Qualitative Research Approach

The study will be inductive in nature. Unlike the deductive approach, the inductive approach involves the researcher generating theories, concepts and themes form the retrieved data. In other words, the researcher will have to look for the specific prototypes and patterns from the data collected and hence come up with their explanations. Basing on this philosophical approach, it is difficult to develop hypotheses at the start of the research. Thus, it is only through the pattern regularities between variables that the researcher can be able to generate theory and hence, make conclusions. The inductive approach is always associated with qualitative methods. Hence, qualitative methods will be at play in the study. The qualitative research approach

Given that the research is a case study, emphasis has to be put on the data collection phase. It is because; an in-depth study requires equally comprehensive data. Therefore in-depth interviews will be conducted with participants alongside the questionnaires. Both face-to-face and telephone interviews will be conducted with the respondents. The interviews will be unstructured. Interview questions will be designed to retrieve the most appropriate and relevant data to the topic of discussion. By answering specific elemental component related to the research aim, the respondents will provide comprehensive information that can be used to establish patterns and regularities sufficient enough to warrant a theory. The interview method is advantageous because it provides first-hand information. It is also relatively less time consuming and also cheap. While interviews will be conducted among managers of these firms, questionnaires will be administered among the employees chosen to participate in the study. The questions will directly relate to the research questions and will seek more information about the firm it terms of its sustainability strategy. One major advantage of the questionnaire methods is that it is used to exhaustively retrieve information (Strang, 2015). It is also relatively cheap when the sample unit is small. Nevertheless, the researcher will use information from secondary sources too. Secondary

Unlike descriptive statistics (mostly associated with quantitative data) inferential statistics are simply used to say ‘something’ about the retrieved information (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2013). Data retrieved will be qualitative in nature and hence the researcher will only make inferences from the findings. However, information retrieved will be first recorded in different tables. Each table will specifically be related to the research questions. For instance, the tables will be titles as follows; strategies for sustainable development; policies and procedures for sustainable development, responsibility for sustainable development; roles of those responsible for sustainable management; challenges in sustainability management; and the merits of sustainable development. Hence, from these tables, the researcher will have to consider a few postulates to link the research outcomes with existing theories and use the findings to generate new