You are interested in conducting a research study on financial reporting used by large proprietary companies in Australia. Your overall research objective is related to whether the quality of financial reports provides relevant information to one of the stakeholders the suppliers. The main research question is:

"Do suppliers as an important stakeholder group benefit from the large proprietary companys practice of disclosing quality information related to its social and environmental practices?

Although you can collect quantitative data, you decide that a qualitative research approach for this study would be more appropriate for this study.

Requirement

a) Select one of the five qualitative research tools from the list provided below that you believe would be most applicable to answer your research question.

Focus Group Interviews

Depth Interviews

Conversations

Semi-Structured Interviews

Participant Observation

In making your decision:

(i) Describe the qualitative research tool you have chosen to use and explain, by outlining some of the key characteristics of qualitative research, why you believe this research tool will provide the most appropriate data for answering the research question?

(ii) Identify and outline three key advantages and three key disadvantages of the research tool you have chosen in (i) above.

b) As your research project involves collecting data from human subjects (participants), the study is subject to several ethical considerations. Briefly explain your ethical obligations to the research participants.