Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

o Are the findings consistent with other knowledge; and
o Are the findings useful for some intended purpose, e.g. informing practice?
In order to achieve substantive significance the interview evidence supporting each
theme was analysed and dominant common themes were identified. The evidence
gathered into the NVivo outputs were further interpreted by considering which
interview evidence best captured the spirit of the NVivo themes, in order to present the
data in sufficient depth in the thesis to allow the link from the data to the underlying
theoretical framework. In this research a deductive approach was taken which allowed
themes to be linked to an existing theory, in this case accountability (discussed in
Chapter Five), which provided a frame of reference for analysing these findings. These
matters will be addressed in the research findings and discussions that are framed by the
theoretical framework and detailed in: Chapter Six - Professional accountability;
Chapter Seven – Fiduciary accountability; Chapter Eight – Performance Accountability.
Before looking at these chapters the trustworthiness of the data needs to be evaluated.
4.7 Data Evaluation
Data evaluation is critical in qualitative research, as qualitative findings are likely to
face criticisms that the work is unreliable, invalid and generally untrustworthy when
compared with studies based on quantitative data, whose findings can be statistically
supported (Ahrens & Chapman, 2006). Therefore, researchers analysing qualitative data
have to take serious note of the potential for bias at each research stage, in particular the
data collection and data analysis.
It is however important to strike a balance between, at one side, allowing the richness of
the interviews by being open-minded, and having a flexible approach, which must be
balanced with ensuring that the execution of this research is trustworthy (Lillis, 2006).
Trustworthiness is concerned not only with the findings and whether they are „really‟
about what they appear to be about (Patton, 2002) but also the data collection and data
analysis.
Factors that consider the trustworthiness of qualitative research and the methods used to
evaluate the research are varied depending on the author (Benson-Rea, 2006; Ghauri &
Gronhaug, 2005; Lillis, 2006; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Maxwell, 1992; Patton, 2002;
Robson, 1993; Ryan et al., 1992). Notions of validity and reliability from positivistic
studies of objective reality are unsuitable for qualitative studies which have multiple
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