4.6 Research Data Collection Tools:
4.6.1 Interviews
Rubin and Rubin (2005), state that interviews are like night-time spectacles, which allow us to see the things which cannot be seen ordinarily. Interviews are one of the important data collection techniques, to provide rich data from different assortment of participants. Interviews help to centre on the subject’s world, in which the role of interviewer is to only listen, prompt, encourage and direct (Myers, 2008). Semi structured interviews are the best way to provide the balance between openness and structure. These interviews are based on the issues to be discussed decided before hand, but they only act as topic guides in the interview, which identify the data need to be collected to address the research objectives. In this the order of questions can also be changed in order to maintain the flow of the conversation and also more probing can be done to find any interesting issues rose during the interview. This allows the interviewer to capture any additional perspectives which were not thought in the design stage, so providing the openness, flexibility and structure for the research at the same time (Bryman, 2012; King, 2004). Therefore, in this research semi structured interview technique was chosen as one of the important data collection tool because of the reasons discussed above.
4.6.2 Focus Groups
Focus group was chosen as one of the data collection techniques in this research because of its ability to gather collective views about the topic from a group of people who have knowledge on that particular subject (Myers, 2008).This technique provided more room for the participants where researcher has less control over the data collected when compared to the interview and more control than in an observation process (Kleiber, 2004). In this process the researcher along with the role of a recipient of information; has played a role of moderator persuading participants to convey their opinions and facilitating the interaction process within a mutually respectable environment (Myers, 2008).
This technique also allows the participants to involve in a thoughtful discussion process as Kleiber (2004, p. 91) argues that focus group as a data collection technique,
...depends on the interaction of the group to stimulate participants to think beyond their own private thoughts and to articulate their opinions. It is in having to formulate, represent, give evidence, receive feedback, and then respond that individuals beyond the private.
Through the process stated above focus group provided rich data including the reason for the participant’s opinion on the subject matter.
4.6.3 Fieldwork
Fieldwork is a form of inquiry in which one is immersed in the on-going social activities of some individual or group for the purpose of research. Fieldwork is
characterized by personal involvement to achieve some level of understanding that will be shared with others. (Wolcott, 2005, p. 44)
Fieldwork refers to the research conducted outside the laboratory in real life situations with the people belonging to the specific context (Fiedler, 1978). Myers (2008) argues that fieldwork is very useful and can provide additional dimension of the phenomenon under study, which will be difficult to be obtained by interview alone. During fieldwork the researcher makes observations about the real life activities. In simple terms Myers (2008, p. 138) defines, “observation is when you are watching other people from outside.” In this research observations were made during the fieldwork and recorded in the field notebooks to provide more enriched data. In any social situation there are nine dimensions which can be observed namely space, actor, activity, object, act, event, time, goal, and feeling (Spradley, 1980). In this research all the relevant dimensions, which help answer the research objectives were observed. The two types of observation process were carried out during the fieldwork in this research namely direct and participative observation, which is discussed below.
4.6.3.1 Direct Observation
In this research, within the primary case study strategy, the direct observation technique is used for data collection in which the role of the researcher was just of a spectator and does not had any direct influence over the processes (or subjects) observed. This type of observation during cases is also known as “passive participation” (Spradley, 1980, p. 59). In differentiating this category of observation from the other Baker (2006, p. 116) states that,
... [It] differs from participant observation in that the researcher does not actually perform the tasks himself, but simply documents the ways in which these tasks are performed.
4.6.3.2 Participant Observation
As the researcher was part of the research team of Science Bridge Project (2010), during that project he used participant observation technique as one of the data collection technique within the action research strategy. Myers (2008, p. 139) defines that:
Participant observation is when you not only observe people doing things, but participate to some extent in these activities as well.
During this process the objective was to interact with the people of team and understand their viewpoint and their activities related to the processes being studied (Myers, 2008). Accordingly the researcher constantly engaged with the team members as an inside member, and recorded the observations related to the research objectives in the field notes
all through the project. Nonetheless all the team members were informed and aware of the dual roles (PhD student and team member) of the researcher within the project.
