Philosophy of research is very useful and imperative for researchers in threefold (Easterby-Smith et al, 2002). Firstly, it can help to clarify research designs to the research question or problem. Secondly, it helps the researcher to understand which designs will or will not work, so aiding in an appropriate selection of methodology. Thirdly, it may also help the researcher to discover and even generate designs, which could be outside his or her past experience. Thus, there is a need to thoroughly discuss the research philosophy of this study.
5.2.1 Positivism
There are generally two main traditional research paradigms or philosophies, positivism and phenomenology (Collis and Hussey, 2003; Easterby-Smith et al., 2002; Remenyi et al., 1998). The following is to discuss the two research paradigms in this study. Traditionally, the Positivist philosophy assumes that the researcher undertakes the role as an objective analyst, making detached interpretations about the data that has been collected (Al Khattab, 2005). This research is partially leaning towards the positivist philosophy because of the following reasons:
In order to satisfy the research topic and objectives, the positivist approach is deductive; it seeks to explain causal relationships among the variables being studied, and links them to a certain theory (Gill and Johnson, 2002). It employs controls to allow the determination of relations between variables. This study seeks to explain the causal relationship between service providers’ outsourcing relationship types and the standard and quality of the services provided to clients by third parties or outsourcers;
Choice of methodology and methods of data collection. In this research, there are two questionnaire surveys for the service providers and FM staffs in the client organisations in order to collect the data on the relationships between FM outsourcing categories, FM outsourcing relationship dimensions, five outsourcing manoeuvres and performance of FM outsourcing services. Justifications on selection of the survey are summarised in Table 5.1;
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Quantitative
- Concerned with hypothesis testing - Uses large sample
- Data is highly specific - Reliability is high - Validity is low
- Generalise from sample to population Source: Collis and Hussey (2003: 55)
Table 5.1 - The main features of the quantitative approach
Hypotheses testing. Positivist approach employs controls to allow the testing of hypotheses. There is a proposed hypothesis and nine corollaries which need to be tested, thus statistical tests have been used that utilise quantitative data such as Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-whitney U test, Analytical Hierarchy Process and multi-nominal logistic regression;
Generalisation. Positivist approach frequently utilizes quantitative data by large samples. The sample size of this study is quite large (See Section 5.7.5). In this context, Saunders et al. (2003 [P. 87]) have stated that "in order to be able to generalise about regularities in human social behaviour it is necessary to select samples of sufficient numerical size". In the same vein, Malhotra and Birks (2003) mention that the fundamental element of positivist research is the desire to generalise findings to a target population. Most targeted populations are so large that measurements of them can only be managed through representative sample surveys. This study can be established the reliability and generalisability of data by this approach;
Resource limitation. The advantages of positivistic approach has been described as cost effective (questionnaire surveys), acceptable speed in data collection (questionnaire surveys) and ease of analysis (appropriate statistical analysis); and
121 Some previous business studies in customer satisfaction have utilised the
same quantitative methods as an appropriate way to achieve the required objectives (e. g. Abdelaziz, 2001; Al Khatib and Gharaibeh, 1998; Jabnoun and Al-Tamimi, 2003; Jamal and Naser, 2002; Joseph et al., 1999; McDougall and Levesque, 2000; Sathye, 1999; Yavas et al., 2004).
5.2.2 Phenomenology
The phenomenological paradigm has emerged as a result of dissatisfaction with the application of a positivistic approach in social science (Al Khattab, 2005). This approach is also partially appropriate in this study because of the following reasons:
Method of Measurement. A phenomenological approach focuses on the subjective state of individuals by embracing the meaning rather than the measurement of social phenomena (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). This subjective research approach is suitable to understand people’s meaning. There are two rounds of Delphi survey for the local FM professionals in order to collect the critical success factors for outsourcing strategies of the four FM drivers. This subjective research method is suitable to collect those.
Hypotheses testing. Phenomenological advocates the use of qualitative methods that focus on generating hypotheses in order to illustrate and explain the phenomenon in its context Easterby-Smith et al. (2002). This means that it focuses on the meaning which is about what people are thinking and feeling and it utilises qualitative data by small samples. The analysis on critical success factors for outsourcing strategies of the four FM drivers is suitable to use this qualitative approach with systematic structure to identify.
Investigation in external causes and fundamental laws. The characteristic of this phenomenology is to understand and explain why people have different experiences, rather than searching for external causes and fundamental laws to explain their behaviour (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). The critical success factors for outsourcing strategies can be measured by evaluation of the
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relevant respondents in the Delphi study. Furthermore, the researcher is independent of what is being researched.
Constraints. The weaknesses of phenomenology is that large samples are required if results are to have credibility, and this may be costly and time consuming (Remenyi et al., 1998; Easterby-Smith et al., 2002; Collis and Hussey, 2003; Saunders et al. 2003; Hair et al., 2003). However for the Delphi study, the capital cost can keep as low as possible through virtual meetings and the working period can keep as short as possible with two rounds surveys.