4 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Introduction
4.5 Data collection tools
4.5.2 Interviews
The main thrust of interviews is to get an expert, in the field being researched, to participate in a process so that that person can contribute his or her accumulated knowledge and experience to the specific aspect being researched (Wahyuni, 2012;
Gill et al., 2008). According to Gill et al. (2008) and Ryan et al. (2009), interviews are utilised as a data collection tool when not much is known about the research topic, or when detailed insight into the research topic is required. There are three types of interviews: structured (a pre-determined list of questions are utilised to guide the interview process without much deviation), semi-structured (also consists of a pre- determined list of questions, but has flexibility to explore any avenue that might arise during the interview) and unstructured (does not have any pre-determined questions or detailed preparation undertaken) (Gill et al., 2008; Ryan et al., 2009).
All requests for interviews with participants were initially conducted over email. A brief introduction and overview of the research was contained in the email, an example of which is contained in Annexure three. In addition, the questions that were to be utilised during the interview were attached to the email. The interview questions can be found in Annexure four. The interview question were developed in a manner that relates directly to the key research questions, starting with establishing whether the individual being interviewed is of the view that the eThekwini green economy is in existence or not. Thereafter, questions were included that would result in the identification of components within the eThekwini green economy and resulting characteristics of the components. Further probing questions were included that
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sought to determine the manner in which components behave. Lastly, it was important to determine relevant indicators that would be useful to monitor the health of the eThekwini green economy.
Specifically, a semi-structured, face-to-face approach was planned and utilised for the interviews. All interviews were recorded with voice recorders, which were utilised for transcription and record purposes.
The details of when and where the interviews were conducted are presented in Table 4.3. All interviews were conducted face-to-face. In addition, each interviewee was given a unique identification code. Also indicated in Table 4.3 is the duration of each interview. The only notable challenge with the interviews was setting up the actual appointments with some of the interview respondents, this was largely due to their busy schedule which results from their positions. The organisation and position of each interview respondent are included in Table 5.1.
Interview Respondent
Date Location Duration
I1 26/09/2016 Margaret Mngadi Avenue, Durban 1h:09m:13s I2 13/10/2016 Margaret Mngadi Avenue, Durban 1h:05m:23s I3 14/10/2016 Margaret Mngadi Avenue, Durban 0h:42m:05s I4 18/10/2016 Chartwell Drive, Umhlanga 1h:20m13s
I5 09/11/2016 Moses Mabhida Stadium 1h:11m:46s
I6 09/11/2016 Moses Mabhida Stadium 1h:18m:54s
I7 10/11/2016 Pavilion, Westville 0h:35m:00s
I8 19/12/2016 Jeff Taylor Crescent, Durban 1h:12m:27s I9 21/12/2016 Jeff Taylor Crescent, Durban 0h:48m:10s I10 06/01/2017 K E Masinga Road, Durban 0h:59m:43s I11 18/01/2017 Durban Club Place, Durban 0h:40m:40s I12 27/01/2017 Jeff Taylor Crescent, Durban 0h:44m:52s I13 08/02/2017 K E Masinga Road, Durban 1h:17m:40s I14 06/02/2017 K E Masinga Road, Durban 1h:02m:12s I15 18/07/2017 Anton Lembede Street, Durban 0h:19m:57s I16 20/09/2017 Jeff Taylor Crescent, Durban 0h:31m:01s Table 4.3: Details of interviews conducted
Source: Author.
104 4.5.3 Focus groups
Focus groups are meetings where up to twelve people are guided in a discussion around a central topic by an interviewer to elicit more robust information that would not have been possible utilising individualist tools (Nagle and Williams, 2013). Focus groups generally involve semi-structured open ended questions, where all participants have an opportunity to provide input (Leung and Savithiri, 2009). Leung and Savithiri (2009) highlight that focus groups consist of between seven to ten participants while Gill et al. (2008) suggest six to eight participants.
According to Gill et al. (2008), focus groups are utilised for the emergence of co- created responses by the many participants of focus groups. The focus groups resulted in depth to the responses of questions, as often respondents were building on each other’s responses and supporting or disagreeing with them, this gave a further level of insight into the green economy.
Most of the initial requests for people to participate in focus groups were over email, refer to Annexure five for an example of such an email. In addition, a two page pre- focus group reading note, which included the guiding questions were attached to the email and can be found in Annexure six. However, for the second focus group the information was presented in hardcopy format to participants.
All focus groups were recorded with voice recorders. In addition, transcribing focus groups verbatim is a lot more complex than the process for interviews, as a result video recording was also utilised, with the permission of the participants. The voice recording was kept for record purposes but the video recordings were deleted immediately after the transcription of focus groups were complete.
The details of where and when the interviews were conducted are presented in Table 4.4, also included is the duration of focus groups. Each focus group was allocated a unique identification code. Details on the unique identification code of individual focus group respondents are presented in chapter 5. The specific details, such as age, race, gender and occupation, of each participant in the three focus groups can be found in Table 5.2.
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group
Date Location Duration
FG1 29/08/2017 Prior Road, Durban 1h:23m:47s
FG2 15/09/2017 Durban Exhibition Centre 1h:06m:36s FG3 19/09/2017 Durban University of Technology 1h:09m:15s Table 4.4: Details of focus groups conducted
Source: Author.
There were two apparent challenges with focus groups. The first challenge was that there seemed to be an unwillingness of ‘big business’ that are a part of associations to participate in focus groups convened by the very associations that ‘big business’
subscribes to. The second, which is purely logistical in nature, is due to the large number of participants in focus groups, coordinating focus groups tended to be tricky with a lot of back and forth to arrive at a suitable date and time for all participants.