METHODOLOGY OF PEER- REVIEWED JOURNALS
The previous section discussed the literature review of the peer-reviewed journals. The author compared and contrasted the assertion of the various authors, who have covered the topic of how the international acquisition affects company performance. The reviews of the literature were based on three specific objectives, which include: To establish the performance of a target firm from the influence of an international acquisition, to determine the acquisition’s impact on the acquiring company’s performance in terms of finance and employees’ motivation, and to assess the challenges that acquiring a company goes through. The current chapter will provide stepwise guidance on how the research was completed, with the justification of why the approach was adopted. The section will present the research design, research philosophies, design, methods of data collection, the process of data analysis, and ethical considerations.
Research Approach
The term research is referred by Mill and Gay (2019) the process of investigating the facts, by analyzing the information collected from either the primary or secondary sources. The output of the research is used to shed insight in regards to the issue under consideration, by either providing fresh investing or extending the already existing knowledge. There are two primary broad reasoning approaches, as noted by Pearse (2019). They are deductive and inductive, and the decision to use either one of these two approaches is dependent on the kind of research the author is taking. According to Marei et al. (2017) deductive approach aims to explore a known theory, leading to the development of the hypothesis to test the variables. The reasoning in this kind of approach starts from the general to the most specific case, thus referred to as top-to –down method.
On the other hand, the inductive method begins from the specific to general. The research developed a generalized theme by comparing the relationship between the variables. The author is not sure about the outcome of the study until the entire investigation is completed, hence referred to as bottom-up-method. According to Marei et al. (2017) deductive method is linked to studies adopting the quantitative method, while inductive approaches are suitable for the qualitative studies.
In the present study, the researcher aims to establish how the international acquisition affects company performance. The conclusion of this study is based on the analysis of themes extracted from the secondary source of data, specifically peer-reviewed journals. Findings will be made based on the consolidation and comparison of assertions of various authors, hence reducing the chances of biasness. However, the limitation of the inductive method is that it is not always accurate, and the data can be misleading.
Research Philosophy
The kind of research philosophy adopted in research is dependent on the method of data collection. According to Zukauskas et al. (2018), research philosophy is the belief of how the data should be collected, analyzed, and used. In a broader perspective, there are three significant philosophies. One of them is positivism, which is concerned with the facts that are collected through scientific research. It is concerned with quantitative data that results in analysis using various statistical methods, hence commonly utilized to test the hypothesis.
On the other hand, interpretivism concentrate on finding the meaning of the data through qualitative methods. In this form of research philosophy, the author reads through the secondary sources and organizes the findings in the way of themes. The advantage of interpretivism is that the researcher gets a broader perspective of the issue under study, which leads to making informed conclusions. Additionally, pragmatics believe that there is more than one way of analyzing data. This philosophy advocate for both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis as the best way to exhaustively understand a phenomenon.
As the researcher is adopting an inductive approach, interpretivism is the right philosophy, since the author utilized the secondary source of data to establish how the international acquisition affects company performance. The philosophical underpinning of interpretivism is aimed to understand the issues about what others feel about it. Ryan (2018) justified this philosophy by indicating that what makes people is their feelings and views of issues happening in real life. Interpretivist tend to answer their questions by conducting qualitative studies and providing a reliable conclusion.
Research design
Research design is the overall strategy that a researcher chooses to integrate the various components of a study to answer the research questions (Rahi 2017). There are two broad types of design, including exploratory and conclusive design. A small sample characterizes the exploratory design, and the primary method of data analysis, in this case, is qualitative. The final design is used where the sample data is broad and is utilized in quantitative analysis methods. The present research will utilize exploratory design since the kind of data used is extracted from the secondary sources. The reason for using this method is due to its flexibility and increases the understanding of the topic under study. According to Jain et al. (2020), the exploratory design provides a chance to interact with the literature, critique the data, and also agree with the observations made by other authors. Through this, the researcher gains an in-depth understanding of the topic. The limitation of the exploratory design is that interpretation of descriptive data can be judgmental and biased, limiting the viability of the study.
Research Method
Research adopting an inductive approach usually maintains a qualitative method of study. However, there are two other methods, which include mixed methodology and quantitative methodology. The choice of the study method depends on the kind of research, and it is, therefore, elemental to define the direction in which the research takes to choose the right approach. According to Mohajan (2018), the qualitative method allows the researcher to describe the phenomenon they are concerned about. The quantitative method goes beyond this by focusing more on the extent of the event, though subjecting the data into the statistical analysis. Mixed methodology, on the other hand, combines both qualitative and quantitative methods.
The current research adopts a qualitative method since it aims at reviewing the peer-reviewed literature to establish the observation made by the primary authors. Notably, the literature review method is selected in this case, to broadly address the issue of acquisition by large corporation targeting companies in the emerging developing countries. To substantively solve the problem, the researcher included and excluded the literature based on the year of publication, and the articles that only covered the topic on acquisition in the developing nations. The researcher read through the abstracts of the selected journal articles to understand the aim and objectives of the study. The inclusion of items for the research was based on themes of acquisition of companies from the developing nations by large multinationals from developed states.
