Chapter 1
Business research
approaches
Influences on business research
The role of theory in research
• Which comes first? Theory or research?
• Should we examine a problem and try to
work out how it is caused and how it might
be solved (inductive reasoning)?
• Or should we take a generally accepted
theory of how things work and find
evidence for it in the problem we examine
(deductive reasoning)?
The nature of business research
• Business research does not exist in a
bubble in a world apart from the sciences –
it is integrated with them
• The variety and diversity of business and
management studies makes it hard to find
agreement on how business research
claims should be evaluated
• Perhaps it can only be seen as an ‘applied
field’ because it is concerned with solving
management problems
The nature of business research
(continued)
• Academic researchers add to theory
“supported by bits of practice” and
management consultants contribute to
practice “backed by bits of theory”
(Gummesson, 2000)
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Evidence-based management
• Is the systematic use of the best available
evidence to improve management practice
(Reay, Berta and Kohn, 2009)
• Concept developed to reduce variation in
(clinical) practice
• Information comes, in part, from the
expertise and judgement of managers
working in individual firms
Key concept 1.1
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Knowledge is produced in two
modes
Mode 1 Mode 2
• Traditional, • Involves academics,
university-based policy-makers and
• Academic audience practitioners
• Pure and applied • Trans-disciplinary
• Built upon existing • Related to context (not
knowledge easily replicated)
• More linear process • Less linear process
• Limited emphasis on • More emphasis on
dissemination dissemination and
exploitation
Theories come at two levels
Grand theories Middle-range theories
• Structural- • Strategic choice
functionalism • Trait theory
• Symbolic • Contingency theory
interactionism • Labour process theory
• Critical theory – Middle-range theories
• Poststructuralism typically guide business
research
• Structuration theory
Deductive and inductive theory
• Deductivism:
– Theory -> data
– Explicit hypothesis to be accepted or rejected
– Quantitative research
• Inductivism:
– Data -> theory
– Generalised inferences based on observations
– Qualitative research/grounded theory
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The process of deduction
Knowledge and reality
• How do we know the things we know?
Because we read about them in
newspapers , or we learned them at
school? Should we make important
decisions based on this kind of knowledge
or should we do some research?
• These kinds of questions are part of the
study of Epistomology.
Knowledge and reality (continued)
• Do businesses and organisations exist
independent of the people who work in
them? Can you capitalism without
capitalists?
• These kinds of questions are part of the
study of Ontology
Epistemological considerations
• What is (or should be) considered
acceptable knowledge?
• Can the social or business world be studied
scientifically?
• Is it appropriate to apply the methods of the
natural sciences to social or business
research?
• Positivism and interpretivism
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Positivism
• Application of natural science methods to
social science and business research
• Phenomalism – knowledge via the senses
• Deductivism – theory testing
• Inductivism – theory building
• Objective – value-free researcher
• Distinction between scientific and
normative statements
Key concept 1.3
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Interpretivism
• Denotes alternative to the Positivism
orthodoxy that has held sway for decades
• Based upon the view that a strategy is
required that respects the differences
between people and the objects of the
natural sciences and requires the
researcher to grasp the subjective
meaning of social action
Interpretivism (continued)
• Intellectual heritage includes Weber’s
notion of Verstehen, hermeneutic-
phenomenological tradition, and symbolic
interaction
Ontological considerations
• Social ontology: nature of social entities
• What kind of objects exist in the world?
• Do social entities exist independently of our
perceptions of them?
• Is social reality external to social actors or
constructed by them?
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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
Key concept 1.6
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Constructionism
• Also referred to as constructivism
• Social phenomena and their meanings are
continually being generated by social
actors
• Social phenomena and categories are
produced through social interaction
• Social phenomena and categories are in a
constant state of revision
Constructionism (continued)
• Researchers' own accounts of the social
world are constructions
• Knowledge is viewed as indeterminate
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What is the role of a paradigm
• Paradigms are a cluster of beliefs and
dictates that influence:
– What should be studied
– How research should be done
– How results should be interpreted.
• Social science consists of competing
paradigms
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Social paradigms
Multiple paradigms used in research
• Functionalist
– Survey of job motivation
• Interpretative
– Conversational data on work routines
• Radical humanist
– Descriptive analysis of management training
• Radical structuralist
– Historical analysis of employment relations
Research in Focus 1.8
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Influences of personal values on
business research
• The personal beliefs or the feelings of
researcher affect every stage of research
process, from the choice of research area
to the interpretation of results.
• If we recognise that research cannot be
value-free, we can attempt to limit its
constraint on objectivity.
Influences of personal values on
business research (continued)
• Feminist writers (among others) argue for
consciously value-laden research, in which
the researcher empathises with the
researched and encourages reciprocity.
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Practical considerations
• May influence or determine choices on:
– research strategy
– design
– method
– resources & costs.
• May be influenced or determined by:
– nature of the topic
– people being investigated
– political acceptability.
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Criteria in business research
• Reliability – are measures consistent?
• Replication/replicability – is study
repeatable?
• Validity – are conclusions well-founded?
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Types of validity
• Measurement (or construct) validity – do
measures reflect concepts?
• Internal validity – are causal relations
between variables real?
• External validity – can results be
generalised beyond the research setting?
• Ecological validity – are findings applicable
to everyday life?
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