Management Research Methods

EFIMM0149

Lecture 1:
Introduction
Why do business research?

Reasons for conducting business research include:

There is a gap in the literature and/or there are unresolved issues

There is inconsistency amongst studies;

Societal development prompts a research question;

To understand a topic or phenomena better

Scholarship and research

‘… not collecting data and packaging a solution but justifying

your results and explaining why you chose to go down one
route rather than another’

Work that ‘substantiates, regulates, organises or generates

our theories and produces evidence which may challenge our
own beliefs and those of society in general’
(May, 1993)
Philosophical foundations of business
research
Theory and Research

 Understanding the link between theory and research

– There are two key issues here:

What form of theory is being referred to?

Is data collected to test theories or build them?

Deductive and Inductive Theory

• Deductivism:

– Theory  data
– Explicit hypothesis to be confirmed or rejected
– Quantitative research
• Inductivism:
– Data  theory
– Generalizable inferences from observations
– Qualitative research /grounded theory
Abduction

 An increasing popular approach

 Neither inductive or deductive: abductive as a third way
 Based on pragmatist approach
 Starts with a puzzle or surprise and then seeks to explain it

 Involves the researcher selecting the ‘best’ explanation from

competing explanations or interpretations of the data (Mantere and

Ketokivi, 2013)
 Philosophical assumptions in business research

Ontology Philosophical assumptions about the

nature of reality – What exist in the world?
How do they exist?
Epistemology A general set of assumptions about ways
of inquiring into the nature of the world –
How do we best learn about the world?
Methodology A combination of techniques used to
inquire into a specific situation – overall
strategy of research guided by research
goals and philosophical assumptions
Methods and Individual techniques for data collection,
techniques analysis, etc.
Mary’s room

https://www.ted.com/talks/eleanor_nelsen_mary_s_room_a_
philosophical_thought_experiment
Ontological considerations

• Social ontology: the nature of social entities

• What kind of objects exist in the social world and how do they exist
in the social world?

• Do social entities exist independently of our perceptions of them?

• Do social entities and social reality exist independently of social

actors including the researcher themselves, or are they
constructed by the social actors? - objectivism vs. constructivism
Ontological consideration - What is objectivism?

 Objectivism is an ontological position that asserts that social

phenomena and their meanings have an existence that is

independent of social actors.

 It implies that social phenomena and the categories that we use

in everyday discourse have an existence that is independent or

separate from actors
Ontological consideration - What is constructionism?

 Constructionism is an ontological position which asserts that

social phenomena and their meanings are continually being
accomplished by social actors.

 It implies that:
– social phenomena and categories are produced through social
interaction
– social phenomena and categories are in a constant state of
revision
– Researchers' own accounts of the social world are
constructions
– Knowledge is indeterminate

 Also referred to as constructivism

Epistemological considerations

• What is (or should be) considered acceptable knowledge? How

do we know what we know?

• Can the social world be studied ‘scientifically’?

• Is it appropriate to apply the methods of the natural sciences to

social science research?

• Positivism and interpretivism are contrasting approaches

Epistemological consideration - Positivism
• Only phenomena and hence knowledge confirmed by the senses
can genuinely be warranted as knowledge (phenomenalism).

• Science must (and can) be conducted in a way that is value-free

• There is a clear distinction between scientific statements and

normative statements and the former are the true domain of the
scientist.
Epistemological consideration - Interpretivism
 Interpretivism is an alternative to positivism.

There is a fundamental difference between studying people and

studying objects of the natural sciences. While natural sciences

focus on the observable and measurable, social sciences delve
into the realm of experiences, values, and inner understandings.

https://www.ted.com/talks/puqun_li_zen_koans_unsolvable_enigm
as_designed_to_break_your_brain
Methodology and method

 Choosing research design based on the philosophical assumptions:

Your research methods are dependent on both ontological and
epistemological assumptions

 Qualitative vs. quantitative approach

 Data collection
 Data interpretation
Nature of good research
 Logically consistent

– Is not internally contradictory

 Methodologically coherent
– Methods and data collection and analysis support the aims and objectives
– Offers a critically informed rationale for the selection of particular methods

 Synthesis

– Provides a synthesis of theory and data

 Audience

– Need to consider characteristics of audiences – their needs, and their

area of interest and expertise

Drawn from March and Birch, The Nature of Scholarship

The process of business research