Data Collection

The choice on methods for data collection depends on the research questions that need to be answered, and the resources that are available to implement the research (Busch, 2013).

Qualitative data collection methods are exploratory in nature and are mainly concerned with

52 gaining insights and understanding on underlying reasons and motivations.Vaus (2002) noted that qualitative methods often provide substantial data about real life people and situations and a better understanding of behaviour in its wider context. The main sources and procedures associated with qualitative methods are observations, interviews and document analysis as proposed by Yamagata-Lynch (2010). The methodology in this study was qualitative approach with the use of qualitative interviews to identify the cultural distances and how they cause conflict in business relationships.

3.4.1 Primary Data- Interviews

Interviews are commonly used to reveal the experiences of different people and tend to involve samples of people from different cultures dealing with similar situations (Hingston, 2012). This has proven effective in understanding how different cultures utilise circumstances, power, order issues and consider individual versus group goals (Ibid). Interviews are good for obtaining information where direct observation of the phenomenon is difficult (Creswell, 2009). It is almost impossible to observe a business relationship over time as a non-member.

The main advantages of interview method of data collection are that:

a) direct contact with the users often leads to specific, constructive suggestions;

b) they are good at obtaining detailed information;

c) few participants are needed to gather rich and detailed data (Shneiderman & Plaisant, 2005;

Genise, 2002). Since I am studying perceptions of cultural differences and conflicts in business relationships, I am seeking the personal believes of the informants. Therefore, Interviews are appropriate and will be applied in understanding these perceptions.

Interviews can be structured, unstructured or semi structured depending on the need and design.

Unstructured interview allows the interviewer to ask some open-ended questions and gives the interviewee the opportunity to express his/her own opinion freely, but the direction of the interview is not predetermined. Structured interviewing uses a set of predetermined questions and therefore, require precise answers. This type of interviewing is easy to conduct and can be easily standardised as the same questions are asked to all participants. Semi-structured interviews use both closed and open questions to interview participants.

A semi structured way of interviewing was applied, in this research in order to achieve free flowing conversation with the possibility of asking follow-up questions where needed (Longhurst, 2016). This makes the informants more comfortable and willing to reveal needed information. In order to be consistent with all participants, core questions were prepared for

53 guidance, such that the same areas were covered with each interviewee. As the interview progressed, the interviewee was given opportunity to elaborate or provide more relevant information if he/she wished to do so.

A. Interview Process

Innovation Norway supported the team by providing them with a list of companies operating both in Norway and Brazil. This helped us identify and establish contact with the informants.

Getting informants initially was a bit difficult as only three of the ten companies contacted were willing to participate. Before the research team travelled to Brazil for interviews, we prepared preliminary interview questions under five themes, which could be further elaborated before meeting the companies. The companies which had agreed to be interviewed, were sent emails containing the preliminary interview questions, details on the research, a description of the research team and their expectations from the company. This was done to enable the companies plan, choose the relevant personnel for interview, eliminate insecurity and ensure comfortability.

Whilst in Brazil, the research team decided to do a pre-test interview before the actual interviews. This was done to assess question rigour and formulate measures to address any limitations, bias, miscommunication or misinterpretation, before carrying out the formal phase of the interviews. Pre-test interviews ensure that questions are clear and effective in conveying needed information and respondents interpret and answer questions in the way intended. This helps to increase the validity and reliability of research. After the pre-test interview, we realised some of the questions were not clearly understood and could not enable the informants speak freely. So, the questions were reformulated in a way that will let the informants talk openly about conflicts in their business relationships. The interview questions were formulated under five themes, using Hofstede’s and Lewis’ models.

The interviews were conducted within a period of two weeks. With support from Norwegian consulate in Rio, Innovation Norway, and the Brazilian Ph.D. student, we were able to conduct interviews with nine informants. All the interviews were conducted face to face, with each interview done independent of another. This guaranteed undeviating interaction and the possibility to give necessary explanations (Malaval et al., 2013). During each interview, the team leader, led the process, whilst the rest of the team took jot notes and provided a supporting role by supplementing the interviewer when questions needed clarification. The interviews started out with open questions, in order to identify original experiences, ideas and

54 interpretations. But the interviews progressively directed towards more detailed questions related to the elements within each relationship category. Starting with open questions, focusing on extemporaneous answers and limiting the use of prepared questions to follow-up on statements was important. This is because it enabled the interviews to fulfil Kvale and Brinkmann’s (2009) three first quality criteria for interviews and also ensure flexibility.

The interviewer asked the informants to identify some challenges they faced in their business relationship with Brazilian companies as a result of cultural differences. The interviewer did not use the word "conflict." Instead, interviewees were asked, "What are the main challenges you encounter with your Brazilian partners as a result of these cultural differences"? The aim of the question was to identify the types, amount, frequency, intensity, duration and triggers of conflict experienced by the interviewees and their teams as a whole in their relationship with Brazilian companies. Questions which were misunderstood were further clarified so the informant could provide the required information. The interviews ranged from forty-five minutes to one-hour duration. The informants were told that the information they provided will be anonymous. Also, they were informed that they will be sent the field notes, so they could go through and correct any misinterpretation or add any more information they thought would be beneficial for the research.

After every interview, the research team had a meeting to evaluate the interview process and discuss the answers. During these meetings, jot notes were compared and later a team member was given the responsibility of writing down field notes. The responsible team member was given access to all the other jot notes made during the interview session so as ensure the making of proper field notes (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2011). Each team member had full access to the field notes proper after they were prepared. Field notes proper were also sent to each informant a day after their interview for review and feedback. We also discussed the field notes and modified them into different categories of conflict. This helped to increase understandability and preserve anonymity.

B. Limitations of interviews

According to Creswell (2008), interviews can be limited in the following ways:

• They provide indirect information filtered through the perceptions of the participants in the study.

• They provide information in a designated place rather than the natural field setting.

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• Researcher’s presence may cause bias responses and hence dishonest information will be shared.

• Not all people can clearly articulate their perceptions about a phenomenon and hence may give incorrect information about their views.

Despite the above limitations, interviews allow the researcher control over the line of questioning and are very useful when participants cannot be directly observed. Given that I had only two weeks in Brazil to collect data, interview was the most appropriate method of data collection.

3.4.2 Secondary data

Secondary data is readily available data that have been already collected by other researchers.

The secondary data are gathered from other sources that do not deal directly with the research problem of a specific paper, but provides valuable insight (Yin, 2014). Such data are cheaper, time saving, and make collection of primary data more specific since gaps, deficiencies and additional information needed to be collected can be identified with the help of secondary data.

Secondary sources of data were also used for this research. Academic literature on business relationships between Brazil and Norway, international marketing and management journals, strategic management journals, industry-based publications and online resources on internalization and business relationships in international companies were reviewed as essential background information. These were used to develop general categories which were further compared and explained through a discussion of a research on Brazilian and Norwegian business relationship. The identified categories provided an accessible and practical overview of the main perceived internalization conflicts between Norwegian and Brazilian companies. Also, a few researchers were contacted for strategic advice and suggestions in an attempt to gain insight into these topics.