Interviews with the main participants in each collaboration project constituted the primary method of data collection. For each case, native researchers conduct semi-structured interviews with six to twelve knowledgeable participants. These included initiators, sponsors, executive champions, and project leaders as well as staff responsible for different aspects of the project such as technology infrastructure, marketing, legal affairs, or human resources. The interview protocol contained questions related to the project context and initiation (history, scope, management), to the technology solution used, to the collaboration process (participants, negotiation, objectives, conflicts, strategies), and to the performance of the project. The second method of data collection was document analysis including a review of laws, regulations, contracts, project plans, and other written material pertaining to each collaboration and its context. These secondary data from legal documents and official or published sources describe the environmental factors and also provided a way to compare the official record against the opinions gathered in the interviews.

Data were coded and analyzed using a coding scheme keyed to the specific variables that make up each dimension of the conceptual model. New codes or factors were added to account for variables that appeared in the data, but were absent from the preliminary model. The codes were applied to the interview transcripts using text analysis software. Each interview transcript was coded separately by two coders and then results compared and discussed. Where differences occurred, the coders reached a consensus decision about the correct codes to use. Each case description was written by the appropriate interviewer(s) following a standard format in either English or French, depending on the language of the researchers. All the case study narratives were then translated into the other language so the entire research team could make use of them.