Do as I do!: A single case study investigating leadership within a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus

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Bachelor Thesis

Do as I do!

- A single case study investigating leadership within a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus

Authors: Emelie Fors & Evelina Lundberg Supervisor: MaxMikael Wilde Björling Examiner: Kaisa Lund

Date: 2021-05-26 Term. SS21

Subject: Business Administration III - Degree Project

Level: Degree of Bachelor Course code: 2FE67E

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Abstract

The digitised world of today has led to the development of new organisational structures within companies, resulting in new leadership styles in digital firms. Furthermore, customers’

demand is constantly increasing, which results in the importance of delivering an experience to the customers to stay competitive in the market. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how leadership is applied in a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus.

This thesis is conducted throughout a qualitative single case study of a successful

e-commerce company focusing on customer experience(s). The empirical findings have been obtained through semi-structured interviews, which further have been analysed together with the given theories to gain an in-depth understanding to answer the research question (1) How does leadership manifest itself in an e-commerce company? Furthermore, the sub-question (a) Which leadership styles can be identified within the e-commerce company.

The conclusion of this thesis presents the importance of having leadership connected to the corporate culture. This includes considering the culture in all decisions within the company and that leaders and employees live by the company’s values. This thesis presents leaders within the case company applying several attributes of different leadership styles. However, the primary leadership style that has been identified throughout all leaders is transformational leadership, including being a digital leader.

Keywords

Leadership, Leadership style, Transformational Leader, Digital leader, Digital Era, E-commerce, Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, Corporate Culture, Organisational structure

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Acknowledgements

We would like to send our warmest thanks to everyone who has contributed and allowed us to conduct this bachelor thesis. First and foremost, we would like to express our gratitude

towards the participants, who opened up personal questions and took their time. The

participants have provided us with invaluable information and have been truly important for this thesis. Nevertheless, the case company Nordic Nest who have made this bachelor thesis possible. Thank you for allowing us to dig deep into your organisation and your leadership.

Furthermore, we would like to send our gratitude to our supervisor MaxMikael Wilde Björling who has provided us with valuable guidance and support during the process.

Moreover, we would like to thank our examiner Kaisa Lund and our opponents, who have provided us with critical feedback and the possibility to develop the work further throughout this thesis.

Linnaeus University Kalmar, 26 May 2021

___________________ ___________________

Emelie Fors Evelina Lundberg

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References

Academic Sources____________________________________________________________

Online Sources______________________________________________________________

Internal Organisational Documents_______________________________________________

Appendices

Appendix A - Operationalisation________________________________________________

Appendix B - Interview Guide Leaders - English version_____________________________

Appendix C - Interview Guide Leaders - Swedish version_____________________________

Appendix D - Interview Guide Recruiter - English version____________________________

Appendix E - Interview Guide Recruiter - Swedish version____________________________

Appendix F - Interview Guide CEO - English version________________________________

Appendix G - Interview Guide CEO - Swedish version_______________________________

Appendix H - Table of cases____________________________________________________

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1 Introduction to the problem

This chapter first provides a background with insight into the main topics of this thesis.

Further followed by a problem discussion covering theoretical- and managerial

problematisation explaining the relevance of the topics and the research gap. Moreover, this chapter presents the purpose of the thesis, followed by the research questions, and

delimitations.

1.1 Background

Today’s digitised world has changed companies in several aspects and still changes as the digital era evolves (Meyer & Schwager, 2012). The increase in digitalisation has resulted in changes in consumers' shopping behaviour. Consumers can now shop whenever and

wherever they prefer. Customers and consumers demand fast, simple solutions and seamless ways of shopping, where Omni-channels now are prefered (Meyer & Schwager, 2012). The Omni-channels include customers' expectations on assortment, service, availability and information about the origin of the goods and the environmental impact. This leads to higher competition levels for companies when delivering their service offering (Fredriksson,

Derwik, Fuentes, Regncrona, 2017). The competition amongst companies makes it inevitable not to consider the holistic experience they offer their customers. As a result, this has

reflected new ways of treating customers and delivering an experience to them. Customer Experience (CX) is a crucial factor in success in business, furthermore a main objective in retail (Verhoef et al., 2009). Customers demand transparency in companies in the supply chain and sales (Fredriksson et al., 2017), which creates demands on organisations and their leadership. Organisations are responsible for the supply chain along the way to the end

consumer. The responsibility includes planning, organising, and staffing the organisation with the right skills to meet the consumers' demands (Fredriksson et al., 2017).

The digital era has led to the development of new organisational structures within companies, resulting in new leadership styles in digital firms. LaSalle and Britton (2003), and Shaw and Ivens (2002), argue that one of the most valuable factors when planning a company’s offering is the experience they offer their customers. In the business magazine Forbes (2018), the

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senior contributor Morgan describes that “Companies that have the strongest customer experiences often have the best leaders”, which demonstrates the correlation between the two concepts of CX and leadership. Therefore, the present challenge for today's companies is to face the new digital era with a leadership style that makes electronic commerce (e-commerce) companies stay vital on the market and deliver a competitive CX.

Leadership is constantly surrounding us in everything we do and are described and discussed differently at several places and levels. Leadership may be found in a group of children, the CEO of a company, or a wolf and its flock. There are numerous studies in the field of leadership. Since ancient times, the topic has been studied, and there is constant research developed that contains new, relevant and innovative ways of seeing leadership and new ways to lead. Kotter (1998) describes leadership and its reflection into social skills and mobilising people to achieve important goals. Kotter (1998) states that leadership and its leaders can gather people around a meaningful purpose for the people despite pulling the power in different directions. Countless definitions outline leadership; however, they are all in some way linked to Kotter's (1998) description, which will be the definition of leadership this thesis has its foundation in.

As mentioned above, customers nowadays have higher demands, and companies need to consider the experience they offer their customers (Meyer & Schwager, 2012). Reiss (2012) voiced in the business magazine Forbes that firms need new ways of connecting with their customers. The challenge is, according to this, the increase of e-commerce businesses and their way of dealing with the experience they offer, when the physical meeting is not present.

The competitive advantage is increasingly more important with more actors on the market regarding retail, services and e-commerce. Likewise, it is now known to challenge service providers to deliver practical Customer Experience online to differentiate from competitors (McLean & Wilson, 2016).

