Climate Change Responsibility Experienced by Thai Airway - Assignment Example

?ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABLE VALUE WHEN UNDERTAKING CORPORATE CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSIBILITY EXPERIENCED BY THAI AIRWAY METHODOLOGY This segment of the dissertation is specifically dedicated to outlining the methods used in arriving at all data collected for the present research. It would be noted that the current research has an overall objective of addressing Thai Airways’ experiences when the company developed its business to respond to climate change issues. To better appreciate the experiences gathered by the company, it is important that data be collected in and around the company and that is what this portion of the research work is all about. The research also seeks to evaluate sustainable values that the company might have gained as a result of implementing corporate climate change responsibilities; as well as highlighting the opportunities that the values created have resulted in for the company. The methods thus used in all these endeavors are catered for in this section of the research paper. Research Design The overall approach adapted towards the present research makes use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection. This study can therefore not be described as either being a qualitative research or a quantitative research but a combination of the two. In such a situation, it was only important that a type of research design that focuses on the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative research be selected (Bandla, 2008). To this end, the researcher selected case study as the preferred research design to cater for the present research. It will be noted that once used as a research design, case study offers the researcher the opportunity to critically analyze and evaluate a specific situation within a specified destination (Belobaba, 2007). In the present circumstance, the situation studied was the institutionalization of corporate climate change responsibility and the destination was Thai Airways. Case study was also deemed very appropriate for the research questions set by the researcher to be answered in the course of the research. This because answering the research questions would demand both primary and secondary data collection, which case study research design rightly presents a researcher with. Through case study, the researcher is in a position to conduct detailed review of related literature as a means of collecting secondary data to cater for the secondary data collection process. The research is also offered an opportunity to visiting the actual destination that is of focus to the research to collect data through the use of various data collection approaches to cater for the primary data collection component of the research (Carvalho and Puterman, 2003). Population and Sample Size Generally, the population of the research refers to all people who carry some degree of possibility of participating in the data collection exercises; especially the primary data collection (Chatwin, 2009). Going through the research objectives and research questions, it would be noticed that the scope of the research is very wide with many different groups of stakeholders whose contributions would all come together to ensure the success of the research and the achievement of the research aim. Because of this, the researcher has categorized members of the population into two major groups namely clients and service providers. By clients, reference is being made to all people who may benefit from the corporate climate change policy to be adapted by the company in one way or the other. The service providers also refer to key policy makers within the Thai Airways whose activities generally contribute to the successful running of the day-to-day business of the company. These include employees, managers and shareholders. Of the two groups of population, it could be seen that there are too many people to include in the research all at a go. For this reason, the researcher set a quota for each of the groups of population members to constitute the sample size (Feng and Gallego, 2005). In order to ensure that data collection was well balanced and that views collected from the sample size members who were to serve as respondents were unbiased, equal number of respondents from both groups were collected. In effect, twenty-five (25) clients were selected whiles another twenty-five (25) service providers were selected to make a total of fifty (50) respondents. Sampling and Sampling Technique The process of selecting members within the population to make up the sample size is referred to as sampling (Belobaba, 2009). The specific procedures used in the sampling are also known as sampling technique (Peters, 2005). Because there were to be two major groups of sample size members, the researcher used two separate sampling techniques that best suited each situation. For instance in the case of the clients of the company, the researcher used a random sampling technique. Random sampling technique is generally a type of sampling technique that offers all members of the population an equal chance of belonging to the sample size (Lilja, 2008). The advantage of using random sampling technique is that it allows for fairness in the selection process and avoids all forms of bias because the researcher has no foreknowledge who and who will make up the sample size. The random sampling technique is also appropriate when the researcher is at liberty to as many alternatives and number of members in the population as possible (March and Johan, 2008). Even more, the random sampling technique is highly suitable when all members in the population can play almost the same role for the researcher and the need to pin point to specific people is not a necessity. Considering the fact that the clients of the company are many enough and held varying views on what the impact of the corporate climate change policy of the company could possibly be for them, the researcher selected this sampling technique. The random sampling technique was used on the clients of the company through the following procedures. First, the researcher set a date on which to visit the main premises of the airline. This was done after permission had been sought from management of the company of the intention and purpose of the researcher. Second, the researcher visited the premises of the company on the said date and time. Third, the first twenty-five (25) clients who came to book their flights and expressed interest to be part of the research at the time of the researcher’s visit were automatically included in the sample size. This procedure was highly random and probable since the researcher could not have any idea of who were going to be part of the sample size and those who were not. On the part of the service providers however, the researcher did not use a random sampling technique but a purposive sampling technique. In the instance of the service providers, the researcher wanted the input of some specific people within the population and so could not use random sampling. Using purposive sampling was going to ensure that no one else but the specifically targeted person