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1 – 10 of over 6000Aims to address a gap in the literature about quality criteria for validity and reliability in qualitative research within the realism scientific paradigm. Six comprehensive and…
Abstract
Aims to address a gap in the literature about quality criteria for validity and reliability in qualitative research within the realism scientific paradigm. Six comprehensive and explicit criteria for judging realism research are developed, drawing on the three elements of a scientific paradigm of ontology, epistemology and methodology. The first two criteria concern ontology, that is, ontological appropriateness and contingent validity. The third criterion concerns epistemology: multiple perceptions of participants and of peer researchers. The final three criteria concern methodology: methodological trustworthiness, analytic generalisation and construct validity. Comparisons are made with criteria in other paradigms, particularly positivism and constructivism. An example of the use of the criteria is given. In conclusion, this paper’s set of six criteria will facilitate the further adoption of the realism paradigm and its evaluation in marketing research about, for instance, networks and relationship marketing.
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This study aims to correct errors in, and comment on the claims made in the comment papers of Rigdon (2022) and Henseler and Schuberth (2022), and to tidy up any substantive…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to correct errors in, and comment on the claims made in the comment papers of Rigdon (2022) and Henseler and Schuberth (2022), and to tidy up any substantive oversights made in Cadogan and Lee (2022).
Design/methodology/approach
The study discusses and clarifies the gap between Rigdon’s notion of scientific realism and the metaphysical, semantic and epistemological commitments that are broadly agreed to be key principles of scientific realism. The study also examines the ontological status of the variables that Henseler and Schuberth claim are emergent using emergence logic grounded in the notion that variables are only truly emergent if they demonstrate a failure of generative atomism.
Findings
In scientific realism, hypothetical causal contact between the unobserved and the observed is a key foundational stance, and as such, Rigdon’s concept proxy framework (CPF) is inherently anti-realist in nature. Furthermore, Henseler and Schuberth’s suggestion that composite-creating statistical packages [such as partial least squares (PLS)] can model emergent variables should be treated with skepticism by realists.
Research limitations/implications
Claims made by Rigdon regarding the realism of CPF are unfounded, and claims by Henseler and Schuberth regarding the universal suitability of partial least squares (PLS) as a tool for use by researchers of all ontological stripes (see their Table 5) do not appear to be well-grounded.
Practical implications
Those aspiring to do science according to the precepts of scientific realism need to be careful in assessing claims in the literature. For instance, despite Rigdon’s assertion that CPF is a realist framework, we show that it is not. Consequently, some of Rigdon’s core criticisms of the common factor logic make no sense for the realist. Likewise, if the variables resulting from composite creating statistical packages (like PLS) are not really emergent (contrary to Henseler and Schuberth) and so are not real, their utility as tools for scientific realist inquiry are called into question.
Originality/value
This study assesses PLS using the Eleatic Principle and examines H&S’s version of emergent variables from an ontological perspective.
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David Eriksson and Annika Engström
Operations and supply chain management (OSCM) is a theoretically and philosophically fragmented field. Researchers must consider how they use theory and explain empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
Operations and supply chain management (OSCM) is a theoretically and philosophically fragmented field. Researchers must consider how they use theory and explain empirical phenomena. This paper aims to use critical realism to introduce more coherence into this fragmented field.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on existing critical realism and abduction literature and this study uses a research process from two PhD projects to investigate critical realism’s role in OSCM research. This paper uses a narrative approach to collect data over a long timeframe, capturing data not commonly used in OSCM research.
Findings
Research that struggles to bridge the gap between theory and data benefits from critical realism, which provides a philosophy and associated methods to identify a suitable theory and guide researchers when they encounter obstacles. While clear steps often outline established methods, researchers are sometimes unable to identify when their research process has reached an obstacle. This paper argues that such obstacles can be treated as “crossroads” offering new research opportunities when correctly evaluated and addressed.
