As you begin your journey into doctoral-level research, it is important to understand your preferred research style. This style will likely be the easiest for you to do; however, different problems require different approaches. You can learn other approaches, but it is best to master your preferred style before you begin on other styles.
Arbnor and Bjerke discuss three methodological approaches to research and align each of these with at least two social science paradigms, for a total of six. These six paradigms are:
- Analytic
- Reality as concrete and conformable to law, a structure that is independent of the observer
- Reality as a concrete determining process
- Systems
- Reality as mutually dependent fields of information
- Reality as a world of symbolic discourse
- Actor’s
- Reality as a social construction
- Reality as a manifestation of human intentionality
Questions:
Prepare a discussion posting of at least 500 words that answers the following questions:
- Which of the six social science paradigms most closely matches your preferred research “style?”
- Does your research approach “bleed” into more than one? What makes you think so?
- Which business research methodology presented by Arbnor and Bjerke most closely matches your preferred research approach?
- Do your research background assumptions and beliefs overlap more than one? Explain.
Resources
- Arbnor and Bjerke: Methodology for Creating Business Knowledge 3rd Edition