Sweden is a country at the forefront of digital maturity, wherein in 2021, e-commerce is expected to have sales of 130 billion SEK. In Sweden, e-commerce accounted for 14% of total sales in retail in 2020, compared with 11% in 2019 (Handelsfakta, 2021). Despite this, the interior-decoration industry only represents 11% of the online trade share, with 89% in the offline channel (Handelsfakta, 2021). The trade share numbers are an indication that the

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market is competitive, emphasising the importance of staying vital on the market, gaining market share and delivering additional value to customers among the competitors

(Fredriksson et al., 2017).

Since the beginning of 2020, the virus Covid-19 has been spreading around the world. The pandemic has caused major negative effects in several parts of society (Public Health Agency of Sweden, 2021). Restrictions from the Public Health Agency of Sweden (2021), have drastically resulted in the decrease of revenue for several firms and the worst case a shutdown due to bankruptcy. The Statistic Sweden (2020) presents statistics of industries that have had a decrease in sales and the industries that instead have had a boost in sales during the

pandemic. One of these industries that had an increase in sales, despite the earlier mentioned factors, is the interior-decoration and furniture industry. The interior-decoration industry in Sweden from April-June 2019 to April-June 2020, had an increase in sales of 10.4%, as well as the furniture industry with an increase of 9.1% (ibid). Svensk Handel (2020), explains that this increase is a response to the effects of Covid-19 restrictions, meaning that people spend more time in their home than they usually do. An additional effect that Covid-19 has brought is the increase in sales in e-commerce companies. Svensk Handel (2020), reported that they see confidence in the future among e-commerces, both regarding sales and willingness to employ.

This increase is a further aspect that points to the relevance of the digital evolution and challenges that firms face today. Digitalisation increases the relevance of being a leader in a business organisation. Further to manage leadership in a fast-changing environment in an e-commerce context, where there is a clear focus on the customers’ experience (Li, Liu, Belitski, Ghobadian & O’Regan, 2016).

1.2 Problem discussion

The problem discussion is presented from a theoretical and managerial perspective, followed by the identified research gap.

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1.2.1 Theoretical problematisation

Over the years, tremendous researchers have defined leadership, and described its

characteristics and types. Smircich and Morgan (1982) explain that how we see organisations and their potentials is how leadership takes form. Continuously, Smirchch and Morgan (1982) argue that a leader is a person who manages to mediate knowledge and meaning to their followers. At the same time, a group is not functional without a leader. Previous research has been conducted to investigate differences between leadership and management (Rosari, 2019). When completing this thesis, it is necessary to differentiate between leadership and management and understand how these are connected when exploring the leadership within the case company. Research conducted by Rosari (2019) informs that leadership is a

relationship between the leader and its followers; leadership is undertaken not only by the leader but also with a relationship. Further, Kotter (1990) describes that leadership is a function that can produce helpful change, and management is a function that can create positive results and efficiency. Although the two parts together may work side by side to create an orderly change process. Kotter (1990) further describes that leadership alone cannot keep an organisation on time and within the budget, and management alone cannot create a useful change.

Customer Experience is a relatively new concept in the business world, although there is considerable research conducted during recent years. Customer Experiences may be

challenging to measure, contributing to researchers finding corresponding ways of measuring them. What is researched is the relationship between the leadership style and how it affects service quality and customer satisfaction. The authors Pantouvakis and Patsiouras (2016) research focuses on the correlation between leadership, service quality, performance, and job satisfaction (e.g. Oliver, 1997; Reichheld, 1996; Rust, Zahorik, & Keiningham, 1995;

Estelami, 2000; Heskett, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 1997). Pantouvakis and Patsouras (2016) research focuses on transformational leadership, and the results of the study present that transformational leaders influence their employees’ motivation, feelings, mobilisation and innovation. Further, the authors present that the employees being more motivated and satisfied with their work leads to positive service quality (ibid).

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Leadership is a well-researched concept. Despite this, there is not a wide range of studies conducted in the field of the digital era, with a focus on Customer Experience. Few studies have attempted to link these concepts. However, research shows the importance of

implementing new digital leadership styles to gain great Customer Experience (Cinquini et al., 2013; Ravichandran, Taylor & Waterhouse, 2016; Yoong, 2009). Besides, another study in the field within leadership and Customer Experience covers aspects such as how digital leadership is necessary to develop a business model adapted to deliver Customer Experiences in the new digital era; industry 4.0 (Mihardjo et al., 2019). The research findings inform that leaders that have a transformational leadership style are beneficial for employees and their satisfaction. Likewise, it is further presented that satisfied employees will generate satisfied customers (Mihardjo et al., 2019). Additional studies have proven that there is a link between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability (e.g. Oliver, 1997; Reichheld, 1996; Rust, Zahorik & Keiningham, 1995; Estelami, 2000; Heskett, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1997). Accordingly, research conducted by Rudito and Sinaga (2017) concludes that established companies should consider applying digital leadership to deliver a prime CX, which further is strengthened by several authors (Cinquini et al., 2013; Ravichandran et al., 2016; Yoong, 2009).

As for now, there is a lack of profound research concerning how leadership is applied in successful e-commerce businesses in Sweden, within the interior-decoration industry having a clear focus on Customer Experiences.

1.2.2 Managerial problematisation

Recent years have proven that offering an experience to the company’s customer will lead to a competitive advantage (LaSalle & Britton, 2003; Shaw & Ivens, 2002). Furthermore, the concept of leadership has been studied for decades, which is proven to result in customer satisfaction (Pantouvakis & Patsiouras, 2016). Despite this, there are two sides of the same coin; one side argues that a change is needed in leadership styles due to digital evolution and that leaders must adapt to the new era to stay vital on the market. On the other side, some argue that a change is unnecessary and a restructure is nothing worth considering to succeed (Kane, Phillips, Copulsky & Andrus, 2019). Research illustrates that outstanding leadership is essential in achieving great CX (Pine II, 2020). As a result of the present research, today’s

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companies’ challenge is to face the new digital era with a leadership style that makes an e-commerce company stay vital on the market and deliver a competitive CX.

