The purpose of this chapter is to describe how the empirical research was carried out, i.e. how the research data was gathered and analysed. Chapter 2 outlines the software contracting, concepts of contracting and possible models to describe the software contracting. Chapter 3 depicts the role of inter-organisational relationships and intra-organisational process evolution in software contracting. Thus these chapters answer the research questions Q1 and Q2 in Section 1.1. The answers to the remaining research questions are based on the empirical data collected during this research. These questions concentrate on the practical expression of the formation and evolution of the contracting processes, model development concerning the evolving contract processes and relationships as well as the managerial implications for the contracting process management in the context of software businesses. Subsequently, for the empirical part of this study, the concepts of process research are briefly discussed, the research methodology applied in this study is presented and finally reliability and validity issues are covered.
Gummesson (2000) suggests the challenges in management research to be the researcher’s access to reality, pre-understanding and understanding, and quality of the research. The access to reality copes with the issues of how the researcher has access to real world situations, in the case of this study how to get in contact with the proper persons, i.e. company managers, on different levels, software developers, etc. and have the possibility to interview them about issues that in many cases belong to the sphere of critical and confidential issues of the company. The next issues concern the pre-understanding and understanding. In this specific research setting the researcher was familiar, as he has been working in his previous occupation in a software company that operated in COTS, tailored and MOTS type of software business. He had been, over a ten year period, in different managerial positions from a marketing manager to R&D-manager. One of his main responsibilities was to participate in contract negotiations and offers as well as contract drafting. In order to prepare for the empirical research the pre-understanding was enhanced also with literature surveys to get different views and perspectives for the proper research approach. The understanding of course grew during the research process and this again augmented the pre-understanding when proceeding in the research effort. To have too much pre-understanding may also be problematic if the researcher is not careful and objective enough, as he/she may have too strong insight or bias in the issues under scrutiny. The quality aspect of the research is described e.g. with terms of reliability, validity, objectivity and relevance. Thus the researcher must be able to prove and report the findings in a concise and understandable way. The exploited research methods and the way they have been used must be presented.
Ferlie and McNulty (1997, 368) define the process research "as the dynamic study of behaviour in organisations, focusing on organisational context, sequences of incidents, activities and actions, which unfold over time". Typical case study designs are either longitudinal or comparative and the aim is to distinguish patterns. This study uses the comparative approach with several cases and trying to find from these cases congruent patterns. Further Hinings (1997, 497) argues "In process research we need conceptual frameworks that deal with context, incidents, activities, actions, sequences, and time, all in a way that is dynamic". The previous chapter elaborated models that fulfil these requirements well, as the model based on Möller and Wilson model depicts the first part of Hinings’ requirements and the extended model exploiting the Ford’s model fulfils the requirement of dynamism. From a theoretical perspective the processual research is complex as the focus is on the way in which the concepts interact. This becomes even more difficult as the processes unfold over time and this unfolding is subject to considerable variation (ibid). Van de Ven and Poole (1995) express the view that development as process unfolding does not progress from a lower and simpler state to a higher and more complex one. This is of course possible but not the only path as the business relationship may have also a regressive path ending in a dissolving of cooperation.
Pettigrew (1997, 345) among other scholars underlines the importance of the temporality in process research. On the same subject refer also to the extensive treatise by (Halinen & Törnroos 1995, Halinen 1998). As already emphasized, time is in a central role in this study. It is embedded in the dynamic process models and time itself is explicated in terms of cycles, phases, duration, milestones and time schedules. Langley (1999, 692) links the difficulties of data analysis to the process characteristics; the focal unit of analysis are the events, which are the conceptual entities that researchers are less familiar with. The data consists of multiple levels and units of analysis whose boundaries are not easy to define exactly, as the temporal embeddedness varies in terms of precision, duration and relevance. Thus they form a continuum rather than a hierarchy or a clear classification. Even though the emphasis is on the events, process data tends to be many-sided, including elements of inter and intra firm relationships, thoughts, feelings and interpretations.