Enhancing the Trustworthiness of Qualitative Research in International Business

Abstract

and Key Results 0 Reliability, validity, generalisability and objectivity are fundamental concerns for quantitative researchers. For qualitative research, however, the role of these dimensions is blurred. Some researchers argue that these dimensions are not applicable to qualitative research and a qualitative researcher's tool chest should be geared towards trustworthiness and encompass issues such as credibility, dependability, transferability and confi rmability. 0 This paper advocates the use of formalised and software-based procedures for the analysis and interpretation of qualitative interview data. It is argued that International Business research, with a focus on international datasets, equivalence issues, multiple research environments and multiple researchers, will benefi t from formalisation. The use of software programmes is deemed to help to substantiate the analysis and interpretation of textual interview data.

Critical perspectives on “manufactured” risks arising from Eurocentric business practices in Africa

“…Additionally, the polarity of the investment direction is reversed, making this research timely as IB research begins to grapple with the current ethical challenges facing emerging market multinationals operating in other emerging markets. In dealing with risks manufactured by MNCs, the advantages of treating the emic approach as equally beneficial would undoubtedly lead to future research that focuses more on native categories of the African marketplace as suggested by Sinkovics et al, (2008); Buckley and Chapman (1997).…”

Company-specific production systems and competitive advantage

“…The analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews is the most often applied methodology for firm-level international business research (Sinkovics et al, 2008). In this study, eleven interviews are included.…”

Qualitative Analysis of Online Communities to Support International Business Decisions

“…Kozinets (1999) introduced a four-step netnography method: (1) accessing a community (cultural entrée), (2) collection and analysis of data, (3) interpretation of data, and (4) consideration of ethical dimensions. 1 Analysis of textual data: There are a number of conceptual papers and methodological contributions that suggest processes that can be used to generate insights from textual data, specifically those derived from expert interviews (Kuckartz 2007;Sinkovics et al 2008). Sinkovics et al (2008) suggest adhering to specific operational standards in the application of the research process and the analysis of the qualitative data, in order to overcome criticisms about the trustworthiness of qualitative data analysis and the underlying data structures (Guba and Lincoln 1989).…”

“…1 Analysis of textual data: There are a number of conceptual papers and methodological contributions that suggest processes that can be used to generate insights from textual data, specifically those derived from expert interviews (Kuckartz 2007;Sinkovics et al 2008). Sinkovics et al (2008) suggest adhering to specific operational standards in the application of the research process and the analysis of the qualitative data, in order to overcome criticisms about the trustworthiness of qualitative data analysis and the underlying data structures (Guba and Lincoln 1989). As online communities offer a plethora of codified textual data, CAQDAS is ideally suited to help the process, improve the efficiency of the research process, and augment inter-rater reliability and the generalizability of the data Sinkovics and Alfoldi 2012;Sinkovics et al 2008).…”

“…Furthermore, the online community environment is still a relatively new phenomenon and despite some acclaims of the extraordinary use of online communities for interaction, committed exchange and relationship building (Ciaramitaro 2011;Kietzmann et al 2011;Rheingold 1993), there are critical accounts pointing at the exaggerated value of online interaction for marketing communication and advertising (Clemons et al 2007), meaningful interaction and connection (Turkle 2011) and successful firm internationalization (Yamin and Sinkovics 2006). Thus, a qualitative, exploratory approach in analyzing online communities is deemed appropriate to offer insights (Ghauri et al 2009) about the value of online communities for IB decisions, while a structured approach to analyzing the data via computer assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS) will help to enhance the trustworthiness of our findings and enable us to contribute to theory (Sinkovics and Alfoldi 2012;Sinkovics et al 2008).…”