4.4 Case Study Design Process
4.4.3 Collect the Data
After selecting the case and developing the protocol for identifying prevention encounters, the next step is collecting the data. I should note here that the design of this research, especially with regards to how the case study is conceptualized, was an iterative process. That is, throughout data collection and initial analysis, it became apparent that actors’ convergence was most observable in interactions within the context of developing new prevention measures. This helped me to better conceptualize the concept of prevention encounters.
The search for relevant data was guided by the three criteria for determining prevention encounters enabling consistency in data collection across the different sub-cases (Corbin & Strauss, 1990) as well as comparability between them (George & Bennett, 2005). This means that I was selective on the kind of data to use in the research, which is a normal approach especially in historical studies given their voluminous amount of data (Porra et al., 2006). Moreover, as actors involved in preventing credit card fraud are numerous, the data collection was focused on Visa’s efforts in preventing fraud which naturally involved identifying other actors who also have a role in fighting fraud.
Data collection went through two main steps: general and focused search.
4.4.3.1 General Search
The first step in collecting the data was doing a general search in order to: 1. Obtain general knowledge of credit card fraud.
2. Identify key events taking place while preventing fraud. Where key events were recognized by comparing them with the concept of prevention encounters. Thus, key events should encapsulate prevention encounters. 3. Extract prevention encounters from key events.
4. Identify major data sources to be used in focused searched to collect more specific data.
To meet these objectives I searched Business Source Premier Database using a broad keyword, credit card fraud, and narrowed the search results using the database built- in limiters. Table 4-2 gives details for the steps followed when doing the general search. The 476 final materials were then analyzed. I used Excel spreadsheet to report the data that seemed relevant to the research in terms of being possible candidates for prevention encounters. The sheet (hereafter data collection sheet) was organized based on the reference and date of the event, with a description of each event.
Initial analysis of data collection sheet showed that actors interacted in the context of developing and adopting prevention measures. Therefore, a new spreadsheet
Table 4-2 General search steps
DB search options Input Output
keyword credit card fraud (in AB abstract)
Search options a. Find all my search terms
Expanders a. Apply related words
b. Also search within the full text of the articles
Limiters: published date Jan/1950 - Dec/20131
Search results 2178
Limit to:
Subject: Thesaurus Term credit card fraud, fraud, commercial crimes, identity theft, internet fraud, computer crimes, consumer fraud, data protection, smart cards, data security, commercial credit fraud, phishing, banking industry-security measures
1575
Subject prevention, security measures, false
personation, corrupt practices, computer network resources, safety measures, laws and legislation, criminal law, fraud investigation, crime prevention, biometric identification, law enforcement, case studies, privacy
476
1I extended the data collection period for the last prevention encounter to be till the end of 2014 to
increase the richness of the data.
(prevention encounters sheet) was created. This sheet was organized according to prevention measures used to prevent fraud, with a description of interactions between actors that accompanied the development and adoption of these prevention measures. Prevention encounters sheet then helped me in drawing a timeline of key events (Figure 4-2). The timeline served as a methodological tool (Mason et al., 1997a) that facilitated data organization and guided the further collection of data.
The initial analysis also identified major data sources to be used in the focused search. Those constituted the references of many of the materials returned by the data search, and sources that were frequently cited by scholars studying the credit card industry. Identified major data sources are:
1. The American Banker – daily newspaper 2. ABA Banking Journal – monthly journal
3. Visa the Power of an Idea – the company’s biography 4. Birth of the Chaordic Age – Visa’s founder biography
Table 4-3 Data sources
Data sources Description Main value
Books Paying with Plastic: The Digital
Revolution in Buying and Borrowing
A Piece of the Action
Electronic Value Exchange: Origins of the Visa Electronic Payment System
Visa the Power of an Idea
Birth of the Chaordic Age
Provide comprehensive historical coverage of credit cards which helped in understanding the context of events taking place and how it affected decisions taken.
Trade journals The American Banker
ABA Banking Journal
Provide the ability to follow a certain prevention encounter to examine how it evolved with time.
Press
releases/newsletters
Online press releases and newsletters of Visa and NRF
Offer recent and up to date information regarding prevention encounters. Government documents Congressional hearings related to
certain prevention measure
Provide valuable detailed insights on the heterogeneous actors involved in preventing fraud and perceptions each hold about a certain prevention measure.
