial contact to get as informed as possible, i.e. Head Teachers name, and
preferred method of contact (letter/e-mail).

She used a logo of her University on her letters and e-mails.

She contacted the Head Teacher with their preferred method of contact which made
them more receptive – she had done her homework.

Explained the research in detail and the benefits of the research.
Answers provided by Zoe Jowers

Offered anonymity to both the school and the children.

She provided incentives to the school of working towards the Healthy Eating Charter
status.

Produced packs to be sent out to the children’s parents, therefore reducing the time
input required from school.
3. What impact did the decision to change to healthy snack foods have on the research’s
success?
This would have had a huge impact. With the initial idea of using confectionery products for
the research, Helen would have definitely received a less receptive response from the schools.
She found that mentioning the healthy eating aspect in her initial telephone conversations with
the school made them more interested in pursuing her research idea further. Schools would
benefit from this as they would be seen to be encouraging the healthy eating of their children.
This would influence the children themselves, their parents, the local community and the
government, all important stakeholders for the schools. In addition, the school could cite their
participation in the research as a method of providing evidence towards their Healthy Eating
Charter status.
4. Outline the ethical issues Helen had to consider and how she addressed them?
Approval – Helen’s research needed ethical approval before she could contact the schools. In
order for ethical approval to be granted the committee needed to be convinced that the children
were not going to be harmed by the research. They rejected her initial application on the
grounds that it was involving confectionery products which were potentially high in fat and
sugar. Therefore, Helen has to redesign and re submit her application which focused on
healthy snack food product categories. This ensured that schools would be receptive and that
the children involved in the research were only choosing healthy food products.
Consent – Helen needed to gain parental consent. She gained this by sending information
packs out to all parents detailing the research and the benefits and asking parents to complete
the form and to give to their child to return to their form tutor. This removed the inconvenience
of posting the consent form back and would have increased the response rate.
Information sheets – these were provided for both parents and children to detail exactly what
would happen in the research. Each sheet contain information about the nature of the research;
the requirements of the child participating; the implications of taking part and the child’s
rights; information about the use of the data collected and the way in which it will be reported;
and who to contact if they had any questions about the research. Each sheet was written in a
language easily understood by the parent and child.
Confidentiality – this was ensured at the data entry stage where each child was given a case
number. Therefore there were no children’s names recorded on the IBM SPSS Statistics data
file.
Voluntary nature and right to withdraw – all stakeholders, i.e. the school, the children, and
their parents were informed that participating in the research was voluntary and that at any
stage they had the right to withdraw from the research.
Case 7a: Change management at Hattersley Electrics
1
a. Name the sampling techniques used at each of the three stages.
b. List possible reasons for the choice of each of these techniques.
Stage 1: stratified random sampling of employees. Stratified to ensure that all departments
were represented. Random to ensure that the choice of one employee from each department
was without bias.
Stage 2: stratified systematic random sampling (with different sampling fractions for each
department). Stratified to ensure that all departments were represented. Randomness to ensure
the choice of employees from each department was without bias. Systematic to ensure that
employees across different levels of seniority within departments were selected.
Stage 3: purposive sampling using three groups. Key purpose was to ensure that three distinct
groups were covered. Although it does not say in the case, it may be surmised that analysis of
the data indicated that the three groups had distinctive responses to many of the questions.
Within each group homogeneity was maintained to facilitate within group discussion (this is
discussed in Section 10.8 of the book).
2. Given the quoted response rate of 97.6% what is the accuracy (margin of error) of the
questionnaire results for the division likely to have been?
Students will need to refer to Table 7.1 to answer this question. The population from which the
sample was drawn is 250. It was administered to 50% (125) of employees resulting in a 97.6%
response rate. This equates to 122 returns. Table 6.2 shows that a sample of at least 151 is
needed from a population of 250 for a 5% margin of error. Therefore, the margin of error is
likely to have been greater than 5%.
3
a. What issues will need to be taken into account when generalising from the
questionnaire results to:
i.
all employees in each department of the Electrics division?
ii. all employees in the Electrics division?
b. Give reasons for your answers.
When generalising for employees in each department the major problem will be for the
Computer Systems department as only one of the three employees responded. In addition, the
low numbers in this department, the Personnel department and perhaps the Quality department
may mean that for reasons of anonymity their findings should not be disaggregated to this
level. Generalising for the remaining departments is less likely to present issues of anonymity.
Although the questionnaire has been distributed to a 50% sample of company managers and
employees in the Electrics division, it was stratified by department and cell with different
proportions of employees responding in each department. This means that the responses will
need to be weighted when generalising to all employees in the Electrics division. This is
discussed in detail in Section 11.2.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
4
a. Would it be possible to use the results from the three sample surveys outlined in
this case to generalise about the management of change in the Hattersley PLC
group?
b. Give reasons for your answer.
Statistically, it would not be possible to generalise from any of the surveys about management
of change in the Hattersley PLC group. Both interviews undertaken with employees and
managers and those included in the focus groups were selected using non-probability
sampling. While probability sampling was used to select those who were sent the questionnaire
they were all in the Electrics division. It would, therefore, only be possible to generalise about
the Electrics division from this sample.
Case 7b: Employment networking in the Hollywood Film
Industry20
1. What are the major benefits and drawbacks of using the Internet as part of an
international research study?
Benefits
Cost effective
In comparison to telephone research, online costs are significantly lower. With no international
boundaries involved potential respondents can be contacted as easily in Hollywood as
Borehamwood.
Unobtrusive
Respondents complete surveys in their own time, when they want, and this has potentially
beneficial effects on response rates and quality of answers.
Speed of response
Evidence exists that responses are received much quicker than postal research. This may be
due to the fact that individuals generally check their e-mail on a daily basis and normally do so
when they have time to respond.
Quality of response
Compared to telephone or even postal research, respondents give more articulate responses to
open-ended question. This may be due to the fact that when individuals type, they are more
accustomed to producing structured and formatted output (rather than hand-written notes or
one- word responses). Logic checks also increase data quality.
20
Answers provided by Keith Randle and Nigel Culkin
47
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Use of stimuli material
Unlike telephone research, the technology used here allows for the incorporation of stimuli
material such as sound, graphics and video.
Automation
Data is collected in a predefined electronic format and so there is no need to re-enter responses
manually, making considerable cost savings and increasing turnaround speed.
Drawbacks
A narrow target audience
The types of individuals that are using the Internet have an obvious effect on the scope of
research that can be conducted at present. The vast majority of users (up to 85% according to
some estimates) are based in the USA. The system is also clearly biased towards males aged
25–35, largely the more affluent individuals in this group, although this balance is changing
and there is an increasing number of female users (over 30 per cent according to some
estimates).
Identifying Internet users
Generally the penetration of Internet users, particularly in Europe, is low and identifying who
they might be, outside of placing messages on the Internet itself, is difficult. Lists of e-mail
addresses are limited and not always reliable.
Understanding the sample
Knowing who exactly is participating in research can be difficult. E-mail addresses alone also
give little indication as to the type of person using e-mail. Identifying and controlling samples
of Internet users is therefore a difficult process and needs to be addressed on a project-byproject basis.
Technical restrictions
The ways of accessing the Internet are many and varied. Some Internet users may be using
high- speed modems over a digital telephone network whilst others may have something far
more basic. With different degrees of access the ‘performance’ of Internet services will vary
between different users. One Internet page may also look different to respondents, dependent
on the browser software that is being used.
2. How valid are the results of the research likely to be?
While the results of a study may appear accurate, we need to recognise that every study
contains errors. These errors can result in serious misinformation being communicated to
managers. Consequently, a professionally designed and managed research study must
recognise the potential sources of error and manage the size of those errors consistent with the
accuracy required by the manager’s decision situation.
The methodology employed here does raise questions concerning bias in the sample of
interviewees. For example, are individuals who choose to put their resumes on Crewnet likely
to represent a less successful group who need to take every opportunity to raise their profile?
Furthermore, are those with the time and inclination to travel to meet academic researchers
likely to represent a group at a stage where every tenuous contact needs to be explored in case
it constitutes an opportunity? If so, it could be argued that findings, which appeared to
demonstrate difficulties in obtaining work, might be more closely related to the marginality of
the subject, rather than, for example, the economic environment.
3. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of snowball sampling.
Snowballing is often deemed the most suitable for sampling hidden or hard to reach
populations. In fact, purposive snowballing and the use of key contacts are very often the only
viable way to contact hidden populations even in larger scale studies.
On the positive side, using a snowballing referral method can often lead to respondents
nominating people who have similar characteristics to themselves, particularly where the
question of networking forms an important aspect of the study.
However, because interviewees are recruited via key contacts and other interviewees there is
the potential problem of both a sideways and downward movement. This means that although
key contacts and participants introduced to the research team people they knew, some of these
people could belong to different social networks to themselves.
4. What do you consider are the ethical issues raised by this research?
As cyberspace rapidly becomes a rich medium for communication and the number of users
increases, it is becoming an attractive target for social and behavioural research. The ease with
which the cyberspace medium allows for these types of studies also raises issues about the
ethical and legal dimensions of such research. The ability of a researcher to anonymously
record interactions on a site without the knowledge of the participants, the complexities of
obtaining informed consent, the over-rated expectation, if not the illusion of privacy in
cyberspace, and the blurred distinction between public and private domains fuel questions
about the interpretation and applicability of current policies for governing the conduct of social
and behavioural research involving human subjects.
5. What sampling techniques are being used in this case?
Non-probability in terms of the recruitment process. Only those film workers registered on the
database were eligible for selection. A panel was formed to track over a period of three years.
To capture new occupations we used the ‘snowballing’ technique.
We also incorporated ‘theoretical sampling’ which is a sampling process guided by selecting
participants who will maximise theoretical development (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
Interviewing continued until similar instances repeatedly came up in the data, this is known as
theoretical saturation (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
Case 7c: Auditor independence and integrity in accounting
firms21
In this case we see two people under pressure: Peter, subject no doubt to the usual time
pressures that affect all busy professionals but, more important for Andrea, subject also to the
particular professional pressures in which she is interested; and Andrea herself, with hopes for
her project, that once seemed so promising, fading fast. However, whether through inadequate
design, problems in execution or just unfortunate circumstances, most researchers encounter
time pressures and unexpected challenges along the way and go through periods of being
optimistic or pessimistic about their work. Even with the right foundations, rarely is social
science research a simple path from conception to completion. There are lessons to be learnt
not only from the shortcomings in Andrea’s approach so far, but also from considering how
she might take things forward and thus ‘rescue’ her project.
1. From what you know of her research design and approach, what do you think of
Andrea’s project, including her approach to sampling?
There are some good features of Andrea’s project, including the identification of an interesting
and important topic and, we assume or hope, the demonstration of skills in the design of a
questionnaire – the design of a good questionnaire is not as straightforward as people who
haven’t tried it often think and students who have designed a competent one deserve credit for
that alone.
Andrea had been hoping for 25 replies from 50 questionnaires mailed, a response rate of 50%.
So far she has received just 11, a response rate of 22%. Such a response rate might be seen as
quite a good achievement, given that this is a student project on a sensitive topic. But when
only one in five has responded, it does raise questions about the representativeness of her
findings, particularly if non-response bias is present; and given the numbers involved, standard
tests for non-response bias are not likely to be convincing. An interesting feature of Andrea’s
responses so far is, apparently, their homogeneity. Should that increase her confidence in
extrapolating from her findings or, pace non-response bias, should that make her worry that
she is being given standard, expected replies?
Of course, part of her problem is that, even with a good response rate, the absolute number of
completed questionnaires to analyse will be relatively small, restricting the range of statistical
techniques that can be used and reducing the likelihood of discovering significant results. One
obvious solution would be to expand the sample size, or at least to have started with a larger
one. However, there is a problem with that suggestion in this particular context. If Andrea is
interested in the pressures put on auditors when auditing large, publicly listed companies
(which is what tends to grab the public’s attention), even some of the top 50 audit firms do not
have clients in that category. The problem therefore might lie in the (small) size of the
population itself rather than in the sampling from that population; this kind of point is easy to
miss when the theory of sampling is being covered, when how to select from a relatively large
population is often the issue at stake. Perhaps, Andrea should have defined her population
differently – as partners in large audit firms – and sent more than one questionnaire to each
firm, weighted according to the number of partners or size of total fee income. One of the
challenges, in that case, would be to identify her actual targets for the mailing.
21
Answers provided by Christopher Cowton
2. How would you assess her current position and what advice could you give her about
possible options for improving her chances of completing a reasonably successful
project?
As noted above, Andrea already has some responses and, although there are questions about
what represents a sufficient response rate, this is a student project on a sensitive topic – and at
least she has some data. It is quite common for students initially to be enthusiastic about
questionnaire surveys and then, once into the project, to be unduly dismissive about their
usefulness – except, as here, insofar as they have generated interview leads. Yet even now she
has some material, and one thing she ought to do is to send a reminder, since this can often add
half again to the original responses. Furthermore, if the number of responses limits the ability
to conduct sophisticated statistical analysis, she might (depending on the nature of the
questionnaire research instrument and the responses received) be able to undertake some close
reading of the individual responses, particularly to any open-ended questions – though many of
these ‘didn’t say much at all’ – but, then again, a few might have had some very interesting
things to say.
As for other actions, she should prepare thoroughly for the other interview she has been
promised and do all in her power to make sure that it is a really good one. She could pursue
more interviews via other means; perhaps her brother could be of help. And she should make
sure that her use of secondary sources (literature, other secondary data – see Question 4 below)
is strong. Rather than doing nothing while waiting for Peter to reply (assuming that is
appropriate) she should be getting on with other aspects of her project. Fabricating her
material, which seems to have occurred to her, is not, of course, an option!
3. What are the major benefits and drawbacks of seeking to interview via e-mail? What
are the practical issues that would need to be addressed when collecting data through
an ‘e-interview’?
E-mail is a relatively new option for interviewing (or is it merely a form of correspondence?).
One way of generating insights into its benefits and drawbacks is to consider the benefits and
drawbacks of the more established techniques of face-to-face and telephone interviewing, and
the differences between them. And whatever the evaluation of the relative merits of different
forms of interviewing in a particular situation, sometimes the comparison will be between einterviewing and nothing at all; after all, it would hardly have been feasible for Andrea to insist
upon a face-to-face interview with Peter.
The asynchronicity and spatial distance of the e-interview have several consequences. (Some
of the practical issues are covered in passing.) For example, on the positive side:

An e-interview is cheap. Face-to-face interviewing, in particular, can cost a significant
amount of money in terms of travel and accommodation costs. It may even be
impractical; technologically, e-interviewing permits research in different countries as
easily as in the next town.

Busy subjects – and busy researchers – do not have to identify a mutually convenient
time to talk to each other, nor do they each need to find a single chunk of time in
which to complete the full interview – and, in the case of the interviewer, the
associated travel time.

Both parties have time to construct a response to a particular question (e.g. to find
information or reflect), which might help nervous interviewees or interviewers who are
not as accomplished in the language of the communication (e.g. stutterers, some
foreign students). In Andrea’s case, she does not seem to have taken advantage of the
opportunity for reflection, having fired off her follow-up questions very quickly.
Perhaps this has caused a problem; Peter might have replied if he had received one
question at a time rather than a complete set at once.

The e-interview is less intrusive than a face-to-face interview. This generally permits a
feeling of a degree of anonymity on the part of the interviewee, which can lead to their
being more open when communicating about sensitive issues such as admitting to
socially undesirable behaviour (see Question 4 below). Such quasi-anonymity can also
be helpful to researchers on occasions.
On the negative side:

The communication tends to lose spontaneity, which can be the basis for the richness
of data collected in some interviews.

It provides a limited register for communication. Neither party can pick up tone of
voice or physical gestures, leading to possible misinterpretation and, for the
interviewer, the loss of much relevant information.

It can be difficult to get a feel for the dynamic of the interview, especially how much
more the interviewee wishes to be involved and hence how the interviewer should
prioritise and order remaining questions. As Andrea has experienced, if there is a delay
in response, it is usually not clear what lies behind it. Perhaps the e-interview has even
been terminated or is at risk of coming to a halt; on the other hand, perhaps the
interviewee is still fully committed but just busy or ill. Or perhaps something has gone
wrong on the technical side. In Andrea’s case, when and how should she remind or
pursue Peter? Should she have laid down some ground rules for this kind of situation
already?
There are various other practical issues to think about when considering or conducting einterviews, including the obvious one of whether the intended research subjects will have
appropriate access to, and be comfortable with, e-mail. A practical benefit of e-interviewing is
that it creates its own record or quasi-transcript – which should be saved regularly, of course.
4. How would you research a sensitive topic like auditor independence and integrity?
With sensitive topics it is important that researchers go in with their eyes open, aware of the
position of the various actors and with a clear view about how to conduct the research in a safe
and ethically acceptable manner.
If collecting primary data, it is normal to promise confidentiality, but anonymity should also be
considered – though this is usually impractical when interviewing. One possibility is to use
randomised response techniques. Briefly, this involves asking very direct questions but
simultaneously asking research subjects to, say, toss a coin. You might ask them to answer
‘yes’ to the question if, either they have done the action in question or the coin (which you
cannot see) came up tails. Thus, when an individual answers ‘yes’ you don’t know what they
have done, but given that the coin is unbiased, you can infer answers about a large enough
sample. Participant observation is another method which can generate good insights into
sensitive issues, but it is sometimes not very practical for student projects and you need to be
careful about ethical issues in the design and execution of the research.
However, there are alternative or complementary methods for collecting data. Secondary data
might offer some potential. For example, professional accounting bodies around the world
publish statements about independence and integrity, to which auditors are meant to adhere.
These are generally available on professional bodies’ websites, since they are something on
which those with an interest in the quality of auditing should be able to rely. It would be
normal to refer to one or more of these when writing the background to a research project
involving primary data, but perhaps more could be done with them. For example, what
similarities and differences exist between them? (Depending on the researcher’s language
skills, several countries could be covered.) With the use of appropriate concepts and tools, a
more critical reflective approach to the text of the statements can also be taken. And is there
any evidence of disciplinary cases for breaches of professional standards? If not, what might
that say about the standards? If there have been such cases, and details are available, they can
be useful data. Newspaper reports, particularly in the financial press, can also be a source of
data about alleged or apparent breaches of standards regarding independence and integrity.
Case 7d: Implementing strategic change initiatives22
1. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of Mo Cheng’s decision to pilot her
questionnaire with her friends.
A pilot study is a ‘trial run’ of the main survey and is useful for many reasons. In the main,
feedback from participants informs students on the clarity and logic of the survey
questions/statements and can help students improve the structure and format of the
questionnaire (content or face validity). A properly designed and conducted pilot study may
also be used to calculate the sample size required for the main study. For Mo Cheng, she had
pilot tested her questionnaire in the early phase of her project without thinking about using it
for sample size calculation, so this is not applicable in this instance.
There are definite advantages to pilot a questionnaire ahead of final distribution:

Early indication of the content or face validity of the proposed instrument (see above).

Feedback on the ease and time taken by a respondent to complete the questionnaire.

Identifying sensitive questions or sections that respondents find difficult to answer
truthfully.

Highlighting omissions which respondents feel are important for the project.

Feedback on whether the questionnaire instructions are clear and easily understood by
respondents.

