The following chapter proposes the procedures to be used to achieve the purpose of the study;
this chapter presents the research methods of the investigation. Furthermore, includes the research framework and procedure, data sample, collection and analysis process, validity and reliability.
Research Approach
For this investigation, a qualitative approach was chosen. The study used interviews as a data collection method. Face to face and Skype interviews for a total of 12 questions were conducted to identify as many factors related characteristics, difficulties and practices with different managers that are directly involved with the subject of this investigation. The individual interviews enable interviewers to explore deeply into social and personal matters. Interviews are one of the most well know strategies used for data collection in qualitative research (Dicicco & Crabtree, 2006).
Research Framework
The framework based of this research was developed based on the research questions listed on Chapter I. The research objective is to identify the characteristics of the intercultural communication, possible difficulties that business coffee managers of Nicaragua experience in terms of intercultural communication with their Taiwanese counterpart in as well as the practices to overcome these difficulties. As for the present situation, the study focuses on cultural and individual identity as a factor that can arise difficulties to the communication during the business exchange (Leonard, 2004). Managers from different businesses need to change the organizational culture and adapt it to the diverse intercultural communication to overcome these difficulties, creating a successful communication competence (Cummings, 2004).
18 Figure 3.1. Research Framework
Research Participants
The study was focused on the coffee businesses from Nicaragua that are under the Central America Trading Office which serves to facilitate mutual interaction of trade and economy, strategic alliances and international investment between Taiwan and Central America. Taiwan has signed free trade agreements with Central American countries and has benefited from duty-free treatment. Taiwan sign Free Trade Agreement with Central America countries to advance the liberalization of international trade. The Agreement first entered into force between Taiwan and Panama on January 1, 2004, followed by Guatemala on July 1, 2006; Nicaragua on Jan 1, 2008;
El Salvador on March 1, 2008; Honduras on July 15, 2008 (“Free Trade Agreement”, 2016).
From the Nicaraguan companies listed on the directory of the Central American Trading Office, the research was focused on the coffee business related companies for the total amount of
Coffee Business Managers of
Nicaragua
Intercultural
Communication Characteristics
Intercultural Communication
Difficulties
Intercultural Communication
Competence Taiwanese Counterpart
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10. The participants will be the managers involved directly into the intercultural communication process with the Taiwanese partners.
Participants on this study were selected based on a list provided by Andrea Weng, Assistant Director from the Central America Trading Office and the Embassy of Nicaragua in Taiwan. The lists included the managers from Nicaragua as a primary contact in charge of the communication with their Taiwanese counterpart. They are invited to attend the Taiwan International Coffee Show as well as other fairs and meetings to promote the Nicaraguan coffee business in Taiwan. They have a vast experience dealing with the topic of intercultural communication and were initially the first contact to establish business relationships with their Taiwanese counterpart. From this list 1 manager was selected from every coffee business from Nicaragua.
Table 3.1.
Summary of Interviewees Pseudonym of
Interviewees
Gender Language used Years involved in intercultural communication
EM Female English/Spanish 7
CF Male English 8
MF Male English 11
VR Male English 15
CV Male English 10
PG Male English/Spanish 13
JP Male English 9
OG Male Spanish/English 10
ER Male Spanish/English 7
OP Male English/Spanish 9
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Research Instrument
The interview questions were designed based on the research questions and supported by literature review. The questions were primarily developed in Spanish language, since the nationality of the target participants is from a native Spanish speaking country. Before conducting the interviews, expert advice and consultation was used to obtain guidance from the advisor professor and subject matter experts for its development. The interview questions were uploaded on a Google document three days prior to the date and time of interviews and a link was sent to the interviewees.
The research questions were analyzed to develop the interview questions and after extensive literature review, the first draft of interview questions was developed. The draft was sent to peer researchers and advisor for review, and after suggestions were made and changes applied, a total of 12 questions were developed to gather the significant data needed to conduct this investigation.
Data Collection
For this investigation, interview questions were developed based on the research questions and framework. These questions can be found in Appendix A. Experts advise from peer researchers was seek in order to meet the desire data collection.
For the interview process, which will be a formal interview process, the interview questions were uploaded to a Google document three days prior to the interview, after setting up the time and date with available candidates. The time frame for the interview was 45 minutes. The interview included open questions related to the characteristics of the communication between coffee business managers from Nicaragua and Taiwan, what difficulties they have in terms of intercultural communication and what are the practices they follow to overcome these difficulties.
The face to face interviews were conducted during office times at the workplace of the interviewees. The location for the Skype interviews was the same, while the researcher was based
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in Taipei. These interviews were collected in a 3 months period from April 10th to June 27th, 2018, the detail information of each interview is listed below:
Table 3.2.
