Ontology question is “What exists?” and reality can be reviewed in a nominalistic manner or in a realistic manner. Epistemology is a theory of information, a doc-trine of concept of information, and it concerns the nature of scientific knowledge that is produced from a phenomenon by means of research. The classic definition of information is information is well-justified true belief. (Burrell & Morgan, 1998; Järvinen & Järvinen, 2004; Niiniluoto, 1997)
3.1.1 Research approaches
The hermeneutic view perceives knowledge as soft, often subjective and experi-ence-based as well as insights of a personal nature, and also can be a research approach in the qualitative and quantitative research. The aim of qualitative re-search is to understand the phenomenon being studied. (Burrell & Morgan, 1979;
Burrell & Morgan, 1998) Inductive reasoning is a method of reasoning that starts from a group of observations and forms a generalization or a theory regarding it.
Deductive reasoning is a method of reasoning in which the true premises are nec-essarily followed by a true conclusion. (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005)
The constructive approach is problem solving in a real-life organizational setting through the establishment of a management system. Constructive method is a solution-oriented normative method where target-oriented and innovative step-by-step developments of a solution are combined, and in which empirical testing of the solution is conducted and utility areas are analysed. (Kasanen, Lukka, & Si-itonen, 1993; Labro & Tuomela, 2003; Lukka, 2000)
3.1.2 Case study research
Case study research is aimed at understanding comprehensive and relevant phe-nomena in real life (Eisenhardt, 1989b; Yin, 2009). Case study research is usually finding the answer to the research questions how and why. There are three types of case study research: explorative, descriptive and explanatory research. (Yin, 2009)
The data can be collected using various means in case study research. The most common method for data collection is documents, interviews, archives and
obser-vations. The researcher has an opportunity to change data collection methods dur-ing the case study research. The researcher has to be able to create a chain of evi-dence to increase the reliability of the case study research. (Eisenhardt, 1989b;
Yin, 2009)
In case study research the challenges are data collection methods, results general-izations and reliability of the results. In a single case study research the results cannot always be generalized according to the scientific laws. Data collection process could have social interaction and may affect the opinions of the research.
(Yin, 2009)
3.2 Research approach for this study
In this case study research, the hermeneutic view is a research approach for this study. Qualitative methods are used to collect information in the case study re-search. Furthermore, a constructive approach is a research approach for this study, when the theory framework is created.
The empirical part of this study consists of multiple case study researches. The research problem is presented as a question: How to implement supply chain strategy? Research questions are: What are the main supply chain strategy ap-proaches? How can the supply chain strategy be implemented?
The research consists of six publications focusing on the areas of strategic man-agement, strategy implementation, SCM, SD, information integration and measur-ing performance. Methods that have been used in publications and input data for the publications are summarised in Table.
Table 6. Summary of the methods and data in the publications.
Title of the article Methods Data
SC strategy – empirical case
study in Europe and Asia Systematic literature review, qualitative case study re-search
Literature review with the latest literature and most cited journal articles in the field of strategy and SCM.
Interviews: 25 interviewees with Europe and Asia case company’s top manage-ment and owners.
Strategic Decision-making Model For Make Or Buy De-cisions
Literature review and quali-tative case study research with interviews.
Literature review of make or buy deci-sion-making approaches: transaction cost economics, make or buy triggers, com-petitive factors, McIvor’s outsourcing framework, Tayles and Drury sourcing decision model, balanced scorecard. 10 interviews with case company’s (Europe and Asia) top management and owners.
SD and buyer-supplier rela-tionship analysis - literature review
Literature review. Literature review of supplier manage-ment, supplier policies and procedures, buyer-supplier relationship, SCM, SD.
Close to 200 most relevant and cited papers were viewed and half of those were selected into the more close consid-eration.
Critical attributes on SC strat-egy implementation: case study in Europe and Asia
Qualitative case study re-search with interviews.
Quantitative sense and re-sponse analyse method.
Interviews: 15 interviews with the case company’s management and case com-pany’s supplier’s management and own-ers in Europe, Asia and America. Ques-tionnaire contained 36 attributes in three categories: SCM strategy approaches, SCM strategy implementation and chal-lenges in SCM strategy implementation.
Analyses were done according to Sense and Respond method.
Developing the Elements of Information Integration in the Real Estate and User Services
Qualitative case study
research. Literature review of elements of infor-mation integration, inforinfor-mation in real estate and user services and service SCM.
Empirical study of measuring
SC performance Qualitative case study re-search.
Quantitative measurements in case study companies.
Literature review of the most relevant literature related to SC performance measurement. According to the literature reviews it was developed SC perfor-mance measurement framework. More than 30 interviews, measurements in the case company and data collection from case company ERP.
The thesis consists of six articles in which every article includes wide literature review and most of the articles include empirical case studies from manufacturing industry or service business. The main methodological choices are presented in the table.
Table 7. The main methodological choices in this study.
Research discipline Strategic management
Theoretical base Strategic management, SCM, strategy implementa-tion
Research paradigm Hermeneutics Research strategy and
re-search approaches Qualitative and quantitative research, constructive research and case study research approach
Research methods Qualitative methods: interviews, data form ERP systems, observations, questionnaires, documents.
Quantitative methods: questionnaires and analyses based on numerical data.