Cash or Card: Consumer Perceptions of Payment Modes - Scholarly ...

problem using a qualitative or quantitative approach alone (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004;
Bahl and Milne, 2006; Bryman and Bell, 2007; Creswell and Clark, 2007).
The use of a mixed (multi) method approach or as it is often labelled method triangulation
can be traced to Campbell and Fiske (1959), Denzin (1978) and Jick (1979). Two important
notions underpin the mixed-method approach. One is that the research design should be
driven by the philosophical assumptions underlying the purpose of the study and the
questions that it seeks to answer (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Patton (2002) asserts
that the need to gather the most relevant information is paramount and outweighs concerns
about maintaining methodological purity. The main advantages of this approach are an
increased confidence in the findings and enhanced interpretation and explanation. Mixed
methods employ both inductive and deductive logic (Bahl and Milne, 2006; Creswell and
Clark, Gutman and Hanson, 2003; Patton, 2002). That is, the researcher is open to what
emerges from previous studies, and also to what may be a new discovery. A study may, for
example, reveal certain patterns, an inductive approach; the verification of these patterns may
involve a deductive approach.
The study adopts Blumer’s (1978) view that social behaviour researchers should adopt a
more naturalistic mode of enquiry based on qualitative study and inspection. This mode
requires the researcher to form a close contact with the field of study whilst ensuring that
strict controls are in place to ensure maximum control of confounding factors. The advantage
of a field based study is that it produces behavioural data and allows a close relationship
between data collection, theory construction and analysis; it is particularly suitable for areas
where theory is sparse or highly abstract (Hayes, 2000). Field based studies have high
ecological validity as the research and behaviour are less likely to be affected by the research
setting, compared to an experiment conducted in a laboratory (Keppel, 1982).
However non- experimental field studies do have reliability and validity issues and, while it
is not feasible to create a pristine research context, data quality and analysis accuracy will be
managed by the use of multiple observers, coders and member checks in the case of the
qualitative data collection and analysis. Scale development and testing will be via a test-
retest procedure (Netemeyer, Bearden and Sharma, 2003). Validity issues are examined via
EFA and CFA analysis (Gerbing and Anderson, 1988). Although all care is taken to provide
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