4.6.4 Documentary Evidence
According to Esterberg (2002, p. 121) documents are “any written materials that people leave behind.” Myers (2008), states that the term documents in research during the contemporary period include variety of data forms such as text, audio, pictures and video. As the documents are not prepared or modified for the research, it does address the concerns of researcher bias up to certain extent (Atkinson & Shaffir, 1998). Hence documents such as emails, blogs, web pages, corporate records, magazine articles, newspapers, photographs and videos were used in this research.
However, “documents are quick and easy source of information but it does have difficulties such as accessibility and assurance of lack of bias because they are prepared for specific audience” (Myers, 2008, p. 138).
The issue of accessibility was addressed by negotiating the access for private documents from the case study companies, though most of the documents used in this research are publicly available. In order to address the issue of bias, Scott (1990) put forward four assessment criteria for the documents. They are authenticity, credibility, representativeness and meaning. Baker (2006) adds that if the context of the document is taken into account and if it is used as a supplement to other forms of evidence, then the issue of bias can be minimised to a greater extent. Therefore in this research the above mentioned conditions were applied to select the appropriate documents and they were just used as supplementary evidence.
4.7 Research Process
This section answers how the different strategies and methods stated above are employed in this research and how the different components of the research are interlinked. The use of the above discussed research strategies in the different stages of the research are shown in the Figure 4.3. Taking the purpose, resource availability and the need for a sound methodology into account, these various strategies were employed in this research.
As stated above this research is an applied research, where the research problem was developed using the inputs from practice and literature concurrently. Therefore, multiple research strategies employed during the identification of research problem as well (discussed in Chapter3). The first three research objectives (RO1, RO2 & RO3) are derived from the research problem. The research objective RO1 was addressed using the strategies such as action research, qualitative survey research (QSR) and secondary research. Action research and QSR facilitated the collection of requirements by the stakeholders for such a sustainable supply chain risk analysis framework. Secondary research was used to identify
the challenges of SME’s for adopting sustainability principles and theories and concepts that can underpin the framework.
In addressing the research objective RO2, the secondary research strategy was used to identify the themes from the literature. Followed by that empirical data was collected from primary case studies and QSR. Primary case studies helped to identify the relevant sustainability issues and objectives for the practitioners directly involved in bioenergy supply chain, while QSR strategy was used to collect the information from the external stakeholders. Research objective RO3 was addressed in a similar manner to that of RO2, where the input from secondary case studies were also used in addition to that of primary case studies to strengthen the evidence about the claims of practitioners involved in bioenergy supply chain. The fourth objective (RO4) was the empirical testing of the framework designed in RO1. The output of RO2 and RO3 were used as input in this experiment. This is depicted in Figure 4.4. Action research strategy was adopted during the application of the framework in a real life project, while the researcher is a research team member of that project. In order to accomplish the objective RO4, analytical tools that process quantitative data have also been applied in this research, which is discussed in Chapter 8. These mathematical techniques were identified through literature review (secondary research). Following the application of the framework, it was evaluated for its future application potential through a focus group with other relevant practitioners in UK (qualitative survey research strategy).
Figure 4.4: Link between the Research Objectives
As this research is a multi-strategy and multi-technique (methods) research, different data collection tools were used in the research strategies shown above to gather information. The information about the number of studies and the data collection techniques used in the different strategies is given in the Table 4.1.
Table 4.1: Information about the Research Strategies Research strategies Case
study - Primary Case study - Secondary Action research Qualitative Survey Research Secondary Research Number of studies
Single / Multiple Multiple Multiple Single Multiple Multiple
Research techniques Interviews - - Focus Groups - - Direct observation - - - - Participant Observation - - - - Documentary Evidence -
Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 discuss about the four objectives respectively, that also provides more information on the research methodology used to achieve the respective objectives.
4.8 Data Sources
Based on the relevance to the research and the sampling approach described above, the data sources were selected to identify the information that can address the research objectives. As the study was related to the supply chain of bioenergy it was important to
collect information from the different process partners in the supply chain. Bioenergy supply chain can be categorised into 6 main process stages given in the Figure 4.5. All these processes were studied with the information from the data sources.
