Answer to Question #270178 in Marketing for nanyala

Question

Why would a researcher in the business environment prefer to use both phenomenology and positivism methods? Explain with clear examples. 

Answer 1

The reason as to why many researchers in business environment use phenomenological approach is to illuminate the specific, to identify phenomena through how they are perceived by the actors in a situation. For example, phenomenological research has overlaps with other essentially qualitative approaches including ethnography, hermeneutics and symbolic interactionism. Phenomenological methods are preferred because they are effective at bringing to the fore the experiences and perceptions of individuals from their own perspectives, and therefore at challenging structural or normative assumptions.

On the other hand positivism implies that there are objective, independent laws of nature to which human life is subjected. Many researchers prefer it because it helps them to discover and describe these objective laws. This view describes society as being made up of structures, concepts, labels and relationships. Positivism is also an epistemological position that advocates the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond and that is why many researchers prefer it. The positivistic approach also concentrates on facts and the causes of social events, paying modest respect to the subjective state of the individual.