According to Cohen et al. (2011), respondents are not just passive suppliers of data to researchers, but they are subjects. Therefore, it is important to give the subjects the freedom to participate by asking them to fill in the questionnaire. The researcher informed the participants that there were no monetary rewards to participating in the study, but that they benefit from participating in the research, although indirectly (Creswell, 2014). One of the benefits was getting an understanding of what alternative finance is, how to access the alternative finance platforms and which organisations offer alternative finance. The first section of the questionnaire asked the respondents’ their demographic information such as gender, age, educational level, job status, income level and whether they have bank accounts and mobile phones (Ismail & Masinge, 2012).
(see Appendix 2). The questionnaire was used to ascertain if these independent variables influence the adoption of mobile banking and alternative finance. The second section of the questionnaire attempted to assess the respondents’ perceptions on mobile banking and
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alternative finance using variables on the research model. Unstructured interviews were used to ascertain consumer attitudes towards the use of mobile banking and alternative finance (see Table 3.1). Kweyu & Ngare (2013) used a questionnaire to collect data on customer perceptions of mobile banking services in Kenya. Phan & Daim (2011) also distributed a questionnaire among respondents who used mobile phones and mobile services in order to establish user preference.
Similarly, questionnaires have been used by a number of researchers, including Ismail &
Masinge, 2012; Chitungo & Munongo, 2013; Munir et al., 2013; and Martins et al., 2014.
Table 3.1 Qualitative research interview questions
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are your views and perceptions on use of mobile banking and alternative finance?
2. Do you think that your background and attitude will influence the use? Please give details.
3. What are the common factors of mobile banking and alternative finance?
4. Do you think that the providers of mobile banking and alternative finance are presenting their services well to the customers? What is your take on this?
5. Do you think that they (service providers) should set more channels to explore alternative finance modes as some customers probably know about them while the others do not know of them or other options besides going to the bank?
6. In your own view, how do you find the costing of using mobile banking alternative financing? What is your take?
7. What are the factors that drive you to use mobile banking or alternative finance?
8. What kind of funding do you normally apply for at the bank or using your mobile app?
9. What are the challenges that you have experienced with mobile banking or alternative finance?
10. Do you think that those glitches will enhance the use of mobile banking and alternative finance?
11. How has Covid-19 impacted how you transact?
12. What do you see as the future in the use of mobile banking and alternative finance?
55 3.8.1 Questionnaire design
The questionnaire is a preferred tool of gathering data in a well-thought-out and controllable way in research (Creswell, 2014 & Dudovoskiy, 2018). The questionnaire is made up of the following three parts: administrative questions, classification, and the target questions. An effective questionnaire conveys valuable and precise data from the participants to the researcher. The benefits of using a questionnaire are that they are cheap to administer, easy to develop and the researcher can simply and quickly analyse the responses when filled. However, it is worth noting that questionnaires can be challenging to design and analyse (Cooper & Schindler, 2012). The questions asked can be confusing, may be focusing on a certain, difficult to reach audience and they produce too much work with regards to data analysis (Saunders et al, 2009).
3.8.2 Questionnaire pretesting
Questionnaire pretesting is a test conducted before the actual research is conducted. It is a way of testing the flaws of the design and the instrument to provide alternative data for selection of a probability sample to be used in the research (Cooper & Schindler, 2012). Administering the questionnaire to a few individuals helps to identify and rephrase ambiguous questions and techniques (Saunders et al, 2009; Myers, 2013). The questionnaire and unstructured interview questions were piloted on five (5) customers to ascertain if the research participants understood the questions.
3.8.3 Access to the community
The researcher requested physical access to the organisations which were relevant to the study by sending letters to the organisations’ management (see Appendix A). With that said, it is further essential for the researcher to gain approval and consent from the participants within the organisation to get data from them (Robson, 2002). Merely gaining access was not enough, but accessing participants who were relevant to the study objectives and goals was ensured by the researcher and this was specified in the request sent to the management. In the clash between the anticipated and the probable, the conceivable always succeeds (Buchanan et al., 1988). The researcher relied on the goodwill of the organisation as access was being granted, hence ensuring sensitivity at all costs. The researcher’s aptitude and honesty were critical at the access level (Saunders et al., 2009). The key approaches aiding the researcher to gain access were: ensuring knowledge and understanding of the organisation before interaction, emphasising potential
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advantages to the organisation, providing a clear account of the purpose and kind of access required, making sure that the suitable language was used, creating credibility by affirming how research participants add value to the study and giving assertion on anonymity of the participants and confidentiality of the data (Saunders et al., 2009 & Creswell, 2014).