Case Analysis

The case study method is a widely accepted method of analysis in social sciences. Stake (2000: 437) has identified three major approaches based on the primary research objective: a) Intrinsic case study. In this approach, the ‘first and last’ objective is to develop greater understanding of the selected case. The case does not necessarily represent other cases. However, owing to its novelty, the case lends itself as an interesting study. b) Instrumental case study. Here, a specific case is examined to throw light on a larger issue or draw a generalisation. The case itself is not of primary interest and acts as a ‘supporting role’. c) Collective case study. This approach entails use of multiple cases. The purpose, like in ‘instrumental case study’, is to study wider phenomenon and not the case per se. The selected cases could be similar or dissimilar. They are selected in order to gain better understanding of larger group of cases and or a wider phenomenon.

In order to address the research questions identified above, this study uses a ‘collective case study’ (or comparative) approach to examine the capabilities developed by four firms during the inter-war and post-war period. The primary criteria that governed the selection of cases was the availability of relevant archival data. Nonetheless, the selected case studies represent the cross-section of the industry during this period, in terms of size (small and large), and focus (specialised and generalised). These details are summarised in Table 5. Hence, this will both help to gain greater understanding of the strategic response and barriers faced within the selected firms and in the DJI and the British textile industry in general.

Table 5 Summary of Selected Case-Studies and Sources of Data

Firms Period of

Study

Focus Type of Data Source of Data

Buist Spinning Inter-war Spinning Minute Book;

Accounts

Dundee University Archive

Jute Industries Inter-war Integrated

(Spinning, Weaving and Merchanting) Personal Letter Book; Minute Book; Newspaper cuttings Dundee University Archive

Craiks Post-war Weaving Minute Book;

Accounts

Dundee University Archive

Scott & Fyfe Post-war Weaving Interview (3hr 5

minutes) Interview with Mr Hamish Tough (grandson of the founder and in charge of company since the early 1950s).

Figure 5 Summary of Case Analysis

Data Collection

 Used multiple sources for triangulation.

 Created database of case studies for further reference.

 Maintained ‘chain of evidence’ through proper referencing of archival sources.

Data Presentation

 Followed a general strategy consistent with multiple case analysis.

 Data presented in case reports in separate chapters (Chapter 4 and Chapter 5)

.

Data Analysis

 Used theoretical framework, the demand-side thesis and capabilities approach, to examine selected cases.

 Preliminary Analysis: The demand-side thesis is used to identify cause of decline and effect of collective strategies. The

capabilities approach is used to identify capabilities developed by individual firms.

 Cross-case Analysis:

o Used cases as unit of analysis to underline capabilities developed by individual firms, with an aim to identify similarity between capabilities developed.

o Conclusions derived from:

 Comparing and contrasting capabilities (Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6)

 Identifying relations between capabilities (Chapter 6 in particular)

 Identifying patterns of capabilities developed (Chapter 6 in particular)

There are three major aspects that must be considered when conducting a comparative case- study: data collection, data presentation and data analysis (Yin 1994; Miles and Huberman 1994). The following section describes these issues and outlines how each of them are addressed in this research (see Figure 5 for summary).

a) Data collection: This phase involves collecting data. There are three principles which must be followed in the process. The underlying reason behind them is to strengthen the reliability of data (Yin 1994).

First, the use of multiple sources, in other words the triangulation of data. This helps to overcome the over-dependence on any single source for data (p. 90-94). As with any historical research, this study has relied extensively on the archival data to analyse the selected cases. With regards to Craiks, Buist Spinning and Jute Industries an effort was made to triangulate the data by using multiple sources from archival records. Because the period under study is very old and the firms have been dissolved, it was difficult to corroborate the information from other sources, such as personal interviews for Craiks and Buist. However, interviews were conducted for Jute Industries for the post-war period (interview with Mr Sandy McKay). On the other hand, information on Scott & Fyfe was collected exclusively through an interview. Use of archival records was not possible with this firm because an accidental fire in the firm in 1954 had destroyed all written records. As a result, the case on Scott & Fyfe is built on the interview with Hamish Tough. Mr Tough has been closely involved with the running of the firm from the 1950s until the present day. As he was among the first in Dundee to spearhead the introduction of polypropylene in the mid-1960s, the interview provided a valuable source of information on this important aspect. It was also important, as there are very few archival records on Scott & Fyfe, thus generating a new set of data.