Reliability of the constructs in the questionnaire may be conducted if the pilot data set
is large enough.
However, Mo Cheng had pilot tested her instrument with her friends without reference to the
literature or thought about the relevance of the pilot group. As the pilot participants and the
final respondents were not from the same population, the advantages highlighted above are
compromised. For example, Mo Cheng’s friends’ responses to the clarity and structure of the
questionnaire, individual sensitivity, or indeed, the time taken to complete the questionnaire
cannot be assumed to be similar with the study’s actual target respondents. As such, reliability
22
Answers provided by Liz Lee-Kelley
testing of the questionnaire using her current pilot data is inappropriate. It is unlikely that
answers by middle-ranking officers will be consistent with that provided by her friends.
It is advisable therefore that Mo Cheng conduct another pilot study using participants from the
same officer population who are likely to share similar attributes and attitudes as the final
study respondents.
2. Critically review Mo Cheng’s approach to sampling and her subsequent data
collection strategy. Can Mo Cheng meet her stated objective?
Researchers are faced with the challenge of representativeness and generalisability when
deciding their sampling design and technique. Mo Cheng was no different. She followed a
classical sampling strategy of first defining her target population as all middle-ranking army
officers in her country before determining her sampling frame as the officers in post in her
city. However, the total number of officers was only an estimation by her father and she was
unable to provide a definitive list from her sampling frame. Her rationale of an army-wide
protocol for recruitment and promotion did try to address the question of whether her sampling
frame is a true representation of the target population. Although unable to fully account for the
homogeneity of the population, she had unwittingly adjusted for possible sampling error by
taking only 50 per cent of the estimated total, thus reducing the likelihood of including
elements of the sample which might not belong.
But Mo Cheng was so keen to collect 125 eligible responses, she did not really think about her
sampling technique. Although her estimated minimum sample was derived using a formula
from her text book, she had relied on her father to distribute and collect the questionnaires on
her behalf. No effort was made to screen the respondents in the data collection phase (such as
level of seniority and/or demographical characteristics) to eliminate inappropriate elements or
to prevent inadvertent omissions. In doing so, she had ignored traditional probability sampling
principles of equal chance selection. In effect, the actual sampling technique was a nonprobabilistic ‘judgement sampling’ which, although a valid method, does have its limitations
especially in terms of the ability to project the findings to the population.
It may be argued therefore that her sampling strategy is haphazard, inaccurate and simplistic.
Her effort to redefine the population based upon the available sampling frame of local officers
may be biased, limiting the generalisability of her research findings.
Probability sampling is costly and requires a statistically skilled researcher. Given Mo Cheng’s
relative inexperience in the research process and her attitude-based study of possible learning
from change project failures and successes is more exploratory than conclusive, non-sampling
error is not the key concern. Judgemental sampling is low cost and not time consuming and
can be more effective for greater directional or focused access. As interest is centred on the
sample subjects’ expressed views or attitudes, Mo Cheng can still achieve her objective, even
when using a non-probability sampling technique. What she should avoid is to make claims
that the study results can be generalised to a wider population.
3. What advice would you give as Mo Cheng’s project tutor to improve the quality of
her study data? Give reasons for your answer.
The case notes indicate that tutor and student met only once to discuss the proposal. Although
Dr Smith felt that the research topic was feasible and interesting, he had tasked Mo Cheng to
go away and improve her research design and methodology. Time would have elapsed
between the
first and second meeting. When considering options to help Mo Cheng, Dr Smith should start
by checking the time left to final submission.
Before embarking on their actual fieldwork students should ensure that their project is properly
supported by:
a. A clearly stated research problem and an explanation of its significance for theory and
practice.
b. An appropriate theoretical framework drawn from the relevant literatures to underpin
the research and from which the questionnaire may be developed.
c. A research design that has the proper structure and procedure for collecting data. This
should include decision on how the data is to be obtained (e.g. survey, interviews,
focus group, etc.), strong sampling rationale and method, clearly identified variables
and how they are to be measured, and how the data is to be coded, hypotheses tested
and results analysed and interpreted.
In Mo Cheng’s case, none of the above preconditions is met, so time permitting, Dr Smith
should insist on agreeing a chapter submission timetable for each of the above, while leaving
sufficient time for data collection, analysis and write-up.
As access is not an issue, Dr Smith could insist that Mo Cheng disregard her original pilot data
and conduct another pilot using army officers from her city. This will ensure that the pilot
respondents are similar in characteristics and attitudes with those who will be included in the
final survey. The purpose of the new pilot should be made explicit. At the least, Mo Cheng
should check for content, sequence, form, layout and question difficulty and instruction clarity.
It is also advisable that she tests for reliability as her questionnaire is not a pre-validated
instrument. For that, she should aim to get at least 30 completed pilot responses. The final
questionnaire should not be issued until both project tutor and student are satisfied that the
problems identified by the pilot are corrected and the internal consistency of the questionnaire
constructs are acceptable (check your set text for more information on reliability testing).
Taking on board the unknowns already highlighted in Answer 2, Mo Cheng can still use nonprobability sampling but Dr Smith should encourage Mo Cheng to improve the rigour of her
data collection by providing a sampling procedure for execution clearly defining the sampling
units (i.e. who are middle-ranking officers). Non-response is unlikely to be an issue in this
study, but as Mo Cheng’s research interest includes a question on age or gender effects,
respondents could be screened by reference to their rank attributes and demographic
characteristics to ensure eligibility. Although her chosen sampling approach does not allow
assessment of sampling error, it does cater for the location of the desired characteristics, so
every attempt should be made to encourage her father or nominated agent to collect data only
from officers falling within the relevant control characteristics.
Case 7e: Comparing UK and French perceptions
expectations of online supermarket shopping23
1
and
Outline the problems Daniel is likely to face by using his Marketing assignment as his
pilot study?
An advantage of using the results from his previous assignment is that he has already
completed the steps of identifying at least some of relevant literature and extracted the
variables linked to measuring perceptions and expectations of online shoppers. Before using
his assignment, he needs to ensure that this is permissible within his university’s regulations.
Even if he is allowed to use his assignment as the starting point for his research project there
are several missing elements. Daniel needs to return to the literature to ensure that the focus of
his critical literature review meets his new objectives of undertaking a comparative study of
the situations in France and the UK clearly.
In addition, Daniel also needs to consider the respondents who provided the data for his
Marketing assignment. It can be argued that students on his programme are not representative
of the population of supermarket customers in the UK and France and he needs to investigate
for his dissertation and as such the results of his previous work may be biased. To obtain
results with any statistical significance he would need to build a sampling frame which
encompasses potential users, both in France and the UK.
2. Discuss how the distribution of a link to the Internet questionnaire using Facebook
via e-mail might jeopardise the statistical representativeness of Daniel’s findings.
It has become very popular in recent years to use online distribution for questionnaires as it
offers a low-cost option for the collection of data with immediate access to potential
respondents. It has been considered that a personal connection with the respondent, i.e. a
‘friend’ on Facebook, offers a better chance of receiving a response. More recently, however,
there have been discussions of online survey ‘burnout’ as more and more people use this
method to distribute their questionnaires.
With contacts made within the virtual world there is also an issue of reliability and validity,
throwing doubt upon the ability to generalise findings. There is no guarantee that the ‘person’
who has provided data is in fact who they say they are, although the design of Facebook can be
argued to minimise this. Using a snowball sampling technique might compound this problem
as you move away from people you know. Daniel could initiate Snowball sampling by sending
a briefing sheet for his project to each of his chosen Facebook contacts providing a brief
profile of respondents, a date limit for responses and the questionnaire link. He could then ask
each of these people in turn to send the request to participate in the study to their contacts
whose profiles matches their own.
Evidence from previous online surveys suggests it may be difficult to obtaining a
representative sample from a general population, as certain categories are either under or over
represented. Despite high Broadband penetration in homes, in the virtual world young males
are over represented and elderly people under represented.
23
Answers provided by Marie Ashwin and Alan Hirst
3. Identify a sampling technique that could enable Daniel to collect reliable data from
which he could make statistical inferences. Give reasons for your choice and explain
the steps you would take to select your sample.
In order to collect data from which he can make statistical inferences, Daniel needs to use a
probability sampling technique.
His first stage would be to decide what his sample needed to represent and to ensure that he
can obtain a sampling frame for that population. One possibility would be to focus only on
students at the two Higher Education Institutions in which he is studying, one in France and
one in the UK.
Providing he obtained permission and ethical approval from both Universities, he could then
select his sample using a probability sampling from a complete list of students provided by
both. These lists may be as simple as lists of e-mail addresses.
The precise sampling techniques chosen would depend on how the lists were structured. For
example, if they were structured by faculty, then it might be useful to use stratified random
sampling, stratifying his sampling frame by faculty to ensure all faculties were represented.
The first stages can be designed to identify the key attributes he wants to find amongst his
respondents and divide his sampling frame into a number of strata. For example, the first
decision he might make would be to divide his contacts into those in France and those in the
UK. Within each country he could make further divisions using demographic characteristics
such as age, gender and location.
Once the makeup of his sampling frame is clear he could use a purposive technique to identify
respondents to ensure he has representatives of each group. It must be made clear that the data
collection is about online shopping in France and the UK. As he is looking at perceptions and
expectations the respondents do not necessarily need to have had personal experience as they
are potential online shoppers and their views may explain why they have not used the Internet
to date.
Case 8a: The involvement of auditors in preliminary profit
announcements
1
a. Identify data sources used by Tony and Jim in this research?
b. Which of these are secondary data and which are primary data?
c. Give reasons for your answers.
The two key data sources used were the Preliminary Profit Announcements or ‘Prelims’ of UK
companies and the annual report and audited annual accounts of these same companies.
Both these sources are secondary data as they had originally been produced for some other
purpose. The prelims had been produced to satisfy the requirements of the London Stock
Exchange; the annual reports and audited accounts are produced for shareholders and other
users.
2
a. What other methods (if any) do you think Tony and Jim could have used to obtain
the data they needed to test their hypothesis?
b. Give reasons for your answer.
There are numerous possible answers to this question. The key issues here are whether or not
Tony and Jim would actually have been able to gain access to these data, the feasibility of
collecting these data, and the accuracy of the responses they would have received.
3. What were the problems faced by Tony and Jim in using these secondary data?
Tony and Jim faced a number of ‘secondary data’ type problems. These include:

The need to gain access to an RNS terminal for a few days and to pay for this access

Only being able to obtain a copy of 166 of the 178 prelims for which the release date
had been ascertained

Only being able to obtain a copy of the annual report and audited accounts for 148 of
the companies for which the prelims had been obtained

The need to undertake detective work to establish the date at which the audit work was
signed off.
4. What lessons can you learn from Tony and Jim’s experience?
A variety of lessons can be drawn from this case including:

How a research hypothesis may be derived from the literature

The need to be aware of costs associated with obtaining secondary data

The importance of gaining access (and in particular the use of contacts) in obtaining
secondary data
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies

The need to combine secondary data from a variety of sources to answer a research
question

The fact that there are often difficulties associated with combining secondary data
from different sources, in particular the declining size of the complete data set as
further sources are integrated

The need for careful searching (detective work) to uncover all the data required.
Case 8b: Research and development in the UK pharmaceutical
industry in the 1960s24
1. a. List the data sources used by Clare in this research.
b. Which are secondary sources and which are primary sources?
c. Give reasons for your answers.
The primary sources used by Clare are:

Department of Trade papers

Patent Office papers

Ministry of Health Papers

ABPI papers
The secondary sources are:

NEDO reports

Stockbrokers’ reports

Newspaper/journal articles

Company Annual Reports and Accounts
The breakdown seems fairly clear although the classification of NEDO reports could be
disputed – however, as they are published documents and tend to use other published
information it has been categorised as secondary.
2. a. What other methods (if any) might Clare have used to find the information she
needed?
b. Give reasons for your answer.
There are sources not mentioned, for example, the publications of the Office of Health
Economics, the figures produced by International Medical Statistics (IMS). The industry today
is awash with figures and information on a scale and of a nature that was not available in the
1960s and 1970s. The industry was much more secretive then than it is now.
24
Answers provided by Judy Slinn, Oxford Brookes University
59
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Clare might also have interviewed some of the now retired employees of the companies at the
time to get their estimates (or guesstimates) of how many were employed and also to get a feel
for the industry and innovation at that time. Some of the companies concerned have had their
histories researched and written and that might be another source.
3. Outline the problems Clare faced in using these data.
a. Ensuring that like is being compared with like – drawing information from several
sources can create the problem that figures drawn from different sources have been
compiled on different bases.
b. Disentangling the truth from the PR hype – from Annual Reports and Accounts to
submissions to government committees companies are bound to try to present their
activities and operations in the best light. This does not mean the truth is not there but
it is often less than explicit and all corporate documents need careful reading. So too
does journalism for bias. Many of the quasi – independent bodies have an axe to grind:
in the pharmaceutical industry there are ‘independent’ bodies who have, for example,
always opposed price regulation and anything they publish will be written with that in
mind.
c. Understanding the climate of the time. The 1960s was a decade when the
pharmaceutical industry faced a number of problems. The triumphs of the post-war
years and the 1950s, which had seen the discovery of the antibiotics and cortisone, had
ended with the Kefauver hearings in the USA and the thalidomide disaster in Europe.
The industry no longer enjoyed public favour and confidence to the same extent as
before. It faced new regulatory regimes. Its response, by and large, was to withdraw
into secrecy where possible. Governments faced with rising NHS costs and a failure to
meet the expectations of a generation, which demanded good health as a right were
increasingly disposed to attack.
4. What lessons can you draw from Clare’s research experience?
Clare’s lessons include:

The importance of framing the research question in the context of the times

The use of many sources to build up data which will provide an answer

Recognition that sources of information 30–40 years ago will be different from today

The use of government archives – limits, constraints and the richness of the 1950s and
1960s archives.
Case 8c: Small firms internationalisation25
1. What advantages do you think this method of collecting data gave Alan when he was
trying to get Chief Executive Officers to participate in his study?
This method of data collection had major advantages for Alan, when trying to get Chief
Executive Officer’s to participate. Firstly, he knew in most instances exactly who the Chief
Executive Officer was, and was able to target his telephone requests to the correct people,
which of course gave him an air of professionalism. Secondly, from his own work
experience as a
25
Answers provided by Sharon Loane
60
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
manager, he knew that the Chief Executive Officers he was trying to target would have limited
time available to participate in academic studies. Having searched extensively for as much
relevant information as possible meant that Alan was well informed about the firm, he was
able to have ready a ‘mini-sales pitch’ for each Chief Executive Officer, for example, ‘Your
firm is really interesting as you have entered 10 international markets very quickly and,
although I have gathered quite a lot of information on you, there is some which is unavailable
from secondary sources…Could you help me’ The Chief Executive Officers appreciated the
fact that Alan was able to demonstrate serious intent when approaching them, that he had done
extensive research and was only asking for minimal time. They also appreciated the fact that
he was able to quickly e-mail the information sheet to them, and that they read through and
checked the data, and completed the gaps. However, many went beyond this and provided
much information not yet in the public domain, and suggested other firms that Alan should
follow up. Some commented that they liked this ‘management friendly’ approach to research.
This greatly enhanced the response rate to his e-mail requests for completed templates. Had
Alan chosen to conduct further research in this area, the ‘incremental rapport’ he had built with
the Chief Executive Officers would have enhanced his chances of being granted, for example,
and interview at a later date, as again he had already obtained much information, and would
have wished to follow up on specific issues.
2. How else could Alan have accessed a suitable sample of firms for his research?
Alan could have used existing small firm databases, such as those provided by some Industry
bodies or Export Promotion agencies, Kompass and so on. He would have needed to screen
these firms to ensure that they were in fact a good fit with the criteria laid down for inclusion.
However, Alan would have found that many would fit some criteria, but perhaps had not
internationalised rapidly, and therefore could not be included. He may have found that he spent
time contacting firms who were unsuitable, and this could have impacted upon the submission
date for his project.
3. Can you think of any potential pitfalls of using the Internet to conduct research?
There are indeed pitfalls to using the Internet to conduct research in this manner.

There is a great temptation to ‘surf’ and get distracted and waste time, therefore a
degree of self-discipline is required.

There is a significant upfront investment in time and effort in learning how to refine
the Internet searches (e.g. using the ‘right’ keywords and establishing which sources
are reputable).

This type of research may not be suitable for consumer research, or for firm’s which
do not have an Internet presence.

There is an issue with regard to secondary sources, as some degree of judgement
should be used in order to extract the truth from the Public Relations hype. Articles
found in the business press, from public bodies, and from firm’s websites may all be
written from a particular perspective. This is not to say that the truth is not there, rather
that it may not be explicit, as corporate documents and press releases may be written to
‘talk up’ particular aspects of a firm’s activities, also press articles may suffer from
journalistic bias. It is also advisable to be aware of the fact that ‘independent’ bodies
and ‘business analysts’ may also have particular viewpoints and agendas. However,
Alan got around this problem, by triangulating materials and data from many sources,
which was then corroborated by the participant Chief Executive Officers.
Case 8d: Patent grants and the implications for Business26
1. Why does the supervisor advise that Chris do a project using secondary data rather
than collecting primary data?
 Time Constraints: He has only three months, including writing-up to do the project.
 There were some reliable secondary data available to conduct secondary data research.

Chris is statistically good and can technically make the best use of his skill to conduct
a statistical analysis.

Primary data collection will incur difficulties in data access, time limitation, and costs.
2. What sources of information has Chris discovered through his search?
 Library database
 References within the three papers
 Statistics from WIPO website
3. Do you find Chris’s justification for his research project convincing? Give reasons
for your answer?
Yes, the justification is convincing because of contribution to knowledge through his work:

He points out that the empirical studies in this field were limited

His research would make empirical contributions by examining Eastern European
countries:
-
revealing the changes of Western European countries in comparison to previous
studies
-
comparing and contrasting Western and Eastern European countries providing
policy makers and business practitioners with implications.
4. Despite obtaining a distinction for the project, the supervisor commented that Chris
should have discussed the limitations of his data sources more thoroughly. Visit the
WIPO’s website (http://www.wipo.org) and make a note of precisely how the data
Chris used were compiled. Based on this, how would you suggest Chris presents more
thorough a discussion?
WIPO compiles IP data according to information provided by national IP offices via annual
statistical questionnaires. It categorises the data into patents, utility models, trademarks,
industrial designs, plant varieties and micro-organisms. Under each category, applications and
grants are broken down by domestic and foreign applications and grants. WIPO has compiled
the data in a simple, systematic and unified manner so that statistic comparisons globally can
take place. The data are direct indicators of overall technological activities across the world
with their systematic availability and the most extensive applications by researchers.
26
Answers provided by Deli Yang
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Nonetheless, WIPO statistics have their weaknesses that should be borne in mind when using
the data. They are aggregate, and do not identify technology fields (Kotabe, 1992). This
indicates that researchers have to seek for other data sources if they intend to conduct specific
industrial analysis. Moreover, WIPO incorporates IP statistics based on questionnaire
responses by national IP offices. Given the nation-based nature of IP systems across countries,
questionnaire responses may vary distinctly. For example, 75 countries (e.g. Japan, Germany
and China) in the world have adopted a utility model granting system (Suthersanen, 2006).
This means that they clearly differentiate petty patents and invention patents in their statistical
stock. However, other countries that do not adopt a utility model system (e.g. UK) would
categorically grant minor inventions as patents. Due to various ways of compiling data across
nations, it may be difficult for WIPO to follow a standardised approach to incorporate these
data into WIPO statistical stock.
Case 8e Trust repair in a major finance company27
1. How might Liam have got around the various subscription paywalls on certain media
websites that prevented him from accessing their material?
Apart from, of course, signing up to the most credible media sources, Liam could also have
checked with his university library whether they have the online newspaper Nexis database
available for students. This contains the full texts of UK regional and national newspapers. In
addition, the Regional Business News database contains full text materials from a number of
US business journals and newspapers and newswires. Finally, the Nexis online database,
provides access to full text of UK and national, regional newspapers. (See also Table 3.2 for
more details of these sources
2. In terms of his coding procedure, Liam opted to annotate the documents by hand.
How else might he have done the coding in a more systematic and transparent
manner?
Another option would have been to analyse the documents using Computer Aided Qualitative
Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) such as NVivo, which would have enabled him to
categorise statements and actions, grouping them together to analyse the common language
used, as well as to record their frequencies. He would also have been able to provide a clear
worked-through example of his coding in an Appendix (although Liam could have
photocopied, or scanned, one of his own handwritten annotated statements). This systematic
analysis may have enhanced the quality of his analysis, but using this software requires some
training and enough time to do it justice. This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 13.14.
3. How might Liam write up his case study, in terms of a structure?
Once the introduction and literature review has been produced, Liam faces two issues in terms
of how to structure a case study. The first is on method. A strong case study would explain the
process of data collection and assess the sources for the materials, perhaps discussing them in
terms of Scott’s (1990) four criteria for the suitability of documents for case study analysis:
authenticity (are the documents genuine, and of unquestionable origin?), credibility (is the
evidence contained therein free from error or bias?), representativeness (are the documents
27
Answers provided by Graham Dietz
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© Pearson Education Limited 2016
typical of their kind?) and meaning (are they clear and comprehensible?). The next stage
would be to account for the data analysis (for which see the response to Question 2 above).
A second structure issue is how to present the content of the case study itself. One option is to
present a pared-down factual narrative first, with few details beyond the essential time-line of
events (e.g. no quotes, no embellishments, only a basic summary of the facts), saving the detail
and analysis for a subsequent chapter. The alternative structure is to provide the rich detail and
the analysis alongside the narrative (i.e. presenting the bank’s initial press release and
analysing it there and then, rather than waiting for a subsequent chapter to return to it). The
basic time-line can then become an Appendix. There is no correct answer to this, except to say
that while the ‘case-first-then-the-analysis’ structure can feel repetitive and clunky (going over
the same events twice) our experience of writing detailed single case studies for journals is that
this tends to be the favoured approach.
4. What limitations would Liam need to concede in his write-up?
Case studies are prone to the accusation that ‘N = 1’, and this is unavoidable, so Liam would
have to make clear that generalising beyond this case is necessarily speculative. Nevertheless,
the purpose of a case study is to bring an organisational phenomenon to life, in all its
complexity, and a theory’s assumptions and propositions can still be examined against a case
study from ‘real life’. In addition, the learning outcomes from even a single vivid case can be
as powerful, and often more compelling, than those offered by a quantitative study, no matter
how complex the statistical analysis.
Liam would also have to concede that, without paying subscriptions to some newspapers, his
‘data’ was somewhat uneven. The gaps in his data would have to be acknowledged in his
limitations. He could have got around this, of course (see the response to Question 1).
Moreover, his analysis would necessarily be qualified by his reliance on secondary sources
from sources outside the bank itself, and by the self-serving ‘PR’ motives behind the firm’s
own statements.
The outcome variable in Gillespie and Dietz’s paper is employees’ ‘perceived organisational
trustworthiness’. Liam would also have to concede that he lacks adequate materials to
comment on the actual impact of the crisis and trust repair efforts inside the bank, beyond
anecdotal evidence and journalists’ reportage.
Reference
Scott, J (1990). A matter of record, Cambridge: Polity.
Case 9a: Manufacturing strategy in a textile company
1. Describe the type of participant-observation role adopted?
In terms of the four participant-observation roles, this comes nearest to that of observer as
participant. The researcher’s identity is revealed and the researcher takes part in activity.
However, it seems that Huw’s main role here is that of consultant. His researcher role is a
subsidiary one. Therefore, it may be more accurate to describe Huw as acting the role of
the practitioner–researcher.
2. What were the advantages/disadvantages of Huw’s approach?
Huw had two major advantages. First, he did not have the problem of negotiating research
access. He was fortunate that he was able to earn money and do his research
simultaneously. Second, in view of the fact that he was working in the organisation he
obviously learnt a great deal about the way the organisation operated in both an ‘official’
and unofficial’ sense.
On the other hand, this familiarity with the organisation that he gained may have led him
to make assumptions and pre-conceptions and therefore prevented him from exploring
issues, which may have enriched the research. He was fortunate in this respect that he was
working with colleagues with whom he regularly discussed his views. They would have
helped him avoid the worst pitfalls of invalid assumptions.
Undoubtedly Huw would have experienced time problems. He was combining two roles
and the discussions with colleagues in their hotel, while providing valuable insights, would
have imposed an even greater time burden upon him.
3. What are the merits of Huw’s approach to recording data?
He was obviously very systematic in the way he kept his participant and observer data
separate. This suggests that he was able to make a clear distinction between the two. We
are not so sure about this. It seems inevitable that the two sets of data will merge
considerably. This emphasises the point that the way in which data like these are collected
is a very individual thing. Huw obviously felt comfortable with this way of doing it. When
we spoke to him about this, he said that it was easy to keep looking at both sides of his
sheet during the analysis. This method helped him focus on the fact that he was
performing two roles. He was only being paid for one of these and he had a professional
responsibility to his client to ensure that his research interests did not assume greater
importance than his consultancy duties.
4. What were the strengths of Huw’s approach to analytic induction?
There was a clear relationship in the researchers’ minds between the activities in which
they were engaged and the roles they were playing. This means that they were in a position
to develop an awareness of the fact that different activities may have generated different
roles, for example, helping managers to ‘read’ various situations may have put them in
‘trainer- facilitator’ role whereas learning the organisation’s ways of operating cast them
in ‘learner’ role. The point here is that these different roles may have generated different
role behaviour from the managers. This may have been useful in gaining an understanding
of the way that strategy change was implemented.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
The main strength of Huw’s approach can be appreciated still further when Chapter 12 on
the analysis of qualitative data has been read.
Case 9b: Customer satisfaction on a long-haul tour holiday28
1. Why do you think Suzanne used participant observation to answer the research
questions suggested by Ric?
Consider what Jorgensen (1989: 13) called the ‘preferred conditions’ for participant
observation.
‘Participant observation is most appropriate when certain minimal conditions are present:

