Q1. Can we ever conduct research without having first established our epistemological position?

First we see that what epistemology is. Basically epistemology is a branch of philosophy which
guides us that how we can know the reality of anything. It will guide us that what methods we
have to adopt for finding any reality or research problem. It will guide us to the usage of proper
methodology that we can assess a problem properly. From the above statement it is clear that
epistemological position of a research problem is too much important. If we don’t have any
proper epistemological pillars for our study then this is not possible that we can gauges the
problem properly and can’t use proper methods to conduct any research. Epistemological pillars
basically validate our research methods. If we don’t have any epistemological position for our
research then it is most probably expected that we can select a method which will not be valid for
solving that particular problem.

Q2. Think and write about the assumptions, limitations and delimitations of your proposed
research project. 

Assumptions:

Assumptions are some expectation during the research work from the researcher which he
believes that these must be true. These are somewhat in researcher control during the study.
These provide foundation for the research to be carried out. Following are the main assumptions
of our proposed study

 The sample which will be selected for the interviews will be the representative of the
population of the petroleum sector.
 This respondent will reply truly about the problem what researcher asked them.

Limitations:

Limitations are the weaknesses which are uncontrollable by the researcher during the research
study. Following are the limitations of our study

 This Research study is an academic project must be done during the academic session of
this project so that’s why may be will not done so deeply.
 Primary data gathering of this research is done by interviews so due to this pandemic
situation most of the interviews will be done by phone or Skype which will lack the face
to face interactions.
 This research is an academic project so the financial resources are also very limited so
that’s why the researcher has a lot of financial limitations during this study.
Delimitations:

Delimitations are controllable factors which are in control of the researcher. Basically
delimitation provides boundary limits for the researcher during a research study. Following are
the main delimitation of our study

 Methodology used in this research study will be a qualitative.

 Primary Data will be taken only from the peoples who are supply chain professional of
the petroleum industry.
 Researcher will only select the petroleum sector of Pakistan.