4. Research Philosophy best understandin

PHILOSOPHY IN RESEARCH
Supriyo Roy

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TOPICS TO COVER
 1. RESEARCH - WHAT ACTUALLY MEANS?
 2. RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES
2.1 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: PRAGMATISM
2.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: POSITIVISM
2.3 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: INTERPRETIVISM
2.4 PHILOSOPHIES VS. STRATEGIES
 3.1RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: REALISM
 3.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: ONTOLOGY
 3.3 RESEARCH PARADIGMS
 3.4 COMPARISON OF PHILOSOPHIES
 4. CONCLUSION
 5. TIME HORIZONS
 6. CREDIBILITY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
 7. DATA COLLECTION
 8. COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRES

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1. RESEARCH - WHAT ACTUALLY MEANS?
 Research is described as ‘something people undertake to find out
things systematically, thereby increasing the knowledge domain’.
 Words important in the above definition are ‘systematic way’ and ‘to
find out things’. ‘Systematic way’ suggests that research is based on
logical relationships and not just beliefs (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005).
 As a part of the above, research will involve explaining methods
used to collect data and arguing to get answers to questions’ like
‘why results obtained are meaningful?’ ‘ to what extent?’, etc. It will
explain ‘any associated limitations’.
 ‘To find out things’ suggests multiple possible purposes, including
describing, explaining, understanding, criticizing and analyzing the
facts and figures (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005).

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RESEARCH - WHAT ACTUALLY MEANS?
 Any research targeted to areas related to Decision Making warrants the following
characteristics:
1. Using knowledge from any domain of disciplines enables research to gain new
insights that cannot be obtained through all of these disciplines individually, and
2. It should be highlighted in critic is a belief that it should be able to develop
new ideas and ultimately relate them to practice.
 In particular, this should cover a virtuous circle of ‘theory and practice’ (Tranfield &
Starkey, 1998) through which research on practice informs practically derived
theory. This in turn becomes a blueprint for decision making practice, thereby
increasing stock of relevant and practical knowledge.
 Thus, any decision-making research needs to engage simultaneously with both
‘world of theory’ and ‘world of practice’. Consequently, decision problems
addressed should grow out of interaction between these two worlds rather than
either on their own.

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2. RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES
 ‘Philosophy’ is an over-arching term that relates to the ‘development and
nature of knowledge’, which, at first reading, sounds rather profound. But the
point is that this is precisely what researchers do when embarking on research
… ‘developing base of knowledge in any relevant field of enquiry’.
 The knowledge development that researchers are embarking upon may not be
as dramatic as the new theory of human motivation. The purpose here should
be to answer any problem specified in the developing knowledge domain.
 Any researchers need to be aware of philosophical commitments made
through the choice of research strategy as this has a significant impact not only
on what researchers do but also on what they are going to investigate
(Johnson and Clark, 2006).
 This can be highlighted in line with researchers Johnson and Clark (2006), who
argue that the important issue is not whether any research should be
philosophically-informed. Still, it is how well researchers can reflect upon
philosophical choices and defend alternatives that could be adopted.

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 As a conceptual basis under research philosophy, Pragmatism accepts any
concepts to be relevant only if they support action.
 As Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2012) described, Pragmatics ‘recognize that
there are many different ways of interpreting the world and undertaking research,
that no single point of view can ever give the entire picture and that there may be
multiple realities’.
 Positivism and Interpretivism are the two extreme mutually exclusive paradigms
of concern. Pragmatism is an essential determinant of epistemology (the theory
of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the
distinction between justified belief and opinion), ontology (the branch of
metaphysics dealing with the nature of being) and axiology ( the philosophical
study of value.
 It includes questions about the nature and classification of values and about what
kinds of things have value) any researcher may adopt should the question of
research - anyone may be more appropriate than the other for answering
(Tashakkori & Teddlie 1998).

