Primary Research Essays

Primary Research Essays Primary Research Essay Primary Research Essay The primary research consisted of focus group and face to face interviews as Zikmund (1984) defined an interview as a purposeful discussion between two or more people in order to gain valuable knowledge. If utilised correctly an interview can be used to gather valid research data, which is reliable (Saunders et al. , 2002). Researchers usually begin their investigation with interviews involving people who perceive, and are also part of, a problem, as well as those who have had experience with similar problems (Corey 1990).One of the main advantages that surround interview-based research centres on the ability to interrogate the interviewee in greater detail and relevance, compared to, say, a closed- ended questionnaire. When carrying out interviews it is important to determine whether a structured or non-structured interview be carried out. A structured interview follows a predetermined set of questions. Non-directed interviews allow for flexibility in the discussion, relying on the interviewee to volunteer relevant facts and opinions, with broad guidance from the interviewer.For this study semi-structured interview was conducted and it provided an opportunity to obtain a more in-depth, subjective and exploratory perspective of the subject at hand. The semi-structured approach was chosen to obtain the required data, as it enabled the interview to follow an established list of questions revolving around the research aims and objectives. But more importantly, Saunders et al. , (2002) acknowledged, it provides the flexibility to ask immediate or probing questions.The duration of the interviews were kept minimal and succinct, lasting 30 minutes for face to face interviews and 60 minutes for the focus group interviews. Secondary data can be created within an organization itself (such as corporate annual reports), or generated by sources outside a corporation like books, a number of articles in journals, individual papers in collections of reference papers, and the internet. There are various sources of information being exploited in this research and are as follows: text books and journals that relates to internationalization, foreign direct investments and entry modes.Other sources heavily used in this study included but not limited to TopicalCare Publications both hard and electronic copies, World Bank, OECD and Nigerian government publications. The using of secondary data has the advantage for the investigator in terms of time saved and less expense. Nevertheless, the main problem is that this data may not completely fit to the objective. It is crucial to assess the suitability of secondary data. Moreover, the published documents may contain outdated information. The most significant problem of using secondary data is that it is difficult to prove how reliable the information is.