Read the following case extract and answer ALL questions that follow. Leitch, Hill, and Harrison (2010) discuss research conducted on women business owners that oriented toward a subjectivist paradigm in terms of the approach to both data collection and analysis. The overarching aim was to explore how women perceived their experiences of obtaining external finance for their business at the initial start-up stage and later in nurturing the growth of the businesses. At a philosophical level, the researchers demonstrated a commitment to giving voice to womens experiences in their own right (Leitch et al., 2010: 77). Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a purposive sample of ten women business owners (Hill, Leitch, and Harrison, 2006). One strand of the interview included the use of the critical incident technique, which consists of a set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behaviour. It involved asking participants to describe lived critical incidents pertinent to the research problem. In this case, the interviewees were asked to reflect on specific experiences in raising venture finance and describe any eyewitness accounts and observations of behaviours they encountered where the consequences were sufficiently clear to them, leaving them with a definite idea as to their likely effects. The researchers elicited the womens personal perspectives and in their own words, digging deep into how the women perceived their experiences. This process produced a detailed, deep, rich, and thick empathic description of the issue. The analysis was undertaken to reflect the issues and topics identified by research participants as being important in understanding the phenomenon of interest (Leitch et al., 2010: 77, 79). Among the findings of the study, the researchers reported that their interviewees had predominantly negative perceptions of banks as route to financial support. For example, one commented: The company is not interested in bank finance because the banks are risk averse and dont understand the needs of small businesses (Hill et al., 2006: 171). Required:

5.1 Are the elements of the researchers methodological choice congruent with the ontological and epistemological stances adopted? Provide a detailed explanation. (4)

5.2 Identify the method of data analysis implicit in the statement the analysis was undertaken to reflect the issues and topics identified by research participants as being important in understanding the phenomenon of interest (Leitch et al., 2010: 77, 79) and briefly elaborate on how this particular method of data analysis is carried out in practice. (5)

5.3 Discuss any THREE (3) elements of the quality of the research design employed by Leitch et al. (2010) in this study.