Research limitations/implications
Importantly, researchers should be able to reflect upon their own research processes, enabling a better understanding of these processes and the discovery of new research directions. Researchers can use critical realism, abduction and systematic combining to bridge the divide between theory and data in OSCM.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the field’s discussion regarding the roles of critical realism and abduction, synthesizing multiple academic sources, highlighting critical realism’s importance and providing a novel means of addressing difficulties in navigating an eclectic research area. This paper offers a philosophical alternate to the field, which is often instead considered from a positivistic standpoint. The paper is valuable to researchers in the OSCM field, who can use the research to improve their selection of data and theories, as well as their understanding of their own research processes.
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Rana Sobh and Chad Perry
The aim of this paper is to apply principles of the realism paradigm within qualitative research projects.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to apply principles of the realism paradigm within qualitative research projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper starts by establishing the usefulness of realism research for investigating marketing management phenomena, and then considers the implications of the realism paradigm for research design.
Findings
Issues such as the level of prior theory required, the use of replication logic and triangulation are discussed. In addition, guidelines for realism data analysis and reporting are developed.
Originality/value
This paper provides an explicit set of principles for realism research design and data analysis that is different from those in other types of research.
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The purpose of this paper is to respond to Modell’s arguments regarding the relative usefulness of critical realist philosophy in relation to actor-network theory.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to respond to Modell’s arguments regarding the relative usefulness of critical realist philosophy in relation to actor-network theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors outline the challenges in applying critical realism to critical accounting. The authors then consider Modell’s criticisms of actor-network theory, providing a counterargument highlighting the methodological choices distinguishing actor-network theory from critical realism.
Findings
The authors argue that critical realism, whilst providing an interesting addition to the critical accounting research project, confronts challenges disentangling intransitive and transitive forms of knowledge. Actor-network theory is presented as a way of examining accounting practices as local associations, providing practical opportunities to study (the assembly of) “the social”.
Research limitations/implications
Methodological diversity is to be explored, acknowledging the ontological politics of our choices.
Originality/value
This paper is an original commentary contributing to critical accounting research.
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Louise Brøns Kringelum and Jacob Brix
This study aims to investigate the implications of applying critical realism to the study of organizational learning. It considers critical realism as an alternate theoretical…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the implications of applying critical realism to the study of organizational learning. It considers critical realism as an alternate theoretical science foundation to the domains of empirical realism and social constructivism that characterize most of the field of organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the approach of a philosophical/conceptual discussion.
Findings
This study finds that the critical realist approach makes it possible for organizational learning researchers to apply a prescriptive change agenda. It requires researchers to study the context in which organizational learning occurs. These two features enable the researcher to propose what the world must be like for organizational learning to occur. Hence, a critical realist foundation moves organizational learning theory a step closer to its theoretical sibling, the learning organization.
Originality/value
This study reveals the potential in applying critical realism to the study of organizational learning and identifies its related strengths.
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In this article, I explore how critical realism influenced the methods and methodology as well as the translations of interviews from Japanese into English and the interpretations…
Abstract
Purpose
In this article, I explore how critical realism influenced the methods and methodology as well as the translations of interviews from Japanese into English and the interpretations of teachers’ understanding of the school at the center of this research.
Design/methodology/approach
This article investigates the interaction of critical realism within an English-language-based study of a Japanese high school using ethnographic methods and methodology and its influence on translations within the study. Critical realism combines a postpositivist ontological view with an epistemological constructionism. There is a reality to the school, which cannot be completely measured. This reality, the physical dimensions and composition (breadth, height, volume and number of classrooms) of the school, does not change based upon time or viewing location of an observer.
Findings
Critical realism provided strategies for and a focus on the translation of participant interviews from Japanese into English within this ethnographic study of a high school in Japan. These helped to provide a better understanding of the teachers' perception of the reality of the school.
Originality/value
This is original research.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of adopting a critical realist position for the study of performance measurement and management (PMM) systems.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of adopting a critical realist position for the study of performance measurement and management (PMM) systems.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses recent challenges to knowledge creation in PMM, arguing that overcoming these will require revisiting often implicit philosophical assumptions related to how the world is and how we learn about it. A critical realist perspective is explored and illustrated with the case of a software company attempting to empower and motivate its team.
