managers or business owners in the five industry clusters, and ensuring that the given story fits into a coherent framework. By the time the researcher finished all interviews, the researcher was able to recount the story of their business operational processes as well as innovation leading to improved business performance in each business in the five industry clusters due to the consistency provided by each participant. This process can promote consistency in the research process and can serve to identify, and subsequently decrease, the bias of any particular team member involved in the research (Given 2008).
External consistency refers to the ability of the researcher to cross-check the information provided by the participants in the interviews. This process was accomplished by enlisting the assistance of other business owners in the same industry cluster to verify the information given by other participants in the same industry cluster. This process can also be accomplished by enlisting the assistance from other researchers that have an interest in the same field and they also can review raw data, notes, logs, journals, and other materials associated with the study. In this research, the participants were approached and a consent form and plain language statement were given. This informed participants of the objectives of the study and addressed any ethical issues. The participants were also asked whether the researcher could record interviews, which would then be transcribed. Notes were taken in each interview. The researcher referred to some information from previous interviews in the same cluster to ensure that the researcher had obtained the right context confirmed by other participants in the same cluster. Each participant was asked at the end of each interview whether the researcher could make call them to discuss any further relevant issues that might be important to add to this research.
The researcher also obtained assistance from other researchers that have the same mutual interest in SMEs. Another researcher reviewed the transcripts and compared the written transcript with the digital recordings to ensure that information was accurately transcribed. This process is referred to as peer debriefing, although it accomplishes the same goal as an audit, to ensure that information given by participants in the same industry cluster was accurate, minimizing any the misinformation or error (Given 2008; Neuman