Descripción del proceso de Exportación de Extracto de Maracuyá.

Both secondary and primary data are used in this research.

4.4.1 Secondary Data

The secondary data are mainly from academic journals, newspapers, books and government and commercial reports. Secondary data is wholly adequate to draw conclusions and answer the questions. The secondary data has some advantages such as being cheaper to collect and less time consuming than primary data (Crawford, 1997). As Crawford (1997) states for the same level of research budget a thorough examination of secondary sources can yield a great deal more information than can be obtained through a primary data collection. However, the shortcomings of the secondary source have also been acknowledged by Crawford (1997) in terms of definitions, measurement error, source bias, reliability and time scale. Crawford argues that the ‗researcher has to be careful when making use of secondary data and of the definitions used by those responsible for its preparation.‘ Moreover, although it is not always the case that secondary sources can yield more accurate data than those obtained through primary research, the government‘s and international agencies‘ large scale survey will yield far more accurate results in this research. The secondary data plays a substantial role in this exploratory phase of the research in defining the problem and seeking the solutions.

information were extended to include publications in both English and Chinese. Although there has previously been no comprehensive study in these areas, there were many publications with different perspectives on the issues, which are all related to Chinese brand building. The aim of the secondary research is to collect information which is directly or indirectly related to Chinese brand building in order to provide a general understanding of the Chinese environment, policy, branding situation, technology and other relevant issues.

The first half of the research (research setting and investigation into brands and industry) is mainly conducted by secondary research, so the quality of the secondary data is essential. All the secondary data in Chinese will be carefully evaluated and selected from reliable databases such as the Wanfang database (academic database), government industry annual reports and official statistics. Secondary data in English will also be carefully selected from reliable sources such as academic publications and international agencies‘ large-scale surveys (e.g. Interbrand).

A secondary data analysis is performed to better understand the Chinese branding situation. It helps to create a better understanding of the nature and complexity of the Chinese branding issue. It identifies specific problems, and challenges Chinese manufacturing brands and branding, as well as it helping to identify questions for the case studies and in-depth interviews.

4.4.2 Primary Data

In order to gain an insight into the Chinese brand building phenomenon, the primary data in this research is collected through in-depth interviews as discussed earlier.

As a qualitative research technique, the in-depth interview involves ‗conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation‘ (Boyce and Neal, 2006:3). The in-depth interview seeks a greater

depth of information and knowledge than is sought in surveys, or focus groups for example (Johnson, 2001). The aim of the in-depth interviews in this research is to explore prevalent trends in opinion and thought among top Chinese branding consultants about Chinese brand building issues, in as much detail as possible. The aim is to test the findings from literature and case studies and to uncover new ideas that had not been anticipated at the outset of the research. It is believed that the in-depth interview technique is an efficient and cost-effective approach to obtaining valuable and current data in this research.

However, as Saunders et al (2007) argued, there are a number of data quality issues that can be identified in relation to the use of in-depth interviews i.e. their reliability, forms of bias and validity and generalisability. Lack of standardization in interviews may cause concerns about reliability, and is also related to issues of bias. In this research, all potential interviewees are top Chinese branding consultants, and therefore they might want to prove that Chinese brand building is successful, or to provide only positive information. Thus, their responses might be biased. Therefore, effort should be made to create instruments; and to conduct interviews to allow for minimal bias. Moreover, because the sample is small and random, sampling methods have not been used, and generalizations about the results cannot usually be made. However, in-depth interviews offer greater value and more detailed information than other methods of data collection (Johnson, 2001). In-depth interviews explore and uncover deep-seated emotions, motivations and attitudes; they can be effective when the study involves an investigation of complex phenomena (Crawford, 1997).

Another limitation of the in-depth interview is that it involves a heavy time commitment due to the requirements of conducting interviews and preparing interview transcripts.

In this research, the in-depth interview focuses on attitudes to Chinese brand building; it further investigates personal experience in branding activities and tests data gathered from documents and case studies. The in-depth interview is targeted at top branding consultants in China. This group has been chosen because of their rich experience and good reputation in the field, which can provide this investigation with accurate and valuable data.

Fig. 4.2Form of Interview

It is a semi-structured interview and the conversation is stimulated by 8 questions, but in great detail. Further questions in the interview are based on the interviewees‘ answers, and consist mostly of clarification and/or probing for details. During the interview, the interviewer strives to be interactive and

S S

sensitive to the language and the concepts used by the interviewee, and attempts to keep the agenda flexible.

Moreover, the garment industry investigation touched upon earlier will be conducted with three specifically-selected garment branding experts from China. It includes questions to investigate the situation of Chinese branding and the extent of the challenges faced. The questions are semi-structured, and responses from the interviewees are recorded and transcribed. The details will be discussed in the following sections.