were included in the sample size (Ayres and Braithwaite, 2002) and this is all that the researcher wanted to achieve with the service providers. To this end, five (5) managers of the company, five (5) accounts and finance executives, ten (10) members on the corporate climate change strategic board and five (5) employees of the company were purposively sampled to make up the twenty-five (25) members needed from that group of respondents. Research Instrument The research instruments refer to the materials or tools that the researcher will use to collect data directly from members in the sample size. The considering the need to achieve both a qualitative and a quantitative research, the researcher sought it very prudent to use in-depth interview as the preferred research instrument for the study. This is because interview could offer the researcher the opportunity to collect both qualitative and quantitative questions. The approach was to design an interview guide that will compose of both close ended and open ended questions. The open ended questions were to cater for qualitative research because they were going to be highly suitable for generalized interpretation by the researcher (Ragin et al., 2006). The close ended questions were to cater for qualitative research because the answers from these questions could easily be quantified for quantitative discussion. For example when asked whether respondents see the corporate climate change policy as effective as a close ended question, the “yes” or “no” respondents could easily be quantified into percentage of those who said “yes” or “no”. Because of the nature of the respondents, there were two special interview guides to cater for clients on one hand and service providers on the other hand. Primary Data Collection Because the researcher was dealing with two groups of respondents, there were two major forms of the primary data collection whereby the date and approach for data collection from clients was totally different from that of the service providers (Gallego and VanRyzin, 1994). With regards to the clients, the researcher collected data in just one day. Respondents were also asked very brief questions because they were due for flights and could not be delayed so much. This however does not mean that insufficient data were gathered (Feng and Xiao, 2000b). Data were gathered in areas and aspects of the research objectives and questions such as the impact of the company’s climate change policies on their decisions to do business with the company. Questions were also asked on the possible improvements that they would want the company to address in their future climate change issues. Furthermore, respondents were asked questions pertaining to the roles that they felt they could play as stakeholders of the company to helping the company achieve its goals in the area of climate change responsibilities. Very critically, clients were asked if they saw the corporate climate change responsibility embarked by the company a mere means of gaining competitive advantage or as a genuine in which the company was expressing the need to partake in its share of social responsibility. The approach for the service providers was quite different in the sense that the whole approach was more formal and well organized than that of the clients. Because the clients did not have any prior knowledge of the existence of the research, they interview was conducted as an informal interview though their responses were recorded and later transcribed (Panapanaan, 2006). The similarity between the two forms of interviews was however the fact that all two was conducted as face-to-face interview and on one-on-one basis. This means that the researcher spent time with each of the fifty (50) respondents at a time. No interviews were also organized online or by the use of telephony communication. With reference to the service providers the researcher fixed a date on which to meet each of them. A maximum of five respondents were interviewed on a day because their interview was detailed and in-depth. In all, five days were used on the service providers. Questions posed to the service providers bordered mainly on the value that the company has recorded as a result of its corporate climate change responsibility. The general approach used by the company in the strategy and why that approach was selected was also quizzed. Then the roles played by individual stakeholders in the company towards the realization of the strategic goal were also assessed. Even more, the researcher asked questions that had to do with motivational measures put in place to sustain the corporate climate change responsibility to be a long lasting policy of the company. Finally, respondents were quizzed on the challenges that had characterized the implementation program. Secondary Data Collection Secondary data collection entails data that are collected from sources that are not directed founded by the researcher (Richardson, et al., 2006). Some of these sources are books, internet websites, journals, articles and news bulletins that are not the original work of the researcher (Bredgaard, 2003). In the present research, the researcher used secondary data collection extensively under the review of related literature. To ensure that the literature reviewed fell under the scope of the research problem and answered all research questions and achieved the research objectives, the researcher outlined special themes under which data were to be collected. Unlike the primary data collection which was suitable for both qualitative and quantitative research, the secondary data collection used in this case was highly recommendable for qualitative research and analysis as not much of the data collected were based on quantification of ideas (Feng and Xiao, 2000a). Among the key data collected under the secondary data collection was how Thai Airways could use its present climate change responsibility policy to create maximum value. The data collection also looked at how the company could create a core competitive advantage emanating from the corporate climate change responsibility. Furthermore, a quick comparative study was undertaken to evaluate how other companies in the same industry as Thai Airways have implemented corporate climate change responsibilities and how it turned out for those companies. Data Analysis Plan The next chapter of the research report is dedicated to data analysis and this section seeks to outline how the whole data analysis process is going to take place. First, it is important to mention that there shall be two major components of data analysis namely qualitative data analysis and quantitative data analysis. These two shall however be done together and in no certain order. The major distinction would however be the fact that, there shall be three major criteria for data analysis. These shall be analysis of responses from clients, analysis of responses from service providers and analysis of responses from secondary data collection. With regards to quantitative analysis, the researcher shall make use of mathematical representations such as graphs, percentage tables and charts to represent and discuss data (Feng and Gallego, 2000). 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