Research Philosophy Chapter 4

Business Research Methods
MBA611
Ajman University, Summer 2024
Prof. Tamer Elshandidy

Business Research Methods
Understanding
research
philosophy and
approaches to
theory
development
Learning Objectives
Define ontology, epistemology and axiology, and explain their

Define relevance to business research;
Understand Understand the main research paradigms;
Explain the relevance for business research of philosophical

Explain positions such as positivism and interpretivism;
Distinguish between deductive, inductive, and abductive

Distinguish approaches to theory development
The ‘research onion’
Research philosophies
Research philosophies refer to systems of beliefs and assumptions about the development of
knowledge.
Ontology refers to assumptions about the nature of reality.
• What kind of objects exist in the social world?
• Do social entities exist independently of our perceptions of them?
• Is social reality external to social actors or constructed by them?
Epistemology concerns assumptions about knowledge – how we know what we say

we know, what constitutes acceptable, valid and legitimate knowledge, and how we
can communicate knowledge to fellow human beings.
• Can the social world be studied ‘scientifically’?
• Is it appropriate to apply the methods of the natural sciences to social science research?
Axiology refers to the role of values and ethics within the research process, which
incorporates questions about how we, as researchers, deal with our own values and
also with those of our research participants.
Epistemological assumptions as a
multi-dimensional set of criteria
Questions Continua with two sets of extreme

Objectivism (positivism) ↔ Subjectivism (phonological)
• How can we know what we Adopt assumptions of the ↔ Adopt the assumptions of the
know natural scientist arts and humanities
• What is considered Facts ↔ Opinions

acceptable knowledge?
• What constitutes good-quality Numbers ↔ Written, spoken and visual
data? accounts
Observable phenomena ↔ Attributed meanings

• What kinds of contribution to
knowledge can be made? Law-like generalisations ↔ Individuals and contexts,
specifics
Features of the two main Paradigms
Positivistic Phenomenological
• Tends to produce quantitative data • Tends to be qualitative data

• Uses large samples • Uses small samples
• Concerned with hypothesis testing • Concerned with generating theories
• Data is highly specific and precise • Data is rich and subjective
• The location is artificial • The location is natural
• Reliability is high • Reliability is low
• Validity is low • Validity is high
• Generalizes from sample population • Generalizes from one setting to another
Research Philosophies: Comparison of five research
philosophical positions in business and management
research
• Refers to
theories and
beliefs
regarding
knowledge
advancement
What is Theory?
Grand, Middle- • substantive theories’ are restricted to a
particular time, research setting, group or
range & population or problem. For example, why a total

quality initiative in a particular organisation
Substantive failed.
Theories
Deduction, induction and abduction: from reason to
research
Deductivism:
• theory --> data

• explicit hypothesis to be
Deductive confirmed or rejected
and • quantitative research
Inductive
Theory Inductivism:
• data --> theory

• generalizable inferences from
observations
• qualitative research /grounded
theory
Deductive Theory
• from an already known context of features, that is from a familiar rule - All
burglars who steal from a medicine chest are drug addicts
• seeks to find this general context in the data - the unknown burglar has
robbed the medicine chest
• to obtain knowledge about the individual case - the unknown burglar is a drug
addict
• The logical form of this intellectual operation is that of deduction: the single
case in question is subordinated to an already known rule.
• Deductions are therefore tautological, they tell us nothing new; and truth-
conveying: if the rule offered for application is valid, then the result of the
application of the rule is also valid.
Why Is Abductive Inference Useful?
”Abduction works often enough and is the only source for new ideas.”
n When Newton saw the apple falling down, he must have done an abductive
inference and came up with the theory of gravity.

n A possible Thought Process
n Apple fell down.
n If earth pulled everything towards it, then of course, apple too would fall
down.
n So earth is pulling everything towards it.
Abduction
Reichertz, J. (2007). Abduction: The logic of discovery of
grounded theory (pp. 214-228). London: Sage.
• Consists of assembling or discovering, on the basis of an interpretation of

collected data, such combinations of features for which there is no
appropriate explanation or rule in the store of knowledge that already
exists…Since no suitable ‘type’ can be found, a new one must be invented or
discovered by means of a mental process.
• Abduction ‘proceeds’, therefore, from a known quantity (= result) to two
unknowns (= rule and case). Abduction is therefore a cerebral process, an
intellectual act, a mental leap, that brings together things which one had
never associated with one another.
Abduction
• Abduction, when faced with surprising facts, looks for meaning-creating

rules, for a possibly valid or fitting explanation that removes what is
surprising about the facts. The end-point of this search is a (linguistic)
hypothesis. Once this is found a multi-stage process of checking begins.
Training
• Apply the research philosophy on your selected topic from the previous
lecture.

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Business Research Methods

Ajman University, Summer 2024

Prof. Tamer Elshandidy

Define ontology, epistemology and axiology, and explain their

Understand Understand the main research paradigms;

Explain the relevance for business research of philosophical

Distinguish between deductive, inductive, and abductive

Epistemology concerns assumptions about knowledge – how we know what we say

Questions Continua with two sets of extreme

• What is considered Facts ↔ Opinions

Observable phenomena ↔ Attributed meanings

• Tends to produce quantitative data • Tends to be qualitative data

range & population or problem. For example, why a total

• theory --> data

• data --> theory

inference and came up with the theory of gravity.

n Apple fell down.

• Consists of assembling or discovering, on the basis of an interpretation of

• Abduction, when faced with surprising facts, looks for meaning-creating

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