Given the above, leadership and Customer Experience are no new concepts yet crucial in the business context. Despite this, the two concepts are relatively new in correlation; thus, CX and leadership are two concepts that can contribute to a company's profitability and competitive advantage. Companies need to understand the benefits of implementing leadership that contributes to a higher level of CX. Investigating a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus, and how leadership is applied within their organisation, will be beneficial and create valuable insights. The importance of leadership is needed to be considered in firms, as the customers are getting higher expectations and demands since more options are available on the market (Meyer & Schwager, 2012). This thesis contributes with awareness and guidance in how companies can begin to develop their leadership for a higher level of CX. These insights contribute to effectiveness within the organisation, reflecting a competitive market share, profitability and an increase in CX.

1.2.3 Research Gap

Based on the background and problem discussion, the identified knowledge gap is a lack of research in leadership and how it is manifested in a Swedish successful e-commerce

company. Therefore, this thesis investigates the leadership within a Swedish e-commerce company with a Customer Experiences focus, which further is operative within the interior-decoration industry.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how leadership is applied in a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus.

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1.4 Research Questions

Given the above specified research, the identification of the research gap, and the purpose, the research questions are stated with a main question and a sub-question, as follows:

(1) How does leadership manifest itself in an e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus?

(a) Which leadership styles can be identified within the e-commerce company?

1.5 Delimitations

This thesis is limited to the Swedish e-commerce case company, which is active within the interior-decoration industry. The company operates in business-to-consumer (B2C), and is active in ten international markets, with shipping worldwide. Despite this, the focus through this thesis will be on the Swedish market where the company's headquarter is located. The thesis is written from the perspective of the firm and its way of taking advantage of its leadership in delivering Customer Experiences. The case company's employees perspective of the leaders is therefore not considered in this research. Neither are supply chains nor other stakeholders taken into consideration.

The thesis will adapt the concept of leadership limited to the case company's organisation.

The benefits from leadership will be on the experience the company offers their customers.

Benefits such as workplace attractiveness and profitability will not be considered in this thesis, although it might be an outcome.

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2 Theoretical Background

This chapter presents the theoretical background on which this thesis is built upon. The chapter consists of new relevant literature and well-established theories. The chapter includes the core concept of this thesis; Leadership and Customer Experience, and its sub-concepts. Finally, the chapter presents a summary of the theoretical background and the identified knowledge gap.

The literature was selected based on its relevance regarding the research topic. To ensure that the theory was relevant, most of the sources were compiled from peer-reviewed academic sources. Most of these sources were published in the last ten years to ensure their relevance.

Although, some older theories have been used to receive a greater width of the subject. The databases from where the sources are collected are OneSearch, Emerald, EBSCO, among others. To find relevant sources and academic peer-reviewed articles, keywords like

“Leadership”, “Customer Experience”, “Customer Engagement”, and “Digital Leader” have been used during the process. By researching relevant articles, a snowball effect has occurred in finding new relevant information and sources by looking into the references of the

academic articles (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2019).

2.1 Leadership

Since leadership is a broad concept, it will be discussed from different perspectives, starting with Definition of Leadership, Framework of Leadership, Digital Era and its Leaders, Transactional and Transformational Leadership, Corporate Culture, and Employee Engagement.

2.1.1 Definition of Leadership

The way organisations are seen and their potentials are seen is how leadership takes the form (Smircich & Morgan, 1982). According to Smircich and Morgan (1982), leadership develops naturally over time, followed by the fact that there is always someone who takes the lead role.

The authors state that a group is not working correctly without a leader. The leader, in turn, is the person who successfully manages to mediate knowledge and meaning to their followers.

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By getting the followers to understand the purpose of a specific time, it is crucial to clarify the objective (ibid). On the other hand, there are several definitions of leadership. Bass (1990), Kotter (1988), and Rost (1993) have defined leadership in different ways. These definitions illustrate different perspectives of leadership and provide an understanding of leadership. Bass (1990) defines leadership as making the leader’s wishes. Kotter (1988, p.16), on the other hand, defines leadership as “the process of moving a group or groups in some direction through (mostly) non-coercive means''. Rost (1993, p.102) defines leadership as “an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend purposes”. In the article

“Leadership definitions application for lecturers’ leadership development”, the author Rosari (2019) compares these definitions and proposes that the definition of Rost is the most

accurate. This statement is based on the fact that Rost’s definition (1993) describes the dynamic relationship between the leader and the followers in a way that Bass (1990) or Kotter (1988) does not. Rost (1993) continuously proposes that four elements are necessary for leadership; if all these four appear, it is leadership. These elements are “(1) the

relationship is based on influence, (2) leaders and followers are people in this relationship, (3) leaders and followers intend real changes, and (4) leaders and followers develop mutual purposes.” (Rost, 1993, p. 127).

Rosari (2019) states that leadership is about being active, both regarding the leader and the followers, together they do leadership. Further, Rosari (2019) explains the difference between leadership and management. He describes leadership as a relationship between the leader and followers who have the same mutual goals and wants for a change. Rosari continues with,

“Leadership is not a person, sitting at the top of the hierarchy, determining for a group of loyal followers, the direction, pace, and outcome of everyone’s effort. Leadership is not management” (Rosari, 2019, p. 25).

2.1.2 Framework of Leadership

As earlier mentioned, there are several definitions of leadership and numerous different leaders and leadership styles. Two pioneers in leadership are the researchers Bolman and Deal (1991), who have explored the understanding of organisations and leadership. Their research presents four different perspectives with its assumptions and behaviours within the field. The four frameworks are structural, human resource, political and symbolic. The

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perspectives aim to describe organisations and to view them from multiple perspectives.

Managers rarely use all four frames. Usually, one or two frames of leadership are used (Bolman & Deal, 1991). Although, it is common with different leadership styles and perspectives in other contexts.

Looking into the first of Bolman and Deal’s (1991) four perspectives, the structural perspective focuses on goals, rules and efficiency within an organisation (Bolman & Deal, 1991). By being an effective organisation, there should, regarding the structural perspective, be implemented policies, regulations and goals. Likewise, Alvesson (2005) addresses

concrete, functionalism, and effectiveness as a traditional view of organisational culture. The employees should be differentiated into specific roles to make the organisation as efficient as possible (Bolman & Deal, 1991). According to Bolman and Deal (1991), leaders within the structural perspective value information and data, they are analytical and focus on results and do not hesitate to tell their employees if they have not performed as expectedly.

In comparison, Liebeskind (2000) argues that if the firm gets too complex when it comes to structuring, it will most likely lead to less motivation over winning competitive challenges.

