The Research Framework: An Overview
4.5 Research method
Research method refers to how the research is going to be investigated or, as noted by Crotty (1988), the techniques or procedures applied to collect and analyse the data related to the research objectives. Different methods are applied in data collection stage in each strategy of inquiry. In qualitative research data can be collected by conducting interviews, observations, image and text analysis, open ended questions, and audio-visual data (Creswell 2014).
Minichiello, Aroni and Hays (2008) note that “in-depth interviewing is used to reach access to, and understanding of, activities and events which cannot be observed directly by the researcher”. In-depth interview fits the research objectives of this study because it tries to ascertain insight into the contractual relationships between the players, price negotiations, and ordering processes. In addition, in-depth face-to-face interviewing allows the researcher to explore additional details and ensure that respondents are interpreting the questions clearly.
Perishables at supermarket shelves Long production lead time Seasonal products Frozen, processed, milk, dairy, meat, FFV Frozen, processed, meat, FFV FFV
Requirement Potential Products
Figure 4-2 Schematic of requirements and potential products leading to choose FFVs as the group of study
Chapter Four
The interviews for this research were semi-structured. This strategy was chosen because it provided flexibility in discussion and more valid explanation of the interviewees’ thoughts and opinions (Minichiello et al. 2008). The case study protocol and interview questions were designed follow the recommendations of Wengraf (2001), Creswell (2013) and Yin (2009). The elements of case study protocol applied in this research are described below.
4.5.1 Case study protocol
The case study protocol provides information on data collection; information with regard to who will be interviewed; how and where interviews will be conducted and what questions will be asked in the interview.
Research participants- Research participants were chosen according to the structure of supply chain within the relevant supermarket. The participants were classified into four groups based and their role in the supply chain. Detailed information on each of the players in the supply chain will be provided in Chapter 6 where the fruit supply chains are described.
In the following the participants are briefly described to justify why they have been selected as research participants.
The first group is the supermarket category managers as the supermarket representatives. Category mangers are in direct contact with the suppliers/growers, and negotiate and make decisions in terms of how much to buy at what price.
The second group of participants are growers. The growers must supply fruits to the supermarket directly or indirectly. They are chosen in order to provide their perspective on contractual agreements. The growers were selected through the supermarket list of growers. Marketers are the third group of participants. After conducting interviews with the supermarket category managers, the existence of marketers in the supermarket chain were highlighted and became the third group of research participants. Since marketers do not
The research framework: an overview
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The last group of participants are associations involved in each fruit supply chain such as Peach and Apricot Growers’ Associations. The associations were selected to participate in the research in order to provide insight into the industry especially with regard to the role of supermarkets in the market.
Interview format- As mentioned before, the interviews were designed as semi-structured formats. The participants were able to slightly lead the interview into one of the research direction based on their experience on a unique occasion. The interview had an open character format with short questions, long answers which enabled the participants to tell their particular experiences. The interviews were conducted face-to-face to enable the researcher to interpret the questions more clearly as the concept of option contracts was completely new to the participants.
Interview place- The interviews were conducted at the interviewee’s locations which included the head office of the supermarket, marketers’ offices, wholesale market and farms. The researcher chose to conduct the interviews at the interviewee’s location as this was satisfactory for and enabled the researcher to observe the processes especially at the farms.
Interview questions- Interview questions were carefully designed according to the research aim and objectives. The interview questions for all groups of participants were seeking the same objective although there were slight differences in the questions to enable the investigator to explore the role of each group in the supply chain. The questions were designed in four main themes, relationships in terms of ordering, relationships in terms of pricing, impacts of uncertainty on the supply chain, and waste observations in the supply chain.
The initial draft of questions was reviewed by a panel of experts in supermarket chains, in the fruit and vegetable industry and academic experts in supply chains. The questions were examined through a pilot study. The objective of the pilot study was to test the case study protocol and included the interview questions prior to the commencement of the actual study. The entire process from initially contacting the participant to recording the interview were included. Revisions were applied to the questions when needed.
Chapter Four
Conducting the interviews- The interviews restricted to one per day and each interview took more than an hour. There was a reasonable time between interviews which enabled the researcher to listen and transcribe the recordings. This helped the researcher to modify and review the questions for the following interviews. The study aim is to explore the contractual relationships between the supply chain players. This enabled the inclusion of a new relevant theme which is common when following an open character interview (Yin 2009).
The participants were contacted by phone or email. After receiving initial interest to participate in the research, information forms were sent out to advise the research aims, their benefits of participating and expectations from the actual interview.
A written consent form was obtained from each participant prior to the interview and assurances that confidentiality would be carefully maintained throughout the interviews. The researcher confirmed that the identification of persons and their organisations would not be revealed.