Research Methods For Business Students: 8 Edition

Research Methods for Business Students
8th edition
Chapter 10
Collecting primary data using
research interviews and
research diaries
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
By the end of this chapter you should be:
10.1 able to classify research interviews in order to help you understand the purpose of
each type;
10.2 aware of situations favouring the use of particular types of research interview, and the
logistical and resource issues that affect their use;
10.3 able to identify potential data quality issues related to the use of research interviews
and evaluate how to overcome these;
10.4 able to consider the development of your competence to undertake semi-structured

and in-depth research interviews;
10.5 aware of the advantages and disadvantages of using one-to-one and group research
interviews, including focus groups, in particular contexts;
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
10.6 aware of the advantages, disadvantages and mode implications of telephone
interviews;
10.7 aware of types of Internet-mediated research interview to be able to evaluate their

use;
10.8 aware of the nature of visual interviews and ways to use these;
10.9 able to understand how quantitative and qualitative research diaries may be used to
collect primary data;
10.10 aware of the advantages, issues and strategies associated with using research
diaries.
Introduction
• The research interview is a purposeful conversation between two or more
people, during which the interviewer asks concise and unambiguous questions
and listens attentively to the interviewee talking.
• Such interviews rely on establishing some level of rapport between the
interviewer and the interviewee.
• By listening carefully to an interviewee, an interviewer will be able to explore
points of interest, and clarify and confirm meanings.
• The use of research interviews can help you to gather valid and reliable data
that are relevant to your research question(s) and objectives.
• Research interviews can also be used to help you refine your ideas where you
have not yet fully formulated a research question and objectives.
Types of research interview
• Research interviews may be classified into different types.
• These types are more than just labels as they help you to choose the most
appropriate sort of interview for your research purpose.
• We discuss a number of interview typologies here.
• These relate to the:
– level of standardisation or structure in the research interview;
– number of participants and interview modes.
Figure 10.1
Interview structures
Structured interviews
• Structured interviews are conducted using researcher-completed
questionnaires.
• We will discuss them detailed in next videos.
• Questionnaires are ‘standardised’ because they are based on a predetermined
set of identical questions.
• If you use a structured interview, you read out each question from the
questionnaire exactly as it is written and in the same tone of voice so that you
do not indicate any bias.
• Then you record the response on a standardised schedule, usually with pre-
coded answers.
• Structured interviews are used to collect quantifiable data they are also
referred to as ‘quantitative research interviews’.
Semi-structured interviews
• By comparison, semi-structured and unstructured interviews are ‘non-
standardised’.
• These are often referred to as ‘qualitative research interviews’.
• In semi-structured interviews you start with a predetermined list of themes,
and possibly some key questions related to these themes, to guide the conduct
of each interview.
• How you use this predetermined list of themes will depend on your
philosophical assumptions.
• In some cases it closes to structured, in some cases approached to unstructured.
• The source of your interview themes will also be likely to affect the nature of
the semistructured interviews you conduct. These themes may be developed
from the findings of previously conducted unstructured interviews and
possibly from discussions with others such as your colleagues or project tutor.
In-depth interviews
• In-depth interviews are informal.
• They are used to explore in depth a general area in which you are interested.
This means that they do not use predetermined and written down themes or
questions to structure or guide the course of the interview.
• This type of interview is entirely exploratory and emergent.
• Instead of commencing with predetermined themes or questions, you will be
interested to find out which themes emerge from the data you collect from your
participants.
• While you do not commence with predetermined themes or questions to ask in
an in-depth interview, you will need to have at least some idea about the topic,
event, or case.
• There will be following questions but they will be derived from what the the
interviewee tells you not you prepared before.
In-depth interviews
• In an in-depth interview, the interviewee is given the opportunity to talk freely
about the topic or event being explored or about their experiences, behaviours
and beliefs
• An in-depth interview may be used to explore a topic or event, to deconstruct
and understand meanings, to generate stories as in a narrative interview, to
record a life history as in a biographical interview, to focus on participants’
perceptions by recording their experiences.
• It has also been labelled as an informant interview since it is the interviewee’s
perceptions that guide the conduct of the interview and related discussion.
• In comparison, a respondent interview is one where the interviewer exercises
greater direction over the interview while allowing the interviewee’s opinions to
emerge as he or she responds to the questions of the researcher.
In-depth interviews
• An in-depth interview is led by the participant but there is still scope for some
variation during the conduct of these interviews.
• The conduct of an in-depth interview may be directed almost entirely by the
interviewee talking, with the researcher needing to ask very few questions or
provide hardly any prompts.
• Alternatively, an in-depth interview may take the form of a dialogue, the
interviewee is the principal speaker and the interviewer focuses on asking
spontaneous questions and using prompts that stem from what the interviewee
says
• In-depth and semi-structured interviews refer to two types:
– dialogic interviews and
– convergent interviews.
Dialogic interviews
• The term ‘dialogic’ relates to dialogue and a dialogue refers to discussion.
• In a dialogic interview the interviewer works to establish relationship with the
interviewee and to gain her or his trust.
