METHODOLOGICAL DISCUSSION
As this work is engaged in theory building by a comparative study, case study research is found suitable (Eisenhardt 1989). For
data collection, qualitative method is employed to guarantee the richness of data to study services marketing in culturally distant
environments. Referring Cheng (2007), Doz (2011) observe that qualitative research may be essential for surfacing contextual
dimensions in international business, such as differences between countries. Variables like trust, networking and culture are
complex and interrelated which needs a researcher to go into the depth of the real world situation and explore how and why
things happen and do not happen. Qualitative methodology is primarily directed to understanding the complex and the elusive in
a systematic perspective more than to establish unambiguous cause and effect relationships between single variables
(Gummesson 2005).
A large number of interviews had been conducted with host country executives, host country professionals, and executives of
Elekta in Sweden. In the Chinese case, Elekta marketing manager for Asia and Elekta China manager were interviewed. The
second interview was conducted in Chinese and then translated to English by the Chinese interviewee. The Philippine case was
based on five interviews including president and Clinic Director of the Elekta center in Philippines. For the Brazilian case, we
interviewed 14 people including executives and professionals both in Brazil and Sweden. Two interviews were conducted in
Swedish which were translated into English by the researchers. All interviews were face-to-face and lasted between 30 minutes
to three hours. Interviews were semi-structured and tape-recorded. Besides interviews observations had been made in Elekta
premises in Sweden, Philippines and Brazil. Six visits have been made to Gamma knife center in Philippines to examine how the
treatments proceeded and the services offered. In Brazil, the researchers stayed in the Elekta office for a week to interview the
personnel and closely watch the daily works and dealing with the customers. The researchers also visited the two hospitals at
São Paulo, one of which is equipped with newly bought six Elekta machines, to see working environment and also talk with
technicians and physicians. No such observation could be conducted at the Elekta China as no visit could be made to the Gamma
knife center. Using different sources for this type of exploratory study has been emphasized by Yin (2003). By following the
conceptual framework, data were reduced inductively to conduct the comparative analysis.