This chapter explains how the research was conducted and provides the details of the process. This chapter includes the research approach, research framework, research quality, research procedure, research participants and criteria, data collection, and data analysis
Research Approach
This research adopted the qualitative research method with a multiple case study approach. Merriam (2009, p.23) mentioned “when the overall purpose is to understand how people make sense of their lives and experiences”, qualitative research is suggested. In order to go deep into the company’s practice and learned the experience from them, the case study is the research approach that was adopted in this study. Stake (2005) explained the case study drew attention to what we can learn through the cases. In addition, according to Yin (2003), when the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why”, the case study should be used as the approach. Therefore, the case study approach was adopted in this research. In addition, multiple case studies can be compared to find the similarities between the cases. Semi-structured interviews and document reviews were the sources of data for each of the cases.
Research Framework
The framework of this research is presented in Figure 3.1. Since the research purpose is to figure out the motivations for SMEs to conduct CSR programs, what they should do and what can be the results for them after the implementation, these questions were asked: (a) what are the motivations for SMEs to conduct CSR program? (b) during the implementation process, what do they do for the implementation? How do they develop their own strategy? In addition, what are the reasons and how do they implement? Last, (c) what are the positive outcomes after the implementation?
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Figure 3.1. Research framework
Research Quality
The quality of a study is usually assessed by its validity and reliability. Lincoln and Guba (1985) had proposed a set of basic criteria to examine the trustworthiness of a study, which are credibility (internal validity), transferability (external validity), and dependability (reliability).
In addition, Gibbert, Ruigrok, and Wicki (2008) brought forth four common criteria used to assess a case study, which are internal validity, construct validity, external validity, and reliability.
Internal Validity (Credibility)
Internal validity means how the findings and the research purpose are related. There were a few steps adopted to ensure internal validity in this study. Firstly, the researcher formulated a clear research framework. Secondly, the research questions were developed from the research framework. Thirdly, the researcher ensured that the data collected were closely related to the research questions. Lastly, the data were analyzed according to the research framework.
Construct Validity
Construct validity refers to the quality of the conceptualization or operationalization of the relevant concept (Gibbert, et al., 2008). Construct validity should be considered through the data collection phase, in order to extend the investigations of the study and with procedures that lead to accurate observation. According to Yin (1994), there are two steps to enhance construct validity. First, to establish a clear chain of evidence for the readers to have a full
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understanding from the initial research questions to the conclusion. Second, to adopt different angles to interpret the same phenomenon. In this study, the researcher provided a clear chain of evidence by presenting the research framework, research questions, data collection methods, sources of data, and the verbatim quotes to support the findings. Second, to adopt different angles to interpret the same phenomenon, the data was collected through interviews with different stakeholders, and from relevant documents such as the case company’s CSR report.
External Validity (Transferability)
External validity means how the findings of the study can be applied or measured on other occasions. According to Mertens (2005), transferability was determined by the readers instead of the researcher in qualitative research. In order to increase the transferability of the research, this study provided abundant details for the readers to judge whether the research findings can be applied to different situations.
Reliability (Dependability)
According to Kimberlin and Winterstein (2008), “reliability is used to evaluate the stability of the research repeated at different times with the same researcher or different researcher using the same method” (p.2). Transparency and replication can be used to assess reliability. To enhance transparency and replication in this study, how the case study was conducted was written in detail with all the data been used in the case study.
Research Procedure
The following will describe the ten steps which were included in this study.
Identify the Research Topic
The researcher had an interest to focus on CSR, and also reviewed the literature and the news reports about CSR in Taiwan. The researcher ultimately decided to focus on CSR in Taiwanese SMEs, specifically the food industry.
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Define Research Purpose and Questions
Due to a lack of research in CSR in Taiwanese SMEs in the food industry, the research purpose is to focus on this topic and attempts to increase CSR awareness in the SMEs in Taiwan and examine how they implement it into their business operation. Research questions were developed based on the research purpose.
Decide the Research Method
As the research purpose is to identify how to motivate Taiwanese SMEs in the food industry to conduct CSR practice and how can they implement their practice. In order to get deep into the CSR practices of Taiwanese SMEs, knowing what they do and how they do it, qualitative research with the multiple case study approach was adopted in this research.
Conduct a Literature Review
This study reviewed the literature about CSR, the relationship between CSR and CS, CSR in SMEs, and CSR development in Taiwan.
Establish a Research Framework
After conducting the literature review, the researcher developed the research framework based on the research purpose and the research questions.
Identify Case Companies
As the research targets were the SMEs in the food industry who have conducted their own CSR practices, therefore, the SMEs which had been awarded by the social media for their CSR program were targeted as the case companies.
