Consideration of the respondents

A number of respondents who were thought most likely to have had experienced the phenomenon of cross-sector collaborations, initially within the FCMG food sector, were selected from within the four participant groups outlined in Table 8. Those operating within the areas of consultancy and professional fundraising were approached on the basis of their organisations’

stated interests in the FMCG food sector. Personal contacts operating within the various disciplines and business areas outlined in the table were approached to provide initial introductions to the selected respondents.

Number Group Code

1 NPO ND

2 CE CD

3 Consultancy CO

4 Fundraising Professional FP

the generation of contacts from within NPO and consultancy entities associated with their cross-sector programmes. At each interview the respondent was asked if there was anyone they might suggest that the study should approach and on every occasion a set of further contacts was generated. Through this method the additional groups of consultancies and professional fundraisers were introduced and explored. This willingness to engage beyond the interview and to offer personal introductions to help further the study was a common trait exhibited by the majority of the respondents.

Thus further contacts were generated from these interviews and pursued in order to provide a broad spread of individuals with a deep experience of the phenomenon, as represented in the following table:

.

ND1 Sustainability Director 20

ND2 Child

FP2 Medical Support

Director 18

Table 9 Respondents [Source: Author]

Profiles of the respondents may be found at Appendix 7. However it is worth noting at this stage that many participants had chosen to transition into the area of CSR delivery involving cross-sector collaborations within their own organisations and saw it as an area offering many significant and worthwhile challenges. It seems that those engaged in building or maintaining cross-sector relationships believe that what they were doing added value to their organisation and gave them a sense of purpose and satisfaction in their efforts.

Whilst this attitude could reasonably be expected from those participants engaged in the not-for-profit sector it was revealing to see that a similar desire to seek a broader purpose to their work-life appeared evident amongst those respondents working within commercial entities. Arguably this could merely be a manifestation of a suggested recent societal shift in the developed world towards seeking greater fulfillment at work (Austin and Seitanidi,2012a;

Macneil,1980) however it is worth noting that this desire for a ‘broader purpose’

was evident across a the range of ages and nationalities in the respondent group. This finding is discussed in greater depth in Chapter Four, which provides a description of the findings from the study within the three central themes of value creation, partnership processes and relationship dynamics.

Having outlined the chosen research method, interview process and, through application of the sampling procedure, identified potential respondents for the conduct of the study, the next step was the conduct of the fieldwork to collect data. The following section outlines this process and leads into the discussion

3.5.4 Data collection.

Data collection for the study was managed in four phases:

1. Initial Contact: once the suitable respondents were identified initial contact was made via telephone. The ensuing conversation outlined the aims and objectives of the study, provided background on the research issue and raised the possibility of the respondent participating in the study.

2. Confirmatory e-mail: the respondents who were willing to participate were sent a confirmatory e-mail, proposing dates and venues for the interview and expressing my preference for a face-to-face meeting if at all possible. The e-mail also outlined in brief the ethical considerations of the research and introduced the concept of informed consent to the respondent. A short overview outlining the project’s focus and aims and objectives was attached as background reading ahead of the interview (see example at Appendix 3).

3. Interview: a one hour interview with the participants then took place. All interviews were recorded, and subsequently transcribed. The majority of the interviews were conducted in the respondents’ workplaces, with the exception of the larger NPOs, who chose to meet outside of their workplace, often in a neutral venue, such as a coffee shop or management space (e.g. the Institute of Directors in London) as offered by the interviewer.

4. Feedback: at the end of each interview feedback was sought from the participants and was recorded in a reflexive journal which was later considered as part of the structural description (Step 5) of the data analysis plan (Creswell, 2007).

In addition, once the transcripts of the interviews had been produced they were sent to the respondents for checking and approval. This provided an opportunity to ask for any further feedback allowing for a period of reflection on behalf of the respondent. This process of ‘member checking’ (Padgett, 1998) was conducted via e-mail once the interview had been transcribed and, on the whole, responses were generally supportive with many offering additional thoughts and themes that they felt the original interview had not covered.

These additional inputs were also incorporated within the data analysis plan at the writing of the structural stage, as with the immediate feedback as detailed above (Creswell, 2007). It is worthy of note that the majority sought additional assurances that their anonymity would be preserved, and one respondent from a CE asked for a particular discussion to be removed due to potential commercial sensitivities. Once the respondents had approved the transcripts they were returned, along with any further feedback on the process and the interview, and the study was able to move to the next stage: data analysis, which will be discussed in the next section after a consideration of the implications of the pilot study. .