Introduction
The chapter offers the methodology with the justification and explanation of research approach and design. Methodology or research methodology can be defined as the systematic process of solving the research problem. It is a field of study that focuses on the methods for the research to obtain knowledge (Kumar &Phrommathed, 2005). It is very significant and important for the researcher to devise a methodology for solving the chosen problem of the research. The following methodology explains the research design for the factors affecting the adoption of business intelligence.
The researcher chose research approach according to the goals and objectives of the research and the type of study (Saunder, Lewis &Thornhill, 2009; Yin, 2013). In this research, researcher has to examine the factors affecting the implementation of business intelligence in the organizations, therefore, the deductive approach is more appropriate for the conducting the research. The deductive strategy can be defined as strategy that takes support from already developed theoretical framework (Zikmund, 2003). The deductive approach conducts the research to the specific from very general information or also be defined as the top to down research approach. The deductive approach can be more clearly understood from the process mentioned in the diagram below:
As the following research was aimed to test the hypotheses developed based on the previous literature and models, therefore, the researcher has used the deductive approach.
Research Strategy
After selecting research approach, the next step is to carefully select the research strategy for conducting research (Saunders et al., 2011). Mainly, there are two categories of research methods; quantitative and qualitative research (Cherry, 2000; Ritchie et al., 2013). In this research, the researcher has used quantitative methodological strategy for conducting research to increase the validity and authenticity of the research. As the deductive approach was used in the paper, therefore, the quantitative strategy was more aligned with the approach (Soiferman, 2010). To test the hypotheses about different factors affecting BI adoption in Saudi Arabia, the empirical and statistical study was required. The empirical data can be collected by experimentation and survey etc. that are the widely used techniques in quantitative method.
For the quantitative research, researcher collected data through survey in which the respondents were provided with the questionnaire. By doing analysis of the responses of the questionnaire, the researcher was able to assess the research results on quantitative basis.
Data Collection
Data collection process is termed as one of the most important processes of conducting the research. The primary sources of data collection can be defined as first hand data that is gathered through some personal sources including surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focused group, observations, experiments and so on (Hox&Boeijie, 2005). It is an appropriate approach for the quantitative research methodology.
In this research, primary data was research in a well-defined manner. It is also necessary to utilize appropriate and proper data collection sources for achieving desired objectives of the research. In this research, researcher utilized primary sources of research that are defined as below:
In this research, primary data was collected by utilizing Survey and questionnaire techniques to collect real information related to research topic. The research for determining the correlations between the variables is usually done using surveys. For conducting surveys, close ended questions were used in the questionnaire for the clarity of the responses.These questions were asked to the respondents. The questionnaire was based on 37 questions that were mainly related to the factors affecting BI implementation in the organisation, identified in the review of the literature. The questionnaire was used to facilitate the researcher in determining and explaining the relationship of the factors with the BI adoption. Flexibility to answer the questions in survey is mainly considered as non standardized questionnaire. However, to ensure the interaction, Likert scale was used to provide the level to the respondents to express their opinions and responses.
Population and Sampling
The population of the research is based on the total number of people that are included in the research study (Saunder, Lewis &Thornhill, 2009). In this research, the population of the study includes four organizations of Saudi Arabia. These four organizations are as follows:
(SIDF) Saudi Industrial Development Fund
(MCI) Ministry of commerce and industry
(SAMA) Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, which is the central bank of Saudi Arabia
(ELM) which is a joint-stock company owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF)
The research sample was chosen by utilizing purposive sampling technique. Purposive sampling can be defined as a sampling technique that is used when the researcher needs to access to the particular group of people (Palys, 2008). The reason for selecting purposive sampling is that the researcher of the following research was needed to access to the Business intelligence and information technology related people in these organizations.