The research problem is concerned with human meanings and interactions viewed
from the insiders’ perspective.

The phenomenon of investigation is observable within an everyday life situation or
setting.

The researcher is able to gain access to an appropriate setting.

The phenomenon is sufficiently limited in size and location to be studied as a case.

Study questions are appropriate for case study.

The research problem can be addressed by qualitative data gathered by direct
observation and other means pertinent to the field setting.’
Now apply these to the participant observation conducted by Suzanne.
First, her research problem was to be viewed from the perspective of the client (tourist). The
group size (11 persons including the tour leader and the researcher) seemed as if it would
allow the necessary degree of rapport with the people, events and overall setting.
Second, the tour was not created or manipulated by Suzanne – other than any single tourist
manipulated the tour. Suzanne was constantly aware of the need to forge a balance between a
passive and a pro-active presence. The setting was, indeed, natural rather than artificial. The
Malaysia tour was described in the brochure as a ‘leisurely tour’ and an ‘easy going adventure’
and had time set apart for idle relaxation, beach-combing and swimming as well as the rather
more active mountain walking and jungle walking. Of course, not all tourist experiences with
tour operators would yield themselves so easily to participant observation. Indeed, a setting
that involved interaction with a small mobile group was perhaps the ideal for sustained study
through time. This has also been shown (in part) by the study of extra-ordinary experience in
the (tourism) context of river rafting (Arnould and Price, 1993). On the other hand, other
studies (outside tourism) have not required the existence of a specific group of participants
such as may be found in the case study presented here (Penaloza, 1994; Whyte, 1981; Wolcott,
1994).
Third, access depended only on the twin limitations imposed on most tourists – time and
money. The setting was open rather than closed. Access was not dependent on gatekeepers and
consequent manipulation. In general the setting was also visible rather than invisible. In the
terms of Goffman (1959) it was ‘front-stage’ rather than ‘backstage’.
28
Answers provided by David Bowen
66
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Fourth, the phenomenon was sufficiently limited in size and location to form a convenient
single case study. Although there has been some management and academic argument as to
when an inclusive tour starts and finishes in the mind of the client the tour had a clear
published departure date and return date. Observation could proceed between those times in
the almost certain knowledge that every client would recognise them as the core, if not the
whole, of the inclusive tour experience. Not only did the tour have generally distinct temporal
limits, but also it had clear limits with regard to its functioning, a pre-determined size limit
with regard to client numbers and pre-determined movement through geographical space.
Jorgensen’s condition was well met.
Fifth, it has been shown that a case study may be the preferred strategy when ‘how’ or ‘why’
questions are being posed. This was indeed the case in this study.
Finally, even in advance there seemed to be some surety that direct observation was entirely
feasible within the field setting of a long-haul tour package.
In sum, the various conditions of Jorgensen appeared logical, workable and comprehensive.
2. How do you think Suzanne would have justified adopting the role of complete
participant and undertaking covert observation to her university’s ethic committee?
Suzanne would clearly have had to declare that her work involved study of human participants.
She would have stated that ethics (in essence) is the study of right and wrong and business
ethics is the study of right and wrong in a business situation. So, observation (in this case)
would not disturb the normal production and consumption of the service. It would involve
minimum alteration to the tourism experience as far as the clients would be concerned. So,
neither the business nor the clients would be overtly affected.
Suzanne would argue that she would participate as a tourist and would not seek to alter the
tourist experience any more or less than any other tourist. Moreover, she would undertake not
to ascribe any specific confidences to management. She would generalise her comments with
regard to specific individuals – for example, the tour guide – or specific accommodation
providers and so forth (rather difficult with the production of a narrative). Suzanne would
stress that the emphasis would be on analytical understanding. A business response would
require further thought and discussion – and further research – before subsequent action.
3. Why are businesses often reluctant to use a research method such as participant
observation?
Customer service questionnaires, especially when self-administered, are often one of the least
expensive forms of research. They allow easy quantification and appear to produce objective
data. It takes time to encourage the adoption of more subjective, softer, qualitative approaches
– despite the argument (won by Suzanne with both the senior managers from Expeditions and
her academic colleagues) that they may provide greater insights into behaviour (when
conducted properly).
Case 9c: Exploring service quality in bank customers’ face-toface experiences29
1. How should Hannah justify to Arafet her role as a complete observer?
Hannah’s observations are in the exploratory stage of research. The initial pilot observations
will serve as a reconnaissance for further observations. Hannah does not intend to reveal her
role to those she is observing, the customers; however, members of staff at the branch are
aware of her role and she will need to discuss this possibly bias with Arafet.
As a complete observer, Hannah should emphasise that she does not does not reveal her
observer activities, and that she is not involved in the banking activities and procedures.
2. Imagine you are Hannah’s supervisor, Arafet. How would you respond to the
question ‘Do you think I am adopting the role of observer as participant?’ Give
reasons for your response.
Arafet will be asking Hannah questions to challenge her understanding and thinking about the
level of involvement she will have in the customers’ behaviours. Observer as participant
implies immersion by the researcher in the setting of the observation. Arafet will be
questioning Hannah to find out to what degree she will be immersed in the activities of the
bank.
Arafet will probably ask her what banking activities she will be doing as part of the
observations. He will also wish to know whether or not she expects to be engaged in the
process of the customer experience, for example greeting customers or indicating where
customers should queue for cashing cheques? Hannah will probably answer ‘no’ or ‘not at all’
to these questions. She is only observing customer behaviour in the banking hall and observing
customers reactions to the environment in which they are conducting banking transactions.
Arafet will, also in his questioning check to ensure that Hannah has complied with her
University’s ethical policy on research.
3. How do you think Hannah’s presence as an observer might impact upon the data she
collected?
Possible observer effect bias on staff behaviour, who may, under observation conditions
perform in a more positive way to the customer.
Hannah’s position within the Banking Hall may impact on which activities she can observe
and which she cannot.
The times at which Hannah is observing such as lunchtimes or other busy times or during
extremely quiet times could influence the extent to which Hannah is noticed by both customers
and staff.
4. Examine Hannah’s recording form (above). Outline how you feel it could be improved.
29
Answers provided by Cathy Leng
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
There is no doubt that Hannah’s recording form would benefit from some amendments.
Hopefully, many of the improvements suggested below would have been identified by the pilot
testing and made prior to the actual observations.
Possible improvements to the form include:

Rearranging the form to include sufficient space to record a commentary on
customers’ activities.

Ensuring that there are no spelling mistakes on the form; for example, ‘artefacts’ is
spelt incorrectly.

Clarifying precisely how each of the categories would be recorded to ensure
consistency between observations. For example, how will each of the ‘ambient
conditions’ be recorded? Will temperature be recorded as perceived by Hannah using
broad categories such as hot, warm, comfortable, cold or draughty, or will it be
recorded using a thermometer.

Adding a reminder for Hannah to attach a digital photograph of the branch to the form
as an aide-memoire to the observation.

Adding a reminder to note on the floor plan the position from which Hannah was
observing. This is important as where she is sitting may limit her view of certain
branch activities, for example if she was positioned away from the front door the
observations of customers entering the branch could not be recorded.

It is unclear how this form will enable Hannah to record more than one customer’s
activities. If Hannah intends to use one form for each customer then she will need to
think how she will select which customers to observe. She may also need to record the
total number of customers in the time period as well the number actually observed

Hannah should add a notes section to the form. This would her to note down any
possible observer effect such as customers becoming conscious of her observations or
acting in an extreme manner.
Case 9d: Online images of tourist destinations30
1. Do you consider the internet message boards that Anjali wishes to use to be public or
private? How would you justify your answer?
The debate on whether messages posted on internet are in the public or private domain gained
momentum with the publication of King’s Guidelines (1996) for researching internet
communities, yet even today it still seems inconclusive (Kozinets, 2006). Both sides to the
debate have persuasive arguments. One way to look at it is that a message posted in cyberspace
is public because it can be picked up by search engines and read by anyone who comes across
it. Also, if an internet message board is free, i.e. if it does not require registration and has a
large membership base, it can be likened to a published source, e.g. a newspaper (Langer and
Beckman, 2005). Others (Kozinets, 2006; Reed, 1996) suggest caution, saying that, as a first
step, a researcher should try to understand how members of the message board perceive their
space.
30
Answers provided by Mridula Dwivedi and Anil Yadav
69
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
In this spirit, both the Thorn Tree and Indiamike message boards have mixed characteristics.
They have a large membership base and the material posted on them is picked up prominently
by search engines (as would be from any established message board) but both require
registration before one could post on them. So they exhibit features of both. In such a case,
Anjali should proceed with caution and obtain permission before she uses the data for her
research project.
2. Do you consider informed consent necessary for Anjali’s research project? If
informed consent were necessary, how should she go about obtaining it?
Yes, since the message boards Anjali wishes to use do not fall clearly in the public domain, it
is better to seek permission at the very outset. Kozinets’s (2002) guidelines can be helpful in
charting out a course. A mail to the moderators/owners stating the purpose of research and
asking for permission could be a starting-point. For example, when one of the case authors
requested the moderator of the Thorn Tree message board for permission to use data for a
paper, he immediately said ‘yes’. He added, however a word of caution, that for verbatim
quotes individual authors had to be approached as they owned the copyright jointly.
Making a post to the community and stating the purpose of the research is also a good idea.
There are arguments that since not all the community members might see that particular post
(King 1996), is a simple post to the community just enough? But when coupled with seeking
permission from owners/moderators and asking permission for direct quotes, this seems to be
reasonable and comprehensive.
3. What do you think should be Anjali’s policy regarding the use of direct quotations?
Direct quotes lend authority and credibility to a narrative and also add colour to it, so they are
an indispensable ingredient of any qualitative research. Whether the message board is public or
private, taking informed consent seems imperative for two reasons:
1. Search engines can easily identify the source of any verbatim quotes along with the
user profile on the original site which may be detrimental for the person, more so in
case of sensitive research topics as illustrated in the Eysenbach and Till (2001) study.
2. Even if a person has posted data on a more public forum s/he may still object to being
quoted. Therefore, Anjali should contact the individual community members and seek
their permission (Kozinets, 2002) for using their quotes in her research.
There are, of course, many users who stay active on a message-board for a while and then
never come back to check their private messages or respond to e-mails. Such transient
members may not even be aware of Anjali’s request. In such a scenario, it will be advisable for
Anjali to not to use their quotes.
4. What could be the advantages of using online observation for Anjali? Are there any
disadvantages that she should be aware of?
Online observation would give Anjali an access to naturally occurring conversations among
consumers (Kozinets, 2002) and their opinion of India as a travel destination. The members
posting questions on the message boards are usually looking for specific information related to
their travel plans and they hope to benefit from the experience of other tourists. It may provide
an excellent insight into India’s destination image, as the conversation is driven by actual
consumer needs and is not occurring in response to any pre-determined research questions.
Online observation could also be less time consuming, less costly, and more unobtrusive, as
compared to face-to-face observations. As the data is in the text form, therefore, no recording
or transcribing would be required. However, this would also mean that non-verbal or social
cues are almost completely absent. Also, a message board may predominantly cater to a
particular segment (Kozinets, 2002), for example, independent travellers, so the results cannot
be generalised in such an instance to the wider population. Online message boards would also
reflect the opinion of only those who have an access to the internet further limiting the
generalisation of the findings
References
Eysenbach, G. and Till, J.E. (2001) Ethical issues in qualitative research on internet
communities, BMJ (British Medical Journal), Vol. 323, No. 7321, 1103–05.
King, S.A. (1996) Researching internet communities: proposed ethical guidelines for the
reporting of results, The Information Society, Vol. 12, No. 2, 119–27.
Kozinets, R.V. (2002) The field behind the screen: using netnography for marketing research
in online communities, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 39, No. 1, 61–72.
Kozinets, R.V. ( 2006) Netnography 2.0, in R.W. Belk, (ed.), Handbook of Qualitative
Research Methods in Marketing, Cheltenham, pp. 129–42, U. N. and Northampton, M. A.,
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Langer, R. and Beckman, S.C. (2005) Sensitive research topics: netnography revisited,
Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 189–203.
Reed, E. (1996) Informed consent in the study of on-line communities: a reflection on the
effects of computer-mediated social research, The Information Society, Vol. 12, No. 2, 169–74.
Case 9e: Strategy options in a mature market31
1. Given Siphiwe’s research question, do you think the observation method she used
was the best option? Give reasons for your answer.
Siphiwe needed to collect information to make an informed investment decision, i.e. whether
to move to a harvest strategy to fit the characteristics of the mature life cycle of the market. It
appears from the information in the case study that she employed structured observation, that
is, observing the frequency of certain behaviours such as inspecting the fridges, picking up and
putting down a product, and the kind of product the different shoppers were purchasing (e.g.
flatties, whole birds, cuts, whether with or without skin). Although this method seems useful,
she still had questions about why the people had behaved in the way they did. Hence, she
could have employed participant observation in addition to structured observation. Although
she would definitely have needed ethical approval and permission from the retailer, participant
observation could have achieved the goal of understanding why shoppers behaved in a specific
way. Here she could have asked the buyers why they were doing what they did. In addition, in
this way she could have checked whether the buyers’ perceptions of what they were doing
corresponded to what they were actually doing. Furthermore, she would have been able to
uncover the reason for their behaviour, which would have been more useful than merely
31
Answers provided by Hester Nienaber
knowing what they are doing. (For example, a number of people only shop once a month,
which means that have to buy everything they need for the month ahead. This may include
stocking up their fridges and freezers, if they are fortunate enough to own or have access to
such appliances. However, this was the week before Christmas – a time when most people
celebrate with family and friends. These celebrations involve festive meals, which would
require buying more of certain supplies than usual, especially poultry).
2. Do you think it was ethical for Siphiwe to use covert observation?
This is a challenging question! Siphiwe may be of the opinion that anyone has the right to be
in a public space, however, she did not have informed consent from the retailers to observe
their customers or from the participants to watch them. As a consequence, the retailers could
have been annoyed with both Sphwie and her University! In addition, the participants could
not have been aware of what the research entails. One may argue that should the shoppers have
known that they were being observed, it might have influenced their behaviour, which might
have jeopardised the research. Furthermore, there were no alternative means of obtaining the
data required and this kind of research is not routinely undertaken. Siphiwe’s research, per se,
did not pose any risk to any of the observed people. Nevertheless, the fact remains that neither
the retailers nor the shoppers, despite being anonymous, gave their consent to participate in the
research.
3. Do you consider Siphiwe’s observations were of any value? Give reasons for your
answer.
Yes and no. A better way of going about this might have been for Siphiwe to check her
organisation’s sales records, for Gauteng, the biggest province in terms of sales. Based on this
information, she could have identified shops in that area that would have been convenient for
her project, and significant for her employer, stocking both their brands as well as retailers’
own brands. From this information she could have selected a stratified sample of stores in
which to undertake her observation. In this way she could have targeted shops located in areas
serving their target market, which would have yielded more relevant and generalisable data for
her purposes. In terms of shoppers, there is no way that Siphiwe can know who is buying what
as there is no sample frame available. Given that her study is quantitative in nature a larger
sample should have been used. By asking the shoppers questions to understand why they had
selected this brand over any other brand, particularly in her firm’s product range, would have
yielded richer information on which to base an accurate decision. Nevertheless, her
observations could be of value in planning a better study for her employer’s purposes.
4. To what extent do you feel Siphiwe’s presence in the shop could have affected the
behaviour of the shoppers?
It is not really possible to say. She did try to be inconspicuous, but there was no way of
knowing whether alert customers would have noticed her and realised what she was doing,
thus influencing his/her behaviour. Again a team approach or video recording would have been
better to reveal this kind of information and to assess the impact on buyer behaviour. This
would have required permission from the shop and shoppers to conduct the research.
5. Comment on the validity and reliability of the data Siphiwe has collected.
Once again, there is no straightforward answer to this question, especially when it comes to
observer effect. Reliability and validity, in this instance, would include subject error, time
error and possibly observer effect. The question that arises here is whether Siphiwe actually
observed
the correct subjects, given her firm’s target ‘lower income’ market. As for timing, this was not
a normal time because it was peak season for poultry sales, which was also affected by the
supplier dilemma caused by the unscrupulous behaviour of a poultry producer. Although
Siphiwe was not aware of so-called observer effects, it may well have occurred to her without
her knowing it.
Defining validity as the extent to which observation will measure what Siphiwe intended it to,
there are a number of aspects of her research that will reduce validity:

The sample was, in effect, a convenience sample.

Siphiwe could not establish in the first retailer whether or not they sold ‘Cheeky
Chicken’ products. The first retailer did not focus on the lower income target market
and so the data would be less likely to be valid. However the second retailer was more
appropriate.

