Un problema muy importante a considerar es la necesidad de brindar seguridad a las redes.

Together with a planned and purposeful approach to case selection, care was taken in the design of the interview guide.

Design of the interview guide. The guide was important to the investigation to ensure that a systematic and comprehensive approach was undertaken. This approach helped to provide consistency in the way data were gathered from the motel operators. The guide also helped the researcher to decide how to best use the limited time available in each interview situation (Patton 1990; Carson, Gilmore et al. 2001). As illustrated in Table 4.3, the research issues and associated propositions (as developed in Chapter 3) guided the development of the questions.

Table 4-3 Research issues and related Interview questions

Research Issues Interview questions

Key Research Issue 1: How is strategy formulated, implemented and reviewed in high performing small motels?

Questions C1 – C4 Key Research Issue 2: How are stakeholders involved in

is strategy formulation, implementation and review in high performing small motels?

Questions C1 – C4 Key Research Issue 3: How is a balanced approach to

performance measurement used in high performing small motel operators in assessing stakeholder satisfaction and business results?

Questions B1 – B4

Key Research Issue 4. What review systems or processes do owner-managers of high performing motels employ to ensure continuous improvement?

Questions B1 – B4 Questions C9 – C10 Key Research Issue 5: How are processes developed and

employed in high performing small motels?

Questions C5 – C13 Key Research Issue 6: How are the various result

measures used in high performing small motels to determine the key performance drivers needed to deliver the desired outcomes?

Questions B1 – B 4 Questions D1

In order to test the propositions the questions for the case studies were both general and particular as well as descriptive and explanatory (Miles and Huberman 1994). A combination of open and closed questions was used. The open-ended questions provided a systematic approach to data collection by asking interviewees the same questions whilst also providing the opportunity to explore dimensions more broadly and to allow interviewees flexibility in the way they responded so that they could provide data on their own individual experiences without the researcher predetermining their responses (Patton, 1990). These questions provided rich data for analysis within each case as well as across cases. The closed questions were designed to compel respondents to make decisions and to clearly define how they undertook

particular activities so that the data could be easily aggregated and compared across the cases (Patton, 1990; Punch, 2005). The closed questions also included a number of scales that required the interviewee to make a decision about the importance of particular activities and the frequency in which they were undertaken. The full interview guide used in this phase is located in Appendix A.

Given the difficulty in engaging small motel operators in interviews it was decided to use the first interview as a pilot study. The data gathered in this first interview were valuable to the study and was therefore included in the research. From this first interview it was also found that some of the terminology needed to be simplified as it either threatened the interviewee or was difficult to understand. Based on feedback from the first interview some of the wording was altered and the style of questioning was made less formal.

Interview procedures. The motel operators recommended by AAATourism were contacted one by one to ascertain their willingness to be involved in the study. Given the time limitations of the operators the researcher offered to travel to a place convenient to them for the interviews. The operators were given a letter to explain the study and to ensure confidentiality. The operators were informed that the interviews would take between one and half and two hours to conduct. At the commencement of the interviews the interviewees were asked for permission to tape the interviews. This permission was given in all cases. Notes were also taken throughout the interview to highlight important points and to document observations.

Data analysis. As with the data collection, the PMS model and research issues guided the analytical process. The focus of the case data was to confirm, reject and modify the theory built in Chapter 3 by describing and explaining the performance measurement activities and perceptions of small motel operators using the PMS model (Yin, 1994). In this study the interview guide provided a descriptive analytical framework for analysis (Patton, 1990). During and after data collection part and full analysis occurred. The full analysis phase followed the Miles and Huberman (1994) model for data analysis – data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing/verification. Data reduction dealt with the process of working with the transcriptions and field notes via various procedures including, selecting, focusing,

simplifying, abstracting and transforming. Content analysis incorporating coding and categorisation of the primary data occurred in this phase (Patton, 1990). This phase was also assisted by the use of the NVivo software package. Data display concerned the organising and compressing of information using matrices, graphs, charts and networks so that conclusions could be drawn. The conclusion drawing/verification occurred throughout the data collection and data reduction and display processes through the noting of regularities, patterns, explanations, causal flows and propositions. As the analysis proceeded conclusions were verified. Data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing/verification were interwoven throughout the data collection, analysis and write up phases (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

The data reduction process began with individual case studies of each motel as recommended by Patton (1990). This stage was then followed by a cross case analysis to explore patterns and literal and theoretical replications (Yin, 1994). As this research explored the behaviours and management activities of small motel operators in order to better understand the performance drivers and their related results the analysis focused on each dimension of the PMS model. These dimensions included stakeholders, strategy formulation, capabilities and processes. The outcomes of the analysis are therefore presented on dimensions related to events, people, processes within and across the various motel settings. Variations according to size of motel (based on number of rooms and number of employees) location and strategy are discussed in the analysis chapter (Chapter 5).