Bolman and Deal’s (1991) second perspective, the human resource perspective, attempts to prioritise the employees, and the most crucial factor within the organisation is the focus on the human need and their well-being. The human resource perspective specifies this aspect as necessary so that the employees can perform in their best possible way. Bennet (2009) agrees that effective leaders will inspire their employees to take responsibility for their work and make decisions that will benefit the team. This perspective believes that people and

organisations need each other (Bolman & Deal, 1991). A leader within the human resource perspective values relationships and feelings. It is crucial with development within the employees. There is a focus on having the proper fit of people within the organisation (ibid).

Continuously, the political perspective is making decisions and allocating resources in a context characterised by scarce resources and conflicting interests. All organisations are political, but the question is what type of policy they have (Bolman & Deal, 1991). The political perspective sees organisations as coalitions that consist of many different individuals and interests. Goals and decisions emerge through negotiation, bargaining and competing for

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prime positions between competing stakeholders or various interest groups. This means that political leaders need to advocate, negotiate compromises, and network (ibid).

The last and fourth of Bolman and Deal’s (1991) perspectives are the symbolic perspective.

The importance of this perspective is not what happens but what it means (ibid). This perspective values and frames that culture holds an organisation together. A symbolic leader sees that people interpret experiences differently, and they are often charismatic. Symbolic leaders value visions, myths, rituals, ceremonies and stories, which together creates the organisation (ibid). Similarly to the symbolic perspective by Bolman and Deal (1991), Alvesson (2005) sees the corporate organisation as a community where the focus is to represent cultural values. Alvesson (2005) states that the cultural values are centred on a process of change by which members adopt the organisation’s core visions and develop a deeper identity based on shared beliefs.

2.1.3 Digital Era and its Leaders

Although Bolman and Deal's four perspectives (1991) are deeply entrenched in organisational culture, Li et al. (2016) state that a change in leadership is necessary when entering Industry Revolution 4.0. Industry Revolution 4.0 is a new digital era (Kagermann, 2015). A new digital era demands changes in organisations. These changes can be in new business models and changes in leadership styles (Li et al., 2016). Industry Revolution 4.0 has been formed by developing digital technology, big data, cloud storage, mobile, internet, and artificial

intelligence. Aspects like these facilitate effectiveness at companies. Digitalisation fosters changes and development in both businesses and for its customers (Kagermann, 2015).

Adopting the digital world’s transformation has become a vital part of gaining competitive advantage and taking the lead in the business world (Berman, 2012; Downes & Nunes, 2013;

Fitzgerald, Kruschwitz, Bonnet, & Welch, 2014). In the same way, does Qualman (2012) describe the importance of embracing the digital world to become a successful digital leader.

As can be seen, this new digital era has caused new leadership styles, including the concept of digital leadership. Likewise, Qualman (2012) states that the digital era and its leader means that the digital leaders are made, not born. According to Qualman (2012), digital technology tools can unlock the potential of leaders where they can inspire their followers and live their

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best lives. This suggests that technology and the digital world is in constant development, and those who will embrace the fact will succeed (Qualman, 2012). It follows that the leading companies pay attention to take advantage of the digital transformation and its technologies to gain a more remarkable Customer Experience and collaboration (Berman, 2012).

Digital leadership is, according to Hambrick and Mason (1984), the combination of digital culture and digital competence. De Waal, Van Outvorst and Ravesteyn (2016), on the other hand, concludes that the mix between the use of digital technology and transformational leadership is what defines a digital leader. Transformational leadership inspires their followers, communicates, motivates and provides their followers with attention. A

transformational leader pushes their followers towards an outstanding performance (Bass, 1990). Further, a transformational leader supports their followers to be innovative, creative, and develop solutions that benefit the businesses and the followers themselves (Sosik, 2006).

Given the above, Zhu (2015) have classified digital leadership into five characteristics, includes (1) Thought leader - being a leader with the ability to meet drastic changes and competition; (2) Creative leader - being a leader with an innovative and creative ability; (3) Global Visionary Leader - being able to provide directions to lead the team forward; (4) Inquisitive Leader - being able to manage uncertainty and being curious to gain

understanding in complex situations; (5) Profound Leader - with its knowledge, being able to understand and interpret information in decision making.

2.1.4 Transactional and Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is mentioned in the section above, and the opposite of that leadership style is transactional leadership (Pantouvakis & Patsiouras, 2016). Burns (1978) stresses that a leadership process overall either occurs as transactional or transformational.

Transactional leadership is based on control and a strict management structure and authority (Bromley & Kirschner-Bromley, 2007). The leaders who adopt transactional leadership prefer standards of work, procedures and training, likely task-oriented goals. The transactional form of leadership can be explained in a reward- and consequence manner to influence the

performance of the employees. Namely, when accomplishing a goal, the employees will be rewarded (Bromley & Kirschner-Bromley, 2007). What opposes this is, according to Thomas and Xu (2011), transformational leadership. The authors state that transformational leadership

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plays a significant role in the engagement of the employees. Transformational leadership style is described as a style with a primary focus set on the team’s success (Thomas & Xu, 2011).

Furthermore, its focus is on motivation and collaboration with the employees, further inspiring and contributing with charisma towards the employees (Pantouvakis & Patsiouras, 2016). The leader is, therefore, a leader who sets goals and provides opportunities for the whole company. The leader sets goals that the employees can work towards to achieve better results and work for the organisation’s success (ibid). Likewise, MacKenzie, Podsakoff and Rich (2001) stress that transformational leadership influences the employees to achieve performance beyond the obligations. The authors state that transformational leadership behaviour has a more significant impact on salespersons or employee performance than transactional leadership behaviour (MacKenzie, Podsakoff & Rich, 2001).

Similarly, Bass (1985) and Burns (1978), who developed the idea of transformational leadership, state that transformational leadership has a more substantial influence on employees’ positive attitudes towards their work. Creativity, interaction, vision,

empowerment, passion, and ethics are stated to be the characteristics of a transformational leader when it comes to its personality, according to the authors’ Hackman and Johnson (1991). What should be applied at all levels and stages to lead the transformation is,

according to Bromley and Kirschner-Brom (2007) communication. The authors state that the responsibility is the leader’s to set up and perform clear communication. Going forward, the authors declare that the employees will gain a positive interaction with the lead and manifest commitments, which will lead to a positive experience and a feeling of being needed.

