Data Collection

The sampling frame in this study is the domestic foodservice firms in Malaysia published by Euromonitor International (2011). The four segments with a total of seven foodservice firms that have been successfully expanding internationally at least to one foreign country were selected as shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1: The Selected Malaysian Foodservice Firms No. Segment Firm (Accepted) Firm (Declined)

1. Fast Foods Firm A Firm D

2. Cafés/Bars Firm B Firm E

3. Street Stalls/Kiosks Firm C Firm F 4. Full Service Restaurants None Firm G

After pilot case study had been done with Firm A, data collection was started with the obtaining access from six other firms. First, the firms‟ contact numbers were searched and found in Malaysian Franchise Association‟s (MFA) website (www.mfa.my). After they were called, all of them agreed and preferred that e-mail to be sent to them.

Therefore, the cover letter (Appendix A) attached with moderated interview questionnaire (Appendix C), Letter of Certification (Appendix D), and my name card (Appendix E) were sent via e-mail.

Cover letter was sent in order to notify the foodservice firms on the purpose and objectives of the research, the contribution of the research, the appointment for the interview, and the guarantee of the confidentiality of their responses. This letter plays an important role to persuade and convince them to participate in the interview. The interview questionnaire was attached to give interviewees idea on the interview questions. This may also give the interviewees opportunity to prepare beforehand and provide the informative printed materials during the interview. The Letter of Certification was sent as evidence that the researcher is the PhD student of University of Malaya. In addition, to convince that the researcher is the credible person, the name card was also sent as an additional advantage since the researcher is the Program Supervisor at college.

The e-mail was first sent on 2011, March 16, Wednesday, at 11.00 am to all six firms.

However, there was no reply from all of them. After contacted all the persons in charge, the second email was sent on 2011, April 5, Tuesday, at 6.00 pm.

Firm B responded soon after second e-mail was sent. The first e-mail was sent to the company‟s general e-mail. However, after contacted the headquarters, the e-mail was resent to Chief Finance Officer (CFO). She was very delightful and cooperative to be interviewed. For Firm B, interview was semi-structured using open-ended questionnaire. The broad questions were used to “thematize” or formulate the purpose of the study. The interview was done on 2011, April 19, Tuesday, 11.00 am at its headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. She personally gave the full address and provided the guides in order to reach on time. Interestingly, a couple years ago, she was also interviewed by the students of University of Malaya. The good manner shown by previous university‟s students have convinced her to grant this interview.

Although the important points were jotted during the interview, the digital recorder was also used to recall the content of the interview. She was very kind to allow the interview to be recorded. The small comfortable meeting room was granted to be used for this interview. The Digital Voice Editor and two mobile phones were also used to record this interview in case any of these recording tools malfunction. The interview lasted for 1 hour and 38 minutes based on the time recorded in the digital recorder. This recorder was then analyzed and the conversation was written in verbatim. It took about one week to complete the written conversation after listening for a few times.

The main advantage for this interview was that the researcher could ask more detail on the answers given. The researcher could also emphasize on the questions that were not fully answered and to put on track the answers that deviated from the original questions.

It also allowed the researcher to build better rapport with the interviewee at the beginning of the interview. Thereafter, the interviewee was very friendly and comfortable to answer even certain sensitive and confidential questions were asked.

Interestingly, the interviewee was very proud and pleased after the researcher introduced himself as full time lecturer of Tunku Abdul Rahman College and at the same time a part time student of University of Malaya. She was convinced that the researcher is a credential person in treating the information very confidentially and it will only be used for academic purpose.

For the case of Firm C, it responded within 3 weeks which was on 2011, March 20, after the second e-mail was sent. Its Finance Director, General Manager, and shareholder (FDGMS) was very generous to send his answer via e-mail. He sent quite long and detail response with additional information provided. This is the least

complicated method of doing research which is the main advantage of e-mail survey compared to other methods. The researcher only waited for three weeks to receive the answered questionnaire. The processing cost and handling of questionnaire paper were also reduced to almost zero.

Firm A and B were willing to be interviewed while Firm C preferred to reply the survey questionnaire by e-mail. These three firms have very convincing track record of penetrating international market. For Firm A, it has penetrated fifteen overseas markets;

Firm B, eight; while Firm C, sixteen. In contrast, the four firms that declined to be interviewed had only penetrated to a few neighboring countries. For instance, Firm D has only penetrated two countries; Firm E, two countries; Firm F, three countries; and Firm G, only one country. Most of them are new comers in Malaysian foodservice industry.

For Firm D, in the telephone conversation, it confessed that the reason to decline the interview was that its business was not so good and there were some problems in their management for the time being. Nevertheless, they also admitted that the overseas outlets in Bangladesh and Brunei were still operating even there were certain problems among shareholders. Similarly, Firm E also declined the interview. Via e-mail, the reason given was that the Board of Directors had instructed all the top managers not to be interviewed by any researcher as they were in the midst of converting their firm to public listed company. However, both Firm D and E did send the information about their franchises.

In the case of Firm F, it showed the willingness to be interviewed at the beginning.

However, both General Manager and CEO were too busy and always went overseas.

Finally, they declined the interview through telephone conversation.

On the other hand, Firm G has no e-mail and contact number as it is not the MFA member. However, its telephone number was obtained from Yellow Pages. After the headquarters was contacted on 2011, March 11, through the officer of Human Resource Department, the e-mail was sent to her first before she forwarded to the owner. The interview appointment has been set through the officer several times. Finally, after pending for a few months, the owner gave the excuse that she was busy and not keen to be interviewed.

The interview approach revealed the process of internationalization from the interviewees perspectives, expressed in their own terms. All of the interviewees allowed all the contents of the interviews to be revealed in this research writing. However, some figures of the sales of the firms were confidential and had never been given. A few questions that were asked in-depth were not answered because they were considered as sensitive to public such as government policy, religions, and ethnic groups.