Ata ul Musawir

Riphah School Of Business and Management

Riphah International University
Lahore, Pakistan
• Lincoln et al. (2011) define reflexivity as the process of reflecting critically on oneself as a
researcher.

• Research is like going on a journey. It is a journey that involves you making a number of
decisions. Being reflexive will ensure you reflect on why you choose a research topic, why you
prefer one research strategy over another, how you engage with those whom you wish to
take part in your research, how you use the data they provide to you, how you deal with any
problems that confront you during your project, and so on.

• It will allow you to bring to the surface any preconceived ideas that you may have about your
topic and what you expect to find, and help you to be aware of your own biases. Through
doing this you will recognize your role or ‘self’ within the process of the research, remaining
critically reflective, and being open to new learning.

Lincoln, Y.S., Lynham, S.A. and Guba, E.G. (2011) ‘Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences, revisited’, in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds) The Sage
Handbook of Qualitative Research (4th edn). London: Sage. 2
Factors and sources you may consider:
• Your own interests and/or experience
• Trends in your discipline (Marketing, Finance, HR, Project Management, etc.)
• Open and past calls for papers by key journals in your discipline
• Priority areas identified in editorials in key journals in your discipline
• Priority areas identified by professional organizations in your discipline
• Research areas with available funding opportunities
• Your current organization’s/university’s/department’s areas of interest
• Emerging areas that will gain increasing attention in future (typically related to new
technologies with wide applications, such as machine learning and blockchain)
• Research interests of your prospective supervisor(s)
3
• Relevance (How important is this area to researchers and practitioners in your discipline? To
your organization? Affects the future value of your research. Also determines the readership
and citations of your prospective research.)
• Longevity (How long can you foresee this research area will remain relevant? Affects possibility
of specialization, future publications, etc.)
• Saturation (How many other researchers are currently working on this research area? Affects
the ease of findings a research gap.)
• Maturity (How long has this topic been under study? Affects the ease of findings a research gap.
Affects the types of suitable methods. Also affects the ease of finding suitable measures.)
• Coherence (How well-structured is the literature on this research area? Affects the ease of
‘making sense’ of existing literature and determining the contribution of your research.)
• Feasibility (Will you be able to find and collect data on this area? Do you have the capability and
resources required to make a unique and valuable contribution to this area?)
4
Factors and sources you may consider:
• Your own opinions on what problems/opportunities/gaps need to be addressed based on
your knowledge and experience
• Key and/or emerging topics in your chosen area (examples of areas: e-business customer
analytics, Islamic financial accounting, recruitment systems for the ‘gig economy’, etc.)
• Specific topics in open and past calls for papers by key journals in your discipline
• Research directions identified in literature reviews on your chosen area
• Future research directions identified in existing literature in your chosen area
• Building on research topics of key authors in your chosen area
• Building on existing studies that you find important and/or interesting
• Discussions with colleagues, experts, prominent researchers, supervisors, etc.
5
Source: Saunders, M.,
Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A.
(2016). Research methods
for business students (7th
ed.). Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.

6
Source: Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7th ed.). Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

7
Source: Saunders, M.,
Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A.
(2016). Research methods
for business students (7th
ed.). Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.

8
• A research problem is a clear expression about an area of concern, a condition to be
improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly
literature, in theory, or within existing practice that points to a need for a deliberate
investigation to improve our understanding of the topic.

• The purpose of a problem statement is to:

i. Introduce the reader to the importance of the topic being studied.
ii. Form the basis of the research questions, hypotheses, or assumptions to follow.
iii. Place the topic into a particular context that defines the boundaries of what is to be
investigated.
iv. Provide the framework for reporting the results.

Source: University of South Carolina (USC) Libraries 9

https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/introduction/researchproblem
 • Literature review
• Discussions with experts & supervisors
Preliminary • Exploratory study (optional) Refined
Problem Problem
Statement Statement

• Typically 1-2 sentences long • Typically 2-3 paragraphs long

• Typically does not include citations • Claims backed with citations
• Serves to provide an initial direction • Serves to inform and persuade the
• Iteratively refined through the reader
literature review process (may also • Included in the final write-up of the
involve an exploratory study) paper/thesis/etc. (typically in the
introduction section)
10
Source: Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach (7th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

11
Source: Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach (7th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

12
• The refined problem statement should provide the means by which you can answer the
"So What?" question. This is sometimes referred to as the relevancy test.

