Incorporación del Derecho del MERCOSUR en los Estados Partes

Essentially, the data required to answer the empirical research questions (2-4 above) requires the study of the codifications underpinning financial agent’s activities, particularly in regard to the prioritisation of media/information sources and the different types of information considered important, and the way in which these might support investment decisions. The theoretical framework upon which the thesis is based assumes a constructivist ontology in its account of how intersubjective codifications shape the form and meaning of transactions and the coherence of financial market values. The object of study is therefore the cognitive phenomena in the minds of financial actors that underpin and help constitute financial reality. Obviously, the immaterial nature of such phenomena means they are not directly observable or measurable. However, a methodology such as survey (including questionnaires and interviews) can systematically gauge self-reported cognitive processes within individuals and, through aggregation, reveal patterns in attitudes and explanations for behavioural practices (see Stacks & Hocking, 1999; Babbie, 2007). The study here encompassed both a descriptive and an analytic/explanatory dimension (see Wimmer & Dominick, 2003). The descriptive element is also exploratory, insofar as it is not known precisely which media and information forms investors consider most important or objective in their trading decisions or how these might vary across different investment sectors. The study also entails an analytic dimension insofar as the patterns of investor media/information usage will indicate potential relations between different media/sources and information types and help inform the arguments concerning informational reflexivity and, on the broader level, the potential for financial autopoiesis.

The survey approach is consistent with the theoretical framework foregrounding intersubjective codification. To recap, this holds that financial phenomena are constituted through symbolic interactions rendered meaningful and embodied through channels of action implicitly coded into the schemata, frames and scripts of each market agent. As discussed, earlier, by emphasising that the codifications are manifested immanently though the minds of market agents and performatively reproduced through mutually intelligible interactions, this formulation avoids the need to posit ontological structures of an immaterial and metaphysical nature that cannot be empirically studied.

The empirical focus of the study therefore involved gauging individual agents’ knowledge and perceptions concerning media and information usage in investment decisions. As the actors directly involved in the processing of financial information and taking investment decisions in response to it, traders and analysts have the most direct and valid experience of how markets work and have been the target population in other financial studies (for example, see Knorr-Cetina & Bruegger, 2002b). Although it is possible that respondents would not be consciously aware of all the cognitive processes through which they process information and make investment decisions, investment is a deliberative endeavour and finance professionals need to analyse their performance in order to succeed in their careers. It is important to note that the proposed study does not extend to measuring and analysing the actual investment decision processes themselves, but the significance of various media/sources and information to those decisions. Traders and analysts would certainly be aware of the types of media/sources and information they use and be capable of discerning those most important to their professional work as well as which they consider objective/credible. It is also probable that finance professionals would have insights into some of the potential reflexive/constitutive aspects of financial information and how markets respond to media and information flows, even if their understanding of such phenomena was not based directly on the theories being deployed in this thesis. Where an individual does not understand or recognise such processes in a manner that lends itself to coherent articulation, patterns/trends in the data emerging from the collation/aggregation of the individual responses can still help reveal the latent intersubjective codifications and provide indications of reflexive tendencies.