The sample size chosen for the questionnaire survey was 100 employees. The reason for designing small sample size was that there was a lack of these specialists in all these organizations. Therefore, the questionnaire was sent to all the available specialists of BI and information technology. The survey questionnaire was comprised of 37 questions. The questionnaires were distributed to the participants through emails as it is the cheapest and less time taking method of survey. It is also significant to offer adequate time to the respondents to think of the answers and make proper replies.
Questionnaire design
As it has already mentioned that the questionnaire was based on 37 questions, here, thedesign and structure of the questions is needed to be discussed. The researcher has divided the questionnaire into two sections mainly include demographic questions and psychographic questions. Tareq Almaghabi, who is an expert in the field, has reviewed and developed the questionnaire. He is a Data Warehouse consultant having more than 15 years of experience in his field.
Out of total 37 questions, three questions were demographic; five were psychographic, while remaining questions were about the factors affecting BI adoption. The demographic questions were used to obtain the profile of the respondents that were the employees associated with the information technology and BI departments of the four organisations mentioned in the previous section.
The psychographic section possessed the questions to determine the level of information technology. The questions of third section were designed to test the relationship of each factor identified in the literature and hypotheses that can affect the Business Intelligence adoption in the organisations of Saudi Arabia. The five questions of second section that were asked to identify the level and the intensity of technology and software in the organisations of the respondents. The next section was designed to bring the opinions of the employees about the factors in each category include external, technological and internal. Question 9 and 10 were aimed to determine the affect of competition on BI adoption, question 11 was aimed to identify the impacts of demand on BI adoption, and question 12, 13, 14 and 15 were designed to understand the impacts of government regulations on the BI adoption in the organisation. All of these questions were placed under external factors category.
Questions from 16 to 24 fall in the category of technological factors. Question 16, 17 and 18 were supported the reliability affecting BI implementation, question 19 was linked with the complexity, question 20 and 21 with observability and 22, 23 and 24 with perception of strategic value affecting BI adoption. From question 25 to 35, all questions were linked with the internal factors. To determine the impacts of size, question 25 and 26 were asked, 27 and 28 for employees’ resistance, 29 and 30 for culture, 31 for managers’ innovativeness, 32 and 33 for data environment and 34 and 35 for skilled resources availability impacts on the BI adoption. The last two questions were asked to obtain the recommendations of the employees for the organisations to adopt BI. To measure the intensity of the answer, the five levels Likert scale was used assorted from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
Pilot Testing
As the questionnaires distributed through emails, therefore, pilot testing was done to check the level of participants to understand the questions in the questionnaire. Pilot or pre testing has been found as very important in conducting survey research by many researchers (Hunt, Sparkman & Wilcox, 1982). For pilot test of the questionnaire of the following research, the researcher has used the questionnaire for the pre survey of five respondents. The pre testing conducted to measure the outcomes as desired and then the final questionnaire for the survey revised based on the outcomes of pilot testing.
Data Availability and Credibility
After data collection process, the next step involves data analysis; data analysis process requires the researcher to arrange raw data in an organized form for conducting data analysis. The data analysis tools are selected on the basis of research methods employed for the study (Bendat&Piersol, 2011). For the quantitative data analysis, it is done by using statistical tools such as the SPSS software and the results are interpreted on the basis of research hypothesis.
Ethical considerations
It is important for the researcher to pay great attention towards ethical standards and values of the research and considers them as the highest priority of conducting research (Creswell, 2013). To meet the standards of data collection and to get accurate and authentic information from the research participants, the researcher has to take following measures:
The research participants were given written informed consent which ensured that information collected for research will not be used for other purposes.
The research participants were informed about the research objectives and were required to submit consent to participate in the research on voluntarily basis.
An informed consent was also provided to the research participants to mention that the personal and professional information of each participant will be kept confidential.
Summary
The research methodology chapter provides a complete overview of the scientific research methods used for conducting research. The chapter explained all the essential components of conducting research. Moreover, the chapter also discussed the ethical considerations of the research.
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