However, a greater amount of triangulation was possible for data collected on the collective strategies and general industry context. Information was collected from multiple archival sources and interviews (see Table 6). The issues pertaining to the interview process are discussed separately in the following section.

Table 6 Summary of Interviews

Person Specialisation(post-war period) Purpose Time

Mr R.R Atkinson In-charge of research at British Jute Trade Research Association and Jute Industries

Research and technological developments. 1hr 16 minutes Mr David Fullerton

Owner of a merchanting firm. General industry

context.

1hr 8

minutes Mr Frank Barker Factory manager during post-war period Technological

developments.

2hr 12

minutes

Mr Bob

Middleton

Company secretary in Low & Bonar. Low & Bonar’s activities and general industry context. 1hr 6 minutes Mr Douglas Brewer

Linoleum industry and owner of a

spinning firm.

General industry context.

3hr 6

minutes Mr Ian Hutchian Production manager at Jute Industries and

Low & Bonar.

Low & Bonar’s activities and general technological developments. 1hr 36 minutes Mr Sandy McKay

In-charge of Research and Development at Jute Industries, Low & Bonar and Scott & Fyfe Jute Industry’s activities and general technological developments. 3hr 29 minutes Ms Joanne Taylor

In-charge of Research and Development at Low & Bonar

Low & Bonar’s activities and general technological developments. 1hr 56 minutes

Mr Christopher Bonar

Executive director of Low & Bonar Low & Bonar’s activities.

38 minutes

Mr Duncan

Petrie

Associate Director of Lows of Dundee, formerly at Jute Industries

General industry context.

1hr 3mins

Mr Jim Balfour Jute machine engineer General

technological developments.

1hr 14

minutes

Second, the creation of a case study database. This involves creating a record of the ‘actual database’. Besides increasing the reliability of data, it also allows the ‘critical reader’ to refer back to the source to examine the conclusions derived from the analysis (p. 94-98). The archival data and transcribed interviews cover around four hundred pages. It was therefore not practical to include it in the thesis. Nonetheless, a copy of all the records is available with the author for further reference.

Third, the maintenance of a chain of evidence. This can be done by making appropriate references to the sources when presenting the data. It allows the reader to refer back to the original evidence to corroborate a specific issue or conclusion made in the final report (p. 98- 99). This research has addressed this aspect by adding a footnote that gives the complete reference of the source, both archival and interview, in all chapters of this thesis.

Once the data collection process has been completed, the next phase is to build the case and present.

b) Data Presentation: A written report is the most common method used to present the data (Yin 1994: 134; Miles and Huberman 1994). In a multiple case analysis, three major strategies are used to present the case in the written format (Yin 1984: 134-135). 1) Multiple case reports. These contain multiple narratives that are usually presented in separate sections or chapters. It is followed by separate chapters on cross-case analysis and conclusions. In this form, the majority of the report consists case presentation and cross-case analysis. 2) Question and

answer format. In this method, instead of narrative, the report takes the form of question and answer style. 3) Thematic presentation. In this style, the cases are presented in the form of broad themes that are pre-identified. Each theme consists of data from different cases. The themes can be either presented in separate sections or chapters.

