4 Methodology!and!Research!Design!
4.3 Research!Design!
4.3.6 Data!Collection!Methods!
4.3.6.1 Relational!Data!
Conducting! a! quantitative! research! in! social! networks! requires! collection! of! relational! (or! network)! data.! Data! collection! methods! for! relational! data! are! similar! to! the! conventional! data! collection! methods;! however! the! difference! remains! on! the! type! of! data! that! a! researcher! looks! for.! In! contrast! with! the! traditional! research! that! generally! aims! to! collect! data! regarding! certain! attributes!of!the!respondents,!the!ultimate!purpose!of!social!network!research!is! to! identify! and! measure! the! relationships! between! actors! of! a! network.! Therefore,! social! network! researchers! need! to! collect! data! that! manifest! the! nature!of!relationship!between!actors!(Scott!and!Carrington!2011).!This!type!of! data!does!not!attempt!to!convey!any!ideas!about!the!individual!characteristics!of! the! actor! (e.g.! age,! gender,! income,! etc.);! instead! it! concentrates! on! a! specific! relationship! between! actors! (e.g.! social! tie,! friendship,! respect,! etc.).! The! collected!relational!data!are!often!presented!in!the!matrix!form,!generating!an!NH byHN!adjacency!matrix,!when!N!is!the!size!of!social!network.!!
Figure! 16! offers! an! example! on! how! relational! data! derives! from! a! social! network!to!form!an!adjacency!matrix.!The!value!of!the!cell! !, ! !represents!the! value!of!the!given!relationship!between!actor!B!and!actor!C,!and!since!a!tie!exists! between! B! and! C,! the! !, ! !cell! shows! the! value! of! 1.! This! matrix! is! diagonal;! therefore!the!value!of! !, ! !is!equal!to! !, ! .!Since!actors!do!not!have!social!ties! with!themselves,!the!diagonal!in!the!relational!matrices!tends!to!be!ignored.!! Note!that!the!adjacency!matrix!of!N!actors!produces!! ∗!(! − 1)!applicable!data! points.!Relational!matrix!could!be!either!binary!or!valued.!The!cells!in!a!binary! matrix!demonstrate!presence!or!absence!of!a!relationship,!whereas!in!a!valued! matrix! they! show! any! valued! attribute! of! the! respective! relationship.! For! instance,! existence! of! a! social! tie! between! actors! creates! a! binary! matrix,!
whereas!the!frequency!of!interactions!tends!to!be!valued.!Figure!16!represents!a! binary!adjacency!matrix.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!A! !!!B! !!!C! !!!D! ! ! ! A! 0! 1! 0! 1! ! ! B! 1! 0!
1!
1! ! ! ! C! 0!1!
0! 0! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!D! 1! 1! 0! 0! ! ! 4.3.6.2 Data!Collection!Method!Selection! This!study!opts!for!questionnaire!as!the!most!suitable!method!of!data!collection.! The!following!discussions!compare!different!methods!of!data!collection!and!by! comparing! their! strengths! and! weaknesses! rationalise! the! decision! of! choosing! questionnaire!for!this!research.!There! are! several! techniques! to! collect! relational! data! for! a! social! network! research.! Questionnaires,! interviews,! observations! or! archival! records! are! the! most! convenient! techniques! (Scott! and! Carrington! 2011).! The! nature! of! the! research! and! the! variables! that! must! be! measured! determine! the! appropriate! data! collection! method.! For! example,! for! financial! transactions! between! a! network!of!institutions,!it!may!be!best!to!look!at!archival!records;!observations! could!be!fitting!for!the!exploratory!studies!in!small!networks,!and!questionnaires! are!suitable!tools!to!collect!data!for!the!variables!such!as!friendship!or!trust!in! large!networks.! A B C A D A Figure!16!–!An!Example!for!the!Adjacency!Matrix!of!a!Social!Network!(Own!Figure)!
Perceived!status!and!social!ties!certainly!belong!to!the!latter!group!of!variables.! Organisations! do! not! keep! any! records! regarding! the! status! or! social! ties! between!actors!in!any!database!or!repository,!thus!they!cannot!be!retrieved!from! the! archival! records.! Furthermore,! a! large! number! of! actors! combined! with! geographical! dispersion! of! modern! enterprises! make! it! virtually! impossible! to! extract!these!data!through!observation.!In!addition,!conducting!interviews!with! all! actors! could! become! biased,! due! to! the! lack! of! anonymity,! and! timeH consuming!due!to!rather!large!number!of!the!sample.!Aligned!with!the!deductive! theoryHtesting!nature!of!this!research,!questionnaire!appears!as!the!most!viable! option!of!data!collection!for!this!research.!Questionnaire!is!the!only!tool!that!can! create!a!similar!platform!for!all!actors!in!expressing!their!viewpoints!about!the! nature! of! their! relationship! with! other! actors,! and! thereby! provide! unbiased! relational!data!from!the!complete!network!(Wasserman!and!Faust!1994).!!
