anyone else. Hence, primary data sources include: individual enquiry in the form of observation, conversations, questionnaires, interviews etc.

As mentioned by Dawson (2002, pp.31) there are three basic types of questionnaire – closed ended, open-ended or a combination of both. Closed-ended questionnaires are used most commonly. This type of questionnaire is used to generate statistics in quantitative research. These questionnaires follow a set format. Open-ended questionnaires are used in qualitative research. The questionnaire does not contain boxes to tick, but instead leaves a blank section for the respondent to write in an answer. open-ended questionnaires can be used to find out what people think about a service. Many researchers tend to use a combination of both open and closed questions. That way, it is possible to find out how many people use a service and what they think about that service on the same form.

For this study, questionnaires have been used among staff members of a fully-fledged Islamic bank in Sri Lanka. This method was used to obtain first-hand information where Islamic banking is already being practiced.

Interviewing is another method of collecting qualitative information, whereby the interviewer will be able to gather additional information through the body language of the respondents. Dawson (2002, pp.27) states, in social research there are many types of interview. The most common of these are unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews. Unstructured or in-depth interviews are sometimes called life history interviews. This is because they are the favoured approach for life history research. In Semi-structured interview the researcher wants to know specific information which can be compared and contrasted with information gained in other interviews. . Structured interviews are used in quantitative research and can be conducted face-to-face or over the telephone, sometimes with the aid of lap-top computers.