Considering that the aim of this thesis is to do a comparative study on the strategies of individual firms, the ‘multiple case report’ is the most appropriate format. As the cases are examined in the inter-war and post-war period, separate chapters (Chapter 4 and Chapter 5) are used to examine them in detail. Furthermore, within each period, separate sections are used present data on individual cases. The next phase after presenting the case is analysing them.

c) Data Analysis: The analysis of case is the central part in the comparative study. The analysis can be conducted based on two broad strategies. The first strategy is to use a theoretical framework. This framework guides the literature review, determines the research question and steers the data collection process. It also helps to organise the case study and to examine alternative explanations (p. 103-104). The second strategy is to develop a case description. In contrast to the first strategy, a guiding framework is not used in the case description.

The broad strategy used in this study is to use a theoretical framework to analyse the case studies. This follows from the aim of the research, which is to use the ‘demand-side’ thesis to examine the cause of decline and capabilities approach to examine the capabilities developed by individual firms. The literature review and the data-collection process are guided by this framework. In order to bring consistency to the analysis, this theoretical framework is also used in examining the case.

Whichever strategy is chosen, the first phase after determining the broad strategy is to conduct a preliminary analysis (Miles and Huberman 1994). The initial analysis serves two main objectives: first, it helps to highlight the emerging themes. The main themes are identified using the ‘coding’ process, whereby the key themes are highlighted within the data (p. 56). The themes are identified either by the conceptual framework used in the study or inductively through an open-ended process.

In this research, the codification was done using the demand-side thesis and the capabilities approach. As only a few studies have been conducted on the strategic repositioning efforts within the jute industry, the process of codification and data collection was pursued simultaneously. Consequently, the data collection process took a long time, with a number of trips made to the archives over the period of three years. As themes were being identified from the initial set of data, further data collection became more specific. Although it was very tedious, the continuous process of codification and data collection was very useful.

The second phase entails a detailed cross-examination of the cases. There are two major approaches to analyse the cases (Miles and Huberman 1994). 1) Variable oriented analysis. In this method the themes that were identified through the coding process from different cases are given the main focus (p. 175). 2) Case-oriented analysis. Here, different cases are used as the unit of analysis. The cases are assembled based on the main variables identified from the coding process. Based on the purpose of the research, cases are grouped together to underline similarities or contrasts among them (p. 174). Both these strategies can be oriented towards either dependent variable or rival explanations (Yin 1994: 106-109). The dependent variables are the initial outcomes from the first phase of analysis. However, in studies where the outcomes are known, the focus is on examining which rival theories are most potent in explaining the outcomes. In this context, rival propositions are developed which are mutually exclusive. The analysis consists of identifying the proposition that is valid. The conclusions derived from analysis should underline three key aspects: i) they should compare and contrast the findings, ii) they should note relationships between different variables, and iii) they should note the patterns among variables (Miles and Huberman 1994: 190).

Following from the aim of the study, which is to examine the strategic response in the form of capabilities developed by selected case studies, this research employs the case-oriented analysis. In order to create focus, the cases are written using the key themes that were identified in the codification process. The purpose of this research is not to ‘justify’ either similarity or contrasts among cases. Rather, the aim is to ‘identify’ whether there are similarities or contrasts among the cases. As a result, this aspect did not play a major part in grouping of the cases. The actual analysis among the cases was conducted using the dependent variables. The dependent variables were in the form of capabilities developed by selected case-

studies. Therefore, the cross-analysis was aimed at underlining the different types of capabilities developed by individual firms. The conclusion is derived by comparing and contrasting capabilities developed by firms (in Chapters 4 and 5), highlighting the relations between different capabilities (in Chapters 4, 5 and 6), and noting patterns of capabilities developed by the firms during the inter-war and post-war period (in Chapter 6).

Investigating these issues in the jute industry will help to juxtapose it with other textile industries in the UK, especially the cotton textile industry. It will especially help to understand two central aspects of the debate on the British industrial decline a) the major cause of industry’s decline and b) the industry’s strategic response. Both these issues will in turn throw light on the quality of entrepreneurship displayed by individual firms during this difficult period in the jute industry. It will show whether firms were passive in their approach when dealing with the challenge in hand, in that there was an extensive dependence on collective strategies, or were they able to craft successful strategies on their own.