Other data sources that are valuable include: “Electronic Value Exchange: Origins of the Visa Electronic Payment System” a book that offers rich data on Visa’s use of technology to prevent fraud with useful insights on associated encounters. Books about the credit card industry: “Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing” and “A Piece of the Action”. Additionally, as the industry is highly regulated and contentious, government documents in terms of congressional hearings provided detailed data on positions held by various actors which helped mitigating data bias (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). I also consulted press releases and newsletters (specifically for Visa and National Retail Federation) which were useful in capturing data about recent prevention encounters. Table 4-3 summarizes the major data sources and the main value derived from each.
In summary, data was collected from these sources: books, trade journals, press releases/newsletter, and government documents. These multiple sources of evidence help in building a stronger and reliable case and writing a coherent story (Yin, 2014). Naturally, every source will tell part of the story that suits its interests, critiquing the evidence is thus necessary (Mason et al., 1997a). For this I used different strategies
such as, applying logic, corroborating the event from multiple sources, and assessing the overall coherence of the story (Mason et al., 1997a; Porra et al., 2006). In addition, it is argued that the fact that these sources are publicly available increases the case validity (Porra et al., 2014) and ‘keep the researcher honest’ (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007) as they are openly accessible for scrutiny. Nonetheless, the research data remains limited to what has been publicly announced. Moreover, I should acknowledge that historical knowledge is open to various interpretations where no conclusive meaning of the evidence of the phenomenon can be attained (Marwick, 2001; Porra et al., 2006).
4.4.3.1.1 Locating Data Sources
Once major data sources were identified, the next mission was locating those sources in order to prepare for the second step in data collection; focused search.
Books. Relevant books were purchased online.
Trade journals. I first consulted Warwick Library website to check access to both The American Banker and ABA Banking Journal. Access to the latter was available from 1964 till present offering a comprehensive coverage. I should note however that from 1964 till 1979 the journal was called “Banking”. The monthly periodical then changed its name to ABA Banking Journal and it is published under this title since then.
The library has access to The American Banker from 1985 till present. Though this covers a wide time span, The American Banker is a daily newspaper that is dedicated to the banking industry, which indicates the detailed level of information it provides about what is happening in the industry. Also, other data sources (i.e. books) showed that the 1970s was a critical period for the credit card. Thus, I started to search for access to previous records of the newspaper. In doing so, I consulted COPAC Union Catalogue and SUNCAT Union Catalogue, which search a wide range of UK libraries to help researchers locate needed materials. After reviewing search results, University of Essex library was identified as the sole provider of the needed access (access available from 1964 – 1979 in printed form). I contacted the library staff and
had the approval for accessing the library’s holdings of the newspaper from 1964 till 1979. I planned the field trip and spent a week collecting necessary data. For the period of 1979 - 1985, the same catalogue search identified availability for online access to the newspaper using LexisNexis database.
Press releases and newsletters. Those were accessed through related websites. I focused on press releases and newsletters produced by Visa (www.usa.visa.com) and National Retail Federation (www.nrf.com).
Government documents. Government documents here refer to congressional hearings between legislators and various actors in issues related to credit card security. Books and trade journals often cited congressional hearings, and that is when I became aware that hearings about a certain matter took place. This initial reference was only the start of a thread to draw the complete picture. Gaining full insight was challenging as several hearings occur before the final decision is made. To locate these hearings1, I referred to the Library of Congress website. The library provides a summary of bills introduced as well as information on where to find full records of the hearings. For this, I used HathiTrust digital library that offers online and free access to a wide coverage of those government documents.
Though the Library of Congress and HathiTrust provide information about hearings, they do not give an indication of the status of the bill. A lot of bills die, i.e. they do not pass the Congress, and no law is enacted accordingly. Tracking bills is important to know whether prevention encounters were successful or not. To achieve this, I consulted GovTrack.us which offers full details on bills history.
4.4.3.2 Focused Search
After identifying key events and locating data sources, I was ready to go through focused search step.
1Hearings happen at early stages of legislative policymaking where a bill to enact a new law is
Focused search involved using the main data sources to obtain detailed knowledge about each event and the underlying prevention encounter. Here I used specific keywords that reflected the examined prevention encounters. Examples of these keywords are: mass mailing, BASE, magstripe, magnetic stripe, POS terminal, OCR, CVV, smart card, chip and pin, SET, PCI standards, VbyV, tokenization. Keywords also arose when reviewing the resultant material. For example, the search using ‘smart card’ resulted in knowing that Visa called its smart card ‘super smartcard’. This keyword was subsequently used to obtain more information about this technology.
As more data was collected, both data collection and prevention encounters sheets went through several rotations of modifications. This step resulted in updating events timeline to reflect the new data, clarifying the concept of prevention encounters, and identifying eight prevention encounters that are critical in credit card fraud prevention lifecycle.