The importance of choosing to use a literature review is because the method helps the researcher to stay in the real world (Jain et al., 2020). The conclusion from the various authors provides input, which gives the researcher a broad base of generating insight. Also, the qualitative method is appropriate since it allows the researcher to be more flexible. The researcher is guided by the guideline and can decide what to do, as opposed to a quantitative method that is directed by rules. However, the limitations of the qualitative approach are that it is not possible to generalize the results. This is because the primary literature utilizes different methods of analysis, and sampling strategies also vary. Therefore, the results of one article might not be similar to the other.
Data collection approach
The purpose of the research is to explore the acquisition of companies in the developing states by large multinationals from the developed nations. The researcher approached this issue systematically by initially taking the history from the secondary source of data. In this case, peer-reviewed journals were used by investigating the problems and diagnosing the significant themes emanating from the study. Eastwood et al. (2019) stressed the need for the use of a range of data in researching as it reduces the biasness and increases the reliability of the information. Since a massive load of information characterizes the secondary source of information, Dhir et al. (2019) pointed out the need for sifting the right information from an array of data. To achieve this, the journal articles were singled out through the use of keywords, that helps in narrowing down to the specific topic of interest.
In the same vein, the most critical aspect of data collection is the source of the data. The data was extracted from notable databases such as JSTOR, Scopus, among others, which consolidate vast information of data in regards to mergers and acquisitions. The reason for choosing to utilize peer-reviewed journals to inform the current research is because they are reliable, and the recorded data is verified approved for use in the subsequent studies.
Data collection tools and Data analysis
Qualitative data was collected through a literature review. The researcher consulted a broad base of literature, through comparing and contrasting to arrive at the right recommendations. In the survey, the researcher first assesses the content of the abstracts before investigating the literature thoroughly. To deeply understand the concept of every journal article, the researcher evaluated the type of methods used, research design, and, most importantly, the size of the population. These three parameters signified the relevance of the article for use in the study, and whether the information could be relied upon. In this case, only studies that had adopted the primary method of data analysis were used. According to Pikoula et al. (2019), primary ways data collection provides firsthand information, hence heightening replication of the research. Where the principal authors directly engage the participants, the researcher gets closer to reality. Therefore, only secondary sources, whose method of data collection is primary, was of help in demystifying the aspect of the acquisition of companies in the developing countries by large multinational companies.
After getting enough information by reading through the literature, the data was collected and organized in form themes. According to Scharp and Sanders (2019), thematic analysis is a clear strategy of interpreting data. There is no application of any statistical method. The four themes that were derived include: establishing the performance of a target firm from the influence of an international acquisition, determining the acquisition’s impact on the acquiring company’s performance in terms of finance and employees’ motivation, assessing the challenges that acquiring a company goes through.
Sample size
Taherdoost (2017) suggested seven factors that determine the size of the sample to be used in any research. They include “the heterogeneity of the population, the number of selection criteria, the extent to which ‘nesting’ of criteria is needed, groups of special interest that require intensive study, multiple samples within one study, types of data collection methods use, the budget and resources available.” Since qualitative research aims to seek in-depth information about a particular phenomenon, the size of the sample here is usually small. In regards to Garza et al. (2017), the lower the sample, the more critical a researcher becomes in interrogating the facts. Since the study uses literature reviews as the method of research, the researcher focused on ten selected journal articles that were critically analyzed in the result sections. This small sample assisted in providing more insight into the performance of an acquisition in developing countries by international companies. Also, it became easier to make a recommendation on the way forward in regard to the adoption of purchase.
Participants
The analysis leaned towards the studies that were conducted on the manager of the business. In this case, a business encompassed an international corporation and any other company in the developing state. The managers are at the forefront of the management of the business, and therefore they understand a lot of information in regards to the business operations. They make decisions in regards to acquisitions based on their study of the market. The employees were also considered as part of the participants, as they feel the impact in the case of the acquisition. Such, the researcher selected the articles in line with the mentioned types of participants.
Ethical Considerations
Several factors can affect ethical issues in any research work. Among them include voluntary participation, consent, and confidentiality. The present research utilized peer-reviewed journals, where the researcher has no obligation to collect primary data once again. The information recorded on the journals is taken as truth, and no further interviews or issuing of the questionnaire was required. Therefore, there was no ethical issue of concern that could have limited the research from progressing. However, the research was conducted in adherence to all the set standards by the university. Also, plagiarisms were highly disregarded, and all sources that were used in this case were recorded correctly. It is important to note that any information obtained did not lead to any bias and was used with sincerity.
Methodological Limitations
One of the challenges of the qualitative method is that it is challenging to investigate causality Graneheim et al. (2017). As noted in the previous paragraphs, the source of data for the qualitative method is peer-reviewed journals. The researcher agrees on the recorded sample, and there is no direct interaction with the participants. Determining the real cause of the way phenomenon is reported is challenging, hence increasing the level of biasness. Also, it is a time-consuming process to read through vast volumes of literature, and comparing them to answer the research questions. Further, exploratory design exposes the researcher to the use of outdated data.