Enhancing the trustworthiness of qualitative research in international business.
| Verfasser | Sinkovics, Rudolf R. |
| Posten | RESEARCH ARTICLE |
Abstract and Key Results
* Reliability, validity, generalisability and objectivity are fundamental concerns for quantitative researchers. For qualitative research, however, the role of these dimensions is blurred. Some researchers argue that these dimensions are not applicable to qualitative research and a qualitative researcher's tool chest should be geared towards trustworthiness and encompass issues such as credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability.
* This paper advocates the use of formalised and software-based procedures for the analysis and interpretation of qualitative interview data. It is argued that International Business research, with a focus on international datasets, equivalence issues, multiple research environments and multiple researchers, will benefit from formalisation. The use of software programmes is deemed to help to substantiate the analysis and interpretation of textual interview data.
Keywords: Qualitative Research. Interviews. Trustworthiness * Reliability * Equivalence * Emic and Etic Approaches
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Introduction
The International Business literature predominantly deals with an empirical and analytical research agenda. The focus is on quantitative methodologies, pursuing well-defined research problems with rigorous empirical investigations (Yang/Wang/Su 2006). We argue that research in International Business (IB) often deals with dynamic and volatile situations that demand creative and flexible research designs and methodologies (Ghauri/ Gronhaug 2005, McDonald 1985). Many scholars suggest exploratory research and qualitative methodologies to capture multi-dimensional phenomena (Anderson 1983, Yin 2003) and non-linear, sometimes fuzzy, patterns of our realities (Firat 1997, Sinkovics/ Penz/Ghauri 2005). These perspectives are supported by methodological arguments, that qualitative methodologies can help to find "meaning behind the numbers", provide flexibility without requiring large samples (Sykes 1990) and offer a clear and holistic view of the context (Denzin/Lincoln 1994, Ghauri/Gronhaug 2005, Ruyter/Scholl 1998). Moreover, driven by the globalisation of markets, production, and diverse business environments, there is an increasing emphasis on comparative empirical research methodology (Cavusgil/Das 1997, Knight/Spreng/Yaprak 2003, Sekaran 1983). As a result, cross-national and/or cross-cultural perspectives which emerged in the psychological literature (e.g., Berry 1989, Pike 1966, Triandis/Berry 1980) were quickly adopted in other fields and extended to areas such as Management, International Business and Marketing (see e.g., Cavusgil/Das 1997, Peng/Peterson/Shyi 1991, Steenkamp/Baumgartner 1998, Earley/Singh 1995) (1). However, despite calls for more integrative research, and attempts to breaking down the 'positivist-epistomological' divide, the adoption of qualitative methodologies in IB is still scarce (Parkhe 1993, Peterson 2004, Yang/Wang/Su 2006). It is against this background that we endeavour to consider methodological issues for qualitative International Business research, particularly that building on text narratives from interviews.
Problem and Purpose
The literature offers a vast collection of methods for qualitative inquiry (Bickman/Rog 1997, Denzin/Lincoln 1994, Miles/Huberman 1994, Peterson 2004, Strauss/Corbin 1994, Van Maanen 1983) and these methods appear particularly suitable for research where multiple actors and environments are involved. Current standards of qualitative data analysis are often considered as less rigorous and half-formulated art (Miles 1979). Researchers acknowledge the need to analyse qualitative data and establish meaning in a systematic way. To make qualitative IB research a viable source of knowledge generation and dissemination, researchers are encouraged to systematize, regularize, and coordinate the work of observation, recording, and analysis (Ghauri/Gronhaug 2005, Miles 1979). This is particularly important in the International Business field, where coordinating multi-cultural research teams and integrating their joint efforts aggravates the challenges.