Data were collected at an unusual rather than typical time of year: the days
immediately preceding Christmas.
Defining reliability as the extent to which the data collection techniques Siphiwe used would
yield consistent results, we have an additional problem:

Siphiwe has not observed or noted the same customer characteristics at each retailer so
findings are unlikely to be consistent. However, if she was using semi structured
observation rather than structured this would be less of a problem.
Case 10a: The practices and styles of public relations
practitioners
1. What are the strengths of the design of this research project? Give reasons for your
answer.
The research project was designed to seek to achieve an exploratory focus in relation to this
important and apparently little explored topic area. The design recognises the different
participants and processes involved to begin to address the focus of the research topic. Existing
theory was also identified to provide an analytical framework for the project, at least in its
early stages.
2. What are the weaknesses of the design of this research project? Give reasons for your
answer. How would you seek to overcome them?
In spite of the strength of the ideas underpinning this research project, the breath of its focus is
notable. There was scope to narrow the initial focus of the research project and its design, and
perhaps to develop this incrementally to cover the breath of the original research ideas. Even
when the scope of the research was narrowed, the focus remained broad, incorporating the
need to seek to cover a number of different journalistic specialisms. This was exacerbated by
the logistical and resource issues described in the case study.
3. What reasons would you advance for using semi-structured or in-depth interviews in
relation to this research project?
Semi-structured and in-depth interviews offered a suitable means to achieve the essentially
exploratory approach of this research project. Chapter 9 outlines a number of situations
favouring the use of such interviews. The first of these relates to the nature of the approach to
research. An exploratory study tends to be associated with the use of such interviews. In
addition, as the case study makes clear, ‘because the terminology of the study was not familiar
to many people it was decided that semi-structured interviews would be the best mode of
approach in order to overcome these barriers by providing interpretation and clarification as
necessary’ (see Case 9, page 384). The case also makes clear that the other reasons favouring
these types of interviews – the need to establish personal contact, the nature of the questions
and questioning, and the envisaged time to explore this topic with participants – also applied.
4. What data quality issues are evident in relation to the conduct of this research
project?
Several potential issues are evident throughout the case study. These include:

Identifying whom to interview

Referring to specialist language that would have different meanings to different
participants

Identifying a sample of participants that would allow data collection to be
manageable as well as achieving some notion of representativeness given evident
job and role complexity

Achieving participation and avoiding biased self-selection
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies

Establishing credibility to gain reliable data.
Other issues are likely to be identified when discussing this case study.
5. How were these data quality issues managed during the period of the research
project referred to above?
Of those issues identified above:

It was decided to interview those with whom PR practitioners interact most frequently
– a range of journalists – before interviewing PR professionals. As the case study
outlines, choosing a sample of journalists was problematic for a number of reasons.

To overcome misunderstanding or different interpretations of the use of specialist
language by participants, Valerie took two decisions. The first was to use semistructured interviews, conducted on a ‘face-to-face’ basis, as discussed above. The
second was to avoid the use of specialist language in these interviews. Open questions
were used, as was the use of summarising and testing understanding, and questioning
based on observed behaviours and critical incidents.

A sampling frame was constructed related to the range of specialisms identified as
allowing the theoretical framework to be explored.

Participation proved to be difficult and time-consuming to achieve but was eventually
ensured through a strategy that remained purposeful and generally representative of the
range of situations that needed to be covered.

Valerie’s own journalistic background helped to establish her credibility with
participants although this was also helped by the use of confirmatory letters,
assurances given about the use of the data, the nature and style of questioning, and
asking more sensitive questions at a later stage in the interview.
6. What logistical and resource issues are associated with the research project and what
are the implications of these for its conduct?
Several logistical and resource issues are associated with this research project. Its complexity,
identifying potential participants and negotiating access, the time required and the need to
undertake several journeys to interview participants are just some of the more obvious ones.
The implications of these for its conduct are also several. These include recognising:

The nature of the complexity of the research projects that we design, so that these
may be simplified where possible before commencing

The need to be tenacious whilst remaining ethical throughout

The time required – both in overall terms and in terms of undertaking particular
tasks such as telephoning for interviews and conducting them

Scheduling meetings once agreed in principle and the costs that these will involve.
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Case 10b: Students’ use of work-based learning in their
studies32
1. Why did Jim feel it necessary to analyse reflective material produced by students?
Why did he not simply interview final year students only in his study?
It was important to use reflective material because Jim needed to have some understanding of
how the students were using placement WBL before he interviewed them. The reflective
analysis gave Jim an insight into ‘what’ students were doing with WBL in the final year, and
the interviews then allowed him to explore ‘why’ they were using this learning in this way.
Much research is structured along the lines of what and then why, although the ‘what’ aspect is
usually based on the analysis of quantitative data such as that from a survey.
2. Why was it important to plan and manage the interviews in the way described?
The effective use of interviews requires both rigorous planning beforehand and active
management during them. Thus, it was very important that the students felt relaxed and were
supporting the research voluntarily, that they knew how their logs were being used and why
Jim needed to interview them. The management of the interview itself also needed careful
attention. Jim wanted to exploit the opportunity of having the students together as a group and
he therefore took a guiding role in the interview leaving the direction of the debate to the
group, only interfering when he felt the students had deviated too far from his areas of interest.
The need to close the discussion in an inclusive way is also well understood by researchers as a
means of ensuring that interviewees feel comfortable with what they have said, and have the
opportunity to add anything important that may have been overlooked.
3. How did Jim deal with the ethical issues in the study?
Ethical issues in the study were concerned with the potential for harm to the students or the
University. The University has strictly guidelines on coercive and deceptive research which is
why Jim went to great lengths to outline the voluntary nature of the participation by the
students, and that they were fully aware of why the study was being done and how the results
might be used. The explicit reference to the anonymity of the interviewees and the
commitment to confidentiality were all about demonstrating the ethical integrity of the study.
4. Why was it valid for Jim to decide to interview tutors when originally he had not
intended to?
It was valid because there was a question that had arisen in the interview with the students that
had a direct bearing on the study. Only his colleagues could answer this question effectively.
Validity, as an expression of a method that uncovers truths, meant that whether it was true that
lecturers did not encourage the use of WBL by students needed to be explored. The fact that
this was an exploratory study also allowed for the design of the research to be flexible to the
conclusions being reached during each stage of the study.
5. Jim used literature from three distinct areas.
a. What were they?
32
Answers provided by Jim Keane
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
1) To identify why this was an important and relevant topic for research
2) To find out what had been done in this area and what therefore Jim might be able
to contribute
3) To decide on a valid research method using reflective material rather than survey
data.
b. Why did he need to use each of them?
Each was needed because Jim had to be sure that his topic was worthy of study (review one),
that he was not simply repeating work done by other scholars (review two) and that his method
was valid (review three).
6. What were the main strengths and weaknesses of this research?
Strengths were the fact that this study was:

on a topic of growing importance;

that there had not been a great deal of work done on how WBL from placement was
being used in the classroom;

the innovative use of reflective material rather than survey data.
Weaknesses were:

the highly substantive focus of the study making generalisability impossible;

the lack of a theoretical or conceptual basis for the study.
Case 10c: Equal opportunities in the publishing industry33
1. What advice would you give to Mary about addressing the issue of people shifting
interview appointments, and the hostility she faced from some of the interviewees?
Mary should have thought quite clearly beforehand about how she was going to prepare
interviewees for the research. Conducting research in your own organisation brings with it a
particular set of difficulties. Your interviewees will be familiar with you already, and therefore
will have some preconceived ideas about why you are doing the research and what you want
out of it. Even when conducting research in an unfamiliar organisation, potential interviewees
will still have some view about your agenda.
In this case, Mary should have provided far more information prior to the interviews about
what the interviews were about; how much time she expected they would take; why the
interviewee should want to take part; and what, if anything they might get out of it. Mary
could also have taken the opportunity to reassure those who had concerns that there were no
right answers to the questions she was going to ask, but that she was keen to have their
opinions, whatever they were. Mary should have realised that her research focused on an issue
that was particularly sensitive, and therefore men, for example, may respond in a defensive
manner. Some re- assurances on the points outlined here may have assuaged some of their
concerns.
33
Answers provided by Catherine Cassell
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Mary’s approach was not helped by the fact that she did not make personal contact with her
interviewees before the interviews took place. She was not in a position to establish any
psychological contract with them which would ensure that they felt obliged to keep their
promises about interview times, etc. As it was, Mary’s interview was something that they
knew very little about, but had been booked into their diaries by someone else. It was not
surprising it was low in their list of priorities.
2. Mary thought that interviewees’ not keeping to the questions asked during the
interview was a problem in her research. What advice would you give her about this?
Qualitative interviews aim to access the richness and diversity of individual experience in
organisations. Therefore, when conducting qualitative interviews, we would expect that
individuals may talk about points in a different order to what we expect them to. They do, after
all, interpret the world in a different way from us, and it is those different interpretations that
Mary was keen to access.
It is unusual for an interviewee to stick rigidly to answering the questions asked. In some
cases, it is precisely when interviewees talk outside of the range of our questioning, that
unexpected nuggets of insight may emerge. Therefore, Mary should not treat this as a problem.
In this situation, the interviewer may want to ensure that by the end of the interview the
interviewee has addressed all of the questions to some extent, rather than being overly
concerned about the order in which responses are given.
Although template analysis is useful in providing some structure for the data collected, the
technique is inherently flexible. Templates can, and should, evolve as the analytic process
develops. It is unusual that an initial template devised is the one that is still in use at the end of
the analytic process. It maybe, for example, that themes emerge through the analytic process
that the researcher did not initially consider. Therefore these can be added to the template as
necessary. In addition, the researcher needs to continuously re-examine the content of various
themes, with a view to splitting and splicing themes as appropriate. In summary, Mary has
chosen a form of analysis with a structure than can account for the diversity in how her
interviewees have addressed the interview questions. Therefore this should not be problematic.
3. How do you think Mary could have addressed the following issues about the research
presented to her by the HR Director?
Mary would generally have been in a better position to address the concerns of the HR
Director if she had initially informed her properly about the research. It would have been
polite and good practice to initially discuss her research with the HR Director and also to offer
to provide some feedback. Rather than confronting the Director with the findings towards the
end of the research, Mary could have taken her views into account in planning the research
strategy. This doesn’t necessarily compromise the focus of the research, but rather would have
encouraged the HR Director to be more supportive. It is important when conducting
organisational research to seek the consent of key stakeholder groups. The support provided by
such people may make the process of conducting organisational research smoother.
The research isn’t objective
In addressing this issue with the HR Director, as stated above, Mary would have been in a
better position if she had treated the HR Director differently from the beginning. However, the
assertion that research isn’t objective is a common one with regard to qualitative interviews.
Researchers have addressed these issues in a number of ways depending on their
epistemological approach. Some strive to demonstrate that qualitative interviews are as
objective as possible through doing things like building reliability checks into the process of
conducting research. If taking this approach, Mary could argue, for example, that other
researchers have checked how she has analysed the data, and have found her coding schemes
reliable. Alternatively, Mary could gently point out to the HR Director that in practice all
research suffers from this problem. She could point out that as an interviewer who works in
that organisation, she will clearly interpret the data in a distinctive way, but as part of her
analysis she will seek to reflect on what impact this does have on her interpretation, and
include some reflexive commentary as part of her write-up.
The research won’t provide anything of use to the firm
In its current state, the HR Director’s observation seems fairly accurate. However, as
previously suggested, it would have been useful for Mary to state at the outset of the project
precisely how the firms involved would benefit from this research. Mary could have promised,
for example, to do a presentation to staff in the HR department about her findings and their
practical implications. This could be done within the context of the confidentiality that the
interviewees were promised. In addition, Mary could have offered to produce a summary sheet
of the findings to each of the interviewees involved. This in itself may have made them feel
more positive about being interviewed as part of her project. There is no reason why this
research cannot provide something of use for the firms involved, but Mary needs to be
committed to this outcome, and put procedures in place to ensure that it happens.
Case 10d: Students’ and former students’ debt problems34
1. What advice would you give Michelle about the ethical issues involved in her project?
In choosing her respondents, Michelle is acting retrospectively on information that she had
acquired during her time of acting in a capacity where her role was simply to provide advice.
Both her employers of that time – namely the students union – and their members, the students
affected, anticipated that Michelle would use any information gathered simply for the purpose
of helping the students sort out their debt problems. At the very least, Michelle should have
approached the students union and sought their permission to contact the students. It would be
unwise for the students union to accede to such a request. A preferable option would be for
Michelle to ask the students union to contact the individuals on her behalf and to ask anybody
that might be interested in participating in a focus group with other students with debt
problems to contact Michelle directly. Alternatively, Michelle could have advertised for
respondents who would be prepared to participate in a focus group with other students with
debt problems.
Michelle’s research involves human subjects. Most, if not all, academic institutions have
clearly defined ethical guidelines that generally require any researcher – student or staff – to
obtain ethical consent from a relevant individual or committee before embarking on research
that involves collecting primary data from human subjects. Such guidelines can help
researchers think about what safeguards to put in place in case somebody finds a research
environment upsetting. Seeking and obtaining ethical consent and following the procedures
agreed at that time also provides the researcher with a degree of protection should the research
lead to subsequent complaints to the institution, or create subsequent adverse publicity for
the
34
Answers provided by Bill Lee
institution. There is no indication that Michelle has sought ethical consent before embarking
on her research.
Michelle had invited people along to focus groups, but because of the way in which she had
approached her respondents, she had not obtained their prior consent to participate in a focus
group with other people with debt problems. Anybody who attended the focus groups would
simultaneously have the issue of their debts revealed to everyone else who attended. By
involving the people in focus groups, Michelle had breached confidentiality.
It may be that Michelle had violated other parts of her university’s ethical code or guidance,
but as she did not seek ethical consent, she is not aware of this. An example of such violation
may be that she failed to obtain any clear record – either written or as part of an audiorecording – that the respondents had agreed to participate freely in the research for academic
purposes.
2. What advice would you give to Michelle about her selection of respondents for her
focus groups?
Leaving aside the ethical issues associated with her selection of methods, it may be questioned
whether Michelle had selected the students who were most able to help her with the issue of
debts. It may be that many students had experienced money problems, but had not contacted
the students union about those problems, but instead had sought advice about problems like
being threatened with exclusion from the University for non-attendance, or because they had
failed their exams, simply because their time was being taken up working either part-time or
full-time in paid work to support their studies. If Michelle used the issue of whether the
student had contacted the students union over debt to select her respondents, she may have
missed some of a population who were experiencing problems arising from debt, but had not
reported debt as being the primary problem. Equally, Michelle appears to have failed to
discriminate between students who had short-term debt problems that arose from – for
example – a parental contribution being paid late because the parent was out of the country so
the debt was cleared quickly when the parent returned and those who were weighed down with
longer-term debt problems and worries that could affect their studies. At the very least,
Michelle should draw attention to these limitations when writing up her project.
The issue of seeking to include past students at all may be questioned. Although these people
may have views on funding of higher education and their memory of experiencing problems of
debt while they were students is relatively recent, their knowledge of student debt is based on
their recollections. If this was the part of Michelle’s research question on which she wanted to
put most weight, it may have been more sensible for Michelle to use only current students who
are more likely to be experiencing problems with debt as students. There is also the issue of
whether Michelle had designed the research in a way that made it easy for people who had left
university to participate in her research. Many of these respondents did not turn up, although
this could have been related to Michelle using out-of-date addresses – rather than asking for
their most recent addresses when she telephoned them – it may also relate to her organising her
focus groups to take place at the university when many may have got jobs away from the area.
It may be questioned whether Michelle should have attempted to use pre-formed groups, rather
than seeking to form new ones for the purpose of her research. Although it is to be expected
that all of the students may have some opinions on funding regimes for higher education and
the difficulties that students in debt experience, a university has quite a large population of
students and there is no guarantee that any group of students from such a population will
necessarily have shared memories or experiences of debt, or its impact on their ability to
follow a particular
type of degree course. One or two people in a new focus group may know each other, but not
trust one another. It may have been sensible for Michelle to find a way of seeking out preformed groups so that she could feel more confident that the respondents trusted each other
and had some shared experiences that might be revealed by her research.
3. What advice would you give Michelle about whether she should attempt to organise
another focus group of students who were in the final year of their studies last year to
make her research more representative?
A simple argument may be that as Michelle has not studied people that were in the final year
of their degree, she has not drawn her respondents from the entire population and this could
affect her findings. A logical corollary of this is that Michelle should organise another focus
groups of students who were in their final year last year, to make her research more
representative.
An alternative view would be to acknowledge that there is neither a perfect research design,
nor a guaranteed way of ensuring that a research strategy is executed exactly how intended to
produce the outcomes anticipated. Qualitative research of any kind always leads to problems
that are not necessarily intended, but which may have outcomes that are useful and beneficial.
Michelle’s selection of respondents was always purposeful in terms of she selected people who
incurred debt problems while a student. The research is no less purposeful; it may be argued
that the research is now more focused as it includes only existing students who have incurred
debt problems as a consequence of being students and who are still students. Having a lesser
number of focus groups could make the analysis of the data easier.
Of course, there could be additional benefits of conducting an extra focus group, but whether it
is sensible to do so will also be influenced by other concerns including how much time
Michelle has before her final deadline.
Case 10e: Organisations in a flash?35
1. Why do you think Anthony’s supervisor thought the interview went very well?
Anthony’s supervisor was likely to have been pleased at the level of rapport Anthony
established with Josh during the interview, which we can expect would have led to rich and
detailed data emerging from the discussion. To a large extent, qualitative interviewing rests on
gaining the trust of the interviewee. This is important so that the interviewee feels they can
‘open up’ to the researcher and answer questions with greater thoughtfulness and depth than
they would if the researcher has not taken time to put the interviewee at ease and/or fostered a
climate of ‘friendly informality’. In this case, Anthony has not had to develop this rapport
from scratch, since he and Josh are already friends. However, it is important to note that it can
often feel strange to interview people you know well because the interaction is not one you
might normally have in the course of your everyday relationship. It is likely that Anthony’s
supervisor recognised that Anthony handled this potential awkwardness well during the
interview by generating useful and informative conversation.
2. What is the difference between bias and subjectivity?
From the perspective of an interpretive researcher, subjectivity is an integral part of the
research process. Interpretive researchers believe that our assumptions, beliefs and
motivations will
35
Answers provided by Samantha Warren
always have an effect on the data that is generated during a research encounter because it is us
– with our own personal histories and ways of seeing the world – who interprets it.
Furthermore, our physical characteristics (such as gender, age, race and appearance) will affect
how our research participants perceive us, influencing them to respond to our questions in
different ways. Interpretivists do not see this as a shortcoming of the research process (indeed,
it is unavoidable), but they do advocate that the researcher should try to be aware of how their
subjectivity may be influencing the data. Furthermore, this should be discussed in the
methodology section of the final research report. Anthony’s recognition that he may have
focused too much on the issue of ‘community’ in his interview with Josh is a good example of
this. If researchers are unaware that they might be ‘reading’ the data in certain ways, this can
lead to biased findings. Bias, then, is when research data is presented as ‘true’ but actually is
an unacknowledged product of the researcher’s own agenda.
3. What does the interpretive research paradigm have to say about truth and
subjectivity in research?
According to the interpretive research paradigm, things are only ‘true’ in a specific context –
therefore ‘truth’ can only be partial, temporary and dependent on the particular configuration
of people and things at any given moment, particularly when we are referring to social science
and the study of organisations. Of course, there are some truths that are more stable and
enduring than others across different situations, but for interpretivists, these are still based on
convention, and are not ‘given’ in some divine order of things. The appearance of truth, for an
interpretivist, is a useful indicator of the extent to which agreements between people about
things are taken- for-granted. This is called ‘intersubjectivity’. In our flashmobbing example, it
may be true for the flashmobbers that they are just having a ‘bit of fun’. However, from the
perspective of the commuter who finds her station platform impassable when she is already
running late, it is equally true that the flashmobbers are a civil nuisance. Analysing how these
intersubjective agreements come into being is a central part of interpretive research.
4. Do you think Anthony is right to be concerned about ‘talking too much’ in his
interview? Give reasons for your answer.
Although it is important to guard against dominating the exchange of speech in a research
interview, it is also important not to be too quiet. For a discussion to flow well, both parties
need to take turns in contributing. It can be very intimidating to talk to a person who doesn’t
seem to respond! As a rule of thumb, you should not interrupt the interviewee unless it is vital
to have clarification of something they said straight away. Instead, note down interesting
points they make on a notepad and return to ask more about them when they have finished
speaking. It is possible that Anthony could also have made use of non-verbal signals to
encourage Josh’s dialogue – such as nodding or smiling – although care should be taken not to
be as neutral as possible. By agreeing with someone, even if just through a nod, you are
implicitly telling them that this is a thread you would like them to continue talking about – this
may be something you want, or not. Where possible, Anthony also should refrain from
offering his own opinion, since interviewees may feel the need to agree with the interviewer
who they regard as more knowledgeable than them and/ or in a position of power. However,
even this rule is not rigid, since offering an opinion can help the interviewee to feel they are in
a conversation (rather than an interrogation!) and to build rapport based on shared experience.
Case 11a: The provision of leisure activities for younger people
in rural areas
1. Why were the working party members ‘disappointed with the results’?
There are a number of reasons why working party members might have been disappointed
with the results. These include:

The survey focused predominantly on the first objective set by the working party
(Questions 1 to 6). Limited information was collected, for example, about the leisure
activities young people would like to see in Littlebury (Questions 7 and 8).

