gender differential paper IJCRB

ijcrb.webs.com
JUNE 2011
INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS VOL 3, NO 2
was the senior managers who are responsible for external affairs, particular directly dealing
BPO with MNCs. The author believes the information given should be valuable. Compared
to questionnaire survey, interview with a few relevant personnel were rather a success. First
person interviewed was the CEO of MDC (Multimedia Development Corporation). It was
selected because The MDC (Multimedia Development Corporation) was primarily selected
which acts as government agent to promote Malaysia is the world’s best environment to
harness the full potential of ICT and multimedia technology (Multimedia Super Corridor).
Another company was IDRO (M) SDN BHD which had offshore BPO experience in
Malaysia. The duration for each interview was 45 minutes on average.
For the data collection in China, the questionnaire was mailed to randomly 20 selected
offshore BPO service providers. Telephone follow-up was also done to have more
response, it was quite a success, and 16 responses were received with help of one of China
Sourcing association. But the majority of response was notified that are division executives
rather than senior managers. The reason could perhaps attribute to the Chinese cultural that
middle management people taken care of this kind of survey. Two interviews were carried
out as author was back to China for holiday. Company ZT was primarily selected as it is
one of the first Chinese telecoms equipment provider and authors’ inside contact made it
possible to interview its senior manager. Content of interview was not only related to
questionnaire, but additional information was gained as well. Interview topic ranged from
number of failure rate of BPO projects to determine the major obstacles faced by the
company the future perspective of BPO in China. Second company interviewed was one of
new company, TS group. It is small, but it had several offshore BPO experiences. TS group
see BPO as a very important strategic movement for new and fast growing company. The
CEO of TS group was interviewed.
It is estimated that the result of this survey should be better off than a pure questionnaire or
interview. With author’s effort for face to face interview, a comprehensive understanding
of BPO practices in China and Malaysia gained and it will be helpful for latter quantitative
analysis.
Sampling methods
Qualitative enquiry is very often about depth, nuance and complexity, and understanding
how these work. Therefore, the act of concussing through sampling is likely to be as
strategic as it is practical (Mason.J, 2002). In order to obtain relevant information for the
study, 20 companies with offshore BPO experience have only been carefully selected for a
questionnaire survey even though it was random selected based on author’s knowledge.
Besides that, several face to face interviews were also conducted to gain an insight in BPO
industry. The overall response rate for the questionnaire was 70% in Malaysia and 80% in
China. It is considerably very high might due to the help with relevant government body.
With author’s limited resources, one company and one government body were approached
in Malaysia and two companies were approached in China.
Limitations
Three important limitations of this study need to be highlighted. Firstly, this study
generalizes and compares results for the whole China and Malaysia with no concern of
regional differences. Due to the differences of infrastructure level and culture in southern
china and northern china, the primary data obtained from questionnaire survey could only
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