My supervisor said that it will be very difficult for me to do interviews with company owners/key decision makers on the phone. Therefore, I must go to this country.

I am actually forced to use the case study approach because the sample size is very limited. Is there 'another' method out there which can provide a researcher valid and reliable results with just a sample size of 5 or 6 participants at this level?

I will definitely try to take the primary and secondary data analysis into consideration. Thanks!

By the way, may I know your field? I am from a business related field.

Cheers

JH

Hello Metabanalysis,

Thank you for your reply. A friend of mine who is in the writing phase of his PhD said that nobody will take your research seriously, if you did not even go to the chosen country for your field work. Now this feedback is worrying me.

Could you please back your claim with a few references? By the way, are you a doctor yourself? Moreover, in a case study approach, is it acceptable to have a sample size of 6 for a PhD level research? I have seen at least one PhD thesis in my field of business where the sample size was of only 9 participants aka firms.

Your help in this matter will be much appreciated.

JH

P.S. Variables like body language etc. are of no importance in my research. It's the verbal feedback which I am after.

Hello,

I am planning to make use of the case study approach but my sample members are in a different country (The sample members are company owners or international managers) Is it acceptable for a PhD level student to do case studies with the help of telephone interviews?

Or do I really have to go to this country to take semi-structured interviews?

Thanks.

JH

Hey thanks for your reply.

With the passage of time, I believe the questions may change slightly or to a great extent. However, don't you think if the sample size is a major issue and the researcher probably has 10 to 12 relevant people to interview then the case study approach will be the only viable option?

Based on my current knowledge, such a small sample can only be considered sufficient if a case study approach is used,

Your comments on this please,

Cheers.

Hello,

I recently commenced my PhD and I have found a PhD thesis which had similar research objectives. In fact, after going through this thesis, I realised that I have overcomplicated my research for no apparent reason. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I wish to use the exact same questions of this thesis in my research and try to answer these three questions in a whole different country and sector.

What I need to know is if that is acceptable or am I taking a risk when it comes to plagiarism or originality of any sort?

If the answer of the above question is yes then is it safe for me to use the same methodology which is used in this thesis to find the answers of these questions?

Many thanks in advance!

Cheers