Likewise, the term transformational originates from “the ability to inspire and develop people as resources and move them to a higher state of existence, transforming them in the process.” (Bromley & Kirschner-Bromley, 2007, p. 54).

2.1.5 Corporate Culture and Employee Engagement

It is stated by Ravasi and Schultz (2006) that organisational culture is characterised as a collection of internal shared assumptions that direct the corporate understanding and action by defining acceptable behaviour in various situations. Similarly, according to Carayannis

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and Meissner (2017), the fundamental challenge for businesses is that businesses must implement a shared vision of innovation and culture that includes company leaders and the employees. Likewise, Tellis, Prabhu and Chandy (2009) state that the corporate culture, rather than labour, money, government, or national culture, is a much more significant engine for radical innovation in companies. On the other hand, Gassman (2006) stresses the

importance of maintaining transparency. The organisational processes must be evaluated and strengthened regularly, focusing on the communications between sectors of the organisation.

Smircich and Morgan (1982) mentioned that the way we see organisations and how we see their potentials is how leadership takes form. As mentioned in section 2.1.4 Transactional and Transformational Leadership, a leadership style can have a significant impact on employee satisfaction (Bromley & Kirschner-Bromley, 2007). Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser & Schlesinger (1994) state that satisfied employees most presumably will generate revenue and satisfied customers. Fernandez (2007) agrees that employee engagement is another concept worth considering. Van Katwyk, Spector, Fox and Kelloway (2000) describes the difference between job satisfaction and engagement. The authors describe engagement as a positive reaction covering personal experiences in a job-related area.

Further, that engagement is the willingness to invest in yourself and the firm. Engagement is being loyal, passionate, and showing enthusiasm towards one's job and the related firm (Macey & Schneider, 2008; Erickson, 2005; Macey, Schneider, Barbera, & Young, 2009).

One definition of engagement is that “a desirable condition, has an organizational purpose, and connotes involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort and energy, so it has both attitudinal and behavioural components” (Macey & Schneider, 2008, p. 4). The second definition of engagement, considered one of the most approved, is a “positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and

absorption” (Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma & Bakker, 2002, p. 74). Erickson (2005) describes that one of the most critical priorities for firms and organisations is improving their employees’ engagement. This, since engaged employees, affects customers in the same direction. Moreover, committed and passionate employees value and are to a higher extent looking forward every day to their work, and they are seen to be happy and pleased and keener on working longer days (ibid). Working with the leadership style is an effective

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management technique in different aspects (ibid). When used correctly, it can strengthen positive employee relationships, improve the organisational environment, and improve service efficiency (Kozak & Uca, 2008).

Leaders who are effective managers provide directions that inspire the employees to take responsibility for their work. They furthermore allow creativity when it comes to solving business challenges. Furthermore, to make decisions that will benefit the team and the company (Bennett, 2009). Likewise, Bäcklander (2019) states that one of the most coveted attributes an employee is searching for is being self-directed. The concept of being

self-directed entails more than constructive behaviours such as taking control or speaking up (Bäcklander, 2019).

Moreover, a successful self-directed employee might make good sense of occurrences and facts (Bäcklander, 2019). Research conducted by Kara, Uysal, Sirgy & Lee (2007) is consistent with previous research by Arnold et al. (2007), which reported a correlation between high-quality leadership and the well-being and performance of employees. As a result of this, Kara et al. (2007) state that transformational leadership might even contribute to the life quality of an employee, whereas its well-being will increase.

2.2 Customer Experience

As mentioned previously, leadership may affect customers' interaction and satisfaction (Heskett et al., 1994; Berman, 2012). What can be related to satisfied customers is the concept of Customer Experience (CX). CX has its beginning in the sets of interactions a customer has with a company or its products (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). A traditional view of CX and its value-making towards the customers is that it only comes from one provider (Woodruff, 1997) and has a view of customers as rational decision-makers

(Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982), who tend to consider function and beneficial features (Bernd Schmitt, 1999). CX’s view as a distinction between two different aspects of value is relatively new and opposes this. Except for the functional value, or utilitarian value, which is the value that a customer receives from the functionality of a product, described in other words,

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customers looking for the right product at the right price (Babin, Darden & Griffin, 1994).

Addis and Holbrook (2001) distinguish the new way of seeing the customer's value, as the hedonic value or the experiential value. This value is based on the emotions and the extent of entertainment the customers require (Babin, Darden & Griffin, 1994). It is stated that

customers can benefit from the hedonic value, even though they do not make a purchase (MacInnis & Price, 1987). They can benefit from the physical shopping process, such as talking with the staff, listening to the music surrounding them, or browsing the shelves (Markin, Lillis & Narayana, 1976). Since physical stores already benefit from the hedonic value, this is a challenge for online stores since it is a more convenient way of switching sites or stores online if the firm does not offer that kind of value or experience that is requested (Koufaris, 2002). Research has presented that the effects of hedonic value increases unplanned purchases, which the authors’ Lee and Wu (2007) suggest that online stores operators should consider.

As earlier mentioned, LaSalle and Britton (2003), and Shaw and Ivens, (2002) argue that one of the most valuable factors when planning a company’s offering is the experience they offer their customers. CX can be measured by customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (Lutz &

Foong, 2008; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). On the other hand, according to Meyer and Schwager (2012), measuring customer satisfaction can be misleading since the results do not inform the firms how to proceed to receive it. Meyer and Schwager (2012, p. 2) describe customer satisfaction as “the net result of the good ones minus the bad ones. It occurs when the gap between customers’ expectations and their subsequent experiences has been closed”.

The experiential mindset has developed new business models in a wide variety of companies (Pine II&Gilmore, 2016). Customer Experience has been conducted as a holistic process where the touchpoints a customer can face during its journey at a specific company or brand are potential factors affecting the experience (Voss, Roth & Chase, 2008). It involves several dimensions and aspects and personalised experiences to the customers, furthermore relating to customer relations as several times of experience rather than a single time experience (Mihardjo et al., 2019). Already at the beginning of the 80s, Levitt (1983, pp. 9-10)

concluded that it must be an advantage to offer the customer something extra, more than just the product. He stated, “having been offered these extras, the customer finds them beneficial

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and therefore prefers to doing business with the company that supplies them”. CX is a

constantly developing concept that makes value creation an ongoing process through the past, present and future experience (Helkkula, Kelleher & Pihlström, 2012).

