CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1 Introduction
The principle method of study is a case study through financial report, questionnaires, observation and interviews. The case study serves an important function as a qualitative method in management research and has provided many leads for theory, research and practice. Case studies are used in this instance as they offer the opportunity to observe problems, enabling an intensive study of the situation (Kazdin, 2003) and as much they frequently serve as the source for developing models and management techniques. They are also valuable in providing a counter instance for theories.
From a methodological standpoint, the traditional case study raises several problems such as:
• lack of experimental control techniques;
• relying heavily on anecdotal information in which judgment and interpretation can play a major role;
• absence of standardized or replicable procedures.
However, case studies have a persuasive and motivational value. A case study often provides a dramatic and persuasive demonstration and makes concrete and poignant what might otherwise serve as an abstract principle (Gummesson, 2000). Cases are convincing as the way information is compiled to convey a particular point, and have made important contributions to management research.

2.2 Philosophy
2.2.1 Method Selecting
The overall goal in selecting a basic business research method is to get the most useful information. The report should be chosen to use a combination of methods, questionnaire to quickly collect a great deal of information, deep observation combined with actual work experiences to understand the whole business operation and structure directly and clearly, and then follow-up interviews to get more in-depth data and relative information. That information would be integrated into a case study for more detailed analysis and application to test the propositions using quantitative data from financial reports.
2.2.2 Field Research
Research would be done on a basis of the questionnaire, observation and structured based interviews allowing first hand feedback to minimize ambiguity, resulting in a high quality response. The author conducted a pilot check with the assistance of some friends in the catering industry that allowed improvements to be made and implemented. The research involved:
•Qualitative approach using interviews and questionnaires, to develop an understanding of the main issues involved;
•Quantitative approach based on the data generated and collected by sample restaurant chain; and
•Analysis of Results

2.2.3 Research Methods
The most important target of this study is to design and apply the cost management techniques in the catering industry in China, the most rapidly developing market in the world. Therefore, in order to achieve the main purpose of this topic, this project will concentrate on secondary research with a case study, focusing on literature research and secondary data gathering as well. The dissertation will be divided into several sections to discuss and analyze each cost technique application, and those sections would be used to describe and analyze each technique combined with their relative literature review and application respectively.#p#分頁標題#e#
The literature review will cover the introduction of several of the most useful and practical cost management techniques, and the background and worldwide trend of the catering industry. The resources will mainly come from economic reports, case study, relative research, articles and books, journals, papers and good quality textbooks, and then be followed up with a case study for more in-depth discussion and analysis of applying cost management techniques. The financial data are collected from the last 4 years’ annual report of the study’s restaurant chain. In addition, this study also uses comparative research to analyze the information and data collected from the sample chain.
Regarding the case study process, the author has chosen to use a combination of methods, a questionnaire to quickly collect a great deal of information from managers of the sample chain and some managers of other similar level restaurants on the cost structure and their view on bottlenecks in their operation process; this will help me to construct the general cost structure model applied in Chinese restaurants recently, and then follow-up interviews to get more in-depth information from the CEO of the sample chain. Furthermore, this chapter is to get sufficient data to build up the activities process in the whole service process and detailed information about application of cost management in the sample chain through own observation and work experiences; then to design the ‘best practice’ of cost techniques into the operation of the catering industry, and to figure out ‘best fit’ of them.
Because of the variety of food in Chinese restaurant, it is impossible to list the entire menu to make comparative analysis deeply applied in the sample chain’s operation such as standard costing. Therefore, the case study adopts the method of giving examples to describe some specific application such as choosing typical dishes (Kungpao chicken) to describe standard cost, and also using assumptions to simplify process to gain direct view of application (indicating variance analysis). Setting target of 2009 for the sample chain comparing the actual situation in 2009, to indicate the importance of target costing, followed by brief implementation. Constructing the whole process and necessary tools and survey for Balanced Scorecard application combined with the actual condition of the sample chain; so does the Just-In-Time application. Moreover, exploring the bottlenecks of the catering industry through survey and questionnaire, to design and apply the Throughput accounting in the sample chain. Complementally, due to the geographic restriction and limited time, the writer designed and began the survey through friends in advance. Most interviews were conducted by telephone. The writer also designed and applied the survey monkey online resource to make a survey in advance, which aims to find out managers’ view of bottlenecks in catering operation.
2.3 Analysis of Data
To respond to the Quantifiable data, Microsoft ExcelTM would be used to store data and information. Descriptive statistics (Saunders et al, 2000) enable description and comparison of numerical variables. With the variance analysis, it would be easier to understand the results and tendency.#p#分頁標題#e#
2.4 Research limitation
Due to the geographic restriction and limited time, the writer designs the questionnaire but cannot do the survey by himself. That would encounter some problems when collecting information that cannot be discovered in time and cannot fix some mistakes and defects in the questionnaire. Because the interviews were made by telephone, several drawbacks exist such as not being able to get excessive information which would be helpful to the paper, possibly missing information, and so on. Observation and working experiences in sample chain offer significant information for this paper; however it would be subjective means that influence the objective of the whole dissertation. In addition, the paper adopts the case study as its main research method; however, each restaurant may face its individual problems or advantages to implement cost management, so that this research can only provide the general conditions in China, instead of a particular case.
To be highlighted, some literature comes from papers on the manufacturing industry; because there are relatively few research materials on cost management application in the catering industry, the writer could not gain sufficient information as the service industry is less well explained. The catering industry also is seen as a special manufacturing industry with a short production and consumes process.