Investigaciones con Videojuegos Activos o Exergames

“Journalism is the art of collecting varying kinds of information (commonly called ‘news’) which a few people possess, and of transmitting it to a much larger number of people who are supposed to desire to share it.”

Henry R. Luce (1965)

The questions that were included in this research were constructed based on the literature that generated models, incorporating:

• Competitive Forces Approach (Porter, 1980) – Section 2.2.2 • Resource Based Perspective Model (Grant, 1993) – Section 2.2.4

• Dynamic Capabilities Theory (Schoemaker and Amit, 1997) – Section 2.2.5 • Benchmarking (Bogan and English, 1994) – Section 2.2.7

• Stakeholder Theory (Nogiec, 1998) – Section 2.2.8

• Business Continuity Planning (Doherty, 1998) – Section 2.2.9 • Risk Diversification and Insurance (Pretty, 1997) – Section 2.2.12

In-depth interviews were used to gather data relating to business history and how the crisis affected the business. The 12 interviews were conducted over a period of 15 months. The first interview was held on 17 November 2002, with the last occurring on 15February 2004. Each of the in-depth interviews lasted between 4 to 5 hours. In all but one case, the interview was conducted in one sitting. In that one case, the interviewee received a telephone call requesting his urgent attention away from his office, and this session was halted then and there, but picked up with no apparent ill effect, 5 days later. The responses of each interviewee were recorded in the prepared Interview Questionnaire (see Appendix A). Patton (1990) highlights the importance of capturing the data, in mentioning that no matter what style of interviewing is used, and no matter how carefully one words interview questions, it all comes to naught if the interviewer fails to capture the actual words of the person being interviewed.

Accordingly, it must be stressed that various authors have mentioned that the purpose of qualitative interviewing is to understand the perspectives and experiences of people being interviewed. The raw data of interviews are the actual words spoken by interviewees, and there is no substitute for this data. With this in mind, the answers for each question were repeated back to the interviewee to make sure that the words, particularly with the open-ended questions, were correct.

Probes were used at varying intervals in order to deepen the response to a question. It was also noticed that probe questions increased the richness and depth of responses, and gave cues to the interviewee about the level of response that was desired.

The flexible interview format that was used in this study enabled the interviewer to use follow-up questions whenever needed to ensure that participants’ meanings were understood clearly and recorded accurately. Patton (1987) emphasises that a researcher needs to understand that interviewing in a qualitative methodology is a technique to understand any major themes that are involved. He proposes four guiding principles, when using interviewing as a research instrument. They are:

(1) The qualitative evaluator must have sufficient direct personal contact with the people and program being evaluated, in order to understand what is happening in depth and detail.

(2) The qualitative evaluator must be able to provide a meaningful context for what takes place and what people actually say.

(3) The qualitative interviewer will report a great deal of pure description of people, activities, and interactions.

(4) The researcher will capture and report direct quotations from people, both what they say and what they write down.

Jarratt (1996) advocates a semi-structured approach to in-depth interviews that enables the researcher to cover a specific list of topic areas, with the time allocated to each topic area being left to the discretion of the interviewer. The open structure ensured that unexpected facts or attitudes were fully explored.

Based on Patton’s (2002) definitions, the questions in this study can be classified as: • Behaviour questions • Opinion/belief questions • Feeling questions • Knowledge questions • Sensory questions

• Background demographic questions

The questions early in the interview were non-controversial and asked participants about the background and history of the business. The interviewer sensed that the question in relation to the level of education and management training did cause two interviewees some slight initial discomfort, but the question was considered relevant and, to maintain a consistent approach to all interviews, the question and its position in the schedule of questions was left unaltered.

In the design of the questionnaire, some of the questions that had relatively straightforward descriptions or required minimal recall and interpretation where placed at the commencement of the interview, as they were fairly easy to answer and eased the interviewee into the interview process. These were basic business questions.

From the start, the interviewee was encouraged to take their time and to talk descriptively. Depending on the personality of the interviewee, the researcher experienced having to use probe-type questions with a focus on eliciting greater detail, filling out the descriptive picture. Soon after each interview (usually the same evening), the researcher reviewed the interviewee’s answers to the questionnaire and, in the process, began to conduct a form of analysis on the interview. Patton (1987) advises that this period after the interview is a critical time of reflection and elaboration. It is a time of quality control to guarantee that the data obtained will be useful, reliable, and valid. This aspect was found to have a profound effect on every consequent interview that the researcher conducted.

Certainly, the process of examining each interview after it was completed was the beginning of analysis. With the situation and data fresh in the researcher’s mind, insights can occur that might otherwise have been lost. An example to illustrate this is, initially, the questionnaire did provide a split of employees between location when the business operated from more than one site. While there was no literature on this aspect, it was deemed important as a guide to show the relevant size of the site compared to the overall operation. Thus, ideas and interpretations that emerged during or following an interview or observation were written down and clearly marked, then explored further (Patton, 1987).