The respondents were not representative of youth in Littlebury, with younger females
being over represented. This meant the results were unlikely to be representative and
that the fourth objective could not be met.

It was unclear from the survey which activities held at the leisure centre were
patronised by younger people.

Although there was a clearer perception of what young people did with their spare
time, the questionnaire failed to reveal what would capture young people’s interest
and reduce their boredom.
2. a. Design a table that shows which objective(s) are addressed by which questions.
b. What other questions would you include to help ensure the data collected could
meet the working party’s objectives more closely?
Objective
Addressed by questions
To find out what the town’s young people did in their spare time
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
To establish what leisure activities they would like to have
available in the town
8
To establish their potential interest in some of the ideas
proposed by the working party
7
To compare leisure activities and preferences of different age
groups
9, (10 for comparisons by
location)
Students are likely to have a variety of answers to part b. No one answer is right. However, the
key issue is: do the questions enable the second and third objectives to be met? The checklist
in Chapter 11 can be used to assess the wording of each of the student’s questions. Where
possible the students should be encouraged to pre-code their answers, although this was not
done by the student in the case study.
3. What other changes would you make to the questionnaire?
There are a wide number of other changes that could be made to the questionnaire. These
relate both to the design and layout of the questionnaire and to the wording of individual
questions. As with Question 2b there is no one correct answer. However, the following issues
will need to be covered:
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies

The need for an accompanying letter

Lack of a clear introduction

Appearance, the questionnaire appears cramped

No clear return address

Unclear whether the return envelope has pre-paid postage

No obvious way of knowing whom the respondent is so they can be included in the
prize draw

Lack of clear instructions, for example, in Questions 1 and 7 ‘please tick the box that
applies most closely’

Wording of questions, for example, the term ‘regularly’ in Question 3 will have
different meanings to different respondents

Spelling mistakes and inconsistent use of capitals, for example, in Question 2 ‘boy
souts’.
Students may find the checklists in Chapter 11 helpful when considering the questionnaire’s
design and layout and the wording of each question.
4. In what ways could the method used to pilot test the questionnaire be improved?
The five local youth club members on which the questionnaire was pilot tested is unlikely to
be representative of all young people in Littlebury. Membership of the club was
predominantly from ‘inhabitants of two of the town’s housing estates’. Ideally, the pilot test
needs to ensure that variations in the target population are represented in the sample involved
in the pilot.
Initially, the student could have asked the Vandalism Working Party to comment upon the
representativeness and suitability of the questions. In addition, she could have asked her tutor
for advice. The questionnaire should then have been pilot tested with a group as similar as
possible to the final population in your sample using a purposive (heterogeneous) sample of at
least 10 young people.
The pilot test should cover:

How long the questionnaire took to complete

The clarity of instructions

Which, if any, questions were unclear or ambiguous

Which, if any, questions the respondent felt uneasy about answering

Whether in their opinion there were any major topic omissions

Whether the layout was clear and attractive

Any other comments.
5. Do you think that a postal questionnaire was the best way of collecting these
data? (Give reasons for your answer).
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There is no correct answer to this question. However, we would argue that a multi-method
approach involving both interviews and a questionnaire would meet the objectives better.
Unstructured interviews could be used to understand the young people’s views in relation to
each of the objectives. These could then inform the design of the questionnaire. Once the
questionnaire had been administered and a preliminary analysis undertaken, follow-up
interviews or focus groups could be used to explore the findings.
Case 11b: Job satisfaction in an Australian organisation36
1. Why did the research design only consider how employees’ attitudes and perceptions
was related to job satisfaction and performance?
The quantitative survey allows correlational analyses to be carried out. This tells us which
constructs are associated with each other but does not enable us to deduce which, if any, of the
associated constructs actually causes changes in the other. For causality to be established, three
conditions are necessary:

The variables concerned must co vary (that is to say, when the independent variable
goes up, the dependent variable should also go up or down, depending on the nature of
the relationship).

Movement in the independent variable must precede that in the dependent variable.

All other possible causes of the change in the dependent variable should be eliminated.
A longitudinal field study may allow causality to be inferred, provided appropriate controls are
in place to eliminate the effects of extraneous variables. At least two waves of data collection
would be required.
2.
Under what circumstances might it be appropriate to use web-based instruments for
data collection? When might it be inappropriate to do so?
For web-based instruments to be useful, people must have ready access to networked
computers. They must have the appropriate skills and be comfortable and confident with
computer use.
It would be inappropriate to use web-based instruments in circumstances where the target
population includes groups of potential respondents who do not have access to computing
facilities, or whose work does not involve regular computer use. In cases where the target
population is relatively small and the survey instrument is short, the costs of developing a webbased instrument might not be justified by the efficiencies achieved.
3.
How confident could the researchers be that the qualitative phase of the research had
actually uncovered relevant issues? How might this phase have been more effectively
carried out?
The response rate in the qualitative phase was poor. This means that the results may have been
skewed by a small minority of people who had particular ‘axes to grind’. The Centrelink
people who were members of the steering committee felt that the issues raised were consistent
with anecdotal evidence they had encountered. While this was grounds for some confidence
that the
36
Answers provided by Ian Firns and Tony Travaglione
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
issues raised were relevant, it should be remembered that they were managers and employees
may not always have been completely candid in the views and comments they expressed.
This phase may have been more effectively carried out if the researchers had targeted a
randomly-selected representative sample of the workforce and asked specific individuals to
complete the qualitative questionnaire. Alternatively, semi-structured or unstructured
interviews with a random sample of the workforce may have provided data in which greater
confidence might be placed.
4.
Do you think the researchers were right to make such high use of already existing
scales in their main questionnaire? Give reasons for your answer.
The main issue here is that established scales were used to measure many of the constructs
identified in the qualitative phase of the research. While these scales may have to some degree
established validity and reliability, they are not specifically tailored to the organisation
concerned. Consequently, they probably do not capture all the nuances of attitude and
perception present in Centrelink. Although many of the sources of these scales are not
identified in the case study, many commonly-used scales, including the one cited in the text,
have originated in North America. Few have previously been validated in Australia. Thus,
their generalisability to the Centrelink context may not have been firmly established. The end
result of this is that the measures used may not necessarily have been tightly focused on the
actual issues and attitudes affecting satisfaction and performance in Centrelink.
Case 11c: Service quality in health care supply chains37
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sam’s decision to use focus groups to
generate a list of service quality measures rather than relying on a pre-validated
instrument such as SERVQUAL?
Strengths
37

The measures identified will be context specific. In a complex environment, like the
health service or other public services, generic instruments may not adequately capture
these contextual issues.

Failing to fully capture and test these context specific variables, may threaten the
reliability and utility of the findings.

Although existing instruments may have been validated, analysis may reveal that the
units of analysis may differ, i.e. it may not have been validated in a supply chain
context.

The use of focus groups allows the target population to define the measures, thereby
reducing researcher bias.

The use of focus groups widens the methods used, allowing qualitative techniques to
be used alongside the quantitative analysis of the questionnaire. This mixed methods
approach is useful in giving depth and breadth to the research.
Answers provided by David Bryde and Joanne Meehan
86
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
Weaknesses

The measures identified in the focus groups may be too context specific to allow
generalisation to a wider population.

The samples used in the focus groups may not be representative of the views of the
target population, which may skew results.

Focus groups can be time consuming both for the researcher and the participants.

Anonymity may be a problem, depending on the sensitivity of the questions asked. If
others are present, participants may not provide true answers, as their anonymity
cannot be maintained.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a questionnaire to obtain data
on the importance of the measures and perceptions of performance?
Advantages

They are cost effective. The cost per questionnaire will be considerably lower than
obtaining the data via qualitative techniques. This cost-effectiveness allows large
numbers (1,500 in this case) to be distributed. To interview large numbers of people
would be too costly and time-consuming.

The use of a large sample increases the external reliability, or generalisability, of the
results.

Large samples are needed to analyse trends and patterns. In addition, many analytical
techniques require minimum numbers to ensure validity.

The use of Likert scales in the questionnaire requires the respondents only to tick
boxes to indicate their attitudes. Consequently, questionnaires are relatively quick for
respondents to complete, which may increase response rate.

The data gained from questionnaires is relatively quick for the researcher to input into
a suitable software package for analysis (e.g. SPSS) and, providing an analysis plan
has been carefully developed in advance, results can also be generated quickly.

The ability to e-mail questionnaires can increase the distribution figures, although care
needs to be taken to ensure that the sample population has appropriate IT access, and
those that have are representative of the wider population.

The respondent can complete the questionnaire at a time and a place convenient to
them (e.g. on their lunch break or on a train travelling to or from work).

Questionnaires are usually anonymous, which increases the chances of respondents
giving accurate replies. However, although a respondent’s name may not be asked for,
care still needs to be taken in the classification questions to ensure that other
information may not give away their identity. For example, a combination of questions
may ask for the respondents’ role, their sex and age group. This may identify a female
sales representative who is under 20 – if there is only one person matching these
criteria their identity could be revealed.

The questionnaire will ensure consistent questions are asked of all respondents. In
interviews it is often easy to change, add or remove questions, which can create
problems in comparative analysis.
Disadvantages

Questionnaires do not allow a two-way interaction between researcher and participant.
Therefore the respondent cannot give supplementary information and their
understanding of the questions cannot be checked. This increases the importance of a
well-designed and piloted questionnaire to check for errors and possible ambiguities in
the questions.

Response rates are usually fairly low for questionnaires. The anonymity also increases
the difficulty of targeted expediting of outstanding responses.

The ‘I wish I had asked….’ factor! Most researchers, even experienced ones, often
wish they had added additional questions to their questionnaires. This often only
comes to light during analysis, perhaps when interesting or unexplained patterns arise.
Therefore questionnaires are useful in identifying these trends though not necessarily
in establishing why they exist. This again highlights the importance of a thorough
research design and piloting.
3. How can Sam maximise the response rate to the survey?
The established contacts could be used to mobilise support for the research. This support
should ideally be encouraged at the research project’s inception. Having emailed the survey
Sam could follow-up with visits to the key organisations involved in the research project.
During these visits Sam could meet staff and explain why the research is important. Large
groups of people may be targeted at departmental meetings, lunch breaks, etc. Sam could take
additional copies of the questionnaires and arrange a collection point.
User-friendly, professional questionnaires are more likely to be returned, so she must ensure
the questionnaire is clear, well-presented and quick to complete. She ought to avoid free-text
boxes and opt where possible for Likert scales or pre-defined options. Sam could include a
well- written covering letter/e-mail briefly explaining the purpose of the questionnaire and
how confidentiality will be maintained. She could also provide a variety of completion and
return options, perhaps attaching a copy that can be printed off, manually completed and
posted/faxed/emailed back, as well as a questionnaire that can be completed electronically. She
should ensure the right people are targeted and use accurate, up-to-date mailing lists.
4. The extracts of Sam’s questionnaire you have seen do not include any of the
amendments suggested by her pilot test. What amendments to these questions do you
think Sam made after the pilot testing?
Question 22 in the case highlights several common problems in questionnaire design. It asks
two questions – how long has the respondent been in the role, and how long have they been in
the current organisation? These questions need to be split as they could be confusing to the
respondent. Also, if a respondent only puts one figure, Sam will be unclear which question this
is answering. This question also does not clearly state the units in which respondents must
answer, whether this is in months or years. Sam needs to make this clear.
Some respondents may be unwilling to answer Question 24 regarding their age. This may be
because they view it as an unnecessary personal question, or perhaps they feel that this could
reveal their identity. It is good practice therefore to give age bands (e.g. 25 and under, 26–35,
35–55, etc.) which are less sensitive. Where personal questions are included, it may be
worthwhile to state again at the beginning of this section of the questionnaire that the
information is confidential and also perhaps to give a short explanation why this data is
needed.
Case 11d: Downsizing in the Middle East38
1. What are the possible disadvantages for the way that Zaid used in contacting the
respondent?
This way has several disadvantages including the following. First, there is a possibility that
some of the respondents do not have a telephone at all. Second, they may have a telephone but
it is not listed. Third, they may have a telephone that is listed but with another family
member’s name.
2. Outline the possible disadvantages of using parallel translation technique?
Apparently, the researcher used this translation technique relying on being an Arabic native.
Nonetheless, although using parallel translation technique can ensure rendering the specific
meanings in the Arabic version, it cannot ensure that both versions Arabic and English are
identical. Consequently, this would minimise the ability to use the Arabic version by nonArabic natives in other research. This can also minimise the ability to compare the result of
this study with other studies that were conducted in English or any other language.
3. You have been asked to comment on the covering letter that Zaid prepared, what are
your suggestions to improve this covering letter?
To give a clearer picture of his project, he could add his research aims. This addition can
enhance respondent willing to participate. This can also be achieved by adding the expected
time to complete the questionnaire. As some respondents may not prefer to contact the
researcher by phone, it may be prudent to add his postal contact details.
As a way of showing gratefulness, he could offer to provide a summary of the results. This
should be upon the respondent request. As all respondents are anonymous, he should ensure
that in such cases, respondents name will not be associated with data.
38
Answers provided by Mohammad Al Kilani
The covering letter
UofA
Anytown
Business
School
University of Anytown
Anytown
date
Mr R E Spondent
Address of respondent
Dear Mr Spondent,
Participating in a survey
I am a student in the UK. The topic I am researching is the attitudes of civil servants who were awarded
ESTEDA’A. I enclose a questionnaire, which asks for your views about the topic. This study aims to:

Explore employee attitudes to, and perceptions of, ESTEDA’A.

Compare and contrast the attitudes and perceptions of employees who have been downsized by the
method of ESTEDA’A.

Consider the effectiveness of ESTEDA’A as a method of downsizing in reducing negative attitudes
towards downsizing.
You are one of a sample of 843 civil servants who were awarded ESTEDA’A. You were selected
randomly from a list of all the civil servants’ names who were awarded ESTEDA’A.
This list was obtained from the Civil Service Bureau.
The questionnaire forms a major part of my research, and I would value it highly if you would agree to
participate by filling it in. It should take no more than 15 minutes of your precious time to complete the
questionnaire. In giving your views, you will also help to further my understanding about the downsizing
process. I must emphasise that your participation is entirely voluntary, and it is up to you to decide
whether or not you wish to take part.
Let me assure you that all the information that you provide will be dealt with anonymously and
confidentially, and will only be used for purpose of this study. I will ensure that the data collected from
you and others are stored electronically at the University and are password protected. It will be kept for a
minimum of five years.
Please complete the questionnaire and return it in the enclosed stamped, addressed envelope by (a date,
give them about a week or 10 days).
Should you have any query, please contact me by post at P.O. Box 1976, Amman 11118, Jordan, or by
phone on my mobile on my mobile 0712 345 678 910, or the daytime landline 0987 654 321 000.
This research has been reviewed by the University Research Ethics Committee at the University of
Anytown. If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research, please contact the Chair of the
committee on ethics@anytown.ac.uk or telephone the Secretary to the committee on 012345555555.
Please note that some persons may find some questions distressing or may raise some personal issues.
Please, if you faced any of the above difficulties do not hesitate to contact your local Labour Office for
free advice and support.
I am grateful for your kindness, and thank you for your generous help in completing this questionnaire to
help me with my postgraduate research.
If you would like to have a summary of the results, you will need to provide your name and address on a
separate sheet of paper, because all respondents are anonymous, so I don’t know who you are in order to
send you the results. If that is the case, as the researcher I will ensure that your name will not be
associated with the data.
Yours faithfully
Mohammad Zaid Kilani
Mohammad Zaid Kilani
Student at the University of Anytown
Case 11e: A quantitative evaluation of Students’ desire for selfemployment39
1. Would the data Thomas collected from the third year students have enabled Thomas
to test his four hypotheses?
Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 all involve comparing current student desires for self-employment with
the desires of students 10 years ago. Invariably, this is unlikely to be possible using only data
collected from current students.
From the information in the case, it is likely that hypothesis four could have been tested, had
sufficient data been collected, albeit only for the population from which the sample was
selected statistically.
2. What mistake might Thomas have made in his assumption that because students
were more technologically orientated now than in the past they would be willing to
complete his questionnaire online?
Although the literature states that students are more technologically orientated than in the past,
this does not mean that they are more likely now to answer online questionnaires. As noted in
Chapter 11, although research has also shown that where respondents are IT literate, then
response rates should be higher using online as opposed to paper there is more to research
design than whether or not potential respondents will respond using a particular medium.
Another aspect that Thomas should also have taken into consideration is ‘questionnaire
fatigue’. Students often receive numerous online questionnaires whilst at University and suffer
from overload.
Finally, the literature on technology oriented students is to an extent anecdotal and based
sometimes on authors’ own postulations and opinions. As with all research in favour of a topic
39
Answers provided by Victoria Harte and Jim Stewart
is, research that counters an opinion should also be sought and reviewed to explore both sides
of a research problem or question. It is dangerous to form opinions based on a small number of
research studies.
3. What are the possible disadvantages of using an online questionnaire sent to
students’ University e-mail address?
Although each student has an e-mail address, given to them by the University, this does not
mean they necessarily have easy or regular access to a computer to check e-mails, or that they
regularly check or use that address as much as their personal e-mail address. Nor does it mean
that they are technologically competent and are willing to complete online questionnaires.
4. What possible factors should Thomas consider as reasons for non-completion of his
online questionnaire?
The three responses to Thomas’s open question provide some clues here. Firstly, Thomas’s
estimate of how much time his questionnaire would take to complete appears to have been far
less than that experienced by respondents. His assurances of anonymity and confidentiality
also appear not to have been believed by all respondents, leading to concerns. Finally, it
appears that the relevance of some of his questionnaires to his research, as he explained it, was
unclear.
Other factors that Thomas should consider are:

Questionnaire was too long

Questions may have been too complex

Some questions were too personal

The amount of personal information requested may be too much

Concerns over third parties

Whether the respondents’ levels of interest in the subject too low

Whether respondents perceive no personal benefit from the research

Whether the incentive to participate was too low or non-existent

Survey fatigue
5. How could Thomas have redesigned his research to increase his questionnaire
response rate?
Offering more than one method of responding to the questionnaire could have increased
Thomas’s response rate. The option of completing a paper version as well as an online version
may have increased responses and has been supported widely in the literature (see Dillman,
2009; Porter and Whitcomb, 2005; Sax et al., 2003).
Thomas could have used his questionnaire as a structured interview with students on his
University campus. This would have enabled him to ask students the questions face to face. If
he had decided to use a quota sample, he could have asked students outside Faculty buildings
if they wished to take part and, by process of elimination, determined those students that met
his criteria for his quota. This would have meant that Thomas had to commit to some extra
time to
seeking the responses himself and then subsequently inputting the data for analysis by
computer. However, it would have increased his response rate.
References
Dillman, D.A. (2009) Internet, Mail and Mixed Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method
(3rd edn), New York: Wiley.
Greenlaw, C. and Welty-Brown, S. (2009) A comparison of web-based and paper-based
survey methods: testing assumptions of survey mode and response cost, Evaluation Review,
Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 464–80.
Oblinger, D. (2003) Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials: understanding the ‘New Students’,
EDUCAUSE Review, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 36–40,42,44–45.
Porter, S. and Whitcomb, E. (2005) Non-response in student surveys: the role of
demographics, engagement and personality, Research in Higher Education, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp.
127–52.
Sax, L.J., Gilmartin, S.K and Bryant, A.N. (2003) Assessing response rates and non-response
bias in web and paper surveys, Research in Higher Education, Vol. 44, No. 4. pp. 409-432
Case 12a: The marketing of arts festivals
1. On looking at the questionnaire, Jemma noticed some problems with the way in
which some questions had been coded.
a. What were these problems?
b. How might these have been overcome at the survey design stage?
There are quite a few problems with the way in which the questions have been coded. These
include:
2
Quest.
Problem
Overcome by:
1
Data are not pre-coded.
List events for respondent or pre-code
questionnaire.
3
Unclear which box respondent who was
aged 31–34 would have ringed.
Rewording the question in a similar
manner to Question 2.
5
Respondents have ringed more than one
code.
Clarifying the instructions.
6
Respondents have ringed more than one
code.
Clarifying the instructions.
7
No code for ‘none’.
Include a code for none.
8
This is two questions in one.
Separate into two questions.
9
Impossible to tell to which event the
response(s) refers.
Reword the question so is event specific.
10
Data are not pre-coded.
Add a ‘leave blank for coding’ box and
develop a hierarchical coding scheme.
a. Which of the questions were likely to be most useful to Jemma for her research
project?
The questions that are likely to be most useful to Jemma need to be evaluated against the three
aspects in which she was interested:

