El coeficiente intelectual colectivo

3.2.1 The purpose of the research design

The research design is the action plan or blueprint primarily concerned with making sure

researcher has a clear understanding of the following: (i) what questions to study, (ii)

what data are relevant, (iii) what data to collect, and (iv) how to analyse the results. In

doing so it must also addresses four principal issues of quality design, namely construct

validity, internal validity, external validity, and reliability.

3.2.2 The research question and objectives

The objective of the research is to understand the logic that surrounds the decision-

making activity of commodity business process adoption. In particular, to understand:

 How key architecture decisions are taken?

 What are the conditions under which commodity adoption takes place?

 What is the influence of commodity work business processes in that

decision-making?

The output will be a conceptual model of commodity business process adoption. The

research adopts a longitudinal case study approach for each of four internal corporate

ventures in one major UK retailer. Each case focuses on the same work business process

(call centres), which is a key business process within each of the four ventures.

3.2.3 Philosophical stance

In much the same way that a historian has to verify the authenticity of archives and

documents, and a scientist ensure that the calibration of his instruments are accurate and

appropriate, a social sciences approach has to satisfy the questions asked of it as to what

kind of science it is, and can the methods of the natural sciences be used in the social

sciences? Blaikie (1993) discusses seven distinctive approaches to social enquiry

(positivism, critical rationalism, interpretivism, critical theory, realism, structuration

detail, but the ontology, epistemology and main ideas of these philosophical approaches

are contained in table 3.1.

ONTOLOGY EPISTEMOLOGY MAIN FEATURES

Positivism A complex of causal relations between events, as an emerging patchwork of relations between variables

Drives from sensory experience by means of experimental or comparative analysis; concepts and generalisations are summaries of particular observations.

Sensorial experience Passive observations Empirical regularities Theory (= reality) testing Prediction>explanation Critical

Rationalism

A complex of causal relations between events, as an emerging patchwork of relations between variables

A tentative and error continuous critical evaluation (discovering knowledge), in order to reject the false theories, where observations are theory dependent in a horizon of expectations.

Trial and error observations Imposed regularities Non-proved deductive theory

Interpretivism Product of processes by which social actors together negotiate the meanings for actions and situations.

Derives from everyday reality (concepts and meanings), where social researchers reconstruct the meaning of theories.

Interpretation of experience Understanding

Historical description Critical theory Natural and social realities

are seen to be socially constructed, being fundamentally different.

Three kinds of knowledge: Empirical- analytical: Science of technical interest of prediction and control: Historical-Hermeneutic:

understanding of everyday discourse: and Critical: human beings emancipatory interests.

No objective observations Consensus truth Cognitive interests

Realism A socially constructed world

which social episodes are the products of cognitive resource social actors bring to them, or social arrangements are the products of material but unobservable structures of relations.

Build models of mechanisms that if they are to exist and act in the postulated way, they would account for the phenomena being examined.

Observed/Non-observed Underlying mechanisms Ideal (not real)truth Cognitive interests Explanation>Prediction

Structuration Theory

Produced and reproduced by the skills activities of social actors but not necessarily under the conditions of their own choosing.

No epistemology. Ordering institutions along time

Regulations in social practices Historical variations

Intrusions of knowledge in social reproduction

Social critique Qualitative/quantitative Context-time dependency Anthropological view Policy making role Feminism Natural and social realities

are seen to be socially constructed, being fundamentally different, due to different experiences (man and woman).

Integrate thoughts and feelings, logical capabilities and intuition, rational and emotional, through shared visions. Feelings/experiences in a political context Natural setting Qualitative Story

Table 3.1: Main ideas of the philosophical approaches of social sciences

Eisenhardt (1989) describes her theory building from case study approach as positivist,

that is, concerned with the development of testable hypotheses and theory that is

generalisable across settings. This in contrast to Strauss (1987), and Van Maanen (1988)

who are more concerned that a “rich, complex description of the specific cases under

study, although following the approach as described by Eisenhardt, is approached from an

interpretivism perspective typically by deriving expert accounts of social life from the

actors involved.

3.2.4 Exploratory, testing-out, and problem solving research

Phillips and Pugh (1994) use a threefold classification of research type namely,

exploratory, testing-out, and problem solving, which is preferred to the more traditional distinction of „pure‟ and „applied‟ research which tends to infer that pure research

develops the theories and that applied research uses them and tests them out in the real

world. Exploratory research typically involves tackling a new problem, issue or topic

where little is known about the subject area, and will need to include an examination of

what theories and concepts are applicable. It requires that the existing boundaries of

knowledge are pushed forward and that new discoveries are made. Testing-out research

examines the limits of previously proposed generalisations. Working with existing and

established research material this type of research will test-out theories under different

conditions (extremes), in different circumstances, and using different methodologies,

approaches or a combination of them in order to refine and perfect understanding.

Problem solving research attempts to tackle a real-world problem by bringing together the

available knowledge and intellectual capital around a particular problem or subject area.

Clarity surrounding the problem is key as a cross-discipline approach is often required.

Despite Phillips and Pugh‟s advice to research students that testing-out research is by far

the most suitable for the novice researcher when pursuing a PhD, this research will be of the „exploratory‟ type, as it is examining a relatively new phenomenon about which little

has been written or previously researched. They also recommend that you aim for ‟symmetry of potential outcomes‟. This ensures that the thesis will not stand or fall by a

particular result, but will make a contribution whatever the outcome. This is not always

3.2.5 Constructs, propositions, and hypotheses

As the focus of this research is „theory building‟, then the ideal starting position is that

there is no theory or hypothesis in place (Eisenhardt 1989). However, two important

propositions have emerged from the literature that can be measured throughout the

research and will provide a triangulated measure on which to base the emerging theory.

There is also recognition of the need to adopt a structured approach that will not prejudice

the outcome, and propositions help in directing attention to something that should be

examined within the scope of the research (Yin 1994). The emerging propositions are as

follows:

Proposition one

In the wake of pervasive trends such as outsourcing, implementation of standard

application software packages, and a focus on core competencies, organisations are

increasingly viewing work processes as 'commodity' work processes (i.e. work processes

that are not specific to any particular business, are readily obtained, and are more or less equally valuable to any number of businesses).

Proposition two

The adoption of commodity work processes can be 'planned' as the result of a conscious

decision, for example to outsource, or 'unplanned', by unknowingly adopting them as a

consequence of some related decision or action such as the selection of a computer

software packaged application.