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Episthropology, And Epistemology

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Research Philosophies
There are two main subdivisions of research philosophies; ontological and epistemological research philosophies. Ontology involves using a nature perspective to establish how things work. On the other hand, epistemology involves assessing the interaction between the knowledge of the inquirer and the research (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). The nature of reality can thus be determined by reviewing the four primary research philosophies that are based on epistemology and ontology.
The four primary research philosophies include pragmatism, realism, positivism, and interpretivism. An ontology based on positivism assumes that social factors have no impact on the nature and objectives of reality. According to the ontology …show more content…

According to the positivism philosophy, the assumption made regarding knowledge and its existence is that everything is based on causality. Saunders and Tosey (2013) claims that epistemology that is based on realism makes the assumption that the observable phenomenon forms the basis of knowledge. In this case, inaccurate information results from insufficient data. On the other hand, epistemology that is based on interpretivism assumes that the nature of knowledge that is obtained is determined by various factors such as social phenomenon and the meanings are subjective, meaning that they change depending on the existing situation. Finally, pragmatism is based on the idea that the knowledge that is obtained depends on the nature of questions that an individual asks, as opposed to the existing situation (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). This research evaluates the how globalization has impacted consumer behaviors and attitudes. As such, this changes from one consumer to the other. For this reason, intepretivism philosophy is used because the nature of knowledge that is acquired on the research topic depends on the existing situation in Saudi …show more content…

In this case, researchers use information that is already available and accessible to the public. Such information is retrieved from governmental institutions, companies, and other researchers (Kumar, 2010). As such, there are various benefits that researchers gain for using this approach. One of such is that it is cheaper than primary research. Secondly, secondary researches and their findings are readily available in various sources. As such, they take a shorter time to conduct and complete than primary research studies. Thirdly, they are a source of information that is used in clarification of various issues in the study. This leads to proper development of information in the study. Finally, the initial sourced analyze the various types of research methodologies. Thus, the researcher using secondary research does not dig into such details. However, the approach has various disadvantages. For instance, sometimes the research questions and the data lack coherence. This is contrary to the primary research that establishes data that is tailored to respond to particular questions (Boyle & Schmierbach, 2015). It also has a high degree or error propagation. Errors that were incurred in the initial research are translated into the current research. Another weakness is that some data may be outdated and thus unsuitable for use in current studies. Consumer behaviors and attitudes change from time to time, on a frequent

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