Chapter 1 Notes

Research Methods

What do you think is the purpose of business and management research?

The major purpose of business research is to provide executives knowledge regarding the
organization, the markets, the economy, finance, and sales. Business intelligence enables the
executives of the company to make better and rational decisions based on the results provided by
the research.

Businesses use research to set themselves apart from their competition in various ways. It can
provide valuable information on consumer buying habits, for example, giving data on attitudes to
products and brands. Research is especially important for people who want to launch a startup, as it
helps them assess if an idea can support a new business.

What are the differences between mode 1 and mode 2 forms of knowledge production and why is
this distinction important?

Mode 1 Mode 2
Academic context Context of application
Disciplinary Transdisciplinary
Homogeneity Heterogeneity
Autonomy Reflexivity/social accountability
Traditional quality control (peer review) Novel quality control

 First, Mode 2 knowledge is generated in a context of application. Of course, Mode 1

knowledge can also result in practical applications, but these are always separated from the
actual knowledge production in space and time.
 A second characteristic of Mode 2 is transdisciplinary, which refers to the mobilization of a
range of theoretical perspectives and practical methodologies to solve problems.
Transdisciplinary goes beyond interdisciplinarity in the sense that the interaction of scientific
disciplines is much more dynamic.
 Thirdly, Mode 2 knowledge is produced in a diverse variety of organizations, resulting in a
very heterogeneous practice. The range of potential sites for knowledge generation includes
not only the traditional universities, institutes and industrial labs, but also research centers,
government agencies, thinktanks, high-tech spin-off companies and consultancies.
 The fourth attribute is reflexivity. Compared to Mode 1, Mode 2 knowledge is rather a
dialogic process, and has the capacity to incorporate multiple views. This relates to
researchers becoming more aware of the societal consequences of their work (‘social
accountability’).
 Novel forms of quality control constitute the fifth characteristic of the new production of
knowledge. Traditional discipline-based peer review systems are supplemented by
additional criteria of economic, political, social or cultural nature.

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What is the difference between grand theory and middle-range theory?

 Grand theory is broader and provides an overall framework for structuring ideas.
 Middle-range theory addresses more narrowly defined phenomena and can be used to
suggest an intervention.

Grand theory is a term coined by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills in The Sociological
Imagination to refer to the form of highly abstract theorizing in which the formal organization and
arrangement of concepts takes priority over understanding the social world.

Middle-range theory, developed by Robert K. Merton, is an approach to sociological theorizing

aimed at integrating theory and empirical research. its aim the unification of such theories into a
coherent paradigm at a greater level of abstraction.

What are the differences between inductive and deductive theory and why is the distinction
important?

 In research, inductive reasoning alludes to the logical process, in which specific instances or
situations are observed or analyzed to establish general principles. observations/findings →
theory.
 Deductive Reasoning means a form of logic in which specific inferences are drawn from
multiple premises (general statements). It establishes the relationship between the
proposition and conclusion. theory → observations/findings.

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Influences on the conduct of business research

Factors that influence methods choice in organizational research

 Organizational: this includes factors such as organizational size and pace of change. For
example, Buchanan describes a situation where the question ‘What is your job title?’ produced
a bemused response from managers whose roles were shifting every few weeks.
 Historical: this relates to previous studies of the topic, which must be taken into account
because organizational research is rarely cumulative.
 Political: this type of influence includes negotiating research objectives, obtaining permission
to access respondents, aligning with groups of stakeholders and the way that different
methods are perceived by journals, which affects researchers’ ability to publish their findings.
 Ethical: this relates to the increased ethical scrutiny that is faced by researchers and the role
of ethical review in regulating their conduct.
 Evidential: this relates to the different expectations that academic and managerial audiences
have of business research; the former expects knowledge and insight and the latter want
practical recommendations. The rise of evidence-based Management.
 Personal: researchers are also influenced in their choice of methods by such factors as the
extent to which they enjoy face-to-face contact, some researchers opting for methods that
rely heavily on interpersonal interaction and others choosing methods that confine them to
the computer screen.

What is meant by each of the following terms?

Positivism

Positivism is the term used to describe an approach to the study of society that relies specifically on
scientific evidence, such as experiments and statistics, to reveal a true nature of how society operates.

Symbolic interactionism

Symbolic interactionism is a means used by a researcher to provide an understanding of how people

make sense of their world, employing aspects they have developed over their individual lives in a
multiplicity of contexts.

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Labor process theory

The labor process theory is a late Marxist theory of the organization of work under capitalism.
According to Karl Marx, labor process refers to the process whereby labor is materialized or objectified
in use values.

Empiricism

Empiricism is the theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience. It emphasizes the role of
experience and evidence, especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas.

Grounded theory

Grounded theory is a systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the construction of
theories through methodical gathering and analysis of data. This research methodology uses inductive
reasoning.

Principle of phenomenalism

Only phenomena and hence knowledge confirmed by the senses can genuinely be warranted as
knowledge.

Principle of deductivism

The purpose of theory is to generate hypotheses that can be tested and that will thereby allow
explanations of laws to be assessed.

Principle of inductivism

Knowledge is arrived at through the gathering of facts that provide the basis for laws.

Epistemology

Epistemology in a business research as a branch of philosophy deals with the sources of knowledge.
Specifically, epistemology is concerned with possibilities, nature, sources and limitations of knowledge
in the field of study.

Interpretivism

Interpretivism, also known as interpretivist involves researchers to interpret elements of the study,
thus interpretivism integrates human interest into a study. Accordingly, this philosophy emphasizes
qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis.

Realism

Realism shares two features with positivism: a belief that the natural and the social sciences can and
should apply the same kinds of approach to the collection of data and to explanation, and a
commitment to the view that there is an external reality to which scientists direct their attention

 Empirical realism simply asserts that, through the use of appropriate methods, reality can be
understood.
 Critical realism is a specific form of realism whose manifesto is to recognize the reality of the
natural order and the events and discourses of the social world and holds that ‘we will only be
able to understand.

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Ontology

Ontology in business research can be defined as “the science or study of being” and it deals with the
nature of reality.

Objectivism

Objectivism is an ontological position that asserts that social phenomena and their meanings have an
existence that is independent of social actors.

Constructionism

Constructionism is a paradigm or philosophy of research in which knowledge is not regarded as an

insight into some objective reality, but instead constructed by humans, partly through social
interactions. Generally, constructions apply qualitative, not quantitative, research methods to
investigate some issue or event.

Paradigm

A paradigm is ‘a cluster of beliefs and dictates which for scientists in a particular discipline influence
what should be studied, how research should be done, [and] how results should be interpreted.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a process of naturalistic inquiry that seeks in-depth understanding of social
phenomena within their natural setting. It focuses on the "why" rather than the "what" of social
phenomena and relies on the direct experiences of human beings as meaning-making agents in their
everyday lives.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research, is defined as the systematic investigation of phenomena by gathering

quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical or computational techniques.

What is evidence-based management?

Evidence-based management is ‘the systematic use of the best available evidence to improve
management practice’.

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