The Pilot Case Study

In this study, the researcher seeks to investigate seven Malaysian foodservice firms that are successfully expanded overseas. The first firm contacted will be used as pilot case study. In this case, Firm A agreed to participate in this study. Details on the research design and approach, study setting and sample, data collection and analysis procedures, and validation of the study are explained below.

Figure 3.1 illustrates the research design adopting inductive approach in order to build theory. This is an adaptation from Yin (2009) and Eisenhardt‟s (1989) replication approach to multiple case studies. The design is divided into four phases: phase 1 defines the particulars of data collection, phase 2 details the data collection, phase 3 involves within-case analysis, and phase 4 entails cross-case analysis.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

Figure 3.1: Research Design for Theory Building Source: Adapted from Yin (2009) and Eisenhardt (1989)

Phase one began with the selection of the study area. In this research, internationalization process of Malaysia foodservice firms has been selected as the study area. After that, the foodservice firms were identified and access from one of the firms was obtained. This firm would be the pilot case for this study. A pilot case study refines the data collection plans with respect to both the content of the data and the procedures to be followed (Yin, 2009). It can be so important that more resources may be devoted to this phase of the research than to the collection of data for cases for this case study research.

This qualitative study developed an understanding of how tentatively identified factors contributed to the internationalization process of foodservice firms by asking open-ended questions. Therefore, pilot study was conducted to determine if the researcher‟s questions were concise, easy to understand, and clear (Yin, 2009). In this study, the researcher took opportunity to not only examine the content of the interview, but also the willingness of manager to discuss openly about firm‟s strategy by observing his non-verbal and verbal responses during the interview.

Define and

Since this is an in-depth interview, open-ended questions were developed. There were a total of 27 questions which were divided into 3 sections. The questions in “Section B:

Reasons for Penetrating Foreign Markets”, provided the most interesting answers. The full set the questionnaire for the pilot case study interview was shown in Appendix B.

One of the answers given by the manager for the internationalization process of Firm A has been very important asset in designing better questionnaire for semi-structured interview and structured questionnaire survey for Firm B and C respectively. The answers given have also developed competitive theory for this research.

This interview provided the idea of the sequence of internationalization process for Firm A. It also provided considerable insight into internationalization strategy of Malaysian firms. It was found that not only the involvement of the Firm A with its overseas partners in establishing business, but also the important role of intermediary, the Malaysian government.

To begin, the e-mail was used to contact the managing director of Firm A on 2009, February 12. Her e-mail address was found in Firm A‟s website. The main reason to use e-mail is that the researcher had experience using this method in the Master Degree level on 2005, June 13 and the response of the same person contacted was quite prompt.

After a week however, the managing director did not reply the e-mail despite it was addressed to her. Instead of her, the e-mail was replied by her International Operations Director on 2009, February 20 who was stationed in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. He gave the alternative to either call for the interview appointment or send questionnaire by e-mail to him. Both contact number and e-mail address were given in his reply. The

researcher decided to call him to arrange for the interview. He suggested to the researcher that the interview was to be arranged with the General Manager who was based in Kuala Lumpur branch office. The main reason is because of its proximity to University of Malaya where this research is done. After an e-mail was sent to the General Manager, the researcher finally made the interview appointment on 2009, March 2, 2.00 pm at his meeting room in Kuala Lumpur. As he was also graduated from University of Malaya before, it was his pleasure to see the researcher.

Prior to the interview, the manager was informed of the confidentiality and anonymity of his responses. However, he was optimistic by allowing whatever responses to be written in this research. In the case of confidential data, he would just mention directly as “confidential” or the information would not be given.

He also allowed digital camera and recorder to be used for this interview and was very comfortable with them. The request to use additional two mobile phones as backups in case any of these electronic tools malfunction has also been granted. The interview lasted for 1 hour and 35 minutes based on the hours recorded by the digital camera.

Although the main points were jotted down, the content of the digital camera and recorder were used to recall the conversation in order to be written in verbatim. The written conversation was then analyzed and later to be used to improve the interview for next session with other foodservice firms.

In this pilot case study, there were many lessons learnt in terms of research design and field procedures. First, sending an e-mail can be convenient and save cost. An e-mail may not be obstructive for senior manager unlike telephone since she can open the e-mail at anytime whenever she is free. However, the e-mail may not be replied if they

are not interested with the research questions. Second, the senior manager may give the responsibility of being interviewed to her lower rank officer if she is inconvenient.

Third, the rapport with the interviewee is also important to convince her to response to the e-mail and eventually to be interviewed. Fourth, this interview helps to crystallize the research problem and identify information needs for later data collection (Zikmund et al., 2010).