2.3 The relationship between Leadership and Customer Experience

Given the above, both Leadership and Customer Experience are two deep and relevant topics and cornerstones of today's business models. In fact, in recent years, a related concept to leadership is CX. Recent research presents that both concepts do belong together. “Better employee experience leads to the creation of a better experience for customers, which feeds back to enabling a more engaging employee experience.” (Pine II, 2020, p. 24). Which points to the importance of great leadership in correlation to achieve. In the same way, it has been suggested that in the way the employees within a company are treated, in the same way they treat their customers (Chen & Chen, 2014; Chi & Gursoy, 2009; Heskett, Sasser, &

Schlesinger, 2010; Meng & Han, 2014).

Despite this, there is not a defined connection between the two concepts of leadership and CX. There are investigations in both fields, but neither covers the link between the areas.

What is studied is the link between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability (e.g. Oliver, 1997; Reichheld, 1996; Rust, Zahorik & Keiningham, 1995;

Estelami, 2000; Heskett, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1997).

The research conducted, including leadership's impact on Customer Experience, covers aspects such as how digital leadership is necessary to develop a business model adapted to deliver Customer Experiences in the new digital era; industry 4.0 (Mihardjo et al., 2019). The research findings in this article inform leaders that a transformational leadership style is beneficial for employees and their satisfaction. Likewise, it is further presented that satisfied employees will generate satisfied customers (Mihardjo et al., 2019). On the other hand, Rudito and Sinaga (2017) conclude that digital leaders should always show support and be innovative, willing to try new technologies and think in new ways. A digital leader should be ready to manage risks and to take fast decisions (Rudito & Sinaga, 2017). This concludes for

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established companies to deliver an exceptional CX, they should consider applying digital leadership (Cinquini et al., 2013; Ravichandran et al., 2016; Yoong, 2009).

2.4 Summary

As the research demonstrates, there is of significant importance for firms to improve their Customer Experience to stay vital on the market. Research has manifested that leadership is a crucial cornerstone to develop competitive CX. These changes are challenging for

e-commerce businesses when managing their CX without the physical presence (Verhoef et al., 2009). Bromley and Kirschner-Bromley (2007) state that the responsibility is at the leader to set up and perform clear communication. In contrast, Burns (1978) stresses that a

leadership process overall either occurs as transactional or transformational.

With the new digital era of Industry 4.0, new leadership styles are required (Li et al., 2016).

The new digital era has caused new leadership styles. This includes the concept of digital leadership. Digital leadership is the combination of digital culture and digital competence (Hambrick & Mason, 1984). This means that established companies in the digital era should consider applying digital leadership to deliver an excellent Customer Experience (Cinquini et al., 2013; Ravichandran et al., 2016; Yoong, 2009).

Furthermore, research presents that an excellent employee experience will reflect a great experience for the customers. Fernandez (2007) agrees that employee engagement is another concept worth considering. In the way an employee is treated, they will treat their customer (Pine II, 2020; Chen & Chen, 2014; Chi & Gursoy, 2009; Heskett, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 2010; Meng & Han, 2014).

Given the above, there is a research gap in how leadership is manifested in a successful e-commerce firm with a clear customer experience focus.

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3 Methodology

This chapter provides explanations and motivations of the research approach, the strategy and which methodologies have been implemented to answer the research question. The topics have been discussed to provide the reader with an understanding of the chosen

methodologies. Further, the type of data, sampling, and operationalisation are presented.

This, followed by a discussion of the research quality, as well as ethical, and sustainable considerations.

3.1 Research Approach

According to Bell, Bryman and Harley (2019), two directions are available when planning the research approach, inductive and deductive. The two approaches describe the relationship between theory and research in each of the directions. An inductive research approach starts with data collection, and continuously the findings from the empirical parts lay the

foundation for the theory development (Bell et al., 2019). When using an inductive approach, the researcher can reach a deeper understanding of a specific phenomenon, but there might be difficulties with generalising the findings into a wider setting (Saunders et al., 2019). Bell et al. (2019) state that the most used research approach is the deductive approach. A deductive approach explains the relationship between research and theory on what is already known about a specific context. A deductive approach often includes a hypothesis that is to be tested and further accepted or rejected. In contrast to the inductive approach, which most commonly is used in qualitative research, the deductive approach is commonly connected to a

quantitative research strategy (ibid). Although, a deductive approach can be used in a qualitative research strategy when no hypothesis is tested (Kumar, 2018). To summarise, an inductive approach is used to build a theory, while a deductive approach is used to test a theory.

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This research has its starting point in the theory collection. Because of this, the most appropriate is a deductive approach (Bell et al., 2019). The process has been iterative and goes back and forth between the theory collection and the empirical findings. The starting point in the theory has allowed the authors to develop deep knowledge and a foundation in the relevant theories in the field. This was of high importance since it built a base of knowledge before the collection of data.

3.2 Research Strategy

The researcher should always understand the importance of the research question(s) when determining which research strategy to use (Bell et al., 2019). When conducting research, both qualitative and quantitative methods may be used independently or combined, referred to as mix-method research (Bell et al., 2019). The two main strategies are qualitative and quantitative, and the method for gathering data sets them apart (Bell et al., 2019).

Quantitative research generates and uses numerical data, and qualitative research generates and uses non-numerical data (Saunders et al., 2019; Bell et al., 2019). What further

differentiates the two research techniques is that quantitative research aims to draw

generalisable behavioural inferences from the data. In contrast, quantitative research seeks to provide a deeper understanding of a particular context (Bell et al., 2019).

The research question in this thesis indicates an open-ended approach, since the aim of this research is to investigate how leadership is applied in a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus. This thesis is a case study of a Swedish e-commerce company within the interior-decoration industry. Since qualitative research is more flexible and

unstructured than quantitative research, it allows the researcher to interpret the responses during the process (Gray, 2019). Therefore, a qualitative research strategy has been chosen.

Due to the knowledge gap within leadership in an e-commerce firm with a Customer

Experience perspective, qualitative research with semi-structured interviews is of advantage, to gain an in-depth knowledge (Saunders et al., 2019). These interviews have provided the authors with primary sources. In qualitative research, it is vital with the researchers' understanding of the social world and the participants’ answers in an interpretive

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epistemology (Bell et al., 2019). Since this research aims to receive an in-depth

understanding and collect data and interpret it, this research has adapted interpretivism epistemology.

