3.5. Information gathering

According to Yin (1994), all the six clues for information gathering are furnished, which are the following: documentation (official data or evidence, which serves as a record), archival records (a piece of evidence about the past, especially a report of an act or incident kept in writing or some other permanent form), interviews (meeting of respondents face to face in order to gain an interviewee's point of view), direct observations (observing the phenomena mindfully in order to gain needed information), participant-observation (observing participants mindfully in order to gain needed information), and physical artifacts (item of cultural or historical interest, made by human). Their features will be particularly presented in the following table.

As it was commented above, it was decided to use the qualitative method in that paper. As it was already mentioned, documentation and archival records methods are applied to gather a numerical information that fits better to the quantitative method. So these two approaches will not be touched while working on the thesis. Aside from that, it is needed to neglect direct and participant observation due to the time and capabilities. Owing to the fact that technologic implements are not needful in that case, physical artifacts method will not be used. Thus, the interview approach suits to that study in the best way.

In concordance with Yin (1994), there is a number of ways to carry out an interview, which are the following: questionnaire forms, conversation on the phone and individual interviews. Questionnaire is about sending the question forms to interviewees, asking them to respond without no explanation and solution basis from their side. Conversation on the phone can be applied, when it is needed to request more complicate questions and, as a consequence of that, making clear misunderstood moments. Individual interview can be used, if the demand is getting in touch with interviewees face-to-face (Yin, 1994). As for that work, the individual interview approaches will be used. Consumers of Swedish (original) IKEA companies will be interviewed. As it is already clear, individual interview approach will be used for interviewing Swedish IKEA consumers.

3.6. Information analysis

When it comes to issue of the information gathering, the analysis of the information plays a significant role in the research. The aim of information analysis is to single out mostly utility data from the big variety of gathered information (Yin, 1994). Miles & Huberman (1994) mention, that information analysis consists of three levels, which are the following: information minimizing (some kind of sorting out mostly important things), information demonstrating and outcome graphics/affirmation. Information minimizing is beneficial tool for sorting the big amount of information. Information demonstrating is displaying the sorted info, structuring and tightening it to a convenient size. The third level is to conclude with a summary. According to Miles & Huberman (1994), the researcher maintains his main findings on that level (1994). Pursuant to Yin, two fundamental strategies could be applied in information analysis, which are the following: conceptual issues and case specification. Researchers selecting one of these approaches, starting from the quantity of foregoing researches. Conceptual issues approach is used if questions are studying, which are mostly basing on contemporary theories, and matching own results with the existing ones. On the other side, case spesification approach is used if the foregoing work field is not so wide (Yin, 1994).

In that paper the conceptual issues approach will be used for the information analysis. All the gathered information and findings will be matched with the existing theoretical, because as it was commented before, the interview questions are basing on the existing researches and theoretical. In order to apply that approach, three steps, mentioned above, will be presented in the information analysis. First and foremost, all the gathered information from interviews will be minimized and sorted. That information, which is valueless in case of that research, will not be included and discussed in the fourth chapter. It is supposed it is better to understand in more simple and effective way, what exact data and findings which are gained from the interview. Secondly, all the helpful data is shown in the fourth chapter and all of these data are sorted in proportion to the line-up of the interview questions. Thirdly and lastly, after all the data is discussed, the interview outcomes will be matched with the existing theoretical. This matching could play the role of basis of conclusion and outcome affirmation. Explaining that in more detailed way, as a result from the matching empirical data and theoretical, we are able to find out, what are the positive cues of consumer loyalty strategy in the empirical case and if there is a diversity in theoretical field. Apart from that, as a result from the matching these two cases, we are able to pick the differences and similarities amongst these different markets.