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Data Collection Technique
I gained approval to conduct research from IRB. I contacted franchise small
business leaders via telephone and written correspondence (see Appendix A) to explain
the purpose of the study. I communicated with the franchise small business leaders to set
a date for me to visit the business to introduce myself. I provided potential participants
with an invitation for participation (see Appendix B) that informs participants of the
purpose of this study, the intent of the study, and the benefits of the study. Each
participant received a copy of the consent form that the participant signed at the time of
the interview (Appendix C). After receiving responses verbally, via e-mail or telephone
from participants, I selected five participants meeting the criteria.
Data collection instruments included document review and semistructured
interviews for a period of 4 weeks. The case study research design requires researchers to
spend extensive time at the research site interacting with the participants and data
collection from multiple sources (Williams, 2007). Yin (2014) believed that interviews
are an important source when conducting case studies. The advantage of documentation
is being able to review documents as many times as needed and for verifying information
such as names of businesses, titles and the correct spellings from interviews (Yin, 2014).
A disadvantage of documentation is the participant may not want to share such
information and intentionally withhold documentation (Yin, 2014). The advantage of
semistructured interviews includes popularity, flexibility, capability of disclosing hidden
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information and allowing the researcher to learn the views of others while modifying the
style, pace, and ordering of questions (Qu & Dumay, 2011). The disadvantage of
semistructured interviews is displaying response bias (Yin, 2014).
The data collection for this study included searching the franchise small
businesses’ website and library archives for previously published marketing information
such as newsletters, catalogs, and Internet advertisements used for retaining customers,
which will occur for 2 days prior to interviews. According to Bourgeault (2012), a multi-
method qualitative study involves the collection and triangulated analysis of documents
and key informant interviews. Documents are inputs to the interview guide that are useful
for saving time in interviews, for tracing the history of the organizations and statements
made by key people in the organizations, and counteracting the biases of respondents
(Singh, 2014).
To conduct this qualitative multiple case study, I used semistructured interviews
to explore the marketing strategies franchise small business leaders used to retain
customers served as the secondary data collection technique. Qualitative researchers rely
on in-depth standardized interviews often used in multiple case studies for data collection
until no new information emerges from data collection (Marshall, Cardon, Poddar, &
Fontenot, 2013). Using semistructured interviews in the qualitative case study approach
was beneficial for obtaining rich information that might assist small business leaders with
marketing strategies that affect customer purchasing decisions. Data collection should
include thick and rich information on the participants’ perspective of a specific issue
(Wahyuni, 2012). I provided participants with a list of dates and available times and had
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participants respond via e-mail to confirm a date and time for an interview. I scheduled
the interviews for 30 to 60 minutes at a public location convenient, confidential, and
comfortable for the participant. One week before the interview, I sent the participant an e-
mail reminding them of the scheduled interview, the date, time, and location. Prior to
conducting the interview, I provided participants with the purpose of the interview, an
informed consent letter, interview recording procedures, and the withdrawal option
without penalty. Participants signed the consent form at the time of the interview. Rubin
and Rubin (2012) asserted researchers gain thick and rich insight from in-depth
interviews from others by revisiting and exploring their perspective of a specific issue in
which they had no participation.
I transcribed interviews into a Microsoft Word document and used Evernote
software to securely store audio-recorded interviews. I emailed each participant a copy to
review my interpretations of their responses and conducted follow-up interviews for
member checking, which ensured reliability and validity. Member checking is presenting
a draft copy of an observation or interview to the participants providing the information
and asking for correction and comment (Stake, 2006). In qualitative research, member
checking increases rigor of the study and verifies accuracy when participants review
interview transcripts (Houghton et al., 2013). Incorporating member checking into the
design of the study ensures confidentiality (Houghton et al., 2013). I provided
participants with a summary of the results within 2 weeks after completing the study.
A pilot study to test the reliability of the interview process in terms of usefulness
in answering the central research question of the study was necessary. The conduction of
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a pilot study is essential to improve the questions, structure, and to make any necessary
adjustments (Yin, 2014). The pilot study will assist in making sure the instrument is
consistent and will alert the researcher of any problems prior to performing the full study
(Marshall & Rossman, 2016). The pilot study consisted of emailing two of the five
participants an invitation to participate in the pilot study (see Appendix G). According to
Yin (2014), the pilot study reports should be explicit about the lessons learned for
modification of both the research design and field process. Elo et al. (2014) asserted that
the use of pre-interviews could determine whether the collection of enough thick, rich
data from the interview questions to answer the research question. The participants
replied consenting to participate in semistructured interviews (see Appendix H). I asked
the participants questions regarding the interview questions and process to receive
feedback from participants after the interview (see Appendix I).
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