Research Philosophy in Business Studies
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Business girlResearch Philosophy in Business Studies
Uploaded by
Business girlResearch 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)
• After this chapter, you should be able to:
• explain the relevance of ontology (what is reality), epistemology (how we know
things) and axiology (values in research) to business research
• describe the main research paradigm (a general way of thinking)s that are
significant for business research
• explain the relevance for business research of philosophical position (your basic
view of knowledge and reality)s such as positivism, critical realism, interpretivism,
postmodernism and pragmatism
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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
• After this chapter, you should be able to:
• reflect on your own epistemological, ontological and axiological stance
• reflect on and articulate your own philosophical position (your basic view of
knowledge and reality) and approach to theory development in relation to your
research
• distinguish between deductive (starting from theory and testing it), inductive
(starting from data to build theory), abductive (combining theory and observation)
and retroductive (looking for deeper causes) approaches to theory development
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Figure 4.1 - The ‘research onion’
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Figure 4.2
Developing your research philosophy as a reflexive process
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© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Table 4.2
The regulation–radical change dimension
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Figure 4.3
Four (research) paradigm (a general way of thinking)s for organisational analysis
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Figure 4.4
Paradigms, philosophy and methodology definitions
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© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.
© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.
If your research starts with a theory, often developed from
reading academic literature, and you design a research strategy
to test the theory, you are using a deductive approach.
Conversely, suppose your research starts by collecting data to
explore a phenomenon, and you generate or build a theory
(often in the form of a conceptual framework). In that case, you
are using an inductive approach.
When collecting data to explore a phenomenon, identify themes
and explain patterns, and generate a new or modified existing
theory that you subsequently test through additional data
collection, you use an abductive approach.
© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.
© 2023 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.