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 If any research does not confer unambiguously that a positivism or
interpretivism philosophy is to be adopted, this confirms the pragmatist’s
basic view.
 Tashakkori & Teddlie (1998) work on pragmatism and contend it was
intuitively appealing. In line with their view, any researcher should ‘study
what interests and is of value, a study in different ways in which it deems
appropriate, and finally use results in ways that signify about positive
consequences within value system’.
 Pragmatics (the study of how context contributes to meaning) thus,
combines positivism and Interpretivism within the scope of a single
research study according to the nature of the research question.
 Studies with pragmatism research philosophy may integrate multiple
research methods, as depicted in next.

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 Positivism refers to a philosophical approach that aims to legitimize the scientific
study of human organization within the social sciences. It advocates for the
discovery and assessment of general laws through theoretical and empirical
work. While not universally accepted, positivistic elements can be found within
various specialties of social science.
 As a philosophical view, positivism refers to the view that only ‘factual’
knowledge gained through observation is trustworthy.
 Positivism depends on quantifiable observations that lead to statistical analyses.
 As per the view of the researchers Crowther & Lancaster (2008), it has been
noted that ‘as a philosophy, positivism follows the empiricist view that knowledge
stems from human experience’.
 It has an atomistic, ontological view of the world as comprising discrete, observable
elements and events that interact in a discernible, determined and regular manner.

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 Any research that reflects the philosophy of positivism will
probably adopt the philosophical stance of natural scientists.
 Researchers will then prefer ‘working with observable social
reality and that the end product of such research can be law-
like generalizations similar to those produced by the physical
and natural scientists’ (Remenyi et al., 1998).
 Like the ‘resources’ researcher earlier, phenomena that can be
observed here will produce credible data.
 To generate a research strategy to collect data, the researcher
has to use existing theory to develop hypotheses. After that,
these hypotheses will be tested and confirmed, in whole or
part, or refuted, leading to further theory development.

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2.3 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: INTERPRETIVISM
 The definition of interpretivism is a sociological method of research in
which an action or event is analyzed based on the beliefs, norms, and
values of the culture of the society in which it takes place. It is a
qualitative method used to analyze data related to human actions in
sociology.
 Interpretivism is associated with the philosophical position of idealism
and is used to group diverse approaches, including social constructivism
, phenomenology and hermeneutics, approaches that reject the
objectivist view that meaning resides within the world independently of
consciousness (Collins, 2010).
 The development of this philosophy is based on the critique of
positivism in social sciences, and accordingly, this philosophy
emphasizes qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis.

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RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: INTERPRETIVISM
 Interpretivism allows any researcher to understand differences between
humans in the researcher’s role as social actors.
 The heritage of this strand of interpretivism is generated from two
intellectual traditions: phenomenology and symbolic interactionism.
 First, it refers to how researchers make sense of the world around them.
Interactionism is a theoretical perspective that derives social processes
from human interaction.
 In symbolic interactionism, there is a continual process of interpreting the
social world. Axiology is another branch of philosophy that studies
judgments about value.
 Although this may include values the researcher possesses in aesthetics
and ethics, it is the process of social enquiry that the researcher
enquired.

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2.4 PHILOSOPHIES VS. STRATEGIES
Philosophies
/ Strategy
Research
approach
Ontology Axiology Research Strategy
Positivism Deductive Objective Value Free Quantitative
Interpretivism Inductive Subjective Biased Qualitative
Pragmatism Deductive
/ Inductive
Objective or
Subjective
Value Free /
Biased
Qualitative and / or
Quantitative

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3.1RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: REALISM
 Realism is any philosophical concept that relates to scientific enquiry. It relies
on the idea of independence of reality extracted from the human mind. This
philosophy is based on the assumption of a scientific approach to knowledge
development.
 Realism can be divided into two groups: direct and critical. The first can be
described as ‘what you see is what you get’, while the second argues that
‘humans experience the sensations and images of the real world’. According to
critical realism, sensations and images of the natural world can be deceptive
and usually do not portray the real world (Novikov & Novikov, 2013).
 Realism adheres to a branch of epistemology similar to positivism in that it
assumes a scientific approach to knowledge development. This assumption
underpins the collection and understanding of the data. The essence of
realism is that what the senses show as reality is the truth: ‘that objects have
an existence independent of the human mind’. Realism is opposed to idealism,
the theory that only the ‘mind and its contents exist’.

