Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

with an unobtrusive speaker which was placed slightly out of sight once permission was
given to record (Patton, 2002). It still picked up the voices clearly without the
participants speaking into it and at times interviewees forgot they were being taped and
their answers became much more open.
In this research there was some concern that taped interviews might bias the
respondents‟ answers because they knew that their voices were being recorded and so
may hesitate to answer sensitive questions (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2005; Hayes &
Mattimoe, 2004; Sekaran, 2003). If the researcher considered that the interviewee was
reluctant to answer and felt constrained by the tape recorder, the tape was turned off,
which allowed interviewees the ability to speak more freely, which most did (Hayes &
Mattimoe, 2004; Joannides, 2007).
Bedard and Gendron (2004) noted the need to be aware of the interviewee continuing to
provide information after the tape recorder had been turned off. This was the case with
several interviews where it was important to make notes of the extra information once
away from the interview, or if the researcher was able to continue to record even after
the formal interview was finished.
TRANSCRIPTION
Semi-structured interviews, when taped, were transcribed by a transcriber, who signed a
confidentiality agreement (Appendix Six). The interviews were copied on to a CD and
mailed to the transcriber in Hamilton. To track the delivery of the CD, the transcriber was
emailed once the CD was posted and the transcriber acknowledged receipt via email.
Once the interviews were transcribed, the transcription was emailed back and the CD
was destroyed by the transcriber.
The transcripts were validated by listening through the tape to ensure the interviewees‟
nuances were correctly transcribed, which was usually the case in this research (Bedard
& Gendron, 2004; O'Sullivan & O'Dwyer, 2009). However, the transcripts were not sent
back to the interviewee for them to verify its accuracy, as the researcher did not want
the interviewees to realise how open and at times controversial their comments were
and thus seek to withdraw their interview from the research.
INTERVIEW NOTES
In this research, notes were taken in interviews for a variety of reasons. During some
interviews notes were made of emerging themes, interpretations, and other data needed
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