• Note that answering the "So What?" question requires a commitment on your part to not
only show that you have reviewed the literature, but that you have thoroughly considered
the significance of the research problem and its implications applied to creating new
knowledge and understanding.

• Therefore, your refined problem statement should clearly highlight the theoretical and
practical significance of your research. It should convince the reader that your research is of
value and worth their time to read.

Source: University of South Carolina (USC) Libraries 13

https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/introduction/researchproblem
To survive the "So What?" question, problem statements should possess the following attributes:
• Clarity and precision (a well-written statement does not make sweeping generalizations and
irresponsible claims).
• Identification of what would be studied, while avoiding the use of value-laden words and
terms (i.e. should not involve or be based on your personal opinions and beliefs).
• Identification of key concepts and terms.
• Articulation of the study’s boundaries or parameters.
• Some generalizability in regards to applicability and bringing results into general use.
• Conveyance of the study’s importance, benefits, and justification.
• Avoidance of unnecessary jargon.
Source: University of South Carolina (USC) Libraries 14
https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/introduction/researchproblem
• There is no one best way to structure the problem statement. It depends on various factors
such as the individual’s own writing style, the study topic, the target audience, etc. However,
generally, a persuasive problem statement may be structured as follows (note: the statement
itself does not need to be divided into three parts):

• Part A: The Ideal Situation

Brief example: “Employees are critical to the success of any organization. Highly motivated employees greatly
increase the value of their organization (add citations to support claims).”

• Part B: The Current Situation & Its Consequences

Brief example: “However, employees in the private-sector hospitals in Pakistan tend to be demotivated and,
as a result, the hospitals’ service quality suffers (add citations where available).”

• Part C: How this Research will Help Bridge the Gap between the Current and Ideal
Brief example: “This research seeks to examine how employee motivation, and hence service quality, can be
improved in private-sector hospitals in Pakistan. To that end, in line with Empowerment theory, this study
seeks to examine the effects of empowering leadership on employee motivation and service quality.” 15
Initial problem statement example:
• Employees in the textile industry are unhappy and are leaving their organizations.

Refined problem statement example (citations are for illustrative purposes only):
• The textile industry is a major contributor to Pakistan’s GDP (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2019).
Hence, a strong and stable textile industry has direct positive impacts on Pakistan’s economic
development (Zia et al., 2015).
• However, the textile industry in Pakistan has a relatively high rate of turnover (Hassan, 2016), which
leads to additional costs and disruption to operations (Ali et al., 2018). Textile workers typically work
in unhospitable work environments with exhausting work schedules (Geraldino, 2013). To make
matters worse, textile workers tend to be poor and uneducated (Desmond & Harare, 2011), and
hence lack the bargaining power to negotiate for better working conditions (Jiminy, 2014). As a
result, many textile workers rotate jobs between textile firms looking for better pay and working
environments (Abdul et al., 2017).
• Previous research indicates that social support is among the most critical factors in helping
employees cope with difficult working conditions (Zerital, 2010). Accordingly, using the lens of Social
Facilitation Theory (Zajonc, 1965), the present study seeks to examine the roles of transformational
leadership and social interactions in reducing turnover intentions of textile workers. 16
• The next step is to develop one or more research questions (RQs) based on the refined
problem statement.

• RQs are a central part of any research study. The importance of creating a clearly defined
research questions cannot be over-emphasized.

• RQs will influence your choice of literature to review, your research design, your target
respondents/data, your approach to sampling, your choice of data collection and analysis
methods, and help to shape the way in which you write your project report.

• The overarching research question is sometimes referred to as a ‘central research question’,

which may be broken down into sub research questions. It is also used to generate a set of
more detailed research objectives to guide your research (discussed later).

17
Source: Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7th ed.). Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

18
• However, it is also important to recognize that some research approaches and research
strategies start off in a more exploratory and emergent direction.

• For a researcher undertaking this type of research, her or his finalized research question may
only emerge during the process of data collection and analysis as she or he discovers the
exact focus of her or his research project and refines its direction.

• In these cases, qualitative research designs can be used to gain a better understanding about
a subject matter and help refine the initial research question(s). This will be discussed further
in the research design topic.