Within the aforementioned geographical and institutional constraints, it was not possible to pre- define a determinate sample of respondents within the target population. The aim was to solicit responses to interviews and/or questionnaires from institutional investors involved in some form decision-making linked to capital flows, namely analysts and traders themselves. Contact with financial institutions initially proceeded by cold-calling telephone or e-mail to every financial institution involved listed as trading participant on the NZX exchange (see NZX website link, no date). However, it soon became apparent that many financial organisations were not amenable to engagement with external academic researchers. Informal networks of contacts including colleagues with financial backgrounds facilitated more productive outcomes: INFINZ, the main professional association for financial investors in NZ, agreed to distribute a link to the online survey116 and three banking institutions (Deutsche Bank, ANZ, and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand) allowed on-site observation on the trading floors117 and interviews with a range of traders and analysts. Nevertheless, the difficulty of soliciting questionnaire respondents from a relatively private, inaccessible and extremely busy target population was inevitably going to be a potential limitation. Moreover, the questionnaire (see Appendix 3) was very detailed, containing 66 scale items (with parallel response boxes for 4 market sectors) plus 17 structured, open-ended questions (see below). The length and detail of the survey evidently inhibited some responses, as evidenced by numerous recorded visits to the online questionnaire form that did not generate a response. Eventually, 65 responses to the questionnaire were generated (although this provided 132 parallel responses across market subsectors). Further qualitative data was collected through 39 semi- structured interviews with institutional investors (and an additional two unstructured interviews with financial journalists). Although it is unclear how many financial investors actually received and noticed the survey link, if one assumed that the 600+ membership of INFINZ represented the majority of institutional investors in New Zealand then the most optimistic estimate of the ratio of responses to population would be around 11%. Realistically, however, it is likely that the actual ratio is somewhat lower. The potential for sample error and a compromising of external validity, that is,

116 _{The link, along with background information about the survey, was distributed to INFINZ’s membership}

(around 600 investment professionals) through their newsletter. After initial responses were slow, the researcher offered cinema tickets to provide an incentive to respond, and this was again distributed in the newsletter, with slightly better results. There was no reason to believe that the offer of cinema tickets would generate responses that were motivated in a manner likely to affect the validity of the data.

117 _{Much to the researcher’s pleasant surprise and commensurate gratitude. Initially, the researcher spent a}

whole day at Deutsche Bank in Auckland with two half-day follow-up visits, and two half days at each of ANZ and RBNZ in Wellington. Several other institutions permitted brief visits for the purpose of individual interviews.

the applicability of the findings outside the actual sample group (Cohen & Manion, 1994; Wimmer & Dominick, 2003) therefore needs consideration.

The nature of the target population coupled with the fact that the researcher was an external academic meant it was not possible to predetermine the number or identity of the respondents. After initial contact was made with an institution, the researcher provided information indicating the nature of the research and the desired respondent group (see information sheet and consent form in Appendix 3). In this sense, the selection of the respondent sample was not random, because it was bounded by the specification of participants being institutional investors. This is consistent with ‘purposive’ or ‘judgemental’ sampling (Babbie, 2007) where the respondents are determined by prior designation of a specifically relevant population or key persons within it. However, within that population the participant group effectively self-selected. Particularly during the initial period of soliciting potential respondents, new contacts were gained through connections with previous respondents. This might be characterised as network sampling or ‘snowball sampling’ (Babbie 2007). This approach requires a certain epistemological caution because it is not possible to be certain of the extent to which the respondent group will be statistically representative of the target population. As Wimmer & Dominick (2003) and Hill & Lewicki (2007) point out, it is problematic to calculate the degree of error for non-probability samples (i.e. respondent groups that are not known to be representative of their population). However, as the review of the literature and theoretical framework indicated, the population of finance professionals are engaged in activities that presuppose that the basic codifications underpinning global trading practices are shared regardless of demographic and institutional variation. Initial consultations with three finance professionals (all of whom had experience of investment in the US or UK) suggested that local financial investment practices were not significantly different from those in other markets. Moreover, a high proportion of responses stemmed from investors and analysts working in local offices of international financial institutions which (as the study duly confirmed) were closely interlinked with the systems and operations of the other offices around the world. In conjunction with the detail provided in the questionnaires and interviews, this increases confidence in the representative validity of the sample, despite its limited size118. Thus the limitations of the sampling are arguably off-set by the specialist nature of the respondent sample.

Three modes of data collection are involved in eliciting this information from the target population. These include:

1. A self-administered questionnaire (on-line and hard copy) in two parts:

a) A set of semantic differential scale questions on perceptions of financial media/sources and data/information.

b) A set of structured, open-ended questions related to financial media usage.

2. Semi-structured open-ended interviews with institutional investment professionals (with some in-depth, depending upon respondent availability)

3. Non-participant observation on the trading floors of amenable financial investment institutions.