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3.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES: ONTOLOGY
 Ontology is the ‘study of existence’ at its most straightforward meaning.
Philosophically, it confers to ‘concerned with nature of reality’ with
assumptions about how the world operates and the commitment held to
specific views.
 Objectivism and subjectivism are two aspects of ontology used in research
parlance. Objectivism portrays that social entities exist in reality, external to
social actors concerned with existence. Subjectivism is the concept conferring
those social phenomena created from perceptions and consequent actions of
those social actors concerned with their existence.
 Subjectivism is a social phenomenon that is created from perceptions and
sequential actions. Remenyi et al. (1998) observe the necessity of studying
this as ‘details of the situation to understand the reality or perhaps a reality
working behind them’.
 Another term for research philosophy is Epistemology, which concerns what
constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study.

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3.3 RESEARCH PARADIGMS
 Paradigm is a term primarily used in social sciences, which can lead to confusion
as it is diversified and has multiple meanings. In the parlance of empirical
research, the paradigm examines social phenomena from which particular
understandings of these phenomena can be gained and explanations attempted.
 Four paradigms are arranged to correspond to four conceptual dimensions:
Radical change, Regulation, Subjectivist and Objectivist.
 Radical change in social science and behaviour relates to a judgment about the
way towards organizational changes. The dimension of radical change adopts a
critical perspective on life, and the regulatory perspective is considered less
judgmental.
 The Regulation seeks to explain how issues are circulated and offer suggestions
for how they may be improved within how problems are executed.
 Subjectivist doctrine confers: ‘our mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of
our experience’.
 Objectivist philosophy derives its explanations of action and causation from the
‘axiom of identity’, calling causation ‘the law of identity applied to action’.

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RESEARCH PARADIGMS
 Burrell & Morgan (1982) reconcile and describe the purposes of four paradigms as:
- ‘to help researchers clarify their assumptions about their view of the nature of
science and society;
- to offer a useful way of understanding how other researchers approach their
work;
- to help researchers plot their route through their research; and finally
- to understand where it is possible to go and where they are going’.
 A functionalist paradigm is in the bottom right corner of the quadrant. This is located
in the objectivist and regulatory dimensions and is the paradigm within which most
research operates. It is often problem-oriented and concerned with solving practical
problems (Burrell & Morgan, 1982). Contained in the bottom left corner of the
quadrant is an interpretive paradigm. As noted, the philosophical position to which
this refers is how humans attempt to make sense of the world around them.

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RESEARCH PARADIGMS
 The radical humanist paradigm is located within the subjectivist and radical
change dimensions in the top left corner. As stated earlier, the radical
change dimension adopts a critical perspective on organizational life. As
such, working within this paradigm, one would be concerned with changing
the status quo (Burrell and Morgan, 1979).
 Last, in the top right corner of the quadrant, is the radical structuralist
paradigm. Here, research witnessed the intention to achieve fundamental
change by analyzing organizational phenomena such as power
relationships and patterns of conflict. The radical structuralism paradigm
adheres to structural patterns within work organizations, namely hierarchies
and reporting relationships, and the extent to which these may produce
dysfunctionalities.
 Comparison of four types of research philosophies are depicted in the next
two table (Saunders, 2003).

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3.4 COMPARISON OF FOUR RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES
Research
Philosophies /
Characteristics
Positivism Realism Interpretivism Pragmatism
1. Ontology:
Researcher’s view
regarding nature of
reality or being
-External,
objective and
independent of
social actors.
-Objective.
-Independent of human
thoughts.
-Interpreted as social
conditioning.
-Socially constructed.
-Subjective.
-May change and
multiple.
- External.
- Multiple view
-Chosen to best
enable answering of
research question.
2. Epistemology:
Researcher’s view
regarding what
constitutes acceptable
knowledge
- Only observable
phenomena can
provide credible
data, facts.
-Focus on
causality and law.
-Observable phenomena
-Provide credible facts
and data.
-Focus on explaining
within a context or
contexts
-Subjective meanings
and social
phenomena.
-Focus upon details of
situation.
-Motivating actions.
- Either or both
Observable
phenomena.
-Subjective meanings
- Focus on practical
applied research.
-Integrating different
perspectives.