3.3 Research Design

The research design is a framework for collecting and analysing data (Bell et al., 2019).

According to Gray (2019), the research design is situated between the research questions and the data collection process and discusses how the research questions will be addressed. On the other hand, Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2009, p. 138) describe research design as the

“overall plan” for the study. There are five common types of research designs, according to Bell et al. (2019): experimental design, cross-sectional or social sample design, longitudinal design, case study design, and comparative design.

Because of the purpose of this thesis, the most appropriate research design was the case study design. Some challenges in selecting a case study design are that some argue that cases may be too narrow and adhere to the positivist tradition (Lee, Collier, & Cullen, 2007). A further challenge, according to Denzin and Lincoln (2017), is the ability to produce generalisable findings, which relates to what Lee et al. (2007) claim about positivist critique, namely that it is based on the use of undersized samples and interpreting data in general (Saunders et al., 2019). A case study is an intense analysis of a single organisation, location, or person (Bell et al., 2019). Likewise, Gerring (2004, p. 341) defines a case study as “an intense study of a single unit with an aim to generalize across a larger set of units”.

Furthermore, the case study design is preferable to answering research questions of how and why, making it highly applicable for this thesis. A case study design can occur through two different approaches, a single case study or a multiple case study (Bell et al., 2019). In this thesis, a single case study has been adapted. According to Dyer and Wilkins (1991), adapting a single case study design may be beneficial when the researchers aim to receive a deeper understanding of the topic, which strengthens the chosen research design.

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3.4 Type of Data

Two types of data may be used to address research questions: primary and secondary data.

Primary data is information gathered by researchers for their particular study to address the research question(s) (Saunders et al., 2019). Primary data can be obtained in various ways, including observations, focus groups, interviews, and surveys, and the approach used depends on the research and the expertise, and resources for the research (Kumar, 2018). On the other hand, secondary data are raw data obtained for other research and are extracted for future research (Kumar, 2018). Secondary data can be transcripts from previous studies and data summarised from organisations or institutions that may be relevant to answering research questions. When a third party uses primary data, it becomes secondary (Saunders et al., 2019).

For this research, primary data was gathered using the qualitative research strategy of

semi-structured interviews with leaders from the participating case company. The interviews were conducted to gain a broad overview and in-depth discussion of how the case company attains its leadership within the company. The questions in the interviews were both

open-ended questions, followed by some closed questions. The aim was to allow the participants to inform and discuss openly in their language, allowing them to speak freely.

Additionally, in this thesis, secondary sources have been used in internal organisational documents from the case company. These are presented and analysed during chapter 4 Empirical Findings and Analysis.

3.5 Research Method

To contribute with vital data, the research adopts multiple methods. Bell et al., (2019) present interviews as a beneficial tool to consider in qualitative research. When conducting

interviews for a research study, there are two forms of interviews to consider; standardised and non-standardised (Bell et al., 2019). The two methods vary in how they are carried out.

Standardised methods are structured interviews, primarily used in quantitative research, while non-standardised methods are semi-structured and unstructured interviews, which most commonly are used in qualitative research (ibid). Structured interviews are formal and

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non-flexible, where the interviewer follows the already established interview guide and questions through all interviewees. Unstructured and semi-structured interviews are

interviews where the interviewer offers the interviewee flexibility and freedom to discuss in their manner, allowing the interviewer to gain in-depth information about the chosen topic (Bell et al., 2019). A further method that has been used to gather data is a qualitative content analysis (ibid), which is explained in section 3.8.2 Qualitative Content Analysis.

3.5.1 Semi-structured Interviews

When applying a qualitative research approach, it is vital to organise the interview around the research questions. The interview questions will be relevant and provide information to learn more about the chosen research subject (Bell et al., 2019). The interviews of this thesis are built upon semi-structured interviews because of the qualitative strategy, and the aim of gaining a deeper understanding. A semi-structured interview means that the interviews will be conducted from a series of already set out topics and questions that will guide the

interview in the right directions. The semi-structure allows room for follow-up questions, and to open up for other topics based on the participants’ answers (Saunders et al., 2019). When conducting a semi-structured interview, the interviewer has the flexibility to change the order of the questions based on the flow of the discussion and the interviewees’ interests (Bell et al., 2019). Furthermore, semi-structured interviews will present new angles of leadership in the case company's organisation that may not be shown in the theoretical background. The choice of conducting semi-structured interviews was favoured to keep the data collection focused on answering the research questions.

3.5.2 Data Collection

Primary data in this thesis was collected through semi-structured interviews to understand the relevance of leadership in an e-commerce business with a Customer Experience focus. There were both closed and open-ended questions in the interviews. The theories in which this thesis has its starting point was gathered from literature in peer-reviewed articles. The collection of the primary data has been facilitated with the help of interview guides

(Appendices A, B, C, D, E, F and G). These guides were established to assist the interviewers with specific topics that were relevant to the thesis. The guides offered a wider variety of potential responses by conducting the main questions to different circumstances and

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principles. This gave each interview its own character. Moreover, the questions prepared have been determined to fit the interviewee in relevance, the chosen scientific methodology, and the study in total.

The interviews were conducted between 30/4-2021 and 7/5-2021, and took place online via Microsoft Teams. The responsibility through the authors was divided with one main

interviewer while the other was responsible for taking notes. The interviews have been recorded, transcripted and are presented in chapter 4 Empirical Findings and Analysis.

3.6 Operationalisation

Interview guides and an operationalisation table were created to address the research question and further fulfil the purpose of the thesis (Appendices A, B, C, D, E, F and G). According to Grey (2009), the research topics should be investigated through operationalisation. The questions asked during the interviews have been created as an interview guide, which Miles and Huberman (1994) states are essential when performing qualitative analysis. To manage the quality and relevance of the interview guide, the questions have been created with the research questions as the foundation. A guide allows the interviewer to change both the questions and the order of the questions during the interview. Since a semi-structured interview becomes more of a dialogue, it leads to more nuanced responses.

