Research Methods

for Business Students

Ninth Edition

Chapter 4
Understanding research
philosophy and approaches
to theory development

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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• explain the relevance of ontology, epistemology and
axiology to business research
• describe the main research paradigms that are
significant for business research
• explain the relevance for business research of
philosophical positions such as positivism, critical
realism, interpretivism, postmodernism and
pragmatism

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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• reflect on your own epistemological, ontological and
axiological stance
• reflect on and articulate your own philosophical
position and approach to theory development in
relation to your research
• distinguish between deductive, inductive, abductive
and retroductive approaches to theory development

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Figure 4.1
The ‘research onion’

Source: © 2022 Mark NK Saunders; developed from Saunders et al. 2019.

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The term research philosophy refers to a system of beliefs and
assumptions about the development of knowledge.

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Figure 4.2
Developing your research philosophy as a
reflexive process

Source: ©2021 Alexandra Bristow and Mark N.K. Saunders.

© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.

© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Objectivism
• Objectivism incorporates the assumptions of the natural
sciences, arguing that the social reality we research is external
to us and others (referred to as social actors) (Table 4.1).
• This means that, ontologically, objectivism embraces realism,
which, in its most extreme form, considers social entities to be
like physical entities of the natural world, in so far as they exist
independently of how we think of them, label them, or even of
our awareness of them.

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Subjectivism
• Subjectivism incorporates assumptions of the arts and humanities (Table
4.1), asserting that social reality is made from the perceptions and
consequent actions of social actors (people). Ontologically, subjectivism
embraces nominalism (also sometimes called conventionalism).
• Nominalism, in its most extreme form, considers that the order and
structures of social phenomena we study (and the phenomena themselves)
are created by us as researchers and by other social actors through use of
language, conceptual categories, perceptions and consequent actions.
• A less extreme version of this is social constructionism. This puts forward
that reality is constructed through social interaction in which social actors
create partially shared meanings and realities, in other words reality is
constructed intersubjectively.

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Regulation and radical change
• Researchers working within the regulation perspective are concerned
primarily with the need for the regulation of societies and human behaviour.
Much of business and management research can be classed as regulation
research that seeks to suggest how organisational affairs may be improved
within the framework of how things are done at present, rather than
radically challenging the current position (Box 4.3).
• Radical change research approaches organisational problems from the
viewpoint of overturning the existing state of affairs. Such research is often
visionary and utopian, being concerned with what is possible and
alternatives to the accepted current position (Burrell and Morgan 2016).

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Table 4.2
The regulation–radical change dimension

Source: Developed from Burrell and Morgan (2016).

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Figure 4.3
Four (research) paradigms for
organisational analysis

Source: Developed from Burrell and Morgan (2016) Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis.

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• Functionalist paradigm is the paradigm within which most business and
management research operates. Research in this paradigm is concerned with
rational explanations and developing sets of recommendations within the
current structures.
• Interpretive paradigm. The primary focus of research undertaken within this
paradigm is the way we as humans attempt to make sense of the world
around us (Box 4.4).
• Radical structuralist paradigm. Here your concern would be to approach your
research with a view to achieving fundamental change based upon an analysis
of organisational phenomena such as structural power relationships and
patterns of conflict.
• Radical humanist paradigm. It emphasises both the political nature of
organisational realities and the consequences that one’s words and deeds
have upon others (Kelemen and Rumens 2008).
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Figure 4.4
Paradigms, philosophy and methodology
definitions

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• Positivism relates to the philosophical stance of the natural scientist and
entails working with an observable social reality to produce law-like
generalisations.
• Critical realism focuses on explaining what we see and experience, in terms of
the underlying structures of reality that shape the observable events.
• Interpretivism emphasises that humans are different from physical
phenomena because they create meanings. Interpretivists study these
meanings.
• Postmodernism emphasises the role of language and of power relations,
seeking to question accepted ways of thinking and give voice to alternative
marginalised views (Table 4.3).
• Pragmatism asserts that concepts are only relevant where they support action
(Kelemen and Rumens 2008).
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Figure 4.5
Critical realist’s stratified ontology

Source: Developed from Bhaskar (2008).

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Approaches to theory development
• If your research starts with theory, often developed from your reading of the
academic literature, and you design a research strategy to test the theory,
you are using a deductive approach (Table 4.4).
• Conversely, if your research starts by collecting data to explore a
phenomenon and you generate or build theory (often in the form of a
conceptual framework), then you are using an inductive approach (Table
4.4).
• Where you are collecting data to explore a phenomenon, identify themes
and explain patterns, to generate a new or modify an existing theory that you
subsequently test through additional data collection, you are using an
abductive approach (Table 4.4).

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© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.