Design Interview Questions
Interview questions were developed according to the research purpose and research questions, in order to fully recognize the value and the experience of the case companies.
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Conduct Interviews
The interviews were used to obtain in-depth knowledge according to the research questions. The interviewees were the stakeholders of the selected companies including the management level, operational level, and the customers.
Analyze the Data
Interview verbatim and the CSR reports from companies were all used for analysis. The interview verbatim was coded by the researcher in order to systematically analyze.
Comparative analysis of multiple cases
This study compared the similarities between the cases in order to find a benchmark of the CSR practices in the food industry.
Conclude Research Findings
According to the analysis, the researcher concluded the research and gave suggestions to other SMEs and for future research.
Research Participants and Criteria
Since this research focuses on Taiwanese SMEs in the food industry; therefore, the case companies are three Taiwanese SMEs in the food industry. In addition, the interviews were conducted with multiple stakeholders of the companies.
Selection Criteria for Case Company
Three Taiwanese SMEs in the food industry had been targeted as the case companies.
There were two criteria for selecting the case companies. First, the case company should meet the definition of SMEs by the Taiwanese Government and should be in the food industry.
Second, since the research attempted to provide experiences of successful CSR implementations from SMEs, the researcher targeted at the SMEs which had been awarded as the outstanding CSR companies by the two well-known Taiwanese magazines, CommonWealth and Global Views. Three companies fulfilled the sampling criteria.
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Selection Criteria for Research Participants
For the purpose of triangulation, the research participants were primarily stakeholders of each company above. They were separated into two groups, the first group was the stakeholders within the company, including employees at the management and operational level; the second group was the stakeholders outside the company, which were the customers. Management level employees were those who lead the CSR program, while operational level employees were the employees participating in the CSR program, and the customers were those who had bought their products and were willing to repurchase. The researcher first contacted the case companies through email and asked for a permission to interview. After the case companies accepted the interview, they provided the list of the stakeholders including the customers after confirming with their customers to protect their privacy.
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Introduction of Case Companies A Company
A Company is a social enterprise that is founded by a veterinarian who is devoted to purchasing the milk at a reasonable price from the small-holding farmers. A Company also provides support for the small-holding farmers to encourage them to improve the quality of the products and the ranch environment. They provide the milk which has been strictly checked by veterinarians and use the certificate of origin for the customers to recognize where this milk is from. A Company has two purposes. First, they want to become a fair-trade platform for the cattle ranchers in Taiwan. Second, they attempt to increase the number of veterinarians to make the cattle to veterinarian ratio more balanced in Taiwan. In this way A Company improves not only the animal health but also the quality of milk. Table 3.1 shows the interviewees of A Company.
Table 3.1.
Interviewees of A Company
Participant Connection with the company Gender Seniority
Sandy Sales Director Female 5 years
Ella Customer Service Female 3 years
Daisy Customer Female N/A
Lee Customer Female N/A
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B Company
B Company is a traditional Chinese pastry company that was founded in 1890. Over one century, they have devoted themselves to provide exquisite handmade Chinese pastry. However, after a crisis of food safety in 2009, they reorganized the procedure of making their products in order to ensure the quality of the products and considered what they can do to improve not only themselves but also the community. The vision of B Company is to provide high-quality products for their customers to eat with ease and ensure the products are trustworthy. In addition, they also intend to pass down the traditional Han Bing (Chinese pastry) culture. They published their CSR report and participated in the competition of outstanding CSR performance companies; they got the award the first time they joined in the competition. Table 3.2 shows the interviewees of B Company.
Table 3.2.
Interviewees of B Company
Participant Connection with the company Gender Seniority
Jennifer Executive Assistant Female 6 years
Joey Digital Marketing Female 1 year
Gillian Customer Female N/A
Natalie Customer Female N/A
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C Company
C Company devotes to promoting the river basin recovery in the upstream of the river in Pinglin, New Taipei city. Pinglin is the location of the Feitsui Reservoir that provides the water resource for the Taipei Metro Area. In addition, it is also famous for Taiwanese tea products all around the world. They encourage the tea farmers in Pinglin to transform into a more environmental-friendly operation. In this case, they can improve the sustainability of both the industry and the environment. Moreover, C Company and the farmers maintain the diversity of the ecosystem in Pinglin, in order to protect the endangered animals. They hope people can remain living with all the animals and plants in the next ten or twenty years. The ultimate goal of them is to build an eco-village, providing a place for everyone to enjoy not only admiring the biodiversity but also protecting the environment in Taiwan. Table 3.3 shows the interviewees of C Company.
Table 3.3.
