Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

We have used the above theoretical lenses to analyse the data we collected.4. Research Method4.1 Rationale behind the selection of the research methodThe research method followed was a case study. This qualitative method was selected on the basis of its (1)Relevance: The phenomenon can be studied in its natural setting and meaningful relevant theory can be generatedfrom the understanding gained through observing actual practice, (2) Understanding: The case method hasconsiderable ability to generate answers to the question ―why‖ rather than just ―what‖ and how, (3) Exploratorydepth: This method lends itself to early, exploratory investigations where the variables are unknown and thephenomenon not well understood (Meredith, 1998).Woodside (2010) concludes that the main feature of Case Study Research is the acquired data results in theunderstanding of the individual case that may include a person, a company, an industry and so forth.By using an inductive method, we were able to ―understand the multiple relationships among dimensions thatemerge from the data without making prior assumptions or specifying hypotheses about the linear or correlativerelationships amongst narrowly defined operationalised variables‖ (Patton, 2002:56)Although well praised amongst qualitative research proponents, case study research has received a lot of criticismson its lack of rigour. The concept of validity, reliability and generalisability in qualitative research has beenquestioned (Tobin and Begley, 2003)To address these accusations in our research, we collected data from both primary and secondary sources and thentriangulated them. Voss et al. (2002) suggest that triangulation through the use of various data collection methodscan strengthen the validity of data. Theory triangulation was also achieved by using multiple theories to interpret thedata. The generalisability of qualitative research findings is a weakness of this research method. However, byfocusing on the depth of what was being investigated, we were able to generate lots of insights and extensive data.