Due to the longitudinal nature of this research, the study method of the former FIBO/Gateway research conducted in 1998-1999 will first be discussed. In the previous study, the method was a mail questionnaire, however, the problems encountered with this method led to a change of method in the middle of the research process. Santalainen (2000, 39) explains:
“The questionnaire was mailed to 228 Baltic RHQs. Due to the limited number of valid responses after the first mailing round, a second round was undertaken in August 1999. However, after two mailings only 48 answers were received and therefore it was decided to carry on the data gathering by telephone interviews.”
The difficulties encountered in the former research and low response rate convinced the author of the thesis that the study method should be other than traditional mail survey. The research team collectively shared the view that an electronic mail survey would probably not provide better results than the traditional mail survey, and the response rate was expected to be low. Some disadvantages can be attributed to the mail surveys: the time taken, a low response rate, and some of the questionnaires when returned are not fully complete (Kajalo 2010).
The purpose of this study was to contact the whole population and find out how the RHQ position in each of the 375 companies had developed in over a decade. The research team was aiming for a high response rate, which would clearly have an effect to the reliability of the study. The survey interview over the phone was chosen as a suitable method due to the large number of respondents and the nature of research questions. The study would be longitudinal, employing both qualitative and quantitative research (Pettigrew 1990). According to Pettigrew (1990), longitudinal research design can be conducted using different data collection methods such as interviews. According to Daniels & Cannice (2004, 190), a methodology should be picked based on the quality
of information that the methodology is likely to yield. The information we needed was of a special kind, highly contextual and could only be obtained from company representatives at executive level i.e. the desired sample consisted of respondents in a very specific target population. As researchers we needed to understand the phenomenon more deeply and considered direct discussions with company representatives necessary. According to Daniels & Cannice (2004, 186): “Interview- based research studies are particularly well suited for exploratory and theory building studies; that is, when researchers study an issue with little or no pre-existing theoretical bias.” They say that the interview method has several strengths, including the possibility that interviews may allow researchers to establish a deeper rapport with informants than is possible through written questionnaires. Daniels & Cannice (2004, 186) continue: “This may be necessary to gain honest and accurate responses and to add insights that lay the groundwork for larger or follow-up studies.” Also, the researcher becomes confident that no other than the target informant supplies the information. A telephone interview was chosen, seeing that it is relatively cost efficient and fast in the sense that the results of the survey are available right away (Kajalo 2010). However, disadvantages of this method include that it can be very time-consuming, which typically constrains the use of interviews for large samples. Interviews are also more demanding since they require certain interpersonal skills, researchers must have the ability to interact with high-level executives. (Daniels & Cannice 2004).
Structured interview was chosen as the type of interview, meaning that interviewer uses a pre-planned script and there is little flexibility in the wording or order of questions. A structured interview is qualitative if the responses given by participants are open ended. It is considered as an efficient study method when collecting information about ‘facts’ (e.g. what happened, when and how). Also, the structured interview was suitable because there were three interviewers involved and it was necessary to reduce variability caused by it. Structured interview is convenient when interviewers are less knowledgeable, and when it is important to be able to compare the information provided by the participants systematically. (Eriksson Päivi & Kovalainen Anne, 2008)
5.3.1 Preparing for data collection
Before the interviews, the existence of the original population of 375 RHQ companies had to be verified. A contact information update was carried out for the companies due to changes in company name, mergers and acquisitions as well as shut downs that had occurred since the first survey was administered in 1998. This was carried out based on the official registries (Yritys- ja yhteisötietojärjestelmä YTJ, www.ytj.fi), company contact information databases (Fonecta, http://profinderb2b.fonecta.com) and company websites. In addition, business news, company updates, business articles published in internet/web in general provided some useful hints. These were used as a supporting source of information in order to find out what had happened to some of the companies in a period of over ten years. In some case it appeared during the phone interview that it was no longer relevant (e.g. the company had moved to Finnish ownership).
Old questionnaire forms could still be found from the FIBO database concerning some of the researched companies with the prior address of the company and the name of the executive who answered the survey over 10 years ago. In practice, there were some cases were several phone calls had to be made in order to find out what had happened to the company/business operations under survey in 1999, or until the appropriate contact person could be found.
There existed certain challenges related to the data collection in general. How to get access to interviewees? How to get the number of suitable respondents and reach them? It was expected that the large target population would be busy and unreachable at times. Even so, the research team believed that the telephone would be the most appropriate way to find out who is the right representative of the target company to answer to the survey and to obtain the telephone number of the person.
It was clear that the role of the interviewer would have an effect on who would respond to the survey and what kind of information the researchers would obtain from the interview. Golden (1992) says that the incentives and disincentives for participating in a research project must be recognized in the design of a study. Miller et al. (1997, 201) say that researchers should motivate the managers to participate in the study, as well as
provide accurate information. Miller et al. (1997, 201) add: “To motivate informants, confidentiality should be ensured, the duration and inconvenience of data collection should be minimised, and rich explanations of the usefulness should be given.”
The phone interview cannot last long (e.g. more than 15 minutes) therefore the questionnaire could not be very complicated. We created a short marketing pitch concerning the value of our research and stressed that the company had responded in the first round of data collection over ten years ago. We promised confidentiality and to preserve the anonymity of respondents so as to put the responder more at ease (Daniels & Cannice 2004).
5.3.2 Formulation and piloting of structured interview questionnaire
The data gathering from the RHQs was carried out by structured survey questions over the telephone. We designed a new open-ended telephone questionnaire (see Appendix 1) based on the original questionnaires from 1998 and 1999. Some research questions (e.g. related to background information) remained as they were in 1998-1999. The old study was only partially replicated and was extended for certain new aspects. We added new questions about the development of RHQs and its changing role. Interview questions centred around: basic company and group data; data on Finnish subsidiary’s current RHQ position and responsibilities; data on lost RHQ position and possible relocation of RHQs; and factors that affected the change in RHQ position in each of the situations.
First, the questionnaire was pretested with an arranged telephone interview and adjusted based on the feedback. The questionnaire was further tested and developed while the telephone interviews were carried on with the pilot group of companies. We considered the pilot interviews necessary seeing as it helped us to understand the phenomenon. Discussions with company representatives provided not just data, but ideas on how to continue the survey and the results guided to the direction of questions to be used in the final questionnaire. In the pilot stage, few target respondents answered that they are too busy for the interview and asked us to send the interview questions in written form by e- mail. However, we noticed almost immediately that the procedure was not working. Either the respondent never took the survey or had not understood some of the research
questions, so we needed to call back to ask further questions and ended up doing the interview over the phone eventually. This was a valuable learning experience after which a conscious decision was made not to send the interview questions by e-mail and to conduct the interviews only over the phone.
5.3.3 Respondent
The contact person in the companies was either the executive secretary or CEO for smaller companies. Researchers found it useful to send an e-mail to the secretary 1-2 days before the telephone interview. The mail contained short introduction to the research topic, a definition of RHQs and some examples of upcoming research questions. The person who received the mail therefore had some time to prepare the answers for the interview, or could pass the mail to someone in more suitable position to answer the questionnaire. It was common that two company representatives answered the questionnaire. Typically, assistants provided answers to basic research questions, and determined who would be another appropriate company representative to continue the interview. Later on staff, communication or marketing managers, country managers, controllers or CEOs continued answering the more specific questions about RHQs and organisational change.