Interviewees of C Company
Participant Connection with the company Gender Seniority
Ann Chief Operational Officer Female 5 years
Bill Production Manager male 3 years
Damon Assessment Specialist male 2 years
Emily Customer Female N/A
Annie Customer Female N/A
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Data Collection
Most of the data in this study was primary data collected through the face-to-face interviews and the secondary data were used to supplement the interview data. According to Jamshed (2014), when the respondents have to answer pre-set and open-ended questions, semi-structured interviews will be applied. Secondary data was the CSR reports which had been published by the companies and the news reports on social media. The data were compared and analyzed during the analysis process.
Semi-Structured Interview
A semi-structured interview is an in-depth interview with open-ended questions.
According to Miles and Gilbert (2005), semi-structured interviews are useful to find out “Why”
due to the flexibility. As the research purpose of this study was to find out why CSR is important to SMEs in the food industry, semi-structured interviews were suitable for this research. The case companies were Taiwanese SMEs; therefore, the interviews were conducted in Chinese.
Before the interview, the interview questions were sent to the interviewees for their review.
Under the permission of the interviewees, the interviews were recorded and then the researcher transcribed the recording verbatim. The questions were designed based on the research purposes and research questions, to figure out the motivation of SMEs in the food industry to conduct their CSR practices and the experience from the processes. The interview questions were designed from the research questions and included three parts, each of them was related to a specific research question. The interview questions were also separated into two versions, the first version was for the stakeholders in the company, and the second version was for the stakeholders outside the company.
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Table 3.4.
Research Questions and Interview Questions
Research Question Interview Question
1. What motivates the SMEs to conduct CSR practices?
Stakeholders in the Company 1. What does CSR mean to you?
2. Do you think CSR is important to the companies, and Why?
3. What are your motivations to conduct the CSR program?
4. During the process, what are the changes compared to the initial thought of the program?
Stakeholders outside the Company 1. What does CSR mean to you?
2. Do you think CSR is important to the companies, and Why?
3. What do you think is the case company’s motivation to conduct the CSR program?
(continued)
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Table 3.4. (continued)
Research Question Interview Question
2. How do they manage the implementation and what are the challenges and the advantages for SMEs to conduct CSR programs?
Stakeholders in the Company
1. Which will be more appropriate when considering CSR programs in SMEs, a long-term program, or a short-long-term program?
2. At the beginning of the process, what are the concerns about the budget or the resources that influence the program?
3. During the process, what are the issues or concerns you have faced? And how do you overcome them?
4. What are the advantages for SMEs to conduct their CSR programs?
Stakeholders outside the Company 1. Which will be suitable when considering CSR programs in SMEs, a long-term program, or a short-term program?
2. What are the challenges for SMEs to conduct their CSR programs?
(continued)
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Table 3.4. (continued)
Research Question Interview Question
3. What are the advantages for SMEs to conduct their CSR programs?
3. What are the positive outcomes after the implementation of the CSR program?
Stakeholders in the Company 1. How do you review the results of the program?
2. What are the positive outcomes for the companies after the implementation?
3. Based on the current progress, what are your future plans for the CSR program of your company?
Stakeholders outside the Company 1. What are the reasons that you will repurchase their products?
2. What are the positive outcomes for the companies?
3. From a customer’s perspective, do you think a company with a CSR program will be your first option? Why?
4. What are the differences when an SME has a CSR program?
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Data Analysis
In order to analyze the data of the research, every interview had been recorded and transcribed into verbatim by the researcher. After the verbatim was finished, the coding process was conducted. Open coding and axial coding (or analytic coding) were the two analysis techniques employed in the coding process. According to Merriam (2009), open coding is the process to identify every potential key term into notations from the data. After collecting the open codes from the data, the process to group them into categories is called analytic coding.
Open coding was conducted at the beginning of the analysis process, to tag every potentially useful data into units. After finishing the open coding process, axial coding was conducted by grouping the coded units into categories according to the interpretation and reflection of the data from the open coding process. The data analysis phase was supported by the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA. Table 3.5 showed an example of the coding process. The information collected from the coding process was reviewed with the CSR reports published by the companies and the news posted on social media. The analysis was organized into the research findings to draw the conclusions of the study.
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Table 3.5.
Example of the Coding Process
Original Data Open Coding Category Theme
The previous farming style of the farmers might cause damage to the environment. Therefore, we promote the transformation of the farming style to protect the environment. There are things that we would like to do together because it is the right thing.
Organizational
I was seeking an organization that is more sustainable and more directly conducting the protection.
This company provides an opportunity for me to work for the environment. it. Furthermore, it can also link to our core values.
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