19
• Exploratory studies are typically undertaken when: a) not much is known about a particular
phenomenon; b) existing research results are unclear or suffer from serious limitations; c) the
topic is highly complex; or d) there is not enough theory available to guide the development
of a theoretical model.

• Exploratory research often relies on qualitative approaches to data gathering such as

interviews, focus groups, and/or case studies. As a rule, exploratory research is flexible in
nature. Whereas the focus of the research is broad at first, it becomes increasingly narrower
as the research proceeds. The results of exploratory studies are typically not generalizable to
the population.

Examples:
• How do newly-hired HR managers cope with the pressures of the job? (interviews)
• What are customers’ perceptions about electric cars? (focus group)
• How do organizations undertake risk management in highly uncertain projects? (case studies)
20
• The objective of a descriptive study is to obtain data that describes the topic of interest.
Descriptive studies are often designed to collect data that describe characteristics of objects
(such as persons, organizations, products, brands, etc.), events, or situations. Descriptive
research can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature. Quantitative data may include
satisfaction ratings, production figures, sales figures, or demographic data. Qualitative data
might be gathered to describe how, for example, consumers go through a decision‐making
process or to examine how managers resolve conflicts in organizations.

• Correlational studies describe the associations between variables. While correlational studies
can suggest that there is a relationship between two variables, finding a correlation does not
mean that one variable causes a change in another variable (i.e. causality cannot be inferred).

Examples:
• What is the average salary range for a Riphah graduate?
• What are the employee engagement techniques used by pharmaceutical organizations?
• What are the characteristics of energy projects undertaken in Pakistan over the past decade? 21
• Causal studies test whether or not one variable causes another variable to change. To
conduct a causal study, the assumptions of causality must first be satisfied.

• The intention of the researcher conducting a causal study is to investigate the direction and
intensity of the effect of one or more independent variables (X) on one or more dependent
variables (Y). The purpose is to predict the average value of Y for a given value of X.

• There are also moderating and mediating variables but we will discuss those later.

Examples:
• What is the effect of flexible working hours on productivity?
• To what extent does perceived value moderate the effect of price on consumer purchase
intentions?
• To what extent does work engagement mediate the relationship between transformational
leadership and job satisfaction?
22
• As well as your research question, you may also be required to formulate a research aim.

• A research aim is a brief statement of the purpose of the research project. It is often written
as a sentence stating what you intend to achieve through your research.

• To illustrate this, the examples of research questions in Table 2.2 have been matched to their
research aims in Table 2.3.

• You will see the close relationship between these – one stated as a question, the other as an
aim.

23
Source: Saunders, M.,
Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A.
(2016). Research methods
for business students (7th
ed.). Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.
24
• Your research question and research aim are complementary ways of saying what your
research is about. However, neither gives sufficient detail about the steps you will need to
take to answer your question and achieve your aim.

• To do this you will need to devise a set of research objectives (ROs), based on your research
questions.

• ROs are more preferable to RQs in some research fields and institutions as evidence of the
researcher’s clear sense of purpose and direction.

• However, in many cases, either RQs or ROs are acceptable. Do check whether your examining
body has a preference.

25
• Research objectives allow you to operationalize your question – that is, to state the steps you
intend to take to answer it.

• A similar way of thinking about the difference between questions, aims and objectives is
related to ‘what’ and ‘how’.

• Research questions and aims express ‘what’ your research is about. Research objectives
express ‘how’ you intend to structure the research process to answer your question and
achieve your aim.

• In this way, research objectives can be seen to complement a research question and aim,
through providing the means to operationalize them.

26
Source: Saunders, M.,
Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A.
(2016). Research methods
for business students (7th
ed.). Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.

27
Source: Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach (7th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

28
 Research
Design

What type of results do

we need to answer the
RQs/achieve the ROs?
Topic Results

How can the RQs/ROs be

amended to match the
type of results we expect? 29
• Bottomline: Keep the research design and expected results (as well as their potential
implications) in mind when choosing a topic and defining the research questions.

• This will save a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted in backtracking due to, for
example, realizing that you are not able to undertake the required research design needed to
address the research topic.

• It will also held avoid inconsistencies in the research where, for example, the data collected
are not sufficient and/or relevant to adequately answer the research questions.