The extent to which audiences associated events with their sponsors

The socio-economic status of those attending

The importance of different media for finding out about events.
Question 6 is useful in evaluating the first of these and Question 5 is useful for the second
aspect. However, there are no questions against which the third aspect can be evaluated
directly.
b. How could Jemma have minimised the impact on her analysis of any coding problems
with these questions?
Problems associated with coding for Questions 5 and 6 could have been minimised by coding
all responses using either the multiple dichotomy or multiple response methods. For both
questions it would be important, where possible, to recode ‘other’ into one of the existing
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
codes/variables. If a large number of ‘other’ were apparent then new codes/variables would
have to be generated. If there were a large number of these then the multiple response method
would be preferable.
3. Which diagrams, tables and statistics would you recommend Jemma to use to analyse
those questions, which were useful to her research project?
(You should state precisely what your recommended diagrams, tables and statistics
will enable Jemma to find out.)
Although only two questions are of direct relevance to the three aspects highlighted in the
introduction of the case, others may also be useful. N.B. Questions 8 and 9 are of very limited
use. Possible analyses include:
?
Diagram/statistic….
Enable to find out….
2
Bar chart
Number of people travelling in each distance
band
Mode
Most common distance band
3
Pie chart
Proportion of people in each age band
Mode
Most common age band
4
Pie chart
Proportion of people in each gender
5
Table/Bar chart
mutually
exclusive)
Table/Bar chart
mutually
exclusive)
Table/Bar chart
mutually
exclusive)
6
7
(N.B. categories
not
Number/percentage of
people
classifying
themselves in each category of economic activity
(N.B. categories
not
Number/percentage of people associating the
festival with different organisations
(N.B. categories
not
Number/percentage
discounts
of
people
using
In addition, it would be possible to undertake cross-tabulations and Chi Square tests of
Questions 2, 3, 4, 5 against Questions 6 and 7 to test for significant differences providing the
categories were mutually exclusive.
Case 12b: Marketing of a golf course40
1. a. What problems of questionnaire design are likely to have contributed to Jane’s
concern about her ability to answer the questions the Green Golf Group wished
to have answered?
There are a number of problems which may have contributed to Jane’s concern. Although the
questionnaire may elicit quite a full picture of the respondents, it does not seek to find out
explicitly the reasons for the decline in usage. At best Jane can establish a comparison of the
quality of the various elements for the company golf courses (Question 8, assuming that
respondents have interpreted this question as relating to the Company owned courses referred
to in Question 3 ), but there is no data which enables these perceptions of quality to be linked
to usage trends.
40
Answers provided by Christine Williams
95
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
the
b. How might problems of individual question’s design be overcome?
Specific coding problems and solutions include:
Question
Problem
Solution
2
Which category do 71 year olds
fall into?
Amend last group to 71 and over
3
Respondent has ticked more than
one response to an element
Clarify instructions
4
Respondent has ticked more than
one response to an element
Clarify instructions
No code for none
5
No category for 19–24 band
Add pre-coded band
6
Ambiguity in two of the options:
‘casual user’ and ‘occasionally’
Clarify terms
8
Respondent has ticked more than
one response to an element
Clarify instructions
Lack of clarity over whether the
response should relate to the golf
courses referred to in Question 3
or Question 4.
Clarify instructions
9
Two questions in one
Separate into two questions
10
Data are not pre-coded
Add a ‘leave blank for coding’ box and
develop a hierarchical coding scheme
once questionnaires have been returned
2. Which questions are likely to be most useful to Jane in writing a report about the
relative qualities of the Green Golf Group’s courses? For each of these questions or
groups of questions list the tables, diagrams or statistical approaches would you
advise Jane to use in her analysis?
The company wished to establish who used their golf courses and reasons for declining usage.
Questions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 might be considered the most useful in respect of developing a
profile of users and their usage habits.
Tables, charts or diagrams of use in analysis and presentation of the data from these questions
are:
Question
Diagram/statistic
To help find out
1
Pie Chart
Proportion of respondents in each gender
2
Pie Chart
Proportion of people in each age band
Mode
Most common age band
3
Table or Bar chart
Numbers of people using each golf course
5
Pie Chart
Proportion of people in each handicap
banding
Mode
6
Pie Chart
Mode
7
Most common handicap band
Proportion of people in each membership
band
Most common membership band
Pie Chart
Proportion of people in each usage band
Mode
Most common usage band
Cross tabulations could also be undertaken of various questions. For example, Questions 3 and
5 could be used to identify the standard of players regularly using each of the company
courses. This could be used to position the courses relative to their perceived ‘difficulty’. This
assumes that players with low handicaps are more accomplished and therefore use more
challenging courses.
Case 12c: The impact of family ownership on financial
performance41
1 a. After Malcolm had explained his model to his project tutor he was asked ‘What
problems can you identify in testing the initial model in equation 1 with your
data?’ Note down your answer to Malcolm’s project tutor’s question.
It is rather unusual to run a regression analysis for such a small sample (10 companies). It may
be advisable to significantly increase sample size in order to allow for more elaborate analysis
that will include various independent variables. The loss of the degrees of freedom may be a
significant constraint in running regressions in a very small sample. Perhaps, the study should
include all companies in Hong Kong, or at least, all tertiary sector firms.
Apart from the fact that the variable percentage of newspaper publishing company owned by
the family may increase in a well performing firm as well as impacting upon both value and
performance of the firm, there is likely to be a time lag in the ownership impact. Accordingly,
ownership data for one year may be affecting the return on asset data for the subsequent year.
In addition, it may be advisable to include the ownership of the largest block of shares as the
main variable, while a dummy variable ‘Family’ controls for the impact in companies where
the largest shareholder is the family. The exclusive use of the ownership variable for
measuring the
41
Answers provided by Aleksandar Šević and Željko Šević
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
influence of family ownership simply ignores that possibility that another, a non-family share
holder, controls the firm and, thus, a clear relationship between family ownership and firm
performance will not exist.
b. Malcolm’s project tutor’s next question focused upon the analysis associated with
equation 2: ‘Why do you believe that 0.02 coefficient estimate is both
economically and statistically relevant?’ Note down your answer to this question,
using the R2, Durbin–Watson and F-Statistic results to support your answer.
Although the alpha coefficient is statistically significant at 1 per cent, it is obvious that the beta
coefficient estimate is not statistically significant even at 10 per cent confidence level. In
addition, F-statistic value is only 0.1 and so we cannot reject the assumption that   0 .
The coefficient of determination, R2 is very low (0.02) and, consequently the relationship may
not exist. Because of this it is necessary to develop the model by increasing the number of
independent variable and increasing the sample size. With an increase in the number of
independent variables we would have to examine the value of adjusted R2, not only that or R2.
The value of the Durbin–Watson statistics 42 indicates that there may be a positive serial
correlation, i.e. positive (negative) residual terms will be followed by positive (negative)
residual terms. It may be advisable to check the table and examine whether the value falls
within the indecisive or positive correlation range.
2. Later in their supervision meeting, Malcolm’s project tutor tells him that the inclusion
of the dummy and control variables in equation 3 adds nothing to the research. Why
do you think his project tutor has said this?
Malcolm’s suggestion for multiple regression highlight further limitations. Apart from the
erroneous selection of the time period for independent variables it is necessary to discuss his
selection of control variables.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) may not be a good proxy for firm size. It is an
accounting measure that can be manipulated, while the level of firm profitability does not have
to be necessarily related to the firms’ size. For comparatively small firms in growth industries,
where competition may not be as strong, profit margins are quite high, and vice versa.
Research has shown that asset size, its logarithm or the log of sales are good proxies for firm’s
size. For example, see Demsetz and Villalonga, (2001), Claessens, Djankov, Fan and Lang
(2002), Durnev and Kim (2005) for discussion of similar control variables. However, Malcolm
must beware of using this as an independent variable as he has also used it in the calculation of
his dependent variable, return on assets.
The value of marketable securities is not relevant for the calculation of leverage. Leverage is
determined by an increase (decrease) of long-term and/or total debt with respect to a common
denominator such as assets (Lins, 2003). In this manner the relative leverage indicator is
comparable among firms. In contrast, the absolute value of marketable securities does not
provide any indicator about its relative importance.
Malcolm’s project tutor commented with disbelief: ‘Industry dummy for one industry! It
would be always 1! There is not even a single variation. It is better to include firms from
various
42
For more on the use of dummy variables refer to Pindyck and Rubinfeld (1998), pp. 122–128.
98
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
industries and capture industry specific variation by using dummy variables. As, your dummy
variable will always be one, it will have no impact in your regression equation at all!’
References
Demsetz, H. and Villalonga, B. (2001) Ownership Structure and Corporate Performance,
Journal of Corporate Finance 7, pp. 209–33.
Durnev, A. and Kim, E. (2005) To steal or not to steal: firm attributes, legal environment and
valuation, Journal of Finance, Vol. 60, No. 3, pp. 1,461–93.
Claessens, S., Djankov S., Fang J. and Lang, L. (2002) Disentangling the incentive and
entrenchment effects of large shareholders, Journal of Finance, Vol. 57, No. 6, 2,741–71.
Lins, K. (2003) Equity ownership and firm value in emerging markets, Journal of Financial
and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 159–84.
Pindyck, R. and Rubinfeld, D. (1998) Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts, 4th edn,
Irwin McGraw-Hill: Singapore.
Case 12d: Small business owner managers’ skill sets
1. Ishmael appears uncertain regarding his choice of statistics (the mean and standard
deviation) in the first table to describe the responses to questions three and four.
a. How would you advise him?
Looking at the actual questions, it is clear that both are collecting categorical data (see Figure
12.1). These data are ranked (ordinal) from very confident (coded as 5) to not at all confident
(coded as 1). It is also worth noting that although the questions distinguish between confidence
and importance, the response headings in the extract only refer to confidence. In subsequent
analyses Ishmael has amended this; something you may wish to discuss further with students.
Given the data are ranked, statistics such as the mean and the standard deviation should not be
used as they require numerical data. The descriptive statistics that are appropriate for ranked
data are the mode (as a measure of central tendency). This states the value that occurs most
often. Strictly speaking it is not possible to measure the dispersion for ordinal data (see Table
12.4).
b. What diagrams would you suggest Ishmael uses to present the data from these
questions?
The data Ishmael have collected are ranked (ordinal) from very confident/important (coded as
5) to not at all confident/important (coded as 1). Given the data are ranked, the diagrams
Ishmael could use depend on what he wishes to show. They are (see Table 12.2):

To show the frequency of occurrences of categories in either but not both of the
questions so that the highest and lowest are clear: bar chart or pictogram.

To show the proportion of occurrences of categories for either but not both of the
questions: pie chart.

To compare the frequency of occurrences of categories between both the questions so
that the highest and lowest are clear: multiple bar chart.

To compare the proportions of occurrences of categories between both the questions:
comparative pie chart or percentage component bar chart.

To compare the frequency of occurrences of categories between both the questions so
that their totals are clear: stacked bar chart.

To compare the proportions and totals of occurrences of categories between both the
questions: comparative proportional pie chart.
2. Examine the remaining two extracts reporting correlation coefficients and chi square
tests. Should Ishmael use either the Pearson’s product moment correlation
coefficients or the chi square tests as reported in these extracts?
The data Ishmael has collected are ranked (ordinal) from very important/confident (coded as 5)
to not at all important/confident (coded as 1). Given the data are ranked, the statistic that he
should use to examine relationships is (Table 12.5) the Chi square test. This tests whether the
answers to the two questions are associated. He should not use Pearson’s product moment
correlation coefficient as this requires quantifiable data.
3. Ishmael has decided to undertake further statistical analyses to see if there is any
relationship between his respondents’ perceived confidence in their own skills and
their perceived importance for the same set of skills. Outline the analysis process you
would recommend including, if necessary, any further work that might be needed to
satisfy your chosen test’s assumptions.
The data Ishmael has collected are ranked (ordinal) from very important/confident (coded as 5)
to not at all important/confident (coded as 1). Given the data are ranked, he should create a
series of contingency tables and calculate a Chi square test on the data in each table. These are
outlined below:

Importance of skills in marketing and sales × Confidence of own skills in marketing
and sales

Importance of skills – interpersonal × Confidence of own skills in interpersonal

Importance of skills – financial/accounts × Confidence of own skills in
financial/accounts

Importance of skills – managerial × Confidence of own skills in managerial

Importance of skills – business planning × Confidence of own skills in business
planning Importance of skills – IT × Confidence of own skills in IT

Importance of skills – technical × Confidence of own skills in technical

Importance of skills – time management × Confidence of own skills in time
management.
In using the Chi square test, he would need to ensure that the assumptions of the test, the
categories used in the contingency table are mutually exclusive and no more than 25 per cent
of the cells in the table having expected values of less than 5, are satisfied. Where this was not
the case, he could combine rows and columns providing this still produced meaningful data.
Possible combinations will depend upon the distribution of the responses and the precise
nature of the analysis, but could include:

Codes 5 and 4 representing ‘confident’

Codes 2 and 1 representing ‘not confident’

Codes 5, 4 and 3 representing ‘confident, at least to some extent’

Codes 3, 2 and 1 representing ‘not confident, at least to some extent’.
Case 12e: Food miles, carbon footprints and supply chains43
1.
Explain what the t-test results in Figures C12.4 and C12.5 mean, stating an
appropriate hypothesis and null hypothesis for each.
Rebecca needs to know if there is a significant difference between the total mean distance food
travels between the two systems and then to know if there is a significant difference between
the total mean carbon footprint between the two systems.
Her first hypothesis is therefore:
H0 :
There is no significant difference between the total mean distance food travels between
the two systems.
H1 :
There is a significant difference between the total mean distance food travels between
the two systems.
The hypothesised mean difference under the null hypothesis (H 0) is therefore zero. This can be
seen in the pop-out box in Figure C12.4.
If the p-value (‘P(T<=t) two-tail’) under this test is less than 0.05, then at 5% significance, we
can reject the null hypothesis.
As Figure C12.4 shows, the p value is very small and so we can reject the null hypothesis and
conclude that there is a significant difference between the total mean distance food travels
between the two systems.
Since the sample mean distance for the Variable 1 (farm shops) is 53.5 and the sample mean
distance for the Variable 2 (supermarkets) is 105.1786, Rebecca can safely say that the mean
distance that food travels in the farm shop system is statistically significantly less than the
mean distance that food travels in the supermarket system.
To see if there is a significant difference between the total mean carbon footprint between the
two systems, Rebecca’s second hypothesis is:
H0:
43
There is no significant difference between the total mean carbon footprint between the
two systems.
Answers provided by David Oglethorpe
H1 :
There is a significant difference between the total mean carbon footprint between the
two systems.
Again, the hypothesised mean difference under the null hypothesis (H 0) is therefore zero and
again if the p-value (‘P(T<=t) two-tail’) under the t-test test is less than 0.05, then at 5%
significance, we can reject the null hypothesis.
As Figure C12.5 shows, the p value is also very small and so we can reject the null hypothesis
and conclude that there is a significant difference between the total mean carbon footprint
between the two systems.
Since the sample mean carbon footprint for the Variable 1 (farm shops) is 35.4985 and the
sample mean carbon footprint for the Variable 2 (supermarkets) is 11.42185, Rebecca can
safely say that the mean carbon footprint from the farm shop system is statistically
significantly greater than the mean carbon footprint from the supermarket system.
2.
With regard to Rebecca’s research question, what would you conclude from these
results about the importance of distance travelled as opposed to type of vehicle used?
The mean distance food travels in the farm shop scenario is statistically significantly less than
the mean distance food travels in the supermarket scenario, but the carbon footprint of the farm
shop journeys is statistically significantly higher. This happens because every kilometre
travelled under the farm shop system is less efficient in terms of how much produce is moved
and also because the carbon emissions of vehicles do not increase in line with the amount they
can carry.
For example, further data from Defra (Table C12.1) shows that the average carbon emissions
from a 33 tonne articulated lorry are 1.18355 kg CO 2-e per vehicle km, whereas those from a
3.5–7.5 tonne lorry are 0.68105 kg CO2-e per vehicle km. However, the data also shows that
the average load that a 33 tonne articulated lorry carries is 11.31 tonnes but the average load
that a 3.5–7.5 tonne lorry carries is only 0.86 tonnes. This is because lorries spend a lot of the
time running about either empty or with only partial loads. This is especially true in small scale
operations where there is only small customer demand (like a farm shop).
As a result, although emissions from the 33 tonne lorry are about twice as much, because on
average they carry about 13 times as much, the carbon footprint for every tonne or kg of
produce is about six or seven times less than the 3.5–7.5 tonne lorry.
With cars, the issue is even worse. For every kilometre, a car emits about one sixth of the
carbon that a 33 tonne lorry does, but think how much less it can carry.
The conclusion of Rebecca’s analysis is that it matters much less how far food travels (i.e. the
‘food miles’) but in which type of vehicle those journeys are taken. The bigger the lorry, the
more environmentally friendly the journey might be! It is worth thinking about this in relation
to air freight as research by Williams (2007) shows how it is more carbon efficient to import
flowers from Kenya to the UK than from Holland, because in Holland, the flowers need more
heating energy to grow than in Kenya (where they grow naturally outside) and the total carbon
emissions of the growing and the transport of the flowers from Kenya are lower.
Williams, A. (2007) Précis Report for World Flowers, Comparative study of cut roses for the
British market produced in Kenya and the Netherlands, 12 November 2007, Cranfield
University, Bedford, UK. pp. 13.
3.
Comment on Rebecca’s analysis and the assumptions she has made. What are the
implications of this for the validity and reliability of her findings?
Rebecca makes two key assumptions:
a) That all farm shop consumers have travelled by an ‘avera e’ car
b) That all supermarket shoppers travelled by car and that was also an ‘average car’.
The emissions of cars, according to the carbon emission data from Defra (2010) varies from
0.17474 kg CO2-e per vehicle km for a small diesel car to 0.35396 kg CO2-e per vehicle km for
a large petrol car. If all the journeys taken by the farm shoppers were in a small diesel car and
all journeys taken by supermarket shoppers were in a large petrol car, then the respective
carbon footprints might be quite different and could contest the validity of the results.
However, there is no more reason to suspect such an opposite use of vehicles and it is also
more likely that supermarket shoppers were able to use public transport than farm shoppers
due to where the shops are likely to be (urban versus rural).
Even if we do take the worst case scenario and assume all the journeys taken by the farm
shoppers were in a small diesel car and all journeys taken by supermarket shoppers were in a
large petrol car, we can use the carbon emission data above to recalculate and re-test
Rebecca’s second hypothesis. Doing this produces the t-test results below.
Figure C12.6: Spreadsheet output for independent sample t-test for the difference
between the mean carbon missions, assuming small diesel cars for farm shop
journeys and large petrol cars for all supermarket journeys
As Figure C12.6 shows, in comparison with Figure C12.5, the effect of
this was to only
marginally decrease the total sample mean for Variable 1 (farm shops) and only marginally
increase the total sample mean for Variable 2 (supermarkets). The p-value remains very low
and the same conclusion would be drawn from the hypothesis test.
4.
What data would Rebecca need and what sort of analysis could Rebecca do in order
to take her research further as her project tutor suggests such as seeing how
different aspects of the supply chain affect total carbon emissions for different
products within that supply chain?
Given that Rebecca has found that, according to her sample, the carbon emissions associated
with the large scale (supermarket) distribution system are lower, her supervisor is suggesting
she looks at how different aspects of the supply chain affect total carbon emissions for
different products within that supply chain.
The total carbon emissions for different food products vary quite considerably due to their
different production systems, different processing systems and different requirements for
packaging or presentation and so on, all along the supply chain. Whether these different
activities statistically significantly affect the total carbon footprint of the products would
require a regression analysis.
Rebecca would need to collect data relating to the total carbon footprint of different products
(either from scientifically reported sources or on the packs of different products) and for each
product also get data on the variables at the different stages of the supply chain that she thinks
might influence total carbon footprint. The regression analysis, where the total carbon footprint
data would be the dependant variable and the variables from other parts of the supply chain
would be the independent (or ‘explanatory’) variables, would tell her which variables were
important in explaining the variation in the carbon footprint of the products.
The variables Rebecca included would depend on what she thought were important in
explaining variation in the carbon footprint of different products. However, for example,
Rebecca could collect data on, say three simple variables:

The amount of fertiliser used in raw material production (kg)

The energy used in primary processing (megawatts)

