*3.1. Data Collection*

As identified by [26], the quantity of data that can be utilized that is gathered from the interviewees and the number of participants required for the interviews has a converse relationship. The criterion for selection for the interviewees was purposive suitable sampling. After the selection of the various experts in carbon trading in the palm oil industry, information seeking the prospective interviewees' permission to engage in semi-structured interviews was channeled through email or telephone messages. As highlighted above, due to the limitations in some carbon trading experts, a small number of them were interested in taking part in a follow-up study via an interview. The researcher deliberately included carbon trading firms in the palm oil industry to accomplish the research objectives in terms of size and segment.

In particular, the interview questions explored the respondents' perception of the challenges and dilemmas that could affect the carbon trading implementation growth. The data collected was based on literature reviews, current status, growth, challenges and trends, and governmen<sup>t</sup> and private sector reports were considered as the secondary data collection process determinants. The primary interview data collection was proposed in this study to provide an explanation of how the respondents replied to the carbon trading project issues in the palm oil context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and they offered a more in-depth understanding of the focus subject. These interviews were directed by the researcher and were digitally recorded after the interviewees gave their verbal agreement. Furthermore, the researcher took notes required at the time of interview.

A total of seven company representatives were interviewed for data collection for this study. The sampling frame was drawn from the UNFCCC database, totalling 49 palm oil companies in Malaysia. The interviews were conducted with professionals among carbon trading experts and institutional theory was adopted to structure the interview questions. This theory informs the combination of deductive and inductive logic. The analyzed data was compared and developed further based on the data collected from the interviews. The researcher applied thematic analysis for the purpose of identifying a variety of restricted themes under every category, which could adequately reflect the data that has been collected. Thematic analysis is the qualitative data encoding procedure under a variety of themes. The two main ways through which themes can be identified in the thematic analysis include the inductive and deductive methods [27]. The inductive method is strongly linked with the data itself during the process of identification [28], while the deductive method entails the

use of themes that are guided by the theoretical or analytical interest in the area, as well as a more explicitly analyst-driven approach.

In the current research, an investigation of four main categories was carried out, namely the legal dimension, the financial conditions, the green resources and capabilities and the positive impacts on SDM. Under each group, a few themes were generated inductively based on the raw information obtained from the subjects. A compilation of the identified themes is available in the research findings section.
