After the potential interviewees were identified, they were all
contacted via telephone or email to arrange the appropriate date,
time, and place for the interview. Closer to the interviews, copies
of the interview guide were emailed to them with an accompanying
cover letter, reminding them of the interview. In addition to these
arrangements, respondents’ consent on the interview process to be
used was also sought prior to commencing each interview, in line
with research ethics standards. Each interview began with a brief
introduction on the purpose of the interview, what the results will
be used for, means for recording conversations, and how all information
received will be kept strictly confidential. In the course of
each interview a number of steps were also taken to ensure its
proper conduct and to avoid any possible biases from creeping
in, by observing the following advice (Patton 1990): (1) asking
one question at a time; (2) remaining neutral as far possible by trying
not to show strong emotional reactions to responses, for
instance; and (3) taking control of the interview by sticking closely
to questions of interest. Generally, each interview took 1–2 h to
complete, where information was recorded by both note-taking
and tape-recording. The data obtained, which were largely qualitative
in nature, were later transcribed and analyzed.
Analysis and Discussions of Results
The method of analysis adopted involved the following. First, all
interview responses were recorded successively for each of the
questions to form a database. The questions were carefully examined
to identify emerging themes and then collated using frequency
analysis into summary results. The following sections present and
discuss the results obtained under the key issues investigated in the
interviews.