Data Collection Strategy –Main Study 1 Sampling

5.2.1.1.1 Sampling Frame and Procedure

The target population of the study was defined as all customer-facing employees who have worked in hotels in Thailand. This is because the internal branding concepts focused on customer-facing employees (Khanyapuss Punjaisri & Wilson, 2007). In light of this conceptualisation, all customer-facing employees were necessary requirements for the sampling frame.

In the study of Samuel Craig and Douglas (2001), nonprobability sampling was adopted as a sampling procedure for international marketing research. Probability sampling procedures are uncommon in international marketing research, especially in studies involving developing countries because the selection of a representative sample in developing countries is complicated by many factors such as comparability and availability of sampling lists, different

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social attitudes of specific cultural groups to interview formats, and uneven infrastructure such as penetration of communication systems, and resources constraints (Samuel Craig & Douglas, 2001). Therefore, selection of sampling units is based on some type of intuitive judgement or knowledge of the researchers (Hair Jr & Lukas, 2014). The nonprobability sampling method is a method that is usually an extension of convenience sampling. Convenience sampling procedures help to overcome these difficulties, providing that adopted sampling frames are equivalent across settings and a conscious effort is made on the part of the researcher to maximise samples’ comparability (Malhotra, Agarwal, & Peterson, 1996).

In Thailand, this current study approached the Thai Hotel Association with an invitation to participate in the study. The Thai Hotels Association (THA) has represented the Thai hotel industry since 1963 and now represents more than 850 members across Thailand services with a network of branches in every province. The THA agreed to support this thesis and 15 hotels, which were members of the Thai Hotel Association, agreed to participate in this research study.

5.2.1.1.2 Sample Size

The researcher needs to determine the size of the sample needed before collecting data. However, the question of sample size is complex because this current study is in a developing country, where estimates of population variance may be simply unavailable. Decisions on target sample size in international marketing research, especially the developing countries, are often based on qualitative criteria, for example the nature of the research, the time, money, and persons available for the study (Churchill & Iacobucci, 2005; Malhotra et al., 1996).

According to the study of Hair et al. (2006), a sample size of 200-500 is recommended for multivariate data analysis. Additionally, Hair et al. (2006) suggest that a ratio of ten cases per

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independent variables in the model is required. Given that the study intended development and validation of new measures, guidelines on measure development using structural equation modelling were appropriate for consideration. A minimum sampling size of 100 is required for models containing five or fewer constructs (Hair et al., 2006).

Of the 2,000 questionnaires distributed, 1,796 were returned, giving a response rate of 90 percent. However, due to some missing data, only 1,747 questionnaires were considered appropriate for further analysis. The size of the sample and the missing data pattern (there was no concentration in a specific set of questions) assisted this current study to justify the deletion of the questionnaires with missing data. Moreover, according to Richard and Dean (2002), when variables have less than 15% missing data, they are likely to be deleted. Table 5-4 shows Respondent Hotels.

Table 5-3: Respondent Hotels

Hotel Respondents Hotel Ranking

A 153 (low ranking) B 64 (low ranking) C 100 (high ranking) D 50 (low ranking) E 288 (high ranking) F 100 (high ranking) G 100 (high ranking) H 100 (high ranking) I 60 (high ranking) J 100 (high ranking) K 304 (high ranking) L 102 (low ranking) M 100 (low ranking) N 60 (high ranking) O 66 (low ranking)

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The target population of the study was defined as all customer-facing employees who have worked in hotels in Thailand. This is because the internal branding concepts focused on customer-facing employees (Khanyapuss Punjaisri & Wilson, 2007).

The Human Resources Departments of fifteen respondent hotels suggest that employees from three departments, including Department of Front Office and Department of Food and Beverage and Department of Housekeeping, fit with the customer interface terms as defined by the concept of internal branding.

5.2.1.2 Survey Administration Procedure

The survey was administered in November 2013 – January 2014 in Thailand, in the form of a self-completed pen and paper questionnaire. There are two reasons why this current study needs to select this survey administration procedure. First, self-completion questionnaires are considered as one of the ways to reduce the confounding influence of social desirability bias and interviewer bias (Malhotra, 2008; Malhotra et al., 1996). Social desirability bias may be triggered by interaction with the interviewer, particularly if the interviewee perceives the interviewer’s status to be higher than his/ her own or the interviewer has a different cultural background (Samuel Craig & Douglas, 2001). Second, assessment of literacy levels confirmed that literacy enjoys a high priority in Thailand (93.5%), as estimated in 2012, and therefore the self-completion method of survey administration was not a problem (Unicef, 2014).

The data collection process follows five steps:

First of all, the researcher of this study will go to the hotels and leave the questionnaires with Human Resource Managers. Prior to conducting this survey, these Human Resource Managers would be trained about the way to approach respondents, understand the

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meaning of all questions and will also be aware how the hotel could fully benefit from the research.

Second of all, when employees come to work, Human Resource Managers or Officers introduce the research and ask for their permission to fill in the questionnaire. After they get permission, they will explain the structure of the questionnaire and instructions to fill in the form.

Third of all, employees could take one questionnaire and fill it in at a convenient time. When finished, the Human Resource Managers or Officers check for any mistakes or unanswered parts and immediately ask the respondents to correct or fill in those parts.

Fourth, the questionnaires can be returned by leaving it in the provided box or on a table placed inside their department office.

Finally, the questionnaires will be gathered and collected by the researcher.

5.2.1.3 Instrument

The final survey instrument consists of 5 parts, as summarised below. A full copy of the instrument is provided in Appendix 5.5.

Section One includes instructions on how to complete the questionnaire with customer- facing employees.

Section Two includes the first 7 constructs of internal organizational communication, which are: Communication climate, Relationship to supervisors, Organizational Integration, Media Quality, Horizontal Communication, Organizational Perspective and Personal Feedback. All items were measured on a 5-point Likert Scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5).

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