• If this is achieved the hope is that the interviewee will be willing to engage
reflexively to allow a more open discussion to occur in which pre-conceived
ideas and beliefs may be evaluated.
• Many interviewers simply focus on what their interviewees are telling them.
This stance assumes that there is a truth waiting to be discovered and reported.
This is the objective assumption of the positivist or realist.
• The positivist or realist interviewer simply focuses on recording events and how
these were experienced by participants.
• However, if you are interested in understanding how meanings are socially
constructed, a dialogic interview possibly offers a more appropriate approach.
Convergent interviews
• The purpose and process of a convergent interview is materially different as an
unstructured, in-depth interview, with the interviewer also seeking to develop
relationship.
• These more specific and focused probing questions are used to test an emerging
theory or refine a developing explanation that is grounded in the data generated
through the initial exploratory interview stage.
• This is the notion of convergence in this approach, where the interviewing
process is used to converge on an explanation or grounded theory.
• Some researchers define convergence interviewing as a package or a process, as
it is more than just a way to conduct an interview or series of interviews.
• Many research designs that use interviews commence by using in-depth
interviews during an exploratory and emergent stage and later use semi-
structured interviews to examine possible relationships between themes that
have emerged from the analysis of data from the first stage of in-depth
interviews.
Number of participants and interview modes
One-to-one interviews
• Interviews may be conducted on a one-to-one basis, between you and a single
participant. Such one-to-one interviews may be conducted in person, through a
face-to-face interview, over the telephone, or as an Internet-mediated interview.
One-to-many interviews
• There may be other situations where you conduct a semi-structured or in-depth
research interview with a small number of participants to explore an aspect of
your research through a group discussion that you facilitate.
• As we will outline, such one-to-many interviews may be conducted in person,
through a face-to-face interview, or as an Internet-mediated interview.
Two-to-many interviews
• In some circumstances, two interviewers may conduct an interview, such as in
the case of a group interview, where one interviewer leads the discussion and the
other acts as principal note taker.
Face-to-face interviews
• A frequently used way to conduct a research interview is to meet your
participant in person, often referred to as a ‘face-to-face’ interview.
• An advantage of this mode is that you meet each of your research participants
and have the opportunity to build relationship while allaying any concerns that
participants may have about sharing data with you.
• A face-to-face interview may encourage open discussion, leading to data that
are rich and free from bias.
Telephone and Internet-mediated interviews
• There may be some situations where you conduct an interview by telephone or
using the Internet.
• It may be more convenient or appropriate for interviews to be conducted through
one of these means for some or all of your participants.
• Use of the telephone is likely to be associated with a one-to-one interview.
Group interviews
• We have referred to situations where a number of participants take part in a group
discussion (as in one-to-many or two-to-many). These are referred to as group
interviews.
Visual interviews
• A further interview mode can be differentiated related to the use of visual images.
Uses of different types of interview for each
research purpose
• Different types of interview may be used to gather data for each kind of study.
– In an exploratory study, in-depth interviews can be very helpful to find out
what is happening and to understand the context. Semi-structured interviews
may also be used in an exploratory study.
– In a descriptive study, structured interviews can be used to identify general
patterns. You may find it helpful to conduct structured interviews where
your research design uses a deductive approach to test a theory, as the
standardised nature of the data will make it easier to test statistical
propositions or hypotheses.
– In an explanatory study, semi-structured interviews may be used to
understand relationships between variables, such as those revealed from a
descriptive study.
– In an evaluative study, you may find it useful to use one type of interview,
or a combination of types, depending on the nature of your study. In many
cases, semi-structured interviews may be used to understand the
relationships between your evaluation or effectiveness criteria.
Uses of different types of interview for each
research purpose
• Your research may incorporate more than one method of data collection, as in
mixed methods.
• As part of a survey strategy, you may decide to use indepth or semi-structured
interviews initially to help identify the questions that should be asked in a
researcher-completed questionnaire.
When to use semi-structured and in-depth
interviews
• There are many situations in which collecting data using a semi-
structured or in-depth research interview may be advantageous.
• These situations can be grouped into four categories:
– the purpose of the research;
– the importance of establishing personal contact;
– the nature of the data collection questions;
 Complex;
 Open-ended;
 Large in number;
 Likely to need to be varied in the order they are asked.
– length of time required and completeness of the process
The purpose of the research
• Where you are undertaking an exploratory study, or a study that includes an
exploratory element, it is likely that you will include in-depth or semi-
structured interviews in your design.
• Where it is necessary for you to understand the reasons for the decisions
that your participants have taken, you are likely to need to conduct an in-
depth or semi-structured interview.
• Semi-structured and in-depth interviews also provide you with the
opportunity to ‘probe’ a response, where you want your interviewees to
explain, or build on, their previous answers.
• Interviewees may use words or ideas in a particular way, and the
opportunity to probe these meanings will add significance and depth to the
data you obtain.
• You need to be aware that the manner in which you interact with your
interviewees and ask questions will impact on the data you collect.
The importance of establishing personal contact