Interview Information List
Pseudonym of Interviewees
Date Time (Nicaragua) Duration of the interview
EM 06/05/2018 9:30 a.m. 32 minutes
CF 04/12/2018 9:45 a.m. 37 minutes
MF 06/07/2018 10:00 a.m. 38 minutes
VR 06/12/2018 9:00 a.m. 33 minutes
CV 04/10/2018 9:30 a.m. 36 minutes
PG 06/15/2108 9:45 a.m. 40 minutes
JP 06/19/2018 9:30 a.m. 33 minutes
OG 06/21/2018 9:30 a.m. 38 minutes
ER 04/11/2018 10:00 a.m. 36 minutes
OP 06/27/2108 10:45 a.m. 39 minutes
Data Analysis
The analysis of qualitative data gathered relies on the purpose of the researcher. For this study, interviews are the data collection method. Taylor-Powell and Renner (2003) suggest that to achieve a successful data analysis process the first step is to read and study the data collected.
After, the data should be categorized by research question, category and theme, which lead to have a better understanding of the similarities and differences of the responses of the interview questions. The last step is an interpretation of all the findings within the process.
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Part of the interviews were conducted face to face and the rest of them were trough an online call using Skype. The interview was conducted and recorded using a voice recorder program from a mobile device. After that, the researcher listened to the digital recording many times as it was needed to transcript the data into a word document, that was sent to interviewees for validation.
Once validated, the 10 documents containing the interview transcripts were uploaded to the online software Atlas.ti Mac O.S. computer software that automatically generated a database with all the data collected. The ATLAS.ti software has been used in many qualitative researches to support the coding process because it allows the researchers to code the data (Zhang and Wildemuth, 2009).
Once this data was validated and entered into this software, it was organized into themes and categories using codes depending on the similarities or differences. These similarities depend on the research questions and were supported at certain extended by the literature review.
The coding of this data started with the examination of the transcripts to detect similarities and differences, and then assign names to different parts of the data collected (Mertens, 2009). A total of 37 codes were given and organized into 15 categories. All these categories were put into 3 themes in response to the proposed research questions. The example of initial coding stage was shown in Figure 3.2.
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Code Coding Number Language barrier, in Taiwan, the people
related to the coffee business speak a decent English and almost none of them speak Spanish
EM-2-2-16
Yes, because sometimes we have some difficulties understanding each other or trying to express an idea in a common language, despite the fact that we both try to speak slow and clear
CF-2-3-10
Is sometimes not a direct communication being the main issue a language barrier, even though they speak a decent English or Spanish
MF-2-4-15
Figure 3.2. Initial coding process
Coding numbers of the interviewees assigned by Atlas.ti
Verbatim transcriptions of the interviewees were
transcribed
The key concepts responding the research questions were
in bold Theme
Category
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The following example demonstrate the process of open coding, categories and themes:
Original data Open Coding Category Theme
Most of the communication is using emails and English as a
common language. Face to face We usually communicate face to
face whenever we have the chance, I like to being involved in a straight communication, I travel or they
Validity is the ability of the instruments used on an investigation to measure what is intended to be measure. Interviews are well known for all the scientific community for being valid methods for a data collection process (Lai & Waltman, 2008). To ensure the validity of this investigation, the questions included in the interview were revised by peer researchers and feedback was be provided, as well as important suggestions to meet the target data significant for this investigation.
The interview questions were revised at least 4 times before creating the final interview questions.
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As an attempt gather more information, or explain thoroughly, the richness and complexity of human behavior by studying it from more than one standpoint (Cohen and Manion, 2000) a methodological triangulation was used involving interviews and documents as a data collection instrument. Documents and interview records facilitated by the project manager of the Central America Trading process was used in the triangulation process, it was listened by the researcher to find more data related to the investigation valuable for the results.
The researcher purchased Atlas.ti with a license for a 6 months period, read Atlas.ti user manual included in the purchase as well as tutorials online on Atlas.ti official YouTube channel.
The translation of the transcripts was validated with the assistance of an expert of the translation and interpretation department of the National Taiwan Normal University. The data of this investigation was transcribed, classified, coded and then categorized based on a standard data analysis technique. The codes were continuously reviewed by the researcher to ensure their consistency.
Reliability ensures that the findings are consistent and that if the same study was repeated the same results would be obtained (Shenton, 2003). The gathering information process is reliable due to the ability of the researcher to search for papers related to the topic in scholar databases, the data collected was recorded with digital tools and devices, transcribed, and then classified, coded and categorized.
Research Procedure
The research procedure followed by this study begins from the identification of the topic of the investigation. After identifying the topic, literature review was conducted to identify possible areas of interest related to the topic, which was needed to develop the research questions and the purpose of this investigation. Furthermore, then the researcher developed the instrument that was used to collect the data needed, since the researcher decided to use a qualitative approach for this investigation, once the instrument was designed, in this case interviews, the data collection process began by sending the interview questions uploaded on a google document with a link to the interviewees three days in advance and setting up the time and date for interviews. Once all the
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information was collected, it was listened accordingly to write the transcripts and transferred to Atlas.ti by the researcher and to start with the data analysis process. The data was be analyzed using computer software developed for qualitative research. The findings were the result of the analysis of the data, conclusion and recommendations were also given by the researcher.
Figure 3.4. Research Procedure
Topic identification
Literature review
Conceptual framework
Findings and Discussion Instrument development
Data collection
Data analysis
Conclusion and Recommendations
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