Use multiple sources of evidence

Multiple interviews in each stage of the SC, multiple companies and site visits; workshops with all participants; additional documents reviewed

Establish a chain of evidence

Key informants reviewed the case write-up and the report before submission. Feedback was sought from all participants

Key informant review draft of the case study report

Transcripts of the interview were provided to participants for feedback and evaluation

Pattern matching

Patterns regarding SCRES were investigated

Explanation building

Rival explanations

Use replication logic in multiple case studies

Four cases were used for replicability of constructs and proposed theoretical relationships

Use case study protocol

A case study protocol was defined and implemented

Develop case study database

A case study database was created and used

Data from all participants represent the concepts

Evidence from all participants is used to support the concepts

Adopt well-established research methods

The research followed suggested procedures (Eisenhardt, 1989; Dubois and Gadde, 2002; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007)

Triangulate interviews with supporting data

Additional documents were used for validating interview data

Use iterative questioning

Participants were contacted multiple times for follow-up and clarification

Participants reflect on multiple experiences

A cross-case analysis was used to record responses for each participant

Interviews were open-ended, discovery-oriented and lasted from 25 to 165 min

Nonthreatening and anonymous interviews

Open-ended questions allowed participants to reflect on experiences

Maintain professional conduct

Interviews were conducted professionally and in a nonthreatening manner; all interviews were recorded and transcribed afterward

Use a diverse set of participants

Interviews included numerous participants who were highly knowledgeable in the underlying research topic