• Managers and employees are more likely to agree to be interviewed, rather
than complete a questionnaire, especially where the interview topic is seen
to be interesting and relevant to their current work.
• An interview provides them with an opportunity to reflect on events without
needing to write anything down.
• This situation also provides the opportunity for interviewees to receive
feedback and personal assurance about the way in which their data will be
used.
• Potential respondents who receive a questionnaire via the Internet or through
the post may be reluctant to complete it for a number of reasons.
– They may feel that it is not appropriate to provide sensitive and
confidential data to someone they have never met.
– They may also not completely trust the way in which the data are to be
used.
Length of time required and completeness of the process
• Often the complexity of issues to be covered or their number and variety mean that an
interview is the best or only means of collecting data.
• Where expectations have been established clearly about the length of time required and
participants understand and agree with the objectives of the research interview, they
have generally been willing to agree to be interviewed.
• Some negotiation is possible and the interview can be arranged at a time when the
interviewee will be under least pressure.
• Situations are likely to occur where researcher will consider the choice between using
research interviews and other qualitative methods such as observation.
• In this regard, a distinction has been made between contrived and natural data.
• Natural or naturally occurring data are those observed from real conversations that
take place in everyday, authentic situations.
• Contrived data are those that result from a researcher organising an experiment,
interview or survey.
• Depending on time in hand, either of them can be collected.
Data quality issues with semi-structured
and in-depth interviews
• Before discussing how to prepare for and conduct semi-structured or
in-depth interviews we consider data quality issues associated with
these types of research interview.
• This is because your preparation for and conduct of these interviews
will be influenced by the need to ensure data quality.
• The issues are:
– reliability/dependability;
– forms of bias;
– cultural differences;
– generalisability/transferability;
– validity/credibility.
• The lack of standardisation in semi-structured and in-depth interviews
can lead to concerns about reliability/dependability
• In relation to qualitative research, this is concerned with whether
alternative researchers would reveal similar information.
• The concern about reliability/dependability in these types of interview
is also related to issues of bias.
– Interviewer bias. The comments, tone or non-verbal behaviour of
the interviewer creates bias.
– Interviewee or response bias. Can be caused by interviewees’
perceptions about the interviewer,
– Participation bias. Resulting from the nature of the individuals or
organisational participants who agree to be interviewed.
• Further concerns may arise from cultural differences between the
interviewer and intended interviewees.
• Research interview as the product of individualistic societies, which
may not be so well suited to societies and participants with a different
cultural orientation.
• An issue is often raised about the generalisability/transferability of
findings from qualitative research interviews, although the
validity/credibility of the data they produce is generally seen to be less
of an issue.
• Generalisability/transferability refers to the extent to which the
findings of a research study are applicable to other settings.
Preparing for semi-structured or in-depth interviews
• Like all research methods, the key to a successful interview is careful
preparation.
• When using in-depth or semi-structured interviews, remember the ‘five
Ps’: prior planning prevents poor performance.
• In particular, we believe it is crucial that you plan precisely how you
are going to demonstrate your competence and credibility to obtain the
confidence of your interviewees and collect quality data.
• In order to ensure data quality, we now consider some key measures
that your preparations will need to include. These are:
– your level of knowledge;
– developing interview themes and supplying information to the
interviewee before the interview;
– the appropriateness of the intended interview location.
Your level of knowledge
• You need to be knowledgeable about the research topic and the
organisational or situational context in which the interview is to take
place.
• Successfully interviewing participants from different cultures requires
some knowledge about those cultures.
• Without adequate preparation, there may be misinterpretation because
of the cultural differences between the interviewee and the interviewer.
• For example, answering ‘yes’ to a question may indicate agreement in
some cultures, but in others it may be a way of telling the interviewer
that the question has been understood.
Developing interview themes and supplying
information to the interviewee before the interview
• Credibility may also be promoted through the supply of relevant
information to participants before the interview.
• Providing participants with a list of the interview themes before the
event, where this is appropriate, should help this.
• Interview themes may be derived from the literature that you read, the
theories that you consider, your experience of a particular topic, co-
workers, fellow students, tutors or a combination of these approaches.
Appropriateness of the intended interview location
• It is possible that the location where you conduct your interviews will
influence the data you collect.
• As we discussed before, you should choose the location for your
interviews with regard to your own personal safety.
• You should also think about the impact that the location may have
upon your participants and the way they respond.
• You also need to choose a place that is quiet so that outside noise will
not reduce the quality of your audio-recording.
Aspects to consider when conducting semi-
structured and in-depth interviews (1 of 2)
• appropriateness of your appearance at the interview;
– Proper, suitable clothing
• nature of your comments to open the interview;
– Interviewer must share the purpose, initiate the interview
• approach to questioning;
– Use critical incidence technique  participants are asked to
describe in detail a critical incident or number of incidents that are
relevant to the research question
• appropriate use of different types of questions;

