R ESEARCH APPROACH

There are four basic elements of any research: epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology and methods (see Figure 4). Epistemology is a way of understanding and explaining how we know what we know (Crotty, 1998). The current literature introduces several epistemological traditions. On the basis of one division presented by Crotty (1998), the three main epistemological views are objectivism, constructionism, and subjectivism, though they should not be seen as watertight compartments. Objectivism is the epistemological view that things exist as meaningful entities independently of consciousness and experience. In this objectivist view, understandings and values are considered to be objectified in the people we are studying and, if we go about it in the right way, we can discover the objective truth. Constructionism rejects this view of human knowledge. Truth, or meaning, comes into existence in and out of our engagement with the realities in our world.

Meaning is not discovered, but constructed. In subjectivism, meaning does not come out of interplay between subject and object but is imposed on the object by the subject. Meaning comes from an interaction between the subject and the object to which it is ascribed (Crotty, 1998). These traditions are not completely opposite and separable, although they have often been positioned as so. Especially in the management field, there are many researchers who adopt a pragmatic view by deliberately combining methods drawn from different traditions (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002).

In addition to epistemological considerations, the philosophical foundation of scientific research can be characterized by the means of ontology. Ontology is the study of being (Crotty, 1998). The central point for orientation here is the question of whether social entities can and should be considered objective entities that have a reality external to social actors, or whether they can and should be considered social constructions built up from the perceptions and actions of social actors (Bryman, 2008). Ontology is closely tied to the epistemological foundation of the research. For example, realism (an ontological notion asserting that realities exist outside the mind) is often taken to imply objectivism (an epistemological notion asserting that meaning exists in objects independently of any consciousness) (Crotty, 1998).

Finally, axiology influences research, in addition to epistemology and ontology. Axiology refers to the role of values in performing a particular research (Saunders et al., 2009).

Figure 4. Elements of scientific research (modified from Crotty, 1998)

The second element of scientific research is theoretical perspective. Theoretical perspective means the philosophical stance informing the methodology and thus providing a context for the process and grounding its logic and criteria. Both epistemology and ontology inform the theoretical perspective of the research, for each theoretical perspective embodies a certain way of understanding what is (ontology) as well as a certain way of understanding what it means to know (epistemology) (Crotty, 1998).

According to Saunders et al. (2009), there are four main traditions of management research:

positivism, realism, interpretivism, and pragmatism (see Table 1). The positivist approach maintains that a true explanation or cause of an event or social pattern can be found and tested by scientific standards of verification (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). Realism and positivism are close to each other, and usually quantitative methods are adopted (Saunders et al., 2009).

The interpretivist approach does not seek an objective truth so much as unravelling patterns of subjective understanding (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). Pragmatism is closely related to interpretivism. Pragmatism stresses the importance action and practical orientation in conducting research (Saunders et al., 2009). In management research, the basic separation is usually made by positivism and interpretivism.

Epistemology

Theoretical perspective

Methodology

Methods Ontology

Axiology

Table 1. Four main theoretical perspectives of management research (Saunders et al., 2009)

Positivism Realism Interpretivism Pragmatism

Ontology: the between theory and research. It can be divided on the basis of whether theory guides research (known as a deductive approach) or whether theory is an outcome of research (known as an inductive approach) (Bryman, 2008). In induction, general conclusions are drawn from empirical observations and in deduction, through logical reasoning (Ghauri and Grønhaug, 2010). Abductive reasoning is to be seen as a mixture of deductive and inductive approaches.

Inductive and abductive approaches are fruitful if the researcher’s objective is to discover new

things—other variables and other relationships; the deductive approach is concerned with developing propositions from current theory and making them testable in the real world (Dubois and Gadde, 2002).

Theoretical perspective also informs the methodology used in research. Methodology refers to the strategy, plan of action, process, or design lying behind the choice and use of particular methods and linking the choice and use of methods to the desired outcomes. Finally, methods refer to the techniques or procedures used to gather and analyse data related to some research question or hypothesis (Crotty, 1998).

This research follows the positivist approach. The positivist approach contains two assumptions: first, an ontological assumption, that reality is external and objective; and second, an epistemological assumption, that knowledge is only of significance if it is based on observations of this external reality (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). Research is undertaken in a value-free way, meaning that the researcher is independent of the data and maintains an objective stance (Saunders et al., 2009), which reflects the axiology of the research.

Deductive reasoning logic is adopted. Deductive reasoning has at least the following characteristics: a search to explain causal relationships between variables; structured methodology to facilitate replication; concepts need to be operationalized in a way that enables facts to be measured quantitatively; reductionism, which means that problems as a whole are better understood if they are reduced to the simplest possible elements; and generalisation by selecting a sample of sufficient numerical size (Saunders et al., 2009).

However, the division between deductive and inductive reasoning is not that clear. Deduction may entail an element of induction, while an inductive process is also likely to entail a little deduction. For example, quantitative methods, which usually apply a deductive approach, can include methods that utilize inductive reasoning, e.g., factor analysis (Bryman, 2008). The researcher in deductive research builds hypotheses from existing knowledge that can be subject to empirical testing and thus can be accepted or rejected (Ghauri and Grønhaug, 2010). Surveys are often associated with the deductive approach (Saunders et al., 2009). Also, complementing data sources (e.g., literature reviews) can be used for deductive reasoning (Coughlan et al., 2007). In this research, publications I-IV adopt mainly deductive reasoning via survey, while in publication V the contribution is provided by deductive reasoning via conceptual development. From a methodological point of view, quantitative and complementing conceptual methods of data collection are utilized.

3.2 Data collection and analysis