Qualitative research methodology is presumed to lack reliability and validity of its findings. Criticisms concern the reactive effects of the observer's or the interviewer's presence on the situation or phenomenon under study and selective perception or bias of the researcher (McCall & Simons, 1969; Schaffir & Stebbins, 1991). In the case of this research, these issues were addressed through the use of member checks (transcribed interviews were sent to informants to consider whether their words match what they actually intended to say); peer debriefing among supervisory team; reflexive journals; purposive sampling; use of archives and the researcher's log
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(Appendix D); and the use of folders - coding techniques template, interview log, transcribed interviews, audio files.
Grocke (1999) argues that the major challenge of the phenomenology research design is to remain focused, since phenomenology requires the researcher to be immersed in the data. He further argues that, the difficulty really does not lie with immersion, rather keeping the intention of the immersion clear, especially when dealing with large amounts of data. In this study, using reflexive journals helped the researcher to be conscious of potential biases, when dealing with the data.
6.7.1 Ethical clearance
Ethical issues were considered when undertaking this research, both during interactions and analysis of data. Ruane (2004) argues that an ethical research should not cause any harm to its respondents. Hence, Tharenou (2000) suggests that all respondents must be treated fairly and ethically in social research. He explained himself by saying that the fair and ethical treatment involves respecting the personality, rights, beliefs, wishes, consent and freedom of respondents. In qualitative research (Stake, 2000) comments that qualitative researchers must adhere to strict code of ethics because they are guests in the private spaces of the world. Hence, the ethical standards of this study conformed to the Economic and Social Research Council (2005), as per Figure 6.1 below. This study also received ethical clearance from the Ethics Review Committee of Robert Gordon University.
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Figure 6.1: Ethical Considerations of this Study
Source: Author
Furthermore, all participants were made aware that participating in this research was purely voluntary, and had the right to opt out of the process at anytime. All the respondents were provided with a consent form prior to the interview and interviews were conducted and recorded after the consent form had been signed. During the interview only two respondents objected to recording the interview, which was adhered to. To protect the identity of the individuals as well as their firms, as part of the provision of confidentiality, all firms and individuals names have been changed. In addition, apart from the researcher, the data was accessed by only the two supervisors involved in the research. To ensure the ethicality of the research, all the transcriptions were done solely by the researcher.
6.8 Summary
This has been a complex chapter that examined how the methodology adopted to explore the phenomenon of entrepreneurial resilience development within institutional constraints. The chapter sets out the philosophical approach, the methodological approach of this research, as well as the research issues identified through the literature review Chapters of this study. This Chapter touched on the debate surrounding the use of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship research, as well as gave a brief account of the largely used quantitative
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methods in entrepreneurship research. The chapter, however, pointed out the use of qualitative approaches as the most probable means to draw meaning and understand a phenomenon. The chapter had a rhetorical discourse of the phenomenological approach, which was followed by examining the phenomenological methods and techniques to be used in collecting and analysing data. Details about the specific locations of the respondents, the sample size, as well as interview style were examined. The place of intuition and empathy was also described in the Chapter. The Chapter also examined the analytical approach adopted for this study, as well as a reflective statement of the methodological approach adopted in this study. Finally, the research design, and ethical issues considered for this research were also addressed in this Chapter.
This chapter therefore represents the end of an important phase of this study, as the ensuing chapters will provide the theoretical and interpretive analysis of the empirical data obtained in this research.
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Chapter
Seven:
Exploring country-specific institutional
arrangements
7 Introduction
This research aims to achieve a phenomenological understanding of the resilience strategies of entrepreneurs within institutional constraints, from the perspectives of the individuals who experienced them. It is therefore important to explore the context-bound institutional environment within which the entrepreneurs operate, especially, the specific institutional dimensions that affect the entrepreneurs' activities. Although the precise dimensions of all institutions that influence entrepreneurship may be beyond the scope of any one study (Scherer et al., 1989), this chapter aims to contribute towards understanding the constructs of a country's institutional profile (Kostova, 1997; Busenitz et al., 2002; Spencer & Gomez, 2002). Hence, this chapter works towards understanding such the context-bound institutional dimensions through the conceptualisation of the regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive structures, from the lived experiences of the participants in this study.