Qualitative Data Using Interviews

Interviewing is the qualitative method used to collect data in this research. In qualitative research, interviews are considered the primary and most effective tool to collect data (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000), as well as in interpretive research (Myers and Newman, 2007). Clarke,(1999) described the interview as "a conversation with a purpose". Interviews can be conducted with an individual or a number of respondents who are asked a number of questions that have been determined in advance by the researcher. The interview can be taped, or

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respondents’ answers written down. There are three types of qualitative interviews which are a structured or formal interview, semi-structured or focused interview and unstructured interview. In this research, we used a semi-structured interview. Wengraf (2001) stated that “Semi- structured interviews are designed to have a number of interviewer questions prepared in advance, but such prepared questions are designed to be sufficiently open that the subsequent questions of the interviewer can’t be planned in advance but must be improvised in a careful and theorized way” (Wengraf, 2001).

The most common type of interview used in the Information Systems field is semi-structured; which allows the researcher to explore a social situation in depth (Myers and Newman, 2007). In brief, in semi-structured interviews there will be a set of questions, but the respondent is given the opportunity to speak freely about the issues in question.

An NVivo12 software program was utilized to analyse the interviews, due to advantages such as identifying patterns in the data that can lead to more subtle themes being generated. The program easily analyses qualitative data without the detail being lost (Bazeley and Richards, 2000). According to Cavana et al. (2001), this software program is appropriate for analysing data generated by unstructured or semi-structured interviews; and is well-suited for use with a small quantity of recorded and transcribed interviews, hence it is one of the most commonly used programs.

4.10.1

Interview Design

As already mentioned the semi-structured interview lies between the structured and unstructured interview types, whereby a set of questions is used by the interviewer, but the respondent is encouraged to add details, speak freely and can ask questions. Questions can be asked in the most appropriate order and additional prompts such as “Can you tell me more about that?” may be introduced.

In this section, all stages of the interview design will be briefly explained. The main aims of conducting the interview are to enable the researcher to understand in depth the proposed factors that could influence Saudi citizens’ intention to adopt and use m-government services and to identify other factors not in the proposed model from a managerial perspective. Interview analysis also allows a comparison of the theoretical findings with actual practice. Moreover, this strategy was used to provide a managerial perspective about the influence of factors affecting behavioural intention to adopt and use m-government and to reinforce the research results with these additional findings.

Kvale (1996) recommended that an interview design should comprise seven stages, which are shown below in figure 4-4. These stages can be described as: thematising, designing,

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interviewing, transcribing, analysing, verifying and reporting.

The first of these stages is thematising; which addresses what is to be studied, how and why it is to be investigated. The main purpose of conducting semi-structured interviews was to answer the question: 'What are the key factors that impact citizens’ intention to adopt and use m- government services in Saudi Arabia'. This thematising thus describes what concepts are to be explored and is carried out before any interviews are conducted. So as all interview questions were based on the previously conducted survey, the themes of interviews were previously identified. In the final stage of conducting the interview, an assessment is made about whether the themes should remain or be further refined if necessary. Kvale (1996) suggests that stage 2 of the research design should involve preparation of the interview schedule and making all the practical arrangements that need to be in place before conducting the interviews. Figure 4.4 shows the plan made at this point for all the following stages of the qualitative part of this research.

Figure 4-4: Seven stages of interview (Source: Kvale, 1996)

4.10.2

Interview Pilot Study

The interview questions were translated into the Arabic language since it is the native language of the participants. After collecting the data, it was translated into English for analysis. Before conducting the main interview in Saudi Arabia, the pilot study was conducted in the UK with five Saudis. The main reason for conducting the pilot study was to check the research questions were doing the job they were designed to do, to see how long it would take to answer the questions and whether the questions were clear and unambiguous. Also, numerous academics, all of whom had expertise in the field, were asked to review the interview questions. All the

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amendments suggested for the interview questions by feedback from both participants and the academics allowed the researcher to make improvements to the interview questions.

4.10.3

Conducting the Interviews

In this study, face-to-face interviews were adopted to collect qualitative data from eight managers in Saudi ministries. All interview questions were based on the previously conducted survey because this process was mainly used to explore these factors from different perspectives (see Appendix B).

At the interview, interviewees were asked if the interview could be taped; thus, if they refused, or ask for the tape to be turned off during the interview, the researcher could make use of notes. Interviewees were given the researcher’s email so that they could be in contact if they had any queries or if they wanted an Arabic transcript of the interview once this had been completed. Interviewees were told that recordings would be kept securely and destroyed when no longer needed. The questionnaires and the interview questions were translated into Arabic, since it is the native language of the participants. After collecting the data, it was translated into English for analysis.

