# Developing Internet Online Procurement Frameworks for Construction Firms
## 3 Research Methods and Procedures  
This research employs a mixed methods design for data collection and analysis, beginning with an exploratory/pilot qualitative study and followed by a quantitative study. Mixed methods research is a procedure that collects and analyzes both qualitative and quantitative data based on priority and sequence of information [60]. The exploratory/pilot study was carried out to identify essential and unknown underlying variables for quantitative study [60]; hence, the qualitative data is not presented and analyzed in this paper. There were three phases involved in data collection and analysis: first, a preliminary study conducted through telephone surveys; second, a qualitative study via face-to-face interview; and third, a questionnaire survey through postal mail. A purposive non-probability sampling procedure was employed to garner the sample of Malaysian construction contractors Class G7 (G7 is the top class). The selection criteria elements are a) Size of companies, b) Well-established companies, and c) Consistency of project on-hand (3 years continuously and upwards). The preliminary study involved five large construction companies, represented by their senior managers, who are familiar with e-procurement matters to provide an overview of the current construction practices. Subsequently, personal interviews were used to determine the relevance of the organizational CSFs identified from literature to the Malaysian context. The interview participants comprised of ten industry experts, who had an average of 17 years of construction experience and at least 6 years of involvement with e-procurement systems. For the quantitative study, the sample was made up of large G7 Malaysian construction companies registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). There were 4413 companies registered under G7, but only 2181 contractors were registered as civil engineering contractors. Referring to CIDB's online website database, an investigation was made on a thousand (1000) contractors' profiles out of the total population 2181. Of this number, in turn, only one hundred and twenty-four (124) contractors participated in this study. Majority of the respondents are holding managerial positions (80.5%) and 61.8% had more than 10 years of working experience in construction. Approximately 43% had been involved in construction e-procurement/e-purchasing practices for more than 5 years. The National Bank of Malaysia categorizes contractors as large companies if their turnover is more than RM 25 million. The selection of companies was also based on any recognition that they had received from established institutions, such as prestigious management awards and MS ISO certifications. Among the sample, seven companies were recipients of prestigious awards of excellence from CIDB, Small and Medium Industries Association of Malaysia and The Brand Laureate for their leadership, strategic management and innovation. Examples of awards include the MCI Excellence Awards, which include the G7 Contractors Award and the Special Award for Innovation. The contractors were evaluated for the existence of continuous projects for three consecutive years at a total value of more than RM 30 million. The limit of RM 30 million was chosen because this amount indicates a fairly large amount of materials being purchased to construct the end products. This figure took into account the deductions for Prime Cost (PC) Sum works, and Provisional Sum (PS) works. If the cost of the projects selected were less than RM 30 million, the final amount after the said deductions would be considerably less, and this will affect the quantum of material purchases. Organizations would be less interested in adopting an e-purchasing solution if their purchases of raw materials were small, or if they did not consistently get new projects, or the projects were not so complicated, and the time frame was flexible.