3.9 Chapter Summary
This chapter has presented the mixed methods research methodology and has presented the design of the empirical research instrument drawing on the value of using an online questionnaire as part of the data collection process. In addition, this chapter has justified the use of a mixed methods questionnaire and has discussed the justifications for this approach e.g. overcoming the weaknesses of one particular paradigm. This chapter concluded with a focus on the ethical approach and limitations. Limitations in particular will be reflected upon in the final chapter of this research.
4.0 Data Presentation, analysis and discussion
4.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the results of the empirical study and discusses the core themes from the research informed by the literature discussed in chapter two. This chapter details the issues surrounding knowledge transfers in strategic alliances and in particular focuses upon the context of the Chinese market to understand what knowledge transfers look like in China and the challenges faced. In addition to the results being presented, intertwined is an active analysis and discussion of the results presented.
4.1 Research Context
Strategic alliances in China have long been deemed to be important (Zhang, Duysters & Fillippov, 2012). Firms may undertake a strategic alliance as discussed in the literature review for either exploratory or exploitation reasons. Knowledge transfers in strategic alliance may be an important determinant of success and thus there is a need to evidence and discuss strategic alliances. The responses to the empirical questionnaire are underpinned by this Chinese context and all responses are from Chinese firms who have undertaken a strategic alliance in the last 1-5 years.
In order to develop the questionnaire before it was administered to the sample population online. Attention was directed towards a pilot study to ensure construct validity where possible. Telephone discussions took place with a number of contacts from the Doing Business in China page who were able to comment on their understanding of the questionnaire. Whilst very minor tweaks were made, the questionnaire was deemed to be understood and was thus administered online once this approval had been sought.
4.2 Descriptive Statistics
100 firms partook in the study with 1 representative from each organisation completing the online questionnaire. In relation to the 9 likert scale questions, part 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the closed questions. 100 individuals participated in the study and 94% of these participants were male. This therefore does raise some concerns over the representativeness of the sample, however as gender was not a variable of interest this does not impact the results of the study. Additional demographic data was not collected but data was collected regarding the time of the last alliance and the number of alliances undertaken in the last 5 years.
The scale employed for reference for the below 9 scale items ranges from '1, low, strongly disagree' to '7, high, strongly agree'.
N | Mean | Std. Deviation | |
1. Wide Decision Making | 100 | 6.36 | 1.32 |
2. Learning from errors | 100 | 5.33 | 4.56 |
3. Creativity and new ideas | 100 | 4.56 | 2.31 |
4. Facilitation of knowledge transfers | 100 | 6.76 | 1.46 |
5. Organisational conversation | 100 | 5.65 | 2.43 |
6. New and valuable knowledge | 100 | 5.57 | 2.03 |
7. Critical capability | 100 | 6.67 | 3.41 |
8. Overall learning | 100 | 4.57 | 2.13 |
9. Intra-organisational sharing | 100 | 5.77 | 1.89 |
Correlation analysis was then carried out in order to determine the relationships between the 9 variables listed above.
Variable | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
1. Wide decision making | 1 | |||||||
2. Learning from errors | 0.27 | 1 | ||||||
3. Creativity and new ideas | 0.24 | 392* | 1 | |||||
4. Facilitation of knowledge transfers | .632** | .516** | .324* | 1 | ||||
5. Organisational conversation | .591** | 0.31 | .260* | .285* | 1 | |||
6. New and valuable knowledge | 0.11 | 0.14 | .681** | 0.04 | 0.34 | 1 | ||
7. Critical capab |