In!order!to!achieve!this!goal,!I!apply!a!dyadic!approach!for!data!collection,!which! concentrates! on! collecting! data! from! all! social! ties! between! any! pair! of! actors.! For! this! quantitative! research,! collecting! data! from! all! actors! regarding! their! social! interactions! with! other! actors! is! achievable! only! through! applying! sociometric9!questionnaire!as!the!primary!data!collection!method.!!
However,!other!methods!can!be!used!as!secondary!data!collection!methods.!The! innovative! outcomes! of! the! individuals! must! be! extracted! based! on! the! actual! contribution! of! the! individuals! to! the! product! development! projects.! This! data! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9!Sociometry is a quantitative method introduced by Moreno (1953). He defines sociometry as the inquiry into the evolution and organisation of groups and the position of individuals within them. The purpose of sociometric methods is to discover the social status, structure based on measuring the extent of attraction or repulsion between individuals in groups. In researches, which include inter-personal or inter-unit relationships, sociometric questionnaires help researchers to extract actors' attitude towards each other (Moreno 1953, 1960, Northway 1967). The responses to sociometric questionnaire can generate a sociogram, which is a graph of relationships, and it facilitates the understanding of relationships in a group of actors (Hoffman et al. 1992). The result of sociometric questionnaire is relational data that can be analysed in our data analysis.
should! be! retrieved! from! the! internal! documents! and! the! supervisors! of! each! individual.! Simply! asking! people! about! their! innovative! performance! could! become! biased! and! inaccurate.! However,! personnel! appraisal! and! evaluation! forms,! project! timesheets,! and! project! evaluation! reports! could! offer! solid! material! for! developing! an! objective! measure! for! innovation.! Other! secondary! data!collection!could!involve!respondents’!personal!data,!which!are!recorded!in! organisational!databases!and!can!be!omitted!from!the!questionnaire!(see,!4.6.2.).! Additionally,! interviews! with! knowledgeable! individuals! in! the! Headquarter! could!improve!the!quality!of!the!empirical!study.!
The! following! discussion! introduces! two! major! approaches! of! the! sociometric! questionnaire! regarding! the! data! collection.! It! evaluates! their! merits! and! limitations,!and!ultimately!selects!the!appropriet!alate!approach!for!this!study.!! Free! and! Fixed! Recall.! A! free! recall! technique! is! usually! applied,! when! researcher! does! not! know! all! the! actors! of! the! network.! In! this! technique,! researcher! identifies! a! selected! group! of! actors! and! asks! respondents! to! recall! and!nominate!other!actors!of!their!social!network.!This!technique!relies!on!the! memory!of!individuals,!and!it!could!become!biased!in!large!networks,!and!it!is! often!employed!in!ego!network!studies!(Prell!2011,!Scott!and!Carrington!2011).! Alternatively,!fixed!recall!technique!can!be!used!when!researcher!knows!all!the! actors,!but!she/he!wants!to!identify!the!most!significant!social!ties.!In!this!case,! researcher! allows! respondents! to! nominate! a! limited! number! of! actors.! For! example,! respondents! can! be! asked! to! nominate! 3! colleagues! whom! they! trust! the!most.!
Roster.!The!second!technique!of!data!gathering!is!to!provide!respondents!with!a! roster! of! all! actors.! When! the! boundaries! of! the! network! are! determined,! researcher! is! aware! of! all! involved! actors! and! she/he! wants! to! capture! the! relationship! between! all! actors! using! rosters! is! suggested! (Prell! 2011).! This!
approach!eliminates!any!possibility!of!forgetfulness!and!leads!to!more!complete! responses.!This!technique!is!often!used!in!complete!network!studies!with!limited! number!of!actors.!Respondents!are!asked!sociometric!questions,!and!they!should! respond!those!questions!for!all!actors!whose!name!is!mentioned!on!the!roster.!! The!main!drawback!of!this!approach!could!appear!in!the!studies!with!very!large! samples,!resulting!in!equally!long!rosters.! This!research!is!a!complete!network!study!that!attempts!to!capture!all!social!ties! between!the!individuals!in!an!organisational!social!network.!Since!the!boundary! of!the!network!is!clear!and!all!actors!are!known!prior!to!the!research,!roster!is! the! preferred! approach! for! designing! the! questionnaire.! I! decided! to! use! the! roster!approach!in!order!to!assure!all!influential!actors!remain!unforgotten,!and! the!final!matrices!are!as!complete!as!possible.!!
The! following! table! summarises! the! specifications! of! the! selected! research! design:! Steps! Current!Study! Research!Setting! Transnational!MNE! Network!Boundary! IntraHorganisational!network! Sampling!Technique! Nominalist!approach! Unit!of!Analysis! Individuals! Data!Collection! Sociometric!Questionnaire!H!Roster!
Table 4-2- Summary of the Empirical Research Design
! !
4.4 Measures!
This!section!elaborates!on!the!measures!for!independent,!mediator,!dependent! and!control!variables!of!this!study.!The!measures!are!suggested!based!on!solid!
theoretical! justifications,! and! existing! measurement! of! the! literature.! Furthermore,!various!tests!including!face!validity,!content!validity,!discriminant! validity,! and! alpha! Cronbach! will! be! conducted! on! the! constructs! throughout! pilot!study!and!the!empirical!study!in!order!to!assure!validity!and!reliability!of! the!constructs.!