Chapter 3) serves as the basis for the interview, for a better understanding and classifi-cation of collected data. The research objective is to uncover the Japanese engineer’s mindset, including thoughts on how to contribute to Japan’s demographic challenges through technology.
This study focuses on engineers or developers as experts in their discipline and key actors for technology development. Since a meaningful sample of experts is only realiz-able with great difficulties, it should be clear at this point that representative data collec-tion is not feasible. For this reason, the collected data does not intend to stand for all Japanese engineers. The data collected through the interviews attempts to give the ten-dency of the matter.
Thereby, the SCOT and vision concept provide essential elements with their understand-ing of interpersonal and external communication processes that are necessary within the process of the emergence of knowledge. Visions (see Chapter 2.5) take possession of the participating actors and make the interference of knowledge cultures, and thus
inno-vation, possible. These theoretical assumptions about the role of the individual and so-ciety serve as a framework, which makes it possible to structure the complex process of emerging technologies.
Moreover, even if the group of the engineers is a very narrow group, reliable and relevant data can be collected because open questions lead to a wide range of information and comprehension problems, which can be further explained and compared with other sources, such as literature. For this reason, the argumentation for semi-structured inter-views with engineers is their direct involvement in the innovation process. Although there are several publications which generally (cp. Giesel 2007, 178–82) or scientifically deal with the vision-concept or robots, these publications are usually limited to the evaluation of literature. So far there exists no empirical survey which analyzes Japanese engineers’
mindset on the base of socio-scientific theories.
It is also possible to combine semi-structured interviews with quantitative methods in order to give significance to the collected data (Kelle and Erzberger 2017). However, for this study, the working conditions with only one researcher set limits. Rather than to claim representative insight for the whole robot industry in Japan, this study attempts to give first insights and tendencies of the Japanese robot developer’s way of thinking. It paves the way for further future research.
Before I go deeper into the interview structure, I’d like to clarify a few things about the research language. The complete correspondence, interviews and data processing is in Japanese. The main reason for this decision is that the research objects are Japanese robot developers, respectively their ideas about robots. Here the choice of the mother tongue of the interviewees has several advantages. First, there is no language barrier for answering interview questions, so that there is no difference between what is thought and what is meant. Here, language has the function of not just being a medium of com-munication, which would have been possible in English as well, but rather it is understood in this study in the sense that language is influencing thought. The choice of language ensures that the content nuances and specifics are preserved for analysis without using language as a simple medium for communication. Another very pragmatic reason is that the probability of agreement for an interview increases with choosing the mother tongue of the conversation partner. The concern that the complex subject of research is not explainable within an interview can be omitted. The decision for use of the Japanese language is a strategic one.
A disadvantage of this approach is, however, that through complex interviews the effort for subsequent analysis increases and it becomes even more important to carefully pre-pare the interviews. The interview must be clearly structured and possible language dif-ficulties have to be kept in mind. For this reason, all collected data has been recorded with a digital recording device in order to simplify analysis. However, since interview data contains over 37 hours material, there is no full transcription but a selective transcription of the interview material. I am aware of the fact that preselection of material is never totally neutral. However, for reasons of proportionality of the documentation and its ad-ditional value for this study with regard to the available human resources, selective tran-scripts have been created for each interview.
The agreement for recording and the use of data has been obtained, before, during and right after each interview with the option to withdraw cooperation at any time. For a matter of data protection, all names have been anonymized through numbers. The selective transcripts are in Japanese, created on the basis of recordings. The use of Hepburn romanization has been deliberately omitted, as in the main text only English translations appear and the original Japanese can be found in the footnotes.
In the following I explain everything related to the interview and its structure. This in-cludes the research purpose and development of research categories, which form the basis for the interview guideline. To develop a meaningful interview guideline, a clear overview of the thematic field and the deduction of theory-driven research issues are necessary. Helpful for this process is a methodical structure and organization according to certain criteria. Thereby the structure of the interview guideline is inspired by ‘Qualita-tive Research Interviewing’ by Wengraf (2001). The hierarchy is built on the research purpose (RP), which is converted into the central research question (CRQ). Out of it, categories (C) are built and in the end, turn into the interview questions (IQ). Additionally, another advantage of its structuring function is that the theory-driven questions form the basis for later analysis (see Chapter 6). In the following figure (see Figure 4-2), the meth-odology approach for this study is illustrated.
Figure 4-2 Structure of the Research Project
The research purpose of this study is to discover the potential and challenges of robot technologies for the field of care. This abstract topic must be transferred into a concrete central research question in order to being able to make the topic accessible for further analysis (see Chapter 6). The central research question is: Do the technical inventions of Japanese engineers offer feasible technical solutions for Japan’s and the world’s de-mographic problems? In other words: What kind of robots may be able to mitigate care problems? The next step is to break the central research question down into workable pieces, namely the nine categories, which are briefly introduced in the following.
The first of the nine research categories (C1) deals with motivation towards choosing a job that has to do with robots. This makes it possible to question the importance of the individual against the background of the vision-concept, according to which motivation is central to developmental success (see Chapter 2.4).
The second research category (C2) focuses on the internal structures of the organization.
Regarding theory, (see Chapter 2.5) the problem of triple synchronization has to be solved for the creation of new technological knowledge. Therefore, it will be checked in how far the organization and especially the interorganizational information processes influence the widening and coordination outcome of development.
The third research category (C3) highlights the robot project itself. In doing so, the cate-gory centers on the specifics of the robot, the current state of technology and further development plans. It is the overview of the past, present and future of the robot.
The fourth category (C4) sets robot development and the thoughts of engineers in rela-tion to the field of care. Quesrela-tions about usability and field tests give insight into how far the robot is anchored in reality. Even the best idea will disappear if it doesn’t experience a realization in the real world. Moreover, this topic shows how the engineers deal with feedback and to what extent their technical solution for care issues is seen by the care-givers themselves.
The fifth category (C5) is paying attention to long-term vision and development goals.
There the existence of an explicit or implicit vision, as well as its shaping and purpose, will be discussed. Here the role of collective projection (see Chapter 2.5) is of particular interest, since this is crucial for the realization of a vision. In connection to the second category (C2), it is possible to have a closer view on the impact of organization on de-velopment and on expectations.
The sixth category (C6) covers challenges and setbacks within the course of develop-ment. From a theoretical perspective, (see Chapter 2.6), the solution to occurring prob-lems shows the strength of the concept behind a robot as well as its acceptance within other relevant social groups.
The seventh category (C7) picks up the potential and at the same time the experienced issues of care robotics. The question is whether or not engineers agree to optimistic market forecasts.
The eighth category (C8) discusses possible cultural characteristics and environment.
The vision concept deals primarily with the innovation process, which is caused through knowledge cultures and pays only a little attention to the role of culture within the devel-opmental process.
The last research category (C9) closes with the application of robots in the context of demographic change. The Japanese government and media are often discussing robots as a possible solution to the problems that are associated with an aging society (see Chapter 3). It is interesting to see how the Japanese developers think about the potential of robotics as a technical solution for social issues.