Raw material Transportation Storage Pre-processing
& Handling Conversion Down stream
Figure 4.5: Simple Bioenergy Supply Chain
In this research 1 action research case, 13 primary case study cases, 13 secondary case study cases were studied. In addition to the observation and secondary documents, 37 interviews and 9 focus groups were conducted totally to collect information in this research. All sources names were coded in order to maintain the anonymity. The details about these data sources are as follows.
4.8.1 Cases
The Table 4.2below provides the detail about the primary cases used both in the action research and the case study. Case names, type of data collected from the cases and short description about the cases are provided in the table below.
Table 4.2: Details of the Cases Case Data Short Description
Action Research ARC Interviews (3), Focus groups (4), Participative observation & Documents
This project as a part of Science Bridge Project being implemented in a small village near to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The researcher as a participant of the Science Bridge Project is related to this case, however not a direct decision maker in this work package.
Business: Captive bioenergy power plant for the planned (self-
owned) downstream industries.
Outputs: Tri-generation (Electricity, Heat and Cold) Capacity: 2 MW equivalent
Technology: Combustion
Processes: Storage, Pre-processing & handling, Conversion
& Downstream
Primary Case Study PCS1 Interviews (2),
Observation
This plant is setup in a village near to a major textile hub in Tamil Nadu, India. PCS7 is their major biomass supplier.
Case Data Short Description
&Documents Business: Captive bioenergy power plant for the self-owned
textile processing industry.
Outputs: Heat
Capacity: 435 KW equivalent Technology: Combustion
Processes: Storage, Conversion & Downstream PCS2 Interviews (2),
Observation & Documents
This plant is setup in an educational institution in Tamil Nadu, India.
Business: Captive bioenergy power plant that supply power to
the student hostel buildings.
Outputs: Electricity Capacity:100 KW electric Technology: Gasification
Processes: Raw material, Transportation, Storage,
Pre-processing & handling, Conversion & Downstream
PCS3 Interviews (3), Observation & Documents
This plant is run by the government. It is situated in a rural area of Karnataka, India. Total installed capacity is 1 MW electric but it is spilt into five small modular units’ setup at 3 different locations in a cluster of villages. The size of the modular units ranges from 300 KW to 100 KW.
Business: Bioenergy power plant that supply power to the
grid.
Outputs: Electricity
Capacity: 1 MW electric (in total) Technology: Gasification
Processes: Raw material, Transportation, Storage,
Pre-processing & handling & Conversion
PCS4 Interviews (2) & Observation
The plant is located in an expanding town in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Business: Captive bioenergy power plant for the self-owned
rice mill.
Outputs: Heat
Capacity:165 KW equivalent Technology: Combustion
Processes: Raw material, Transportation, Storage,
Pre-processing & handling, Conversion & Downstream
Case Data Short Description
&Observation Business: Captive bioenergy power plant for the self-owned
textile processing industry.
Outputs: Heat
Capacity: 23 KW equivalent Technology: Combustion
Processes: Storage, Conversion & Downstream PCS6 Interviews (1) &
Documents
The plant is situated in rural Bihar in India.
Business: Off-grid bioenergy power plant that supply power to
the rural community.
Outputs: Electricity & Heat Capacity: 32 KW electric Technology: Gasification
Processes: Raw material, Transportation, Storage,
Pre-processing & handling & Conversion
PCS7 Interviews (1), Observation & Documents
This plant is situated in a village in Tamil Nadu, India. PCS1 is one of their customers of bio-bricks. Also, PCS11 is one of their suppliers of agro residues.
Business: Producing bio-bricks by using the agro residues.
That is supplied to the bioenergy plants.
Outputs: Bio-bricks
Capacity: 20 tonnes per day
Processes: Transportation, Storage, Pre-processing &
handling
PCS8 Interviews (2) This plant is situated in Gujarat, India.
Business: Producing bio-bricks by using the agro residues.