– Wording is very important
Types of question
• Open questions • Follow-up questions
• Probing questions • Reflective questions
• Specific questions • Interpretation questions
• Closed questions • Extension questions
Aspects to consider when conducting semi-
structured and in-depth interviews (2 of 2)
• nature and impact of your behaviour during the interview;
– Avoid gestures, be active listener, use good tone of voice
• demonstration of attentive listening skills;
– Listen carefully, hold back your own thoughts where these would compete
with those of your participant(s), or stray from the theme being explored.
• scope to summarise and test understanding;
– test your understanding by summarising responses provided by the
interviewee
• dealing with difficult participants;
– remain polite and do not show any irritation.
• approach to recording data.
– Take proper notes, Show the importance of interviewee to him/her
Difficulties with interview participants
Table 10.3
Advantages and disadvantages of audio-
recording the interview
Source: authors’ experiences
Managing logistical and resource issues
• Interviewing is a time-consuming process where the purpose of the
interview is to explore themes or to explain findings, the process may
call for a fairly lengthy discussion. It will be important for you to
establish credibility with potential interviewees.
• Your decision to collect data through interviewing will have particular
resource issues. Conducting interviews may become a costly process
where it is necessary to travel to the location of participants.
• You need to consider very carefully the amount of time that will be
required to conduct an interview. In our experience, the time required
to undertake qualitative research interviews is usually underestimated.
• The nature of semi-structured or in-depth interviews also has
implications for the management of the time available during the
meeting.
Group interviews and focus groups
• Semi-structured and in-depth interviews may also be conducted as group
interviews, where one or more interviewers asks questions and records
responses with a group of participants.
• These include focus group, group interview, group discussion and various
combinations of these words!
• In this section we use group interview as a general term to describe all semi-
structured and in-depth interviews conducted with two or more interviewees.
• The term focus group is used to refer to a specific type of group interview. In
this type, the topic to be explored is predetermined and precisely defined and
the role of the researcher is to facilitate or enable discussion amongst
participants rather than lead this.
• To realise the benefits of a group interview, it is important to encourage every
person in a group to participate.
• In a group interview your role will be to ensure that all participants have the
opportunity to state their points of view in answer to your questions.
Telephone interviews
• Most semi-structured or in-depth interviews occur on a face-to-face
basis.
• However, these types of interview may also be conducted by
telephone, using either a voice/listening-only mode or a video calling
service.
• Mobile phones have significantly extended the scope to conduct
research interviews by telephone, especially with regard to the use of
video telephony services, such as Skype™ or Facetime™.
• Disadvantages  (1) the limited scope for personal contact, and (2)
the reliance on verbal and paralinguistic signals during a telephone
interview.
• Advantageous  (1) access, speed and lower cost, (2) limited scope
for personal contact, and (3) reliance on verbal and paralinguistic
signals.
Internet-mediated interviews
• Interviews may also be conducted electronically via the Internet using
mobile or computing technologies.
• These are collectively referred to as electronic interviews.
• A distinction is made between electronic interviews conducted in real
time (synchronous) and those not conducted in real time
(asynchronous).
• An asynchronous electronic interview will be conducted through
exchanges of text. This will use email or text messaging but will
involve gaps in time or delays between the interviewer asking a
question and the participant providing an answer.
• A synchronous electronic interview will be conducted in real time
using email, instant messaging or web conferencing.
Figure 10.3
Forms of electronic interview
Participant drawing in an interview
Summary
• The use of semi-structured and in-depth interviews allows you to collect
rich and detailed data, although you will need to develop a sufficient
level of competence to conduct these and to be able to gain access to the
type of data associated with their use.
• Semi-structured and in-depth interviews can be used in a variety of
research strategies.
• Data quality issues related to reliability/dependability, forms of bias,
cultural differences and generalisability/transferability.
• Logistical and resource matters need to be considered and managed
when you use in-depth and semi-structured interviews.
• Apart from one-to-one interviews conducted on a face-to-face basis, you
may consider conducting such interviews by telephone or electronically.
• You may consider using group interviews or focus group interviews.

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10.4 able to consider the development of your competence to undertake semi-structured

10.7 aware of types of Internet-mediated research interview to be able to evaluate their

• appropriate use of different types of questions;

Source: authors’ experiences

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