i. The reason for selecting the Delphi technique is that there was confirmation on quantities of experts to contribute and to comment the critical success factors in FM outsourcing. There is no need to prepare quantities of questionnaires on collection of information. Other selecting technique for example factor analysis is not necessary to be considered in the research. After consolidation of the invaluable opinions by Delphi, a questionnaire for users and other for clients can be prepared accordingly.
ii. Delphi technique was used to acquire corporate FM outsourcing strategies. It is necessary to identify the critical success factors for outsourcing strategies of The FORT model which are used to measure the four outsourcing relationships. Theoretical framework bases from The FORT model applicable in IT Industry. Evaluation on the outsourcing strategies can be conveniently reached from the FM professionals in clients and FM services providers through two rounds of Delphi survey.
iii. The Delphi method originated in a series of studies that the RAND Corporation conducted in the 1950s. Delphi is a method of providing members of a group with the ideas of others without a face-to-face meeting and an individual member writes down his thoughts on a problem and submits them to a coordinator (Delphi technique, 2010). The objective was to develop a technique to obtain the most reliable consensus of a group of experts through a series of questionnaires interspersed with controlled opinion feedback (Dalkey and Helmer, 1963; Rowe and Wright, 1991).
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incorporated into this study acquiring the local FM professionals' ideas on outsourcing strategies but not focus group. There will be several major problems in the process if focus group is selected. They are listed as the following 1) unsuitable venue for holding the focus groups; 2) insufficient number of professional participants and 3) absence of experienced focus group trainer.
v. Okoli and Pawlowski (2004) explain that Delphi method is directly related to theory building in research process. This method can be used to rank the initial stages of theory development. Furthermore, it can also be applicable to identify the variables of interest and generation propositions. In this pilot study, FM strategists or decision makers are the respondents who are required to determine and formulate the outsourcing strategies of The FORT Model in FM industry. In test of the sub-sub-hypotheses, the two types of generation propositions are extent of ownership substitution by FM outsourcing service providers and strategic impacts of outsourced FM portfolio. Thus, Delphi is appropriate to build up the theory of tailor-made FM outsourcing strategies. vi. Delphi technique as a challenging method is used to collect the ideas from
FM experts. This method can provide rigorous guidelines on selection of proper experts participating into the study. Rowe and Wright (1999) indicate that the Delphi method is a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts converging towards the "correct" answer. Validity of the final outcome can be enhanced through the stratified and strategic steps in the whole process.
vii. As a method with group of experts, Delphi study most appropriately analyses the research hypothesis, rather than any individual expert’s responses. Delphi is desirable in that it does not require the experts to meet physically, which could be impractical for international experts (Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004). Moreover, a key advantage of the approach is that it avoids direct confrontation of the experts during the Delphi process (Dalkey and Helmer, 1963; Delphi technique, 2010). This method is most suitable to the busy FM
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professionals working in long office hours places such as Hong Kong.
viii. Nowadays, the Delphi method which is a group decision mechanism requiring qualified experts who have deep understanding of the issues is a widely accepted forecasting tool in areas varying from technology forecasting to drug abuse (Delphi technique, 2010). Although the number of local experts is limited, the Delphi panel size requirements are modest and it would be practical to solicit up to four panels from 10 to 18 members in size (Paliwoda, 1983). In the Delphi survey of this study, there are two panels. Fourteen members formed the panel of client while eight members formed the panel of service provider. The details of selection of panel member are recorded at the part of procedures of Delphi technique. Studies have consistently shown that for questions requiring expert judgment, the average of individual responses is inferior to the averages produced by group decision processes; research has explicitly shown that the Delphi method bears this out (Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004). It is feasible to find out a quantity of groups of FM professionals regionally.
ix. A general population might not be sufficiently knowledgeable to answer the questions with high uncertainty and speculation accurately. However, a structured group of experts in Delphi study is capable to investigate those problems and to forecast accurately (Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004; Rowe and Wright, 2001). In use of forecasting, first applications of the Delphi method were in the field of science and technology and other forecast was also dealing with technology in education. Delphi has been successfully widely used for business forecasting with high accuracy and has certain advantages over another structured forecasting approach (Delphi technique, 2010; Green, Armstrong, and Graefe, 2007). For example, Basu and Schroeder (1977) reported that the Delphi method predicted the sales of a new product during the first two years with inaccuracy of 3–4% compared with actual sales. Quantitative methods produced errors of 10–15%, and traditional unstructured forecast methods had errors of about 20%. Thus, the reliability of this academic study can also be enhanced by Delphi accordingly.
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x. Non-response is typically very low in Delphi surveys because researchers can personally obtain confirmation of responses from the experts. (Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004) Thus, Delphi technique can be considered as an efficient and effective research method for this study.
xi. The Delphi method is effective and efficient to find out the critical success factors for outsourcing. The respondents can just spend maximum 5 minutes to complete each questionnaire in the whole Delphi survey. This means that they do not need to put too much time in completing four questionnaires. After completion of the whole Delphi process, top-7 critical success factors can be identified to design a two-page precise and concise questionnaire. Causal relationship between the standard and quality of the service providers by third party or outsourcers and outsourcing relationships between service providers and clients can be tested. Thus, Delphi method is less time consuming because it is not necessary to prepare a lengthy and complicated questionnaire to test the hypothesis if factor analysis is selected.
xii. Delphi can finally draw the sound results after a pre-defined stop criterion (e.g. number of rounds, achievement of consensus, stability of results) by the mean or median scores of the final rounds (Rowe and Wright, 1999). Delphi can also collect opinions from the professionals and finally narrow down into some consensus.
xiii. The Delphi study is flexible in its design, and amenable to follow-up interviews. Richer data collected from Delphi can lead to a deeper understanding of the fundamental research sub-hypothesis (Delphi technique, 2010; Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004). This is because the professional opinions from the experts are updated and comprehensive.
xiv. There is paucity of secondary data. Delphi technique (2010) notes that usually all participants maintain anonymity and their identity is not revealed even after the completion of the final report. Respondents are always
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anonymous to each other, but never anonymous to the researcher. This gives the researchers more opportunity to follow up for clarifications and further qualitative data (Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004). Thus, the data collected can be further investigated.