30
 Ata ul Musawir
Riphah School Of Business and Management
Riphah International University
Lahore, Pakistan
• There is probably no word that is more misused and misunderstood in education than the
word ‘theory’. It is thought that material included in textbooks is ‘theory’, whereas what is
happening in the ‘real world’ is practice.

• In other everyday use, the word theory is often used to refer to an untested hunch, or a
guess without supporting evidence.

• In the most simplistic terms, a theory is an explanation of something that we observe in the
real world.

32
• However, there is one key point of difference between the theories we use in everyday life
and the theories developed in scientific literature.

• In academia, a theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspects of the real world.

The theory of gravity, for examples, explains why apples fall from trees and astronauts float in
space.

• A theory can be claimed to be well-substantiated when it has passed rigorous testing and an
extensive peer-review process. The more ambitious the theory is in terms of what it claims to
explain, the more evidence is needed to substantiate it. As emphasized by noted astronomer
Carl Sagan, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.

• Being called a theory is the highest honor any idea can achieve in a scientific field.

33
“Theories are the nets cast to catch what we call ‘the

world’: to rationalize, to explain, to master it. We

endeavour to make the mesh ever finer and finer.”

(Karl Popper, 1972, p.59)

Reference: Popper, K. (1972). The Logic of Scientific Discovery (6th ed.) (revised). London: Hutchinson. 34
• A scientific law is simply an observation of the phenomenon that the theory attempts to
explain. For example, suppose that you were lying under an apple tree and observed an apple
fall from a branch to the ground. The observation of this phenomena can be called the law of
gravity. The law of gravity states that every time you drop an apple, it will fall to the ground.
Specifically, it states that an attractive force exists between all objects with mass.

• A theory of gravity is an explanation as to why the apple falls to the ground. Specifically,
Einstein’s theory of General Relativity proposes that any object with mass curves the ‘fabric’
of space-time. This leads to the observation of gravitational attraction.

• Hence, a law is an observation, whereas a theory is an explanation. Theories do not ‘graduate’

into laws because they are two separate things.

• A hypothesis is simply a testable statement that is used to test whether a proposed theory is
supported by observations in the real world.
Source: Pfeiffer, D. J. (2017). Scientific Theory vs Law. https://medium.com/science-journal/scientific-theory-vs-scientific-law-5624633a8f1b 35
• Theories evolve as our understanding of the world improves and we develop better tools and
techniques to study the world. The two have a mutually beneficial relationship.

36
 Example: Evolution of Theories of Disease Causation

Pre-modern Era: 500 BCE: Hippocrates’ 1880 Onwards: Germ

Four Humors – Blood, Until 1880: Miasma
Supernatural Entities, Theory of Disease –
Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Theory – ‘Bad Air’ causes
Divine Retribution cause Phlegm – Responsible for
Specific Germs cause
Diseases
Diseases Pain and Health Specific Diseases

37
Theories constantly are (and should be) disproven
and replaced with better explanations of real-
world phenomena.

For example, the theory of Spontaneous

Generation held that living creatures could arise
from non-living matter and that such processes
were commonplace and regular.

This theory was coherently synthesized by

Aristotle, who compiled and expanded the work
of earlier natural philosophers and the various
ancient explanations for the appearance of
organisms. It was taken as scientific fact for two
millennia.

Though challenged in the 17th and 18th centuries

by the experiments of Francesco Redi and Lazzaro
Spallanzani, spontaneous generation was not
disproved until the work of Louis Pasteur and
John Tyndall in the mid-19th century. 38
• Whetten (1989) identified that theory is composed of four elements, related to ‘what’,
‘how’, ‘why’ and a fourth group of ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘when’.
• The first element is: what are the variables or concepts that the theory examines?
• The second element is: how are these variables or concepts related?
• The third element is: why are these variables or concepts related?

• Good theory must not only include ‘what’ and ‘how’ elements to identify underpinning
variables and describe the nature of their relationship (cause and effect); it must also use
logical reasoning to explain why the relationship exists. ‘Logical’ because you will be looking
for good reasons to explain ‘why’ and ‘reasoning’ because your use of logic will be based on
what you already know, related to the ‘what’ and ‘how’.
• Once a valid explanation has been developed, the theory may be used not only to explain
why the relationship exists but also to make predictions about new outcomes if the variables
on which the theory is based are manipulated (or changed).
Reference: Whetten, D. A. (1989). What constitutes a theoretical contribution?. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 490-495. 39
• While good theory has the power to explain and predict, it may also be subject to limitations.
The scope of many theories will be limited by one or more constraints.
• The fourth element is: who does this theory apply to; where does this theory apply; when
does this theory apply?

