Qualitative data management

Under this section, the researcher discussed the data collection methods and the procedures involved in analysing the data.

4.4.1 Data collection

On average, the informants completed the interviews between 45 minutes or less. Informants were asked a broad range of questions, followed by 10 open-ended questions and the corresponding probe for each of the questions. With permission of the informants, all interviews were recorded in order to allow the flow of the interview to be faster and smoother as well as to capture the actual content of the informants’ comments. The recorded interviews were subsequently transcribed by hand and the data converted into a printed form to facilitate further analysis. No information identifying the informants was included in the written copy of the interviews. The informants’ names were replaced by an identification code on all written materials and electronic data file connected to the research (Creswell &

Clark, 2007). The resulting data included over 50 pages single-spaced transcript.

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4.4.2. Procedures of qualitative analysis

Procedure of the qualitative analysis of this study was guided by the systems process based on Tesch (1990), Strauss and Corbin (1998) which is outlined by Creswell for analysis of qualitative data in the constructivist paradigm (Creswell, 2007). The transcripts were prepared from recordings of individual informants. Transcripts were done immediately after each of the interviews to have a fresh description of informant’s explanation. The researcher wrote the report of each of the individual interview, and sent it back to the informant in order to receive their comments on the accuracy of the expressed ideas and to ensure the transparency of the process.

The analysis began with the segmentation of the data. The researcher read individual transcripts as a whole, in order to divide them into units of analysis and also taking into account that each unit of analysis was comprehensible by itself and contained one idea (Tesch, 1990). This will make things easier for the researcher to identify who said the statement (Bloor et al, 2001) and see the continuation of the dialogue. Open coding process begins to identify categories or common themes of responses from the informants in each of the ethnic and gender group. Constant comparisons were made between the codes generated and data gathered in the interviews in order to begin filling out the categories and verifying the relationships.

The transcript was segmented into units of analysis, the categorization and codification process started. As Tesch (1990) mentioned, categorizing or classification is a way of knowing. When doing categorizing, the analyst has to be aware of the attributes of things in order to group them in a meaningful way. Tesch (1990) again highlighted that the purpose of categorization was to produce concepts that fitted the date and later, to develop them. Strauss and Corbin (1998) use the micro-analysis to generate codes from data. Micro-analysis refers to ‘detailed line-by-line analysis

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necessary..to generate initial categories…and to suggest relationship among the categories’ (p.57). Codes are actually derived from the data themselves.

This stage followed ‘de-contextualization’ of the data because segments of data (units of analysis) are separated from their context (Tesch, 1990).

However, code is not ready to be interpreted because data must be ‘re-contextualized’. This is where the information that belongs to one category has to be assembled in one place in order to be analyzed within the category itself.

As the coding process was developed, codes were renamed, modified, sub-divided with the purpose of searching for data arrangements. Therefore, as the analysis progresses, new codes or sub-codes were identified, needing to return to the data previously analyzed so that it could be included (Bloor et al, 2001).When the data has been categorized, each category configuration will be analyzed to describe its content and linkages with other categories (Tesch, 1990). This way of analysis is also called Axial Coding (Strauss &

Corbin 1998). Axial coding is prominently used to relate categories with the sub-categories in order to develop a more complete and precise information.

After several iterations through the date, these segments were organized into what is considered similar themes or categories. Table 4.1 below shows the raw data by combining both most salient and new emerging themed data.

100 Bank is getting stronger and bigger after the merger. 10

Reputation

Bank Reputation Banks expand their operation to other countries. 10

The bank is able to distinguish their customer experience tailored to the needs and wants.

12

Experienced officers and staff. 13

Still between top 3 if the listed the best local bank in Malaysia.

14 Implementing customer development and retention programme. The best bank offering e-banking services. 14 Feel the difference of the bank services compared to any other banks.

13 Good electronic channels to supports user friendly online services. Offer various range of the products and services. 18 Understand clients who are always on the move. 15

Human Elements Friendliness of the staff and easy to deal with. 14

Interpersonal relationship with the bank staff. 16 Value of the advisory service offered by the bank. 13 The bank staff remember me by name. 12

Good office layout and not crowded 15 Non- Human Elements Easy access and transaction at any of the bank

branches.

15 Internet banking supports a lot of the banks’

operation. Good product bundling and reward programs. 13

Note: developed by the researcher for this study

101 Keep account secure and protected. 14

Trust

Relationship Quality Check irregularity in the account. 12

Government controls our bank, no security matter arises.

11 Sometimes things can just be discussed via phone

calls.

12

Feel strong bond with the bank. 16

Commitment Feel the value of the relationship. 14

Feel like part of the bank’s family. 12 Never thinking of changing my bank because happy with existing bank.

15 Banks show an effort to maintain the relationship. 13

Satisfaction Vulnerable fees and structure rate. 11

Bank transparent in all of the processes e.g. fees 13 Easy to deal with and not many complicated

procedures.

13 I am happy if people know that I belong to this bank customer.

12 Because the bank offers Islamic products 11

Faith and Do not tolerate if the bank does not offer any Islamic products Feel convenient and easy probably because we come

from the same area

12 They understand better due to similar background 16 The bank engages up to our personal level 16

Note: developed by the researcher for this study

4.4.3. Qualitative data quality

The verification procedures are used in qualitative research to establish the trustworthiness, credibility and transferability of the study. Trustworthiness is used in this qualitative research instead of the ‘validity’ because the focus of the

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study at this phase of the research is to understand the individual micro-enterprise owner’s experiences. In fact, trustworthiness is an umbrella term used by qualitative researchers to encompass several dimensions of validity which includes credibility, transferability, conformability, and dependability.

Credibility refers to the fit between the informants’ narratives and the researcher’s representative of data. Besides, transferability is a term used by qualitative researchers to substitute for the quantitative term, external validity.

However, transferable refers to the extent to which the inferences can be generalized to other settings or samples (Polit & Beck, 2004). In the perspectives of naturalistic paradigm, transferability only applies to a case-to-case transfer because there is not a single correct or true interpretation (Tobin & Begley, 2004). Conformability refers to the extent to which the inferences are objectives or true to the data. The dependability is comparable to the quantitative term reliability and refers to the stability of the research inferences across time and research conditions (Polit & Beck, 2004).

In validating the methodology, reference was made to Mason’s (2002) prescription that the ultimate test of qualitative research accurately reflects the social world of the research participants, from their own perspectives. To meet the conditions of Mason’s test, the researcher decided that coding would be validated through confidential interview with individual micro-enterprise owners. During these interviews, the participants were invited to reflect in their own words their reaction, interpretation and feelings in relation to reasons of being loyal to their existing service providers. The researcher considered that this process would strengthen the validity of this research by adding a degree of critical realism to the interpretation of the data analysis, as suggested by Fleetwood (2004).

The following stage of research method is quantitative method. The aim of this part of the study is to further understand the relationship between the variables in the study using factor analysis which will be explained in detail in the following discussion.

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