The interviews started in January 2018and ended in April; and were conducted in eight ministries with key officials responsible for implementing E-government and m-government services. These ministries are considered the most important ministries in Saudi Arabia and Saudi citizens deal with them on a daily basis. All the interviews were between 40 and 60 minutes long; and all were taped, apart from in one ministry where the answers were written down and sent by email. All the interviews took place in the Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Other ministries were approached for interviews, but these refused. However, all the directors were very interested and cooperative. Interviewees were told that recordings would be kept securely and destroyed when no longer needed. Interviewees had been told that interview would not take more than 60 minutes of their time; and all had been given written information explaining what the study is for and asked to sign a consent form before participating. A mobile device was used to tape the interview. Recording the interview with an iPhone device allows the researcher to focus on communication with participants, and the data it yields is more accurate and less biased than just note-taking. During the interview, the researcher took some notes regarding both the important factors proposed in the MGAUM or and those not in the model, to identify other factors managers considered important.

4.10.4

Transcription and Translation

In order to encode the collected data ready for analysis, researcher transcribed the audio-taped interviews and written notes into Arabic. After this, the Arabic transcription was translated into

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an English language version. Each interview’s professionally produced transcript was saved in a separate word processor document.

4.10.5

Data Analysis for Phase Two

Phase 2 of the research used thematic analysis, which Boyatzis (1998) defines as a means of identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) contained in qualitative data. Flexibility is a major advantage of this method; however, meticulous preparation and execution is needed; and the central role of the researcher in determining which themes are selected needs to be recognised (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

The analysis can be done inductively or deductively. The latter process uses a theory based on a proposed model, such as the MGAUM in this study, which provides a basis from which to derive propositions that need to be tested (Saunders et al., 2009; Yin, 2003). For deductive analysis the main themes that are to be identified in the data are decided in advance and the interview questions actively generate them.

Deductive analysis is limited in that it does not address major themes contained in the data that were not in the original proposed model. This can be offset by using inductive analysis where these other themes can be identified in the data. Saunders et al. (2009) point out that this facilitates a better match between the actual perceptions of the participants and the final theory that emerges; and that consequently both approaches are often used in thematic analysis. Accordingly, this was done in the current study.

4.10.6

Validity and Reliability of the Interviews– Verification Stage

Although validity and reliability are usually associated with quantitative research, these concepts also apply to qualitative research (Zalah, 2017). However, as these concepts emerge from a positivist perspective they need some redefining if they are to apply to research that has an interpretivist approach (Golafshani, 2003).

All the government managers to be interviewed were informed about the main aim of the research and that a clear plan was devised for all the stages so that they understood how the interview would be conducted, recorded and translated, how their data would be kept private and how it would be processed and analysed. It was also important that this was done consistently for all interviewees as this meant that a degree of auditability and consistency had been established, such that the procedures could be reliably replicated and consistently applied. In qualitative research, reliability is determined by this auditability and consistency (Guba and Lincoln, 1989). Accordingly, seven of the interviews were carried out by the researcher face-to- face, audio-taped and lasted 40 to 60 minutes long. One ministry manager chose to write down his answers to questions and send them to the researcher by email.

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The researcher used the following procedures to make sure that both auditability and consistency were applied in each interview:

Before starting the interview, the researcher asked the interviewees if they were willing to have the interview audio-taped. If they refused, or asked for the tape to be turned off during the interview, notes would be used. Interviewees were given the researcher’s email so that they can could send any queries or request an Arabic transcript of the interview once it had been completed. Interviewees were told that the recordings would be kept securely and destroyed when no longer needed; and that the interview would not take more than 60 minutes of their time to complete. All interviewees were given written information explaining the purpose of the study and asked to sign a consent form before participating. A mobile device was used to tape the interview; as taping the interview gave the researcher more freedom to interact with the interviewees; also the data is a more accurate and less biased record of the interview than just a noted account. During the interview, the researcher took notes regarding important factors that managers felt affected citizen’s adoption of m-government that were proposed in the model. Especial note was made of any factors mentioned that were not in the proposed model.

The validity of information obtained from interviews can be assessed by the comparisons with other sources of data. In our case, this was generally achieved by comparing the interview findings with the results of the survey (Emory and Cooper, 1991; Sekaran, 2003). To further ensure validity the researcher asked the interviewees to check the key points that had been noted during the interview to avoid any discrepancies, as recommended by Irani et al. (2005). This procedure ensured that key points recorded by the researcher properly reflected the attitudes and experiences of the managers. This means of making the findings more credible, corresponds to the ‘internal validity’ that is aimed at in quantitative research (Sandelowski, 1986).