Study 2 Case study (Interview)

The specific research question (section 4.2.1) for Study 2 is:

“How can KM enablers and KM system facilitate the K M process in the Thai fo o d industry? ”

A case study approach was employed to Study 2 to extend understanding of the relationships between the KM proeess, KM enablers and KM system, whieh then leads to the explanation of the issues being studied. As this study intends to investigate a specific instance relevant to knowledge management in the context of the Thai food industry, the ease study seemed to be appropriate. Two major advantages of adoption of the case study approach are:

• enabling the researeher to observe a unique reality that presents in the eontext (in this case, the Thai food industry);

• enabling the researcher to highlight similarities and differences between the observed units (in this ease, Thai food eompanies).

In this study, the conceptual framework (Figure 4.1) was adopted as a framework in conducting the case study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants

Chapter 4 - Research d esisn an d methodoloçw

who are the representative of each observed unit. Interview is eonsidered an appropriate method for the intricate matter of the subject, such as opinions, experiences, sensitive issues or privileged information (Denscombe, 2007). With the semi-structured interview, interviewees are allowed to elaborate and express their ideas widely and deeply on the designated topics. Consequently, eontextual enriched information gained from the interviews sheds light on the way that KM enablers and KM system are used to support the KM process in the Thai food industry.

Analysis method

There are two types of qualitative data analysis: deductively-based and inductively-based

analytical procedures (Saunders et a l, 2009). With the deductively-based analytieal

proeedure, theoretieal propositions are used as a means to devise a framework for helping in data collection and analysis (Yin, 2009). As an alternative to the deductive approach, the inductively-based analytical procedure starts from collected data by exploring which themes or issues should be followed-up or eoncentrated upon. With this approaeh, a study does not commence with a clearly defined theoretieal framework, but an emerging theory or explanation is an expected result (Saunders et a l , 2009). This is likely to be appropriate for cases where adopting restrictive theoretical propositions is not able to refieet the participants’ views and constrains exposure of the evidence (Bryman and Bell, 2007).

It eould be deemed that the deduetive approach was adopted in this study since the ease study was conducted by relying on the eoneeptual framework. Based on the deductive perspective, Yin (2009) suggested two analytical procedures: pattern matching and

explanation building. The major difference between these two procedures is that

explanation building attempts to build an explanation of the theoretical proposition, rather than testing a predicted pattern of outcomes based on the theoretical proposition. Yin (2009) argued that explanation building aims to explain a presumed set of associated links of a case, or to explain ‘how’ or ‘why’ something occurred. Adoption o f explanation building to this research appeared to be appropriate as the research attempts to explain associated relationships between KM proeess, KM enablers and KM system. The findings revealed from the selected cases were used to develop the final explanation of the relevant relationships. Further details on the qualitative analysis are given in section 7.6.

Chapter 4 - Research d e s im and m ethodolosv

Case selection

With the case study approaeh, the issues of reliability and validity need to be considered at the outset in order to establish the quality of the case study design (Yin, 2009). Reliability aims to ensure the consistency of the procedure of a case study. In other words, repetition of the same procedures in the same ease study will lead to the same results. According to Yin (2009), this can be achieved through the use of a case study protocol. The case study protocol is a detailed document containing the procedures, general rules and instructions that need to be followed when eonducting the ease study. In respect of validity, three types of validity are commonly mentioned in social research; construct validity, internal validity and external validity. Construct validity demonstrates how well an operational set of measures is appropriate to the eoncepts being studied; internal validity has regard to how well the inferences are made; and external validity aims to identify the domain to which the findings can be generalised (Yin, 2009). These issues can be dealt by several tactics. One of the disadvantages of the strategy is the lack of generalisability (external validity). This ean be reduced by prudent selection of cases. In this regard, Yin (2009) suggested that eoneems about the type of case study should be diseussed at the outset. Basically, two aspects of the eharaeteristies of research design, design situation and unit o f analysis, are used to eategorise the type of case study design. While the design situation has regard to the variants between single- and multiple-ease studies, the unit of analysis concerns the choice of a number of units to be conducted between a single unit (holistic) and multiple units (embedded). As this study was conducted within a single case of the Thai food industry by using multiple food companies as embedded units, it was considered an embedded single case study.

To select cases, three broad approaches are widely recognised in qualitative studies:

convenience sampling, theoretical sampling and judgment sampling (Marshall, 1996).

First, eonvenience sampling is regarded as the least rigorous technique as samples are selected from the most accessible subjects. However, it is an effective approaeh when eonsideration of cost and time is a priority. Secondly, with theoretical sampling, selected samples are necessary for examining a specific theory; in other words, it is an interpretative theory built from the emerging data. Lastly, judgment sampling, the most eommon sampling technique, is employed when the researcher would like to select the most productive sample to answer the research question. This idea is supported by

C hapter 4 - Research desisn and m ethodolosy

Denscombe (2007) who suggested that the selection of cases is on the basis o f their relevance to the research question. Based on the judgment sampling, the interview participants were recruited from a list of competitive Thai food eompanies and the interviews were conducted with managerial staff who were in charge of product development and manufaeturing process or who had equivalent responsibilities. By relying on personal conneetion, the list was gathered from two Thai publie organisations with regard to representability of and aecessibility to the participants. Further details on the case selection are given in section 7.3.

4.4 SUMMARY

In this chapter, theoretical aspect of research methodology was discussed to provide the overview of methodologies available in social research. The researeh aim was stated elearly with two specific research questions, and then the research design was justified according to the purpose of each question. Pragmatism is the research philosophy adopted, as the research questions require different philosophical aspects to investigate them. Different research approaches, strategies and methods were deployed for best handling of different aspects in the research questions. Therefore, a eombination of quantitative and qualitative approaches was introdueed. The researeh was divided into two studies, one quantitative and the other qualitative. It started with a quantitative approaeh {Study 1) and then probed deeper using a qualitative approach {Study 2) in order to investigate critically the relationships between the KM process, KM enablers, KM system and innovation in the Thai food industry. Quantitative and qualitative data were colleeted by various methods at different levels which allowed factual and comprehensive information be acquired from the real context. In summary, two research strategies were deployed: the survey questionnaire and the case study. Table 4.2 summarises details of the philosophical and methodological aspects that were adopted for this research.

Chapter 4 - Research desisn an d m ethodolosy

T a b l e 4 .2 : Sum m ary o f the selected philosophical and m ethodological aspects

Study 1 (Chapters 5 and 6]

Study 2 (C hapters 7 and 8)

Research objective To investigate critically the relationships betw een the KM process,

KM enablers, KM system and innovation in the Thai fo o d industry.

Research question To w h a t ex ten t do KM enablers and KM

system influence the KM process in the Thai fo o d industry?

How can KM enablers and KM system fa cilita te the KM process in the Thai fo o d

industry?

Research paradigm Pragm atism

Research approach Q uantitative Q ualitative

Research strategy Survey Case stu d y

Data collection Q uestionnaire Sem i-structured in terview

Data analysis M ultiple regression analysis

and oth er sta tistica l techniques Explanation building

Context/participants Thai fo o d industry/T hai fo o d com panies