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3.4 COMPARISON OF FOUR RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES
Research
Philosophies /
Characteristics
Positivism Realism Interpretivism Pragmatism
3. Axiology:
Researcher’s view
regarding role of
values in research
- Research is
undertaken in a
value-free way.
-Researcher is
independent of
data maintaining
Objective.
- Research is value
laden; researcher is
biased by world
views, cultural
experiences and
upbringing.
- All these will
impact on the
research.
- Research is value
bound, cannot be
separated and will
be subjective
- Values play a
large role in
interpreting results,
the researcher
adopting both
objective and
subjective points of
view.
4. Data collection
Techniques:
Researchers view
regarding collecting
information.
-Highly structured,
-Large samples.
Measurement.
-Quantitative as
well as qualitative.
- Methods chosen
must fit the subject
matter.
- Quantitative or
qualitative.
-Small samples, in-
depth investigations
-Qualitative
- Mixed or multiple
method designs.
- Quantitative and
qualitative

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4. CONCLUSION
 A research philosophy is a set of basic beliefs that guide the design
and execution of a research study, and different research
philosophies offer different ways of understanding scientific research.
 In conclusion, it may be highlighted that, qualitative research is often
deal with Interpretivism, but alternatives do exist.
 Besides critical research and positivism, qualitative research in arena
of information systems may be well performed by following a
paradigm of pragmatism which is associated with action, intervention
and constructive knowledge.
 Many researchers use interpretivism and pragmatism concepts that
are considered and thought as two possible and important research
paradigms for mixed research in hypothesizing information based
problem on behavioral modeling.

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5. TIME HORIZONS
 Time horizons must emphasize research design, independent of which
research strategy the researcher will pursue by choice of method.
Cross-Sectional Studies
 The main feature of a cross-sectional study is that it can compare
different population groups at a single point in time.
 The research will probably be cross-sectional, studying a particular
phenomenon at a specific time. Cross-sectional studies often employ
the survey strategy (Easterby-Smith et al., 2008; Robson, 2002).
 They may seek to describe the incidence of a phenomenon or explain
how factors are related in different organizations.
 However, they may also use qualitative methods. Many case studies
are based on interviews conducted over a short period.

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5. TIME HORIZONS
Longitudinal Studies
 A longitudinal study is a method of observational research in which data is gathered
for the same subjects repeatedly over time. The main strength of longitudinal
research is its capacity to study change and development.
 Adams & Schvaneveldt (1991) point out that in observing people or events over time,
the researcher can exercise control over variables being studied, provided that they
are not affected by the research process.
Conclusion
 Both Cross-sectional and Longitudinal studies are observational studies. Researchers
record information about their subjects without manipulating the study environment.
The benefit of a cross-sectional study design is that it allows researchers to compare
many different variables at the same time. However, cross-sectional studies may not
provide definite information about ‘cause-and-effect relationships’. On the other
hand, the benefit of a longitudinal study is that researchers can detect developments
or changes in the characteristics of the target population at both the group and
individual level.

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6. CREDIBILITY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
 Creditability of research output reduces the possibility of
getting the answer wrong, which means that attention has to
be paid to two particular emphases on research design:
Reliability and Validity.
 Reliability refers to the extent to which data collection
techniques or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings.
 Reliability can be assessed by posing the following three
questions (Easterby-Smith et al., 2008):
-Will the measures yield the same results on other occasions?
-Will other observers reach similar observations?
- Is there any transparency made from the raw data?

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 Robson (2002) asserts that there may be four threats to reliability.
 The first of these is a subject error.
 Similarly, there may be subject bias. This is a particular problem in
any firm characterized by an authoritarian management style or
when employment insecurity is threatened. Researchers should
avoid this problem when designing questionnaires.
 Third, there may have been observer error.
 Finally, there may have been observer bias. The researcher should
handle all the threats strategically.

