Qualitative Framework

Qualitative research is defined as “a situated activity that locates the observer in the world and it consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible” (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003, pp.2) and such research is conducted where it is necessary to explore a complex problem or issue, which requires deep probing (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Creswell, 2007). Flick (2006) explained why the interest in qualitative research has grown so much in recent decades as follows

“qualitative research is of specific relevance to the study of social studies, owing to the fact of the pluralisation of life in the world” (pp.12). There are some examples of qualitative studies that have been conducted by researchers into CCI:

in order to find out the opinions of CEOs regarding CCI activities (Burke et al., 1986), in the form of a case study of a particular CCI programme (Brønn, 2006), and in relation to the pattern of small and medium enterprises’ community involvement (Madden et al., 2006). In general, the purpose of engaging in a qualitative study in the CCI field has been to obtain an in-depth understanding of the opinions of managers who are usually part of the decision process, or to provide case analysis of the CCI decision-making of companies. However, as elicited in Chapter 2, in CCI research quantitative studies have predominated.

Therefore, in order to capture the complexity of CCI and to find deeper explanations for the observed behaviours identified in the two surveys, in Chapter 8 there is a qualitative investigation in the form of case studies, as discussed below. Moreover, by so doing it is possible to triangulate the results of the surveys to some extent

In sum, a qualitative approach was chosen to supplement the structured questionnaire to be used for quantitative analysis, because this would provide insights into the participants’ attitudes and behaviours that would be unavailable from surveys alone.

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4.4.2.1 Applying Case Study as a Research Tool

Of the qualitative approaches, which Creswell (2007) listed in turn as: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory and ethnography, in this researcher’s opinion, the case study is the approach that can best achieve the goals of this PhD study. Regarding this, Stake (2006) stated that a case study is carried out in order to understand the particularity and complexity of a single case within important circumstances. In addition, Creswell (2007) defined case study research as a

“qualitative approach in which the investor explores a bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information (e.g., observations, interviews, audiovisual material, and documents and reports), and reports case description and case-based themes” (pp.18).

In Chapter 8, the detailed findings for four case study companies regarding the various managerial perceptions towards CCI decisions are presented. Data were collected through multiple sources of information, such as interviews, companies’

reports and web sites. However, secondary sources were referred to only for information about the companies. For example, to construct a table of company characteristics (see Table 8.1), it was necessary to know such information as which sectors the companies are working in or the number of employees that work in each company, which could be obtained from these sources.

Consequently, in order to achieve in depth knowledge about the motivations for CCI activities in Turkey a case study approach involving the carrying out of interviews was deemed the most appropriate treatment for collecting data. In particular, probing managers in person about their CCI behaviours was considered to be the most effective way of building a clear understanding of how different firm characteristics impact upon these. In addition, a personalised approach of this nature permits the interviewer to build a rapport with the interviewee as well as providing him/her with cues as to what areas are sensitive and thus, need to be handled carefully. Moreover, using the interview technique allowed this researcher to assess whether the conceptual model devised for this thesis reflects day to day reality. Further, a semi-structured format for the questions was

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adopted so as to provide the researcher with the opportunity to: explore issues of interest more thoroughly and to seek to identify not only what participants know and think about corporate community involvement, but also why they participate in it and how they formed their views. In addition, depending on the flow of the interview sometimes it was appropriate to ask questions in a different order to the proposed schedule and occasionally they needed to be repeated so as to get effective responses, but there were no omissions. The full version of the case study question schedule can be seen in Appendix 6. The questions were formulated so as to be able to test the underpinning tenets of the behavioural theory of the firm and the aims and what kind evidence was being sought by asking these questions is summarised in Table 4.4 below.

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Table 4.4 Evidence from Case Study Questions

Section 1

General Issues - Warm up Questions

The aim is to understand if their company's stakeholders or institutional resources. If yes what kind of slack resources are there? How does the manager(s) allocate these resources?

Section 4 Particular Cases

The aim is to dig deeper into the issue.

These questions were asked to understand whether they confirms the previous answers or to be able to obtain more information about the company policies, what kind of pressure e.g. stakeholder, institutional pressures are they under etc..

Also the aim is to understand how they have used their slack resources. Are there any slack resources or not, or how do previous CCI activities affect their recent

This is another approach to learn what kind of resources companies use to perform CCI activities, the strategy and criteria of company when engaging in CCI activities and information about slack resources