That is supplied to the bioenergy plants.
Outputs: Bio-bricks
Capacity: 30 tonnes per day
Processes: Transportation, Storage, Pre-processing &
handling
PCS9 Interviews (1) & Documents
A privately owned grid supply plant in Tamil Nadu, India.
Business: Bioenergy power plant that supply power to the
grid.
Outputs: Electricity
Capacity: 1 MW electric (in total) Technology: Gasification
Case Data Short Description
PCS10 Interviews (1) A large saw mill in Tamil Nadu, India.
Business: Selling the industrial by-product, saw dust to the
bio-bricks producers.
Outputs: Sawdust Processes: Raw material PCS11 Focus groups (1)
& Observation
A group of farmers (6) from a community in Kerala, India (near to Tamil Nadu Border). PCS7 is the major buyer of their agro residues.
Business: They sell their suitable agricultural by-products
such as residues to the bio-bricks producers.
Processes: Raw material PCS12 Interviews (1),
Focus groups (1) & Observation
A group of farmers (10) + an interview from a community in Punjab, India (near to Rupnagar).
Business: They sell their suitable agricultural by-products
such as residues to the bio-bricks producers.
Processes: Raw material PCS13 Interviews (1),
Observation & Documents
An upcoming plant in a major town in Tamil Nadu, India. Plant was under construction during the visits.
Business: Captive bioenergy power plant for the self-owned
shopping complex and hotel.
Outputs: Tri-generation (Electricity, Heat and Cold) Capacity: 2MW equivalent
Technology: Gasification
Processes: Storage, Pre-processing & handling, Conversion
& Downstream
Apart from the above stated primary cases where the researcher collected the data directly, secondary cases were also used as additional information to address the research objective RO3. The report on the secondary case studies belongs to the PCS3, and they have provided access to the researcher to use that in this study. This report contains information about the 13 cases that uses gasification technology only; details of these cases are given in Table 4.3. These case studies were conducted during 2005 by the consultants appointed by the PCS3. This study was conducted in order to inform the PCS3 about the performance and barriers of the bioenergy plants with gasification technology. The information was used by them to support their decision making related to the system configuration and strategic decisions in the planning stage of the system. As the performance and barriers of the bioenergy plants (small scale) relate to the supply chain issues of the
small scale bioenergy projects in India, these cases were considered in this research to achieve the related objective RO3. As this was secondary case study, the data from these cases were considered only as supplementary information. Furthermore, in order to avoid any bias the following properties of the report were taken into account:
The study was limited to gasification technology only. It considered both complete producer gas system and dual fuel system.
The study was conducted mainly in conversion plants; however most of the plants had other supply chain operations within their unit.
The study limitation given in the report, which is quoted below, was also considered. Most of the units observed that the data questionnaire was very exhaustive and the units do not have the classified data. Units in general are very reluctant to share the actual field data especially the financials and absence of the authentication letter from MNES [current MNRE] added to the cause. Thus, xxxxx consultants based on the discussions, observations and log sheets filled the data questionnaire. Some units refused to share any details in the absence of MNES [MNRE] letter. This resulted in a considerable delay in the unit visit scheduling and data collection. Thus, the study is based only on the data collected during the site visit and not furnished by the unit. (Report for PCS3, 2005)
Table 4.3: Details of the Secondary Cases Case Short Description
SCS1 This plant is setup in an educational institution in Pondicherry, India.
Business: Captive bioenergy power plant that supply power to the administrative
block of the college.
Outputs: Electricity Capacity: 100 KW electric
Technology: Gasification - Dual fuel mode power generator (Biomass +Diesel) SCS2 The plant is situated in the state of West Bengal in India.
Business: Off-grid bioenergy power plant that supply power to the rural
community.
Outputs: Electricity
Capacity: Total 500 KW electric (4 units of 125 KW each)
Technology: Gasification - Dual fuel mode power generator (Biomass +Diesel) SCS3 This plant is setup in an educational institution in Tamil Nadu, India.
Business: Captive bioenergy power plant that supply power to the labs in the