The amount of plastic used in packaging (kg).
If we denote the carbon footprint of products as C, fertiliser use as F, energy in processing as E
and plastic use as P, the regression equation Rebecca would be estimating would be:
C = α + β1F + β2E + β3P + ε
If Rebecca could gather data on all of these variables for a range of products, she could
estimate this equation and the extent the total carbon footprint for products varied due to these
factors. By using the t-statistics and p-values produced by the analysis, she could test whether
each variable had a statistically significant relationship with C.
One thing to note, however, is that these three variables are all continuous variables, in that
they can be measured on a continuous and fractional scale. Rebecca may find that there are
other variables that she is interested in, such as whether the products are meat or non-meat, and
whether this affects total carbon footprint. Such a variable is a discrete variable (i.e. it is either
one thing or another and cannot be measured on a continuous scale) and to do include it in her
analysis, Rebecca would need to use a dummy variable, which she may call ‘M’, for example.
If Rebecca allowed M to take on a value of 1 for meat products and a value of 0 for non-meat
products, she would be able to include it in her analysis and see if this variation explained
variation in the total carbon footprint of products.
Case 13a: Communicating bad news at Abco
1. Devise categories to label this data and ‘unitise’ or code these data using these
categories.
The number of categories produced to label these data will vary between different attempts to
categorise this extract in relation to the research question posed. As an example for the first
interview question asked, ‘Does Abco have a close-knit community here in Southtown’, we
are interested to devise categories that label the factors encouraging social interaction and
informal communication between employees about organisational ‘bad news’. These relate to
categories for out-of-work social interaction, partners in the same employment, and contacts
between personnel in firms in the same industry. For the response to the second interview
question related to informal communication and generating rumours, we are interested to
devise categories that label the generation of rumours, use of the grapevine, the perceptiveness
of employees, openness of formal communication, managerial strategies and types of
employee reactions (including uncertainty and anger in this passage). For the remaining
interview questions relating to training and preparation of line managers, useful categories
identified will probably include those that label: preparation, sensitivity, employee reactions
(including violence, denial, despair, anger), individual differences, handling ‘high flyers’,
language, logistics, location and learning. Many bits of text are not exclusive to a particular
category. This allows a number of relationships to start to be identified.
2. Which passages of text would you avoid categorising, if any, and why?
Our response to Question 1, suggests that there is potential value in seeking to utilise all of the
passages of text in the extract shown. This extract is, of course, only part of a larger interview
transcript. However, you may decide not to follow up your categorisation of certain passages
of text in subsequent analysis. Perhaps, the key learning point is to attempt to categorise all of
the data that you generate to see if key points and potential relationships emerge. It is perhaps
only by investing the time to undertake this activity that you will be able to decide whether
parts of transcripts have potential value in relation to your research question(s) or not.
3. Do any relationships or patterns begin to emerge in the data, and if so what are these?
A number of potential relationships begin to emerge from the analysis of this extract. Some
key ones, in relation to the interview questions asked, are as follows. The response to the first
interview question suggests relationships between employees work/home propinquity and
social interaction, and working in different firms in the same industry and the generation of
informal communication. These are likely to have implications for the management of bad
news in such circumstances. A key relationship emerging from the response to the second
interview question relates to feelings of uncertainty and the generation of informal
communication (‘the grapevine’). Another relates to openness of communication and
employees’ reactions. The response to the final interview questions relating to training line
managers to give bad news suggests a key relationship between the nature of notification of
bad news and the generation of employees’ reactions. There are of course other emergent
relationships in this extract.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
4. What are the important themes that you feel stand out in your categorisation which
you would seek to explore in subsequent interviews?
The identification of important themes for subsequent exploration will depend on the particular
emphasis that you placed in terms of the categories that you chose and the relationships that
you identified. We believe that the relationships identified in response to Question 3 above
provide a useful direction for exploration in subsequent interviews. You will probably have
identified other themes as well.
Case 13b: Paying for competence at Investco
1. Devise categories to label these data and ‘unitise’ or code these data using these
categories.
The categories devised to label these data should reflect the research question or questions
being asked.
Heleen’s first research question is, ‘What factors are used in the design of organisational pay
systems?’ The part of the transcript reproduced in this case study suggests a number of
possible categories that identify factors used in the design of organisational pay systems. These
categories might include control, contribution, performance, motivation and development.
These possible categories have been derived from reading this part of the interview transcript
rather than necessarily using terms within it. Your labels may be based on actual terms in the
text although they refer to the same concepts. Once you have derived categories related to the
nature of this research question you can attach units of data to the labels used.
Heleen’s second research question is, ‘What are the implications of introducing competencerelated pay?’ The part of the transcript reproduced in this case study again suggests a number
of possible categories identifying the implications of introducing competence-related pay in
this organisation. These might include employer objectives, employee objectives, mismatched
expectations, abuse, relevance, contribution, links to performance, utilisation, application and
so on. These possible categories have also been derived from reading this part of the interview
transcript rather than necessarily using terms actually referred to within it. Again, once you
have derived categories related to the nature of this research question you can attach units of
data to the labels used.
2. Do any relationships or patterns begin to emerge in the data, and if so what are they?
A number of potential relationships appear to begin to emerge from the analysis of this single
transcript. For example, in relation to the second research question, a relationship appears to be
emerging between the objectives for and design of a system of competence related pay, the
way in which it is subsequently applied and interpreted, and the outcomes that result. Another
key relationship appears to be emerging between the outcomes from introducing a competence
related approach and the exercise of control over pay systems within organisations.
3. What are the important themes that you feel stand out in your categorisation that
you would seek to explore in subsequent interviews?
The identification of important themes for subsequent exploration will depend on the particular
emphasis that you place in terms of the categories you chose and the relationships that you
identify. However, if you approached analysis of the interview transcript as we have it would
106
© Pearson Education Limited 2016
clearly be relevant to seek to explore the relationship between the objectives for and design of
a system of competence related pay, its subsequent application and interpretation, and the
outcomes that result. It would also be relevant to seek to explore the relationship between the
use of such a system and the exercise of control over pay within other organisations. Where
you were able to replicate similar types of findings to those found in this case study
organisation these would clearly be of relevance and interest. Where your findings differed
between organisations you would be able to explore the reasons for these differences.
Case 13c: Internet abuse in Universities44
1. Why do you think organisations might be reluctant to allow this type of research to be
undertaken by students?
This is a highly sensitive area that could cause an organisation a number of difficulties. First of
all, many managers have a naive approach to the Internet and do not realise the possibilities
open to staff for organisational misbehaviour or even crime. Allowing students to carry out
this type of work may expose this and lead to unexpected consequences. A second issue relates
to the nature of the Internet abuse and whether it has involved a criminal offence. Shanta
discussed some of her findings confidentially with a member of an Internet crime detection
unit. His view on this was that a crime had been committed at the University and the
management should have called in the police. Obviously, where organisational reputation is
high management are reluctant to risk exposure through what they might view as uncontrolled
research.
2. What are the key ethical issues raised in this case study?
As you are aware, ethics refers to the appropriateness of your behaviour in relation to the
rights of those who become the subject of your work or are affected by it. As the previous
question highlighted this whole subject area of Internet abuse is fraught with ethical dilemmas
when conducting research. The first issue that Shanta faced was that of her manager’s
reluctance to sanction this type of project. She appeared to have misgivings from the beginning
even though it might benefit the organisation. Should Shanta have put her manager in such a
position? Second there were difficulties in getting IUPs from other organisations and getting
access to them to pursue the research in more depth. Shanta did not try to deceive these
organisations. This type of research can be perceived as being unworthy and depraved by some
individuals. It can also be seen as threatening and high risk. A third issue related to the data
collected and what use Shanta made of it. She was asked to keep all material confidential and
maintain the anonymity of all participants. She did that within her final dissertation but should
she have discussed the case with a policeman friend? Could you have kept some of the content
of the disciplinary case materials to yourself?
3. With hindsight, how could Shanta have designed her research to avoid some of the
difficulties encountered in her research?
Shanta’s approach was quite valid but it caused her some real problems with access and data
collection. In terms of the challenges facing her organisation in implementing an Internet
Usage Policy she could have done things differently. First of all, she could have synthesised an
IUP from the literature as she did initially. However, then she could have designed a survey
instrument based upon the IUP framework to explore within her organisation what the main
44
Answers provided by Teresa Waring
Internet abuse was and what staff attitudes to the IUP were. This may have allowed her
institution to focus the policy on their staff and on areas that they felt could be more open to
abuse than others. She may have been able to survey the whole of her organisation’s staff in an
anonymous manner and they would have had the freedom to opt in or out. Unfortunately
hindsight is something PG students do not often have and Shanta believed in her original
research design. Once she had embarked on her plan it was difficult to reconsider and change
course. This is a problem many of us face – even seasoned researchers.
4. Devise categories to label the short extracts from the interview transcripts. ‘Unitise’
or code these data using these categories using sentences as units.
Even though these are short extracts, there are already a number of clear categories. These
include Abuse, seriousness (of abuse), discipline, staff differences. These codes here can be
attached to the three extracts as follows:
Abuse
Discipline
Seriousness
Staff
Discipline/
Seriousness
Staff
Discipline/
Internet Abuse ‘Internet abuse is classed as gross misconduct. We would
undertake disciplinary proceedings against anyone found to be abusing their
Internet access…it’s a matter of degree obviously, too much time (on the
Internet) might be half an hour or it might be five days. If it was someone who
was constantly visiting travel sites I would expect it to be dealt with in a slightly
different way than if it was somebody downloading pornography. I would class
that as more serious. To be honest until now I haven’t really given it much
thought.’ (HR Officer 1)
Dealing with abuse ‘Erm …..for academic and administrative staff it is
consistent. They would be brought before a disciplinary panel of about four
members of staff – one being from HR. Depending on the seriousness of the
abuse they would probably get a warning or maybe their Internet access
removed. I have to say I think that for ancillary staff we are probably slightly
tougher. I think there is a tendency to be slightly more severe with some
categories of staff. (Do you think that’s fair?) No. I think there are differences in
circumstances and types of jobs, but not sufficient to justify the differences in
how we handle people currently.’ (HR Officer 2)
Staff
Discipline
Seriousness
‘We don’t really like to go to a disciplinary panel as things might get out of hand
– you know solicitors, police, etc. From the University’s point of view it is very
much easier if someone just resigns than if we go through a full public hearing
and disciplinary process. What’s happened in these severe cases is that there
has been the threat of applying the disciplinary process rather than the
application of it.’ (Vice Chancellor)
Case 13d: The influence of films on tourist decision making45
1. In order for her to get the data she needs people will have to make comments on
Sarah’s film tourism blog. How will Sarah ensure that people know about and find
her blog so that they can keep posting comments and ensure such comments will keep
steadily coming through?
Sarah will have to ‘advertise’ her blog in a sense, in this case through other online
communities to encourage contributions. She should begin to post comments and to
periodically post details of her dedicated film tourism blog on a variety of other online forums
to ensure a steady stream of people become aware of it and can find and have access to it. As
people begin to visit the blog and to post comments on the films that influence their travel
decisions and reasons or motivating factors that were enticing them to do so it should produce
exactly the kind of data Sarah needs for her research. Due to the fact that the blog will be
available globally to anyone with internet access there is the strong possibility that comments
will come in from a diverse range of nationalities, genders and indeed age groups across the
world. Again, something which will strengthen the usefulness and credibility of the data
gathered.
2. Sarah has begun to analyse the data that she is getting through her blog. How should
she continue this process? Some sample data is shown in the blog screenshot here as
well as the sample analysis grid and further selected quotes listed below:
Desert Rose said...
For me it’s very much the scenery that grabs me. Fiji looked so fabulous in the Blue
Lagoon that I just had to go there... and Ko Samui is still very much on my list after
seeing The Beach. I also want to visit Prague and I think part of that is that I’ve been
exposed to many scenes of the city in lots of recent movies. So whether its natural or
man-made it’s the scenery that gets me.
Kerry said...
The different films which influenced me to visit Japan brought different factors into
play I feel. With The Last Samurai and to some degree Memoirs of a Geisha it was the
natural scenery that took my breath away. With Lost in Translation in particular and
also Memoirs it was the urban scene and modern culture that influenced me strongly.
As a result I visited both urban and natural settings during my trip to experience the
different scenery and culture the country had to offer.
Sun Burst said...
Factors for me – mainly the story and to some extent the characters as part of that. A
good story that hits home, something that really gets to me in some way and makes a
lasting impact or impression. You then leave the cinema thinking about the film and
maybe the seeds have then been planted to visit the place – to go there and experience
or feel part of the story.
As Sarah will have a collection of qualitative data in the form of people’s thoughts, feelings and
opinions from the blog, some form of content analysis will be required. Unlike some forms of
45
Answers provided by Peter Bolan
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
qualitative data which have to be transcribed (converted to written/word-processed text) the
blog data will already be in written electronic form (a key strength of using an online
mechanism such as a blog). She will then need to classify her data into meaningful categories
(using coding) to enable her to group the data. This will facilitate Sarah being able to organise
and analyse her qualitative data further. Although Sarah has already begun this manually she
could consider using CAQDAS to assist her in performing many of these aspects including
looking for patterns and emergent themes in her blog data. A package such as NVivo (QSR
version 7) would be appropriate as discussed by Pan et al. (2007) in their work on travel blogs
and destination marketing. Sarah needs to link key aspects of what respondents say to
categories she has created, e.g. motivating factors from a film. She can then analyse further
still to see if there are any correlations between for example gender and motivating factor or
between nationality and motivating factor, etc. looking for additional patterns that may be
relevant to her overall study.
3
What methods could Sarah employ to take her initial blog research further,
disaggregate comments more and delve into the topic in even greater depth?
To add further depth to her research Sarah could pursue a number of strategies. Some blogs
require the user to register and create a small profile before posting their comments. While this
may curtail the number of contributors to the blog it provides a richer source of usable data in
that the researcher will have information such as age, gender, location, occupation and e-mail
contact details. Sarah could follow up her blog work by either emailing a set of further
questions to bloggers or setting up a series of online focus groups to explore emergent issues in
more depth. Again the bloggers could either be emailed or simply asked on the original blog if
they would be willing to participate. This additional qualitative data should provide Sarah with
some very rich data for her study and truly get to the heart of what motivates people to choose
travel destinations because of what they have seen on film.
Case 13e: Creating environmentally friendly office spaces46
1. Did Stephanie organise her template analysis to make best use of her data? Could she
have organised the template analysis differently?
There are many different ways of structuring a template therefore Stephanie has a variety of
options available to her here. Her preferred approach of coding all the data from the different
methods and the two cases into the same template is probably the most cost-effective in terms
of time. However, if her research questions specifically focus on the differences between the
two locations it also makes sense to do a separate template for each of the two cases.
Another approach that Stephanie could have taken to then compare the findings from the two
templates is through the use of matrices analysis (Nadin and Cassell, 2004; Miles and
Huberman, 1984). Here a matrix is constructed that helps the analyst to compare case study
data or findings on a range of different factors. For example, Stephanie could have a matrix
based on the findings from the different methods where the focus of each column is upon the
different insights into each of the cases that the different methods provide.
46
Answers provided by Catherine Cassell and Bill Lee
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The major advantage of using template analysis is its flexibility. It provides a range of
different options for the researcher, therefore, there are numerous ways in which Stephanie
could have organised her template.
2. We know that Stephanie conducted research in her own organisation and that she is
a committed green activist. Should she have taken these issues into account as part of
the analytic process and if so, in what ways?
Conducting any form of qualitative research requires an element of reflexivity on behalf of the
researcher. In interpreting her data it would be useful for Stephanie to provide a reflexive
account of how she thinks her own beliefs may have influenced the research process. She
could start by reflecting upon how her own interests and commitment to green issues might
have shaped her choice of research questions and her interest in these issues. These might also
have impacted upon how she collected data and her respondent’s responses to her. It could also
have influenced how she analysed her data; some of the analytic decisions made; and the
conclusions she arrived at. It might be difficult to answer these questions explicitly, but they
are important questions for the reflexive researcher.
Doing research in your own organisation brings an additional set of dilemmas. It is likely that
Stephanie’s colleagues will have their own views about the research she is conducting. These
will be influenced by their previous experience of Stephanie and their relationship to her in the
workplace. Therefore again Stephanie should consider these issues in her write up. Keeping a
diary of the research process would help her to note down any specific insights she has into
how her colleagues are responding to her research along the way. She can then include a
reflexive account of her research towards the end of her dissertation.
3. What other forms of qualitative data analysis could Stephanie have used and how
would these have enabled her to address her research questions?
There are numerous other forms of data analysis that Stephanie could have used (see Cassell
and Symon, 2004 for some examples). The key deciding factor in choosing an appropriate
method of analysis is the research question that Stephanie is seeking to answer. If, for
example, she was interested in how people talk and make sense of environmentally friendly
office spaces then she could focus on a form of analysis that focuses explicitly upon talk.
Examples include conversation analysis, discourse analysis and narrative analysis. Here the
focus would be upon the language in use. Stephanie could find, for example, that the two
different companies draw upon forms of discourse or language to talk about environmental
issues. She could then examine the extent to which these different types of discourse are
prevalent in the accounts of employees.
If Stephanie was interested in analysing her data inductively and developing a theoretical
understanding from her data then grounded theory would be another alternative form of data
analysis. Here Stephanie would be interested in constantly comparing data from the different
data sources using systematic coding processes. She may also want to go back to the field and
conduct further fieldwork depending upon how her analytic framework develops.
Case 14 a: Writing Lata’s project report
1. Where do you think Lata went wrong in her approach to the process of preparing
her project report?
The biggest mistake Lata made was not keeping in touch with Eddie. Had she have done
so, she wouldn’t have ended up in the position of having to re-work the report. Eddie’s
criticisms of Lata’s report are typical. He thought the report too descriptive and the various
parts of the report didn’t hang together. The need to be analytical, and to structure the
report in a cohesive way, is something that is very difficult for the researcher to be aware
of while in the process of doing the research. We all get so close to our work we often
cannot see the obvious. Eddie could have pointed out these potential pitfalls to Lata while
she was in the process of writing the report.
Lata was also guilty of not giving Eddie a draft of her report. She was taking a great risk in
not doing this. Had she have done so she would almost certainly have avoided the
disappointment which she experienced.
2. How do you think Lata could have overcome Eddie’s criticism that ‘it reads a bit
like two separate reports’?
Lata’s main weakness here is that she did not really understand the purpose of the
literature review. If she had understood that its purpose was to inform her research
question(s), objectives, and method or to help her understand her data, she would not have
fallen into the trap of writing ‘two separate reports’.
3. How may Lata have approached the writing of her results section?
It seems that Lata simply ‘told it as it was’ in reporting her research findings. This is
evident from the way in which she reported the results of the questionnaire and interview
processes separately. This demonstrates a weakness in her data analysis. She could have
treated her data as one irrespective of its source. This would have allowed her to develop
themes in her results that could have formed the structure of her findings section. This
would have allowed her to demonstrate much more perceptiveness in her writing. It would
also have been much more interesting to read.
4. How could Lata have prevented Eddie saying ‘so what’ to himself after he had
finished reading her report?
Eddie’s most telling comment is: ‘…my main criticism is that it doesn’t actually say
anything...you know, it doesn’t draw any conclusions’. This points to the necessity to
follow the three steps outlined in Chapter 14. Once again, it demonstrates the dangers of
getting so close to the work it is difficult to see the obvious. The steps are simple, but had
Lata thought about this it say have prevented Eddie having to say that ‘it doesn’t actually
say anything’.
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Case 14b: Amina’s story
1. What did Dr Wang mean ‘your job as a management Master’s degree student is to
use theory to help to explain and even solve management problems’?
In Chapter 2 we point out that theory is defined by Gill and Johnson (1997: 178) as ‘a
formulation regarding the cause and effect relationships between two or more variables, which
may or may not have been tested’. By using theory, Amina could be helping marketing
managers in a number of ways. She could be testing a theory (deduction) that she had read
about in the marketing (or general management) literature or she could be building her own
theory (induction) as a result of her research inquiry. In either case her developed theory would
have considerable practical benefit for marketing managers in that it would help them to
develop strategies to cope with unexpected competition. It is important to note that Dr Wang
was not insisting on Amina using theory for the sake of making her project report look
‘academically respectable’. His concern was that Amina should develop ‘a formulation
regarding the cause and effect relationships between two or more variables’ which would
guide the future action of managers. This is the fundamental purpose of management theory.
2. How may Amina improve her findings section?
The case notes that Amina had described the results of the interviews in great detail in her
findings chapter. This may mean that she is giving an accurate factual account of what
happened in her fieldwork but it is not fulfilling one of the major principles of a high quality
project report: to produce an effective piece of communication which people actually want to
read. A better way of writing up the results of her interviews would be to tease out the main
themes which emerged from the interviews and present the written narrative by theme.
3. What do you think Amina has to do to get Dr Wang’s full approval for submission of
her MBA project for assessment?
In Chapter 14 we present a checklist for evaluating the first draft of a project report. We
suggest that you turn to this now, as reference to such a checklist would have been helpful to
Amina prior to her submitting her report to Dr Wang.
4. How would you suggest Amina now approaches the re-writing of her report?
Clearly Amina has much work to do. She must work hard on developing a central ‘spine’
running through her project report. What we mean by this is that she should firstly explain the
problem and state clear objectives. Secondly, she should explain how she set about meeting
those objectives and why she chose to address them in the manner she chose. This second
stage should make use of the literature to establish how such problems have been addressed in
the past, either in marketing or general management. The third stage should report the findings,
which is more than a descriptive account as the answer to the second question above indicates.
The fourth stage is the most important. In this she should explain the answers to the objectives
set in the first stage. This may be framed in terms of conclusions (what judgements she is
making as a result of the fieldwork reported in the findings) and recommendations or just
conclusions: the content of the fourth stage depends on the initial objectives.
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Case 14c: Akasma’s dissertation disappointment
1. What do you think may be a more appropriate word allocation for Akasma’s
dissertation?
It’s difficult to be precise here. Different courses, different universities, different departments
and different tutors may all assume different proportions to be allocated to the various sections
of the report. That said, 11,000 out of 15,000 (73%) given to the literature review seems far
too much. Many tutors may take the view that the literature review is the easiest part of the
written dissertation for the student to complete since by its very nature it is drawn from
material that has already been published. Some more cynical tutors may also be of the opinion
that students work on the literature review in the early stages of the work while they are at
their most enthusiastic and later run out of time, or steam (or both!) with the result that the
findings and conclusions receive too little attention.
A proportion of 25% (3,750 out of 15,000 words) seems more appropriate. This leaves ample
time for the data to be reported and conclusions drawn. It is this latter part of the dissertation
that really provides students with the opportunity to shine. A dissertation with an excellent
literature review and a weak conclusion will generally be marked much lower than one with a
poor literature review and an insightful and thoughtful conclusion.
2. How would you advise Akasma to go about shortening her literature review chapter?
In short, it should be ‘fit for purpose’. Chapter 14 states that ‘the main purposes of your
literature review are to set your study within its wider context and to show the reader how your
study supplements the work that has already been done on your topic. The literature review,
therefore, may inform directly your research questions and any specific hypotheses that your
research is designed to test. These hypotheses will also suggest a particular research approach,
strategy and data collection techniques. If, on the other hand, you are working inductively (i.e.
from data to theory) your literature review may serve the purpose of illuminating and enriching
your conclusions.’
It follows, therefore, that the literature review was not an opportunity for Akasma to write
everything that needed to be known about consumer decision making theory. Her research
question was based on discovering why customers made their choice of transport to and from
Istanbul airport. Therefore, a literature review called ‘what are the most important influencing
factors underpinning public transport users decisions’ may have given it a sharper focus which
would link to what was to follow. If a succinct statement of the most important influencing
factors underpinning public transport user’s decisions could have been made in the literature
review the primary research could have been devoted to a study of the extent to which these
decisions apply in the case of customers making their choice of transport to and from Istanbul
airport.
3. What advice would you give to students approaching the writing up of their research
to ensure that they don’t fall into the same trap as Akasma?
Akasma kept in touch with Professor Norrington so it is not as if she decided to carry on
without guidance, an approach which usually ends in failure. However, it seems Akasma did
not see the written dissertation as a ‘whole’. To do this she should have developed a central
‘spine’ running through her project report. This would have first involved her explaining the
problem and stating clearly the objectives. Secondly, she should have explained how she
set about
meeting those objectives and why she chose to address them in the manner she chose. This
second stage should have used the literature only to analyse relevant material on consumer
decision making in public transport. The third stage should have seen Akasma reporting the
findings, and the fourth stage explaining the answers to the objectives set in the first stage.
These answers should have been framed in terms of conclusions (what judgements she is
making as a result of the fieldwork reported in the findings) and recommendations or just
conclusions: the content of the fourth stage depends on the initial objectives.
Case 14d: James’ consultancy report on managers’ financial
information needs47
1. Draft an outline structure of headings that would be broadly suitable for the main
body of a consultancy report for James’ client (including James’ report) and explain
the purpose of such a report.
Below is a suitable outline structure for the main body of content for James’ consultancy
report to the EMEA Financial Management Board:
SECTION I
SCOPE OF ENGAGEMENT
SECTION II BACKGROUND INFORMATION
SECTION III FINDINGS/DISCUSSION
SECTION IV CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
APPENDICES
Adapted from Garratt, S. (1991: 72) and Markham, C. (1991: 131) Figure 6.1
Essentially, the purpose of a consultancy report should represent a concise and accessible
resume of the terms of reference, findings, conclusions and recommendations related to the
client’s brief.
2. Outline the content you would expect James to include under each of the ‘main
headings’ you have proposed for the report.
SECTION I
SCOPE OF ENGAGEMENT
This section should include the ‘terms of reference’ (and timescale) agreed with the Regional
VP. This emanates from the VP’s stated goal ‘...to improve the financial decision-making at
the hotel property level.’ The objectives required to achieve the goal flow directly from the
VP’s brief, namely assessing ‘best (accounting) practice’ and determining current accounting
reporting practices on the EMEA region.
SECTION II BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In the case of James’ brief, this section should comprise a concise assessment of state-of-theart financial reporting practices; drawn mainly from empirical research and practitioner
sources,
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Answers provided by Peter Harris
such as industry surveys, trade association studies, published consulting reports and
professional accounting/hospitality journals. This is about obtaining evidence of the latest
practical developments rather than a review of theoretical boundaries, e.g. Graham and Harris
(1999); USALI (2006).
This section would include details of the approach to the interviews with financial controllers
and department managers in the hotel properties on the EMEA region. This about gaining
concrete facts as to the current ‘match’ between financial reports with managers’ decisionmaking needs.
SECTION III FINDINGS/DISCUSSION
This section should comprise an assessment of the findings from the field interviews at the
hotels and the state-of-the-art financial reporting practices search; and take the form of a ‘…
discussion, analysis and argument which, in turn, will lead to conclusions the issues that have
been identified (Garratt, 1991: 73). In the case of James’ brief, this will result in identifying the
key issues relating to matching financial reports with decision-making requirements (using
marginal accounting techniques) and subsequently the appropriate training and development
requirements of hotel management teams.
SECTION IV CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This final section should serve to summarise the points from the overall findings of the
investigation and provide a final opinion. In the case of James’ brief, a statement as to the
effectiveness and practicability of implementing marginal accounting techniques to improve
decision making at the hotel property level.
Recommendations suggest what should take place to implement the findings and conclusions
of a report; they should be clear, unambiguous ‘actionable’ points required to fulfil the purpose
of the report. In the case of James’ brief, this will not only include the matching of financial
information for decision making and the relevance of marginal accounting techniques, but the
extent of the training and development programme necessary to prepare hotel financial and
management teams for implementing and applying marginal analysis techniques in their
routine decisions.
APPENDICES
Appendices should provide additional evidence to support or justify issues under discussion in
the main body of a report. They are an important supplementary source of information at the
back of a report that avoids excessive detail within the main body. In the case of James’ brief,
they may contain summaries of interview analyses, current and proposed financial reporting
formats and a detailed schedule of proposed training and development for the hotel
management teams.
3. Outline the purpose and content of an ‘executive summary’ in a consultancy report.
An executive summary ‘…is a summary of the findings of a consulting project. But it must be
more than just a summary (it) is the gateway to the report’ (Wickham and Wickham, 2008:
268).
The executive summary should comprise a brief overview of the purpose, key findings and
conclusions raised in the report. The reader should be able to grasp the essence of the
investigation by a fairly rapid read of the summary. In terms of layout, an executive summary
should normally be presented in bullet point format and written after the main body of contents
is completed. In addition, the text should be brief and to the point. Key findings and
conclusions should be clearly listed and cross-referenced to recommendations.
References
Garratt, S. (1991) How to be a consultant, Aldershot: Gower.
Hotel Association of New York City (2006) Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging
industry, East Lansing: American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute.
Markham, C. (1997) practical management Consultancy, 3rd edn, Milton Keynes:
Accountancy Books (ICAE&W).
Thomas, M. (2003) High-Performance Consulting Skills, London: Thorgood.
Wickham, P. and Wickham, L. (2008) Management Consulting: delivering an effective project,
3rd edn, Harlow: Pearson Education.
Case 14e: Clare’s research project presentation48
1. In what way did starting with the 8 boxes limit or help Clare’s planning of her
presentation?
Starting with 8 boxes on a piece of paper (using the 1 minute per slide guide) would have
encouraged Clare think about her whole presentation from the start. It would also have helped
her to think carefully about the things she had to say and the things she wanted to say in
focused sections.
In terms of limiting Clare’s planning, the ‘1 box per minute of talk’ should have encouraged
her to limit her thinking to only 8 sections or made her divide things up when she didn’t need
to.
When students are not used to planning presentations from scratch it is often a daunting
prospect to be faced with a computing application that in many ways starts part-way through
the process. It assumes that they know what they are going to add to each of a seemingly
infinite number of slides, and offers unlimited variations in terms of visual and aural tricks that
can distract the user from the real purpose, i.e. communicating ideas effectively.
Starting with 8 boxes on a piece of paper (1 minute per slide) encouraged Clare think about her
whole presentation from the word go and, more importantly perhaps, encouraged her to divide
both the things she ‘had’ to say and the things she ‘wanted’ to say into focused ‘chunks’. It is
often easier to divide seemingly large tasks up into smaller chunks, not only to make it easier
to start but to help you think about the order in which things need to be addressed. Effective
Project Management tools and Gantt charts work on exactly this principle.
In terms of limiting Clare’s planning, the ‘1 box per minute of talk’ could have encouraged her
to limit her thinking to ‘only’ 8 sections or made her divide things up when she didn’t need to.
However, as she gets more experienced at presenting it is likely that she will see this technique
48
Answers provided by Lindy Blair
as just a starting point and particularly helpful when you are expected to plan a presentation
quickly, a task often set at assessment centres for placement or graduate jobs.
2. What advice would you give Clare in relation to interacting with her audience more
effectively?
Interacting with the audience is something that improves with practise and as a starting point
looking at the audience provides important feedback on how the presentation is going. The
members of the audience will tell the presenter, usually through body language and facial
expression, if they can or can’t hear them, if they are understanding what she or he is saying
(or not), if they agree or disagree with what is being said, etc. This real time feedback allows
the presenter to adjust the delivery accordingly.
To ensure everyone in the audience feels included is it also important for the presenter not to
stare at the ceiling or the floor; or to hide behind her/his notes/laptop screen. Speaking directly
to individuals, for a few seconds each, around the room does take practice, but does work.
It may also be helpful ask a quick question during the presentation that asks the audience to
raise their hand if, for example, they have heard about a certain fact or topic. However students
should not ask questions that require an answer unless they have planned to. Handling
questions mid presentation can be difficult for the inexperienced presenter.
Interacting with the audience is something that improves with practise. Most inexperienced
presenters are scared to look at the audience and so miss out on important cues (and clues)
relating to how their presentation is going. The audience is a fundamental part of the
presentation; they are there to tell the presenter if the presentation is working (or not!), i.e. if
they are understanding, agreeing, disagreeing, etc.
A helpful phrase for students to remember in this regard is ‘Talk To Them’ – The 3 T’s.
Talk to them – don’t whisper or SHOUT, and vary your pitch, pace and tone.
Talk To them – look at the audience frequently, don’t stare at the ceiling, the floor or your
notes and definitely don’t talk TO the screen.
Talk to THEM – not just to one person who seems to be nodding or that you know. Scan the
audience making sure you have looked at (and therefore included) everyone during your
presentation. But not in a robotic way – it takes practice to make it seem natural.
3. In what ways might ‘telling them what you’re going to say, saying it, and then telling
them what you’ve just said’ have helped Clare’s audience?
This tip is helpful as it is important to remember that at the time of the presentation the
audience is unlikely to have thought about what the presenter is going to say, and they
definitely won’t have heard what Clare is going to say. A slide near the beginning that lists the
main points or sections you are going to cover allows the audience to focus their attention on
the topic. The audience will then be more prepared to listen effectively to what the presenter is
going to present in more detail. Summarising at the end of a presentation helps the audience
draw all the threads together and gives the presenter the opportunity to emphasis the key
message.
In addition to this helpful technique students may wish to investigate advice on presenting
good news and bad news. It may be that indicating to the audience that there is bad (or good)
news on
the way may be helpful OR it may be more appropriate to take the audience on a mystery tour
with you that ends with the good/bad news. The latter approach enables the news to seem
justified rather than a shock.
4. Even if you think you aren’t nervous, why is practicing a presentation in front of a
critical friend a good idea?
It is incredibly useful to run through a presentation at least once before delivering it as most
people are nervous about speaking in public. Delivering the presentation out loud to oneself
means least you are practicing ‘saying’ it out loud. However, you can’t see what your audience
are going to see, or hear what your audience are going to hear.
Practicing in front of a critical friend, i.e. someone who will tell you the truth whether it’s
good points or bad, allows you to not only to practice out loud in front of an audience, but also
to get CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK. Getting feedback on the content of the presentation is
great but getting feedback on your delivery skills is vital.
Getting, and acting on, honest and constructive feedback can definitely help you make your
presentation better no matter how nervous you are. Personal confidence (or lack of nerves) will
not make inappropriate content or slides effective.
Creating a slide show is only part of the presentation planning process and even if students
don’t feel nervous it’s incredibly useful to run through their presentations at least once before
delivering them. Thinking they will just see how it goes on the day/night is not the best
strategy, so unless they have lots of experience of standing up in front of a group of people and
conveying a message (rather than just telling jokes), then practicing properly is vital. They will
probably start by reading through their notes (not a script) and this can help a bit; but all they
are doing is practicing ‘reading’. Delivering their presentations out loud to a mirror may help,
as at least they are practicing ‘saying’ it out loud which cements it in their minds. However to
make this an effective learning experience they need to stand up, time themselves and use their
hands as they talk. This sort of practice is very useful as when they go to give the proper
presentation it won’t be the first time they have said the words out loud and that means they
may be able think about some of the other things that make a presentation successful like the 3
T’s (see above).
Feedback about your presentation from friends should focus on 2 main aspects:
1. The content of the presentation
2. The delivery of the presentation.
The first time a student delivers their presentation, they should ask their friends to focus on the
‘content’ as it will be the first time they’ve heard it.
After making appropriate amendments to the content of slides or the words (if necessary), the
student should deliver the presentation again. This time they should ask their friends to focus
on the delivery skills.
Ongoing case: Researching emotional labour49
For this case we recommend Part 1 is undertaken following Chapters 1–5. Part 2 is
undertaken following Chapters 6–8 and Part 3 is undertaken following Chapters 9–13.
Part 1: Some reading and a possible research design?
1. Looking at Jessica’s research question, is the research ‘purpose’ exploratory,
descriptive or explanatory?
Purpose: The ‘what’ of the research question implies that Jessica intends to describe the
experiences of a sample of the local theme park employees. However, she could go further by
investigating the nature of those experiences, explaining why they vary for different
employees. To do so, the question could be re-written as: ‘Inside a theme park: what are
employees’ experiences of emotional labour, and why do they differ?’
A possible discussion point with students is whether Jessica’s apparently pre-conceived
assumptions are valid, and whether an initial exploratory pilot study could usefully investigate
whether ‘emotional labour’ is a useful concept to understand theme parks’ employees’
experiences.
2. Is Jessica’s research design (based only on semi-structured interviews in one case
study organisation) likely to be sufficient to answer the research question?
This mono-method design is unlikely to provide the insights which Jessica seeks. To elicit
employees’ experiences in a manner which draws out psycho-social and emotional issues,
Jessica could combine interviews with qualitative ethnographic methods such as nonparticipant observation or projective elicitation techniques. If analysed using qualitative
techniques such as content or narrative analysis, Jessica would be using a ‘multi-method’
design.
Using one theme park as an organisation doesn’t automatically make Jessica’s design a case
study, especially since she currently proposes only one data collection method (interviews)
from one source (employees). A more systemic investigation of ‘emotional labour’ could look
not only at employees’ experiences, but also management activities aimed at controlling the
emotional displays of employees. This would deepen Jessica’s analysis of a complex
phenomenon.
3. What are the possible issues associated with Jessica interviewing her university
friends’?
Sampling bias (e.g. college friends are likely to be similar types of people, and have similar
backgrounds to Jessica).
Social desirability bias – Jessica’s friends may feel they want to ‘say the right thing’.
Jessica might find it hard to avoid leading questions because she already knows something
about her friends.
49
Answers provided by Karen Handley and Lindsay Williams
Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Part 2: Permission to collect data is unlikely so what about secondary
data?
1. What’s the difference between primary and secondary data, and what sort of
secondary data could be relevant for the research project?
Primary data: the data are collected specifically for the research project. You – as researcher –
are in control of the data collection process, such as the content and sequencing of interview
questions, or the observation protocol in non-participant observation research.
Secondary data: data that were originally collected for some other purpose. They can be can be
further analysed to provide additional or different knowledge, interpretations or conclusions.
They include any data where the primary purpose of the research was not under the control of
you-as-researcher. For the purposes of the research, secondary data might come in many
forms, such as:

