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3.20801business Research: SEMESTER 2, 2019
3.20801business Research: SEMESTER 2, 2019
20801BUSINESS RESEARCH
SEMESTER 2, 2019
2. The term refers to a belief that accumulation of ‘facts’ is a legitimate goal in its own right can
be considered knowledge .
Sometimes referred to as “naïve empiricism”
Definition of ‘research paradigm’
Research paradigm is used quite loosely in academic research and means different things to different
people. For this course,
‘research paradigm’ refers to the progress of scientific practices based on people’s philosophies
and assumptions about the world and the nature of knowledge’ (Collis & Hussey, 2003:46)
Philosophy is the use of reason and argument in seeking truth and knowledge, esp., of general
ultimate reality or general causes and principles.
Morgan (1979) suggests term research paradigm can be used in three (3) different levels:
Philosophical level – where it is used to reflect basis beliefs about the world
Social level – where it used to provide guidelines about how the researcher should conduct his or
her endeavours
Technical level – where it used to specify the methods and techniques which ideally should be
adopted when conducting research.
Thus ‘research paradigm‘ offers a framework comprising an accepted set of theories, methods and ways
of how research should be conducted.
Your perceptions, assumption, and beliefs about the world (your personal paradigm) will be influence
and determine how you will conduct your research.
The two main research paradigms
Traditionally, there was only one research paradigm.
Today we refer to that ‘one source’ as the natural sciences to distinguish them from the
‘social sciences’.
Scientific approach to research that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a
community of practitioners. The systematic methods used by scientists involved
observation and experiment.
People’s idea about reality and knowledge have changed over time and therefore, new
research paradigm emerge in response to the perceived inadequacies of earlier paradigm.
The emergence of social sciences led to the development of a second research paradigm.
Continue..
The two main research paradigms or philosophies are:
1. Positivistic
2. Interpretivistic (phenomenological)
Most authors used terms like quantitative and qualitative, and some use the term
interpretivistic or interpretivism rather than phenomenological. For example, Creswell
(1994) refers to positivistic as ‘quantitative’ and phenomenological as ‘qualitative’.
Below, is a some of the common terms used under each paradigm which are not
necessarily interchangeable.
Quantitative Qualitative
Objectivist Subjectivist
Scientific Humanistic
Experimentalist Interpretivist
Traditionalist
Positivism research paradigm
Paradigm that originated in the natural science.
Historically, the positivistic paradigm in the social sciences is based on the approach used in the
natural science, such as in biology, botany, physics.
It rest on the assumption that social reality is singular and objective, and is not affected by the act of
investigating it.
The positivistic approach seeks the facts or causes of social phenomena, with little regard to the
subject state of the individual.
The research involves a deductive process with a view to providing explanatory theories to understand
social phenomena.
According to positivists, laws provide the basis of explanation, permit the anticipation of
phenomena, predict their occurrence and therefore allow them to be controlled. Thus, social and
natural worlds are both regarded as being bound by certain fixed laws in a sequence of cause and
effect. Explanation consists of establishing causal relationship between variables by establishing
causal laws and linking them to available theory
Phenomenology is the science of phenomena. A phenomenon is a ‘a fact or occurrence that appears or
is perceived, especially one of which the cause is in question (Allen, 1990: 893).
Interpretivism research paradigm
Paradigm that emerged in response to criticisms of positivism.
It rest on the assumption that social reality is in our minds, and is subjective and multiple.
Some social scientists argues against positivist that the physical sciences deal with objects which are
outside us, whereas the social sciences deal with action and behaviour which are generated from
within the human mind.
Therefore social reality is affected by the of investigating it.
It is concerned with understanding human behaviour from the participant’s own frame of reference
(Collis & Hussey, 2003: 53)
The approach stresses the subjective aspects of human activity by focusing on the meaning, rather
than the measurement of social phenomena.
The research involves an inductive process with a view to providing interpretive understanding
of social phenomena within a particular context.
Deductive and inductive theories
DEDUCTIVE APPROACH INDUCTIVE APPROACH
Conclusion
We will conclude this lecture topic when we cover philosophical assumptions of the two
research paradigms, which are:
Epistemological considerations
Ontological considerations
Axiological assumptions
Rhetorical assumptions
Methodological assumptions