Research Method and Chosen Strategy

Researchers have identified that there are three research paradigms which you can choose as an academic researcher your method from. These three paradigms are quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research design (Saunders et al., 2012). In order to differentiate these three and how these methods influence on the research I will give a brief introduction to these paradigms before explaining which method I have chosen to use and why. According to Saunders et al.

(2012) quantitative research is based in numeric data and therefore many researcher on quantitative approach prefer using closed questions which can be measured with numbers. Thus qualitative research is based on non-numeric data such as words. Researchers focusing on qualitative research prefer using open questions to understand the research phenomena deeper.

The definition of mixed methods research design is the combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methods in some parts of the research. This differentiation of these three research paradigms is very narrow and sometimes problematic but it shows the basic differences of the paradigms. Problems usually arise in the reality of business research since in the companies topics are not just black or white or quantitative or qualitative but usually a combination of these like a color of grey (Saunders et al., 2012).

At this part of the methodology is good to recognize the purpose of this study which is to measure SMEs’ global economic impact into local communities and therefore it should be a quantitative research. At the beginning of the research it was planned to be so but when the process evolved it was no longer a scope of this particular research to find many variables but focus on smaller database. In the first discussions with the GS we planned to send a questionnaire to whole database and put a limitative question in the beginning according to agreed limitation (more on limitation of this research further). It was planned to gather global data from the database consisting of more than 75 000 members but as a researcher I considered that to be too wide in master level research after discussions with the JCI National President of Ireland 2015 who I met in a bus at JCI World Congress in Japan on November 2015. He also considered the database being too wide on this level of academic research therefore I chose to take a different approach which was no longer under the paradigm of quantitative research.

Since the aim is to measure the global economic impact to local communities the research paradigm is not possible to be just a qualitative therefore my decision was to combine both in a mixed method research design. According to Kelemen and Rumens (2008) researchers with philosophy towards pragmatism often use mixed or multiple methods and I agree its suitability on this research concerning set research questions and chosen abductive research approach.

It is good to understand that in this research there are lot of variables and the purpose is to provide in-depth findings from the selected cases thus findings are not universally generalized in every company of the world in the upcoming empirical part.

This thesis is focusing on four separate case studies which have two common variables linking them. Scope of research is global and the definition of global in this research is based on how JCI as an organization has divided the world into four areas. These four areas are Europe, Asian-Pacific, Africa-Middle East and the Americas as whole continent (www.jci.cc). Each case company and individual represent their area and therefore we can agree to the definition of a global research thus it is a multiple-case study. One goal of this research is to provide valuable information to both academic world from the interesting research object of JCI network and to JCI HQ as a preliminary business research on measured organization’s global economic impact to local communities. All the cases are carefully selected to match the empirical research through limitation and personal invitation to take part to the project. Since approach is global it is better to focus more than one case company which signify that multiple-case studies methodology was chosen by researcher to match the criteria of JCI definition towards global.

This research adopts the views of Yin (2003) as some academic fields separate the methods of single-case study and multiple-case study to different research methodologies but the view of Yin (2003) is that both single and multiple case studies represent the same methodological framework even both having advantages and disadvantages. As an advantage Herriot and Firestone (1983) argue that evidence of the multiple-case study being more interesting and overall research is therefore more credibility compared to single-case study. As a disadvantage of multiple-case study Yin (2003) note it does require more resources both financially and used time which at some point is beyond reach of a single student or a researcher. I agree with the argument that there are difficulties to match with the set time line of the university and to collect data globally.

As stated there are common variables in this global research between all case companies and those are the linkage of JCI as an organization to international entrepreneurship opportunities of its members. Therefore it is critical to understand the logic of the multiple-case studies research. Concerning the sampling logic which is highly linked with the quantitative research paradigm for multiple-case study method instead focus is on replication logic (Yin 2003). I will explain and highlight the replication logic next. In the logic of replication, it is relevant to develop rich theoretical framework to set the boundaries of the research where particular phenomenon is researched (Yin 2003, 47).

This master’s thesis focus is on four different individuals as SME export business owners with a very complex research problem never researched before in this field of study so theoretical framework has been created carefully for the testing in the empirical part. Yin (2003, 47) stated on the replication logic that “each case must be carefully selected so that it either predicts similar results (a literal replication) or predicts contrasting results but for predictable reasons (a theoretical replication).”

As this research have case companies with different variables such as year of establishment and location there are only two variables connecting all case companies and those are connection to JCI network through lifetime membership of the company owner as a Senator of JCI and the operation of the company in the field of exporting. It is intriguing to see does the replication logic base on literal or theoretical replication or to both.

This research strives to provide wide understanding on the importance of global JCI network in creation of international entrepreneurship opportunities to its members. Purpose of this research is to find answers to the research problem: Global economic impact of SME export business owners to local community. In order to define the research problem two research questions were created to guide the process of literature review and help pinpointing a proper research methodology for this master’s thesis. The research questions are:

(RQ1) How being a member of a global JCI network can contribute to better international entrepreneurship opportunities?

(RQ2) How increased social, human and relational capital (networks) of JCI members impact the local community?

The nature and theme of this study is both exploratory and explanatory (Saunders et al. 2012).

Therefore I define it as an explora-explanatory study. This study is an exploratory as it tries to gain insights about the topic of interest, here JCI network through open questions but it is also explanatory as it establishes a causal relationship between the selected common variables of JCI membership and better international entrepreneurship opportunities JCI membership provides to its members (Saunders et al., 2012). In the world of business measurement of entrepreneurial success and impact to local community is based on financial statement of the company and therefore it is required to have questions from both research paradigms of qualitative and quantitative to have numerical data to measure and non-numerical data to understand reasons why and how something has influenced the business opportunities.