Etapa de germinación:

In each of the twelve cases, a taped in-depth interview was conducted with an international manager or marketer who had experience in the development of the Internet and international markets. Each in-depth interview in this research took no less than 1.5 hours. Some interviews lasted three hours, but the average was over two hours. Due to its in-depth nature, this type of interview can be classified as a single case study and is recognised within the literature (Yin, 1994). Cases were drawn from contacts, including government organisations such as Queensland State Development and industry organisations such as Commerce Queensland and international business associations. Once the findings from Stage I had helped to refine the constructs and multiple

hypotheses, a survey and preliminary model are developed (Chapter 4) from the evaluation of the data (Yin, 1994; Perry, 1998; Carter, 1999).

Protocol

The convergence of evidence helps to focus the protocol into a more precise instrument for obtaining rich data (Eisenhardt, 1989; Hastings & Perry, 2000). Reinforcement of the protocol can be achieved through a pilot study to narrow the focus of the questions (de Weerd-Nederhof, 2001). That is, a practice-type situation is used to explore the identified research issues and the overall research question. Information is directed and extracted through a semi-structured interview protocol. A concerted effort is made to avoid phrasing questions in a leading way (Carter, 1999). The use of a protocol in this research study allowed a level of control over the contextual environment (Yin, 1994; Perry, 1998). That is, even though literal and theoretical replication has been established, the project needs direction for those respondents to best address the research problem. However, a semi-structured protocol should not be a ‗straitjacket‘, as exploration is the primary focus of the study (Hughes, 2002). That is, probing and the adaptation of questions in the protocol is common as unpredicted responses help to refine construct relationships about the research problem. Furthermore, a protocol allows for increased reliability and credibility in data collection (Perry, 1998). Therefore, the protocol for this research project is outlined next, and is also inserted in Appendix A.

Design of interview protocol

The protocol used in this study helped to focus respondents‘ answers to issues pertaining to the research area (Perry, 1998). These questions are of particular importance to the credibility of the research; thus, an outline of the interview protocol is shown in Appendix A of this thesis and evaluated in this section. Each open-ended question in the interview protocol is derived from elements of the literature and focused on the exploration of a particular research issue, whilst still allowing for unpredicted or unexpected responses, as seen in Table 3.8 (Yin, 1994).

Table 3.8 Developed protocol question for research issues Part B C C C D D D E E E E F F F F F F G G G G Question Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 R. issue 1 _{√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √} R. issue 2a _{√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √} R. issue 2b _{√ √ √ √ √ √ √}

Note: RI.1 How has the Internet influenced the internationalisation process of the firm?

RI.2 How has he Internet influenced international a) market penetration and b) market development of the firm?

Source: developed for this research

Part A is the introduction that gives participants information pertaining to the research, the institution and the ethical considerations. The interview protocol, Part B, uses probing questions to draw prior experience and knowledge about theoretical concepts from respondents (Patton, 1990; Perry, 1998). Thus, at the start of the interview protocol, preliminary questions invite the respondents to describe their experience, whatever the research problem (Perry, 1998). These questions, seen in Part B, attempt to capture the interviewee‘s perceptions as distinct from those of the researcher (Perry, 1998). Part B, questions 1, 2 and 3, source information about the particular business environment and the experiential perspectives of the interviewee pertaining to international marketing strategy. Further, questions 4 and 5 probe the respondent about current product offerings and international markets. All other major parts of the interview protocol use probing questions that not only assist data analysis, but are also a framework for coding to be constructed, as illustrated in Appendix A (Yin, 1994; Perry, 1998; de Weerd-Nederhof, 2001). Part C seeks to draw an understanding of issues relating to the Internet usage and intensity of the firm. Part D, uses probing questions relating to current international customers and country markets to seek a better understanding of past, present and future international endeavours. These questions in Part D along with questions from Part E, F and G, help to address the second research issue (as illustrated in Table 3.8).

Part E explores questions investigating critical events and the importance of internationalisation along with the overall marketing elements used by the firm. Pivotal to this research is the interaction or relationships between the Internet, internationalisation and growth path of the firm, which is explored in Part F. Part G investigates the path of internationalisation focusing strictly on the internationalisation

process. However, all major questions in Part C, D, E and F also evaluate the Internet‘s impact on the internationalisation process for the firm to address Research Issue 1. Conversely, Part E used questions that ask respondents about probable issues that they perceive may be important to the research. These questions in Part E can sometimes draw issues from respondents that may not be in the literature. ‗Why‘ questions are vital in the exploration of the research areas, because they allow for the unexpected response (Perry, 1998). Thus, all questions apart from demographic questions are open-ended.

The last section of the interview protocol, Part H, is used to identify demographic information about the individual respondent and the company in question. This Section is incorporated to give the study pertinent information about the case‘s position within the business environment. This research used a pilot study to help refine the exploration through open-ended questions, which is outlined in Section 3.3.4.