‘Raw’ datasets such as statistics held by the HR department on employee grievances
and complaints.

Survey-based secondary data such as theme park employee satisfaction surveys (which
are likely to be confidential, and accessible only with permission from the
organisation).

Documentary secondary data such as summary reports by the theme park’s
management on staff training and development policies.

Newspaper articles such as journalist reportage on ‘life at the theme park’.

Unofficial blogs and YouTube videos created by theme park employees about their
employment experiences.

Theme park websites, such as recruitment communications and job adverts.
2. Can I (Jessica) just interview employees about their emotional labour at the local
theme park without asking the theme park’s permission?
There are ethical issues of deceit of the theme park, and also of raising issues which employees
hadn’t necessary thought about or been concerned about and the impact of this on employees.
3. Can I use data from personal blogs and unofficial websites which expose grievances
felt by employees?
Similar ethical issues will apply as for Question 2. Furthermore, this would be a skewed
sample; anonymity of some blogs will exacerbate the sampling bias problem.
4. Is there scope for me to undertake an empirically-based Masters project on Disney
and emotional labour using only secondary data? If so, what kind of secondary data
might be available that relates to emotional labour within the theme park context?
A key problem here is that whilst organisational data may be publically available – e.g.
through an organisation’s annual report and accounts – employee data at the individual level is
rarely in the public domain. It may be difficult to find secondary data which sheds light on the
experience of individuals.
However, Jessica may be about to use secondary data such as YouTube clips, Internet
materials such as corporate recruitment videos, etc. – all of which are ‘externally-facing’
communications which can be analysed for their performative intentions.
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Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7th edition,
Answers to Additional Case Studies
Part 3: A revised research question, a variety of secondary data, but
what about the analysis?
1. Jessica has already obtained statistical, visual and textual material including visual
images of employees and recruitment adverts (combining text and imagery). What
other secondary data could she use for her research?
Other possibilities include the ‘comments’ on the YouTube clips, e.g. (apparently) from other
employees; and images of employees as portrayed in online theme park advertisements. Again,
there are sampling issues. YouTube clips say little of the context in which the video recording
is made, such as whether an interviewer has asked a leading question offline before starting the
recording. Furthermore, the sample of available media will be skewed; for example, towards
employees who are comfortable will social media, or who feel strongly positive or negative
towards the particular theme park. There’s also a risk of hoax media created by people
masquerading as theme park employees: how can Jessica establish their authenticity?
2. Undertake your own search using online databases discussed in Chapter 8 and search
engines such as Google or Bing for possible data to answer Jessica’s research
question. Make notes about each secondary data source you find. Don’t forget to
include the full reference including the URL and data of retrieval.
Due to the student’s answer being dependent upon the date when undertaken and the search
terms chosen, it is not possible to provide an answer for this question.
3. What methods of data analysis could Jessica use for each of these types of data you
have identified?
Spoken words from the YouTube clips can be transcribed and analysed using content analysis
(Krippendorff, 1980) or discourse analysis (e.g. Fairclough, 2003), and visual images can be
analysed using content analysis or semiology (Rose, 2007).
Issues include the considerable time taken to transcribe the material, and decisions about
transcription protocols. Tables and graphs may be only referring to percentages rather than
actual counts. It may also be unclear as to when the data were originally collected.
Analysis can be presented in several ways; for example, using tables (e.g. for content analysis,
analytic codes can be displayed alongside illustrative quotations and number of instances),
charts (e.g. to display quantitative information about the number of instances), or with example
images accompanied by textual interpretation.
References
Backhaus, K. and Tikoo, S. (2004) Conceptualizing and researching employer branding,
Career Development International, Vol. 9, No. 5, 501–17.
Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing discourse: textual analysis for social research, London:
Routledge.
Krippendorff, K. (1980) Content analysis. London: Sage.
Rose, G. (2007) Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials
(2nd edn), London: Sage.
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van Maanen, J. (1989) The smile factory: work at Disneyland, in P. Frost, L. Moore, M. Louis,
C. Lundberg and J Martin (1991) Reframing organizational culture, London: Sage.