Findings
Critical realism provides a means of building interdisciplinary knowledge in PMM. In addition to a generative view of causality, critical realism could augment a systems view of PMM by adopting a stratified view of reality and through its applied approach to knowledge building. The case illustrates the RRREIC approach and highlights the interplay of mechanisms of different scales and how this requires interdisciplinarity.
Research limitations/implications
Approaching the study of PMM with critical realism requires going beyond a particular tool or practice to understand the theory behind it. Such an approach can facilitate a layered, nuanced analysis of the issues facing organizations in a changing context.
Originality/value
This paper adds to discussion of philosophical topics in management and PMM and could help resolve ongoing challenges to knowledge building in the field, especially around barriers to conducting interdisciplinary research. In combination with rigorous methods, a strong philosophical base can facilitate relevant, lasting theories that can respond to a changing organizational context.
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The aim of this paper is to develop an integrative model that explains how incorporating the two epistemological positions of critical realism and attribution theory can help…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to develop an integrative model that explains how incorporating the two epistemological positions of critical realism and attribution theory can help qualitative organisational researchers better understand the reality of social actors through different lenses. In addition, the paper aims to demonstrate the application of the model through a study of organisational justice perceptions of elite Muslim professionals undergoing performance appraisal in the UK banking sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach adopted used semi-structured in-depth interviews with Muslim professionals in elite positions in UK Western and Islamic banks. Access to participants was secured through a process of purposive and snowball sampling, a tool often used to recruit hard-to-reach populations. The data were analysed through the integrative model developed in this paper.
Findings
The integration of critical realism and attribution theory provided different dimensionalities of social reality. Attribution theory enabled a systematic identification of social phenomena and their causal mechanisms, defined the characteristics of those mechanisms and highlighted who/what is responsible for and affected by them. Critical realism distinguished between causal mechanisms and the generative forces that help those mechanisms to be actualised and have effect.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, to the best of my knowledge, it is the first paper to build a novel integrative model of these two epistemologies. Second, it presents a detailed application of the model in a contemporary study of the perceptions of justice of Muslims in the UK banking sector.
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This study aims to examine how experience with mental illness influences perceptions of stigma and realism in a specific direct-to-consumer advertisement (DTCA) for bipolar…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how experience with mental illness influences perceptions of stigma and realism in a specific direct-to-consumer advertisement (DTCA) for bipolar depression.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey had participants watch a 90 s advertisement for a prescription bipolar depression drug and then answer 24 questions about stigma, mental illness experience and the realism of the portrayals in the advertisement.
Findings
Findings show that people who identify as having experience with mental illness tend to see the ad as more stigmatizing and less realistic. Additionally, people who expressed more stigmatizing beliefs also tended to see more stigma present in the ad. Finally, the study reconfirms conclusions of previous research that people who have experience with mental health conditions possess fewer stigmatizing beliefs overall regarding mental illness.
Research limitations/implications
The sample population, while diverse in age and somewhat diverse in location, were highly educated, suggesting that they were not representative of the general population. Future studies may want to use more representative samples. A more nuanced approach to understanding experience is needed. While the sample in this study was purposively derived from communities with a higher rate of mental illness, a comprehensive experience scale to measure degrees of experience with mental illness would enhance understanding of this construct. Researchers may also want to look more deeply into the emotional responses of consumers who view these ads. To develop a greater understanding of the trajectory of DTCA, studies of online advertising for psychiatric drugs are needed.
Practical implications
The results of the study suggest that respondents with experience with mental illness may find ads that sell psychiatric medications unrealistic. This study presents the topic of realism in DTCA as an important construct for determining how consumers may perceive portrayals of disorders.
Social implications
The fact that people who have experience with mental illness found the Latuda ad to be generally unrealistic suggests that DTCA may be failing to represent mental illness in a way that demonstrates care for patients. Additionally, this research confirms that people who have had exposure to and experience with mental illness tend to hold less stigmatizing beliefs, (Link and Cullen, 1986; Corrigan et al., 2001; Angermeyer et al., 2004) a finding which supports the continuing project of increasing mental health literacy and awareness in the general population.
Originality/value
This study investigates the reactions of people who identify as having some experience with mental illness to see if they accept the portrayals of mental illness in DTCA or resist them by challenging their realism or identifying stigmatizing elements.
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