This paper is concerned with fundamental principles of research quality, particularly how to make qualitative research findings more trustworthy. Some researchers suggest the adoption of alternative terminology and procedures for the qualitative research process. Strictly speaking, quantitative criteria such as objectivity and validity, are not deemed applicable to qualitative inquiry (Denzin/Lincoln 1994, Lincoln/Guba 1984). Hence, to establish "trustworthiness" of qualitative research, credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability need to be established. The purpose of this paper is to suggest specific research strategies for dealing with qualitative data, especially data that stem from interviews. We advocate formalised procedures of gathering, analysing and interpreting qualitative data and discuss these issues in view of the emergence of computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). Although formalisation and the aim to establish trustworthy research results does not necessarily presuppose CAQDAS, we maintain that its application enhances the trustworthiness and thus quality of qualitative inquiry. Out of a range of available CAQDAS packages, we decided to use N*Vivo. It not only helps researchers and managers in their pursuit to systematize and organise their work (Marshall 2001) but also offers group features (Richards 2000), which are particularly helpful in the coordination of IB research (Mangabeira/Armstrong/Sprokkereef 1996, Peterson 2004).
The contribution of this paper is on two levels. We contribute conceptually and methodologically, and the aim is to stimulate discussion in the field. We first develop a conceptual framework which links standards and stages in the analysis of interview-based data. We then exemplify our conceptual and methodological thinking by introducing a project on knowledge management. Therein company managers from various international consulting companies communicate their views on practices and procedures of knowledge sharing and knowledge management.
Adopting Formal Criteria for Interview-based Qualitative IB Research
Qualitative research may include multiple methods such as, case studies, ethnography and participant observation, grounded theory, biographical and participative inquiries (Strauss/Corbin 1994). Within the field of qualitative IB research, the case study methodology is the most prevalent method (Pauwels/Matthyssens 2004). Similarly, there are a range of specific methods for collecting empirical material, such as interviewing, observational techniques, semiotic analysis etc. The analysis of text-based in-depth interviews is the most widely employed methodology for firm-level IB research, as published material in major journals (DuBois/Reeb 2000) such as, Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), Management International Review (MIR), Journal of World Business (JWB) and International Business Review (IBR) reveals.
The Relevance of the Emic-Etic Discussion for Qualitative Research in International Business
IB research transcends political or cultural boundaries and therefore is inherently comparative in nature. A tension exists, however, regarding cross-cultural research traditions and the fundamental understanding of how to deal with comparative issues. Some scholars propose to work intensively within a single cultural context in order to discover and comprehend indigenous phenomena, while others advocate extensively research across cultures in order to produce results that are valid in international contexts (Berry 1989). The basic split in orientations to research stems from work in cross-cultural anthropology by linguist Kenneth Pike (1966) who coined the terms "emic" and "etic" using the suffixes of the terms phonemic and phonetic. In linguistic analysis these terms distinguish sound structure, as analysed by a linguist (phonetics), from the meaning of the sounds to the native speaker (phonemics) (Morey/Luthans 1984, Pike 1966).
The "emic" and "etic" terms have since developed to denote general research orientations which were long understood to be dichotomous and contrasting views rather than equally applicable. Emic research centres on the native, that is, the insider's view of reality. Thus, the emic approach emphasises phenomena which occur in a particular culture by using only concepts employed in that culture (Buckley/Chapman 1997). Contrastingly, etic designates the orientation which is taken by outside researchers. Behaviours and phenomena are described using external criteria which are imposed by the researcher. While researchers adopting an emic approach may obtain a very accurate within-culture description, probably by employing qualitative techniques, they will not be able to compare emic-results obtained in one culture with emic-results from another culture. Emic research, which builds on subjectivist, idiographic, qualitative and insider perspectives (Morey/Luthans 1984) suggests designs are not necessarily comparative in nature. Eric researchers, on the other hand, impose universal categories on their data and can, therefore, make comparisons (Davidson et al. 1976). This imposition of universal categories, however, may prove to be difficult because by choosing particular categories researchers might miss the most important aspects of the phenomena which they originally intended to study. The challenge to obtain observations that are both adequate within the cultural description of a phenomenon and that are cross-culturally comparable has been described as the emic-etic dilemma (Davidson et al. 1976).
The dilemma is more pronounced in cross-cultural research and attempts have been made to overcome the tension between these traditions. Conceptually, Berry's (1989) "imposed etics-emics-derived etics" operationalisation, which...
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