3.7 Sampling

To answer the research questions and meet the research purpose, a non-probability sampling has been proposed. Within this, purposive sampling was selected to conduct the qualitative research (Saunders et al., 2019). Purposive sampling is a conscious, non-randomized method of determining the case company and the participants that were interviewed during the research. The participants have been chosen based on the assumption that they will provide enough information to address the research question (Etikan, Musa, Alkassim, 2016; Bell et al., 2019). This method is suitable when examining an in-depth case study since it allows the researcher to look into a smaller sample, which will help the authors fulfil the research’s

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purpose. Bell, Bryman and Harley (2019) state that a non-probability sampling method is a favourable method for gaining a deeper understanding of businesses since the result will not be generalisable as in quantitative research (Saunders et al., 2019).

When selecting the company for the case study, factors were considered to receive value and a deep understanding of the thesis. The factors were:

● Leading business in e-commerce in Sweden.

● Customer Experience focus.

● More than 300 employees with several leading positions in different departments.

● High customer satisfaction rate on the Swedish market (Trustpilot, 2021).

● Interior-decoration Industry.

The case company was further chosen based on the authors' familiarity with and interest in the interior-decoration industry.

When researching with purposive sampling, criteria should be identified for the sampled cases (Saunders et al., 2019). The objective has been to interview seven leaders in different leadership roles in the case company, to receive an understanding of leadership styles and their roles in the company, and to receive their view of how their leadership affects the company's Customer Experience. A further objective was to interview until saturation occurs (Saunders et al., 2019). Interviewing leaders within different departments at the company provides valuable insight and a possibility to learn if all leaders within the company have the same ambitions and perceptions on how their leadership is applied. As the thesis investigates a case company and its leadership styles, it has been of interest to interview a person

responsible for recruiting leaders within the company. It will not be interesting to interview leaders from another company or people in other positions in the company or randomised people. This, since it would not contribute to answering the research questions.

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As a result, the following research criteria were established regarding the interviewees:

● Posses a leading position in the case company.

or

● Responsible for recruitment of leaders within the case company.

The CEO of the case company sent a request to their leaders informing them about this research and encouraged them to contact us if they had the possibility of contributing to the study. Further on, the authors sent an email to the concerned with a cover letter explaining the interview’s intent and the research query.

Further, the internal organisational documents used in the content analysis were chosen due to their relevance. The authors did an internal search in the company's digital internal

communication platform Microsoft Teams, for relevant documents to answer the research questions.

3.8 Data Analysis

Conducting qualitative interviews implies a large and complex number of data, which creates difficulties due to the volume of the data, which according to Bell, Bryman and Harley (2019), are challenging to interpret. Therefore, finding a path in qualitative data is difficult.

Despite this, Okely (2002) suggests two main strategies to analyse qualitative data. The two strategies are grounded theory and thematic analysis. Grounded theory is a well-used

framework for analysing qualitative data. The framework is an ongoing process of comparing the data that has been collected until no new information is discovered (Saunders et al., 2019). The grounded theory approach requires consuming a great extent of time which further involves a comprehensive understanding of the method. On the other hand, thematic analysis is known to be the most common approach in qualitative data analysis, where the main objective is to identify themes (Bell et al., 2019). Because of this, a thematic analysis is most suitable and has been adapted in this thesis.

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3.8.1 Thematic Analysis

A thematic analysis approach is a common approach that aims to identify, evaluate, and interpret the context of patterns to categorise them and discover themes (Gray, 2009). A theme can further be defined as a code (Bell et al., 2019). To be able to find themes and look for them, there are some criterias to consider. Ryan and Bernard (2003) recommend looking for repetitions. Repetitions involve the topics that recur again and again, in this specific case, within the interviews. Ryan and Bernard (2003) further suggest looking for internal

expressions that either can be familiar or unfamiliar to categorise further information. This can, in other words, be named as indigenous categories. An additional aspect to consider is linguistic connectors or specific words from the participants, such as “because” or “since”.

These words may refer to haphazard associations in participants' minds (ibid).

Thematic analysis has been used to identify patterns and themes to attain knowledge in how a successful interior-decoration e-commerce firm applies leadership. The thematic analysis has been detected from the predetermined themes from the theoretical background. It has further been evaluated, and some new themes have been identified during the compilation of the empirical findings. A tool used in this process is to digitally colour sentences from the transcribed interviews into themes to see correlations in the different interviews. After that, the empirical findings have been summarised and inserted in chapter 4 Empirical Findings and Analysis, together with the summarised internal organisational documents. To correlate the empirical results to the previously presented theories in the theoretical background and address the research question, the empirical findings have been examined in relation to the previously presented theories in the theoretical background.

3.8.2 Qualitative Content Analysis

Conducting a content analysis of internal organisational documents is vital since it generates valuable insights into the organisation’s information (Bell et al., 2019). The authors have been granted access to the case company's internal organisational documents to explore and interpret the documents and to receive an understanding of the company’s hierarchical structure. The access has been granted through the case company's digital internal platform Microsoft Teams. The documents that the authors have analysed are named “Employee guide” and “Brand identity”. The content analysis has further provided insight into the case

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company's organisation to strengthen the trustworthiness of the empirical findings from the conducted interviews.

When conducting a content analysis of organisational documents, it is of high importance to evaluate the materials. This has been done through Scotts (1990) criteria. Scott (1990) suggests considering the documents through four criteria, first its authenticity, where it is essential that the evidence in the documents is genuine and original. Second, its credibility, relating to if the documents are free from errors. Third, its representative relates to its

evidence and if it is typical of its kind and four, the meaning which relates to if the documents are clear and understandable. The internal organisational documents are conducted internally within the case company, which might have the purpose of being interpreted in a certain way, but in addition to the semi-structured interviews, they have provided additional value, and the thesis benefits from triangulation. The documents of the employee guide are used internally in the company for all employees, and the brand identity document is used internally and externally. Due to this, they are both credible since they are free from errors. They are representative and understandable; both documents are well-implemented guidelines within the organisation. Both analysed documents are original, which proves the authenticity of the content.

3.9 Quality of Research

According to Bryman and Bell (2011), the measurement of research quality is divided into two essential measurements; reliability and validity. Although, these two measurements are mostly connected to quantitative research. Measuring quality in qualitative research might be non-relevant. Due to this, Lincoln and Guba (1985) have suggested two alternate criteria for evaluating quality in both quantitative and qualitative studies, trustworthiness and

authenticity. The four criteria that determine trustworthiness are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.

3.9.1 Reliability in Qualitative Research

When collecting and analysing data, reliability refers to whether the methods used during the analysis are reliable. Reliability moreover includes whether other researchers can reproduce