A critical realist method for applied business research

ABSTRACT

While the business research community has moved from describing critical realism as simply a compromise philosophy between positivists and interpretivists to its acceptance in its own right, it still lacks a choice of methods or processes for the business researcher to utilize. This paper presents a proposed method that can be used by business researchers who follow the critical realist paradigm. It explores the suitability of a critical realist approach to applied business and the importance of combining the ontological and epistemological elements described. The relevance of the search for causal mechanisms is shown and it is argued that this search benefits from the use of retroduction and retrodiction. A ‘causal framework’ is proposed as an optional artefact in the critical realist business researcher’s ‘toolkit’ and a three step process is described, which uses causal frameworks to guide analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Applied critical realism
• business research
• retroduction
• retrodiction
• causal framework

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

John McAvoy is a lecturer in Business Information Systems at the University College Cork, Ireland. Prior to lecturing, John had a variety of roles in the Information Systems field, ranging from systems administration to managing software development teams. His research interests are in the areas of software development methodologies, primarily the role played by small teams of software developers.

Tom Butler is a Professor in Business Information Systems at the University College Cork, Ireland. Before lecturing, Tom had an extensive career in the telecommunications industry. His research is primarily qualitative, interpretive and case-based in nature, and has two related major streams: IT capabilities and the development and implementation of information systems in organisations; and knowledge management systems.

Notes

1. In an Agile team, the members have a wide range of skills such that the team has everything and everyone necessary to produce functional product. In this case, the Agile team is to develop software products.

2. ‘Social loafing’ is the phenomenon of a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone.

3. A Gannt chart shows how much work has been done over certain time periods in relation to the amount of time initially allocated.