Qualitative personal interviews in international business research: Some lessons from a study of Hong Kong Transnational Corporations

This paper is concerned with the role of qualitative personal interviews in international business research. Based on an ongoing research into more than 120 transnational corporations from Hong Kong and more than 60 of their subsidiaries and/or affiliates in Southeast Asia, I argue that the qualitative personal interview method is a much better technique than other common techniques in international business research such as postal surveys and telephone interviews. This argument is particularly relevant when the research is conducted in an urban context and the objective is to probe deeply into the processes and mechanisms of international business. Another dimension of the qualitative personal interview method is that it provides much flexibility both in the conduct of data collection and subsequent analysis. This advantage proves to be critical to international business research because of the changing context of research and concern with business firms operating simultaneously in several geographical locations.

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