Research philosophy, refers to the development of knowledge adopted by

the researchers in their research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In

other words, it is the theory that used to direct the researcher for conducting
the procedure of research design, research strategy, questionnaire design
and sampling (Malhotra, 2009). It is very important to have a clear
understanding of the research philosophy so that we could examine the
assumptions about the way we view the world, which are contained in the
research philosophy we choose, knowing that whether they are appropriate
or not (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). According to Saunders, Lewis
and Thornhill (2009), three major ways of thinking about research philosophy
are examined: ontology, epistemology and axiology. Each of them carries
significant differences which will have an impact on the way we consider the
research procedures. Ontology, “is concerned with nature of reality”, while
epistemology “concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of
study and axiology “studies judgements about value” (Saunders, Lewis and
Thornhill, 2009, p110, p112, p116). This study is intent on creating some
“facts” from objective evaluations which are made by the subjects. Therefore,
epistemology will be chosen for this study as the way of thinking about the
research philosophy.