THE INTERVIEW PROCESSES

This study considered the key informants of each company for interview in both the survey and case study stages. The use of the key informant technique involved the collection of data from selected individuals who had specific knowledge about the required information. Hence, the Chief Executive Officer (Chairman/Managing Director or a designated non-marketing high official nominated by the CEO), and one marketing high official were considered for the survey. In addition, the CEO of each company or any designated high official recommended by the CEO, was considered for the in-depth interview. That means that, in conducting the survey two officials from each company were respondents and, in conducting the in-depth interview, one official from each case company was interviewed. This technique is widely reported in the market orientation literature (e.g. Narver and Slater, 1990; Diamantopoulos and Hart, 1993; Appiah-Adu, 1998a; Mavondo and Farrell, 2000).

6.5.1. Personal Interview Arrangement for the Quantitative Survey Research

At the beginning of the interview arrangement process, the researcher tried to contact all of the 190 companies identified from the sampling framework. Only 179 companies could be contacted, the other eleven companies could not be reached by telephone due to the change of telephone numbers/address or close down of the business. The researcher then approached all the 179 companies through mail with a cover letter requesting their participation in the survey. After a week, the researcher started making phone calls to confirm that the companies were interested in taking part. This procedure was followed because follow-up improves response rate (Linsky, 1975).

Though, Kanuk and Berenson (1975) had doubts whether promising anonymity and confidentiality resulted in an increased response rate, the researcher reminded the respondents that the interview would be completely voluntary and that they could

withdraw from the interview at any time by just calling the researcher. They were also promised that these data would be used only for academic purposes and will be kept by the Victoria University of Technology where none will have access to these data except the researcher and his supervisors.

In order to motivate the respondents to participate, they were given the option to name the place of their choice for the interviews. In order to make appointments for the interviews and to keep records of these appointments, two research assistants were hired. In order to maintain the schedule for the interviews, these two assistants accompanied the researcher. Thus, when an interview took more than the anticipated time, these two assistants were sent to the next scheduled interview and the researcher followed them afterwards, as soon as he had finished the current interview. The reason for doing that was to avoid rescheduling, as it would have been difficult with the busy officials.

6.5.2. In-Depth Interview Arrangement for the Case Companies

At first, the researcher mailed all the 10 selected companies with a cover letter to let them know about the research and started making telephone calls afterwards to identify if they were interested in participating in the study. During the phone calls, the researcher asked the respondents if they minded if their interviews were tape-recorded. In order to convince them to participate, the researcher also informed them about the confidentiality policy set by Victoria University of Technology regarding the interviews. These included: (1) that their name and company name will not be on the cassette; (2) that the researcher would be the only person who will listen to the tape- recording; and (3) their interviews will be used only for academic purposes. They were also informed that they might withdraw from the interview at any time just by calling the researcher. They were also told that, if they feel that any of the questions might go against their company policies, they would not have to answer them. It was also pointed out that when the research report was being written up, the material from the interview would be handled in such a way so that the risk of participant identification would be minimised.

At the second stage of the telephone conversation, a mutually convenient meeting time and a location for conducting the interview were also sought from the respondent. The respondents were also promised that they would be sent a copy of the questionnaire in advance so that they could prepare for the interview and answer the questions without much difficulty. Although this could lead to some bias, the researcher had no alternative but to comply with the requirement of the respondents.

6.5.3. Conducting the Interviews – A Field Experience in Bangladesh

Data collection activities took place in Bangladesh from March 4, 2002 with many unanticipated dilemmas. The dilemma started with timing when a single interview took almost more than five times that of the usual time. There was also a problem in conducting interviews due to some other factors including political hortal (general public strike called by the opposition political parties), traffic jam and load-shedding (the manual close down of electricity when the demand is beyond the capacity). In some cases, during the political hortal, the researcher had to walk miles to maintain the scheduled interviews in order to avoid rescheduling. In order to complete the data collection in three months, the researcher had to work at least 12 to 14 hours a day.

6.5.4. Response Rate

Of the 179 companies approached to participate in the survey, 120 (52 convenience goods and 68 shopping goods) companies could be interviewed providing a total of 240 interviews (two interviews from each company). All the questionnaires were checked and a total number of 216 usable questionnaires were available for the data analysis with a response rate of 57%. Regarding an acceptable response rate, Babbie (1990) quoted 60% as ‘good’ and 70% as ‘very good’ (rules of thumb only). He further advised that interpretation of the adequacy of the response rate be placed in the context of existing literature for the type of study undertaken. A 57% response rate achieved in this study among the population being sampled is fairly good considering the above statement made by Babbie (1990). In addition, the respondents in this study were busy high officials and each interview took almost an hour because of the lengthy questionnaire.

Appiah-Adu (1997) in a study of market orientation and performance, achieved an effective response rate of 22%; Caruana et al. (1998), in a study of performance of Universities achieved a response rate of 46.2%; Matsuno and Mentzer (2000), researching market orientation and performance relationship achieved a 38.76% response rate; Pulendran et al. (2000), in a study of antecedents and consequences of market orientation in Australia achieved a response rate of 31%; Liu and Davies (1997), in market orientation study in the UK achieved a response rate of 38%; Horng and Chen (1998) a response rate of 15.2%; and Liu (1996) a response rate of 52%. Thus, considering the response rates in the market orientation literature, the 57% response rate in this study was also satisfactory.