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Validity
 Validity concerns whether the findings are about what they appear to be about. It
indicates how sound the research is. More specifically, Validity applies to both the
design and the research methods.
 Internal Validity is affected by flaws within the study, such as not controlling some of
the significant variables or problems with the research instrument. Factors that affect
internal Validity are subject variability, size of the subject population, time given for
the data collection or experimental treatment, attrition, maturation, etc.
 External Validity is the extent to which a researcher can generalize findings to a
larger group. If research lacks external Validity, findings cannot be applied to
contexts other than the one in which the researcher carried out research. Important
factors that affect external Validity are Population characteristics, Interaction of
subject selection and research, Descriptive explicitness of the independent variable,
Effect of research environment, Data collection methodology, Effect of time, etc.

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7. DATA COLLECTION
 The choice of sampling techniques depends on the feasibility and sensibility of
collecting data to answer the research question(s) and address the objectives set
by the population.
 Based on the Research question(s) and objectives, researcher will need to consider
whether the researcher needs to use sampling. Occasionally, it may be possible to
collect and analyze data covering all information as named by complete
enumeration. However, for most of the research questions and objectives, it will be
impossible for the researcher to either collect or analyze all available data due to
restrictions on time, money, human resources, and often access.
 Sampling techniques provide a range of methods that enable any researcher to
reduce the required data by considering only data from a sub-group rather than
all possible cases or elements. In sampling, the term ‘population’ is not used
commonly, as the complete set of cases need not necessarily be people.
 For some research questions, it is possible to collect data from an entire population
as it is manageable. However, researchers should not assume that a census would
provide more useful results than collecting data from a sample representing the
entire population.

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7. DATA COLLECTION
 Sampling provides a valid alternative to a census when it would be
impracticable for the researcher to survey the entire population.
 Researchers opt for sampling for all research questions where it would be
impracticable for the researcher to collect data from the whole population.
 Whether researchers plan to use interviews, questionnaires, observation, or
some other data collection technique will be equally important. Researchers like
Henry (1990) argue that sampling makes a higher overall accuracy possible
than a census.
 Sampling is of two types: probability and non-probability sampling. Most of the
time, researchers prefer to use a randomized sampling scheme under
probability sampling.
 Stratified random sampling is a modification of random sampling in which the
researcher divides the population into two or more relevant and significant
strata based on one or several attributes.

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8. COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRES
 Within business management research, the most significant use of
questionnaires is within the survey strategy. However, both experiment and
case study research strategies can use these techniques. The use of
questionnaires is discussed in many research methods texts. These range from
those that devote a few pages to it to those that specify precisely how
researchers should construct and use them, such as Dillman’s (2007) tailored
design method. Perhaps not surprisingly, the questionnaire is one of the survey
strategy's most widely used data collection techniques.
 Because each person (respondent) is asked to respond to the same set of
questions, it efficiently collects responses from a large sample before
quantitative analysis. The questionnaire design will affect both the response
rate and reliability and validity of the collected data. Response rates, validity
and reliability, can be maximized by careful design of individual questions,
straightforward and pleasing questionnaire layout, lucid explanation of the
purpose of the questionnaire, pilot testing, and carefully planned and
executed administration.

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8. COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRES
 Questionnaires are usually not particularly good for empirical research
that requires large numbers of open-ended questions. They work best with
standardized questions that the researcher can be confident will be
interpreted the same way by all respondents (Robson, 2002).
 Explanatory or analytical research gives more credence to examining and
explaining relationships between variables, particularly cause-and-effect
relationships. Explanatory research requires data to test a theory or
theories. In addition to issues raised for descriptive research, there is a
need to define the theories the researcher wants to test as relationships
between variables before designing a questionnaire. Therefore, a
literature review should be done extensively to discuss ideas widely and
conceptualized (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005).
 A valid questionnaire will collect accurate data; a reliable one will mean
that these data are collected consistently.

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