19 Jul FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH IS PREDOMINANTLY BASED ON
Methodology
Family business research is predominantly based on quantitative research methods. Family firms are treated as similar and are often bunched together for research purposes. They are often compared to non-family firms, when in fact each family firm is unique in itself (Melin and Nordqvist 2007). It has been suggested that this heterogeneity among family firms can be better understood with a more critical, in-depth approach provided by qualitative methods. There is a need for rigorous, in-depth qualitative research to understand the complexities involved in family business research (Nordqvist et al., 2009).
The nature of the study and research questions require an exploratory study in order to better understand the family firms being studied. Previous literature suggests diverging views on the subject. Taking the lead from the interpretive epistemology, this exploratory research studies various family firms in order to develop general ideas to understand reality (Stake, 2006). Wherever useful in the course of this research we will analyze the data collected and compare it to prevailing literature, in order to confirm or disconfirm the literature.
Collins et al. (2003) states that a research strategy is important to give direction to any research study. For the purpose of this study, an interview based qualitative, interpretivist approach would be used, “interpretive researchers assume that access to reality (given or socially constructed) is only through social constructions such as language, consciousness, shared meanings, and instruments” (Myers, 2008), due to the nature of the study this approach would enable us to appreciate differences between people (Saunders et al., 2012). Interpretivist studies usually focus on meaning which would be applicable in this case as it would help in identifying specific data concepts to code and help define categories and themes.
This study will be a comparative one in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. These countries have been selected as the UK is a developed country with policies to facilitate and promote family firms, while Pakistan is a developing country with little support or policies for these family businesses. A comparative study would try to understand how culture in these countries influences family social capital and socio-emotional wealth thereby effecting domestic growth and innovation.
In-depth interviews of 15 family firms in each of the two selected countries will be carried out using in-depth interviews which will enable the exploration of the point of view of the research subjects (Miller and Glassner, 1997). The definition for the criteria of selection of family firm will be a firm owned/managed by a dominant coalition of a family with the intention and vision for sustainability and intergenerational transfer (Chua et al., 1999).
The firms will be selected using maximum variety sampling (Patton, 1990; Morse, 1994). This sampling process enables the researcher to intentionally select a wide variety of samples to observe common themes in the experiences of the interviewees (Danes et al., 2005). This sampling technique would enable us to gather comprehensive data from a wide variety of family firms.
Access to family firms will be gained through existing social networks of the researcher through his experience in business, consulting and academia in Pakistan. These social networks should enable the researcher easy access and willingness from family firms both in Pakistan as well as Pakistani owned family firms in the UK to participate in the study. The interviews both in the UK and Pakistan will be pre scheduled according to the research timeline.
Each family firm’s owner-manager will be interviewed along with possible a non-family senior manager. A comprehensive understanding of the impact of culture on family social capital and socio-emotional wealth and their impact on business performance will be attempted through these interviews. Through these interviews the researcher will be able to achieve a holistic view in terms of a particular culture and its effects on family firms’ social capital and socio-emotional wealth.
Semi-structured interviews will be used during the course of this study enabling flexibility and comparability of key questions (Finn et al., 2000). Pre-prepared open ended and probing questions structured in a particular themed manner will make up the interview. Propositions will be developed from prevailing literature to guide the interview development and to have some boundaries as a guideline for the research. The interviews will be developed to aid substantive data collection in line with our propositions and research questions
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