• In this way, the explanations of the cause-and-effect relationships between variables in a

theory may be contextual and time limited, indicating constraints to their generalizability.

• Another important contribution that addresses the question ‘what is theory?’ starts from the
opposite perspective by discussing ‘What theory is not’ (Sutton and Staw, 1995).

• This is a helpful contribution to our understanding and provides a complementary approach

to that of Whetten (1989).
References:
Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995). What theory is not. Administrative Science Quarterly, 371-384.
Whetten, D. A. (1989). What constitutes a theoretical contribution?. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 490-495. 40
• At this point, you may be asking, ‘why is it important for me to recognize theory at this early
stage, when writing my research question and research objectives?’ Apart from its capacity
to inform your research ideas, the answer to this relates to the ways in which theory may also
inform your research question and how theory is developed.

• Theory published in the literature may inform your proposed research question in several
ways. It will help you to formulate a research question that should lead to a theoretical
explanation, rather than just a descriptive answer.

• It will also allow you to find out whether others have asked similar questions to the question
you propose. Where you find that a similar research question to yours has been addressed in
the literature, you will be able to learn about the context within which it was explored and
how the research was conducted. This may help to focus your question to provide you with a
set of variables to test, or concepts to explore, to determine whether, how and why they are
related in the context of your own research project (Box 2.11).
41
Source: Saunders, M.,
Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A.
(2016). Research methods
for business students (7th
ed.). Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.

42
• Using relevant theory to inform your research question will also sensitize you to the nature
and level of importance of the research topic surrounding your question. You may find that a
considerable body of relevant work exists, either in business and management or in another
subject domain, for example in psychology, economics or sociology.

• Discovering this may help you to focus your research question so that later on you can firmly
connect your findings and conclusions to this existing theory. It is unlikely that you will fail to
find any literature that relates to your proposed question, although where you find that you
are working in a more specialized topic area, this discovery may also help to focus your
research question to relate to the theory that you locate. It is important to discuss how the
results of your research relate to theory, to assess that theory in the context of your work,
and to demonstrate the theoretical contribution, no matter how small, of your research.

• Where you simply find it difficult to formulate a research question from your research idea,
using existing theory may also help you to achieve this.
43
Source: Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7th ed.). Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
44
• This discussion of theory has probably left you asking, ‘what does this mean for me?’ While
you will be expected to produce a theoretical explanation, you will not be expected to
develop a momentous theory that leads to a new way of thinking about management!

• Not all theoretical contributions are the same. Consider the threefold typology of theories
shown in Figure 2.1.

• ‘Grand theories’ are usually thought to be the province of the natural scientists (e.g. Darwin’s
theory of evolution or Einstein’s theory of relativity).

• These may be contrasted with ‘middle-range theories’, which lack the capacity to change the
way in which we think about the world but are nonetheless of significance. Some of the
theories of human motivation well known to managers would be in this category.

45
• However, most of us are concerned with ‘substantive theories’ that are restricted to a
particular time, research setting, group or population or problem.

• For example, studying the implications of a cost-saving strategy in a particular organization

would be an example of a substantive theory. Although they may be restricted, a host of
‘substantive theories’ that present similar propositions may lead to ‘middle-range theories’.

• By developing ‘substantive theories’, however modest, we are doing our bit as researchers to
enhance our understanding of the world about us.

• Another way to examine the theoretical contributions of research into business and
management is to assess its practical usefulness for organizations and those who work in
them (Box 2.12).

46
47
Source: Saunders, M.,
Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A.
(2016). Research methods
for business students (7th
ed.). Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.

48
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education
49
• You may consult the following books for summaries on some influential contemporary
management and organization theories:

1. Miles, J. A. (2012). Management and organization theory: A Jossey-Bass reader (Vol. 9).
John Wiley & Sons.

2. Miles, J. A. (Ed.). (2014). New directions in management and organization theory.

Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

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