3. Methodology

Chapter 2 identified four hypotheses based on the literature review. In this chapter I outline the research methodology. An introduction to the methodology was provided in section 1.4 of Chapter 1; this chapter aims to build on that introduction and to provide assurance that appropriate procedures were followed. I followed Yin (2003) and Myers (1997) to come to a strategy for conducting this research. This part of the research influences how to collect relevant material and how to process this material in order to answer the main research question. The chapter defines the scope and limitations of the research design, and situates the research amongst existing research traditions in information systems.

This chapter is divided into five sections. In the first, the epistemological stance in the field of information systems is examined and justified. The second section is about the research strategy. It describes why the followed research approach is the case study research. Section three deals with the research design, it presents the unit of analysis, it covers the site selection criteria, it describes the data sources that where used, how the data was collected and how the data was analyzed. It is presented in such a way that other researchers can replicate this research (Yin, 2003). Section three ends with the instrumentation for the research analysis and an overview of the research protocol and case study database. Then in section 3.4, the research design is evaluated. To end this chapter, I will give a brief summary of the choices made for this research in section 3.5.

• Epistemological orientation
• Research strategy
• Research design
• Evaluation of the research design
• Summary