Investment and management in Energy-saving construction materials market in contemporary Taiwan (IV)

Innovation has always been the center of the research and development of Taiwanese ESCM market. The past 10 years have seen a lot of new types of ESCM with tremendous technological and practical improvements (Chen et al, 2011). It is believed that firms and customers alike can gain satisfaction from buying these products. From the investment perspective, innovation is the best guarantee for gaining a full return besides profits because the new functions and sustainability they can bring to the market.

On the other hand, innovation is capable of making the management process more effective as well, with much thanks to the updated managerial concepts and systems incorporated in the Taiwanese ESCM firms (Baloyi and Bekker, 2011). Innovation is also an effective ruler to measure whether an industry is experiencing positive growth--both economically and in terms of size. With them in the picture, there is stability to be found in the investment and management of the industry. Most of all, innovation generally enhances the ESCM market to be more adaptable, so that can bounce back from disadvantageous situations such low market demand, financial crisis and government policy interventions.?

The study will be conducted in Taiwan in late March. However it is not physically. The researcher has access to Taiwan business directory in which the active firms in the ESCM industry are listed. Considering not every firm is up for taking part in the questionnaire, it is absolutely necessary to contact as many firms as possible. The context of this research is compatible with the research design--a qualitative and quantitative combined method. The reason for the timing is subject to many reasons, especially those in deep relation with the market changes and new policies in 2016 after the Chinese new year. The Taiwanese government has many causes to regulate the ESCM market (Chang?and?Ming-Chi, 2011).

One of them is it wants to accumulate more actual experience to enhance the domestic buyers' faith in the market. This possibly involves with how the firms in the future how to formulate their business strategies to work with other South Pacific firms in the same issues, e.g stagnant customer basis and slow progress in developing supply and distribution channel. Another reason for the timing is the operating scope of Taiwanese ESCM firms will change in 2016 due to the new policies, in which they are allowed to have more frequent business relation and activities with mainland China. In the past, most of these firms focus on too much on domestic demands, those from Taiwanese households and government housing projects. It is a situation that lasted for about 18 years starting in 1998 (Mostafa et al, 2011).

For instance, some firms' experience and lessons in this timing can help the research to understand better the special results, such as the market conditions, business terms and government interventions that have given rise to a new practice of investment and management. There is very little evidence to show before the past 10 years Taiwanese ESCM firms were aware of the opportunities. Moreover, focusing on Taiwan alone can help to reveal some of the mechanisms of business that only exist in South Pacific construction industry. Of course, it is very special in terms of business and investment procedures, which for years has made it hard for foreign constructions to get a stable number of contracts.

Although on the surface South Pacific's ESCM market is prosperous, some unknown facts about its investment and management should only be dissected with a region. Taiwan's ESCM market, according to Al-Maghraby (2012), is among those that have very interesting mechanisms because of its unique stance in politics and geography. Therefore, it is extremely useful for the data collection to focus on this regional context. In addition, there are some unique situations accompanying the downsides of quantitative research method, such as business culture barriers. Bryman (2008) suggested that the context then should be represented by the region around which the research phenomenon centers.?

All in all, instead of going across the world and spend fortunes in distributing questionnaire forms over more than two countries, it is more pragmatic to practice in a small region such as Taiwan. It has more interesting occurrences in the market development with the new government policies. After all, small region contains concentrated cases where lessons are more valuable (Bakhoum and Brown, 2012) for SMEs. This is typical for the construction industry because its investment is most of the time detrimental. This will reflect the true method of practice of investment and management without having to worry about its further changes on the horizon. For the most part, 2016 will be a hallmark time line for Taiwan's ESCM market.

Giroux (2011) pointed out that in any form of mixed research method, the subject must be able to provide in-depth data to analyze the complex situation of the phenomenon. In light of this theory, the sampling must be done in the concern of the data validity. The represented population of the subject pool is the then the most important thing. Considering the randomness and needs of a degree of statistics to assist the analysis, the information that is available from the subjects is the most important. Many previous studies have adopted this theory and used it as the sampling principle. For the most part, the qualitative aspect of the research calls for a dynamic data collection process. It also requires the subjects to be sampled in a flexible way because there might be further needs in data as the research progress toward the final stage.

Churchill & Sanders (2007) stated that any form of study must consider the accumulative nature of first-hand data. This principle is for most studies to choose the best sampling method. This has led the researcher to evaluate the possibilities of the following sampling methods. Given the big scope of the research (20 Taiwanese firms),?it is vital to select for the data collection instrument. The future research will send questionnaires to 20 Taiwanese ESCM companies. The forms contain both close-end and open-end questions regarding the financial and managerial matters.

First of all, there is the snowball sampling. According to Luo (2011), snowball sampling is the best option when the researcher is about to decide which operating mode is suitable to selection the data. For instance, when the researcher has located a company via some channel. If it agrees to take part in the questionnaire, it can recommend other companies in its network to do so as well. By contrast, without this condition the chance of contacting 20 companies is very little. By and by, the other companies can also recommend the researcher to companies that are willing to take part. Then, the source for data is very rich and the collection can even be too much. Nonetheless, the is one single shortcoming, which is that the companies might hold the same perspective in conducting the investment and management. In other words, there is not too much insight to be derived from them.

Then, in consideration of having an online business directory there is the random sampling suggested by Collis & Hussey (2009). Based on the actual situation of Taiwan's ESCM market, this is viable sampling method. Especially, when the researcher is the first time conducting the research in this area, everything about the data is relatively fresh. Therefore, simple random sampling can select respondents who can provide sufficient feedback. Similarly, purposive random sampling is better alternative. Its process must be followed in the following steps. According to Churchill & Sanders (2007), the researcher refine his or her research objectives first, then determine the most appropriate subjects. In particular to the outcome, this sampling method can enhance the validity of the sampled subjects in qualitative research.

In comparison with the sampling principle of this method in quantitative research, it does not have to select the subjects who possess representative feedback. Since the qualitative and quantitative sides of the sampling rely on the scope of the research, purposive sampling is flexible. After understanding the theories that are used in the research and the nature of each sampling method, this research has opted to combine the one that is theoretically the most suitable and convenient (Wedawatta et al, 2010b). In addition, it must have comprehensive sampling principles that work with the time and finance of the research. To make the process a little more convenient, the researcher reduce the pool of subjects to be at least majorly deal with ESCM and relevant construction projects in Taiwan. By focusing on the surrounding samples, such as the companies they have recommended, the subjects will grow until the maximum number is reached.?